😂 Okay, I am laughing for all the wrong reasons, but before I dive into a couple hours of novel-writing, please enjoy this document from Massachusetts Bay, 1697 with me.
Yeah, yeah, it's a list of brutal punishments outlined for anyone who denies, curses, or reproaches god/Christianity...
But look at that last part. How can you *not* laugh at the attempt to show restraint?
"We'll do all of these terrible things to atheists, but only two at most for the same offence! What are we, monsters?!" 😂
But you *can* deny, curſe, and reproach the Books of Judith, Tobit, and Maccabees, though they are widely accepted as ſcripture by the Catholics and Orthodox, as they are not included in this Proteſtant liſt.
FREEDOM!
😂 You can bet your bippy "An Act againſt Pedantry and Semantics" was in the works somewhere in that society, to avoid just such loopholes.