For episode 17, see here
The Theory of the Nation State
XVIII. Jean Bodin
A. His work Republic took the idea of sovereign power out of the shadow of
theology.
B. Sought to put the king above religious conflict, as a center of national
unity.
C. Mix of old and new philosophy
D. Took method and form, such as it was, from Aristotle.
E. Saw basis of society in pater familias who acted with others outside the
family as citizens.
1. Property was natural right of the family
2. State could not alienate property because it was not the proprietor
F. Mark of sovereign power is distinguishing characteristic of the state.
1. Citizens are such only by their subjection to the rule of a common
sovereign
2. Sovereign is the source of law
3. Sovereign is undivided, no mixed state but only forms of government
4. State consists in the possession of sovereign power
5. Government is apparatus through which power is exercised
6. All lesser bodies were subordinate to the state and any authority they
might have is delegated by the state
7. Sovereignty is perpetual, humanly unlimited and with unconditional
right to make, interpret and execute the law
G. Sovereign limited by will of God and natural right
H. F7 and G (above) lead to possible conflict
I. Confusion arose from:
1. View that sovereign was bound by God
2. Fidelity to the constitutional law of France
3. View of inviolability of private property
Next week: The Modernized Theory of Natural Law
For episode 16, see here
The Theory of the National State
XVII: Royalist and Anti-Royalist Theories
A. Religious wars brought two sides of philosophy to fore,
especially in France, people's right of defense vs divine right.
B. Protestant attack om absolutism
1. Constitutional argument based on medieval practices
showing absolute monarchy to be an innovation
2. Attempt to show philosophically that monarchy was
contrary to universal rules of right supposed to underlie
all government
3. Vindiciae contra tyrannos was chief work of the French
Protestants
i. saw ruler as servant of the community, one that could do
whatever its own life required
ii. established two contracts, one of the people and king with
God and another between the people and the king
iii. king may be disobeyed when he goes against the
commands of God because people share the covenant
with God and if they didn't take action would become
co-conspirators
iv. the second covenant justifies resistance to tyranny
in secular government
v. form of contract based largely on utilitarian agreement to
render obedience to king to gain the benefit of protection
of life and property
vi. limits on the king based on his subjection to law
vii. resistance was an expression of religion, a corporate right
expressed through magistrates rather than by individuals
4. Anti-royalists assumed law of nature and as defense of ancient
liberties
C. Jesuits and the Pope
1. Militant force of counter-Reformof the Roman Church
2. Sought to reinstate spiritual leadership of Pope
3. Kings power was from the people, only the Pope's authority
came from God
i. thus the king could not demand absolute obedience from
subjects and;
ii. Pope still could control the secular realm on spiritual
matters
4. Juan de Mariana saw the state of nature giving way to
civil society and saw the growth of government as a
natural process and contended that the community
controlled the rulers whom its needs created
5. Francisco Suarez defended spiritual authority of the Pope
but saw power of society to rule itself and its members as
inherent property of social groups
D. The Divine Right of Kings
1. The attack on absolutism led to falling back on longstanding
belief on the divinity of civil society
2. Defense of a national establishment
3. Rested on notion that authority had religious origin and
sanction based on faith rather than on reason
4. Saw law as residing 'in the breast of the king"
5. James I defended monarchy's freedom from interference
6. Pushed analogy of king as father to his children
Next week: Jean Bodin
For episode 15, see here
The Theory of the National State
XVI: The Early Protestant Reformers
A. Reformation mixed political theory with differences of religious
belief and questions of theological dogma.
B. Diversity of religious belief did not lead to toleration because all
still saw themselves as right and their opponents as stupid
and/or wicked.
C. Religious reform and conflict depended on secular power thus
strengthening royal power.
D. Under the surface were strong minority groups that were potential
sources of disorder.
1. Out of diversity and necessity, minority groups led towards
mutual political toleration
2. Right to resist "heretical" pope became right to resist a
"heretical" king
E. Led to conflict between divine right and popular right, both
originally grounded in theology
F. Martin Luther
1. Remade arguments and charges of past centuries, especially
the conciliar controversy
i. saw church as the assembly of all believers
ii. saw clergy as serving callings useful to the community
and answerable in temporal matters
2. Using government to reform the Church led to creation of
national churches
3. Asserted duty of passive obedience to the ruler
4. Stressed other-worldliness of religion with acquiescence to
worldly power
G. Calvinism and the power of the church
1. Impact of sect in opposition to specific governments meant
the spread of the justification of resistance
2. Viewed the church as the standard bearer of morals with
secular power as the enforcing arm; as in the Middle Ages
3. Taught self-control and discipline in the struggle of life
4. God seen as sovereign, saving men by fore-ordination rather
than own good works
5. Secular institutions existed as the "external means of salvation"
6. Not given to monarchical attachments, therefore often in
opposition to the monarchy
H. John Calvin taught passive obedience to secular authority, had
no theory of popular rights
I. John Knox turned supremacy of the church to mode of resistance
to the state (Scotland) that did not recognize "true faith"
1. This involved rejection of passive obedience
2. Resistance became part of the duty to sustain religious reform
Next week: Royalist and anti-Royalist Theories
For episode 14 see here
The Theory of the National State
XV. Machiavelli
A. Medieval representative system suffered eclipse
1. Growth of national unity
2. Growth of royal absolutism
3. Corresponding changes in political thought
4. Extended trade broke through localized economies:
i. led to formation of class of men of wealth and enterprise
ii. and allied with king against nobility
B. Italy of Machiavelli (early 16th century) divided and weak
C. Naked individualism of Italian republics' political life presaged modern age
of individualism
D. Writing in diplomatic tradition, Machiavelli lost sight of ends, seeing method
(politics) as its own end*
E. Saw two standards of morals
1. Ruler -- judged by success in keeping and increasing power
2. Private citizen -- judged by strength which his conduct imparts to the
social group
F. Assumed human nature is essentially selfish
1. Meant desire for security on part of the masses...
2. ... and desire for power in rulers
G. Also saw man as aggressive and acquisitive; that there are limited resources
leads to:
1. condition of continued conflict, restrained by ...
2. ... for of law, leading to ...
3. ... the power of the ruler who provides security.
4. became the political philosophy of Hobbes
H. Lawgiver constructs not only political life but also social
I. In society of egoists, only force behind law could hold society together
J. Favored popular, liberal and lawful government when possible, monarchy
when necessary
K. Was an Italian nationalist
* Note: Sabine gets Machiavelli not so much wrong as incomplete. He did not loss sight of ends -- seeing only method -- but rather sought to bring The Prince to see that the best way to maintain power was to act with prudence (and at least appear to be moral) even when using force. (The Prince was in effect a job application.) In The Discourses, Machiavelli essentially encourages the rulers towards a Republic based on law as the best way to ensure stability.
Next week:
The Early Protestant Reformers
For episode 13 see here
The Theory of the Universal Community
XIV: Three Challenges to Christian Society
A. Philip the Fair and Boniface VIII, France vs the papacy (1296-1303)
1. Theory of papal supremacy brought to completion
2. Church saw spiritual realm including temporal means to spiritual ends
3. Royalists tried to limit spiritual to questions of conscience making it
dependent on secular arm for coercive power
4. Papists saw pope supreme in the Church with both swords belonging
to it
5. Pope was successor to St. Peter, ruled by divine right
6. Royalists legal formula was that the king has same power in the kingdom
as emperor has in empire
7. Saw king as independent of both emperor and pope
8. Confrontation between king and pope produced conception of the
kingdom as political power not dependent on tradition of the Empire
9. Brings back Aristotle's idea of the state not requiring sanctification of
religion to be legitimate
10. Anti-papists argued along two lines
i. spiritual power limited to only proper moral and religious exercise
ii. objection to tyrannous rule and call for some form of representation
and consent
B. Marsilio of Padua and William of Occam (1323-1347)
1. Temporal power established independently of spiritual
2. Considered question of absolute monarchy vs constitutional monarchy
3. Problem shifted to relation between sovereign and corporate body be
ruled
4. Marsilio: Averroist Aristotelism
i. separates reason from faith, both are true and yet may contradict
ii. reasserts human society as self-sufficient in the fullest sense
iii. good life is good in this life and good in next, reason is truth of
good life here with revelation as truth for the next life
iv. consequences of religion in this life limited to spiritual teaching.
v. clergy are just one class in the state among others and as such
are subject to state regulation
vi. made distinction between divine law, from God, for attaining best
of the next life from corporate power, for attaining the best in this
life
vii. only human law carries earthly penalties
viii. anticipated Luther on the priesthood of all Christians, denial of
hierarchy in the Church especially the pope, view of religion as
essentially an inner experience, and denial of cannon law
ix. as practical, concedes a General Council to oversee the Church as
representative of the corporate body
5. William: The Freedom of the Church
i. advocated for excommunicated minority against papal sovereignty,
rights of subjects against ruler and rights of minorities
ii. saw theology as mainly having to do with supernatural things,
while reason was the realm pf philosophy
iii. continued tradition of Duns Scotus against St. Thomas
iv. argued for representative check on papal power
v. derived authority of the emperor from election by the College of
Electors standing in the place of the people
C. The Concilian Theory of Church Government
1. John Wycliffe and Jan Hus argued that the whole church (all Christians)
was the recipient of divine law and spiritual power
2. As part of the dependency on secular support, made the case for
greater dignity of royal power over spiritual power in this life
3. Conciliarists provided first great debate on constitutionalism against
absolutism
i. spiritual power is vested in the church as a corporate body
ii. clergy, including the pope, merely ministers or organs by which the
corporate body acts
iii. looked to custom, not will, of the people as source of authority
iv. force of law, in general way, comes from consent
v. the Council was to share authority with the pope but pope was allowed
to typically continue monarchical rule unless overstepped bounds
4. With the failure of the conciliar movement, pope became the first of the
absolute monarchs and the theory of papal absolutism became the
archetype for monarchical absolutism
Connecting constitutional movements of the 17th and 18th centuries to the conciliar movement of the Middle Ages "was the conviction that lawful authority is a moral force while despotism is not, and that society itself embodies a force of moral criticism to which even legally constituted power is rightly subject. (327-28)
Next week: Machiavelli
