historical and political thought in the seventeenth - RePub - Erasmus ...

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Chapter 5. Times of trouble. Taking a stand
to the throne. To withhold the successor of his lawful inheritance would institute
an illegal act, especially if the respective successor is himself innocent of
any crime. 32 Thus, neither the prince, nor his subjects are allowed to annul this
law of the realm, that is, the right of primogeniture. 33
Boxhorn takes the discussion a step further when he denies that in a hereditary
principality subjects have the right to change the monarchical form of
government into an aristocracy or a democracy. 34 To support this point, Boxhorn
refers to book 2, chapter 82 of the Controversiarum (Controversies, 1564) of the
famous Spanish jurist Fernando Vázquez. 35 This chapter deals with the question
‘whether the people can acquire “liberty and relaxation of subjection”
(libertatem ac ditionis laxitatem) from the prince’. 36 In thesis three Vázquez confirms
that ‘whether by force or on their own initiative they began to be subject,
there is no doubt that they can repair to their own freedom from restriction
(laxitatem suam) and vindicate themselves therein’. 37 Even if the people had
subjected themselves out of free will, they kept the right to renounce their
subjection. The consensus of the people (consensus populi) is by its nature
revocable, 38 since ‘nothing is so natural, as that each thing should be dissolved
in the same way as it was put together … and every res easily reverts to its
nature or origin … and no one can impose such a law upon his own will and
arbitrium, from which it is not licit for him to withdraw’. 39 What is more, the
32 Parliament forfeited prince Charles’s right to the English throne not only on the ground of what
his father had done, but also because he himself had fought against Parliament. See A Declaration of the
Parliament of England, p. 380.
33 Nor anyone else for that matter. In the original disputation the argument is, of course, aimed at
other sovereigns, namely the German emperor, Ferdinand II (1578-1637), and the elector of Brandenburg,
Frederick William.
34 This point is absent in the original disputation. Boxhorn probably added it in reaction to the
decision by the House of Commons to abolish the monarchy.
35 Fernando Vázquez de Menchaca, Controversiarum illustrium aliarumque usu frequentium. Libri tres.
Boxhorn owned a copy of the Controversiarum. See Catalogus Variorum & Insignium Librorum, Celeberrimi
ac Eruditissimi Viri Marci Zueri Boxhornii, iv.
36 I have taken the liberty to follow the English translation given by Annabel Brett in Annabel S.
Brett, Liberty, Right and Nature: Individual Rights in Later Scholastic Thought (Cambridge University Press;
Cambridge, 1997), pp. 196-97. For the Latin text I follow volume 4 of the modern Spanish edition of
Vázquez’s Controversiarum. Fernando Vázquez de Menchaca, Controversiarum illustrium aliarumque usu
frequentium. Libri tres. Obra del jurisconsulto vallisotena D. Fernando Vázquez de Menchaca. Reimpresa
por acuedro de la Universidad de Valladolid. Transcripcion, notas y traduccion de D. Fidel Rodriguez
Alcalde, Vol. 4 (“Cuesta”; Valladolid, 1934).
37 Vázquez, Controversiarum illustrium, II.82.3. ‘Sed sive vi sive sponte sua subditi esse coepissent,
non dubium est, quin possent in suam laxitatem sese recipere ac vindicare …’ Boxhorn, De successione et
iure primogenitorum, p. 21.
38 Gustaaf van Nifterik, Vorst tussen volk en wet: over volkssoevereiniteit en rechtsstatelijkheid in het werk
van Fernando Vázquez de Menchaca (1512-1569) (Ph.D.-dissertation; Rotterdam, 1999), p. 142.
39 Vázquez, Controversiarum illustrium, II.82.4. ‘Nihil enim tam naturale est, quam unumquodque
eo modo dissolvi quo colligatum fuit … & quaeque res de facili revertitur ad suam naturam seu originem
… neque enim quisquam voluntati & arbitrio suo eam legem imponere potest, a qua sibi recedere
non liceat …’ Boxhorn, De successione et iure primogenitorum, pp. 21-22.