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

Chapter 8. The science of politics. The Institutiones politicae
The golden age, however, had come to an end when the original families
had grown too big for their original homelands to contain them and to
provide them with a sufficient amount of food. Forced by a scarcity of land
and food, the original families had divided their possessions and had spread
around the globe. With the division of property and the dividing of the earth,
law had set in to protect private property. Together these divided families or
tribes had constituted a ‘commonwealth of nations’ that Boxhorn describes as
Augustine’s City of God, whose ‘prince was reason that ruled as wide as the
nations were stretched’. 53
But reason’s reign had not lasted. Due to the violation of the law of nations,
factions had emerged, soon followed by all kinds of injustices and finally
war. As peoples had begun to aim at their mutual destruction, many neighbouring
tribes had merged into bigger compositions, as they had a better
chance against the aggression of other tribes as a united front and because
they could achieve advantages (utilitates) as a united front that they could
not achieve on their own. 54 Furthermore, just as war had divided people, so
necessity (necessitas) had united them. ‘Because we all cannot achieve everything,
yet we still require everything, a certain congregation of many is
the Citizen. Edited and translated by Richard Tuck and Michael Silverthorne (Cambridge University
Press; Cambridge, 1 st ed. 1997, 2007), p. 9, with quote there.
53 Ibidem, I.2, p. 12. ‘Atque Augustinus de Civitate Dei, gentium Rempublicam esse dixit, quae
omnes homines complectitur, cujus Princeps ratio, quae tàm latè imperat, quam gentes sunt porrectae.’
I was unable to discover to which passage in Augustine’s De civitate Dei Boxhorn is referring here.
According to Boxhorn, the commonwealth of nations was ‘the second form of command’. This form of
command had sprung forth from the law of nations. Ibidem, I.2.5, p. 8. ‘Secundum imperium ex jure
gentium prognatum est, estque, quo gentes omnes eidem rationi, & unanimi consensu receptis institutis,
se, velut legi, subjecerunt. Estque illa universalis Respublica omnium omninò hominum.’ This view
shows a close resemblance to what Vázquez had put forward in the Controversiarum illustrium. See Van
Nifterik, Vorst tussen volk en wet, pp. 36-38.
54 Ibidem, I.2.13, p. 9. ‘At verò, natis interim, & crescentibus injuriis, quibus populis divisi, &
potentia jam, opibus ac multitudine hominum, inaequales, in mutuum exitium ferebantur, plures vicinae
gentes, & Respublicae modicae tandem sese conjunxerunt, & iisdem Principibus, Magistratibus &
legibus, juri & imperio se permiserunt, muti auxilii ferendi causa, & ut tanto promptiùs injurias, quas
alii inferebant, aut illaturi erant, quibus prohibendis singulae impares existebant possent propulsare.’
Ibidem, I.2, p. 11. ‘Dictum porrò est: Utilitatis causâ Rempublicam congregatam. Utilitas enim omnium
non est postrema causa originis imperiorum. Cum enim singuli non essent pares suis commodis, &
plurima utilia eis desiderarentur, congregati in pluribus inveniebant utilitatem, quam in se singuli non
habebant, quive divisi ante, injuriis plurium facilè patebant, congregati easdem facilè vi repellebant.’
The first argument reminds us of Machiavelli, Discorsi, I.1.2-3, p. 23. ‘Because I want first to discuss its
founding, I state that all cities are built either by men indigenous to the place where they are built or
by outsiders. The first case occurs when the inhabitants, scattered through many small villages, do not
feel they have a secure place to live in. Because both its location and the smallness of its numbers, each
cannot resist on its own the strength of those who attack them; and when the enemy comes, there is not
enough time to band together for self-defence or, even if there were time enough, they would have to
abandon many of their strongholdand would thus immediately become their enemy’s prey. Therefore,
to avoid these dangers – prompted either on their own or by someone with greater authority among
them – they band together and dwell in a site they have selected that is more convenient to live in and
easier to defend.’
255