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

Chapter 8. The science of politics. The Institutiones politicae
the offices that the true citizen shares in are the deliberative and judicial elements
every constitution, and thus every sovereign power, has, in Aristotle’s
scheme it are finally the citizens who are sovereign. 84
Boxhorn, on the other hand, clearly locates majestas in the commonwealth
that he describes as an artificial ‘congregation’ or ‘body’ of many. From his
vision on the origin of the independent, individual commonwealth we can
deduce that ‘the many’ is a conglomeration of families under the leadership
of their patresfamilias. 85 In contrast to Aristotle, Boxhorn never speaks of these
heads of family as citizens (cives). Indeed, in his political-theoretical works Boxhorn
hardly ever uses the term ‘citizen’ to denote a member of political society.
Instead he sometimes uses the more neutral term ‘inhabitant’ (inquilinus). 86
But most of the time he speaks in terms of groups. He distinguishes between
magistrates (magistratus) and subjects (subjecti) and between different parts
(partes) of society, for example the nobles (nobiles/optimates) and the people
(populus). One belongs to this or that part or estate, or, in the case of a monarch,
one person is one estate. The estate as a whole is sovereign, or shares in
sovereignty. In this picture the ‘citizen’ fades to the background. The notion of
citizenship hardly plays any role in Boxhorn’s political thought.
In the commonwealth power is exercised by the supreme magistrates. 87
Examples of such magistrates were the consuls and tribunes at Rome.
‘Because the management of the power to command is so divers, hard, [and]
difficult, and has such a wide scope’ supreme magistrates need the assistance
and advice of lower magistrates in carrying out their tasks. 88 Lower magis-
84 See also Curtis N. Johnson, “The Hobbesian Conception of Sovereignty and Aristotle’s Politics”,
in Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 46 (1985), pp. 327-47.
85 See also Boxhorn, Institutiones politicae, II.1, p. 260. ‘Diximus § 3. Monarchiam & Aristocraticam
esse antiquissimas. Democratiam autem post eas institutam. Monarchia sane est antiquissima. Ex capitibus
enim ingentium familiarum prima regna exorta, quae capita Monarchici imperii erant. Unde Arist. confert
Monarchiam cum imperio Patris filios. Postea autem cum familiae singulae non sufficerent sibi ipsis, plures
in unum convenere, & sic plura quoque capita familiarum convenerunt, unde exorta Aristocratia. Cùm
autem ab his capitibus reliqui premerentur, vindicarunt se in libertatem vel sublatis vel mortuis capitibus,
cum omnes se pares existimarent, & Democraticum tandem constituere imperium.’ Aristotle, Politics,
1259b10 [I:12], p. 28. ‘The rule of a father over his children is royal, for he rules by virtue both of love and
of the respect due to age, exercising a kind of royal power.’ According to Aristotle, the ‘state’ or commonwealth
comes into being ‘when several villages are united in a single complete community, large enough
to be nearly or quite self-sufficient’. A village comes into being ‘when several families are united, and the
association aims at something more than the supply of daily needs’. Ibidem, 1252a1 [I:2], pp. 12-13.
86 See below.
87 Boxhorn, Institutiones politicae, I.3, p. 20. ‘Hoc verò loco definimus illos, penes quos summa
rerum est & Imperii.’ See also Aristotle, Politics, 1299a1 [IV:15], p. 115. ‘Speaking generally, those are to
be called offices to which the duties are assigned of deliberating about certain measures and of judging
and commanding, especially the last; for to command is the special duty of a magistrate.’
88 Ibidem, I.8.1, p. 96. ‘Cum omnis Imperii administratio, adeo varia, difficilis, impedita, & latè
exporrecta sit, ut supremi Magistratus omnibus exsequendis pares esse aut omnibus pariter interesse
non possint, dubitari haud debet, quin ministerio aliorum & consilio, veluti quibusdam dextris suis uti
necessum habeant.’
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