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

Chapter 8. The science of politics. The Institutiones politicae
Religion, then, provides for the two matters most necessary to establish and
maintain a commonwealth: inequality and obedience. Religion is ‘the bond,
the tie, and indeed the foundation of the commonwealth’. 132 Boxhorn even
holds that ‘it is better to have a false and very vain superstition than none at
all’; a commonwealth simply cannot exist without a religion. 133
Like most contemporaries Boxhorn prefers that only one religion would
be allowed to exist within a commonwealth ‘because in this way concord is
obtained’. 134 ‘If, however, it is expedient for the growth of the commonwealth,
then not only one religion, nor, however, every religion should be tolerated.’ 135
It was clear to Boxhorn that ‘there could be only one true religion, and only
one religion that pleases God’, but tolerating other religions was not against
any divine or human law. 136 On the other hand, the advantages of religious
toleration were manifest. First, it leads ‘to the growth of the commonwealth
and its people’. The Dutch Republic, where ‘there is such a large number of
people because almost every religion is being accepted’, examplified that
truth. 137 Second, the toleration of several religions arouses in all people ‘a love
for the commonwealth and the magistrates. Because everyone will love those
magistrates, who clearly sees that the matters he holds sacred are not treated
with contempt by those magistrates’. 138 Third, toleration leads ‘to the appreciation
of freedom. Because freedom grows extensively, when one is allowed
to act as freely in religion as in other matters’. 139
132 Ibidem, I.7, p. 85. ‘Diximus religionem esse vinculum ac nexum adeoque fundamentum reip. …’
133 Ibidem, I.7.11, p. 81. ‘Adeo, ut ex iis quidem omnibus manifestum sit, sine religione esse non
posse bene constitutam Rempublicam, praestareque falsam & vanissimam superstitionem esse, quam
nullam.’ Idem, Emblemata politica: accedunt dissertationes politicae de Romanorum Imperio et quaedamaliae,
II.8, p. 160. ‘Unde liquet claretque, vinculum Reipub. adeò necessarium esse religionem, ut praestet
falsam in eâ esse & coli, quàm nullam.’ See also Machiavelli, Discorsi, I.12.6-7, p. 60. ‘The princes of a
republic or a kingdom must therefore maintain the foundations of the religion that they practice; and if
they do so, it will be easy for them to preserve religious belief and consequently goodness and unity in
their republic. And they must foster and strengthen all things that happen in its favor, even if they judge
them to be false.’
134 Ibidem, I.6, p. 87. ‘Ex hac ergò religionum multitudine ansa quaestioni data, an una an plures in
Rep. tolerandae; Quam solvimus dicendo, quod, si possibile sit, una tantum debeat tolerari, quia hoc
modo parata est concordia.’
135 Ibidem, I.7.14, p. 82. ‘Itaque si fieri possit, & in eâ abunde prospectum sit Reipublicae, una; sin
aliter expediat ad Reipublicae augmentum, non tantum una, nec tamen omnis tolerari debet.’
136 Ibidem, I.7.13, p. 82. ‘Equidem una tantum religio vera esse potest, & una Deo placere, sed
interim Magistratui placere plures possunt religiones, cum plures, quantumvis falsae, Rempublicam
possint juvare; neque illa tolerantia adversa est aut divinis, aut gentium institutis.’
137 Ibidem, I.7, p. 87. ‘Ubi autem Resp. ad ornamentum aut augmentum sui plures requirit, admittendae
quoque sunt. Id enim facit 1. ad augmentum Reip. ac multitudinis. Sic in his locis, quod tanta sit
hominum frequentia, id praecipuè effecit; quod omnis ferè religio recipiatur.’
138 Ibidem. ‘2. ad conciliandum amorem Reip. ac Magistratibus apud omnes: quisque enim amat
eos, quippe à quibus sacra sua non videt contemni. Id à Romanis saepe factum, ut externos etiam ritus
admitterent, ut scilicet gentes quoque alias allicerent.’
139 Ibidem. ‘3. aestimationem libertatis. Magna enim ejus pars accedit, cùm aeque in religione ac
coeteris rebus liberè agere licet.’
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