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

Chapter 8. The science of politics. The Institutiones politicae
In Aristotle’s footsteps II.
The road to democracy?
If the Institutiones politicae can be read as a theoretical explanation and justification
of Holland’s body politic, then it also entails some concealed criticism
against its aristocratic regime. Boxhorn criticises, for example, a small, closedoff
aristocracy as easily corruptible and prone to oligarchical tyranny. 231 He
furthermore agrees with Tacitus’s judgement that ‘whereas command by the
people borders on freedom, domination by a few approximates to the fancy
of kings’. 232 A more open and wider aristocracy, however, would ‘meet the
wishes of the many, who are of distinguished descent and wealth and above
all virtuous, and who desire to participate in the power to command’. 233 In
his Oratio de vera nobilitate (Oration on True Nobility) Boxhorn had criticised
people who only take pride on the glory won by their ancestors, instead of
on their own achievements. 234 Virtue is something that could be achieved and
should be exercised, just like wealth could be acquired. This opens a window
of opportunity for an accessible and flexible aristocracy. Furthermore, in
his treatment of the lower magistrates Boxhorn recommends a well-balanced
arrangement of administrative offices that aims at preventing any concentration
of power within the magistracy by a yearly rotation of office and a prohibition
for blood relatives to hold administrative offices at the same time or to
elect family members as their successors. 235
In this respect it is also interesting what Boxhorn has to say about why
aristocracies change into other forms of government. The first two reasons
are that an aristocracy may degenerate into a tyranny or an oligarchy. 236 Both
231 Ibidem, II.5.11, p. 321. ‘Istorum verò certus est numerus, major alibi, alibi minor definitus, neque
de eo certi quid licet praecribere. Sunt quidem qui putant, quo numero isti fuerint pauciores, durabilem
magis & pacatum esse optimatum statum, quod pauci faciliùs inter se, quàm plures, possint sententiis
convenire. Quibus tamen ex adverso regerere licet, paucos faciliùs corrumpi posse, quàm plures, atque
iterum unum ex paucis, si malè forsan velit, & in se unum transferre omnem Imperii statum, faciliùs
posse paucos quàm plures superare, atque in eos & populum Tyrannidem usurpare.’
232 Ibidem, II.8, p. 352, and Tacitus, The Annals, VI.42.2, p. 188. See also Boxhorn, Institutiones politicae,
I.3, p. 21. ‘De Optimatum quoque imperio idem sensisse videtur idem Tacitus l. 6 Annal. c. 42. Populi
imperium, inquit, juxta libertatem; paucorum dominatio regiae libidini propior est.’
233 Ibidem, II.5.11, pp. 321-22. ‘At in ista, ubi plures praeficiuntur, plura consilia sunt & plus habent
autoritatis, & plurium, qui illustris generis, & fortunae, & maxime virtutis, Imperii cupiunt esse participes,
votis satisfacere licebit, inde ubi multi tales ab Imperii administratione exclusi, & paucis quibusdam
ejusdem secum conditionis, obnoxii sunt, facile motus & res novae excitantur.’
234 Boxhorn, “Oratio de vera nobilitate”, pp. 9-10. ‘Et nos majorum nostrum gloriam in nos derivamus,
nec relictam ab ijs, nec à nobis acquisitam … Non nobiles omnes, qui ex illustri prosapia prognati.
Nisi simiam hominem dixeritis, quia cultu humano ornata incedit. Stolidum est ita majores numerare,
ut ad eorum mumerum ipse non accedas, & splendidum gloriae suae seipsum auctorem fateri, splendidissimum
tamen & à se, & à majoribus suis ordiri.’
235 Idem, Institutiones politicae, I.8.19-24, pp. 101-3.
236 Ibidem, II.7.3-4, p. 342 [348]. The difference between a tyrannical aristocratic regime and an
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