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

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Chapter 9. The working of politics. The Disquisitiones politicae
explains that ‘the most justified cause for defection is when the unjust mastery
of others is about to devour the last drops of freedom’. 49 The Portuguese grandees
that had advocated this course of action had rightly foreseen that it was
the only way to prevent that the Portuguese would be reduced to the utmost
slavery. 50 Furthermore, since those who contemplate about defection have in
fact already defected, 51 the Portuguese had no other option than to pursue
their freedom now that the time was ripe. 52
Thus, while the overriding importance of the well-being of the commonwealth
gives magistrates the right and even the duty to pursue the commonwealth’s
well-being even at the cost of personal injustice, the law and the possibility
of legitimate resistance curtail the indiscriminate abuse of power by
magistrates. These two positions, however, are often at odds with each other.
For what to do if the well-being of the commonwealth demands the breaking
of the eternal laws that have been erected to guard the subjects’ freedom?
Indeed, is not the whole logic behind the concepts of salus Reipublicae or salus
populi that they legitimate a jus dominationis that gives magistrates the power
to override such laws in cases of emergency? 53 What then should be the guid-
Braganza (1603-1656) as king John IV. The next 25 years Philip IV would try to regain his Portuguese
dominions. In 1665, three months before his death, he made a last attempt. His army, however, suffered
defeat at Villaviciosa. Three years later, on February 13, 1668, the Junta that Philip IV had left behind to
rule the dominions he had bestowed upon his now seven year old son Charles II (1661-1700) recognised
in Charles’s name Portugal’s independence. See Elliott, Imperial Spain, 1469-1716, pp. 341-57.
49 Boxhorn, Disquisitiones politicae, III, p. 15. ‘Iustissima defectionis causa est, ubi iniqua aliorum
dominatione ad extrema libertatis est deventum.’ Idem, Arcana Imperii Detecta, II, p. 12. ‘The Cause of
a Revolt is very just, when the Liberty of a Country, by the unjust Government of others, is reduced to
utmost danger.’ In the Dissertationes politicae de regio Romanorum imperio, in the dissertation that deals
with the reign of Tarquinius Superbus, Boxhorn comes to the same conclusion. ‘It is lawful for the nobles
and the people to deprive the prince of the power to command and to expell him with force, if his
crimes … would lead without any doubt to the destruction of everyone and the whole commonwealth.’
Idem, Emblemata politica: accedunt dissertationes politicae de Romanorum Imperio et quaedamaliae, VII.7, p.
229. ‘Ergo si intoleranda sint omnibus ejus scelera, &, nisi in tempore obviam eatur, in exitium omnium
totiusque Reipub. haud dubiè sint exitura, & alia omnia ad flectendum coarcendumque ad meliora
Principem nequidquam sint tentata, licere proceribus populoque eum imperio exuere & vi expellere
judicamus.’
50 Ibidem, p. 9. ‘Censuere igitur justissimam esse jam causam ne, ut videbant jam extrema libertatis,
tandem sublata omni remedii spe ferre cogerentur extrema servitutis.’
51 In other words, their opinion no longer unequivocal supported their supreme magistrate, the
king; obedience was seizing or had seized to exist.
52 Boxhorn, Disquisitiones politicae, III, p. 15. ‘Et Postremo, deliberasse jam se de defectione ac ideo
audere debere: Qui enim deliberant, desciverunt; & in ejusmodi consiliis periculosius est deliberare
quàm audere.’ The last part of the sentence is a paraphrase of Tacitus, Agricola, XV.5. ‘“… iam ipsos,
quod difficillimum fuerit, deliberare. porro in eius modi consiliis periculosius esse deprehendi quam
audere.”’ ‘“We ourselves have undertaken the most difficult step: we have begun to plan. Besides, it will
be more dangerous if we are detected planning in this way than if we dare to act.”’ Latin text quoted
from Tacitus, Opera minora, p. 12. English translation quoted from Tacitus, Agricola and Germany, p. 13.
53 Idem, Institutiones politicae, I.6.13, p. 71. ‘Salus Reipublicae facit, ut jus dominationis justum sit,
non quod hactenus & ordinario jure receptum est, sed quod maximè Reipublicae in praesens est salutare,
& lex, ac agendi ratio, quantumvis nova, & veterem subvertat, & quibusdam privatis noxia sit,
tantò minùs, imò eo ipso nihil iniquitatis habet, quanto in commune plus utilitatis confert. Salus enim