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

Chapter 3. Biography
mixture of monarchy, aristocracy and democracy ‘seems to be the safest of all’
on the ground that ‘the other two forms prevent the third from throwing the
commonwealth into confusion’. 123 Burgersdijk deems this mixture ‘appropriate
for towns that control very large dominions, or for entire provinces’. 124 Was
Burgersdijk saying this with the Dutch context in mind? That same question
can be asked about Burgersdijk’s view that especially for mercantile towns a
mixed form of government consisting of aristocracy and democracy ‘is just
right’. 125 Perhaps he, in both cases, did. But it can also be the case that Burgersdijk,
at least with regard to these last two cases, just followed or summarised
the content of what Bartholomaeus Keckermann had said about these subjects
in his Systema doctrinae politicae. 126
As has been remarked in chapter 2, Burgersdijk has been called a follower
of Keckermann, whose Systema doctrinae politicae has been labelled a ‘foundational
text of Political Aristotelianism’. If we compare Burgersdijk’s political
ideas with the characteristics of political Aristotelianism as described in chapter
2, two similarities can be discerned. First, both Burgersdijk and political
Aristotelians believe in man’s natural sociability. Second, they both are constitutional
relativists. As we shall see, Boxhorn followed his teacher Burgersdijk
and political Aristotelians in their constitutional relativism, but, crucially, not
in their believe in man’s natural sociability.
123 Ibidem, XXIV.24, pp. 218-20. ‘Superest status ex Monarchia, Aristocratia & Democratia temperatus.
Hic status videtur omnium tutissimus, quia duae reliquae formae, tertiam impediunt, ne possit
Remp. turbare. Et plerumque oritur hic status, cum subditi Monarchiae aut Aristocratiae pertaesi sunt.’
124 Ibidem, XXIV.25, pp. 220-21. ‘Hic status convenit civitatibus, quae sub se continent amplissimas
ditiones, aut integris provinciis. Nam in angusta ditione non potest habere locum splendor Monarchicus.’
In his commentary on this thesis George Hornius gives Venice as example. Therefore, it is possible
to translate ‘civitatibus’ here as ‘towns’. See ibidem, p. 220. ‘Thes. 25. Exemplum hujus est Resp. Veneta,
quae ex Duce, Optimatibus atque etiam ex plebe componitur …’
125 Ibidem, XXIV.13, p. 215. ‘Hic status idoneus est ad regendas singulas urbes, eas praesertim, in
quibus mercatura viget, et opificia. Nam in Monarchia, nimia licentia nobilium & aulicorum hominum
molesta est mercatoribus et opificibus.’
126 I have not made a thorough investigation into this particular matter, but the similarities between
what Keckermann has to say about a mixed form of government consisting of aristocracy and democracy
and a mixed form of government consisting of monarchy, aristocracy and democracy, on the one
hand, and what Burgersdijk says about these subjects, on the other, are sometimes striking. Compare the
following two examples. Burgersdijk, Idea politica, XXIV.11, p. 214. ‘Status ex Aristocratia et ex Democratia
temperatus dicitur, in quo ita imperant optimates ut populus etiam particeps sit imperii.’ Bartholomaeus
Keckermann, Systema disciplinae politicae (Guilielmus Antonius; Hannover, 1608), II.5, p. 576.
‘Status Reip. temperatus ex Aristocratia & Democratia est, in quo optimates ita imperant, ut simul quoque imperii
particeps sit populus, sive cives universi.’ And Burgersdijk, Idea politica, XXIV.24, pp. 218-20. ‘Superest status
ex Monarchia, Aristocratia & Democratia temperatus. Hic status videtur omnium tutissimus, quia
duae reliquae formae, tertiam impediunt, ne possit Remp. turbare. Et plerumque oritur hic status, cum
subditi Monarchiae aut Aristocratiae pertaesi sunt.’ Keckermann, Systema disciplinae politicae, II.6, p. 586.
‘Plerumque hic status in Rebusp. ortus est ex eo, quod subdit[i] pertaesi sint purae & absolutae monarchiae, aut
etiam purae Aristocratiae.’ I would like to thank Jan Hartman for pointing out to me the possible connection
between Burgersdijk and Keckermann.
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