Johannes Althusius: Politica - Hubertlerch.com - HubertLerch.com

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vices contrary to each type of association be explained and subjoined as inferences thereto, and that precepts are illustrated by
them, as I have done in appropriate places. But to propose precepts about the vices, defects, and faults of association, or about
symbiotic evil, is altogether alien to that political art we profess. Were this not so, political art would be twofold, one part
pertaining to symbiotic good and the other to symbiotic evil. And these two parts would have two ends each contrary to each
other. The logicians and methodists discuss this matter more fully.
[§ 84] Nor can I here approve the opinion of Bartholomaeus Keckermann
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and Philip Hoenonius,
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who think that in politics
the types of supreme magistrate are first to be taught, then the mixed state constituted from the three types that we have
discussed, and only then the provinces and cities. This conflicts with the law of method. For it cannot be denied that provinces
are constituted from villages and cities, and commonwealths and realms from provinces. Therefore, just as the cause by its
nature precedes the effect and is more perceptible, and just as the simple or primary precedes in order what has been composed
or derived from it, so also villages, cities, and provinces precede realms and are prior to them. For this is the order and
progression of nature, that the conjugal relationship, or the domestic association of man and wife, is called the beginning and
foundation of human society. From it are then produced the associations of various blood relations and in-laws. From them in
turn come the sodalities and collegia, out of the union of which arises the composite body that we call a village, town, or city.
And these symbiotic associations as the first to develop can subsist by themselves even without a province or realm. However, as
long as they are not united in the associated and symbiotic universal body of a province, commonwealth, or realm, they are
deprived of many of the advantages and necessary supports of life. It is necessary, therefore, that the doctrine of the symbiotic
life of families, kinship associations, collegia, cities, and provinces precede the doctrine of the realm or universal symbiotic
association that arises from the former associations and is composed of them. In practice, however, all these associations are to
be joined together for the common welfare of the symbiotes both individually and corporately. For the public association cannot
exist without the private and domestic association. Both are necessary and useful in order that we may live advantageously. …
[§ 85] I do not think that special doctrine is necessary for the particular political state, although other modern writers disagree.
For although political art is general, it always and everywhere agrees with and can be accommodated to every particular and
special place, time, and people. This is so even though various and separate realms often use laws of their own differing from
those of others in some matters. What else are the dukedom, principate, lordship, dynasty, county, landgraviate, mark, and the
like, or what else can they be, except provinces, members, orders, and estates of the realm to which they belong? Even if they
sometimes use laws that are peculiar to them and differ legitimately from those of the rest of the realm, they are still provinces
of the realm.
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[§ 86] Nor have I wanted to define the political types so far as their establishment, increase, extension, and conservation are
concerned. The same principles apply to the establishment, increase, extension, and conservation of polities. For the
commonwealth is conserved and extended by the same arts by which it is constituted, as our definition of politcs sufficiently
explains.
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Endnotes
[1] William Barclay, The Kingdom and the Regal Power, III, 4.
[2] [Fernando Vásquez, Illustrium controversiarum, I, 23; Friedrich Pruckmann, De regalibus, 4, 7; 18, 64; 33, 20; Digest
XXVIII, 4, 3; Code I, 2, 5; I, 14, 8; IV, 13, 5; VI, 37, 10.
[3]
[4]
[5]
Chapters XVIII, XXVII, and XXXII.
Code I, 14, 4.
[Does Althusius have Hebrews 6:18, which is non-Pauline, in mind?]
[6] See Fernando Vásquez, Illustrium controversiarum, I, 15; I, 26, 22; I, 45; Diego Covarruvias, Variarum resolutionum, III,
6, 8; Arius Pinellus, De rescindenda venditione, 1, 2, 25 f.; Bartolus, Commentarii (Digest IV, 4, 38), where he says “Great is
Caesar, but greater is reason and truth”; Friedrich Pruckmann, De regalibus, 3.
[7] [This is an allusion to an old physiology in which four fluids ( humores)—blood, phlegm, choler (yellow bile), and melancholy
(black bile)—were understood to enter the body and determine by their relative proportions therein the health and
disposition ( humor, pl. humores) of the person.]
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