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

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all things are properly considered.
[§ 14] Government by superiors considers both the soul and the body of inferiors: the soul that it may be formed and imbued
with doctrine and knowledge of things useful and necessary in human life, the body that it may be provided with nourishment and
whatever else it needs. The first responsibility pertains to education, the second to sustentation and protection. [§ 15] Education
centers on the instruction of inferiors in the true knowledge and worship of God, and in prescribed duties that ought to be
performed towards one’s neighbor; education also pertains to the correction of evil customs and errors. By the former, inferiors
are imbued with a healthy knowledge of holy, just, and useful things; by the latter, they are held firm in duty. [§ 16] The
responsibility for sustentation of the body is the process by which inferiors are carefully and diligently guided by superiors in
matters pertaining to this life, and by which advantages for them are sought and disadvantages to them are
avoided.
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[§ 17] Protection is the legitimate defense against injuries and violence, the process by which the security of
inferiors is maintained by superiors against any misfortune, violence, or injury directed against persons, reputations, or
properties, and if already sustained, then avenged and compensated by lawful means.
[§ 18] The inferior, or subject, is one who carries on the business of the social life according to the will of his chief, or prefect,
and arranges his life and actions submissively, provided his chief does not rule impiously or unjustly.
[§ 19] Proper laws ( leges propriae) 21 are those enactments by which particular associations are ruled. They differ in each
specie of association according as the nature of each requires.
[§ 20] The laws by which the communication of things, occupations, services, and actions is accomplished
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are those that
distribute and assign advantages and responsibilities among the symbiotes according to the nature and necessities of each
association. [§ 21] At times the communication regulated by these laws is more extensive, at other times more restricted,
according as the nature of each association is seen to require, or as may be agreed upon and established among the members.
[§ 22] ON THE BASIS OF THE FOREGOING considerations, I agree with Plutarch that a commonwealth is best and happiest when
magistrates and citizens bring everything together for its welfare and advantage, and neither neglect nor despise anyone who can
be helpful to the commonwealth
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The Apostle indeed advises us to seek and promote advantages for our neighbor, even to the
point that we willingly give up our own right, by which we guard against misfortune, to obtain a great advantage for the other
person.
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For “we have not been born to ourselves, inasmuch as our country claims a share in our birth, and our friends a share.”
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[§ 23] The entire second table of the Decalogue pertains to this: “you shall love your neighbor as yourself”; “whatever you
wish to be done to you do also to others,” and conversely, “whatever you do not wish to be done to you do not do to others”;
“live honorably, injure no one, and render to each his due.”
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Of what use to anyone is a hidden treasure, or a wise man who
denies his services to the commonwealth?
[§ 24] In light of these several truths, the question of which life is to be preferred can be answered. Is it the contemplative or
the active? Is it the theoretical and philosophical life or the practical and political life? Clearly man by nature is a gregarious
animal born for cultivating society with other men, not by nature living alone as wild beasts do, nor wandering about as birds. [§
25] And so misanthropic and stateless hermits, living without fixed hearth or home, are useful neither to themselves nor to
others, and separated from others are surely miserable. For how can they promote the advantage of their neighbor unless they
find their way into human society?
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How can they perform works of love when they live outside human fellowship? How can the
church be built and the remaining duties of the first table of the Decalogue be performed? Whence Keckermann rightly says that
politics leads the final end of all other disciplines to the highest point, and thus builds public from private happiness.
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[§ 26] For this reason God willed to train and teach men not by angels, but by men.
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For the same reason God distributed his
gifts unevenly among men. He did not give all things to one person, but some to one and some to others, so that you have need
for my gifts, and I for yours. And so was born, as it were, the need for communicating necessary and useful things, which
communication was not possible except in social and political life. God therefore willed that each need the service and aid of
others in order that friendship would bind all together, and no one would consider another to be valueless. [§ 27] For if each did
not need the aid of others, what would society be? What would reverence and order be? What would reason and humanity be?
Every one therefore needs the experience and contributions of others, and no one lives to himself alone.
Thus the needs of body and soul, and the seeds of virtue implanted in our souls, drew dispersed men together into one place.
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