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

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nothing in itself except a burden and a prey. This right is the guiding light of civil life, the scale of justice, the preserver of
liberty, a bulwark of public peace and discipline, a refuge for the weak, a bridle for the powerful, and a norm and straightener of
imperium. It can be called the public command of the people, as well as the promise and assurance by the people that they will
perform what is permitted and avoid what is not permitted. It is also the precept by which political life is instituted and cultivated
according to a prescribed manner in the realm, and by which duties to the fellow citizen or neighbor are performed and things
forbidden are omitted. Whence in Psalms and other places of sacred scripture we find many times the notion, “Do good and
abstain from evil.”
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Hence the precepts of the Decalogue are both affirmative and negative, a commanding and prohibiting,
mandates and interdicts.
[§ 5] Therefore, when we know the things that are to be vouchsafed by us to our neighbor, it is easy to determine the things to
be omitted and avoided.
[§ 6] Those that are to be vouchsafed to our neighbor in this civil and social life—which rightly are owed to him and are his so
that he possesses them as his own—are, first, his natural life, including the liberty and safety of his own body. The opposite of
these are terror, murder, injury, wounds, beatings, compulsion, slavery, fetters, and coercion. Secondly, the neighbor possesses
his reputation, good name, honor, and dignity, which are called the “second self” of man. Opposed to them are insult, ill repute,
and contempt. And here I also include chastity of body, the contrary of which is any kind of uncleanness and fornication. Also
pertaining to this category are the right of family, and the right of citizenship that belongs to some. Thirdly, a man has external
goods that he uses and enjoys, opposed to which are the corruption, damage, and impairing of his goods in any form, as well as
their plundering or robbery, and any violation of their possession or artificial impediment to their use.
[§ 7] The laws of the Decalogue prescribe the duties vouchsafed to our neighbor. By acting according to them, we may live an
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honorable life, not injuring others, and rendering to each his due. Above all, we vouchsafe and do to our neighbor what we wish
to be done to ourselves.
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Thus we render to him honor, authority, dignity, preeminence, and, indeed, the right of family; nor do
we, on the contrary, despise him or hold him in contempt, the fifth precept of the Decalogue. His life is to be defended and
conserved, and his body may not be injured, hurt, struck, or treated in any inhumane way whatever, nor may the liberty and use
of his body be diminished or taken away, the sixth precept. His chastity is to be left intact, free from fornication, and may not
be taken away in any manner whatever, the seventh precept. His goods and their possession, use, and ownership are to be
conserved, and they may not be injured, diminished, or taken away, the eighth precept. His reputation and good name are to be
protected, and they may not be taken away, injured, or reduced by insults, lies, or slander, the ninth precept. And so one may
not covet those things that belong to another, either by deliberation or by passion, but everything our neighbor possesses he is to
use and enjoy he from the passion of our concupiscence and perverse desire.
[§ 8] Other laws ( leges) are prescribed for the inhabitants of the realm both individually and collectively. By them the moral
law ( lex moralis) of the Decalogue is explained, and adapted to the varying circumstances of place, time, persons, and thing
present within the commonwealth. So Moses, after the promulgation of the Decalogue, added many laws by which the Decalogue
was explained and adapted to Jewish commonwealth.
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Such laws, because of circumstances, can therefore differ in certain
respects from the moral law, either by adding something to it or taking something away from it.
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But they ought not to be at all
contrary to natural law ( jus naturale), or to moral equity.
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As men cannot live without mutual society, so no society can be
secure or lasting without laws ( leges), as Plato says.
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Aristotle says no commonwealth can exist where the laws do not exercise
imperium.
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For what God is in the world, the navigator in a ship, the driver in a chariot, the director in a chorus, the
commander in an army, so law ( lex) is in the city. Without law, neither house nor city nor commonwealth nor the world itself can
endure. According to Papinian, “law is a common precept, a decree of prudent men, a restraint against crimes committed
voluntarily or in ignorance, and a common obligation of the commonweale.”
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According to Marcian, “law is the queen of all
things human and divine. It should also be the watchman of both the good and the bad, the prince and leader of them, and
accordingly the measure of things just and unjust, as well as of those living beings that are civil by nature. It is the preceptress
of what ought to be done, and the restrainer of what should not be done.”
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“We are taught [ … ] by the authority and bidding
of laws,” says Cicero, “to control our passions, to bridle our every lust, to defend what is ours, and to keep our minds, eyes, and
hands from whatever belongs to another.”
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“Through the law comes knowledge of things to be done and to be omitted,”
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and
in it is our wisdom.
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