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

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body is prior and superior to what is constituted by it. …
[§ 10] The people first associated itself in a certain body with definite laws ( leges), and established for itself the necessary and
useful rights ( jura) of this association. Then, because the people itself cannot manage the administration of these rights, it
entrusted their administration to ministers and rectors elected by it. In so doing, the people transferred to them the authority and
power necessary for the performance of this assignment, equipped them with the sword for this purpose, and put itself under
their care and rule. “Because the plebs began to experience difficulty in meeting together, and the people even more difficulty in
so great a crowd of men, necessity itself brought the care of the commonwealth to the senate.”
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[ § 11 ] Such administrators
and curators therefore represent the whole people, and their actions are considered to be actions of the community.
For this reason, the citizens and inhabitants of the realm are collectively but not individually, like a ward or minor, and the
constituted ministers are like a guardian in that they bear and represent the person of the whole people. [§ 12] Just as a ward,
although he is master of the things he has yielded to a guardian for care and administration, cannot act in any matter nor incur
an obligation without the authority and consent of the guardian, so the people, without the authority and consent of its
administrators and rectors, cannot administer the rights of the realm ( jura regni), although it is the master, owner, and
beneficiary of them. [§ 13] What a guardian rightfully does regarding the things and person of his wards, ministers of a
commonwealth for the most part perform for the united inhabitants of the realm, together with their goods and rights.
[§ 14] In relation to their ownership and delegation of supreme right the united subjects and members of a realm are masters
of these ministers and rectors; indeed, these administrators, guardians, and rectors are servants and ministers to these very
members of the realm. [§ 15] But in relation to the entrusted administration that has been approved by the people—that is,
outside this delegating of right—the individual inhabitants of a realm are themselves servants and subjects of their administrators
and rectors. They serve them by performing and carrying through with their entrusted responsibility, and in so doing extend to
them their services, abilities, and obedience.
The administrators of these individual subjects are called lords, guardians, and overseers, who are expected, however, to regard
their subjects not as slaves and bonded servants, but as brothers.
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Before undertaking this administration, and after relinquishing
it, such rectors and administrators are equal and similar to other private men. Indeed, as the rights of sovereignty
( jus majestatis) arise from the associated body, so they adhere to it indivisibly and inseparably, nor can they be transferred to
another. Kings certainly cannot make themselves equal to or greater than the associated body. …
[§ 18] The rector and administrator of this civil society and commonwealth cannot justly and without tyranny be constituted by
any other than the commonwealth itself. For “by natural law ( jus naturale) all men are equal”
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and subject to the jurisdiction
of no one, unless they subject themselves to another’s imperium by their own consent and voluntary act, and transfer to another
their rights, which no other person can claim for himself without a just title received from their owner.
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In the beginning of the
human race there were neither imperia nor realms, nor were there rectors of them. Later, however, when necessity demanded,
they were established by the people itself. We see examples of this in India and among the Ethiopians, as historians report. For
the people of Israel, however, there was in this matter a special procedure. For God marvelously governed this people for about
four hundred years, just as if he himself were king. He led the people first through Moses out of Egypt, then through Joshua, and
afterwards through a long series of vigorous judges. [§ 19] Then, when the people requested a king, he was indignant and gave
it Saul, who was designated and chosen immediately by himself through the service of a prophet. When he afterwards rejected
Saul because of his sons, he substituted David in the same manner, and by his word established the descendants of David in the
control of the realm. These actions, however, were so performed by him that the consent and approval of the people were not
excluded from the process of designating these kings and putting them in control of the realm. Rather the matter was so handled
that the kings were considered to be chosen by the people as well, and to receive there from the right of kingship ( jus regis).
[§ 20] This can be discovered in sacred history by anyone willing to inspect it, and to study it with care. Indeed, it is evident
that the supremely good and great God has assigned to the political community this necessity and power of electing and
constituting. “You shall establish judges and moderators in all your gates that the Lord your God gave you through your tribes,
who shall judge the people with a righteous judgment.”
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“I will establish a king over me.”
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“So you shall establish a king
over you.”
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This ordination of a political magistrate, however, God ascribes in various places to himself. “Through me kings
rule, and framers of laws discern what is just.”
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“You shall be subject to your lords, whether to the king as the one who is preeminent,
or to leaders who are sent by him for the punishment of evil-doers and the praise of the upright.”
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“Let every person
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