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

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be subject to the governing powers. For there is no power except from God, and those powers that exist have been ordained by
God. Therefore anyone who opposes such powers resists the ordination of God.”
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From this it can be concluded that God has
formed in all peoples by the natural law itself the free power of constituting princes, kings, and magistrates for themselves. This
means that in the measure in which any commonwealth that is divinely instructed by the light of nature has civil power, it can
transfer this power to another or others who, under the titles of kings, princes, consuls, or other magistrates, assume the
direction of its common life.
[§ 21] Nature has also expressed in other created things a certain likeness and image of this political domination and
government. Just as the mind reveals and performs all its actions in one physical body by the joining together and concord of its
members, and unifies these members under one spirit, so also one imperium under the power of one person or a united group
directs and rules in the commonwealth for the convenience of the members, declares laws, seeks the things necessary for human
society, communicates concord and makes it firms and directs actions and friendships by suitable rules that either nature or
necessity recommends should be kept inviolate. When God as Lord of everything created the world, he prescribed for all
creatures, even for trees, springs, rivers, and other created things, princes appropriate to their kind. [§ 22] Thus bees
acknowledge and follow their queen, cranes have a leader of their order, and the whale acknowledges his leader and rector.
Moreover, for angels God established a prince of angels, for birds a bird, for beasts a beast, and for men a man. And even in
man the soul dominates in the body and the mind in the appetite. It is also necessary that in any combination of elements one of
them dominate. Therefore, “to rule, to direct, to be subjected, to be ruled, to be governed are agreeable to the natural, divine,
and human law”. …
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[§ 25] The power of administering the rights of the realm originates in the election of these ministers and in their undertaking
the office entrusted to them.
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[§ 26] The administrators and rectors of the universal symbiosis and realm represent the body
of the universal association, or the whole people by whom they have been constituted. They bear its person in those things they
do in the name of the commonwealth or realm. They are held to be less in authority and power than those by whom they have
been constituted and from whom they received their power. For however much the imperium and right that is conceded to
another, it is always less than the conceder has reserved to himself. [§ 27] It also cannot be denied that the power and
strength of the whole is always greater than that of one man, or the body than that of a member thereof. On the other hand,
these administrators are rightly called superior in authority and power to individual members of the realm. [§ 28] The sole
power of administering and directing the body and rights of this universal association according to just laws is transferred to these
administrators and rectors by the members of this universal association. [§ 29] Such governors by no means have the
ownership of these rights, nor superiority in them. These rights remain under the control of the political body of this association.
[§ 30] Whence the customary formula in the decrees, orders, and rescripts of the Emperor of the Germans is Uns und dem
heiligen Reich, 20 or In unser und des heiligen Reichs statt. 21 Here in the word Uns is indicated the dominion of protection and
general jurisdiction that the rector has; in the words des Reichs statt is expressed the dominion of the community. [§ 31] The
less the power of those who rule, the more lasting and stable the imperium is and remains. For power circumscribed by definite
laws does not exalt itself to the ruin of subjects, is not dissolute, and does not degenerate into tyranny.
[§ 32] An administration is said to be just, legitimate, and salutary that seeks and obtains the prosperity and advantages of the
members of the realm, both individually and collectively, and that, on the other hand, averts all evils and disadvantages to
them, defends them against violence and injuries, and undertakes all actions of its administration according to laws. … [§
40] This power of administering that these ministers and rectors established by the universal association have is bound to the
utility and welfare of the subjects, and is circumscribed both by fixed limits, namely, by the laws of the Decalogue and by the
just opinion of the universal association. Therefore, it is neither infinite nor absolute.…
[§ 41] Administrators are not permitted to overstep these limits. Those who exceed the boundaries of administration entrusted
to them cease being ministers of God and of the universal association, and become private persons to whom obedience is not
owed in those things in which they exceed the limits of their power. … [§ 42] These administrators exceed the limits and
boundaries of the power conceded to them, first, when they command something to be done that is prohibited by God in the first
table of the Decalogue, or to be omitted that is therein commanded by God. They do so, secondly, when they prohibit something
that cannot be omitted, or command something that cannot be committed, without violating holy charity. The former commands
and prohibitions are called impious, the latter wicked. The limits of their power are transgressed, thirdly, when in the
administration entrusted to them they seek their personal and private benefit rather than the common utility and welfare of the
universal association. …
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