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

Althusius_0002
9/10/05 4:09 PM
[6]
[7]
Digest I, 1, 10, 1.]
Digest I, 3, 1; Code I, 14, 4.
[8] Illustrium controversiarum, I, preface, num. 108; I, 1; Politices christianae, I, 4. See Genesis 36, where the chiefs are
listed last among the descendants of Esau.
[9] [Here follows an extended discussion of these precepts, examples, and rational evidences. Although this discussion adds
nothing new to what has already been said, it nevertheless illustrates Althusius’ use of theology, history, and philosophy
respectively in support of his political theories. Precepts are passages from the Bible setting forth God’s ordination of rulership as
arising from the people or as being for the good of the people. (Deuteronomy 16:18; 17:14–20; Romans 13:1, 5.) Examples are
alluded to from the histories of Israel, Sparta, Persia, Rome, Germany, France, England, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, and
Belgium. Rational evidences are, for the most part, the same arguments for rulership that Althusius employed in Chapter I, which
arguments draw heavily upon Cicero and Petrus Gregorius.]
[10]
[Chapters XIX and XX respectively.]
[11] A community ( universitas) can elect and constitute its own curators and administrators. Digest III, 4, 6, 1; I, 2, 13 and
22; Nicolaus Losaeus, De jure universitatum, I, 3.
[12] See Francis Hotman, Franco-gallia, 6, 25; George Buchanan, The Rights of the Crown in Scotland; Fernando
Vásquez, Illustrium controversiarum, I, 1; Junius Brutus, Defence of Liberty Against Tyrants, quest. 1–3.
[13]
Code I, 55, 4.
[14] Alberico Gentili unreasonably dissents from this position in De potestate regis absoluta. I have responded to his arguments
in Chapter XXXVIII.
[15]
I, 4. 1.
[16] [ The City of God, IV, 4.]
[17] See Friedrich Pruckmann, De regalibus, 3; Fernando Vásquez, Illustrium controversiarum, I, 2; I, 3; I, 15; I, 26; I, 43;
Marius Salomonius, De principatu, V. The following writers unreasonably dissent: Alberico Gentili, De potestate regis absoluta;
Jean Bodin, The Commonweale, I, 8; William Barclay, The Kingdom and the Regal Power, III, 4; IV, 2.
[18] De statu religionis et reipublicae, I, ann. 1519. [This reproduction of material from Sleidan is retained in this translation to
provide an historical illustration of what Althusius has in mind when he writes about fundamental laws of a realm. This German
illustration should be sufficient for the purpose, however, and it therefore seems unnecessary to retain the comparable material
that follows on the fundamental laws of France, England, Spain, Sweden, Poland, and Brabant.]
[19]
[The unacknowledged—and perhaps inadvertent—omission from this law and condition as found in Sleidan reads as
follows: “and he shall punish no one without a hearing, but proceed therein by due process of law ( jus).” ]
[20] Politices christianae, III, 6.
[21] You will find examples of this in Petrus Gregorius, De republica, VII, 15; Vincent Cabot, Variarum juris, I, 8 and 10; I
Samuel 8; 16; II Samuel 5:3 f.; Judges 11:10 ff.; I Chronicles 29:22–24. The kings of Poland and Denmark are so elected, so
far as I have been able to gather from historical writing.
[22] Vincent Cabot musters examples of this. Variarum juris, I, 10. But he is in error when he says that if no arrangement has
been prescribed, then the king has free disposition concerning the realm, a statement that he himself contradicts at another
place. I, 14.
[23] De republica, VII, 8.
[24] [Chapter VII, footnote 6.]
http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/EBook.php?recordID=0002
Page 87 of 132