Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T01:33:43.876Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rights, Resistance, and Revolution in the Western Tradition: Early Protestant Foundations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2010

John Witte Jr.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Over the past three decades, a veritable cottage industry of important new scholarship has emerged dedicated to the history of rights talk in the Western tradition prior to the Enlightenment.1 We now know a great deal more about classical Roman understandings of rights (iura), liberties (libertates), capacities (facultates), powers (potestates), and related concepts, and their elaboration by medieval and early modern civilians. We can now pore over an intricate latticework of arguments about individual and group rights and liberties developed by medieval Catholic canonists and moralists, and the ample expansion of this medieval handiwork by neo-scholastic writers in early modern Spain and Portugal. We now know a good deal more about classical republican theories of liberty developed in Greece and Rome, and their transformative influence on early modern common lawyers and political revolutionaries on both sides of the Atlantic. We now know, in brief, that the West knew ample “liberty before liberalism,” and had many fundamental rights in place before there were modern democratic revolutions fought in their name.

Type
Part II. Religious Thought in the Protestant Reformation and the American Civil War
Information
Law and History Review , Volume 26 , Issue 3: Law, War, and History: A Special Issue , Fall 2008 , pp. 545 - 570
Copyright
Copyright © the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. See sources in my God's Joust, God's Justice: Law and Religion in the Western Tradition (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2006), chap. 1.Google Scholar

2. Skinner, Quentin, Liberty before Liberalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).Google Scholar

3. On Coligny's murder, see Kelley, Donald R., François Hotman: A Revolutionary's Ideal (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973), 213ff.Google Scholar; Manetsch, Scott M., Theodore Beza and the Quest for Peace in France, 1572-1598 (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 30ffGoogle Scholar. On the full massacre, seeDiefendorf, Barbara, Beneath the Cross: Catholics and Huguenots in Sixteenth-Century Paris (New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991)Google Scholar; Janine Garrison-Estèbe, Tocsin pour un Massacre, la saison des Saint-Barthélemy (Paris: Le Centurion/Sciences Humaines, 1968)Google Scholar.

4. See detailed sources and discussion in RR, chap. 1.

5. On Beza, see Manetsch, , Theodore BezaGoogle Scholar; Geisendorf, Paul, Théodore de Bèze (Geneva: Julien, 1967)Google Scholar; Choisy, Eugène, L'État chrétien calviniste a Genève au temps de Théodore de Bèze (Geneva: C. Eggimann, 1902)Google Scholar; Baird, Henry Martin, Theodore Beza: The Counselor of the French Reformation, 1519-1605 (New York, 1899)Google Scholar.

6. Beza's, major works are in his Tractationum Theologicarum, 3 vols., 2d ed. (Geneva, 1582)Google Scholar[hereafter Beza, TT]. Missing from this collection is his important but controversial political work which was published anonymously in 1574 and in modern critical edition asDu droit des magistrats, ed. Kingdon, Robert M. (Geneva: Droz, 1970)Google Scholar, and in translation asConcerning the Rights of Rulers Over Their Subjects and the Duties of Subjects toward Their Rulers, trans. Gonin, Henri-Louis (Cape Town/Pretoria: H.A.U.M., 1956) [hereafterGoogle ScholarBeza, , Rights]Google Scholar.

7. See detailed sources in Strohm, Christoph, Ethik im frühen Calvinismus (Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1996).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8. Beza, TT 1:92; see furtherKingdon, Robert M., “The First Expression of Theodore Beza's Political Ideas,” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 46 (1955): 88, 90–93Google Scholar.

9. Confessio et apologia pastorum et reliquorum ministrorum Ecclesiae Magdeburgensis (Magdeburg, 1550) [hereafter MC]Google Scholar. David M. Whitford kindly furnished me with a working translation of this document, which I have adapted herein based on review of the original text. See furtherWhitford, David M., Tyranny and Resistance: The Magdeburg Confession and the Lutheran Tradition (St. Louis, Mo.: Concordia Publishing House, 2001)Google Scholar.

10. “The Interim, or Declaration of Religion of His Imperial Majesty Charles V,” in Tracts and Treaties in Defense of the Reformed Faith, trans. Beveridge, Henry, ed. Torrance, T. F. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1958), 3:190.Google Scholar

11. MC, A1v.

12. See sources in my Law and Protestantism: The Legal Teachings of the Lutheran Reformation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 53–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13. Matthew 22:21; Mark 12:17; Luke 20:25. I have used the Revised Standard Version throughout.

14. Romans 13:1-5.

15. 1 Peter 2:13-17.

16. Exodus 20:12; Leviticus 19:5; Deuteronomy 5:16; Matthew 15:4; Mark 7:10; Ephesians 6:1-2.

17. MC, G3r-H1r; K1r-K3r, L2r-M1r.

18. MC, G3r, G4v, L1r.

19. MC, J4r-K1r, K2R-L1r, M1r-M2r, P2r-P3r,

20. MC, H2r, K4r.

21. MC, H4r-J2r, K1r.

22. MC, K1r, L3r, P2v.

23. MC, J3r, L1r-L4r, M4r-N1r, O3r-O4r.

24. MC, M4r.

25. MC, K1r, N.

26. MC, N4r-O1r, P3r-P4r.

27. MC, P1r, P2r-P4r.

28. MC N3r-N4r, P1r, P4r.

29. MC, G1r, H2r-J3r, 04r.

30. Scheible, Heinz, Das Widerstandsrecht als Problem der deutsche Protestanten 1523- 1546 (Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus G. Mohn, 1969)Google Scholar; Wolgast, Eike, Die Religionsfrage als Problem des Widerstandsrechts im 16. Jahrhundert (Heidelberg: C. Winter, 1980)Google Scholar; Skinner, Quentin, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978), 2:195–206Google Scholar.

31. In SidneyEhler, Z. and Morrall, John B., eds., Church and State through the Centuries: A Collection of Historic Documents with Commentaries (Westminster, Md.: Newman Press, 1954), 164–73Google Scholar.

32. See sources and discussion in RR, chap. 2.

33. But cf.Zwierlein, Cornel, “The Importance of ‘Confessio’ in Magdebourg (1550) for Calvinism: A Historiographical Myth,” Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 68 (2005): 27Google Scholar, who disputes the influence of the Magdeburg Confession on Beza.

34. Beza, , Rights, 35, 37, 64, 65, 81, 85Google Scholar. Here and elsewhere Beza used the terms “covenant,” ”contract,” “compact,” and “constitution” variously and interchangeably.

35. Ibid., 41-64.

36. Excerpted in Hotman, François, “Francogallia,” in Constitutionalism and Resistance in the Sixteenth Century: Three Treatises by Hotman, Beza, and Mornay, ed. Franklin, Julian (New York: Pegasus, 1969), 55–70.Google Scholar

37. Beza, , Rights, 31, 34.Google Scholar

38. Ibid., 49.

39. See esp. Beza, Theodore, Tractatus pius et moderatus de vera excommunicatione et christiano Presbyterio (Geneva, 1590)Google Scholar, written already in 1569.

40. Beza, , Rights, 38-43, 74.Google Scholar

41. Ibid., 28, 82.

42. Ibid., 25.

43. Ibid., 64-65.

44. See esp. Beza, Theodore, Lex Dei moralis, ceremonialis et politica (Geneva, 1577) andGoogle Scholarfurther Beza texts translated inWitte, John Jr, and Kingdon, Robert M., Sex, Marriage and Family in John Calvin's Geneva, 3 vols. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: W. B. Eerdmans, 2005-)Google Scholar.

45. Beza, , Rights, 30, 44.Google Scholar

46. Ibid., 27-29, 66, 68, 74, 80, 83-85.

47. Ibid., 28-29, 84-86. See also TT 2:120-21.

48. On these developments, see Manetsch, , Theodore Beza, 308–36.Google Scholar

49. Beza, , Rights, 28-29, 72-77, 81.Google Scholar

50. See Beza, Theodore, De repudiis et divortiis (Geneva, 1569)Google Scholar; Choisy, , L'État chrétien, 442–44Google Scholar.

51. Beza, , De repudiis et divortiis, 207–372.Google Scholar

52. Beza, , Rights, 44-45, 64–65.Google Scholar

53. Ibid., 33-34. Beza qualified this position in his laterSermons sur l'histoire de la passion et sepulture de nostre Seigneur Iesus Christ, descrite par les quatre Evangelistes (Geneva, 1592), 282, 491, 501Google Scholar, where he denounced all private assassinations. SeeKingdon, Robert M., “Beza's Political Ideas as Expressed in His Sermons on the Passion” (unpublished manuscript in author's possession)Google Scholar.

54. Beza, , De repudiis et divortiis, 299–313.Google Scholar

55. See sources in Witte, and Kingdon, , Sex, Marriage, and Family, vols. 1, 3.Google Scholar

56. Beza, , Rights, 27, 31, 38.Google Scholar

57. Ibid., 27-28, 76.

58. Ibid., 27, 36-38, 72-74.

59. Ibid., 64-65, 72-80.

60. Ibid., 27-29, 83-85.

61. Ibid., 66, 68, 74, 80.

62. Ibid., 27, 41, 72.

63. Ullmann, Walter, Medieval Political Thought, rev. ed. (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975)Google Scholar; id., Principles of Government and Politics in the Middle Ages, 3d ed. (London: Methuen, 1974).

64. For good overviews, see Gough, J. W., The Social Contract: A Critical Study of Its Development, 2d ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957)Google Scholar; Burns, J. H., ed., The Cambridge History of Political Thought, 1450-1700, ed. Burns, J. H. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 159–245CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jászi, Oscar and Lewis, John D., Against the Tyrant: The Tradition and Theory of Tyrannicide (Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 1957)Google Scholar; Skinner, , Foundations, 2:189–349Google Scholar.

65. See Wolfe, Michael, The Conversion of Henri IV: Politics, Power, and Religious Beliefs in Early Modern France (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993), 31ff.Google Scholar; Manetsch, , Theodore Beza, 135ffGoogle Scholar.

66. For sources, see my God's Joust, God's Justice, 295-385.

67. See my From Sacrament to Contract: Marriage, Religion, and Law in the Western Tradition (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997), 74–129.Google Scholar

68. See Locke, John, Two Treatises of Government, ed. Laslett, Peter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960), I.9, 47, 98, II. 77–83.Google Scholar

69. From Sacrament to Contract, 165-93.

70. RR, chap. 1.

71. See sources in RR, chap. 1.

72. Kley, Dale van, The Religious Origins of the French Revolution: From Calvin to the Civil Constitution, 1560-1791 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996).Google Scholar

73. See sources in RR, chap. 3, 5.

74. See Knuttel, Willem P. C., Catalogus van de pamflettenverzameling berustende in de Koninkje Bibliothek, 9 vols. (The Hague, 1889-1920)Google Scholar; Kossman, E. H. and Mellink, A., eds., Texts Concerning the Revolt of the Netherlands (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974)Google Scholar; Gelderen, Martin van, The Political Thought of the Dutch Revolt, 1555-1590 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kossman, E. H., Political Thought in the Dutch Republic: Three Studies (Amsterdam: Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, 2000)Google Scholar.

75. See Catalogue of the Thomason Tracts in the British Museum (London, 1906)Google Scholar; Wolfe, Don M., ed., Leveller Manifestoes of the Puritan Revolution (New York: T. Nelson and Sons, 1944)Google Scholar; Woodhouse, A. S. P., Puritanism and Liberty Being the Army Debates (1647-9), 2d ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951)Google Scholar; Haller, William, Tracts on Liberty in the Puritan Revolution, 1638-1647, 3 vols. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1934)Google Scholar.