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Political Thought (Renaissance and Reformation)

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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. Early modern European political thought is notable for its considerable variety and complexity. The broad range of arguments and themes developed between c. 1350 and c. 1650 reflect the particularly swift rate of change in Europe’s political, religious, and geographical landscape. In the 14th century, as the monarchies north and west of the Alps began a process of political consolidation that gradually ended feudalism, the city-states of Italy began to develop systematic theories of popular sovereignty and celebrations of active citizenship. The optimism of humanist political thought suffered a major setback during the French invasion of Italy and ensuing Italian wars, a traumatic context that gave rise to the pessimistic realism of Machiavelli and Guicciardini. In the 16th century, humanism’s political assumptions spread north and were further developed by Christian humanists such as Thomas More and Erasmus. Initially an Italian phenomenon, humanism became an important aspect of western European political culture concurrent with the 16th-century Reformation. Political thought of the Reformation era, guided at first by bellicose figures such as Luther, Calvin, and Loyola, initially stressed obedience and uniformity, even as embattled French Calvinists began to develop theories of political resistance and German and Dutch Anabaptists began to champion voluntary religion, pacifism, and the separation of church and state. The apparent intractability of religious conflict led many political thinkers to seek order in a new absolutist vision of a powerful centralized state. In the 17th century and in France, most successfully, self-styled absolutist monarchs made yet more ambitious and unbounded claims to power. Such claims did not go uncontested, however. In England, the apparent encroaching absolutism of the Stuart dynasty led to a twenty-year conflict between royalists and parliamentarians that saw the trial and execution of Charles I and the sudden urgency of arguments by radical political groups such as the Ranters, Levellers, and Fifth Monarchists for community of goods, sexual freedom, and religious toleration. Concurrent and frequently intersecting with these political upheavals was the European discovery of the New World, the enslavement of Central and South America’s indigenous peoples, and the establishment of trading colonies in the Americas, which led to the reinterpretation of ancient theories of slavery and empire and the emergence of international law by thinkers such as Hugo Grotius and Samuel Pufendorf.
  4.  
  5. General Overviews
  6.  
  7. Because of the range and variety of early modern political thought, there are relatively few comprehensive pan-European surveys. The few that exist, however, are excellent and essential points of departure. Given the considerable variation in early modern political thought, scholars have interpreted it from a wide variety of perspectives and methodologies. Two dominant approaches, however, stand out: the “Cambridge School,” loosely associated with J. G. A. Pocock and Quentin Skinner, which seeks to situate ideas within a broad intellectual context, and the “Straussian” methodology, loosely associated with Leo Strauss and Harvey Mansfield, which seeks to uncover esoteric and often hidden meanings in major texts. Burns and Goldie 1991 offers a broad overview of early modern political thought, while Pagden 1987 provides a collection of essays written by experts on modern political thought. Pocock 1975 and Skinner 1978 are each classic texts; Pocock focuses on Florentine political thought, while Skinner focuses on Italian humanism and counter-reformation thought, among other topics. Strauss and Cropsey 1987 offers a collection of essays that covers almost every major early modern political thinker.
  8.  
  9. Burns, J. H., and Mark Goldie, eds. The Cambridge History of Political Thought, 1450–1700. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
  10. DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521247160Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  11. This volume is the most thorough and wide-ranging survey of early modern political thought. It features contributions on the Renaissance, Reformation, absolutism, jurisprudence, natural law, constitutionalism, Aristotelianism, and liberalism by established experts in the respective fields. An essential text for all students of political ideas in early modern Europe.
  12. Find this resource:
  13. Pagden, Anthony R., ed. The Languages of Political Theory in Early-Modern Europe. Ideas in Context Series. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
  14. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511521447Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  15. An excellent collection of essays by leading authorities on major texts and themes in early modern political thought.
  16. Find this resource:
  17. Pocock, J. G. A. The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975.
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  19. A classic and hugely influential study of the role of republican ideas in Western political thought. The core of the text is Florentine political thought, particularly as articulated by Machiavelli, but Pocock makes a compelling case for seeing a broad continuity of Aristotelian republicanism in Renaissance Italy, 17th- and 18th-century England, and colonial America.
  20. Find this resource:
  21. Skinner, Quentin. The Foundations of Modern Political Thought. 2 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1978.
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  23. Classic study by a leading pioneer of situating political texts in context. The first volume focuses on Italian humanism, the mirror-for-princes tradition, and communal and republican thought. The second volume focuses on the political implications of Lutheran, Calvinist, and counter-reformation thought.
  24. Find this resource:
  25. Strauss, Leo, and Joseph Cropsey, eds. History of Political Philosophy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.
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  27. A classic collection of essays spanning political thought from Thucydides to Nietzsche. The volume includes essays by influential political theorists on almost every major early modern political thinker.
  28. Find this resource:
  29. The Renaissance
  30.  
  31. The political culture of the Italian Renaissance bore little relationship to the rest of the Europe. In the largely monarchical, martial, and agricultural cultures north of the Alps, scholastic political thought dominated. It generally focused on the rights and obligations of monarchs, the limits of monarchical authority, and the relationship between secular power and the Roman church. In contrast to the north, the Italian peninsula was urban, commercial, decentralized, and constitutionally varied. The major centers of power were the Roman papacy; the kingdom of Naples; the Duchy of Milan; and the republics of Florence, Venice, and Genoa. In general, owing to its close connection to the humanist movement, Renaissance political thought tended to speak about politics in ideal terms. Italian political writers in Italy during the 15th century tended to focus on the qualities of ideal rulers, ideal citizens, the common good, and the collective subordination of private to public interest. In the 16th century, the onset of war and religious strife expanded the range and style of Renaissance political thought. Some thinkers, such as Machiavelli and Guicciardini, began to develop bleaker and more realistic analyses of the conditions of political strength, while others, such as Giovanni Botero, reinterpreted the older mirror-for-prince tradition to incorporate elements of popular sovereignty. Some Christian humanists such as Thomas More fused classicizing humanism with religious polemic, while others, such as Desiderius Erasmus, continued to champion a nondomatic vision of concord and harmony.
  32.  
  33. Early Communes
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  35. The independent, self-governing communes that dotted central and northern Italy borrowed heavily from classical antiquity to describe and interpret their political world. Unable to integrate themselves into feudal hierarchies of power with their contractual relations between lord and vassal, the communes developed an Aristotelian political culture that focused on the common good, distributive justice, and the virtues of the mixed constitution. Ptolemy of Lucca, Bartolo of Sassoferrato, and Marsilio of Padua, in particular, forged a systematic doctrine of popular sovereignty rooted in the Roman doctrine of quod omnes tangit—that which touches all must be approved by all.
  36.  
  37. Primary Sources
  38.  
  39. Alighieri 1996 offers an influential political text dating originally from the Middle Ages. Marsilius’s works (Marsilius 2005, Marsilius 1993) each offer views on the papacy’s right to intervene in political matters. Ptolemy 1997 provides an Aristotelian interpretation of northern Italian communes.
  40.  
  41. Alighieri, Dante. Monarchy. Edited by Prue Shaw. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought Series. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
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  43. One of the most influential political treatises of the late Middle Ages. A defense of imperial world government by Italy’s greatest poet.
  44. Find this resource:
  45. Marsilius of Padua. Defensor Minor and De Translatione Imperii. Edited by Cary J. Nederman. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought Series. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
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  47. Contains Marsilius’s analysis of the Holy Roman Empire’s rights, jurisdiction, and independence from the papacy.
  48. Find this resource:
  49. Marsilius of Padua. The Defender of the Peace. Edited by Annabel S. Brett. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought Series. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
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  51. Marsilius was one of the principal apologists for the sovereignty of Italy’s late medieval city-states. Defender of the Peace was his major text refuting, among other claims, the papacy’s right to intervene in secular matters.
  52. Find this resource:
  53. Ptolemy of Lucca. On the Government of Rulers: De Regimine Principum. Edited and translated by James Blythe. The Middle Ages Series. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997.
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  55. Ptolemy of Lucca was a major theorist of northern Italian communal governments. This treatise interprets the constitutions of the northern Italian communes in Aristotelian terms, endowing them with the legitimacy of classical antiquity.
  56. Find this resource:
  57. Secondary Sources
  58.  
  59. Jones 1997 provides an overview of Italian city-states, while Martines 1988 offers a survey of their rise and fall. Rubinstein 2004 contains sixteen essays on a variety of topics pertaining to the Renaissance era and its variant political mores.
  60.  
  61. Jones, Philip J. The Italian City-State: From Commune to Signoria. Oxford: Clarendon, 1997.
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  63. A detailed overview of the early development of Italian city-states. The second half in particular devotes considerable attention to the articulation and development of political ideology, situating the major principles of self- government in an impressive reconstruction of social and political contexts.
  64. Find this resource:
  65. Martines, Lauro. Power and Imagination: City-States in Renaissance Italy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988.
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  67. Classic survey of the rise and fall of the Italian city-states that pays particular attention to the intersection of political practice with political thought.
  68. Find this resource:
  69. Rubinstein, Nicolai. Studies in Italian History in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Vol. 1, Political Thought and the Language of Politics: Art and Politics. Storia e letteratura 216. Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2004.
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  71. This volume contains sixteen influential essays by one of the most accomplished historians of Renaissance politics and political culture on topics ranging from the emergence of political thought in Florence, Marsilius of Padua, Dante, and the medieval origins of Renaissance republicanism.
  72. Find this resource:
  73. Civic Humanism
  74.  
  75. Civic humanism flourished throughout the Italian peninsula in the 15th century. To the extent that they were committed to specific constitutional arrangements, most civic humanists either championed monarchy, such as Antonio Loschi in Milan or Giuniano Maio in Naples, or variations on aristocratic oligarchy, such as Leonardo Bruni in Florence or Gasparo Contarini in Venice. However, civic humanism was more a political style than a specific program. The common denominator of humanist political thought was the belief in the perfectability of human nature and the celebration of the active life committed to civic, urban values. Drawing heavily on the rational vocabulary of classical antiquity, humanism interpreted politics in terms of the classicizing aesthetics of order, symmetry, and harmony.
  76.  
  77. Primary Sources
  78.  
  79. The I Tatti Renaissance Library includes more than forty volumes of reference material, mostly concentrating in one way or another on political issues and themes. Kohl and Witt 1978 provides a collection of English translations for major humanist political writings by Petrarch and Salutati, among others.
  80.  
  81. I Tatti Renaissance Library Series. Edited by James Hankins. Florence, Italy: Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, 1985–.
  82. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  83. This series features facing-page translations (Latin to English) of all major Latin authors of the Italian Renaissance. There are currently more than forty volumes published and more on the way, many of which address political issues and themes, such as Brandolini’s Republics and Kingdoms Compared, Bembo’s History of Venice, and Valla’s Donation of Constantine.
  84. Find this resource:
  85. Kohl, Benjamin, and Ronald Witt, eds. and trans. The Earthly Republic: Italian Humanists on Government and Society. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1978.
  86. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  87. A collection of English translations of humanist political writings on politics by Petrarch, Salutati, Bruni, Poliziano, and others.
  88. Find this resource:
  89. Secondary Sources
  90.  
  91. Baron 1967 is probably the most influential text on the relationship between humanism and politics, while Baron 1988 offers a collection of essays that update Baron 1967. Hankins 2000 provides a collection of essays that evaluate Baron’s concept of civic humanism. King 1986 and Witt 1976 offer studies on Venetian humanism and the humanist chancellor of Florence’s public letters, respectively.
  92.  
  93. Baron, Hans. The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance: Civic Humanism and Republican Liberty in an Age of Classicism and Tyranny. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1967.
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  95. The single most influential book on the relationship between humanism and politics. Baron coined the term “civic humanism” to refer to the transformation of humanist thought from contemplative to active and argued that Florentine humanists championed republican government after the city’s struggle with despotic Milan.
  96. Find this resource:
  97. Baron, Hans. In Search of Florentine Civic Humanism: Essays on the Transition from Medieval to Modern Thought. 2 vols. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988.
  98. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  99. A collection of essays that revisit the themes and major issues from The Crisis twenty years later and that incorporate new figures, such as Leon Battista Alberti, into Baron’s interpretation.
  100. Find this resource:
  101. Hankins, James, ed. Renaissance Civic Humanism: Reappraisals and Reflections. Ideas in Context 57. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
  102. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511558474Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  103. A collection of essays from leading historians and political theorists evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of Baron’s concept of civic humanism.
  104. Find this resource:
  105. King, Margaret L. Venetian Humanism in an Age of Patrician Dominance. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986.
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  107. The major study of Venetian humanism and its relationship to the Venetian patriciate. Venetian humanism reflected the political priorities and needs of the city’s ruling elite, particularly in its subordination of the individual to collective will and its celebration of concord and unanimity.
  108. Find this resource:
  109. Witt, Ronald G. Coluccio Salutati and His Public Letters. Geneva, Switzerland: Librairie Droz, 1976.
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  111. Major study of the first humanist chancellor of Florence’s public letters, reflecting his political ideals and those of the early Florentine republic.
  112. Find this resource:
  113. Witt, Ronald G. “In the Footsteps of the Ancients”: The Origins of Humanism from Lovato to Bruni. Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought 74. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2000.
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  115. The best study of humanism’s origins and development over five generations, culminating in the civic humanism of Leonardo Bruni. Witt shows in detail how humanism responded to and helped legitimize the distinctive secular political culture of the northern Italian communes.
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  117. Mirror-for-Princes
  118.  
  119. The speculum principis, or mirror-for-princes, was a European-wide literary genre for investigating the qualities and characteristics of the ideal ruler. In Italy, however, it was the dominant literary form for political writing at the princely courts. To the traditional categories of education, upbringing, and ethics, Renaissance contributions to the genre by Petrarch, Francesco Patrizi, Giovanni Pontano, and of course Machiavelli added institutional dimensions such as state administration, social welfare, warfare, and ceremonial ritual.
  120.  
  121. Primary Sources
  122.  
  123. Botero 1956 is a major 16th-century text that contributed greatly to the discourse surrounding political thought, while Castiglione 2002 also retains its status as a classic and important 16th-century source. Erasmus 1997 is an influential text by a prominent humanist. Machiavelli 1998 is probably the most well-known, and still controversial, contribution to this field of thought. Kohl and Witt 1978 offers an English translation of Petrarch’s “How a Ruler Ought to Govern His State,” and Kraye 1997 provides English translations of texts by Giuniano Maio, Il Platina, and Giovanni Pontano.
  124.  
  125. Botero, Giovanni. The Reason of State. Translated by P. J. Waley and D. P. Waley. Rare Masterpieces of Philosophy and Science Series. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1956.
  126. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  127. Major 16th-century contribution and reworking of the mirror-for-prince tradition, introducing an element of popular consent to ideal princely rule and arguing against Machiavelli that princes require the substantive possession, rather than mere appearance, of virtue.
  128. Find this resource:
  129. Castiglione, Baldassare. The Book of the Courtier. Edited by Daniel Javitch. Translated by Charles S. Singleton. New York: Norton, 2002.
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  131. One of the most influential and widely read books of the 16th century, Castiglione’s dialogue on the perfect courtier, though not formally addressed to a prince, helped to define the early modern concept of court culture and the role of courtiers in shaping the conduct and ethics of princes.
  132. Find this resource:
  133. Erasmus, Desiderius. The Education of a Christian Prince; with the Panegyric for Archduke Philip of Austria. Edited by Lisa Jardine. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought Series. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
  134. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  135. The most influential example of the genre outside of Italy by Europe’s most prominent humanist.
  136. Find this resource:
  137. Kohl, Benjamin, and Ronald Witt, eds. and trans. The Earthly Republic: Italian Humanists on Government and Society. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1978.
  138. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  139. Contains an English translation of Petrarch’s contribution (“How A Ruler Ought to Govern His State”) to this genre of political writing, a letter to Francesco da Carrara, lord of Padua.
  140. Find this resource:
  141. Kraye, Jill, ed. Cambridge Translations of Renaissance Philosophical Texts. Vol. 2, Political Philosophy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
  142. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  143. Contains abridged English translations of major examples of mirror-for-princes texts by Giuniano Maio, Il Platina, and Giovanni Pontano.
  144. Find this resource:
  145. Machiavelli, Niccolò. The Prince. Translated by Harvey Mansfield. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
  146. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  147. The most influential, incendiary, and fascinating contribution to the genre, bar none. Machiavelli respected and shared some standard themes of the genre—notably the necessity for a prince to pursue glory, display martial prowess, and protect the welfare of his people. But unlike his humanist counterparts, Machiavelli advocated a strict distinction between private and political morality, the uses of strategic cruelty, and the ability to dissemble.
  148. Find this resource:
  149. Secondary Sources
  150.  
  151. Najemy 1993 is a study of Machiavelli’s The Prince, and Stacey 2007 studies the impact of classical writing on princely government.
  152.  
  153. Najemy, John M. Between Friends: Discourses of Power in the Machiavelli–Vettori Letters of 1513–1515. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993.
  154. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  155. An illuminating study by an expert reader of Machiavelli that historicizes the architecture of The Prince in Machiavelli’s earlier correspondence with Francesco Vettori.
  156. Find this resource:
  157. Stacey, Peter. Roman Monarchy and the Renaissance Prince. Ideas in Context 79. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
  158. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511490743Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  159. Beginning with Seneca, Stacey traces the impact of classical writings on princely government on medieval and Renaissance political thought, concluding with a detailed analysis of Machiavelli’s contribution to the genre.
  160. Find this resource:
  161. Republicanism
  162.  
  163. Most republican theorists of the Renaissance advocated some variety of the Polybian mixed constitution, which held that the strongest and most durable regimes integrated or “mixed” aspects of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. In Venice (the premier example), power was divided between the monarchical doge, the aristocratic senate, and the democratic Great Council. Within that framework and for most of the Renaissance, republican theorists such as Gasparo Contarini in Venice and Francesco Guicciardini in Florence generally privileged the executive dominance of a narrow aristocratic elite. In the early 16th century, however, Machiavelli and Savonarola elaborated republican models that anchored power in the broad ranks of the citizenry.
  164.  
  165. Primary Sources
  166.  
  167. Guicciardini 1994 explores the strengths and weaknesses of Florentine regimes, while Machiavelli 1996 explores ancient Roman republicanism. Savonarola 2006 contains English translations of the author’s major political writings.
  168.  
  169. Guicciardini, Francesco. Dialogue on the Government of Florence. Edited and translated by Alison Brown. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought Series. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
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  171. A dialogue exploring the strengths and weaknesses of various Florentine regimes by one of the greatest political thinkers of the Renaissance and one of its most important and influential politicians. Guicciardini, here and elsewhere, generally articulated a theory of an elitist, aristocratically dominated republicanism.
  172. Find this resource:
  173. Machiavelli, Niccolò. Discourses on Livy. Translated by Harvey Mansfield and Nathan Tarcov. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
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  175. Machiavelli’s most substantial political writing and the chief source of his republican thought, a searching inquiry into the strengths and weaknesses of ancient Roman republicanism. Machiavelli’s Discourses are particularly notable for his argument, offensive to most of his contemporaries, that class conflict when channeled properly had a vital strengthening effect on republics.
  176. Find this resource:
  177. Savonarola, Girolamo. Selected Writings of Girolamo Savonarola: Religion and Politics, 1490–1498. Edited and translated by Anne Borelli and Maria Pastore Passaro. Italian Literature and Thought Series. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006.
  178. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  179. Along with Machiavelli, Savonarola was one of the few populist republican theorists of the Renaissance. This volume contains English translations of all of Savonarola’s major political writings, including his republican treatise on the constitution of Florence.
  180. Find this resource:
  181. Secondary Sources
  182.  
  183. Bouwsma 1968 offers a study of the emergence of Venetian republicanism in the early 17th century. Van Gelderen and Skinner 2002 includes a collection of essays on the role of republicanism during the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods as it relates to political thought. Gilbert 1965 contextualizes Machiavelli’s and Guicciardini’s republican language, while Pocock 2003 offers an important treatise on Renaissance political thought. Skinner 2002 includes almost all of the author’s works on Renaissance republicanism, while Bock, et al. 1990 contextualizes Machiavelli’s writings on Renaissance republicanism.
  184.  
  185. Bock, Gisela, Quentin Skinner, and Maurizio Viroli, eds. Machiavelli and Republicanism. Ideas in Context. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
  186. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  187. Outstanding collection of essays that contextualize Machiavelli’s republican political philosophy in the context of medieval and Renaissance Florentine political culture.
  188. Find this resource:
  189. Bouwsma, William J. Venice and the Defense of Republican Liberty: Renaissance Values in the Age of the Counter-Reformation. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968.
  190. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  191. A seminal study of the process by which the papal interdict of Venice in 1606–1607 led Venetian political thinkers, particularly Paolo Sarpi, to forge a self-conscious, secular, autonomous republicanism.
  192. Find this resource:
  193. Gilbert, Felix. Machiavelli and Guicciardini: Politics and History in Sixteenth-Century Florence. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1965.
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  195. An authoritative contextualization of the republican language of Machiavelli and Guicciardini within the political habits and vocabulary of Florence’s governing class, paying particular attention to the way in which Machiavelli and Guicciardini responded to constitutional and ideological debates triggered by the French invasion of Italy in 1494.
  196. Find this resource:
  197. Pocock, J. G. A. The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003.
  198. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  199. Arguably the most influential book on Renaissance political thought since 1960, Pocock situated the Renaissance revival of Aristotelian republicanism at the heart of major conflicts in England and America that had traditionally been interpreted in terms of Lockean liberalism.
  200. Find this resource:
  201. Skinner, Quentin. Visions of Politics. Vol. 2, Renaissance Virtues. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
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  203. This volume contains almost all of Skinner’s major essays on Renaissance republicanism, provocatively reinterpreted as a moment in a longer trajectory of “neo-Roman republicanism.”
  204. Find this resource:
  205. van Gelderen, Martin, and Quentin Skinner, eds. Republicanism: A Shared European Heritage. 2 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
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  207. A massive, pan-European collection of specialized essays on the role of republicanism in Renaissance and Enlightenment political thought, with contributions ranging from Italy, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Britain.
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  209. Christian Humanism
  210.  
  211. The most influential northern humanist, Desiderius Erasmus, generally shared Italian humanism’s aristocratic emphasis on the moral reform of rulers and elites through classical learning but added a specifically Christian interpretation often missing in the more secular Italian context. In particular, he rejected the widespread and traditional assumption that rulers should pursue glory through warfare, condemned courtiers and prelates who promoted martial policies, and argued instead that the welfare and prosperity of a ruler’s subjects should constitute the highest priority. The most influential English humanist, Thomas More, also critiqued the 16th-century notion of martial glory, but in his Utopia (see More 1963–1990) vastly expanded Erasmus’s narrow focus on politics through the education of rulers to include a broad range of structural, institutional, and policy considerations.
  212.  
  213. Primary Sources
  214.  
  215. Erasmus 1989 offers an array of his writing and modern commentary on those writings. More 1963–1990 offers a complete edition of the author’s writings.
  216.  
  217. Erasmus, Desiderius. The Praise of Folly and Other Writings. Edited and translated by Robert M. Adams. New York: Norton, 1989.
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  219. A good selection of Erasmus’s writings with excellent commentary by Hugh Trevor-Roper, Paul Oskar Kristeller, Johan Huizinga, and others.
  220. Find this resource:
  221. More, Thomas. The Complete Works of St. Thomas More. 15 vols. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1963–1990.
  222. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  223. The most complete and scholarly edition of More’s writings. Volume 4 contains Utopia in Latin and facing-page English translations, along with a massive scholarly apparatus.
  224. Find this resource:
  225. Secondary Sources
  226.  
  227. Nauert 2006 is an overview of the transformation of Italian humanism from a localized to a European-wide phenomenon, while Rabil 1988 offers a collection of essays dealing with the spread of humanism throughout northern Europe.
  228.  
  229. Nauert, Charles Garfield. Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe. New Approaches to European History 37. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
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  231. A concise and informative survey of the process by which Italian humanism became a European-wide phenomenon.
  232. Find this resource:
  233. Rabil, Albert. Renaissance Humanism: Foundations, Forms, and Legacy. Vol. 2, Humanism beyond Italy. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988.
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  235. A collection of essays by leading scholars on the diffusion of humanism throughout northern Europe.
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  237. Reformation
  238.  
  239. The Reformations of the 16th century constituted the greatest religious and political upheaval in Europe between the 14th and 18th centuries. Because the religious and the political were inextricably connected in the 16th century, what began as a purely theological controversy quickly raised larger issues about the nature of political authority, the duty of obedience, and the relationship between religious pluralism and political stability. In the early stages of the Reformation, major reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin asserted that political obedience to secular rulers was an inviolable Christian obligation. For Protestant German princes, however, who were autonomous in their own states yet subject to the Holy Roman Emperor, there were genuine ambiguities regarding the limits of their sovereignty and their obligations to the emperor. As a result, Protestant political thought in Germany and Switzerland began to explore doctrines of limited cooperation and passive resistance. Fierce and sustained religious war in France during the later 16th century led Calvinist thinkers to develop a full-fledged theory of resistance to tyranny that influenced subsequent contractarian thinkers, such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
  240.  
  241. Secular Authority
  242.  
  243. Reformation political thought began with assertions of the doctrine of political obedience. In texts such as Secular Authority: To What Extent it Should be Obeyed, Martin Luther portrayed secular rule as akin to paternal rule. Rulers should always strive to demonstrate benevolent paternal care for their subjects, but just as abused children were obligated to continue to respect paternal authority, so too Christian subjects were obligated to obey tyrannical rulers. Other Lutherans such as Philip Melancthon and William Tyndale wrote about political authority in similar terms. Jesuit political thought similarly stressed obedience in its larger pursuit of order, hierarchy, and monarchy. Even Calvin, whose heirs went on to develop resistance theory, initially insisted in his Institutes of the Christian Religion that all rulers, benevolent and tyrannical, were appointed by God and hence were owed obedience by their subjects. As a result of these early principles, the Reformation was inextricably linked to the process of early modern state-building and its political thought.
  244.  
  245. Primary Sources
  246.  
  247. Calvin 1956 provides translations by John McNeill of Calvin’s important political writings. Estes 1994 provides English translations of German reformers’ arguments over the right of secular governments to be involved in religion, while Kingdon 1980 offers English translations of an important Italian Augustinian.
  248.  
  249. Calvin, Jean. On God and Political Duty. 2d ed. Edited and translated by John McNeill. Library of Liberal Arts 23. New York: Liberal Arts Press, 1956.
  250. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  251. A selection and English translation of Calvin’s political writings.
  252. Find this resource:
  253. Estes, James Martin, ed. and trans. Whether the Secular Government Has the Right to Wield the Sword in Matters of Faith: A Controversy in Nürnberg in 1530 over Freedom of Worship and the Authority of Secular Government in Spiritual Matters. Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 1994.
  254. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  255. Five documents in English translation from German reformers debating the extent of the right of secular government to dictate and enforce religious belief.
  256. Find this resource:
  257. Kingdon, Robert M., ed. The Political Thought of Peter Martyr Vermigli: Selected Texts and Commentary. Geneva, Switzerland: Librairie Droz, 1980.
  258. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  259. Texts and English translation of an Italian Augustinian who bridged Lutheran and Calvinist positions of obedience to secular authority.
  260. Find this resource:
  261. Secondary Sources
  262.  
  263. Cargill Thompson 1984 offers a monograph of Martin Luther’s political thoughts, while Höpfl 1991 provides English translations of Luther’s and Calvin’s writings on secular authority. Höpfl 1982 offers insights into Calvin’s political theology, while Höpfl 2004 offers insight into all Jesuit thinkers from the early modern era. Prestwich 1985 provides a collection of essays dealing with the spread of Calvinist thought during the 16th century, and Skinner 1978 provides a survey of political debates surrounding theology.
  264.  
  265. Cargill Thompson, W. D. J. The Political Thought of Martin Luther. Edited by Philip Broadhead. Totowa, NJ: Barnes & Noble, 1984.
  266. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  267. One of the few English monographs on Luther’s political thinking, this book argues that Luther was not a reluctant political theorist but rather a major and sustained voice in the political debates triggered by the Reformation.
  268. Find this resource:
  269. Höpfl, Harro. The Christian Polity of John Calvin. Cambridge Studies in the History and Theory of Politics Series. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
  270. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511571435Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  271. Major treatment of Calvin’s political theology by an established expert.
  272. Find this resource:
  273. Höpfl, Harro. Luther and Calvin on Secular Authority. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
  274. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  275. A selection and English translation of Luther’s and Calvin’s writings on secular authority.
  276. Find this resource:
  277. Höpfl, Harro. Jesuit Political Thought: The Society of Jesus and the State, c. 1540–1630. Ideas in Context 70. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
  278. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511490569Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  279. A detailed analysis of the political thinking of all Jesuit thinkers, major and minor, from the early modern era.
  280. Find this resource:
  281. Prestwich, Menna, ed. International Calvinism, 1541–1715. Oxford: Clarendon, 1985.
  282. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  283. A collection of essays from leading specialists on the spread of Calvinism in the 16th century. Some chapters address political thought outright, but many address the political context and implications of Calvinist activity.
  284. Find this resource:
  285. Skinner, Quentin. The Foundations of Modern Political Thought. Vol. 2, The Age of Reformation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1978.
  286. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  287. A thorough survey of the political debates that surrounded the theological controversies of the Reformation era.
  288. Find this resource:
  289. Anabaptism
  290.  
  291. Anabaptist theology, particularly its insistence on doctrines condemned by the mainstream Reformation such as free will, human perfectability, and the voluntary church, necessarily implied a distinctive political culture. Anabaptist leaders, such as Conrad Grebel and Hans Hut, forged influential 16th-century formulations of the doctrine of the separation of church and state, pacifism, and religious toleration.
  292.  
  293. Primary Sources
  294.  
  295. Baylor 1991 offers English translations of thirteen major German and Swiss writings, while Müntzer 1988 provides translations by Peter Matheson of the author’s writings.
  296.  
  297. Baylor, Michael G., ed. and trans. The Radical Reformation. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought Series. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
  298. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  299. English translation of thirteen major German and Swiss political writings from the radical reformation during the years 1521 to 1527.
  300. Find this resource:
  301. Müntzer, Thomas. Collected Works of Thomas Müntzer. Edited and translated by Peter Matheson. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1988.
  302. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  303. English translation of the writings of Müntzer, an influential radical executed for his leading role in the German Peasants War of 1525.
  304. Find this resource:
  305. Secondary Sources
  306.  
  307. Depperman 1987 is a biography of Hoffman with a backdrop of the political climate in 16th-century Germany. Stayer 1972 is a study of Anabaptist political thinkers.
  308.  
  309. Depperman, Klaus. Melchior Hoffman: Social Unrest and Apocalyptic Visions in the Age of the Reformation. Edited by Benjamin Drewery. Translated by Malcolm Wren. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1987.
  310. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  311. Excellent intellectual biography and political contextualization of Hoffman and the apocalyptic milieu of 16th-century Germany.
  312. Find this resource:
  313. Stayer, James M. Anabaptists and the Sword. Lawrence, KS: Coronado, 1972.
  314. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  315. Major study of the political views of a broad range of Anabaptist thinkers and their relationship with mainstream Protestantism.
  316. Find this resource:
  317. Resistance Theory
  318.  
  319. In the German-speaking lands and in France, religious war between Lutheran princes and the Holy Roman Emperor and between Calvinist nobles and the French crown led to sustained theories of the right of political resistance against tyranny. Drawing on late medieval antimonarchical arguments developed during Great Schism and conciliar movement that the pope, appointed by councils, held power in trust of the larger institutional church, Protestant dissenters in the 16th century expanded that argument to apply to all political societies. Lutherans drew on the Roman law maxim vim vi repellere licet that it is permissible to resist unjust force with force. In France, Calvinists deployed contract theory, arguing that the people’s obligation to political obedience was conditional on their monarch’s protection of their rights and welfare. Although the Calvinist theory of covenant was rooted in theological convictions, it had secular implications that were taken up in the following century by Rousseau, Hobbes, and Locke.
  320.  
  321. Primary Sources
  322.  
  323. Hotman, et al. 1969 offers English translations of three important Calvinist-inspired writings.
  324.  
  325. Hotman, François, Theodore Beza, and Philippe de Plessis-Mornay. Constitutionalism and Resistance in the Sixteenth Century: Three Treatises by Hotman, Beza, and Mornay. Edited and translated by Julian H. Franklin. New York: Pegasus, 1969.
  326. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  327. English translation of the three most influential Calvinist-inspired resistance treatises.
  328. Find this resource:
  329. Secondary Sources
  330.  
  331. Figgis 2011 is a survey of resistance theory, while Burns and Izbicki 1997 offer four primary sources relating to 16th-century conciliarist constitutionalism. Kelley 1973 is a biography of François Hotman. Kingdon 1991 reconstructs Calvinist resistance theory. Shoenburger 1977 and Shoenburger 1979 explore the Lutheran views on resistance. Skinner 1980 contends that there is broad continuity between medieval, Calvinist, and Lockean theorists, while Tierney 1955 provides an overview of the church’s political authority.
  332.  
  333. Burns, James H., and Thomas M. Izbicki, eds. Conciliarism and Papalism. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought Series. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
  334. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  335. Four primary sources on 16th-century conciliarist constitutionalism that contributed to the larger phenomenon of constitutionalist thinking in that time.
  336. Find this resource:
  337. Figgis, John Neville. Studies of Political Thought from Gerson to Grotius, 1414–1625. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
  338. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  339. An excellent survey of resistance theory from its medieval conciliar origins through Luther, Calvin, the monarchomachists, and the Jesuits, culminating in the Dutch revolt.
  340. Find this resource:
  341. Kelley, Donald R. François Hotman: A Revolutionary’s Ordeal. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1973.
  342. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  343. Excellent biography, with primary-source appendices, of the legal scholar and humanist Hotman, a tireless apologist for international Calvinism.
  344. Find this resource:
  345. Kingdon, Robert M. “Calvinism and Resistance Theory, 1550–1580.” In The Cambridge History of Political Thought, 1450–1700. Edited by J. H. Burns and Mark Goldie, 193–218. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
  346. DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521247160Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  347. Detailed reconstruction of the various stages and amplification of Calvinist resistance theory.
  348. Find this resource:
  349. Shoenburger, Cynthia Grant. “The Development of the Lutheran Theory of Resistance, 1523–1530.” Sixteenth Century Journal 8.1 (1977): 61–76.
  350. DOI: 10.2307/2540127Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  351. Argues against the view that resistance theory was primarily formulated by Huguenot writers, attempting to show instead that Lutheran writers were a crucial step in the transmission of resistance theory from the late medieval conciliarists to the Calvinists.
  352. Find this resource:
  353. Shoenburger, Cynthia Grant. “Luther and the Justifiability of Resistance to Legitimate Authority.” Journal of the History of Ideas 40.1 (1979): 3–20.
  354. DOI: 10.2307/2709257Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  355. Distinguishes between Luther’s early and mature views on political resistance, arguing that his support for political resistance increased in the early 1540s, as war between Lutheran princes and the Holy Roman Emperor appeared increasingly likely.
  356. Find this resource:
  357. Skinner, Quentin. “The Origins of the Calvinist Theory of Revolution.” In After the Reformation: Essays in Honor of J. H. Hexter. Edited by Barbara Malament. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1980.
  358. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  359. Skinner argues for a broad continuity between late medieval Italian political writers, Calvinist resistance theorists, and later Lockean arguments.
  360. Find this resource:
  361. Tierney, Brian. Foundations of the Conciliar Theory: The Contribution of Medieval Canonists from Gratian to the Great Schism. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, New Series 4. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1955.
  362. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  363. Authoritative survey of the ascending view of political authority within the church that formed the backdrop and precedent for early modern resistance theory.
  364. Find this resource:
  365. Impact of Religious War
  366.  
  367. Political thinkers outside the ranks of embattled Calvinism, such as Jean Bodin and Michel de Montaigne, sought different solutions to the violence and anarchy caused by more than three decades of Civil War. Jean Bodin, the principal voice of 16th-century absolutism, sought order and stability in centralized state power. In particular, he developed in the Six Books of the Republic the century’s most influential doctrine of sovereignty. Bodin argued that the chief characteristic of the monarchical state was sovereignty, an attribute that was inherently absolute, indivisible, and therefore not conditional on the consent of the governed. Religious fanaticism drew Montaigne’s attention to the individual rather than the state. In particular, the religious wars suggested to Montaigne the limits of reason and the need for religious toleration. In his Essays (see Montaigne 1958), he elaborated a critique of Old Regime France that has been alternately interpreted as a forerunner of liberalism, conservative skepticism, and political empiricism.
  368.  
  369. Primary Sources
  370.  
  371. Bodin 1995 discusses the punishment of witches, and Montaigne 1958 offers English translations by Donald Frame of the author’s essays.
  372.  
  373. Bodin, Jean. On the Demon-Mania of itches. Translated by Randy Scott. Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 1995.
  374. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  375. The leading French lawyer, scholar, and political theorist Bodin’s treatise on the detection and punishment of witches. On Bodin’s absolutist thought, see Bodin 1967 and Bodin 1992 (both cited under Bodin: Primary Sources).
  376. Find this resource:
  377. Montaigne, Michel de. Complete Essays. Translated by Donald M. Frame. Stanford: University of California Press, 1958.
  378. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  379. Complete English translation of Montaigne’s essays.
  380. Find this resource:
  381. Secondary Sources
  382.  
  383. Baumgartner 1976 examines resistance theory in relation to the French Catholic League. Fontana 2008 and Levine 2001 offer overviews on Montaigne’s political ideas. Salmon 1959 and Sutherland 1980 explore the religious crisis in France and its relation to the development of political thought.
  384.  
  385. Baumgartner, Frederic J. Radical Reactionaries: The Political Thought of the French Catholic League. Geneva, Switzerland: Librairie Droz, 1976.
  386. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  387. Examines resistance theory and the impact of religious crisis on French Catholic thinking, surveying the political theory of the Catholic League on topics ranging from Salic law, the relationship between the Crown and the Estates-General, and the right to resist tyranny.
  388. Find this resource:
  389. Fontana, Biancamaria. Montaigne’s Politics: Authority and Governance in the Essais. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008.
  390. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  391. Survey of Montaigne’s political ideas that presents him as a sustained critic of Old Regime French society.
  392. Find this resource:
  393. Levine, Alan. Sensual Philosophy: Toleration, Skepticism, and Montaigne’s Politics of the Self. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2001.
  394. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  395. Argues that Montaigne’s view of toleration and skepticism evident in his Essays helped pave the way for liberal thought of the 17th and 18th centuries.
  396. Find this resource:
  397. Salmon, J. M. H. The French Religious Wars in English Political Thought. Oxford: Clarendon, 1959.
  398. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  399. Examines the impact of the religious crisis in France on Elizabethan and Stuart political thinkers, culminating in Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, with excursions also into German and Dutch reactions.
  400. Find this resource:
  401. Sutherland, N. M. The Huguenot Struggle for Recognition. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1980.
  402. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  403. A detailed study of the impact of religious conflict on the legal and political culture of the French crown. Contains an appendix that reproduces the royal edicts addressing the nation’s Calvinist communities.
  404. Find this resource:
  405. Absolutism
  406.  
  407. The suffering, disorder, and deprivation caused by the dynastic and religious wars of the 16th century led directly to the consolidation of royal power in the 17th century. In the absolutist model of government, monarchs claimed sole and uncontested power. While the reach of absolutism always exceeded its grasp, western European monarchies nonetheless consolidated power in unprecedented ways. They successfully arrogated more and more power to themselves, their chief advisors, and particularly to the royal favorites, such as Mazarin and Richelieu in France, Buckingham in England, and Olivares and Lerma in Spain. Expanded royal authority always came at the direct expense of the traditional privileges and autonomy of aristocracies and cities. The earlier itinerant model of peregrinating monarchs and their courts gave way in the 17th century to established and permanent royal courts attended by armies of courtiers, bureaucrats, servants, and favor-seekers. A consequence of the permanent court was the notion of the national capital city, epitomized by London, Paris, and Madrid, and the related transformation in monarchical image from an individual attached to a particular dynasty to an abstract embodiment of nation itself. The paradigmatic absolutist monarchy was France, but absolutism prevailed also in Spain, Austria, and Italy.
  408.  
  409. Divine Right Theory
  410.  
  411. The divine right of kings—the notion that monarchical authority was derived from God rather than from the community of the governed—was a central tenet of emerging absolutist theory. Drawing on biblical sources, divine right theorists such as Robert Filmer argued that God had created the institution of monarchy and hence that monarchs functioned as God’s representative on earth. In The True Law of Free Monarchies, James I set out an influential English version of the theory, arguing that subjects owed their monarchs unconditional obedience. Since God had selected kings for earthly rule, divine judgment in heaven constituted the only court to try the actions of transgressive or tyrannical rulers. The theory was particularly well developed in France, where even the Estates-General, the traditional collective representative body that constituted a rival source of political authority to the crown, conceded the divine and hence uncontestable origins of the French kings’ sovereignty.
  412.  
  413. Primary Sources
  414.  
  415. Stuart 1994 offers an introduction to King James I of England’s writings.
  416.  
  417. Stuart, James. King James VI and I: Political Writings. Edited by Johann P. Sommerville. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought Series. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
  418. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  419. Introduction to and selection of King James I of England’s major political writings, including The True Law of Free Monarchies.
  420. Find this resource:
  421. Secondary Sources
  422.  
  423. Burgess 1992 interprets early modern English divine right theory, while Burns 1990 is an overview of absolutism. Daly 1979 explores Sir Robert Filmer’s political writings. Eccleshall 1978 covers early modern English political thought, and Figgis 1965 studies divine right theory in medieval traditions. Mousnier 1970 provides an overview on Bodin, Machiavelli, and other major European political thinkers with regard to their pan-European influence, and Schochet 1975 explores Filmer’s rise to prominence in European political thought.
  424.  
  425. Burgess, Glenn. “The Divine Right of Kings Reconsidered.” English Historical Review 107.425 (1992): 837–861.
  426. DOI: 10.1093/ehr/CVII.CCCCXXV.837Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  427. Revisionist interpretation of early modern English divine right theory, arguing that it applied only in specific legal contexts and hence was not in opposition to the language of common law.
  428. Find this resource:
  429. Burns, J. H. “The Idea of Absolutism.” In Absolutism in Seventeenth-Century Europe. Edited by John Miller, 21–42. London: Macmillan, 1990.
  430. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  431. Detailed synthesis of a wide variety of thinkers who constituted the absolutist canon.
  432. Find this resource:
  433. Daly, James. Sir Robert Filmer and English Political Thought. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1979.
  434. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  435. A study of Filmer’s political writings that contextualizes him within a broader reading of 17th-century English royalist thought.
  436. Find this resource:
  437. Eccleshall, Robert. Order and Reason in Politics: Theories of Absolute and Limited Monarchy in Early Modern England. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978.
  438. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  439. A broad survey of currents in early modern English political thought that led to theories of absolute and limited monarchy.
  440. Find this resource:
  441. Figgis, John Neville. The Divine Right of Kings. New York: Harper & Row, 1965.
  442. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  443. Dated but still relevant study of the origins of divine right theory in medieval traditions and the way it was deployed to cope with the problems of post-Reformation politics.
  444. Find this resource:
  445. Mousnier, Roland. “The Exponents and Critics of Absolutism.” In The New Cambridge Modern History. Vol. 4, The Decline of Spain and the Thirty Years War, 1609–48/59. Edited by J. P. Cooper, 104–131. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1970.
  446. DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521076180Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  447. Excellent pan-European survey of the role of Bodin, Machiavelli, and others in the triumph of absolutist theory.
  448. Find this resource:
  449. Schochet, Gordon J. Patriarchalism in Political Thought: The Authoritarian Family and Political Speculation and Attitudes, Especially in Seventeenth-Century England. Oxford: Blackwell, 1975.
  450. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  451. Detailed study of the process by which Filmer became the major source for Stuart absolutism in the 17th century.
  452. Find this resource:
  453. Bodin
  454.  
  455. Bodin was the principal architect of French absolutist and divine right theory. He argued that monarchs in general were God’s image on earth and that sovereignty was by definition indivisible. In any viable system of government, only one person or institution should have the power to make, unmake, and enforce laws. See Bodin 1995 (cited under Impact of Religious War).
  456.  
  457. Primary Sources
  458.  
  459. Bodin 1992 is an English translation of four important chapters written by the author, while Bodin 1967 provides an English translation of Six Books of the Commonwealth, Bodin’s most widely regarded text.
  460.  
  461. Bodin, Jean. Six Books of the Commonwealth. Translated by M. J. Tooley. Oxford: Blackwell, 1967.
  462. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  463. Abridged English translation of Bodin’s seminal text.
  464. Find this resource:
  465. Bodin, Jean. On Sovereignty: Four Chapters from the Six Books of the Commonwealth. Edited and translated by Julian Franklin. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought Series. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
  466. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  467. English translation of the four key chapters articulating Bodin’s view of sovereignty from his larger Six Books of the Republic.
  468. Find this resource:
  469. Secondary Sources
  470.  
  471. King 1974 analyzes Jean Bodin and Thomas Hobbes. Franklin 1973 explores the differences between the earlier and later writings of Bodin. Salmon 1987 uses Bodin’s political thought to respond to Huguenot resistance theory.
  472.  
  473. Franklin, Julian H. Jean Bodin and Rise of Absolutist Theory. Cambridge Studies in the History and Theory of Politics Series. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1973.
  474. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  475. Franklin distinguishes between the early and later absolutisms of Bodin, arguing that the early variety expressed in the Methodus was adapted to limited monarchy, whereas the variety expressed in the Six Books of the Republic was a broader and more ambitious statement of unconstrained absolutism.
  476. Find this resource:
  477. King, Preston T. The Ideology of Order: A Comparative Analysis of Jean Bodin and Thomas Hobbes. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1974.
  478. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  479. A careful comparison of the two greatest absolutist thinkers on the topic of sovereignty and centralized state power.
  480. Find this resource:
  481. Salmon, J. H. M. “Bodin and the Monarchomachs.” In Renaissance and Revolt: Essays in the Intellectual and Social History of Early Modern France. By J. H. M. Salmon, 119–135. Cambridge Studies in Early Modern History Series. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
  482. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511562792.006Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  483. One of the most distinguished historians of early modern France, Salmon in this essay reconstructs Bodin’s political thought as a series of responses to Huguenot resistance theory.
  484. Find this resource:
  485. Hobbes
  486.  
  487. Thomas Hobbes (b. 1588–d. 1679) was the major English theorist of absolutist government. Unlike Bodin and other divine right theorists, Hobbes formulated largely secular arguments in his Leviathan (1651) for the absolute authority of monarchs. Like John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Hobbes began his argument by considering the nature of humankind in its precivilized context— the state of nature. Reasoning that the first human relationships must have been vicious and chaotic wars of all against all, Hobbes concluded that people collectively entered into a social contract in which they ceded certain rights to a single ruler to preserve peace, protect social harmony, and limit the destructive impulses of individual desires. Like Bodin, Hobbes believed that any effective government must possess absolute authority, unlimited and indivisible.
  488.  
  489. Primary Sources
  490.  
  491. Hobbes 1996 is one of the author’s most widely known and important texts, while Hobbes 1998 is similarly important. Both texts include an introduction and scholarly apparatus by Richard Tuck, a foremost Hobbes scholar.
  492.  
  493. Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. Edited by Richard Tuck. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought Series. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
  494. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  495. Edition of Leviathan with introduction and scholarly apparatus by the leading Hobbes scholar.
  496. Find this resource:
  497. Hobbes, Thomas. On the Citizen. Edited by Richard Tuck and Michael Silverthorne. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought Series. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
  498. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  499. Edition of De cive with introduction and scholarly apparatus by the leading Hobbes scholar.
  500. Find this resource:
  501. Secondary Sources
  502.  
  503. Collins 2005 is a study of Hobbes’s political allegiances during the Civil War, while Skinner 2002 is a collection of essays on Hobbes. Skinner 1996 is a study on Hobbes as his work related to Renaissance humanism. Sommerville 1992 offers an introduction to Hobbes’s ideas on major topics within political thought, and Strauss 1936 is a classic study of Hobbes’s methodology. Tuck 1993 contextualizes Hobbes within a broader framework of pan-European political thought.
  504.  
  505. Collins, Jeffrey R. The Allegiance of Thomas Hobbes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
  506. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  507. Contextual study of Hobbes’s early political allegiances during the Civil War and their impact on his political philosophy.
  508. Find this resource:
  509. Skinner, Quentin. Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
  510. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511598579Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  511. Classic study of the impact of Renaissance humanism on the early education and writings of Hobbes.
  512. Find this resource:
  513. Skinner, Quentin. Visions of Politics. Vol. 3, Hobbes and Civil Science. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
  514. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  515. A collection of essays from a leading Hobbes scholar.
  516. Find this resource:
  517. Sommerville, P. J. Thomas Hobbes: Political Ideas in Historical Context. London: Macmillan, 1992.
  518. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  519. Reliable introduction to Hobbes’s major arguments on the law of nature, the origins of government, and sovereignty and law, set against the backdrop of European political thought in the 17th century.
  520. Find this resource:
  521. Strauss, Leo. The Political Philosophy of Hobbes, Its Basis and Its Genesis. Oxford: Clarendon, 1936.
  522. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  523. Classic study of Hobbes’s innovative methodology by one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century.
  524. Find this resource:
  525. Tuck, Richard. Philosophy and Government, 1572–1651. Ideas in Context Series. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
  526. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511558634Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  527. A broad, pan-European contextualization of Hobbes’s thought.
  528. Find this resource:
  529. English Civil War
  530.  
  531. Of all the revolts and challenges to royal authority in the early modern era, none prior to the French revolution were so successful and so damaging to absolutism as the English Civil War and Revolution (1640–1660). The conflict began as a struggle between the financially pressed Stuart monarchs, eager to rule in the absolutist mode of their continental counterparts, and the English parliament, intent on preserving their authority over taxation and holding up traditional common law against the new claims of absolutism. The parliamentary cause triumphed, and in 1649 Charles I became the first duly anointed, legitimate monarch in European history to stand trial and suffer execution for treason. The king’s execution was followed by the abolition of the monarchy and the House of Lords. When the monarchy and Stuart rule was eventually restored in 1660, the principles of constitutional monarchy had been firmly established, and Britain became the primary power-sharing model of government in Europe.
  532.  
  533. Regicide
  534.  
  535. The fate of Charles I—imprisoned, tried, and eventually executed for treason—raised fundamental questions throughout Europe about legitimate political action, the rights of citizens and subjects, the definition of tyranny, and the limits of monarchical authority. The chief theorist and defender of the regicide was John Milton. In The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, Eikonoklastes, and A Defense of the People of England, Milton argued that monarchical rule invariably caused disorder in political and religious life, equating monarchy itself, irrespective of the actions of specific rulers, with tyranny. In The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, he elaborated the view that all political communities had a natural right and obligation to depose, punish, and, if necessary, execute any monarch whose actions impinged on the liberty of his people. In Eikonoklastes, Milton systematically critiqued the sacred origins of royalty and demythologized the absolutist vision of monarchy. Milton wrote The Defense of the People of England for a European, rather than English, audience, attempting to explain and defend the principles of the Commonwealth to the continental monarchies.
  536.  
  537. Primary Sources
  538.  
  539. Milton 1991 offers texts of Milton’s political writings.
  540.  
  541. Milton, John. Political Writings. Edited by Martin Dzelzainis. Translated by Claire Gruzelier. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought Series. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
  542. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  543. Edition of The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates and A Defense of the People of England, indexed by name, subject, and scriptural citation.
  544. Find this resource:
  545. Secondary Sources
  546.  
  547. Barber 1998 explores arguments for the regicide of 1649, while Dzelzainis 2010 explores Milton’s role in the regicide. Peacey 2001 includes eleven essays by important experts exploring the regicide.
  548.  
  549. Barber, Sarah. Regicide and Republicanism: Politics and Ethics in the English Revolution, 1649–1659. Edinburgh : University of Edinburgh Press, 1998.
  550. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  551. Thorough reconstruction of the various arguments for the regicide of 1649 and their intellectual origins.
  552. Find this resource:
  553. Dzelzainis, Martin. “Milton and the Regicide.” In John Milton: Life, Writing, Reputation. Edited by Paul Hammond and Blair Worden, 91–105. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
  554. DOI: 10.5871/bacad/9780197264706.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  555. A detailed study of Milton’s role in the regicide and a lucid synthesis of Milton’s arguments and their classical origins.
  556. Find this resource:
  557. Peacey, Jason, ed. The Regicides and the Execution of Charles I. New York: Palgrave, 2001.
  558. DOI: 10.1057/9781403932815Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  559. Eleven essays by experts on early modern English political culture and political history analyzing the regicide. The essays by Sarah Barber and Alan Orr focus specifically on republican and legal political theory in the justification for regicide.
  560. Find this resource:
  561. Republicanism
  562.  
  563. The context of Civil War, revolution against monarchy, and the establishment of the Commonwealth led directly to the English revival of and expansion on the ideas of classical and Renaissance republicanism. In texts such as Algernon Sidney’s Discourses Concerning Government (1698) and Marchamont Nedham’s Mercurius Politicus (1650), English republicans drew on classical sources—Tacitus in particular—to resurrect arguments for the “mixed” constitution, active citizenship, and the right to resist tyrannical regimes. James Harrington and John Milton were the two most influential republican writers of the Civil War era. In the Commonwealth of Oceana, Harrington advanced a neo-Machiavellian utopian republicanism, while the poet John Milton, the most prolific political and ideological defender of the parliamentary cause, wrote a number of treatises justifying the regicide and the Commonwealth.
  564.  
  565. Primary Sources
  566.  
  567. Harrington 1992 includes major texts by an influential republican political philosopher, and Sidney 1996 is an important work by a neo-Machiavellian republican.
  568.  
  569. Harrington, James. The Commonwealth of Oceana and A System of Politics. Edited by J. G. A. Pocock. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought Series. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
  570. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139137126Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  571. The major texts of the most influential utopian republican political philosopher of 17th-century England, with an introduction by Pocock.
  572. Find this resource:
  573. Sidney, Algernon. Court Maxims. Edited by Hans Blom, Eco Haitsma Mulier, and Ronald Janse. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought Series. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
  574. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  575. One of the chief writings of England’s most neo-Machiavellian republican, indexed by name, subject, and biblical citation.
  576. Find this resource:
  577. Secondary Sources
  578.  
  579. Achinstein 2007 is a collection of essays exploring toleration within the context of Renaissance political thought. Armitage, et al. 1995 includes thirteen essays exploring republican debates during the Civil War, while Dzelzainis 1999 sums up Milton’s political convictions. Keeble 2001 includes fifteen essays exploring political thought during the Civil War, and Peltonen 1995 demonstrates the origins of English republicanism. Rahe 2008 provides an overview of Machiavelli’s influence on English political thinkers. Scott 2007 explores republican writing in the Western tradition.
  580.  
  581. Achinstein, Sharon, and Elizabeth Sauer, eds. Milton and Toleration. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
  582. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199295937.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  583. Collection of essays by experts on early modern England examining Milton’s views on toleration, as well as larger English and continental arguments for and against religious toleration.
  584. Find this resource:
  585. Armitage, David, Armand Himy, and Quentin Skinner, eds. Milton and Republicanism. Ideas in Context. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
  586. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511598456Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  587. Thirteen essays by specialists of early modern political culture that provide not only a thorough and informative investigation of Milton’s politics but also a detailed survey of the larger republican debates of the Civil War era.
  588. Find this resource:
  589. Dzelzainis, Martin. “Milton’s Politics.” In The Cambridge Companion to Milton. 2d ed. Edited by Dennis R. Danielson, 70–83. Cambridge Companions to Culture. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
  590. DOI: 10.1017/CCOL052165226XSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  591. Concise and lucid summary of Milton’s political convictions.
  592. Find this resource:
  593. Keeble, N. H., ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Writing of the English Revolution. Cambridge Companions to Literature. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
  594. DOI: 10.1017/CCOL0521642523Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  595. Fifteen essays that examine the republican, radical, and royalist strains of political thought in the Civil War era.
  596. Find this resource:
  597. Peltonen, Markku. Classical Humanism and Republicanism in English Political Thought, 1570–1640. Ideas in Context 36. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
  598. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511598562Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  599. Influential study demonstrating that the origins of early modern English republicanism predated the actual abolition of the monarchy by more than a century.
  600. Find this resource:
  601. Rahe, Paul A. Against Throne and Altar: Machiavelli and Political Theory under the English Republic. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
  602. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511509650Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  603. Erudite study of Machiavelli’s republican impact on Hobbes, Harrington, Nedham, Milton, and other English political thinkers.
  604. Find this resource:
  605. Scott, Jonathan. Commonwealth Principles: Republican Writing of the English Revolution. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
  606. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  607. Exhaustive survey of republican writing in the Western tradition, demonstrating the multiple uses to which Machiavelli was put in the English context by Harrington, Hobbes, and others.
  608. Find this resource:
  609. Radicalism
  610.  
  611. As the destabilizing conflict between king and parliament escalated, there was a corresponding decline in the government’s ability to censor the press and impose religious uniformity. As a result, England during the 1640s and 1650s witnessed a sharp and unprecedented emergence of radical pamphlet literature and radical groups, such as the Ranters, Levellers, Fifth Monarchists, and Quakers, who variously advanced arguments for religious toleration, freedom from tithes and taxes, and popular sovereignty. Among the more radical was the principal theorist of the Digger movement, Gerrard Winstanley, whose True Law of Freedom (1652) argued for the perfection of the human spirit by abolishing money and private property.
  612.  
  613. Primary Sources
  614.  
  615. Sharp 1998 includes thirteen Leveller texts.
  616.  
  617. Sharp, Andrew, ed. The English Levellers. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought Series. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
  618. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  619. Thirteen Leveller texts, along with biographies of prominent Leveller leaders.
  620. Find this resource:
  621. Secondary Sources
  622.  
  623. Corns 2001 and Hill 1984 both examine the role that pamphlets played during the English Revolution. Dzelzainis 2006 examines the gulf between the Leveller movement and John Milton. Hobby 2001 explores female activism during the English Revolution. Walzer 1965 deals with the implications of Calvinist thought with regard to the English Revolution, and Zagorin 1954 offers a sweeping synthesis of the various radical communities of the Revolution.
  624.  
  625. Corns, Thomas N. “Radical Pamphleteering.” In The Cambridge Companion to the Writing of the English Revolution. Edited by N. H. Keeble, 71–86. Cambridge Companions to Literature. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
  626. DOI: 10.1017/CCOL0521642523Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  627. Examines the intersection of the pamphlet industry, the decline of censorship, and the circulation of radical ideas during the English Revolution.
  628. Find this resource:
  629. Dzelzainis, Martin. “History and Ideology: Milton, the Levellers, and the Council of State in 1649.” In The Uses of History in Early Modern England. Edited by Paulina Kewes, 265–284. San Marino, CA: Huntington Library, 2006.
  630. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  631. Examination of the differences between the historical vision of the Leveller movement and John Milton.
  632. Find this resource:
  633. Hill, Christopher. The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas during the English Revolution. New York: Penguin, 1984.
  634. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  635. Classic study by one of the 20th-century’s most influential Marxist historians. Surveys the radical pamphlet literature triggered by the collapse of state censorship.
  636. Find this resource:
  637. Hobby, Elaine. “Prophecy, Enthusiasm, and Female Pamphleteers.” In The Cambridge Companion to the Writing of the English Revolution. Edited by N. H. Keeble, 162–180. Cambridge Companions to Literature. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
  638. DOI: 10.1017/CCOL0521642523Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  639. Examination of the emergence of female activism in Quaker and Baptist communities during the radical era of the English Revolution.
  640. Find this resource:
  641. Walzer, Michael. The Revolution of the Saints: A Study in the Origins of Radical Politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965.
  642. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  643. Seminal study on the radical revolutionary implications of Calvinist thought a century before and during the English Revolution.
  644. Find this resource:
  645. Zagorin, Perez. A History of Political Thought in the English Revolution. London: Routledge & Paul, 1954.
  646. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  647. A rare synthetic survey of the major radical communities from the English Revolution. Zagorin surveys the ideas of the Levellers, Winstanley, other utopian communists, and the Fifth Monarchists, as well as analyzing Harrington and Hobbes.
  648. Find this resource:
  649. New World
  650.  
  651. The Spanish discovery of the Americas and the subsequent establishment of colonial empires by Spain, France, and England had considerable implications for European political thought. From the outset, Spain’s colonization of Central and South America was justified in the martial and Christian terms of conquest and conversion. England and France tended to articulate their rights to territories in the New World more in terms of trade than conquest. In both cases, however, the territorial and commercial implications of the New World suddenly elevated classical and medieval arguments about the conditions of just war, private property, slavery, and international law to a position of central prominence in 16th- and 17th-century political thought.
  652.  
  653. International Law
  654.  
  655. The increasing globalization of trade in the early modern era, combined with diplomatically complex pan-European military conflicts such as the Thirty Years War, spurred early modern investigations into natural law. The principal political thinkers associated with this development were the Spanish Dominican and neo-Thomist Francisco de Vitoria, the Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius, and the German political philosopher Samuel Pufendorf.
  656.  
  657. Primary Sources
  658.  
  659. Pufendorf 1991 synthesizes the author’s larger work, Of the Law of Nature and Nations.
  660.  
  661. Pufendorf, Samuel. On the Duty of Man and Citizen according to Natural Law. Edited by James Tully. Translated by Michael Silverthorne. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought Series. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
  662. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  663. An epitome of Pufendorf’s larger On the Law of Nature and Nations, this text distills Pufendorf’s contribution to the emerging doctrine of international law in the 17th century.
  664. Find this resource:
  665. Secondary Sources
  666.  
  667. Brett 2002 explores the civic dimension of Grotius’s theory of natural rights and international law. Bull 1992 includes nine essays that examine Grotius with relation to the discovery of the New World. Scott 1934 discusses Vitoria’s political thought, and Tuck 1999 explores early discourses on international law.
  668.  
  669. Brett, Annabel. “Natural Right and Civil Community: The Civil Philosophy of Hugo Grotius.” Historical Journal 45.1 (2002): 31–51.
  670. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  671. Brett focuses on the civic dimension of Grotius’s theory of natural rights and international law, underscoring the presence of Aristotelian and neo-Stoic themes.
  672. Find this resource:
  673. Bull, Hedley, Benedict Kingsbury, and Adam Roberts, eds. Hugo Grotius and International Relations. Oxford: Clarendon, 1992.
  674. DOI: 10.1093/0198277717.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  675. Nine essays that examine Grotius’s role in the international legal controversies that followed the discovery of the New World.
  676. Find this resource:
  677. Scott, James Brown. The Spanish Origin of International Law: Francisco de Vitoria and His Law of Nations. Oxford: Clarendon, 1934.
  678. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  679. Comprehensive and detailed analysis of Vitoria’s political thought and demonstration of Grotius’s debt to the Spanish Dominican.
  680. Find this resource:
  681. Tuck, Richard. The Rights of War and Peace: Political Thought and the International Order from Grotius to Kant. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
  682. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  683. Concise survey of the early modern discourses on international law from antiquity through modernity. Machiavelli, Vitoria, Suarez, and especially Hugo Grotius play central roles.
  684. Find this resource:
  685. Slavery
  686.  
  687. The Spanish quickly developed a slave-based economy in their New World territories, raising central questions in Spain and at the courts of Spain’s rivals about the nature and legitimacy of slavery. In the mid-16th century, Charles V arranged a debate in Valladolid on the slavery question in which the Spanish humanist Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda interpreted the inhabitants of the Americas as examples of Aristotle’s “natural slaves,” those who lacked the emancipating higher faculty of reason. Sepúlveda’s arguments were challenged first by Bartolomé de las Casas and then by Francisco de Vitoria: Both asserted the fundamental humanity of the inhabitants of the New World and hence the illegitimacy of attempts to subjugate them.
  688.  
  689. Primary Sources
  690.  
  691. Vitoria 1991 is an English translation of the author’s political writings.
  692.  
  693. Vitoria, Francisco de. Political Writings. Edited by Anthony Pagden and Jeremy Lawrance. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought Series. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
  694. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  695. English translation of the leading Spanish Dominican political philosopher’s writings. Chapter 6 and Appendix B contain Vitoria’s arguments on the enslavement of American Indians.
  696. Find this resource:
  697. Secondary Sources
  698.  
  699. Hanke 1970 explores early Spanish debates over indigenous peoples in the New World, while Pagden 1982 explains European attitudes toward race and slavery. Losada 2008 explores the Spanish monarchy’s policy on slavery, and Pagden 1995 analyzes the Western justification of imperialism and slavery.
  700.  
  701. Hanke, Lewis. Aristotle and the American Indians: A Study in Race Prejudice in the Modern World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1970.
  702. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  703. Classic study of the early modern Spanish debates about the inhabitants of the New World that viewed them through the prism of Aristotle’s theory of natural slavery.
  704. Find this resource:
  705. Losada, Angel. “The Controversy between Sepúlveda and Las Casas in the Junta of Valladolid.” In Bartolomé de las Casas in History: Toward an Understanding of the Man and His Work. Edited by Juan Friede and Benjamin Keen, 279–306. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2008.
  706. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  707. Reconstruction of the crucial Valladolid debates that set the terms for the Spanish monarchy’s policy on slavery.
  708. Find this resource:
  709. Pagden, Anthony. The Fall of Natural Man: The American Indian and the Origins of Comparative Ethnology. Cambridge Iberian and Latin American Studies Series. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
  710. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  711. Magisterial synthesis of early modern European attitudes toward race and slavery.
  712. Find this resource:
  713. Pagden, Anthony. Lords of All the Worlds: Ideologies of Empire in Spain, Britain, and France, c. 1500–c. 1800. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995.
  714. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  715. Comparative analysis of the Western imperial thought in the early modern era that focuses in particular on legitimations of slavery.
  716. Find this resource:
  717. Just War
  718.  
  719. Closely related to and intersecting with debates on property and slavery was a renewed interest in the doctrine of just war. Part of Sepúlveda’s debate with Las Casas involved the doctrine of just war. In his view, given the papal endorsement of Spain’s evangelizing mission in the New World, the Spanish had a right to wage war on Indians who forcibly resisted Christianity. In his De jure belli ac pacis libri tres, Grotius expanded the discussion to include a general treatment of the conditions of just war in an international context between states.
  720.  
  721. Primary Sources
  722.  
  723. Grotius 1949 is an abridged translation of the author’s doctrine of just war. Vitoria 1991 is an English translation of the writer’s political writings, which includes a chapter dedicated to Vitoria’s positions on just war.
  724.  
  725. Grotius, Hugo. The Law of War and Peace. Translated by Louise R. Loomis. New York: Walter Black, 1949.
  726. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  727. An abridged English translation of Grotius’s doctrine of just war.
  728. Find this resource:
  729. Vitoria, Francisco de. Political Writings. Edited by Anthony Pagden and Jeremy Lawrance. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
  730. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  731. English translation of the leading Spanish Dominican political philosopher’s writings. Chapter 7 contains Vitoria’s arguments on just war.
  732. Find this resource:
  733. Secondary Sources
  734.  
  735. Draper 1992 explores just war theory in early modern international law.
  736.  
  737. Draper, G. I. A. D. “Grotius’ Place in the Development of Legal Ideas about War.” In Hugo Grotius and International Relations. Edited by Hedley Bull, Benedict Kingsbury, and Adam Roberts, 177–208. Oxford: Clarendon, 1992.
  738. DOI: 10.1093/0198277717.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  739. Examines just war theory in early modern international law, with particular focus on Grotius’s contribution.
  740. Find this resource:
  741. Property
  742.  
  743. Competition among European powers for possession of the peoples and wealth of the New World compelled political thinkers to revisit and sometimes reinterpret classical and medieval arguments about property. Given the extent of slave labor in Spanish America’s economy, Spanish theorists tended to focus on martial conquest as granting property rights over the conquered. Given the nomadic lifestyle of the inhabitants of territories settled by the British and French, their theorists focused more on rights to territory than rights over people. In particular, they deployed the Roman law principle of res nullius, according to which empty land was the common property of humankind until it was put to use. This doctrine lay at the heart of John Locke’s and liberalism’s theory of private property that one can lay formal claim only to that which one has “improved” by one’s own labor, the original unit of private property. Arneil 1996 analyzes John Locke’s influence on English colonialism in America. Pagden 1990 explores the political theory behind Spanish colonialism, and Pagden 1987 summarizes the Spanish arguments for denying property rights to indigenous American peoples. Salter 2001 explores Grotius and his relation to the early modern property debate.
  744.  
  745. Arneil, Barbara. John Locke and America: The Defense of English Colonialism. Oxford: Clarendon, 1996.
  746. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198279679.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  747. Detailed analysis of the ideological work performed by Locke’s Two Treatises in English claims to property rights in the New World.
  748. Find this resource:
  749. Pagden, Anthony R. “Dispossessing the Barbarian: The Language of Spanish Thomism and the Debate over the Property Rights of the American Indians.” In The Languages of Political Theory in Early-Modern Europe. Edited by Anthony R. Pagden, 79–98. Ideas in Context Series. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
  750. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511521447.005Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  751. Detailed reconstruction of the principal Spanish arguments for denying property rights to the Amerindians and validating the exclusivity of Spanish territorial rights.
  752. Find this resource:
  753. Pagden, Anthony. Spanish Imperialism and the Political Imagination: Studies in European and Spanish-American Social and Political Theory, 1513–1830. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990.
  754. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  755. Analysis of the political theory of Spanish imperialism with particular focus on the rights of the Spanish crown to territory in the Indies.
  756. Find this resource:
  757. Salter, John. “Hugo Grotius: Property and Consent.” Political Theory 29.4 (2001): 537–555.
  758. DOI: 10.1177/0090591701029004004Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  759. Examines the legal foundations of Grotius’s contribution to the early modern property debate.
  760. Find this resource:
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