Thesis 1: The rights of sovereignty are proper to the realm, not the magistrate (7).
- The general elements of politics
- Polity
- Politics is the art of associating men for the purpose of establishing, cultivating, and conserving social life. Althusius calls this phenomenon “symbiotics.”
- A polity consists of:
- A communication of right (jus)
- The manner of administering the commonwealth
- The form of the commonwealth
- Mutual communication (a sharing; a making common)
- Things
- Services
- Common rights
- God willed that each need the service and aid of others in order that friendship would bind all together and no one would consider another to be valueless (23).
- Polity
- The Family
- The kinship association
- The collegium: civil association
- Three of more men of the same trade/guild uniting together
- A communication among colleagues (see 1.2.1-3).
- The City
- Althusius holds to the idea of a Corporate Person: the community is called a representational person, as it is a coming together of men to speak collectively (40).
- A city may be free, municipal, mixed, or metropolitan
- Free city: its immediate superior is the magistrate and is free from external control, save perhaps the Emperor.
- Municipal: subject to a territorial lord
- Mixed: combination of 1 and 2.
- Metropolis: mother of other cities.
- “The rights of the city…are also communicated by the citizens” (48).
- The province
- The members of the province are its orders and estates, as they are called, or larger collegia (54).
- Althusius doesn’t fully develop this point, but this will be the point on which Rutherford argues for resisting tyrants: it is never the individual who resists the king. It is the collegia and estates. In fact, this isn’t really a theological argument at all, so the claim that “Jesus and the Apostles didn’t do this” is irrelevant.
- Political Sovereignty and Ecclesiastical Communication
- Ownership of a realm belongs to the estates and administration of it belongs to the king (66).
- The members of the realm are the collegia, not individuals.
- The bond of the realm: tacit or expressed promise to communicate things, mutual services, aid, counsel, and common laws to the extent that the utility of social life shall require (67).
- Sovereignty: supreme right of universal jurisdiction
- Right of the realm: twofold
- Welfare of the soul
- Care of the body
- Ownership of a realm belongs to the estates and administration of it belongs to the king (66).
- Secular Communication
- The Ephors and their Duties
- An Ephor is something a little stronger than a Senator, but not quite a hereditary prince.
- They are the representatives of the commonwealth, by whom kings are constituted.
- They are the “protectors of the covenant.”
- An Ephor is something a little stronger than a Senator, but not quite a hereditary prince.
- The Constituting of the Supreme Magistrate
- He exercises as much authority as has been conceded to him.
- The people are prior in time to the magistrate and more worthy in nature.
- Since no one can renounce the right of defense against violence and injury, so the people have the power to resist an erring kng.
- Fundamental law of a realm: certain covenants by which many cities and pacts come together and agree to defend and establish the same commonwealth (128).
- Political Prudence in the Administration of the Commonwealth
- The rule of living, obeying, administering is the will of God alone
- This law is twofold: common or proper
- Common: naturally implanted by God in all men
- More on common law: also called the moral law (139).
- Knowledge and inclination: different degrees of this knowledge and inclination.
- This law is twofold: common or proper
- Althusius then gives a short commentary on the Decalogue (141).
- Natural law and biblical law:
- Positive law today can’t simply repeat the Decalouge, not can it constitute a new specie.
- It must agree with common law/decalogue in thos ematters common to each law.
- It differs from its accommodation to particular and special circumstances.
- Common law commands in general; proper law in particular.
- The rule of living, obeying, administering is the will of God alone
- Ecclesiastical Administration
- Concluding thoughts
- Althusius discusses to what degree a magistrate can harass heretics.
- Allows that Jews may live in the commonwealth (remarkably progressive view at the time)
- Under which circumstances one may resist tyrants