SECOND PERIOD.—THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION.
(FROM THE PEACE OR WESTPHALIA IN 1648 TO THE PRESENT TIME.)
CHAPTER LIV.
THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE UNDER THE ABSOLUTE GOVERNMENT OF LOUIS XIV.
(1643–1715.)
The Divine Right of Kings.—Louis XIV. stands as the representative of absolute monarchy. This indeed was no new thing in the world, but Louis was such an ideal autocrat that somehow he made autocratic government strangely attractive. Other kings imitated him, and it became the prevailing theory of government that kings have a "divine right" to rule, and that the people should have no part at all in government.
According to this theory, the nation is a great family with the king as its divinely appointed head. The duty of the king is to govern like a father; the duty of the people is to obey their king even as children obey their parents. If the king does wrong, is harsh, cruel, unjust, this is simply the misfortune of his people: under no circumstances is it right for them to rebel against his authority, any more than for children to rise against their father. The king is responsible to God alone, and to God the people, quietly submissive, must leave the avenging of all their wrongs.
Before the close of the period upon which we here enter, we shall see how this theory of the divine right of kings worked out in practice,—how dear it cost both kings and people, and how the people by the strong logic of revolution demonstrated that
