tyrannicide.[1] Those passages of the New Testament which have been held to bespeak a divine right for kings are completely ignored, and the hierarchical pamphleteers, almost without exception, draw their lessons from the theocratic, or rather sacerdotal, teaching of the Hebrew scriptures or from the commonplaces of classical history.
A most interesting example of this method is to be found in a work written by Manegold, a priest of Lautenbach in Alsatia, in defence of Gregory.[2] King, he says, is not a name of nature but a title of office : nor does the people exalt him so high above itself in order to give him the free power of playing the tyrant against it, but to defend him from the tyranny of others. So soon as he begins to act the tyrant, is it not plain that he falls from the dignity granted to him and the people is free from his dominion ? since it is evident that he has first broken that contract by virtue of which he was appointed. If one should engage a man for a fair wage to tend swine, and he find means not to tend but to steal or slay them, would not one remove him from his charge ? It is impossible to express the theory of social contract more clearly than Manegold does : since, he says, no one can create himself emperor or king, the people elevates a certain one person over itself to this end that he govern and rule it according to the principle of righteous government ; but if in any wise he transgresses the contract by virtue of which he is chosen, he absolves the people from the obligation of submission, because he has first broken faith
- ↑ The agreement has been often remarked. Sir Robert Filmer says of the doctrine that mankind is naturally at liberty to choose its government, This tenet was first hatched in the schools, and hath been fostered by all succeeding papists for good divinity. The divines also of the reformed churches have entertained it, and the common people everywhere tenderly embrace it, &c. Then with reference to the perillous conclusion drawn from this maxim, namely, that the people have power to punish or deprive their sovereign, he adds, Cardinal Bella rmine and Calvine both look asquint this way : Patriarcha i. 1 pp. 2 sqq. ; 1680.
- ↑ It is preserved in a single manuscript at Carlsruhe, and has not, so far as I am aware, been printed. Extracts are given by Floto : see his account of the work, vol. 2. 299-303. [It has since been published in the Libelli de lite 1. 308-430.]
