thoughts of a fool

Politiques – men who wanted to unite France culturally and religiously by expressing toleration. Their motives were best exemplified by Michel de ‘Hopital, chavelier of France, who urged to get rid of:

“these devilish words, these names of party, faction, of sedition, Lutheran, Huguenot, Papist. A man does not cease to be a citizen for being excommunicated.”

In his Six Books of the State, Bodin expresses a desire for strong government that makes contented and secure citizenship possible. Bodin distinguishes the government from the state the exercise of sovereign function (which may be limited) from the sovereign itself (which is perpetual). He saw more clearly than anyone before him that the essence of sovereignty consists in the making of general laws.

During the Middle Ages, the law was something that was found by judges, not made by legislators; the process of the creation of the law was thought of as a slow and imperceptible synthesis of the immemorial custom of the law, the law of nature, and the will of the land.

“A state is sovereign if it is not legally subject to the authority of another state and if its relations to other states are carried on in accordance with international, rather than municipal laws. This definition does not necessarily imply factual independence. As long as their dependence is one of fact rather than that of law, states are sovereign.”

Bodin advises the ruler of the country not to forcibly impose his own religion because:

“the more the will of men is forced, the more it becomes obstinate.”

Regarding revolution:

“No cause of revolution is more important than the excessive wealth of the few and the extreme poverty of the many.”

Bodin was strongly opposed to the equality of property:

“The foundation of the state is good faith, and the equalization of property subverts the state by destroying legitimate expectations and conventions.”