Abstract
Tyranny in the Vindiciae contra tyrannos. Published anonymously and containing the most systematically argued critique of tyranny, the Vindiciae draws on biblical and ancient sources. Laws are granted to the people by God. What happens when a prince or feudal lord orders an act that is clearly contrary to divine law? Only tyrants give such orders. Over thirty attributes of tyranny are listed.
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Notes
- 1.
The edition and translation of Vindiciae by G. Garnett (Cambridge, UK, 1994) is an exemplary work of scholarship. His painstaking verification of all the frequent borrowings and allusions to Roman and canon law requires this fact to be noted in any commentary or simple presentation of the text—a context that might be considered deterministic and constraining were it not for the presence of a great analytical mind. “In short, law is a mind, or rather a gathered multitude of minds,” 98. Julian Franklin, Introduction and translation of selected passages, in Constitutionalism and Resistance in the Sixteenth Century (New York, 1969), 11–46, 138–140. Page 208 is on the question of authorship down to 1968. For a brilliant early effort, see P. Bayle, Dictionnaire historique et critique (Rotterdam, 1697), 2:1286–1294. See also F. J. Baumgartner, Radical Reactionaries, the Political Thought of the French Catholic League (Geneva, 1978), 142–144.; and M. Turchetti, Tyrannie et tyrannicide de l’Antiquité à nos jours (Paris, 2001), 418–442.
- 2.
Vindiciae, Garnett, ed., xliv; L. Giavarini, ed., L’Écriture des jurists (Paris, 2010), introduction, 11–29.
- 3.
Vindiciae, 14; A. McLaren, “Rethinking Republicanism: Vindiciae contra Tyrannos,” The Historical Journal, 49 (2006), 23–52, rightly points out that the biblical sources are of the utmost importance.
- 4.
Garnett finds exceptions. For example, Caesar says that in Gaul there was a clear distinction between princeps and rex, a detail that Anon found in Hotman’s Franco-Gallia.
- 5.
Vindiciae 18.
- 6.
Vindiciae, 22.
- 7.
There is considerable emphasis on the custom of consultation and oath-taking by the king who has been elected (chosen) by the people. Vindiciae, 134–135. For Aragon and Castille, 136–137. See P. Mesnard, L’Essor de la philosophie politique, 3rd edition (Paris, 1977), 340 ff. It is important to point out that resistance has its own analysis, and it differs from tyrannicide.
- 8.
Vindiciae, 30.
- 9.
Vindiciae, 30. “The only office of emperors and kings is to show concern for the people. For royal dignity is not really an honor, but a burden; not an immunity, but a function, not a dispensation but a vocation, not licence but public service,” p. 93.
- 10.
Vindiciae, 32; and 129 about the covenant between king and people.
- 11.
Vindiciae, 82. The doges of Venice are mentioned, as are the elective Polish kings and popes.
- 12.
Vindiciae, 94.
- 13.
Vindiciae, 103.
- 14.
Vindiciae, 7.
- 15.
Vindiciae, 47 and 86. For the powers of church chapters and councils, which are also superior to the powers of bishops and popes, see Vindiciae, 47.
- 16.
Vindiciae, 54, 56.
- 17.
Anon includes Aristotle’s famous anecdote about tyrants who lop off the tallest corn (wheat). Vindiciae, 123.
- 18.
Vindiciae, 154. About the conduct of bishops: “ … for the office of bishop is in no way charged just because most bishops take from the poor what they may shower on their kings, and lay waste all estates and woodlands,” Vindiciae, 126.
- 19.
Vindiciae, 142, 153; 96, 154.
- 20.
Vindiciae, 154. When one has read his spouse’s Mémoires, it is difficult to believe that Duplessis-Mornay made such a comment. Her memoirs suggest not only excellent marriage relations but also a sharing of religious, political, and philosophical engagements.
- 21.
Vindiciae, 150.
- 22.
Vindiciae, 155.
- 23.
Vindiciae, 147.
- 24.
Vindiciae, 147.
- 25.
Vindiciae, 147.
- 26.
Vindiciae, 143–147.
- 27.
Vindiciae, 143–47.
- 28.
“Corn” in England refers to wheat. There is almost a literariness in Anon’s choosing this venerable metaphor from Aristotle’s Politics, III, xiii.
- 29.
Garnett observes that this is Anon’s only reference to Machiavelli’s Prince, viii; and that Machiavelli is citing Aristotle.
- 30.
This metaphor from Suetonius on Augustus, suggests that the fish that possibly can be caught is worth less than the hook that may be lost.
- 31.
Vindiciae, 140.
- 32.
Vindiciae, 148. There are no citations about law in the subchapter “Who Tyrants Are.”
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Ranum, O. (2020). The Vindiciae contra tyrannos on Tyranny. In: Tyranny from Ancient Greece to Renaissance France. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43185-3_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43185-3_21
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