Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

Politique tirée des propres paroles de l'Écriture sainte (English Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture) is a work of political theory composed by Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet as part of his duties as tutor for Louis XIV's heir apparent, Louis, le Grand Dauphin. It is one of the purest expressions of the branch of political absolutism which historians have labeled Divine Right Absolute Monarchy.

Contents

 * T here are four qualities essential to royal authority. First, the royal authority is sacred; second, it is paternal; third, it is absolute; fourth, it is submitted to reason. . ..
 * We have already seen that all power comes from God. The prince, St. Paul adds, “ is a minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is a minister of God, an avenger for wrath to him that doeth evil” (Romans 13:4).
 * It appears from all this that the person of kings is sacred, and that to make an attempt on their lives is a sacrilege.
 * If the apostle speaks thus of servitude, an unnatural state, what ought we to think of legitimate subjection to princes and magistrates who are the protectors of public liberty! . ..
 * Kings should therefore tremble while using their God-given power, and think what a horrible sacrilege it is to misuse it. . ..
 * The royal authority is paternal, and its proper character is goodness. We have seen that kings hold their place from God, who is the true father of the human race. We have also seen that the first idea of power known to man was paternal power, and that kings were made on the model of fathers.
 * The royal authority is absolute. In order to render this term odious and insupportable, some people try to confuse absolute and arbitrary government. But there is nothing more different, as we shall see when we speak of justice.
 * Majesty is the image of the grandeur of God in the prince. God is infinite, God is all. The prince, so far as he is prince, is not regarded as a particular man: he is a public personage, the whole state is in him; the will of the whole people is comprehended in his will. As in God are united all perfection and all virtue, just so all the power of particulars is united in the person of the prince. What grandeur that a single man contains so much of it!
 * The end of government is the good and conservation of the state. . . . The good constitution of the body of the state consists in two things: in religion and justice: these are the interior and constitutive principles of states. By the one, we render to God what is due to him; and by the other, we render to men what belongs to them. ..