Calvinism - pagina 13
the origin and safeguard of our constitutional liberties
1
Constitutional Liberties.
895-]
655
but the dispensers of power, who, independent of the the king, hold seats
These are "regni
political
in
ofificiarii,
not of the king.
non
king are dependent on the
Hence of the former the function
protect the person of the king; of the latter, to prevent to
come upon the
republic.
of
regis," officials of the realm,
Officials of the
king, but not they.
will
bodies and parliaments.
These
is
to
harm
viagistratiis inferiores
have received a part of the state sovereignty of God, as well as the king.
They and he
King of kings
that authority be for the
The
together are responsible to the
good of the people.
king's shortcomings in the discharge of duty do not re-
them from their oaths. If the king watch not, they must watch, though the king himself be the oppressor. This is the first germ of constitutional state-law, having its deepThis doctrine of the est root, not in the people, but in God. inagistratus inferiores, preached by Calvin, and recommended in the "Liber Magdeburgensis," was first elevated by Languet, though not without some error, into a scientific, state, judiciary system of highest rank, based upon the Word of God, and enriched with the principles of Germanic and of natural law. To this system the English revolution owes its fundamental thought, and on this was based the right of the Dutch in their brave resistance to Spanish tyranny. This very idea of sovereignty in our own circle still draws the boundary line between the people's sovereignty and our conlease
stitutional state-laws; and, as de Tocqueville has
served,
it is
which our
shrewdly ob-
by most seriously threatened.
the decline of these inagistratus inferiores
political liberty is again
V.
And
herewith the uncertainty
is
lifted,
the origin of our constitutional liberties.
knows
which obscured Since everybody
that the Calvinistic nations in Europe, as well as in
America, were the
and have enjoyed
first
to obtain their liberty
liberty longest,
by conquest,
and have developed the best
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Bekijk de hele uitgave van dinsdag 1 januari 1895
Abraham Kuyper Collection | 34 Pagina's
Bekijk de hele uitgave van dinsdag 1 januari 1895
Abraham Kuyper Collection | 34 Pagina's