Calvinism - pagina 13

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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