§. 232. Whosoever uses force without right — as every one does
in society who does it without law — puts himself into a state of
war with those against whom he so uses it, and in that state all former
ties are cancelled, all other rights cease, and every one has a right to
defend himself, and to resist the aggressor. This is so evident that
Barclay himself — that great assertor of the power and sacredness
of kings — is forced to confess that it is lawful for the people,
in some cases, to resist their king, and that, too, in a chapter wherein
he pretends to show that the Divine law shuts up the people from all
manner of rebellion. Whereby it is evident, even by his own doctrine,
that since they may, in some cases, resist, all resisting of princes is
not rebellion. His words are these:
"Quod
siquis dicat, Ergone populus tyrannicæ crudelitati & furori jugulum
semper præbebit? Ergone multitudo civitates suas fame, ferro, &
flammâ vastari, seque, conjuges, & liberos fortunæ ludibrio &
tyranni libidini exponi, inque omnia vitæ pericula omnesque miserias &
molestias à rege deduci patientur? Num illis quod omni animantium generi
est à naturâ tributum, denegari debet, ut sc. vim vi repellant, seseque
ab injuria tueantur? Huic breviter responsum sit, populo universo negari
defensionem, quæ juris naturalis est, neque ultionem quæ præter
naturam est adversus regem concedi debere. Quapropter si rex non in
singulares tantum personas aliquot privatum odium exerceat, sed corpus
etiam reipublicæ, cujus ipse, caput est — i.e., totum populum, vel
insignem aliquam ejus partem immani & intolerandâ sævitia seu
tyrannide divexet; populo, quidem hoc casu resistendi ac tuendi se ab
injuria potestas competit, sed tuendi se tantum, non enim in principem
invadendi: & restituendæ injuriæ illatæ, non recedendi à
debita reverentia propter acceptum injuriam. Præsentem denique impetum
propulsandi non vim præteritam ulciscendi jus habet. Horum enim alterum
à naturâ est, ut vitani scilicet corpusque tueamur. Alterum vero contra
naturam, ut inferior de superiori supplicium sumat. Quod itaque populus
malum, antequam factum sit, impedire potest, ne fiat, id postquam factum
est, in regem authorem sceleris vindicare non potest, populus igitur hoc
amplius quam privatus quispiam habet: Quod huic, vel ipsis adversariis
judicibus, excepto Buchanano, nullum nisi in patientia remedium
superest. Cum ille si intolerabilis tyrannis est (modicum enim ferre
omnino debet) resistere cum reverentia possit."
—
Barclay, Contra Monarchomachos, iii. 8.
