The Foundations of Modern Political Thought

by Quentin Skinner

Book Overview

A two-volume study of political thought from the late thirteenth to the end of the sixteenth century, the decisive period of transition from medieval to modern political theory. The work is intended to be both an introduction to the period for students, and a presentation and justification of a particular approach to the interpretation of historical texts. Quentin Skinner gives an outline account of all the principal texts of the period, discussing...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521293375
• ISBN13: 9780521293372
• Release Date: November 1978
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 330 Pages
• Weight: 1.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.8" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Excellent

This fine book is devoted to the emergence of basic political concepts during the Renaissance and Reformation. This includes Republicanism, constitutionalism, the beginnings of the idea of popular sovereignty, individual rights, religious toleration, the right to rebel against unjust rulers, and the concept of the state. Skinner's approach is a fine example of the "contextual" approach to intellectual history. Skinner analyzes not the work of major thinkers like Machiavelli and Erasmus, but also a host of less well known writers with a strong effort to recover an unanachronistic understanding of key concepts. Skinner is particularly good on the specific historic events and problems that precipitated conceptual developments. For example, initial Lutheran political writings stressed obedience to rulers, even to unjust rulers. These positions make sense in light of Luther's concern to prevent his reformation from causing social disruption and the need to secure the support of German princes. When the Lutherans were faced with the possiblity that Charles V would superimpose the Counter-Reformation by force, Lutheran thinkers began to develop rationales for justifying active resistance. These Lutheran discussions of resistance would fuel the development of the concept of the right of resistance to unjust governments, a key feature of the political theory of Locke, among others. Another major strength of Skinner's analysis is his elucidation of the important role played by late Medieval thought in developing key concepts that would be used by Renaissance and Reformation theorists. Key ideas in the history of Republicanism, constitutionalism, and key concepts of rights are traced back to important Medieval thinkers like William of Ockham, Marsiglio of Padua, and others. Skinner shows how Renaissance and Reformation intellectuals used these ideas in the specific context of contemporary problems, what innovations were introduced, and how different traditions interacted with each other to produce modern concepts. Skinner is a lucid writer and this book is quite well organized with a fine bibliography.

Radical Calvinism and the Natural Right of Resistance

Out of the religious wars between the Protestants and the Catholic Church emerged a suprisingly modern theory of individual natural rights and justified violent resistance to authority. Using ancient Roman private law concepts to justify rebellion against tyrants, Radical Calvinists such as John Ponet, Christopher Goodman, George Buchanan - all of Scotland and England, contributed, while Francois Hotman, Theodore Beza and Mornay of France transformed an essentially religious duty to resist into a secular, moral, and even natural, right of resistance. Prior to 1530, Skinner says that Lutherans and Calvinists followed a "theory of passive political obedience" and "their leaders were almost wholly unprepared to defend their Church". Calvin thought, to oversimplify a bit, that all rulers were ordained by God, good or bad, and that man, as God's subjects, must endure the Divine Plan. Luther restated his position in 1530 - "It is in no way proper for anyone who wants to be a Christian to stand up against the authority of his government, regardless of whether that government acts rightly or wrongly". However, a few months later, the Catholics had outlawed the Lutherans (Diet of 1530) and then Gregory Bruck, Chancellor to John of Saxony, wrote his private-law theory of resistance "Whether it is lawful to resist a judge who is proceeding unlawfully". Bruck took the view that "The Emperor is seeking to impose his judgement in matters of faith" where he "has absolutely no jurisdiction at all". Then in October, as a result of a meeting at the Palace of Torgau, Luther capitulated - "until now we have taught absolutely not to resist the governing authority [because] . . . we did not know that the governing authority's law itself grants the right of armed resistance". Skinner says "after the immediate crisis had passed, the Lutherans not only continued to endorse the private-law theory of resistance, but even began to revise and develop it", including Luther. Here Luther smacked counter to Calvin by stating in 1539 that "The Emperor is head of the body of the political realm", and as such is "a private man to whom political power is granted for the defence of the realm". The Lutherans also developed a constitutional theory of resistance in that lesser politicos are equally ordained by God and thus can outnumber an unrighteous superior, but this theory did not develop into a natural right of resistance. However, Skinner says "the basic argument in favour of resistance advanced by the Calvinists (during the late 1540s) . . . was largely a repetition of the Lutheran constitutonal theory". He adds "When we turn, however, from the continental leaders of Calvinism to the more revolutionary protagonists of the movement in England, we find a very different situation . . . the Scots and English revolutionaries . . . began to exploit the more individualistic and radically populist implications of the private-law argument". Ponet and Goodman abandoned "the c