Great Political

Volume 1

A Comprehensive Selection of the Crucial

Ideas in Political Philosophy from the Greeks
to the Enlightenment

EDITED, WITH INTRODUCTION AND COMMENTARY, BY

MICHAEL CURTIS

HARPERPERENNIAL ^ ^ MODERNCLASS ICS

NEW Y O R K • L O N D O N • T O R O N T O • S Y D N E Y • N E W D E L H I • A U C K L A N D '
 Contents
Preface 11
Introduction 13

SECTION I: The Greeks 23

Sophocles: Antigone 30
Plato: The Republic 34
Aristotle: The Politics 64

SECTION II:
Hellenism and Roman Stoicism 102
Seneca: Stoic Philosophy 106
Marcus Aurelius: The Meditation of
Marcus Antoninus 113

SECTION III: Rome 120

Polvbius: Universal History 125
Cicero: On the Commonwealth, the Laws,
and On Duties 131

SECTION IV: Early Christianity 140

Saint Augustine: The City of God 146
6 CONTENTS

SECTION V: Medieval Life and Thought 157

Carl Stephenson: The Origin and
Significance of Feudalism 161
John of Salisbury: The Statesman's Book 166

VI: The Two Realms: The Last Phase

SECTION 175
Dante: On World Government 180
Marsiglio of Padua: Defensor Pads 187
Egidius Romanus: De Ecclesiastica Potestate 194
William of Ockham: Dialogus 195
Aquinas: Summa Theologica 196
Aquinas: On Kingship 207
Nicholas of Cusa: De Concordantia Catholica 211

SECTION VII: The Renaissance 215

Machiavelli: The Prince and The Discourses 219
Fortescue: A Learned Commendation of the
Political Laws of England 229
Sir Thomas Smith: De Republica Anglorum 232

SECTION VIII: The Reformation 234

Luther: Secular Authority: To What Extent
It Should Be Obeyed and An Open Letter
Concerning the Hard Book Against the Peasants 238
Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion 249

SECTION IX:The Right of Resistance 263

Stephen Junius Brutus: Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos
{A Defence of Liberty Against Tyrants) 266
 CONTENTS

Francois Hotman: Francogallia 272

Mariana: The King and the Education of the King 280
Francisco Suarez: On Law and God the Lawgiver
and A Defence of the Catholic and Apostolic
Faith 287
Bellarmine: The Power of the Pope in
Temporal Affairs 298

SECTION X:Sovereignty and Divine Right 301

Bodin: Six Books of the Republic 304
James I: The True Law of Free Monarchies 313
Grotius: The Rights of War and Peace 319

SECTION XI:
Hobbes and Spinoza 326
Hobbes: Leviathan 329
Spinoza: Tractatus Theologico-Politicus and
Tractatus Politicus 350

SECTION XII:
The Development of Constitutionalism 357
Harrington: The Commonwealth ofOceana 361
Hooker: Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity 365
Locke: The Second Treatise of Civil Government 372

SECTIONXIII: Vico and Hume 390

Vico: The New Science . 392
Hume: Extracts from Various Essays 397
g CONTENTS

SECTION XIV: French Thought in the Late 17th and

18th Centuries
Bossuet: Politics Drawn from Holy Scriptures 419
422
Fenelon: Telemaque
425
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws

Selected Bibliography 441

Acknowledgments 453
Index 455