![]() But just kings will ever be willing to declare what they will do, if they will not incur the curse of God. I conclude then this point touching the power of kings with this axiom of divinity, That as to dispute God may do so is blasphemy… so is the sedition in subjects to dispute what a king may do in the height of his power. And the like power have kings they make and unmake their subjects, they have the power of raising and casting down, of life and of death, judges over all their subjects and in all causes and yet accountable to none but God only… God hath power to create or destroy, make or unmake at his pleasure, to give life or send death, to judge all and to be judged nor accountable to none to raise low things and to make high things low at his pleasure, and to God are both souls and body due. Kings are justly called Gods, for that they exercise a manner or resemblance of divine power upon earth: for if you will consider the attributes to God, you shall see how they agree in the person of a king. And lastly, kings are compared to the head of this microcosm of the body of man. Kings are also compared to fathers of families for a king is truly Parens patriae, the politique father of his people. In the Scriptures kings are called Gods, and so their power after a certain relation compared to the divine power. There can be three principal similitude’s that illustrate the state of monarchy one taken out of the word of God and the two other out of the grounds of policy and philosophy. The state of Monarchy is the supremest thing upon earth for Kings are not only God’s lieutenants upon earth, and sit upon God’s throne, but even by God himself are called Gods. The American Revolution (1775–83), the French Revolution (1789), and the Napoleonic Wars deprived the doctrine of most of its remaining credibility. In the late 17th and 18th centuries, kings such as Louis XIV of France continued to profit from the divine-right theory, even though many of them no longer had any truly religious belief in it. King James I of England was the foremost exponent of the divine right of kings, but the doctrine virtually disappeared from English politics after the Glorious Revolution (1688–89). By the 16th and 17th centuries, however, the new national monarchs were asserting their authority in matters of both church and state. ![]() ![]() Originating in Europe, the divine-right theory can be traced to the medieval conception of God’s award of temporal power to the political ruler, paralleling the award of spiritual power to the church. ![]()
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