Henning Arnisaeus (Arniseus) (1570–1636) was a German physician and moral philosopher. http://www.scholasticon.fr/Database/Scholastiques_fr.php?ID=172 He is now known for his writings on political theory.

Life

He was born in Schlanstedt, a village in the present-day Harz district of Germany, near

Huy Huy ( or ; nl, Hoei, ; wa, Hu) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. Huy lies along the river Meuse, at the mouth of the small river Hoyoux. It is in the ''sillon industriel'', the former industrial ...

. He studied philosophy and medicine at the Protestant

University of Helmstedt The University of Helmstedt (german: Universität Helmstedt; official Latin name: ''Academia Julia'', "Julius University"), was a university in Helmstedt in the Duchy of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel that existed from 1576 until 1810. History Found ...

from 1589. After travels in England and France, he became court physician to

Christian IV of Denmark Christian IV (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648) was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years, 330 days is the longest of Danish monarchs and Scandinavian mon ...

Views

At Helmstedt, Arnisaeus became a pupil of Cornelius Martini, a

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

metaphysician who also influenced

Hermann Conring Hermann Conring (9 November 1606 – 12 December 1681) was a German intellectual. He made significant contributions to the study of medicine, politics and law. Descended from Lutheran clergy on both sides of his family, second-youngest of ten ch ...

. He used an Aristotelian analysis to distinguish in political thought between the '' civitas'' and the '' res publica'', in a critique of

Jean Bodin Jean Bodin (; c. 1530 – 1596) was a French jurist and political philosopher, member of the Parlement of Paris and professor of law in Toulouse. He is known for his theory of sovereignty. He was also an influential writer on demonology. Bodi ...

Johannes Althusius Johannes Althusius (1563 – August 12, 1638). was a German jurist and Calvinist political philosopher. He is best known for his 1603 work, ''"Politica Methodice Digesta, Atque Exemplis Sacris et Profanis Illustrata"''. revised editions were publ ...

, Busius (Paulus Buis or Buys, died 1617), and Bartholomäus Keckermann. He particularly criticized Bodin's strictures on

mixed government Mixed government (or a mixed constitution) is a form of government that combines elements of democracy, aristocracy and monarchy, ostensibly making impossible their respective degenerations which are conceived as anarchy, oligarchy and tyranny. T ...

in his 1606 ''Doctrina politica''. That work also incorporated Tacitean ideas, under the influence of Arnold Clapmar, within the Aristotelian and humanist framework he proposed, attacking the

Ramist Ramism was a collection of theories on rhetoric, logic, and pedagogy based on the teachings of Petrus Ramus, a French academic, philosopher, and Huguenot convert, who was murdered during the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in August 1572. Acco ...

critics of Aristotle. While Arnisaeus saw a role for

civil society Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...

and its institutions he admitted that sovereignty could in practical terms be distributed among several authorities. He is therefore classed as an 'absolutist', a supporter of

absolute monarchy Absolute monarchy (or Absolutism (European history), Absolutism as a doctrine) is a form of monarchy in which the monarch rules in their own right or power. In an absolute monarchy, the king or queen is by no means limited and has absolute pow ...

. Theoretically, in the case of the Empire, he argued that sovereignty lay with the

Prince-elector The prince-electors (german: Kurfürst pl. , cz, Kurfiřt, la, Princeps Elector), or electors for short, were the members of the electoral college that elected the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. From the 13th century onwards, the prin ...

s. This was very much a minority view among Germans, opposed by Althusius and Keckermann, as well as Hermann Kirchner, Daniel Otto, and Tobias Paurmeister, all of whom took the view that the Emperor was a true monarch. Against Althusius, he argued that (true) monarchy could be compromised by concessions of power that distorted the 'form' of the state, and that this was a more accurate description of the actual French state. Arnisaeus died in Copenhagen. His ideas were influential in the setting up of Danish absolutism.

Works

* Doctrina politica in genuinam methodum, quae est Aristotelis, reducta (1606) * De constitutione et partibus Metaphysicae, (Frankfurt, 1606) * Epitome metaphysicae (1606) * De jure majestatis (Frankfurt, 1610) * ''Vindiciae pro Aristotele et Sanioribus quibusque philosophis contra Thomae Rhaedi Scoti pervigilia & dissertationem elencticam de subjecto metaphysicae & natura entis assertae'' (Frankfurt, 1611). During the period 1608-9 he made a public disputation on metaphysics, with the Scottish philosopher and humanist

Thomas Reid Thomas Reid (; 7 May ( O.S. 26 April) 1710 – 7 October 1796) was a religiously trained Scottish philosopher. He was the founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense and played an integral role in the Scottish Enlightenment. In 1783 he wa ...

(Rhaedus) who was at

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, ...

.''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'', Reid, Thomas (d. 1624), philosopher, translator, and founder of the first public reference library in Scotland by T. P. J. Edlin. This book was the written form of his reply to Reid. * De auctoritate principum in populum semper inviolabili (Frankfurt, 1612) * De subjectione et exemptione clericorum (Frankfurt, 1612) * De Republica, seu Relectionis politicae libri duo (Argentorati, 1636) * Opera politica (Strassburg, 1648).

Notes

External links

''Index librorum prohibitorum: 1600-1966'', by Jesús Martínez de Bujanda, Marcella Richter
* :de:s:ADB:Arnisaeus, Henning * https://web.archive.org/web/20070720044623/http://www.philso.uni-augsburg.de/web2/Politik1/arnis.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Arnisaeus, Henning 1570 births 1636 deaths 16th-century German physicians 17th-century German physicians German philosophers 16th-century German writers 16th-century German male writers 17th-century German writers 17th-century German male writers Physicians from Saxony-Anhalt