The ''Right of Magistrates'' (french: Du droit des magistrats, la, De jure magistratuum) is a 1574 work written by
Theodore Beza
Theodore Beza ( la, Theodorus Beza; french: Théodore de Bèze or ''de Besze''; June 24, 1519 – October 13, 1605) was a French Calvinist Protestant theologian, reformer and scholar who played an important role in the Protestant Reformation ...
, and anonymously "published by those from
Magdeburg of 1550", as a polemical contribution to the pamphlet literature of the
French Wars of Religion
The French Wars of Religion is the term which is used in reference to a period of civil war between French Catholics and Protestants, commonly called Huguenots, which lasted from 1562 to 1598. According to estimates, between two and four mi ...
.
[Tadataka Maruyama, ''The Ecclesiology of Theodore Beza: the reform of the true Church'' (1978), p. 60]
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It emphatically protested against French state tyranny in religious matters, and affirmed the
resistance theory that it is legitimate for a people to oppose an unworthy magistracy in a practical manner and if necessary to use weapons and depose them.
See also
*
Lesser magistrate
The doctrine of the lesser magistrate is a concept in Protestant thought. A lesser magistrate is a ruler such as a prince who is under a greater ruler such as an emperor. The doctrine of the lesser magistrate is a legal system explaining the exact ...
Notes
1574 books
Law books
Political philosophy literature
Huguenot history
Works about monarchy
Pamphlets
French Wars of Religion
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