Patriarcha

Patriarcha
Public domain · source
Name	Patriarcha
Author	Sir Robert Filmer
Country	Kingdom of England
Language	Early Modern English
Subject	Political theory
Genre	Political treatise
Published	1680 (posthumous)
Pages	variable

Patriarcha Patriarcha is a 17th-century political treatise attributed to Sir Robert Filmer that argues for the divine and hereditary authority of monarchs and the legitimacy of absolute rule. The work engages with contemporary debates involving figures such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Hugo Grotius, James I of England, and Charles I of England, and addresses controversies raised by events like the English Civil War, the Glorious Revolution, and the English Bill of Rights 1689. Patriarcha presents Filmer's challenge to theories associated with natural law, social contract theory, and later critics represented by Cardinal Richelieu and Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan.

Background and Authorship

Filmer wrote Patriarcha during a period of intense political conflict involving Stuart monarchy controversies, the Thirty Years' War, and the rise of parliamentary challenges led by figures such as Oliver Cromwell and John Pym. The treatise is presented as a response to republican and contractualist thinkers including Hobbes, Grotius, and pamphleteers aligned with Puritanism and Republicanism in England and Scotland. Filmer draws on scriptural authorities like Genesis and ecclesiastical figures such as St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas while addressing royalist patrons and institutions including the Royalist cause and the court circles of Charles I of England and later Charles II of England. Authorship is ascribed to Sir Robert Filmer, a royalist landowner connected to families in Kent and the gentry networks that included correspondents in London and at the University of Oxford.

Summary and Main Arguments

Patriarcha advances a genealogy of political authority tracing monarchic power to patriarchal heads in biblical lineages associated with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and reinforces claims through appeals to ancient authorities like Homer, Plato, and Aristotle as filtered by medieval commentators such as William of Ockham and John of Salisbury. Filmer contends that sovereignty descends by hereditary right from Adam and is therefore sanctioned by scripture and tradition, contesting competing frameworks articulated by Hobbes's Leviathan, Grotius's De Jure Belli ac Pacis, and emergent Lockean arguments. He argues that royal prerogative is continuous with paternal authority exercised in households and extends to institutions including the English monarchy, Church of England, and legal customs preserved in the Common Law of England. Filmer critiques republican theorists like James Harrington and polemicists in pamphlet wars linked to the Long Parliament, asserting that rebellion against royal authority undermines social order exemplified by precedents from the Norman Conquest through the reigns of Henry II of England and Edward I of England.

Historical Context and Reception

Published posthumously in 1680 amid the Exclusion Crisis and debates involving Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury and supporters of James, Duke of York, Patriarcha provoked responses from a broad intellectual community including John Locke, who answered in Two Treatises of Government, and critics such as Algernon Sidney and Richard Baxter, who mobilized arguments from classical republicanism illustrated by references to Cicero and Tacitus. The treatise circulated among royalist and clerical networks connected to the Anglican Church, High Church adherents, and continental absolutists aligned with courts like Louis XIV of France and advisors influenced by Cardinal Mazarin. Its reception was polarized: defenders invoked precedents from medieval monarchs such as Edward III of England and legal authorities like Sir Edward Coke, while opponents cited the revolutionary experiences of The Netherlands and pamphlet campaigns that drew upon ideas emerging from Huguenot and Calvinist circles.

Influence and Legacy

Patriarcha significantly shaped early modern debates about sovereignty, informing responses by both royalists and critics across England, Scotland, and continental Europe including theorists in France and the Dutch Republic. The work became a foil for Locke's Two Treatises, influenced later conservative thought found in writers sympathetic to hereditary monarchy and figures such as Samuel Johnson and commentators in the eighteenth century who debated monarchy during the American Revolution and discussions in the British Parliament. It also affected historiography concerning the English Civil War, legal interpretations in cases citing Magna Carta, and polemical literature circulated during the Glorious Revolution. Later scholarship in constitutionalism and studies by historians at institutions like Cambridge University and Oxford University treated Patriarcha as a primary source for royalist ideology and the evolution of counter-revolutionary thought.

Editions and Translations

Key early editions include the 1680 posthumous London printing and subsequent 18th-century reprints that appeared alongside pamphlets involved in the Exclusion Crisis and the debate over succession leading to the Act of Settlement 1701. Scholarly editions have been produced by historians and editors at universities including Harvard University Press, Cambridge University Press, and archival collections at the Bodleian Library and the British Library. Translations and annotated versions exist in languages such as French, German, and Spanish, appearing in comparative collections of royalist writings alongside works by James I of England, Robert Filmer's contemporaries, and critics like John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. Modern critical editions include commentary linking Filmer to broader currents in early modern Europe and to archival materials housed in county records in Kent and manuscript collections in London.

Category:Political treatises Category:17th-century books Category:English literature