Divine right of kings

The divine right of kings, divine right, or God's mandate is a political and religious doctrine of royal and political legitimacy. It asserts that a monarch is subject to no earthly authority, deriving the right to rule directly from the will of God. The king is thus not subject to the will of his people, the aristocracy, or any other estate of the realm, including (in the view of some) the Catholic Church. It implies that only God can judge an unjust king and that any attempt to depose, dethrone, or restrict his powers runs contrary to the will of God and may constitute a sacrilegious act. It is often expressed in the phrase "by the Grace of God," attached to the titles of a reigning monarch.

Quotes

 * The American Revolution began with certain latent hopes that it might turn into a genuine break with the State ideal. The Declaration of Independence announced doctrines that were utterly incompatible not only with the century-old conception of the Divine Right of Kings, but also with the Divine Right of the State.  …  If revolution is justifiable a State may even be criminal sometimes in resisting its own extinction.
 * Randolph Bourne, ¶9 of §II of "The State" (1918). Published under "The Development of the American State," The State (Tucson, Arizona: See Sharp Press, 1998), pp. 30–31.


 * In order to subsist, then, temporal power needs a consecration that comes from spiritual authority; it is this consecration that confers upon it legitimacy, that is to say conformity with the very order of things. Such was the raison d'être of the 'royal initiation' […] and it is in this that the 'divine right' of kings properly consists, what the Far-Eastern tradition calls the 'mandate of Heaven'.
 * René Guénon, Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power (1929), pp. 28–29


 * 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 they are called gods. There be three principal [comparisons] 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.  In the Scriptures kings are called gods, and so their power after a certain relation compared to the Divine power.  Kings are also compared to fathers of families; for a king is truly parens patriae [parent of the country], the politic father of his people.  And lastly, kings are compared to the head of this microcosm of the body of man.
 * James I, "A speech to parliament" (1610).


 * Si l’on s’avise, en effet, de penser que les conducteurs de peuples ne reçoivent pas directement leurs inspirations de la Providence même, qu’ils obéissent à des impulsions purement humaines, le prestige qui les environne disparaîtra, et l’on résistera irrévérencieusement à leurs décisions souveraines, comme on résiste à tout ce qui vient des hommes, à moins que l’utilité n’en soit clairement démontrée.
 * Gustave de Molinari, §VIII de «&#8239;De la production de la sécurité&#8239;», Journal des économistes 22, no. 95 (Paris: Chez Guillaumin et c e, 15 Février 1849), p. 285.
 * If one takes the thought into one's head that the leaders of the people do not receive their inspirations directly from providence itself, that they obey purely human impulses, the prestige that surrounds them will disappear. One will irreverently resist their sovereign decisions, as one resists anything man-made whose utility has not been clearly demonstrated.
 * Gustave de Molinari, tr. J. Huston McCulloch, "The Divine Right of Kings and Majorities," §8 of The Production of Security (Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2009; orig. 1849), pp. 44–45.


 * Le libre examen a démonétisé la fiction du droit divin, à ce point que les sujets des monarques ou des aristocraties de droit divin ne leur obéissent plus qu’autant qu’ils croient avoir intérêt à leur obéir.
 * Gustave de Molinari, §VIII de «&#8239;De la production de la sécurité&#8239;», Journal des économistes 22, no. 95 (Paris: Chez Guillaumin et c e, 15 Février 1849), p. 286.
 * It was free inquiry that demonetized the fiction of divine right, to the point where the subjects of monarchs or of aristocracies based on divine right obey them only insofar as they think it in their own self-interest to obey them.
 * Gustave de Molinari, tr. J. Huston McCulloch, "The Divine Right of Kings and Majorities," §8 of The Production of Security (Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2009; orig. 1849), p. 47.


 * Anarchists hold that morality must be upheld in all cases, and not abandoned whenever State actions are involved. Men have long since rejected the Divine Right of Kings; surely it is now past time to do the same with all claims that the State is Extra-Human or Extra-Moral.  The State must be judged on the same level and by the same principles as all other human actions and institutions; one rule applies to all.
 * John V. Peters, "Anarchism and Government," The Libertarian Forum 2, no. 10, ed. Murray N. Rothbard (New York, NY: Joseph R. Peden, 15 May 1970), p. 3.


 * Meyer begins with the complaint that libertarians are really "libertines" (hedonists? sex-fiends?) because we "reject" the "reality" of five thousand years of Western civilization, and propose to substitute an abstract construction. Very true; in other words, we, like Lord Acton, propose to weight the growth of encrusted tradition and institutions in the light of man's natural reason, and of course we find these often despotic institutions wanting.  To Meyer, we propose to replace God's creation of this multifarious, complex world . . . and substitute for it their own creation".  Very neat.  The world as it is, in short the status quo of statism and tyranny, is, in the oldest theocratic trick in history, stamped with the approval of being "God's creation", while any radical change from that tyranny is sneered at as "man's creation".  Meyer, the self-proclaimed fusionist and "conservative libertarian", thus stamps himself as simply another incarnation of Sir Robert Fillmer and Bishop Bossuet, another intellectual apologist for the divine right of kings.
 * Murray N. Rothbard, "National Review Rides Again," The Libertarian Forum 1, no. 13, ed. Murray N. Rothbard, Karl Hess (New York, NY: Joseph R. Peden, 1 October 1969), p. 3.