[38] See page 524, note 1.
[39] See page 674.
CHAPTER XXVIII
ABSOLUTISM IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND 1603-1715 A.D. [1]
241. THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS
ABSOLUTISM
Most European nations in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries accepted the principle of absolutism in government. Absolutism was as popular then as democracy is to-day. The rulers of France, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Scandinavia, and other countries, having triumphed over the feudal nobles, proceeded to revive the autocratic traditions of imperial Rome. Like Diocletian, Constantine, and later emperors, they posed as absolute sovereigns, who held their power, not from the choice or consent of their subjects, but from God.
DIVINITY OF KINGS
Royal absolutism formed a natural development of the old belief in the divinity of kings. Many primitive peoples regard their headmen and chiefs as holy and give to them the control of peace and war, of life and death. Oriental rulers in antiquity bore a sacred character. Even in the lifetime of an Egyptian Pharaoh temples were erected to him and offerings were made to his sacred majesty. The Hebrew monarch was the Lord's anointed, and his person was holy. The Hellenistic kings of the East and the Roman emperors received divine honors from their adoring subjects. An element of sanctity also attached to medieval sovereigns, who, at their coronation, were anointed with a magic oil, girt with a sacred sword, and given a supernatural banner. Even Shakespeare could speak of the divinity which "doth hedge a king." [2]
"Not all the water in the rough rude sea
Can wash the balm off from an anointed king;
The breath of worldly men cannot depose
The deputy elected by the Lord." [3]