The Divine Feudal Law

Samuel Pufendorf

"Samuel von Pufendorf (1632-94), German historian and theorist of natural law, was renowned in Europe as one of the founding fathers of the modern theory of natural law. Influenced by the writings of both Grotius and Hobbes, Pufendorf's works on natural law were textbooks for all of Europe for over a century and were far more widely read than any other treatments of the subject." "The Divine Feudal Law (1695) can be seen as a complement to his 1687 treatise on toleration, Of the Nature and Qualification of Religion in Reference to Civil Society (2002, Liberty Fund), which was written in reaction to Louis XIV's revocation of the Edict on Nantes in 1685 and which clarifies that toleration should be applied only when the unification of denominations proves impossible. In The Divine Feudal Law Pufendorf attempts to demonstrate that a union of Lutherans and Calvinists is possible. The aim is not to eliminate disagreements in religion but to take away the evils that arise from those disagreements, and Pufendorf advises that the proper means of securing the peaceful coexistence of different confessions should occur via a mutual agreement rather than enforcement by law. It is important to note that Pufendorf did not propose to unite the Protestants with the Roman Catholic Church, in part because Protestants would never accept the infallibility of the pope, the principle on which the Church of Rome is founded. Further, as Simone Zurbuchen writes, "Pufendorf explains that toleration should be taken not as good in itself but rather as a temporary means of overcoming religious diversity. Where toleration applies, advises Pufendorf, 'religious parties live together as if there were no Dissention among them.'""--BOOK JACKET.