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Cf. further, Sigm. The modern theory of natural law, of which Grotius was the most influential representative, began with Bodin and Althusius. Bodin is the founder of the theory of absolutism, to which Grotius and the school of Pufendorf adhere, though in a more moderate form, and which Hobbes develops to the last extreme.
Thomas Aquinas understands by it, in distinction to jus naturale proper, the sum of the conclusions deduced from this as a result of the development of human culture and its departure from primitive purity. Cf. Gierke, Althusius, p. 273; Deutsches Genossenschaftsrecht, vol. iii. p. 612. On the meaning of natural law cf.
Althusius, on the other hand, by his systematic development of the doctrine of social contract and the inalienable sovereignty of the people, became the forerunner of Locke and Rousseau. Cf. Patriotism was the soul of his thinking, questions of practical politics its subject, and historical fact its basis. He is entirely unscholastic and unecclesiastical.
The whole chapter is a most interesting anticipation, partly due to the influence of Aristotle, of the notions of later centuries. See Bayle's Dict., s.v. Althusius. Lettres de la Montagne, I. vi. 388. Eccles. Polity, Bk. i.; bks. i.-iv., 1594; bk. v., 1597; bks. vi.-viii., 1647, being forty-seven years after the author's death.
Pierre, Montesquieu, d'Argenson, Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot and the encyclopaedists are French; Althusius, Pufendorf, Kant, Fichte are German. Italy took no part in the rise and development of the doctrines of natural law.
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