e., totum populum, vel insignem aliquam ejus partem immani et
intoleranda saevitia seu tyrannide divexet; populo, quidem hoc casu
resistendi ac tuendi se ab injuria potestas competit, sed tuendi se
tantum, non enim in principem invadendi: et restituendae injuriae
illatae, non recedendi a debita reverentia propter acceptum
injuriam. Praesentem denique impetum propulsandi non vim praeteritam
ulciscendi jus habet. Horum enim alterum a natura est, ut vitani
scilicet corpusque tueamur. Alterum vero contra naturam, ut inferior
de superiori supplicium sumat. Quod itaque populus malum, antequam
factum sit, impedire potest, ne fiat, id postquam factum est, in regem
authorem sceleris vindicare non potest, populus igitur hoc amplius
quam privatus quispiam habet: Quod huic, vel ipsis adversariis
judicibus, excepto Buchanano, nullum nisi in patientia remedium
superest. Cum ille si intolerabilis tyrannis est (modicum enim ferre
omnino debet) resistere cum reverentia possit."- Barclay, Contra
Monarchomachos, iii. 8.
In English thus:
233. "But if any one should ask: Must the people, then, always lay
themselves open to the cruelty and rage of tyranny- must they see
their cities pillaged and laid in ashes, their wives and children
exposed to the tyrant's lust and fury, and themselves and families
reduced by their king to ruin and all the miseries of want and
oppression, and yet sit still- must men alone be debarred the common
privilege of opposing force with force, which Nature allows so
freely to all other creatures for their preservation from injury? I
answer: Self-defence is a part of the law of Nature; nor can it be
denied the community, even against the king himself; but to revenge
themselves upon him must, by no means, be allowed them, it being not
agreeable to that law.
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