Algernon Sidney, Robert Bellarmine, and the Medieval Origins of Consent and Equality in Government

• In Event: Early Modern Republicanism

Abstract

In this paper, the early republican thought of Algernon Sidney will be compared to the thought of Robert Bellarmine. Thomas Jefferson famously praised Sidney's "Discourses" as one of the "elementary books of public right." Sidney himself invited comparisons to some of the teachings of the Jesuit Bellarmine, raising the possibility that the republicanism that influenced some of the American founders could not be so easily assimilated by the liberalism of John Locke. This paper will consider that possibility by comparing Sidney and Bellarmine on equality and consent in politics.

Author

• Kevin Vance, Benedictine College