BODIN, bOSISN', JEAN ( 1530-96). A French writer on polities, born in Angers. Ile was a lecturer on law in Toulouse. and subsequently practiced as On advocate of the Parlement of Paris. before he devoted himself to the study of political theory, llis exceptional talents. and the positive attitude he assumed in support of the doctrine of absolute monarchy, gained him the good \ yin and protection of Henry Ill.. and of his brother. the Due d'Aleneon. With all his leanings toward conformity in polities and religion, Bodin was an enemy of persecution.
and his antagonism to the course adopted by the ultra-Catholies cost him the favor of his royal patrons. At the States-General of Blois in 1576, Bodin, as a representative of the Third Estate from Vermandois, succeeded in securing an in terim of peace and toleration for the adherents of the Reformed religion. After the assassination of the Duke of Guise in 1588, Bodin joined tho League, but was expelled not long after for his lukewarm Catholicity, and spent the rest of his life in retirement. He died in Loon in 1596. In his Methodus ad Parnell, Histo•iarum Cognitio t.em, published in 1566, Bodin already gave evi dence of a philosophical spirit and a deep store of learning; the appearance, ten years later, of his Six litres de in republique assured him al most from the first the leading place among the political writers of the Renaissance, not even excepting Machiavelli. By his vast erudition and bold grasp on the principles underlying historical fact, Bodin, in the estimation of modern authori ties, deserves a place with Aristotle and Montes quieu as one of the three greatest political phi losophers in history. His most valuable contri bution to the science of society and statecraft is the conception of sovereignty which he was the first clearly to formulate and to develop. Start ing with the family as the unit of society, Bodin defines the State as a collection of families united by common interests and common possessions living under the right authority of a sovereign. This sovereign is described as power 'supreme and perpetual, absolute, and subject to no law.' The kinds of government are three: democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy or despotism, accord ing as the sovereign power reposes in the mass of the people, in a few, or in one; mixed govern ments there can be none, since in the nature of things the sovereign is one and indivisible. Of
the three forms of government Bodin much pre fers monarchy, and inasmuch as he endows his ruler with all the gifts of Plato's philosopher king, he finds it easy to bestow on him the hill attributes of sovereignty. Custom, law. the will of the people as expressed through their parlia ments and magistrates, are undoubtedly of great importance: but in the last instance, the King is subject to no restraint save that of his own con science. Equally celebrated with his theory of sovereigi,lty is Bodin's analysis of the effect of climate on society and government. In general he finds that the nations of the north arc charac terized by the predominance of physical strength, those of the south by mental power, those of the temperate zones by a happy mixture of the two. In the north, the dominant force is brute will; in the south, superstition; in the central regions, reason. The ideal commonwealth would embrace the entire world. in which the northern peoples should supply the workers and fighters, the southern peoples the priests, poets, and artists, and the inhabitants of milder climates the leg islators. magistrates, and judges. Tile Collo quium Ileptaplameres, published only in 1847, is a plea for toleration. Seven men—a Roman Catholic, a Lutheran. a Zwinglian. a Jew, a Mo hainmedan, an Epicurean. and a Theist—debate on the subject of what is the true religion, and arrive at the conclusion that it is best for each 111:111 to live in accordance with his own belief, provided his (Teed be not opposcd to public mo rality and the welfare of the State. Far ahead of his times in his liberality of view with regard to so many sides of life, Bodin belonged to the Middle Ages in his superstition. He devotes an entire book of the Republic to an erudite discus sion of the influences of the planets on the affairs of men, and in his /knionotaanie (1580) advo cates the burning of wizards and witches. Con sult: Baudrillart, •lean Bodin et son temps (Paris, 1853) Barthelemy, Etude stir Jean Budin (Paris, 1876).