SOURCE: Rouse, Richard H., and Mary A. Rouse. “John of Salisbury and the Doctrine of Tyrannicide.” Speculum 42, no. 4 (October 1967): 693-709.

In the following essay, the Rouses explore the context and details of John's views on political assassination.

The doctrine of tyrannicide is a well-known element of John of Salisbury's Policraticus.¹ Although John was not the first Western thinker to propose the legitimacy of tyrannicide, the fact that he was the first to expound the idea fully and explicitly entitles him to be called the “author” of the doctrine insofar as concerns twelfth-century Europe.² At various times from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century John is cited as authority by actual and would-be tyrannicides, and is condemned as such by their opponents.³

The fact, then, that John of Salisbury defended tyrannicide is undeniably true; however, it is not the whole truth. John's exposition of tyrannicide contains many reservations, qualifications...