[Footnote 2:  Nicolas’ political ideas are discussed by T. Stumpf, Cologne, 1865.]

[Footnote 3:  Cf.  F. von Bezold, Die Lehre von der Volkssouveraenitaet im Mittelalter, (Sybel’s Historische Zeitschrift, vol. xxxvi., 1876).]

The modern theory of natural law, of which Grotius was the most influential representative, began with Bodin and Althusius.  The former conceives the contract by which the state is founded as an act of unconditional submission on the part of the community to the ruler, the latter conceives it merely as the issue of a (revocable) commission:  in the view of the one, the sovereignty of the people is entirely alienated, “transferred,” in that of the other, administrative authority alone is granted, “conceded,” while the sovereign prerogatives remain with the people.  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.  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[1] and Rousseau.

[Footnote 1:  Ulrich Huber (1674) may be called the first representative of constitutionalism, and so the intermediate link between Althusius and Locke.  Cf.  Gierke, Althusius, p. 290.]

The first independent political philosopher of the modern period was Nicolo Machiavelli of Florence (1469-1527).  Patriotism was the soul of his thinking, questions of practical politics its subject, and historical fact its basis.[1] He is entirely unscholastic and unecclesiastical.  The power and independence of the nation are for him of supreme importance, and the greatness and unity of Italy, the goal of his political system.  He opposes the Church, the ecclesiastical state, and the papacy as the chief hindrances to the attainment of these ends, and considers the means by which help may be given to the Fatherland.  In normal circumstances a republican constitution, under which Sparta, Rome, and Venice have achieved greatness, would be the best.  But amid the corruption of the times, the only hope of deliverance is from the absolute rule of a strong prince, one not to be frightened back from severity and force.  Should the ruler endeavor to keep within the bounds of morality, he would inevitably be ruined amid the general wickedness.  Let him make himself liked, especially make himself feared, by the people; let him be fox and lion together; let him take care, when he must have recourse to bad means for the sake of the Fatherland, that they are justified by the result, and still to preserve the appearance of loyalty and honor when he is forced to act in their despite—­for the populace always judges by appearance and by results.  The worst thing of all is half-way measures, courses intermediate between good and evil and vacillating between reason and force.