How Is Jean Bodin On Sovereignty Different From The 16th Century?

History tends to repeat itself. This phrase has been said for as long as I can remember; reason being is how much truth it holds. The document by Jean Bodin titled “On sovereignty” is from the 16th century while the one by Catherine The Great titled is from the 18th century. There is a full century between these two documents and yet their ideas are so closely related. Many differences yes but the similarities are quite surprising. I will show that even though these documents are for two different countries in two different times they are still very similar because of what was happening when they wrote them. Jean Bodin wrote his document during a time that saw many religious wars being fought throughout Europe. Therefore, his opinions were
However, the first part of his idea is a step towards equality, a key issue Catherine discusses. Catherine removes the privileges idea and states citizens “should all be subject to the same Laws” (Brophy, pg.167). They share a similar idea here; equality is needed in a just society. This is incredibly important in believing in an absolute Sovereign, if equality was not to be upheld the risk of creating a tyrant is
This is an idea that was created because of context. Bodin feared more religious wars would destroy France and Catherine wanted to stop serfdom. Each wanted to do things for the greater good and move past fighting over a person’s status or faith. Law is something that is held highly in both documents. Catherine declares that “if any one citizen could do what the laws forbid, there would be ni more liberty” (Brophy,pg. 167) in fact there would probably be chaos. Bodis also understood this but in a slightly different way. A citizen does not have to obey a tyrant but he cannot attempt anything against the sovereign. For if he did it would only lead to another tyrant and another thus creating a cycle of tyrants because the person that kills one is likely to take over and abuse his power so he won’t be killed. Some type of law is being upheld in both document and their importance is stressed.
If the sovereign is as just as described, citizens will obey law. Catherine claims that a citizen’s natural liberty must be kept. An idea I believe Bodin briefly introduced. As stated before citizens do not have to obey laws implemented by a tyrant, this implies that a citizen withholds some natural rights that must be kept in mind by a King. If they are not then a citizen should not have to obey laws that infringe on them. This progressive