To  private  individuals  Christ's  patience  is  held  up
as  an  example ;  and  the  precedents  of  tyrannicide  in
the  Old  Testament  are  explained  away,  as  the  result
of  direct  Divine  inspiration.  Anyhow,  the  view  is
closely  parallel  to  the  English  doctrine,  that  resist-
ance is  unjustifiable  on  the  part  of  private  persons,
but  lawful,  when  commanded  by  the  "  inferior  magis-
trate." Probably  the  doctrine  is  a  relic  of  feudal
theory.  Its  appearance  in  Huguenot  theory,  with
its  strange  exaltation  of  municipal  and  provincial
authority,  seems  to  carry  us  back  to  the  days  of
provincial  sovereignty  and  semi-sovereign  communes.
Certainly  under  any  form  of  government  great  dangers
would  arise,  if  the  rights  ascribed  by  '  Brutus '  to  the
municipal  organizations  were  admitted.  His  theory
would  reduce  the  State  to  a  confederation  of  semi-
independent  bodies  and  would  give  rise  to  scenes
like  those  so  vividly  depicted  in  Mr  Chesterton's
Napoleon  of  Notting  Hill.  It  would  be  quite  in
accordance  with  the  doctrine,  if  the  London  County
Council  were  to  direct  an  insurrection  in  favour  of

^  Vindiciae  contra  Tyrannos,  65  sqq.,  178  sqq.  No  supporter
of  Passive  Obedience  could  be  more  emphatic  in  his  denunciation
of  any  general  right  of  insurrection  than  is  this  upholder  of
popular  liberty.  If  the  aristocracy  lend  their  support  to  a  tyrant,
it  is  by  God's  command,  and  the  only  lawful  weapon  is  prayer.
This  notion  is  of  course  exactly  similar  to  the  royalist  contention,
that  kings  are  frequently  "given  in  wrath."


HENRY   OF   NAVARRE   AND  THE   SALIC   LAW      117

the  principle  of  betterment,  or  the  Leicester  Board
of  Guardians  to  organize  rebellion  against  the  Vac-
cination Statutes.  There  would  be  less  unity,  but
greater  freedom.
