Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 63:2 (Fall 2001)
Article: Theologico-Political Federalism: The Office Of Magistracy And The Legacy Of Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575)
Author: Andries Raath

---

WTJ 63:2 (Fall 2001) p. 285

Theologico-Political Federalism:
The Office Of Magistracy And The Legacy Of Heinrich Bullinger
(1504-1575)

Andries Raath

Shaun de Freitasa

I. Introduction

The latter part of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries witnessed a tremendous growth of monarchial power in almost every part of Western Europe. Royal power grew at the expense of other institutions, whether parliaments, free cities, or clergy. Political power, which had largely been dispersed among feudatories and corporations, was seated in the hands of kings, who were the beneficiaries of increasing national unity in political systems. The most pervasive form of political thought in the sixteenth century was the conception of a sovereign as the fountainhead of political thought. This notion was supported by jurists under the influence of imperial law and the extreme papalists. The opening years of the sixteenth century thus saw absolute monarchy on a secular basis as the prevailing type of government in Western Europe. Over and against the upcoming phenomenon of secular sovereignty, Heinrich Bullinger (1504–1575), in the first half of the sixteenth century, formulated the framework for theologico-political federalism in Reformed circles. The idea of the covenant and its formulation by Bullinger as a political concept, developed parallel to the upcoming wave of secular power in political systems in Western Europe. The idea of the covenant by Bullinger early in the sixteenth century proved to be one of the most important driving forces of the modern era.

Together with the rise of sovereign nation states, the need for a theory which could explain the sovereign power and its extent on a secular foundation gained in importance. The work of the French lawyer and statesman Jean Bodin (1530–1596) was intended to provide in this need. There were, however, two fundamental ideas which Bodin produced, which inspired Reformed thinkers like Johannes Althusius (1557?-1638) and Samuel Rutherford (1600–1661) to respond to the upcoming notions of secular sovereignty: firstly, the notion that sovereignty is a power over citizens and subjects, itself not bound by laws, and secondly the idea that sovereignty entails essentially the power to make laws for all subjects in general without the consent of anyone else, superior, equal, or

WTJ 63:2 (Fall 2001) p. 286

subordinate, and that all other features of sovereignty are, in the final analysis, included in this power of legislation. In other words, sovereignty is the power of uncontrolled legislation, and through legislation sovereignty exercises itself.

The idea of theologico-political federalism formulated by Bullinger was developed ...

visitor : : uid: ()