Jean Bodin

Jean Bodin (c. 1530–1596) was a French jurist and political philosopher whose theory of sovereignty shaped early modern political thought. He also argued for religious coexistence amid France’s wars of religion.

Sovereignty: Supreme authority within a political community, understood as the final source of public law and command. Bodin gave this principle one of its most influential early modern formulations.
Six Books of the Commonwealth: Jean Bodin’s 1576 political treatise, which defines the commonwealth and develops a systematic theory of sovereignty. This is the work in which Bodin sets out his central political argument.
French Wars of Religion: A series of conflicts between Catholics and Huguenots in France from 1562 to 1598. The wars made political unity and religious coexistence urgent problems in Bodin’s lifetime.
François Hotman: A French Protestant jurist and humanist who argued against absolutist monarchy and defended historical limits on royal power. Hotman’s constitutional arguments challenge the concentration of authority Bodin defended.
Absolutism: A political doctrine favoring concentrated authority in a ruler or central government, relatively free from institutional restraints. Bodin’s strong conception of sovereignty became a resource for later arguments for centralized rule.
Natural law: A body of moral principles held to arise from human nature or reason and to bind political authorities. Bodin treated natural law as a limit sovereign rulers could not legitimately violate.
Perpetual and absolute power: Bodin’s description of sovereignty as enduring authority not legally subordinate to another human power. This phrase captures the defining qualities he assigns to sovereign authority.
French Renaissance: The cultural and intellectual movement in France during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, shaped by humanism and classical learning. Bodin’s scholarship drew on the period’s renewed study of history, law, and ancient political thought.
François Baudouin: A French jurist and humanist whose work applied historical scholarship to law and political questions. Like Baudouin, Bodin used historical comparison to investigate political institutions.
Westphalian sovereignty: The principle that states exercise supreme authority within their territories and are formally independent of one another. Bodin’s account helped shape later ideas of supreme political authority, though it predates the Westphalian settlement.

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