For though the Persians worshipped their kings as
gods, yet had not the kings themselves authority to revoke laws once
established, as appears from Daniel, [1] and nowhere, as far as I know,
is a monarch chosen absolutely without any conditions expressed. Nor yet
is it repugnant to reason or the absolute obedience due to a king. For
the foundations of the dominion are to be considered as eternal decrees
of the king, so that his ministers entirely obey him in refusing to
execute his orders, when he commands anything contrary to the same.
Which we can make plain by the example of Ulysses. [2] For his comrades
were executing his own order, when they would not untie him, when he was
bound to the mast and captivated by the Sirens' song, although he gave
them manifold orders to do so, and that with threats. And it is ascribed
to his forethought, that he afterwards thanked his comrades for obeying
him according to his first intention. And, after this example of
Ulysses, kings often instruct judges, to administer justice without
respect of persons, not even of the king himself, if by some singular
accident he order anything contrary to established law. For kings are
not gods, but men, who are often led captive by the Sirens' song. If
then everything depended on the inconstant will of one man, nothing
would be fixed. And so, that a monarchical dominion may be stable, it
must be ordered, so that everything be done by the king's decree only,
that is, so that every law be an explicit will of the king, but not
every will of the king a law; as to which see Chap.
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