Vindiciae contra tyrannos

Vindiciae contra tyrannos, meaning "Defences of Liberty Against Tyrants," was an influential Huguenot tract published in Basel in 1579 under the pseudonym Stephen Junius Brutus; its authorship remains uncertain, with Hubert Languet and Philippe de Mornay named as likely candidates, possibly in collaboration. The work proceeds through four questions on the response of the people to their king, treated briskly at first and then at length: whether a people are bound to obey or may resist a king who breaks divine law, whether the people may resist a king who is destroying the commonwealth, and whether foreign princes may legally support a popular rising against a king under the conditions the earlier questions establish, answering each in the affirmative. It merges the theological view of covenant with the legal understanding of contract to justify resistance, while stopping short of inviting any individual to judge a king directly, permitting arms to be taken up only under the leadership of an inferior magistrate, a restraint scholars read against the backdrop of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre.