ts his claim to obedience. It is not
rebellion to depose him, for he is himself a rebel whom the nation has a
right to put down. But it is better to abridge his power, that he may be
unable to abuse it. For this purpose, the whole nation ought to have a
share in governing itself; the Constitution ought to combine a limited
and elective monarchy, with an aristocracy of merit, and such an
admixture of democracy as shall admit all classes to office, by popular
election. No government has a right to levy taxes beyond the limit
determined by the people. All political authority is derived from
popular suffrage, and all laws must be made by the people or their
representatives. There is no security for us as long as we depend on the
will of another man." This language, which contains the earliest
exposition of the Whig theory of the revolution, is taken from the works
of St. Thomas Aquinas, of whom Lord Bacon says that he had the largest
heart of the school divines. And it is worth while to observe that he
wrote at the very moment when Simon de Montfort summoned the Commons;
and that the politics of the Neapolitan friar are centuries in advance
of the English statesman's.

The ablest writer of the Ghibelline party was Marsilius of Padua.
"Laws," he said, "derive their authority from the nation, and are
invalid without its assent. As the whole is greater than any part, it is
wrong that any part should legislate for the whole; and as men are
equal, it is wrong that one should be bound by laws made by another. But
in obeying laws to which all men have agreed, all men, in reality,
govern themselves. The monarch, who is instituted by the legislature to
execute its will, ought to be armed with a force sufficient to coerce
individuals, but not sufficient to control the majority of the people.
He is responsible to the nation, and subject to the law; and the nation
that appoints him, and assigns him his duties, has to see that he obeys
the Constitution, and has to dismiss him if he breaks it. The rights of
citizens are independent of the faith they profess; and no man may be
punished for his religion." This writer, who saw in some respects
farther than Locke or Montesquieu, who, in regard to the sovereignty of
the nation, representative government, the superiority of the
legislature over the executive, and the liberty of conscience, had so
firm a grasp of the principles that were to sway the modern world, lived
in the reign of Edward II