Quotes:Bodin, Jean

Zirkoff, Boris

Bodin, Jean. Famous French magistrate and political philosopher, b. at Angers, 1530; d. at Laon, 1596. Studied law at Toulouse; settled in Paris as advocate, but soon went into politics. His learning, genial disposition and conversational powers won him the friendship of Henry III, which later was lost to him through jealousy. Appointed king’s attorney at Laon, 1576; the same year represented the tiers état of Vermandois in the states-general of Blois; defended with skill freedom of conscience, justice and peace; resisted clergy and nobility, opposing the idea that all the king’s subjects should be Catholic. Joined the party of due d’Alençon, brother of Henry III, and acted as his secretary, 1581, when that prince came over to England. Latter part of life spent at Laon writing; died of the plague. Bodin was a man of action, enterprizing, dynamic; the leading thinker of France at the time, perhaps even of Europe; he exercised strong influence over the people and can be considered the father of political science in France. His Six livres de la République (Paris, 1576, 1578), trans, into Latin by himself, laid foundation of political economy; in it he opposes the Divine Right of Kings, considers the family as the corner-stone of the state, and holds that laws and institutions correspond to three climatic zones. His remarkable work *De la Démonomanie des Sorciers (Paris, 1580, 4to; also 1581, 1587, 1593) demonstrates that spirits have communication with mankind and 359 covers the vast field of evocations, ecstasies, spells, sorcery, etc.; it supports the reality of magic and witchcraft on the authority of Scriptures, Councils and Popes, refuting the work of John Wier who held that sorcerers were fools or people of unsound mind. Other works: Colloquium Heptaplomeres de abditis rerum sublimium arcanis, 1588 (first publ. by Guhrauer, Berlin, 1841, and by L. Noack, 1857). It is a philos. of naturalism cast as a conversation between seven learned men, whose discussion presents other religions to the disadvantage of the Christian faith.—Universale Naturae Theatrum, Lyon, 1590; trans, by de Fougerolles, Lyon, 1597; was suppressed and is very rare now.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 7, pp. 358-359