Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- A note on reference
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Principal dates in Ockham's life
- Suggestions for further reading
- A Short Discourse on the Tyrannical Government
- Prologue
- Book I
- Book II
- Book III
- Book IV
- Book V
- Book VI
- Appendix: text and translation
- Chapters
- Bibliography
- General index
- Index of persons
- Index of references to the Bible
- Index of references to canon law
- Index of references to civil law
- Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought
Prologue
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- A note on reference
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Principal dates in Ockham's life
- Suggestions for further reading
- A Short Discourse on the Tyrannical Government
- Prologue
- Book I
- Book II
- Book III
- Book IV
- Book V
- Book VI
- Appendix: text and translation
- Chapters
- Bibliography
- General index
- Index of persons
- Index of references to the Bible
- Index of references to canon law
- Index of references to civil law
- Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought
Summary
“Hear these things, all peoples; give ear, all who live on earth,” “for I am about to speak of matters which are great” and necessary to you. For I grieve and lament over the iniquities and injustices that have most wickedly been brought upon you all, to the whole world's cost, by him who boasts that he sits in Peter's chair and by some who preceded him in tyranny and wickedness. The anguish I feel is the greater because you do not take the trouble to inquire with careful attention how much such tyranny wickedly usurped over you is contrary to God's honor, dangerous to the Catholic faith, and opposed to the rights and liberties given to you by God and nature; and worse, you reject, hinder, and condemn those who wish to inform you of the truth. But so as not to deserve to be added to the number of those who, dreading the loss of human favor, are too frightened to speak freely, I will in this short work try to attack with a free voice the errors of those who, not content with their own rights, do not fear, trusting in temporal power and favor, to reach out for others' rights, divine as well as human.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1992