Pufendorf: On the Duty of Man and Citizen according to Natural Law

1. Every authority [imperium] by which a State [civitas] in its entirety is ruled, whatever the form of government, has the characteristic of supremacy [summum]. That is, its exercise is not dependent on a superior; it acts by its own will and judgement; its actions may not be nullified by anyone on the ground of superiority.

2. Hence it is that authority in this sense is unaccountable [anhupeunthunos], i.e. not obliged to account to any man on condition that if it should not render him a satisfactory account it would be liable for that reason to human penalty or punishment from him as from a superior.

3. Conformably with this, the sovereign authority [summum imperium] is superior to human and civil laws as such, and thus not directly bound by them. For these laws depend in their origins and duration on the sovereign authority. Hence it cannot be that it is bound by them itself, for if it were, the very same power would be superior to itself. Yet, when the sovereign has enjoined certain things on the Citizens by law, whose scope extends to him too, it would be appropriate for him to conform of his own free will; this would also tend to strengthen the authority of the law.

4. Sovereign authority, finally, has also its own particular sanctity. It is therefore morally wrong for the Citizens to resist its legitimate commands. But beyond this even its severity must be patiently borne by Citizens in exactly the same way as good children must bear the ill temper of their parents. And even when it has threatened them with the most atrocious injuries, individuals will protect themselves by flight or endure any injury or daniage radier than draw their swords against one who remains the father of their country, however harsh he may be.

5. In monarchies and aristocracies particularly, sovereign authority occurs in absolute form [absolutum imperium]; elsewhere it occurs in limited form.

Absolute authority is said to be held by a monarch who can wield it according to his own judgement, not by following the rule of fixed, Standing Statutes, but as the actual condition of affairs seems to require, and who uses his own judgement in protecting the security of his country as its circumstances require.