Gaspar de Cordoba Quotes
When I ordered my royal penitent to do or to leave undone anything, under penalty of mortal sin, I was obeyed;
Sometimes referred to as Gaspar de Toledo. This quotation Illustrates one of the ways that Churches maintained power over the secular government even though they were supposedly separate. By maintaining control over the secular leaders consciences and sense of morality, the Church could control the secular government. In this particular historical case, there was not even a supposed separation. The Confessor had an ex officio role in the high council. See {629457}.
Fray Gaspar de Cordoba, late 16th Catholic Priest, Confessor of Philip III, & Member of the Council of State, Boast of his influence over King Philip III of Spain, Quoted in Henry Charles Lea, “The Decadence of Spain”, The Atlantic, July 1898
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
of the monarch of Spain See {629456} for a good example of this.
This is one of the passages of the Bible that Christian Kings cited in expecting obedience. Most of the monarchs took this passage to mean that God had selected and appointed them to rule.
This statement has represented the reality of governments before and after.
The political control technique of establishing a religion where by God himself ordains the ruler was not unique to the Christians and Muslims. The technique was also used in the Inca Empire of Peru. The first Inca who came up with this creative theocratic concept did so in about 1200.
No other religion has ever preached majority rule so clearly and unambiguously. Because of this strong democratic philosophy, some dictatorial governments see the Bahai as particularly dangerous. Also some religions who see their doctrine and the world of God as being always right and the majority of people should not determine morality are even law. They recognize a higher power. Iran, in particular, has been a terrible persecutor of Bahai, their largest religious minority, which is the antithesis to the concept of a theocracy and at the opposite end of the religious spectrum from Islam. Bahai leaders had been executed. Bahai there are not allowed to attend higher education institutions, build religious facilities, preach openly or serve in many roles. See {614912}.
William the Conqueror. See Henry of Huntington for another similar description of the King's authority.
Justinian, like many civil political leaders before and after him, took great pains to minimize the civil authority of the church. Separation of church and state is not a modern notion, though it was harder to accomplish in antiquity. Rulers would want to coopt the religion to help legitimize their rule, but tried to keep the church as weak as they could unless another religion was challenging for supremecy.
The early human idea that human rulers must somehow divine and/or designated and supported by the deity was present over many cultures and geographies.
This verse has been one of the bases of Muslim theocratic states like Iran’s claim to legitimacy. The word “govern” is sometimes translated as “judge.” In the context of the 6th century, there were no separation of powers as we know them and judging, governing and legislating were melded.
This phrase was used on all royal decrees and it accurately reflected the Bourbons “divine right” to rule
He was stating for France what the English King James I had said a few decades earlier. See {616307}.
When the priest died, 3 handwritten manuscripts were found written and signed by him in which he attacked religion in general and the church and the Bible in particular. His Testament was read by Voltaire and Denis Diderot among others and he was very influential in their development as opponents of organized religion. This quotation has been one of the bases of secular humanism which would then develop after he had died.
Bartolomeo Fiadóni -- Tolomeo da Lucca -- Bartholomew of Lucca
