Tyrannicide and the King’s Status During the French Wars of Religion

Abstract

In my paper I investigate the political theology of the Reformation in the 16^th century focusing on the problems of resistance and tyrannicide. My goal is to analyse the development of the theory of resistance through primary sources of the most important thinkers of the Reformation. My thesis focuses on the fact that during the French Wars of Religion some fundamental shift occurred on the topic of regal power and that went beyond the religious considerations. John Calvin and more so his French protestant followers the monarchomachs wrote about the right to resist, moreover, they claimed that the power of the kings originate from the people and by this they are precursors of the modern political theory.