THE KING'S MIRROR 49 



Writers on political philosophy usually begin their 

 specific discussion of the theory of divine right of king- 

 ship when they come to the great political theorists of the 

 fourteenth century.* The most famous of these is Mar- 

 siglio of Padua, who wrote his Defensor Pacis in 1324. 

 In this work he ^ <i!pr t l fd *h?-t t^** ^*iipfTor derived his 

 title and sovereignty from God and that his authority 

 was superior to that of the pope. Some years earlier 

 William Occam, an English scholar and philosopher, 

 made similar claims for the rights of the king of France. 

 Earlier still, perhaps in 1310, Dante had claimed divine 

 right for princes generally in his famous work De Mo- 

 narchia. Somewhat similar, though less precise, ideas 

 had been expressed by John of Paris in 1305. But nearly 

 two generations earlier the doctrine had been stated in 

 all its baldness and with all its implications by the au- 

 thor of the King's Mirror; and more than a century be- 

 fore Dante wrote his work on " Monarchy " Sverre had 

 published his Address to the Norwegian people. So far 

 as the writer has been able to determine there is no 

 treatise on general medieval politics, at least no such 

 treatise written in English, which contains even an allu- 

 sion to these two significant works. 



The ethical ideas that are outlined in the Speculum 

 Regale are also of more than common interest. On most 

 points the learned father preaches the conventional 

 principles of the church with respect to right and wrong 

 conduct, and as a rule his precepts are such as have 

 stood the test of ages of experience. He emphasizes 

 hoftest^afc^pR]in gj careful attendee upon worship^ 



* On this subject, see Figgis, Divine Right of Kings, c. iii. 



