Henning Arnisaeus Explained

Henning Arnisaeus (Arniseus) (1570–1636) was a German physician and moral philosopher.[1] He is now known for his writings on political theory.

Life

He was born in Schlanstedt, a village in the present-day Harz district of Germany, near Huy.[2] He studied philosophy and medicine at the Protestant University of Helmstedt from 1589.[3] After travels in England and France, he became court physician to Christian IV of Denmark.[1]

Views

At Helmstedt, Arnisaeus became a pupil of Cornelius Martini, a Lutheran metaphysician who also influenced Hermann Conring.[4] [5] He used an Aristotelian analysis to distinguish in political thought between the civitas and the res publica, in a critique of Jean Bodin, Johannes Althusius, Busius (Paulus Buis or Buys, died 1617), and Bartholomäus Keckermann.[6] He particularly criticized Bodin's strictures on mixed government in his 1606 Doctrina politica.[7] That work also incorporated Tacitean ideas, under the influence of Arnold Clapmar, within the Aristotelian and humanist framework he proposed, attacking the Ramist critics of Aristotle.[8]

While Arnisaeus saw a role for civil society, he did not admit any qualification of the power of the 'magistrate'. In 1610 in De jure majestatis he took Bodin's part against the mixed state; even so, in relation to Holy Roman Empire and its institutions he admitted that sovereignty could in practical terms be distributed among several authorities.[9] He is therefore classed as an 'absolutist', a supporter of absolute monarchy.[10] Theoretically, in the case of the Empire, he argued that sovereignty lay with the Prince-electors.[11] This was very much a minority view among Germans, opposed by Althusius and Keckermann, as well as Hermann Kirchner, Daniel Otto, and Tobias Paurmeister, all of whom took the view that the Emperor was a true monarch.[12]

Against Althusius, he argued that (true) monarchy could be compromised by concessions of power that distorted the 'form' of the state, and that this was a more accurate description of the actual French state.[13]

Arnisaeus died in Copenhagen.

His ideas were influential in the setting up of Danish absolutism.[14]

Works

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.scholasticon.fr/Database/Scholastiques_fr.php?ID=172
  2. http://www.schlanstedt.de/chronik.php?start=1&ppp=300
  3. Herbert Jaumann, Handbuch Gelehrtenkultur der Frühen Neuzeit (2004), p. 46
  4. http://www.kirchenlexikon.de/m/martini_c.shtml
  5. Web site: Ferrater Mora: The Essayist: Suárez and Modern Philosophy.
  6. https://books.google.com/books?id=yBY8M6xCvysC&dq=arnisaeus+Aristotelian&pg=PA209 Martin van Gelderen, Aristotelians, Monarchomachs and Republicans: Sovereignty and respublica mixta in Dutch and German Political Thought, 1580-1650, p. 209, in Martin van Gelderen, Quentin Skinner (editors), Republicanism and Constitutionalism in Early Modern Europe (2005).
  7. Web site: Potow Mack. 18 August 2022 .
  8. Richard Tuck, Philosophy and Government 1572-1651 (1993), p. 126.
  9. Web site: Answers - the Most Trusted Place for Answering Life's Questions. Answers.com.
  10. https://books.google.com/books?id=6WxvOUQbwLQC&dq=Althusius+Arnisaeus&pg=PA167 Conal Condren, Stephen Gaukroger, Ian Hunter, The Philosopher in Early Modern Europe: the nature of a contested identity (2006), p. 167.
  11. Richard Tuck, Philosophy and Government 1572-1651 (1993), p. 124.
  12. The Westphalian Model in Defining International Law: Challenging the Myth - [2004] AJLH 9; 8(2) Australian Journal of Legal History 181. Australian Journal of Legal History. 2004.
  13. https://books.google.com/books?id=TiVKeH-cMPUC&dq=Althusius+Arnisaeus&pg=PA314 James Henderson Burns, J. H. Burns, Mark Goldie. The Cambridge History of Political Thought, 1450-1700 (1995), p. 314.
  14. Web site: L'Argumentation au cœur du processus judiciaire. 4 February 2015.
  15. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Reid, Thomas (d. 1624), philosopher, translator, and founder of the first public reference library in Scotland by T. P. J. Edlin.

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