A Study On The Thoughts Of Constitution In Early Modern English

The thoughts of constitution stemmed from England,where many constitutional systems,constitutional principles and basic concepts had emerged.English constitutionalism has come into being with the specific social,political,economic environment,showing different characteristics in different historical periods.This paper attempts to summarize the clues and characteristics of the rise of constitutionalism in early modern England in the specific historical context.The origin of English constitutionalism can be traced back to the democratic thought in ancient Greece and Rome,theories on mixed constitution and the classical republicanism.The spirits of freedom and equality,which were bred by the Greek polis democracy,become the source of the democratic thought in English.The thought of balance in the classical theories on mixed constitution become the source of the mixed constitution in English.During the seventeenth Century,some English republicans were deeply influenced by the ideologies of the classical republicanism which were vigorously promoted by Machiavelli.During the medieval times,the rule of law was developed through the common law,and the thoughts that the power of kings was controlled by law were established.The sacred concept of private rights and early parliamentary ideology also had grown in English feudalism societyDuring the period of Renaissance and Reformation,the change of thoughts laid the foundation of modern constitutionalism of England.At that moment,the humanism and the natural law promoted the transformation of medieval constitutionalism to modern constitutionalism.Some humanists,such as Thomas Stuckey,St.Thomas More and Thomas Smith,accepted Rome republicanism which was represented by Cicero along with the reviving of Civic Humanism.The humanists emphasized the civil virtue that took the citizen participation as the core.They also thought the political society should take the public interest as the essential connotation.According to this,they constructed theories on mixed constitution and the idea that political society came from the popular consent.Some scholastics also thought that the political authority came from the popular consent which based on the natural law.This ideology that was accepted by the theory of religion provided a theoretical basis for constitutionalism.During the reign of Henry?,the idea of'King in Parliament' was established.The Calvinists and the Catholic theorists of the continent absorbed political thought called "popular consent".On the basis of it,they put forward the conception of covenant and formed the thought of individual rights.The Catholic theorists produced the popular sovereignty with combining the Thomism with the thoughts of consent.During the reign of Elizabeth I,The Calvinists such as John Ponet,Christopher Goodman and the Catholic theorist such as Robert Persons inherited the resistance theory and the thought of natural law in continental Europe.Their theory had become a powerful theoretical weapon for parliamentarians before the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution.Then the natural law theory which rose from the theory of the General council of the Middle Ages had a direct impact on the formation of constitutionalism in modern England.During the English Civil War,the English political thoughts turned to radical with the spread of Hugo Grotius's theory of natural rights and Jean Bodin's theory of sovereignty.At the same time,De Jure Regni apud Scotos written by George Buchanan who was a radical Calvinist and The Vidiciae Contra Trrannos spread wildly during this period.The Levellers who raised natural and legal rights thought that the political power came from individual consent.It was an important turning point in the development of the constitutionalism from popular consent into individual consent.Before the English Civil War,Charles I proposed His Majesties answer to the Nineteen Propositions and tried to ensure political stability through the ancient traditional mixed constitution.Around this document,the parliamentarians and the royalist debated on topic that the sovereignty lied in the Parliament or in the king.Henry Parker,a leader the parliamentarians,put forward the concept of people sovereignty against the royalist.The common law and the ancient constitution were important aspects of constitutionalism in the period of the English Civil War.The common lawyers,such as Sir Edward Coke,demonstrated the authority of the common law and established the idea of the law over the authority of the king.After the English Civil War,James Harrington,John Milton,et al.discussed the ideology of republicanism.They emphasized the virtue of classical republicanism.At the same time,they incorporated the natural law and the natural rights concepts with their republican ideology.They tried to take account of civic virtue and personal gain in the republic system.In the period of Exclusion Crisis,The ancient constitution was an important weapon for Whig to against the supremacy of the monarchy.They strongly opposed patriarchal raised by Robert Filmer who defended the idea of absolutism rose by the antiquarians.Because the ancient constitution was widely questioned,John Locke gave up this idea.With the theory of natural rights,he constructed the liberalism constitutionalism through animadverting on Robert Filmer.The formation of Locke's constitutional thought indicated that modem English thoughts of constitution became mature.