MIke WElsley

Who I'd like to meet:

Juan de Mariana (1536–1624). Ah, the Spanish Jesuit priest-theologian-economist who famously advocated the right of an individual to kill the tyrant-king or any despot. His argument was that when a ruler steals, loots, and kills in a way contrary to the natural law, it is in accord with justice to do what is necessary to unseat him. Natural law supersedes state law. Don’t feel bad for the despot: power corrupts and with that corruption comes risks. As for the worry that good kings would be killed unjustly under this idea, Mariana offered up all history that showed that is not the pattern: good rulers are not killed and far too many despots rule. After his book appeared, two French tyrants were slain: Henry III and Henry IV. A mild hysteria against him followed, the Jesuits repudiated the book, and his book was burned by order of the Parliament of Paris in 1610. But this wasn’t his most egregious act. The book that really did him in was the one that condemned inflation as theft (he was a great monetary economist). At the age of 75, he was condemned to prison for life. All reports indicate a man of amazing personal fortitude, as unrelenting as he was brilliant.