De jure magistratum

De jure magistratum, meaning "On the Rights of the Magistrate," is a significant work by Theodore Beza, a key figure in the Protestant Reformation and successor to John Calvin. Published in 1574, this treatise emerged in the aftermath of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in France.12

Beza's work challenged the prevailing Calvinist doctrine of absolute obedience to civil authority. Instead, De jure magistratum defended the right of subjects to resist tyrannical rulers, a concept that became a foundational political manifesto for Calvinism. The book contributed to the development of ideas concerning constitutional law as a contract between the monarch and the people, and the right to resist when that contract is broken. Beza was part of a group of 16th-century theorists known as the Monarchomachs, who opposed absolute monarchy and religious persecution.12