The Figure of the Tyrant in English Revolutionary Thought
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4456039 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robert Zaller (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1993 |
| Volume | 54 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 585 |
| Publication date | 1993-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the History of Ideas (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-5037 • E-ISSN: 1086-3222 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2709825 |
| OpenAlex | W2326931985 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
The figure of tyrant has been since classical antiquity one of most potent antitypes in Western thought. From Herod to Hitler, he has represented absolute transgression, political villain who defies heaven and earth. In modem world tyrant has been largely replaced by secular image of dictator, who transgresses what is lawful but only peripherally and incidentally what is sacred. The desacralization of tyranny is connected to rise of secular, constitutional state.' Until seventeenth century monarchy was considered by most political commentators to be natural if not ordained form of human government. The Anglican canons of 1640, summarizing trend toward royal absolutism in Stuart England, declared that monarchical power was the ordinance of God himself, founded in prime Laws of nature, and clearly established by expresse texts both of old and new Testaments.2 It followed that such power, divine in both institution and function, was not to be defied. Such claims of irresistible authority provoked anxiety in a public already alarmed by erosion of safeguards against arbitrary government3 and inroads of a power not only despotic but plausibly demonic in
Absolute monarchy · Absolute power · Ancient history · Dictator · Heaven · Monarchy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Theology · Throne · American Constitutional Law and Politics · History · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |