The Medieval Church · 1159
Policraticus
John of Salisbury · c. 1120–1180
What it is
On the follies of courtiers and the duties of rulers, comparing the commonwealth to a body and arguing that a tyrant may lawfully be killed.
Why it lasted
The first full work of political theory in the medieval West, and the earliest sustained defence of tyrannicide in Christian thought.
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below. The Library catalogues it; it does not host the text.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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