[wideawake]

Protestants believe in the divine right of kings - Luther, Calvin, Knox, etc. all vigorously defended this principle against Catholics like Aquinas, Bellarmine, Cajetan etc. who maintained the principle of subsidiarity - that political power derives from the consent of the governed.

You are demonstrating a gap in your education on this thread, a gap that explains but does not excuse the weakness of your analysis.

[DesertRhino]

“Protestants believe in the divine right of kings - Luther, Calvin, Knox,”

Im a protestant. And I think Calvin was a murderous tyrant. Luther was a wise man on the internals of the Roman church, etc etc. I do not look to them for opinions on civil government.

But none of that star chambers opinions on government stack up against Madison, Jefferson, Franklin, et al.

[Sherman Logan]

The Reformers played up the power of kings as a way of opposing that of the Pope. But none of them ever considered the king to be absolute.

BTW, the notion of absolutism drew heavily on medieval notions of the Emperor/King as a delegate of God. Also on Roman notions of imperial power. Even Byzantine ideas, in which the Emperor was supreme in both church and state.

Both Catholics and Protestants tended to play up royal power and right to rule when the King was of their religion, and develop theories justifying resistance when he was not.