Samuel von Pufendorf

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The German jurist and historian Baron Samuel von Pufendorf (1632-1694) is best known for his influential writings on international and natural law. His works became standard textbooks for both juristical and historical students in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Samuel von Pufendorf was born on Jan. 8, 1632, near Chemnitz, Saxony. The son of a Lutheran minister, he began his higher education with the study of theology at the University of Leipzig. His dislike of theological studies caused him to change to legal studies, which he pursued at the University of Jena. In 1658 he traveled to Copenhagen, where he became a tutor to the children of the Swedish ambassador to Denmark. As a result of war between Denmark and Sweden, the Swedish official and his entire retinue were arrested. Pufendorf, consequently, spent 8 months in prison. He apparently used this time to reflect on his previous legal studies, for, after his release, he went to Leiden and published in 1660 a complete system of universal law in his Elementorum jurisprudentiae universalis libri duo (The Two Books of the Elements of Universal Jurisprudence). This work was dedicated to the ruler of the Palatinate, who rewarded Pufendorf by creating a new chair of political and natural law at the University of Heidelberg. While in Heidelberg, he published De statu imperii Germanici (On the State of the German Empire), a critical analysis of the organization of the Holy Roman Empire.

In 1670 Pufendorf accepted a new professorial position at the University of Lund in Sweden. There in 1672 he published his greatest work, De jure naturae et gentium libri octo (The Eight Books on the Law of Nature and Nations). A summary was published the following year, entitled De officio hominis et civis (On the Duty of Man and Citizen). In these works Pufendorf expanded upon the theories of Hugo Grotius and Thomas Hobbes. He rejected Hobbes's view of man in his natural state by maintaining that the state of nature was one of peace, not of war. Pufendorf developed a concept of secularized natural law, holding that natural law was concerned with man in this life and was derived from human reason.

In 1677 Pufendorf virtually gave up his preoccupation with law and turned to historical studies. In that year he became the official historian to the Swedish king. As a result, he wrote histories of the reigns of Gustavus II and Charles Gustavus. Called to the service of Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg and his successor, Elector Frederick III, Pufendorf completed a history of the former's reign, but he had barely begun one on Frederick III when he died on Oct. 26, 1694. Although his historical works were rather stilted, they were based on archival material and demonstrated a respect for truth. Pufendorf's general history of Europe, also written during this period of his life (1682), became the "first modern textbook in European history."

Further Reading

There is little biographical material on Pufendorf in English. A study of his life and ideas is Leonard Krieger, The Politics of Discretion: Pufendorf and the Acceptance of Natural Law (1965). See also George Louis Bissonnette, Pufendorf and the Church Reforms of Peter the Great (1962). General background is in Harry Elmer Barnes, A History of Historical Writing (1937), and Herbert Butterfield, Man on His Past: The Study of the History of Historical Scholarship (1960).

(1632-94) Jurist whose main contribution was to international law. Born near Chemniz, Saxony, he studied law at Leipzig and Jena, and taught at Heidelberg and Lund. He was imprisoned by the Danes because of his contact with the Swedish ambassador, whose sons he tutored in Copenhagen. While in prison he wrote The Elements of Universal Jurisprudence (1660). His main work, written at Lund, was On Natural Law and the Law of Nations (1670). He also wrote On the Duty of Man and of the Citizen (1671), and On the Relation between Church and State (1686).

Pufendorf followed Grotius for the most part, but interpreted jus gentium more positivistically, thus breaking from the Aristotelian tradition. He introduced elements of Hobbes's conventional, contractual idea, without carrying self-interest as far as Hobbes did. For him, as for Grotius, a firmer, more rational basis for a political society was necessary. In keeping with his positivistic approach, he came close to Rousseau's notion of the general will or the state as a moral individual whose will is the resultant when individual citizens' wills have cancelled each other out.

On Church-State relationships, while he conceded authority in religious matters to the State, he allowed authority in ecclesiastical matters (appointments, etc.) to the Church, with the proviso that the Church could make over this power to the State. He did not favour a hierarchical Church.

— Cyril Barrett

Pufendorf, Samuel, Freiherr von (Chemnitz, 1632-94, Berlin), German jurist and historian, became a professor at Heidelberg University in 1661 and at Lund in Sweden in 1670. In 1677 he was appointed Swedish historiographer in Stockholm and in 1688 received a similar appointment at the court of the Great Elector of Brandenburg (see Friedrich Wilhelm, der Grosse Kurfürst). His (Swedish) patent of nobility was granted in the last year of his life.

Pufendorf's first important work, written in Latin, as were almost all his books, was Elementorum jurisprudentiae universalis, libri duo (1660). This was followed by a prudently pseudonymous, short, and trenchant essay De statu imperii germanici, liber unus (1667), which clear-sightedly and savagely analysed the constitutional shortcomings of the Holy Roman Empire (see Deutsches Reich, Altes). The pseudonym adopted was Severinus de Monzambano. His principal work, De jure naturae et gentium, libri octo (1672), the views of which are partly based on Grotius and Hobbes, made an important contribution to the development of the Aufklärung. Its influence was greatly strengthened by the publication in 1673 of an abridged version, De officio hominis et civis juxta legem naturalem. After 1677, when his duties became primarily historiographical, Pufendorf produced several historical works, which, though drily written, are carefully based on the available documents. They are Einleitung zu der Historie der vornehmsten Reiche und Staaten in Europa (1682), Commentariorum rebus suecicis, libri XXVI, ab expeditione Gustavi Adolphi in Germaniam ad abdicationem usque Christinae (1686), De rebus gestis Friderici Wilhelmi Magni electoris Brandenburgici (1695), and De rebus a Carolo Gustavo Sveciae rege gestis (1696).

Pufendorf advocated religious tolerance in De habitu christianae religionis ad vitam civilem (1687), and Protestant unity in Jus feciale divinum (1695). He corresponded with C. Thomasius between 1687 and 1693 (the letters were published in 1897).

Pufendorf, Samuel von (1632-94) German natural law theorist and historian. Pufendorf was educated at Leipzig and Jena, and was appointed professor of natural law at Lund, in Sweden. His great work was the De Jure Naturae et Gentium (1672, trs. as Of the Law of Nature and Nations, 1710). Influenced by Descartes, Hobbes, and the scientific revolution of the 17th century, Pufendorf's ambition was to introduce a newly scientific ‘mathematical’ treatment of ethics and law, free from the tainted Aristotelian underpinnings of scholasticism. Like that of his contemporary Locke, his conception of natural law includes rational and religious principles, making it only a partial forerunner of more resolutely empiricist and political treatments in the Enlightenment.

- In 1670 Pufendorf was called to the University of Lund. His sojourn there was fruitful. In 1672 appeared the De jure naturae et gentium libri octo, and in 1675 a résumé of it under the title of De officio hominis et civis ("On the Duty of Man and Citizen"), which, among other topics, gave his analysis of just war theory.

In the De jure naturae et gentium Pufendorf took up in great measure the theories of Grotius and sought to complete them by means of the doctrines of Hobbes and of his own ideas. His first important point was that natural law does not extend beyond the limits of this life and that it confines itself to regulating external acts. He disputed Hobbes's conception of the state of nature and concluded that the state of nature is not one of war but of peace. But this peace is feeble and insecure, and if something else does not come to its aid it can do very little for the preservation of mankind. As regards public law Pufendorf, while recognizing in the state (civitas) a moral person (persona moralis), teaches that the will of the state is but the sum of the individual wills that constitute it, and that this association explains the state. In this a priori conception, in which he scarcely gives proof of historical insight, he shows himself as one of the precursors of Rousseau and of the Contrat social. Pufendorf powerfully defends the idea that international law is not restricted to Christendom, but constitutes a common bond between all nations because all nations form part of humanity.

In 1677 Pufendorf was called to Stockholm as Historiographer Royal. To this new period belong Einleitung zur Historie der vornehmsten Reiche und Staaten, also the Commentarium de rebus suecicis libri XXVI., ab expeditione Gustavi Adolphi regis in Germaniam ad abdicationem usque Christinae and De rebus a Carolo Gustavo gestis. In his historical works, Pufendorf wrote in a very dry style, but he professed a great respect for truth and generally drew from archival sources. In his De habitu religionis christianae ad vitam civilem he traces the limits between ecclesiastical and civil power. This work propounded for the first time the so-called "collegial" theory of church government (Kollegialsystem), which, developed later by the learned Lutheran theologian Christoph Mathkus Pfaff, formed the basis of the relations of church and state in Germany and more especially in Prussia.

Pufendorf

This theory makes a fundamental distinction between the supreme jurisdiction in ecclesiastical matters (Kirchenhoheit or jus circa sacra), which it conceives as inherent in the power of the state in respect of every religious communion, and the ecclesiastical power (Kirchengewalt or jus in sacra) inherent in the church, but in some cases vested in the state by tacit or expressed consent of the ecclesiastical body. The theory was of importance because, by distinguishing church from state while preserving the essential supremacy of the latter, it prepared the way for the principle of toleration. It was put into practice to a certain extent in Prussia in the 18th century; but it was not till the political changes of the 19th century led to a great mixture of confessions under the various state governments that it found universal acceptance in Germany. The theory, of course, has found no acceptance in the Roman Catholic Church, but it nonetheless made it possible for the Protestant governments to make a working compromise with Rome in respect of the Roman Catholic Church established in their states.

In 1688 Pufendorf was called into the service of Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg. He accepted the call, but he had no sooner arrived than the elector died. His son Frederick III fulfilled the promises of his father; and Pufendorf, historiographer and privy councillor, was instructed to write a history of the Elector Frederick William (De rebus gestis Frederici Wilhelmi Magni). The King of Sweden continued to testify his goodwill towards Pufendorf, and in 1694 created him a baron. In the same year while still in Sweden, Pufendorf suffered a stroke, and shortly thereafter died at Berlin. He was buried in the church of St Nicholas, where an inscription to his memory is still to be seen. He was succeeded as historiographer in Berlin by Charles Ancillon.

Pufendorf's influence was considerable, and he has left a profound impression on thought, and not on that of Germany alone. Pufendorf is seen as an important precursor of Enlightenment in Germany. He was involved in constant quarrels with clerical circles and frequently had to defend himself against accusations of heresy.

But the value of his work has been historically underestimated. Much of the responsibility for this may be attributed to Pufendorf's feuds with Leibniz, since they were often intellectual adversaries; indeed, Leibniz once dismissed Pufendorf as "vir parum jurisconsultus et minime philosophus" (roughly: "He is not much of a lawyer, and least of all a philosopher"). It was on the subject of the pamphlet of Severinus de Monzambano that their quarrel began. The conservative and timid Leibniz was beaten on the battlefield of politics and public law, and the aggressive spirit of Pufendorf further aggravated the dispute, and so widened the division. From that time the two writers could never discuss a common subject without attacking each other.

References

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

Works

• Craig L. Carr (ed), The Political Writings of Samuel Pufendorf (Oxford 1994).
• Elementorum iurisprudentiae universalis (1660)
• Elementorum iurisprudentiae universalis libri duo (1660)
• De obligatione Patriam (1663)
• De rebus gestis Philippi Augustae (1663)
• De statu imperii germanici liber unus (Geneva 1667)
• De statu imperii Germanici (Amsterdam 1669)
• De jure naturae et gentium (1672)
• De officio hominis et civis juxta legem naturalem libri duo or "On The Duty of Man and Citizen According to the Natural Law" (1673)[1]
• Einleitung zur Historie der vornehmsten Reiche und Staaten
• Commentarium de rebus suecicis libri XXVI., ab expeditione Gustavi Adolphi regis in Germaniam ad abdicationem usque Christinae
• De rebus a Carolo Gustavo gestis (Stockholm)
• De rebus gestis Friderici Wilhelmi Magni (1733 edition)

External links

• On the Duty of Man and Citizen, 1682, by Samuel von Pufendorf

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