Editing Divine right of kings (section)

====High Middle Ages====
In the [[Middle Ages]], the idea that God had granted certain earthly powers to the monarch, just as he had given spiritual authority and power to the church, especially to the Pope, was already a well-known concept long before later writers coined the term "divine right of kings" and employed it as a theory in political science.

However, the dividing line for the authority and power was a subject of frequent contention: notably in England with the murder of Archbishop [[Thomas Becket]]t (1170). For example, [[Richard I of England]] declared at his trial during the diet at Speyer in 1193: "[[s:I am born in a rank which recognizes no superior but God|I am born in a rank which recognizes no superior but God, to whom alone I am responsible for my actions]]", and it was Richard who first used the motto "{{lang|fr|[[Dieu et mon droit]]}}" ("God and my right") which is still the motto of the [[Monarch of the United Kingdom]].<ref>{{Cite book |author=Duncan, Jonathan |title=The dukes of Normandy, from the time of Rollo to the expulsion of King John |date=1994 |publisher=Chadwyck-Healey |oclc=1313683172}}</ref>

[[Thomas Aquinas]] condoned extra-legal [[tyrannicide]] in the worst of circumstances:
{{blockquote|When there is no recourse to a superior by whom judgment can be made about an invader, then he who slays a tyrant to liberate his fatherland is [to be] praised and receives a reward.|Thomas Aquinas, ''Commentary on the Magister Sententiarum'' (Sentences II, Distinction 44, question 2, article 2)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vaxxine.com/hyoomik/aquinas/regicide.html |title=Some Brief Remarks on what Thomas has to say on Rebellion and Regicide |last=McDonald |first=Hugh |access-date=2011-07-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927064708/http://www.vaxxine.com/hyoomik/aquinas/regicide.html |archive-date=2011-09-27 }}</ref>{{Better source needed|Who is this?|date=May 2019}}}}

On the other hand, Aquinas forbade the overthrow of any morally, Christianly and spiritually legitimate king by his subjects. The only human power capable of deposing the king was the pope. The reasoning was that if a subject may overthrow his superior for some bad law, who was to be the judge of whether the law was bad? If the subject could so judge his own superior, then all lawful superior authority could lawfully be overthrown by the arbitrary judgement of an inferior, and thus all law was under constant threat.

According to [[John of Paris]], kings had their jurisdictions and bishops (and the pope) had theirs, but kings derived their supreme, non-absolute temporal jurisdiction from popular consent.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Werbos |first1=Chris |last2=Latham |first2=Andrew |title=The Medieval Foundations of the Theory of Sovereignty |url=https://www.e-ir.info/2020/04/06/the-medieval-foundations-of-the-theory-of-sovereignty/ |website=E-International Relations |access-date=20 August 2023 |date=6 April 2020}}</ref>