Editing Robert Filmer (section)

==''Patriarcha'' and other works==
[[File:Patriarcha-Book of-Robert Filmer Originally from 1680.png|thumbnail|200px|right|''Patriarcha'', London, 1680.]]
Filmer was already middle-aged when the controversy between the King and the [[House of Commons of England|House of Commons]] roused him to literary activity. His writings provide examples of the doctrines held by the extreme section of the [[Divine Right of Kings|Divine Right]] party.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

The fullest expression of Filmer's thoughts is found in ''Patriarcha, or the Natural Power of Kings'', published posthumously in 1680, but probably begun in the 1620s and almost certainly completed before the Civil War began in 1642.<ref>''Patriarcha and Other Writings'', ed. by Johann P. Sommerville (1991), viii, xiii, xxxii–xxxiv ("The Date of Filmer's ''Patriarcha''"); John M. Wallace, ''The Date of Sir Robert Filmer's Patriarcha'', The Historical Journal, Vol. 23, No. 1 (March 1980), pp. 155–165.</ref> According to [[Christopher Hill (historian)|Christopher Hill]], "The whole argument of ... ''Patriarcha'', and of his works published earlier in the 1640s and 1650s, is based on Old Testament history from ''Genesis'' onwards".<ref>[[Christopher Hill (historian)|Christopher Hill]], ''The English Bible and the Seventeenth-Century Revolution'' (1993), p. 20.</ref>

His position was enunciated by the works which he published in his lifetime. ''Of the Blasphemie against the Holy Ghost'', from 1646 or 1647, argued against [[Calvinists]], starting from [[John Calvin]]'s doctrine on [[blasphemy]].<ref>Ian Bostridge, ''Witchcraft and Its Transformations, c. 1650 – c. 1750'' (1997), p. 14.</ref> ''The Freeholders Grand Inquest'' (1648) concerned English constitutional history. Filmer's early published works did not receive much attention, while ''[[Patriarcha]]'' circulated only in manuscript.<ref>[[Kim Ian Parker]], ''[[The Biblical Politics of John Locke]]'' (2004), pp. 80–81.</ref> ''Anarchy of a Limited and Mixed Monarchy'' (1648) was an attack on ''A Treatise of Monarchy'' by [[Philip Hunton]], who had maintained that the king's prerogative was not superior to the authority of the Houses of Parliament.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Filmer's ''Observations concerning the Original of Government upon Mr Hobbes's Leviathan, Mr Milton against Salmasius, and H. Grotius' De jure belli ac pacis'' appeared in 1652. In line with its title, it attacks several political classics, the ''[[De jure belli ac pacis]]'' of [[Grotius]], the ''[[Defensio pro Populo Anglicano]]'' of [[John Milton]], and the ''[[Leviathan (Hobbes book)|Leviathan]]'' of [[Thomas Hobbes]]. The pamphlet entitled ''The Power of Kings, and in particular, of the King of England'' (written 1648) was first published in 1680.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}