Editing Robert Filmer (section)

==Views==
Filmer's theory is founded upon the statement that the [[Family as a model for the state|government of a family by the father]] is the true origin and model of all government. In the beginning God gave authority to [[Adam]], who had complete control over his descendants, even over life and death itself. From Adam this authority was inherited by [[Noah]]. This assumes that from [[Shem]], [[Ham, son of Noah|Ham]] and [[Japheth]] the patriarchs inherited the absolute power which they exercised over their families and servants, and that it is from these patriarchs that all kings and governors (whether a single monarch or a governing assembly) derive their authority, which is therefore absolute, and founded on divine right.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}
{{Quote
|text=The father of a family governs by no other law than by his own will, not by the laws and wills of his sons or servants. There is no nation that allows children any action or remedy for being unjustly governed; and yet, for all this, every father is bound by the law of nature to do his best for the preservation of his family. But much more is a king always tied by the same law of nature to keep this general ground, that the safety of the kingdom be his chief law; he must remember that the profit of every man in particular, and of all together in general, is not always one and the same; and that the public is to be preferred before the private; and that the force of laws must not be so great as natural equity itself, which cannot fully be comprised in any laws whatsoever, but is to be left to the religious achievement of those who know how to manage the affairs of state, and wisely to balance the particular profit with the counterpoise of the public, according to the infinite variety of times, places, persons. A proof unanswerable for the superiority of princes above laws is this, that there were kings long before there were any laws.
|source=''Patriarcha'', chapter 3
}}

The difficulty inherent in judging the validity of claims to power by men who claim to be acting upon the "secret" will of God was disregarded by Filmer, who held that it altered in no way the nature of such power, based on the [[natural rights|natural right]] of a supreme father to hold sway. The king is perfectly free from all human control. He cannot be bound by the acts of his predecessors, for which he is not responsible; nor by his own, for it is impossible that a man should give a law to himself – a law must be imposed by another upon the person bound by it.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

As for the [[Constitution of the United Kingdom|English constitution]], he asserted in his ''Freeholders Grand Inquest touching our Sovereign Lord the King and his Parliament'' (1648) that the Lords give counsel only to the king, that the Commons are to perform and consent only to the ordinances of Parliament, and that the king alone is the maker of laws, which derive their power purely from his will. Filmer considered it monstrous that the people should judge or depose their king, for they would then become judges in their own cause.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Filmer was a severe critic of democracy. In his opinion, democracy of ancient Athens was in fact a "justice-trading system". Athenians, he claimed, never knew real justice, only the will of the mob. Ancient Rome was, according to Filmer, ruled fairly only after the Empire was established.