The greatest political writer of the age is Jean Bodin (1530-1596), whose _Republique_ is founded partly on speculative considerations like the political theories of the ancients, and partly on an extended historical inquiry. Bodin, like most lawyers who have taken the royalist side, is for unlimited monarchy, but notwithstanding this, he condemns religious persecution and discourages slavery. In his speculations on the connexion between forms of government and natural causes, he serves as a link between Aristotle and Montesquieu. On the other hand, the causes which we have mentioned made a large number of writers adopt opposite conclusions. Etienne de la Boetie (1530-1563), the friend of Montaigne's youth, composed the _Contre un or Discours de la servitude volontaire_, a protest against the monarchical theory. The boldness of the protest and the affectionate admiration of Montaigne have given la Boetie a much higher reputation than any extant work of his actually deserves. The _Contre un_ is a kind of prize essay, full of empty declamation borrowed from the ancients, and showing no grasp of the practical conditions of politics. Not much more historically based, but far more vigorous and original, is the _Franco-Gallia_ of Francois Hotmann (1524-1590), a work which appeared both in Latin and French, which extols the authority of the states-general, represents them as direct successors of the political institutions of Gauls and Franks, and maintains the right of insurrection. In the last quarter of the century political animosity knew no bounds. The Protestants beheld a divine instrument in Poltrot de Mere, the Catholics in Jacques Clement. The Latin treatises of Hubert Languet (1518-1581) and Buchanan formally vindicated--the first, like Hotmann, the right of rebellion based on an original contract between prince and people, the second the right of tyrannicide. Indeed, as Montaigne confesses, divine authorization for political violence was claimed and denied by both parties according as the possession or the expectancy of power belonged to each, and the excesses of the preachers and pamphleteers knew no bounds. Satire Menippee.