A decorative woodcut headpiece featuring symmetrical foliage, scrolls, and two birds (possibly peacocks or phoenixes) flanking a central urn or fountain.

MOSES THE GOD OF AARON

original: "Moses Deus Aaronis"; a biblical metaphor based on Exodus 4:16 and 7:1, where God tells Moses he will be "as a god" to his brother Aaron the priest. In the context of 17th and 18th-century political theology, this was often used to argue that the civil ruler holds authority over the ecclesiastical hierarchy.

THE POWER AND DUTY OF PRINCES IN SACRED MATTERS

the canonical Scripture alone.

CHAPTER I.

On the Right of Reformation.

original: "De Jure Reformandi"; the legal and theological principle concerning who has the authority to change, restore, or correct church practices and doctrines.

Since without natural religion The moral and religious truths accessible to all people through human reason and conscience, independent of divine revelation. everyone would be permitted to do whatever they wished to others, and no commonwealth could survive, no one doubts that the Prince—or whoever holds supreme power—must take care that its core doctrines are preserved uncorrupted. However, whether the care of revealed religion Religion specifically communicated by God through Scripture or prophets, rather than through reason alone. also belongs to the Prince is a matter not fully agreed upon among scholars.

§. II. To be sure, a Prince is by no means able to establish new doctrines or new Sacraments Sacred rites, such as Baptism or the Lord's Supper, considered to be ordained by God., nor to change or abolish religion. Neither the Ministry The clergy or church leadership. nor other Christians possess this power either, since God alone can grant eternal salvation and prescribe the means for achieving it. (Deuteronomy 4:2 The verse states: "You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it...").