Monarchy John drew his arguments primarily from the
Bible and from
Roman law, especially
Justinian's Code and
Novels. He depicted "the prince" as a "likeness on earth of the divine majesty", "feared by each of those over whom he is set as an object of fear". The prince's power, like all earthly authority, was "from God", requiring the obedience of the prince's subjects. Purportedly following a manual by
Plutarch titled the ''''—likely invented by John himself—he argued that the prince had four principal responsibilities: to revere God, adore his subjects, exert self-discipline and instruct his ministers. Since the ruler was the image of God, John advocated strict punishments for
lèse-majesté, but he qualified this by specifying that the temporal power of the ruler was delegated by the spiritual power of the church, and argued that a prince should err on the side of mercy and compassion when enforcing the law.
Tyrannicide . John argued that princes must be subordinate to the law, and distinguished the prince from the tyrant on the basis that the prince "obeys the law and rules the people by its dictates, accounting himself as but their servant". The "limbs" of the
body politic could be in subjection to the "head", the monarch, "always and only on condition that religion be kept inviolate". The tyrant's resistance of divine law, on the other hand, could merit his death. John's examples of tyrants included the scriptural figures of
Sisera and
Holofernes, as well as the Roman emperor
Julian the Apostate, who attempted to restore Rome's
pagan religion. In cases such as these, John argued that killing a ruler, when all other resources were exhausted, was not only justifiable but necessary. Where the prince was an image of God, the tyrant was an "image of depravity", "for the most part even to be killed". The "tree" of tyranny" is to be cut down by an axe anywhere it grows". This was the first systematic defense of
tyrannicide to be written after
antiquity. == Modern editions and translations ==