du Plessis-Mornay, "A Defense of Liberty against Tyrants"

Du Plessis-Mornay defends the right of the people to resist a ruler who violates God’s Law, particularly to defend the position of the Hugenots.

• Rulers have a social contract with their people, and if the ruler does not respect his end of the contract (by ruling justly), the people have the right to disrespect the ruler
• Rulers have risen up from the common masses and were elected or approved by the people, so the people have the power to deem the ruler incompetent if necessary
• Rulers must, by their nature, conform to the laws that they stand for
• Rulers have a covenant with God, as stated in the old testament, that the ruler must obey God and respect his people; if he does not do this, he must be punished by both God and the people
• The people have just as much responsibility to respect the ruler as the ruler does to respect the people, otherwise the social contract fails