Chapters Four and Five analyse the intractability of the issues raised regarding the relationship between the church and the commonwealth for the Gallican liberties, which would continue into the seventeenth century. This chapter focusses on the works of three important lawyers: René Choppin, whose neglected De Sacra Politia is a crucial text for understanding the shape of League debates in the 1580s, Pierre de Belloy and Louis Dorléans. These works demonstrate the extent to which late medieval controversies about ecclesiastical power were resurrected in the sixteenth century, and the ways in which caricatured ideas of medieval controversialists like William of Ockham and Marsilius of Padua were used to score significant polemical points.

ChapterSeven situates Jean Bodin’s political thought in his Six Livres de la République (1576) in the League context. It builds on the concept of the politique Leaguer considered in earlier chapters, focussing on concepts of sovereignty and the commonwealth. This invites an analysis of the relationship between Bodin’s political thought and that produced by members of the League. The problem of Bodin’s membership of the League is considered, as is his friendship with René Choppin, and the League reception of his République. The relationship between the commonwealth and the king’s regalian rights is positioned in this discussion as a key consideration in arguments for legitimate resistance to tyranny, which were framed in terms of obedience to the higher authorities of natural and divine law.