Filmer, SIR ROBERT

Filmer, SIR ROBERT, an extreme advocate of the theory of the divine right of kings, was born at East Sutton in Kent, in the end of the 16th century. He matriculated at Cambridge in 1604, and died probably in 1653. The germ of his theory is the proposition that the father of a family is the divinely ordained type of a ruler, and that his power is absolute. Accordingly, Filmer taught, a king's acts should be subject to no check or control whatsoever; his will is the only right source of law. Hence he is not in any sense answerable to his subjects for his doings; for them either to depose him or even to criticise his conduct is criminal and immoral. These views are expounded with most fullness in his Patriarcha, published after his death in 1680, and were critically examined in Locke's Treatise on Government. Filmer's Frecholder's Grand Inquest (1648) is an exposition of his ideas as to the relations that ought to obtain between the king and the houses of parliament. See DIVINE RIGHT.