Da reforma à revolução:a contribuição da reforma protestante à teoria da soberania popular

Abstract

The development of the XVI Century`s Reformation Doctrine is very important in order to understand the grounding of the legitimacy of Civil Power, of its limits and of the control that popular will exercise on it. Departing from Lutheran position, of total submission to the Sovereign, to the incentive to civil disobedience by John Knox (in just thirty five years), the theological foundation of Civil Power was completely reëlaborated to accommodate the deep transformations in society, namely the changing from monarchic sovereignty to popular sovereignty and the rising of rational limits to the ruler’s will.