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John LockeThe First Treatise of Government
John LockeNonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1689A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 10-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary: “Of the Heir to Adam’s Monarchical Power”
In this brief, three-page chapter, Locke argues that either one living man is Adam’s rightful heir, in which case all the world’s sovereigns but one are illegitimate, or no such heir exists. Locke opens with a quotation from Observations in which Filmer admits that no matter the size of a multitude, only one man among them may be king. This doctrine, according to Locke, “dissolves the bands of government and obedience” (122).
Chapter 11 Summary: “Who Heir”
In Chapter 11, which is more than twice the length of any other chapter, Locke struggles to identify the heir to Adam’s monarchical power over the world. Using Filmer’s writings, Locke attempts to trace the descent of Adam’s power through Scripture. Locke finds no clarity in Filmer’s account. Furthermore, Locke insists that the Book of Genesis, contrary to Filmer’s assertions, proves that eldest sons did not inherit dominion over their brethren, which makes it impossible to trace Adam’s heir even through the first book in the Bible. Locke views this as a central problem in Filmer’s entire argument, for it is more important to identify a specific heir than to establish the mere principle of divine-right monarchy. God never identified such an heir, Locke suggests, because God never intended that Adam should rule with absolute monarchical authority in the first place.
Nevertheless, Locke continues to examine Filmer’s argument through the pages of Scripture. After the Flood, for instance, Noah divided the world between his three sons, all of whom exercised dominion over their respective continents. Patriarchs governed nations created from the Tower of Babel. Even in the Book of Exodus, which details the Israelites’ deliverance from slavery in Egypt, Filmer finds that the principle of submission to an absolute monarch endured. In all of these instances—Noah’s three sons, the nations of Babel, and the Egyptian captivity—Locke notes that Adam’s heir remains impossible to identify. Whereas Filmer argues that God re-established the monarchical principle in both Moses and Joshua, Locke replies that neither Moses nor Joshua held their titles due to fatherhood, linear succession, or any other principle by which Filmer attempts to establish the divine right of kings. In sum, Locke concludes that 1,750 years of Biblical history fail to establish either the principle of absolute monarchy or the identity of Adam’s presumptive heir.
Chapters 10-11 Analysis
Here Locke broadens and deepens his analysis of Scripture to prove the impossibility of identifying Adam’s true heir and thus the inadequacy of divine-right doctrine.
Chapter 11 is by far the lengthiest chapter in First Treatise, so it is important to consider why Locke devotes so much space to the futile search for Adam’s presumptive heir. After all, in the book’s first nine chapters, Locke argues that God never vested absolute monarchical power in Adam, that fatherhood has no relevance to political authority, and that Scripture supports natural freedom. Having made these arguments—any one of which invalidates the divine right of kings—it hardly seems necessary to prove that no heir to Adam exists.
Locke’s purpose in writing and publishing First Treatise, however, could not have been fulfilled without Chapter 11’s extensive Biblical analysis. Locke’s purpose was not merely to justify King William III as England’s rightful monarch but to ground his new government “in the consent of the people” which Locke calls “the only one of all lawful governments” (I, emphasis added). It was not enough, therefore, for Locke to prove that God never vested Adam with absolute monarchical authority, that fatherhood is no basis for government, that men are born free, or even that the divine-right doctrine leads to chaos (an argument Locke continues to develop in Chapter 11). Instead, “the consent of the people”—the governed—is required in all cases, even the choosing of a monarch’s heir, if the government is to be legitimate.
In a practical sense, the issue of consent means that even the question of succession to a sitting monarch rests with the sovereign people. If the people recognize a monarch’s lineal heir, and if they continue to acknowledge that heir’s lawful rule without restraining or deposing the new monarch, then they have given their consent to his rule. The people, however, always reserve the right to take whatever constitutional or even revolutionary action they deem necessary to preserve their sovereignty if they are subjected to a monarchical power without their consent.
The consent of the governed as the true source of political legitimacy—and not any divine right of kings—is therefore Locke’s central point in Chapter 11. Locke’s Biblical survey describes the Israelites’ early history in a way that proves the impossibility of finding Adam’s one true heir, but it also shows that God appointed neither rulers nor their successors by divine fiat. By hastening through nearly two thousand years of Biblical history, Chapter 11 demonstrates that the Israelites had a variety of experiences with government, including hereditary monarchy only some of the time. Scripture, therefore, supports natural freedom and consent in both the establishment of government power and its transmission instead of positing absolute monarchs as the only source of legitimate authority.
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