Civil War as the extrema ratio for the defence of the concordia societatis in Johannes Althusius’ Politica

This paper offers an interpretation of the analysis of civil war on the threshold of the modern1 age as presented by Johannes Althusius (1563– 1638) in the final edition of his most important work, Politica, published in 16142 . More specifically, we will attempt to show that the German Calvinist considers the bellum civile to be the worst calamity that can befall a Respublica, against which he emphasized the necessity of seeking all possible means to avoid it with the fundamental objective of defending the concordia animi among the consociates, wherein, according to Althusius, the divine desire for peace and love on earth is reflected.