Bodin and Hobbes. The new reality of sovereignty of the State was gives its philosophical justification by a Frenchman, Jean and an Englishman, Thomas Hobbes each writing during the full agony of the civil and religious wars of his country. the former at the beginning and the latter the middled of the seventeenth century. Both Bodin and Hobbes defended the need for one single unified authoriry, which should be accepted by all and against which on group or individual could raise the objection of any earlier rights to independence or resistance. Rights were what the State granted, compatible with the unity of the State and keeping of peace and order within it. There could be only one power within the community, they urged. which could not be limited or divided and shared Bodin sovereign was, however, subject to four limitation Firstly as the king did not possess supermundane sovereignty, God was above him Secondly the supreme power of the king over his subjects was "subordinated'' to the of God and nature that is, to the requiremens of the moral order Thirdly the French King could not modify the succession or any part of public domain, and finally the king could not touch private property. But these limitations, Bodin maintained. did not limit the power of the king over the body politic. His assertion that the Prince was the image of God meant that he was a sovereign living person and his authority transcended the whole political community just as God transcended the cosmos He said either sovereignty meant nothing or it meant supreme power ruling over the entire poliitic He thus defined sovereignty as"a power supreme over citselt and subjects Itself not bound by the laws," It gave orders and received orders from none