This belief that consent constitutes the sole source of legitimate authority and forms the basis of political obligation was shared by all Natural Law theorists from Grotius to Rousseau, including Hobbes, Pufendorf, and Locke. This too has been sufficiently established, and we may confine ourselves to a single illustration. It is taken from Locke, the intellectual authority who enjoyed the greatest ascendancy in England, America, and France alike.In his Second Treatise of Government, Locke wrote: "Men being, as has been said, by Nature, all free, equal, and independent, no one may be taken from this Estate and subjected to the Political Power of another but by his own consent.