The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c14.s3.6

c14.s3.6

Again, the Carlyles¹ have traced the *ideas* of natural equality, freedom, and justice, back to Cicero (first century B. C.) through Canonists and Church Fathers of the Middle Ages, and Roman jurists like Ulpian and Gaius. But during all this period slavery was recognized as a lawful and legitimate institution, privileges and inequalities in property were the rule, and the divine right of the king was an established fact. It was not until the French Revolution that legal effect was given to the doctrine of natural equality which had been promulgated ages ago by Stoics in opposition to the theory of the Aristotelians.