On the other end of the spectrum, John Locke stated that mankind’s natural state is one where “They have perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons” (Doc. 3) However, when men agree to enter a society to make a general public under a single form government, he gives permission to the society to make laws for him for his safety and the safety of the others in said society.  He believed that the purpose of authority is to protect human equality and freedom.  In an attack on tyrannical absolute monarchs, he has said that the power of our legislators “… is limited to the public good of the society. It is a power that hath no other end but preservation, and therefore can never have a right to destroy, enslave, or designedly to impoverish the subjects…”

Many Enlightenment philosophers were against the idea of a monarch who could do as he pleased and answered to no-one.  “Behold an immense people united in a single person; behold this holy power, paternal and absolute.”(Jacques Benigne Bossuet, Doc. 2)  The kings themselves loved absolute monarchy.  As King James VI & I said, “The king is overlord of the whole land, so is he master over every person that inhabits the same, having power over the life and death of every one of them…”(Doc. 4)  They knew that they could get away with anything, even murder if they so chose.  As a result, some kings couldn’t control their power and got sucked into a vortex of lies, cheating, and excessive spending.  According to the Journals of the House of Commons, Charles I “…has a wicked design to subvert the ancient and fundamental laws and liberties of this nation, and in their place to introduce an arbitrary and tyrannical government…” (Doc. 7)  Louis XIV however, transformed a modest-sized hunting lodge into one of the largest palaces in the world… at great expense to the people of France.  Frederick II states that “the sovereign is guilty if he wastes the money of the people in luxury, pomp, and debauchery.”(Doc. 9)  Frederick II believed that if an absolute monarchy was going to work, the sovereign had to: be upright, active, hardworking, and fill their office worthily. 

Many philosophers suggested actually reforming the government and its branches.  Jean Jacques Rousseau states that what man loses by the social contract is his natural freedom and the ability to try to acquire everything (Doc. 6) However, the sovereign, which gets its existence from the sacredness of the contract, can never break the agreement because its own existence would immediately cease to exist and people would get all of their original rights back and regain their natural liberty.  Charles de Secondat, Baron of Montesquieu, in 1748, suggested the idea of having three separate branches of government, the legislative, executive, and judicial. According to him, all three must remain separate in order to preserve liberty.

The Enlightenment was an episode during which many important social and political changes occurred.  People began to be aware of themselves differently and fought for their rights.