Acerrima Germanorum libertas. Il ruolo della Germania di Tacito nella formazione del liberalismo europeo

Before the growth of Enlightened constitutional theory, that based the discourse of mixed government and individual rights on rational and universalistic premises, the struggles of European constitutionalism were mostly grounded on the authority of antiquity. In particular, between 15th and 17th centuries, while the Mediterranean carved the modern myth of an ancient republican liberty, northern Europe framed its resistance against the centralization of the monarchies on a 'Gothic Renaissance'. While absolute sovereigns started carving the 'divine right of kings' doctrine by rearranging the late-Roman lex regia de imperio to fit a national dimension, a heterogeneous front of monarchomaques opposed them the myth of an unwritten 'Gothic' constitution that for immemorial custom protected their ancient liberties. This constitutional quarrel was grounded on the age-old opposition between Romanitas and Germanitas. Where Rome embodied the symbol of a monistic and centralistic constitution, based on the absolute will of a legibus solutus sovereign, the ancient Germanic constitution was identified with a mixed constitution based on a weak idea of sovereignty, that limited the king's prerogative by means of a complex balance between intermediate powers. A system already described by Tacitus, and that Montesquieu's Esprit des Lois would celebrate as the barbaric root of modern liberty.

在启蒙宪政理论兴起之前——该理论将混合政体与个人权利的论述建立在理性与普世主义前提之上——欧洲宪政斗争大多植根于古代权威。尤其在15至17世纪，地中海地区塑造了古代共和自由的现代神话，而北欧则将其对君主制中央集权的抵抗建立在‘哥特文艺复兴（Gothic Renaissance）’之上。当绝对君主通过重新诠释晚期罗马的《君主统治法》（lex regia de imperio）以适应民族维度，从而构建‘君权神授’学说时，由君主论反对者（monarchomaques）组成的异质阵线则以不成文‘哥特式’宪法的神话与之对抗——该宪法凭借远古习俗保护着他们的古老自由。这场宪政之争植根于罗马性（Romanitas）与日耳曼性（Germanitas）之间的古老对立。罗马代表着一元化中央集权宪法的象征，其基础是不受法律约束的君主（legibus solutus）的绝对意志；而古代日耳曼宪法则被视为基于弱主权观念的混合政体，通过中间权力间的复杂平衡限制君主特权。这一制度已为塔西佗所描述，且孟德斯鸠在《论法的精神》（Esprit des Lois）中将其赞誉为现代自由的野蛮根源。