Thomas Aquinas had noted that authority could be illegitimate for two reasons: first, if it was attained by violent usurpation; and second, if it was exercised in violent and unlawful ways. Aquinas appealed to Cicero’s justification of Brutus for killing Julius Caesar who was a tyrant.48 Aquinas preferred that a tyrant be removed not by ‘private persons’ but by a ‘public authority’ such as a senate or council of nobles, a view that was to be influential.49 John Wycliffe concluded that if God appointed tyrants then that would mean that the sins of tyranny would be attributed to God, which would
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