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The Frontispiece of Hobbes's Leviathan, 1651  The greatest defense of absolutism, Hobbes's Leviathan, written during the years following the Civil War and the execution of James's son, Charles, features Bosse's great frontispiece, created after much discussion with Hobbes, depicting the state as a giant body of over three hundred persons with a giant sovereign, holding the sword of state in one hand and the crosier of the church in the other, at its head. As James lectured Parliament in 1610, the king or head of state, like the head of a natural body,"may apply sharp cures, or cut off corrupt members." |