Fra Hemmingsen til Kofod Ancher: Naturrettens betydning for kirkeretten i Danmark

This chapter surveys the history of natural law in Denmark from the reformation to the eighteenth century, with a special focus on its significance for the development of a universal or general church law. It shows that the Danish theologian Niels Hemmingsen developed a rationalist theory of natural law based on human nature. In line with his teacher Philipp Melanchthon, this was the basis for a rational demonstration of the Decalogue and thus the ruler’s duty to enforce the true religion. It further argues that the significance of “modern” or post-Grotian natural law in Denmark is best understood by focusing on its institutionalisation as an academic subject. As such, it became the basis of a jus ecclesiasticum universale, where the relationship between state and religion became a contingent historical fact established in positive law. It was this historical contingency and limited purpose of the state according to natural law,
rather than eternal “rational” principles, that became the foundation for a secularisation of the Danish state in the eighteenth century, in theory if only to a limited extent in practice.