Henning Arnisaeus
German philosopher
Henning Arnisaeus (Arniseus) (1570–1636) was a German physician and moral philosopher. He is now known for his writings on political theory.
Life
He was born in Schlanstedt, a village in the present-day Harz district of Germany, near Huy. He studied philosophy and medicine at the Protestant University of Helmstedt from 1589. After travels in England and France, he became court physician to Christian IV of Denmark.
Views
At Helmstedt, Arnisaeus became a pupil of Cornelius Martini, a Lutheran metaphysician who also influenced Hermann Conring. He used an Aristotelian analysis to distinguish in political thought between the civitas and the res publica, in a critique of Jean Bodin, Johannes Althusius, Busius (Paulus Buis or Buys, died 1617), and Bartholomäus Keckermann. He particularly criticized Bodin's strictures on mixed government in his 1606 Doctrina politica. That work also incorporated Tacitean ideas, under the influence of Arnold Clapmar, within the Aristotelian and humanist framework he proposed, attacking the Ramist critics of Aristotle.
While Arnisaeus saw a role for civil society, he did not admit any qualification of the power of the 'magistrate'.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q109365. VIAF identifies the subject as 100308189. The Library of Congress control number is no2007058412. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1570, 1636, 1589 and 1617.
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This entry incorporates text from “Henning Arnisaeus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.