““Active and passive resistance against the usurper is not only a right, but a duty for all citizens. For the usurper is an invader and his lawless power is violence, not authority; should he by terrorism and duress force the people to consent externally to his rule, such a legitimation is invalid. His laws are not laws, but iniquities. The usurper is a foe of the respublica, and every one who acts against him acts in defense of the body politic. But what about the “tyrannus secundum regimen tantum”, that is, the legal authority that becomes illegitimate through a grave violation of the common good? First of all, the people has a right to passive resistance. The tyrannical law that is a law against reason, a law not directed to a common good, is not true law, but a depravity of law. Consequently it does not bind in conscience. This passive resistance becomes a duty when the tyrannical law demands something that is against the divine good (“bonum divinum”). A typical case would be a law to compel blasphemous adoration of the ruler as a quasi-divine being.””
