What does the Latin phrase 'Vox Populi' mean?
Vox Populi, Vox Dei Vox Populi, Vox Dei Vox Populi, Vox Dei is Latin for "the voice of the people is the voice of God." The phrase was used as the title of a Whig tract of 1709, which was expanded in 1710 and later reprintings as The Judgment of whole Kingdoms and Nations. The author is unknown but was probably either Robert Ferguson or Thomas Harrison. There is no evidence for persistent attribution to Daniel Defoe or John Somers as authors. The most cited section of the revised (1710) version of the pamphlet read: The 1709 tract's use of the Latin phrase was
Vox Populi, Vox Dei consistent with earlier usage of vox populi, vox Dei in English political history since at least as early as 1327 when the Archbishop of Canterbury Walter Reynolds brought charges against King Edward II in a sermon "Vox populi, vox Dei". From Reynolds onwards English political use of the phrase was favorable, not referencing the original context of the usage by Alcuin (739) who in a letter advised the emperor Charlemagne to resist such a dangerous democratic idea on the grounds that "the riotousness of the crowd is always very close to madness". "Vox Populi, Vox Dei : being true Maxims