Tộ did not find Confucian justifications of imperial authority to be sufficient, reinforcing them with the Catholic defense of monarchy by divine right. According to Tộ, as the Lord rules all creation, the terrestrial emperor represents God in ruling a state. Since the monarch is to represent God on earth, Tộ explained in the same document that "all power to act in a country should rest with the king". In Tộ's view, a subject who infringed upon this authority, for whatever reason, was guilty of "", a noun for offences which also means "sin" in a religious context as well as "crime" or "offence" in a political or legal context. Based on this line of reasoning, Tộ disputed Mencius' argument that the populace was more important than the ruler, and denied Mencius' contention that the subject had an inherent right to remove a tyrant who was unworthy of the throne. In ‘’Ngoi vua la quy chuc quan la trong’’, Tộ asserted that "the king and his officials are principal in importance in a country". He regarded any form of rebellion to be illegitimate, regardless of the ruler's character or conduct: