Tộ’s concern in forming a theoretical foundation for defending the loyalty of Vietnamese Catholics to Tự Đức led him to merge into his political theory a variant of the Catholic notion of divine-right kingship. This hybrid model allowed him to counter Mencius’ restricted justification of rebellion against tyrannical rule. But Tộ’s concern to solidify a Catholic defence of the Vietnamese monarchy conflicted with his support for the rule of law in European liberal-democratic political systems. This contradiction is manifested in the apparent inconsistency between his Catholic Confucian defence of absolute monarchy and his advocacy of an independent judiciary charged with legislation and enforcement of laws binding upon emperor and commoner alike. Tộ’s identification of the law with “Heavenly morality” was interpreted as an attempt to eliminate any inconsistency by reasoning that the sanctification of the law parallels the consecration of the monarchy.