Bento, António2020-02-282020-02-282015Rewriting the Middle Ages in the Twentieth Century III. Political Theory and Practice (Ed: Julia Pavón Benito)978-2503-54842-5http://hdl.handle.net/10400.6/9634This essay argues that the so called “politic laicization” is inseparable of a State sacralization and that this is, at the beginning of the Modern Age, the political “mystery” in itself. To prove so, "Considérations politiques sur les coups d’État" (1639), by Gabriel Naudé, will be explored in the light of some of Ernst H. Kantorowicz’s recitals. It will be shown that the political actions carried out in the name of the "Mysteries of State" are no more and no less than the Prince’s coups d’État. These actions reveal the mysteries just by fulfilling them. State secret, or even better, the secrecy and mystery in the theological dimension of a modern “absolute State” is, in fact, the sacredness of the State. Accordingly, coup d’État as Naudé defines it – a genuine secret of State – expresses the sacred sphere of the "Mysteries of State".engMysteries of StateCoups d'ÉtatErnst KantorowiczGabriel NaudéErnst Kantorowicz (1895-1963) and Gabriel Naudé (1600-1653): From "Mysteries of State" to "Coups d'État"book partD/2015/0095/113