 Beyond authoring works of highly abstract metaphysics and philosophical theology, Suárez wrote a number of polemical tracts motivated by the political upheavals of his day. In De immunitate ecclesiastica, written in 1606, he defended ecclesiastical rights against alleged encroachments by the Republic of Venice. In Defensio fidei, published in 1613 at the behest of the papal nuncio in Madrid, Decio Caraffa, he offered a response to James I of England's defence of his requirement that Catholic subjects take an oath of fidelity. This work went beyond its original purpose, to the point where it provided something close to a full-fledged theory of political power. Seen as undermining the foundations of regal absolute rule, it was publicly burned, not only in London at the end of 1613, but also the following year in the courtyard of the Parliament in Paris.