How was power justified in late medieval Europe? What justifications did people find convincing, and why? Based around the two key intellectual movements of the fifteenth century, conciliarism in the church and humanism, this study explores the justifications for the distribution of power and authority in fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century Europe. By examining the arguments that convinced people in this period, Joseph Canning demonstrates that it was almost universally assumed that power had to be justified but that there were fundamentally different kinds of justification employed. Against the background of juristic thought, Canning presents a new interpretative approach to the justifications of power through the lenses of conciliarism, humanism and law, throwing fresh light on our understanding of both conciliarists' ideas and the contribution of Italian Renaissance humanists.

"How was power justified in late medieval Europe? What justifications did people find convincing, and why? Based around the two key intellectual movements of the fifteenth century, conciliarism in the church and humanism, this study explores the justifications for the distribution of power and authority in fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century Europe. By examining the arguments that convinced people in this period, Joseph Canning demonstrates that it was almost universally assumed that power had to be justified but that there were fundamentally different kinds of justification employed. Against the background of juristic thought, Canning presents a new interpretative approach to the justifications of power through the lenses of conciliarism, humanism and law, throwing fresh light on our understanding of both conciliarists' ideas and the contribution of Italian Renaissance humanists"--

Together, the chapters in Empire and Legal Thought make the case for seeing the history of international legal thought and empires against the background of broad geopolitical, diplomatic, administrative, intellectual, religious, and commercial changes over thousands of years.

Interventions in other states on behalf of their subject populations is often portrayed as a novel phenomenon in state practice, one which breaches the old principle of sovereignty. But is this practice really so new? Patrick Milton argues that such interventions for the protection of other rulers' subjects occurred frequently as far back as the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. It is the first detailed study of interventions in the early modern period and focusses on central Europe, in particular the Holy Roman Empire. It therefore challenges the common view that in the period after the Peace of Westphalia (1648), the legal scope for, and occurrence of, intervention, were reduced. The book sheds new light on the geopolitical and legal interconnections between the old German Reich and Europe, while also providing comparative insights. It investigates the norms inherent in central European interventions and thereby contributes to a better understanding of the political and legal culture of the Empire, while also assessing the relative importance of geopolitical considerations in such undertakings.

The Lutheran Reformation of the early sixteenth century brought about immense and far-reaching change in the structures of both church and state, and in both religious and secular ideas. This book investigates the relationship between the law and religious ideology in Luther's Germany, showing how they developed in response to the momentum of Lutheran teachings and influence. Profound changes in the areas of education, politics and marriage were to have long-lasting effects on the Protestant world, inscribed in the legal systems inherited from that period. John Witte, Jr. argues that it is not enough to understand the Reformation either in theological or in legal terms alone but that a perspective is required which takes proper account of both. His book should be essential reading for scholars and students of church history, legal history, Reformation history, and in adjacent areas such as theology, ethics, the law, and history of ideas.

Charles V's Holy Roman Empire and Suleyman I's Ottoman Empire were the most significant empires of the early-modern era. Both rulers exercised global power as the leaders of the universal “res publica Christiana” and “dar-es Islam,” respectively, both subject to exploits of lavishness, extravagance, and self-indulgence with respect to their demonstrations of power and world dominance. The most obvious example of this was Charles V's crowning as the Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Clement V, which included a procession of 20 cardinals, 400 papal guards and 300 knights, as well as a commemorative painting by Parmigianino that depicted Charles being handed the globe by the infant Hercules while being crowned with laurel by Fame. The modality of power reflective of aristocratic society and exhibited by both Charles V and Suleyman I is one of many different style of leadership and Mehmet Sinan Birdal here explores how these power modalities determine the performance of a state in foreign politics and the emergence of the dominant unit in the state system. This book examines the Habsburgs' and Ottomans' transformation from medieval empires with claims of global domination to absolutist nations that recognized the sovereignty of others. In fact the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Austria's “Enlightened Despotism” developed from the Holy Roman Empire, while the Ottoman Empire, through modernization and reform, became the present-day Republic of Turkey. Drawing upon the teachings of Habermas and the Frankfurt School, as well as original historical sources, Birdal uses the doctrine of “legitimation” as the theoretical basis for political authority in The Holy Roman Empire and the Ottomans, creating a revisionist work that is an invaluable read for historians, international relations specialists and political scientists alike.

This interpretation of the origins of French absolutism identifies Catholic Church reform as its foundation, and failure of French Protestantism.