Excerpt from Medieval Political Ideas, Vol. 1 Medieval political thought has another kind of interest. It is common, and in a sense correct, to refer to the unity Of medieval civilization, but there is a sense in which one could as plausibly refer to its exceptional dichotomy. The medieval centuries were, roughly speaking, an age in which the conceptual frameworks used by the intellectuals were much more remote from the shape of contemporary institutions than is usually the case. Accordingly, a great part of medieval thought developed from its inherited intellectual chromosomes with compara tively little influence from its environment; and a great part Of what seem to us the Obviously salient characteristics of that environment were only gradually, painfully, and incompletely formulated into usable conceptual schemes. This is one reason, of course, why the field of medieval political theory is so baffling to the novice, who expects to find in any system of thought some kind of rationalization or, at any rate, some evident reflection Of contemporary life. But, if one starts by recognizing the fact of dichotomy, even a superficial acquaintance with medieval political thought can be a fascinating experience. It is a case study in the remarkable vitality Of ideas uprooted from the soil in which they had grown; it is a case study in the extreme difficulty which men find, without the help of a continuous and relevant intel lectual tradition, in defining the terms of their own daily life and work; it is a case study in the slow and devious ways in which the culture Of one civilization can meet and blend with the routine patterns of a civilization that is very different. For the process of assimilation did go on throughout the Middle Ages: concept and custom interacted and finally merged. Perhaps the process was completed, SO far as such a process is ever completed, in the sixteenth century. It seemed, then, worth while to ease the terms on which modern students can gain access to the world Of medieval political thought, through making a collection of translated passages, numerous enough to plot out the variety Of opinion, long enough to indicate the process Of thought as well as its conclusions. It also seemed desirable to orient the reader in this material through introductory essays which would trace the development Of thought, point out the interrelated influences that shaped it, and attempt to suggest its ultimate significance. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Medieval Political Ideas, Vol. 2 The church entered the Middle Ages as a complex structure of many offices whose mutual relations of p0wer were not clearly defined. Of these the papacy, like the secular monarchy, offered itself as the first obvious nucleus upon which doctrines of concentrated power might form, but with even greater case than in the case of the secular kingship. For, throughout the Middle Ages, its claim to direct divine institution through Christ's commission to Peter was rarely disputed; the tre mendous terms in which the keys of heaven had been granted to Peter argued a virtually limitless authority; it was easy to deduce from the lofty dignity of the Vicar of Christ an unconditioned duty of obedience and the doctrine that the pope, like the 'spiritual man' of the Scriptures, could 'judge all and be judged by none.'1 Moreover, the influence of Roman law could work with more effect on the law of the church than on that of secular kingdoms. Although all levels of the hierarchy were hallowed by tradition, precedents - genuine or accepted as such for papal intervention in every sphere of ecclesiastical activity were laid down in the confused period that preceded the systematization of the canon law; and when the canonists in the twelfth century began their work of codification and analysis, the materials for a theory of papal omnicompetence were already available to them. Unlike the lawyers who tried to adapt Roman concepts to the structure of the secular kingdoms, the canonists were not hampered by feudal con ceptions of divided dominion; the church was already an organized structure of offices; long before the secular kingdoms it looked like a state, though it was not till the early fourteenth century that James of Viterbo first defined it as a regnum. In the terms in which its law was couched and in its very geographical structure it was reminiscent of the Roman empire. Thus the rules of Roman law could be easily borrowed by the canonists for organization and interpretation of the law of the church, and, inevitably, the characteristics of the Roman i mperium were applied to the papacy. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This 1913 publication remains the only full-scale treatment of the political thought of the medieval Italian jurist Bartolus of Sassoferrato.

A useful collection of sources, now reprinted, which document and commentate on the formation of medieval political culture between the 12th and 14th centuries. Aimed at a non-specialist readership fifteen texts are presented in English translation and in chronological order supported by suggestions for further reading. These include letters and treatises by Bernard of Clairvaux, Marie de France, John of Salisbury, Thomas Aquinas, John of Paris, Dante Alighieri, William of Ockham, John Wyclif and Christine de Pizan.

The third edition of Reading the Middle Ages retains the strengths of previous editions and adds significant new materials, especially on the Byzantine and Islamic worlds and the Mediterranean region. This volume spans the period c.300 to c.1150.