A History of Medieval Political Thought

300–1450

Jospeh Canning, Joseph Canning

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781136623424
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European Medieval History
• Index: History

First Published in 2005. The book covers four periods, each with a different focus. From 300 to 750 Canning examines Christian ideas of rulership. The often neglected centuries from 750 to 1050, the Carolingian period and its aftermath, are given special attention. From 1050 to 1290 the conflict between temporal and spiritual power and the revived legacy of antiquity comes to the fore. Finally in the period from 1290 to 1450, Canning focuses on the confrontation with political reality in ideas of church and state, and in juristic thought.

1

THE ORIGINS OF MEDIEVAL POLITICAL IDEAS, c. 300 –c. 750

The political ideas of the ancient world largely conditioned the development of those of the Middle Ages. This process was, however, a highly complex one involving reinterpretation and innovation as these ideas were applied in the context of medieval conditions radically different from those which prevailed in ancient Greece, Rome or Israel. Antiquity provided so much of the intellectual raw material which was worked into peculiarly medieval structures of thought. Furthermore, the history of political ideas reflected the vicissitudes of the classical heritage in the medieval Latin west. In the early Middle Ages that inheritance was severely attenuated, whereas it was deeply enriched from the late eleventh century by the rediscovery of the whole of Justinian’s codification of the Roman law, the Corpus iuris civilis,¹ and from the mid-twelfth by the growing body of Aristotelian works available in Latin translations. This is not to suggest, however, that the whole content of medieval political ideas rested on concepts derived from the ancient world. Some areas, such as, for instance, feudal notions, were specifically medieval developments. The rich texture of political ideas in the Middle Ages was provided by the way in which the medieval versions of ultimately Greco-Roman and biblical concepts coexisted and interacted with purely medieval modes of thinking. In the Byzantine empire the integration of classical and biblical ideas into a structure of political thought followed a path markedly different from that which the west pursued, but one which directly influenced the west in certain crucial phases.

The immediate foundations of early medieval political thought lay in the lengthy period of transition between the ancient world and the Middle Ages proper, that is to say between the reign of the Emperor Constantine (306–37) and the early eighth century, which in the west saw the rise to power of the Carolingians and in the east the existence of a thoroughly Greek Byzantine empire. It is necessary to begin our enquiry with this period of transition because it produced ideas basic not only to the whole thought-structure of the early Middle Ages but ones which were pervasive throughout the medieval period. A complete survey of intellectual life in these transitional centuries will not be attempted here: only those aspects important for the Middle Ages will be considered.

This period witnessed the conversion of Constantine, his foundation of Constantinople as the first predominantly Christian city and the reception of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman empire in 380; thus was provided the Christian context fundamental to the development of political ideas in the Middle Ages. In the west, Roman life became gradually barbarised with the settlement of Germanic peoples within the frontiers of the empire. With the gradual collapse of Roman administration as barbarian kingdoms emerged in the fifth and sixth centuries, regionalism developed leading ultimately to territorial kingship which became the characteristically medieval form of rulership. Yet within these kingdoms, notably in Gaul, Spain and Italy, increasingly diluted elements of Roman civilisation persisted into the seventh century. In the east, the Roman empire survived and became more and more Greek in outlook. Although the bases of Byzantine political thought had already been laid down in the fourth century, when the Roman empire remained intact, the eastern empire — despite its continuing universalist claims — had by the second half of the seventh century become clearly Byzantine, possessing control over only a part even of the original eastern portion of the empire: despite the attempted reconquests of Justinian the west had been lost apart from a remnant of power in Italy, and the advance of Islam in the seventh century had conquered Syria, Palestine and North Africa. Indeed it was the seventh century which really marked the end of antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages. The west in reality was left to its own resources; its regionalism crystallised into kingdoms: the Visigothic in Spain, the Frankish in Gaul, the Lombard in Italy and the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic ones in the British Isles. Byzantium, despite its grandiloquent universalist claims, turned inwards into its Greek culture and destiny. Much of the future lay with Islam which through its conquests largely destroyed what remained of the unity of Mediterranean civilisation. By 713 Islam had conquered the Visigothic kingdom, and by 720 Septimania in southern France, although its control there proved to be only short lived. Indeed, in 732/3 the Frankish leader Charles Martel halted any further Moslem advance northwards in a battle which took place at Tours or Poitiers. In a western Latin Europe limited, in effect, to Gaul, parts of western Germany, Italy and the British Isles, the stage was set for the Carolingian Renaissance, the flowering of a purely medieval western culture, in which were elaborated concepts of rulership which remained fundamental for the rest of the Middle Ages.

BYZANTIUM: THE CHRISTIAN EMPIRE

The conversion of Constantine, and Christianity’s later status as the official religion of the Roman empire, produced in the long term a radical change in Christian attitudes to political life and the state. It was, however, a development which came about gradually: the immediate effects of Constantine’s conversion itself can be exaggerated. Previously, there had been a range of Christian reactions to the Roman state. At one pole there existed negative alienation reinforced by sporadic persecutions largely caused by Christian unwillingness to participate in the pagan cult of the divinity of the emperor. A form of indifferentism resulting in political quietism was also prevalent. Following Christ’s words, ‘My kingdom is not of this world’,² Christians considered this life but a passing preparation for the next, where in heaven they would find their true home. Amongst Christians, there was also a more positive attitude recognising the necessity of the Roman state and indeed its divinely sanctioned existence which justly claimed their submission in all that was not sin: ‘Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.’³ This message was supported by the words of St Peter, ‘Fear God, and honour the emperor’,⁴ and of St Paul,

You must all obey the governing authorities. Since all government comes from God, the civil authorities were appointed by God, and so anyone who resists authority is rebelling against God’s decision, and such an act is bound to be punished.⁵

Indeed many Christians in the third century served the Roman state as soldiers. The transformed public position of Christianity in the fourth century did not result in the disappearance of the negative and indifferentist attitudes: these coexisted in tension with wholehearted Christian acceptance of the validity of the state. The change which did occur was a fundamental one: Christian theory of government and rulership was developed to accommodate an imperial power which was itself Christian. The results were of the greatest long-term significance, because from this point onwards into the Middle Ages there grew a theory and practice of government understood and justified in Christian terms. In itself Christianity advocated no particular form of government, but because the church was confronted with monarchy as the only form of rule existing in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, Christian political thought emerged as monarchical.

The fundamental structure of Byzantine political thought was established in essence during the reign of Constantine himself, and remained largely unchanged throughout the existence of the empire. The father of this theory was Eusebius of Caesarea (263–339) whose interpretation of the significance of Constantine’s reign exerted the widest influence. Eusebius believed that Constantine’s establishment of the Christian empire marked a crucial turning-point in human history, nothing less than the fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham. This view interpreted Roman history as being determined by divine providence: that the empire was founded under Augustus, in whose reign Christ was born, in order to facilitate the spread of the Christian religion, a development culminating in the conversion of the emperor himself.

Eusebius also adapted Hellenistic ideas of kingship which by the third century had markedly influenced the development of Roman concepts of emperorship. According to Hellenistic theory the ruler was the image of God and his vicegerent on earth ruling a kingdom which was an imitation (mimesis) of that of heaven. Under the influence of Neoplatonic ideas the kingdom could thus be seen as a microcosm reflecting the order of the macrocosm of the universe itself. The ruler was understood as being himself divine: the Roman emperor was indeed ‘lord and God’ (dominus et deus). Eusebius, following the intention of Constantine, was able with ease to Christianise this pagan view. All that was necessary was to claim not a form of divinity for the emperor, but simply divine appointment confirmed by Constantine’s closeness to God as shown by the special revelations to him and his military success. Thus the emperor was God’s human vicegerent on earth ruling over an empire which was the reflection of the kingdom of heaven. Monotheism infused this cosmic order: just as there was one God in the universe there was one emperor (Basileus) in this world.

In relief at the end of recent severe persecution the bulk of the Christian church, like Eusebius, was only too willing to accept Constantine’s close supervision of ecclesiastical matters. Constantine took it upon himself to summon ecclesiastical councils. Shortly after the decree of toleration known as the Edict of Milan (313) he called the Council of Aries in 314 to attempt to resolve the Donatist question;⁶ in 325 he convoked the first ecumenical council itself at Nicaea. Constantine had brought the Christian church within the structure of the Roman state and thereby subjected it to his authority. He claimed jurisdiction over all the external aspects of Christianity, that is to say ecclesiastical organisation and administration, whereas bishops, he accepted, had authority over purely spiritual matters, such as the formulation of doctrine and the administration of sacraments. He also considered that as emperor he had religious responsibility for the pagans in his empire: thus the Vita Constantini (Life of Constantine) records that in a dinner speech given to the fathers of the Council of Nicaea he described himself as ‘bishop of those without [i.e. pagans]’ (episkopos ton ektos).⁷ In Christian terms Constantine was not a bishop or priest in any sacramental sense, although he was accorded liturgical honours not given to any other layman. When he died, as a mark of special reverence he was declared a Christian saint, the equal of the apostles (isapostolos): so much had he done for his adopted religion.

After the death of Constantine, apart from the interlude of the Emperor Julian’s (361–3) brief favouring of paganism, the view which understood the Roman empire as a Christian one gained in strength. The culmination of this process was the decree, Cunctos populos, whereby in 380 the emperors Valentinian II and Theodosius I made Catholic Christianity the official religion of the empire. From now on paganism went into further decline and the equation between Roman and Christian was consolidated.

From the point of view of the history of political ideas, the classic expression of Christian Roman emperorship is found in the Corpus iuris civilis. This was begun at Justinian’s command in 527 and completed in 534 by a committee chaired by Tribonian. The codification consisted of three main parts. The largest was the Digest (or Pandects), divided into fifty books and comprising selections from thirty-nine classical jurists ranging from the second to the fourth centuries. A short introductory textbook for students, the Institutes (in four books), was added. The third part was the Code in twelve books containing imperial constitutions including many by Justinian himself. By the act of codification, the emperor made all parts of this Corpus iuris his law deriving efficacy from his will and thus possessing equal validity. The language of this compilation was Latin: there were very few Greek passages. Justinian forbade any commentaries on his codification but found he had to supplement it by issuing further constitutions, known as Novels, until his death in 565. These were mainly written in Greek, and in c. 580 a collection of 168 of them was made for general use. In the medieval west the Novels became known in two versions: the Epitome luliani, a Latin abridgement of 124 constitutions, and the Authenticum comprising 134 in either the original Latin or a translation from the Greek. By the twelfth century the Authenticum was considered part of the Corpus iuris as a whole.

The Corpus iuris contains the fundamental Roman law distinction between public and private law (ius publicum and ius privatum). The vast bulk of the compilation is private law. Its public law content, which is directly related to matters of politics and government, although it is restricted in extent and unsystem-atically presented, contains statements of enduring importance for political thought. There are, however, major problems of interpretation. Because of the speed of codification there are contradictions resulting from the diversity of the sources consulted. Thus, for instance, statements produced under the principate exist side by side with laws reflecting conditions under the dominate and Byzantine emperorship. Yet all laws in the Corpus iuris are accorded equal weight by the will of Justinian. The historian has to consider what each text meant when it was originally produced, how it was under...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Introduction to 2005 Edition
• Introduction
• List of Abbreviations
• 1 The Origins of Medieval Political Ideas, c. 300-c. 750
• 2 The Growth of Specifically Medieval Political Ideas, c. 750-c. 1050
• 3 Political Ideas in the High Middle Ages, c. 1050-c. 1290
• 4 Political Ideas in the Late Middle Ages, c. 1290-c. 1450
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index