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Aspects of Mediaeval Thought on Church and State1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Gerhart B. Ladner
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“Two loves,” St. Augustine says in De Civitate Dei, “have made two cities, love of self unto contempt of God the Earthly City, love of God unto contempt of self the Heavenly City,” the City of God. These “cities”—civitates—are, of course, not states, but societies; St. Augustine himself tells us that the term civitas is an equivalent of the term society. They are societies, however, of a special kind. The Ciyitds Dei is a “mystical” society of all the elect, past, present and future. The Civitas Terrena, the Earthly City, is identical neither with the earthly state nor with any particular earthly state such as the Roman Empire, nor with any merely human society, it too is a “mystical” society, that of the impious, the damned.

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Research Article
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The Review of Politics , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , October 1947 , pp. 403 - 422
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Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1947

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References

2 De Chitate Dei XIV, 28Google Scholar, Migne, J.-P., Patrologiae Cursus Completus. Patres Ecclesiae Lalinae (Paris, 1844 ff.)Google Scholar henceforth quoted: Migne, , Patrol. Lai., the most easily accessible edition, vol. XLI, col. 436.—Civitas caelestis, civitas superna, civitas regis Christi, civitas Dei are interchangeable terms throughout the work.Google Scholar

3 De Civitate Dei XV, 1Google Scholar, Migne, , Patrol. Lat., vol. XLI, col. 437Google Scholar: … quas etiam mystice appcllamus civitates duas, hoc est duas societates hominum.… This, incidentally, corresponds to the ordinary meaning of the word civila, which, as a rule, means neither city nor state, but the entirety of citizens in a city or of people in a nation.

4 Cf. Gilson, E., Introduction à l'étude de Saint Augustin (Paris, 1943), p. 238. This work outranks the discussions of St. Augustine's political doctrine by Figgis, H. Scholz, Troeltsch, Schilling, G. Combes and others.Google Scholar

5 Cf. Gilson, , op. cit. pp. 237 f.Google Scholar

6 Politics I, 1 (translation after the Random House edition, New York, 1941, p. 1127).Google Scholar

7 De Civitate Dei I, 35Google Scholar, loc. cit. col. 46: Perplexae quippe sunt istae duae civilates in hoc saeculo invicemque permixtae.…

8 Gilson, , op. cit. p. 239.Google Scholar

9 Cf. Cochrane, C. N., Christianity and Classical Culture. A Study of Thought and Action from Augustus to Augustine (Oxford, 1944) pp. 495 f., 509 f.Google Scholar

10 De Civitate Dei V, 17, loc. cit. col. 160: Quantum enim pertinet ad hanc vitam mortalium …, quid interest sub cuius imperio vivat homo moriturus, si illi qui imperant ad impia et iniqua non coganl ?Google Scholar

11 See De Civitate Dei V, 24, loc. cit. col. 170, Quae sit Christianorum imperatorum et quam vera felicitas.Google Scholar

12 De Civitate Dei II, 21, loc. cit. col. 60, Quae senientia fuerit Ciceronis de Romana re publica, especially col. 63 f.: … vera autem iustitia non est nisi in ea re publico cuius conditor rectorque Christus est. … Cf. also XIX, 21 and 24, where St. Augustine explains in what limited sense only Rome and other states may claim the title res publico.Google Scholar

13 Cf. De Civitate Dei V, 16, loc. cit. col. 160.Google Scholar

14 See De Civilale Dei XIX, 14–18Google Scholar, loc. cit. col. 642 ff., especially, in XIX, 16, col. 645, the definition of civica pax as ordinate imperandi obediendique concordia civium, also XIX, 17, ibid.: … etiam lerrena civitas, quae non vivit ex fide, terrenam pacem appetil in eoque defigil imperandi obediendique concordiam civium, ut sit eis de rebus ad morialem vilam pertineniibus humanarum quaedam composilio voluntatum. Civitas autem coelestis, vel potivs pars eius quae in hac mortalitate peregrinatur el vivit ex fide, etiam ista pace necesse est utatur, donee ipsa cui talis pax necessaria est morialitas transeat.

15 Letter to the Emperor Anastasius Migne, I, Patrol. Lot., vol. LIX, col. 42 A: Duo quippe sunt, imperator auguste, quibus principaliter mundus his regiiur: auctoritas sacra ponlificum el regalis polestas.…Google Scholar

16 Cf., for instance, Mitteis, H., Der Stoat des hohen Millelallers (Weimar, 1944) p. 3 and pp. 174 f.— After having written the foregoing pages, I notice that Mitteis, too, uses the term “functional” for early mediaeval rulership.Google Scholar

17 The initiative for the renovation of Empire in the West in the time of Charle- magne was no doubt taken by the Church or, more precisely, by the Papacy. In spite of attempts to invalidate Einhard's famous report about Charlemagne's negative attitude towards his new imperial dignity (Eginhard, , Vila Karoli Magni Imperatoris, 28Google Scholar, ed. Halphen, L., Vie de Charlemagne, Paris (1923), p. 32)Google Scholar, everything points in fact towards its having been a papal and not a Prankish creation. In the case of the Ottoman Empire the situation is more complicated, the driving force in the Western Church then being Cluni rather than Rome. The close connection between the Ottonian and early Salian Emperors and the “Cluniac” reform movement is well known, though we have no direct evidence of Cluniac participation in the act of 962.

18 De Institutione Regia. 1Google Scholar, Migne, , Patrol. Lat., vol. CVI, col. 285 BGoogle Scholar; cf. also Reviron, J., Les idées Politico-religieuses a”un évêque du IXe siècle. Jonas a”Orléans et son “De Institutione Regia” (Paris), 1930)Google Scholar, with a new edition of Jonas' work. The passage quoted from De Institutione Regia is identical with the headings of chapters 2 and 3 of the Acts of the Council of Paris of 829 (Monumenla Cermaniae Historica, Legum Sectio III, Concilia, vol. II, 2Google Scholar, (Hannover, , 1908) p. 610)Google Scholar, which are also repeated in the Bishops' Report to Louis the Pious of the same year (ibid., Sectio II, Capitularia, Vol. II (Hannover, , 1897) p. 29)Google Scholar; the Acts and the Report were no doubt redacted by Bishop Jonas.

19 This fact has, of course, been noted repeatedly; cf., for instance, R. W. and Carlyle, A. J., A History of Mediaeval Political Theory in the West, vol. I (Edinburgh and London, 1927), p. 255Google Scholar. It is all the more significant, as Jonas himself quotes Pope Gelasius' saying. He also quotes the following passage from St. Fulgentius of Ruspe (ca. 467-ca. 532), De Veritate Praedestinationis et Cratiae II, 22, 38Google Scholar, Migne, , Patrol. Lat., vol. LXVGoogle Scholar, col. 647: … in ecclesia nemo pontifice potior et in saeculo nemo Christiana imperator celsior invenihir. Clearly, the Emperor's office, for the 6th century bishop, is not ecclesiastical to the extent it is for the bishop of the 9th century. —Statements like that of St. Ambrose: Imperator enim intra ecclesiam non supra ecclesiam est (Sermo contra Auxentium 36 in Episl. XXI, Migne, , Patrol. Lat., vol. XVI, col. 1018 B)Google Scholar, often quoted, e.g. by Carlyle, , op. cit., vol. I, p. 180Google Scholar, are directed against nascent caesaro-papism and do not contradict the interpretation of the political-ecclesiological doctrine of the early Christian era attempted here.

20 For the terms Vicarius Dei and Vicarius Christi, see Harnack, A. V., “Christus praesens—Vicarius Christi,” Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der Wissen-schaften, Philosophisch-Hisiorische Klasse, vol. XXXIV (1927), pp. 415Google Scholar ff., reliable in the historical parts, Rivière, J., Le problèms de I'église el de I'état au temps de Philippe le Bel (Louvain-Paris, 1926) pp. 435 ff.Google Scholar, Ladner, G., Theologie and Politik vor dem Investiturstreit (Baden bei Wien, 1936) p. 155 and note 411Google Scholar, Tellenbach, G., Church, State and Christian Society. (English translation of Libertas, Oxford, 1940) p. 59. See also note 24 and end of note 27 of this article.Google Scholar

21 Even the “dyarchy” of Byzantine Emperor and Patriarch of Constantinople which resulted from the Church's victory over the “imperial” heresy of iconoclasm in the 9th century (see Ostrogorsky, G. in Seminarium Kondakovianum, vol. IV, 1931, pp. 133Google Scholar ff., and my article “Origin and Significance of the Byzantine Iconoclastic Controversy,” Mediaeval Studies, vol. II, 1940, pp. 127 ff.Google Scholar) did not really overcome caesaro-papism in the Christian east.

22 From this snare the Emperors between Otto I and Henry III (died 1056), with the cooperation of the “Cluniac” reformers, extricated the Papacy, however violently (deposition of three simoniac Popes by Henry III in 1046, etc.).

23 He had, of course, important forerunners and helpers. See, for instance, Fliche, A., Eludes sur la polémique religieuse à I'époque de Grégoire VII. Les Prégrégoriens (Paris, 1916)Google Scholar and the same author's La réforme grégorienne, vol. I (Louvain-Paris, 1924)Google Scholar; Michel, A., Humbert und Kerullarios, 2 vols. (Munich, 1924 and 1930) and other studies on Cardinal Humbert of Silva Candida's important role in this era by the same author.Google Scholar

24 Cf. note 20, and among the literature quoted there, especially Harnack about the use of the term Vicar of Christ for all bishops, (and even priests) in the Early Christian period (beside the use of the title for the Emperor).

25 This is true already for the pontificate of Gregory VII. See the proposed oath of fidelity for a German King to be set up against Henry IV, Regislrum Cregorii VII, Monumenta Cermaniae Hisiorica, Epislolae Selectae, vol. II (Berlin, 1920) pp. 575 f.Google Scholar

26 For states subject to the Roman Church as vassals, or in other ways, see, in general, Jordan, K., “Das Eindringen des Lehnswesens in das Rechtsleben der romischen Kurie,” Archiv für Urkundenforschung, vol. XII (1932)Google Scholar; for the era of Gregory VII, see also Carlyle, , A History of Mediaeval Political Theory in the Weil, vol. IV (1922) pp. 298 ff.Google Scholar, Fliche, , La réforme grégorienne, vol. II (1926) pp. 317Google Scholar ff., Arquilliere, H.-X., Saint Cregoire VII (Paris, 1934) pp. 88 ff.Google Scholar; for the era of Innocent III, see, for instance, Packard, S. R., Europe and the Church under Innocent III (New York, 1927) pp. 45 ffGoogle Scholar.—Anticipations of the Gregorian and post-Gregorian conception of the relation between the Roman Church and the various genles and nalionet in Christendom can be found in the late ninth century; this is not surprising in view of the well-known spiritual affinity between the eras of Nicholas I and Gregory VII.

27 Even a cursory perusal of the Register of Gregory VII (Gregorii VII Registrum, loc. cit.) will reveal that as early as the pontificate of that Pope a large number of papal letters consider countries—the term terra, significantly, appears beside regnum —and peoples more than rulers.. See, for instance, Gregorii VII Registrum I, 6 and 7Google Scholar, loc. cit. pp. 10 f., IV, 28Google Scholar, loc. cit. p. 343, concerning Spain, II, 13Google Scholar, loc. cit. pp. 144 f., concerning Hungary, VII, 14aGoogle Scholar, loc. cit. p. 486, second excommunication of Henry IVGoogle Scholar, also Gregory's letters to his legates in various countries. For a later period see, for instance. Innocent Ill's statement in his reply to the envoys of the German King Philip, Registrum de Negolio Imperii, no. XVIII, Migne, , Patrol. Lat. vol. CCXVIGoogle Scholar, col. 1013 D (more recent edition of Peitz, W. M. (Rome, 1927), not available to me): Quia singuli proceres singulas habent provoncias et singuli reges singula regno, sed Petrus sicul plenitudine sic latiludine praeeminet universis quia vicarius est illius cuius est terra et plenitudo ejus.Google Scholar

28 These expressions are very old. For the era of Gregory VII see, for instance, Registrum Cregorii VII II, 75Google Scholar, loc. cit. p. 238 (mater omnium ecclesiarum) and I, 29Google Scholar, loc. cit. p. 46 (Romano ecclesia universalis mater … omnium Christianorum).Google Scholar

29 In conformity with Gregory VII's Dictatus Papae, no. II, Registrum Cregorii VII II, 55aGoogle Scholar, loc. cit. p. 202: Quod solus Romanus pontifex iure dicatur universalis.Google Scholar

30 A late example, chosen at random, is Gregory IX's letter to the Archbishop of Rouen of 7 April, 1239, Monumenta Cermaniae Hisiorica, Epistolae Saeculi XIII, vol. I (Berlin, 1883), no. 741, p. 638, lines 13 ff.Google Scholar, where the Emperor Frederick II is reproached for not having kept his oath not to occupy terram ecclesiae.

31 Early examples in Humbert of Silva Candida, Adversw Simoniacos (written about 1057) III, 7, Monumenta Cermaniae Historica, Libelli de Lite. vol. I (Hannover, 1891) pp. 225Google Scholar, line 47 to 226, line 1 (quoted also by Arquillière, , Saint Grégoire VII, p. 361)Google Scholar: … regum est ecclesiasticos sequi, and in a letter of Gregory VII to a papal legate, Registrum Cregorii VII IX, 30Google Scholar, loc. cit. p. 615Google Scholar: … iam cepit secularium exagitatio eU quod magis mirandum ac dolendum est, ecclesiaslicorum odia suboriri.

32 For the mediaeval concept of the Church as a clerical quasi-corporation, as an institution conceived of in terms of Canon and Roman Law, see McIlwain, C. H., The Growth of Political Thought in the West … (New York, 1932) p. 225Google Scholar; further Gierke, O., Das deulsche Genossenschaftsrechi (Berlin, 1868–1881), vol. I, pp, 287 and 427, vol. III, pp. 195 f., 249 f.Google Scholar, quoted also by Figgis, J. N., Churches in the Modern Slate (London, 1913)Google Scholar, Appendix I: Respublica Christiana, pp. 191 ff. Yet Figgis exaggerates when he says (op. cit., p. 184Google Scholar) “In common parlance the Church in the Middle Ages meant not the congregatio fidelium—though, of course, no one would have denied this to be the right meaning—not the whole body of baptized Christians as distinct from those who were not, but rather the active governing section of the Church—the hierarchy and, I suppose, the religious orders.” In reality, the concept of the Church as the clergy developed only very slowly from the era of Gregory VII onwards and that of the Church as the Body of Christ remained very much alive beside it, together with the doctrine that the Church consists of two orders: clergy and laity. In the 14th century, for instance, the curialist doctrine of a Conrad of Megenberg as well as the antipapal and revolutionary theories on Church and state of a Marsilius of Padua or a William of Ockham, clearly take account of both meanings of Ecclesia (see below, notes 59, 61). It is true that some canonists and lawyers greatly stressed the political-sociological, the corporational-institutional side of the Church; cf., for instance, Gierke, O., translated by Maitland, F. W., Political Theories of the Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1900) p. 19 and p. 125Google Scholar, note 51, for Hostiensis', i.e. Cardinal Henry of Segusia's (died 1271) conception of the Church as res publico, and Ercole, F., Studi sulla dottrina politico e sul diritto pubblico di Bartolo, in Da Bartolo alV Althusio (Florence, 1932) pp. 52 ff.Google Scholar, on Bartolus of Sassoferrato's (died 1357) identification of Church, clergy and Papacy.

33 Gilson, E., La philosophic au moyen âge (Paris, 1944)Google Scholar, chapter Chrétiené el Société, p. 257Google Scholar. For further study of these questions, see Rupp, J., L'idée de Chréticnté dans la pensée pontificate des origines à Innocent III (Paris, 1939)Google Scholar, quoted by Gilson, , op. cit.Google Scholar and Landry, B., L'idée de Chrétienté chez les scolasliques du XHIe siècle (Paris, 1929), both inaccessible to me.Google Scholar

34 For populus Christianus see, for instance, Conrad of Megenberg, De Translation Romani Imperii (written 1354), 24, ed. Scholz, R., Unbekannte kirchenpolitische Streitschrifien aus der Zeit Ludwigs des Bayern, vol. II (Rome, 1914) p. 337Google Scholar; forpolitia Christiana, see the anonymous treatise De Poleslate Ecclesiae (written between 1324 and 1332), ed. Scholz, , op. cit, pp. 252 f.Google Scholar

35 Cf. Gierke, , Das deutsche GenossenschaflsrechtGoogle Scholar; Chroust, A.-H., “The Corporate Idea and the Body Politic” in this number of the REVIEW OF POLITICS, pp. 423 ff.Google Scholar

36 Cf. Liber de Unilale Ecclesiae Conservanda, Monumenta Cermaniae Hislorica, Libelli de Lite, vol. II (1892), p. 228Google Scholar, lines 16 ff., quoted by Arquilliere, Saint Cregoire VII, p. 361, note 4.

37 See John of Salisbury, , Policraticus V and VI, ed. Webb, C. C. I. (Oxford, 1909), vol. I. pp. 280 ff., vol. II, pp. 1 ff., especially V, 2Google Scholar, loc. cit., p. 282Google Scholar: Est autem res publico … corpus quoddam …, followed by comparisons of the ruler with the head, the heart with the “senate” (the ruler's council), the sides with the ruler's helpers, etc.

38 John of Salisbury himself refers to the Pseudo-Plutarchian Institutio Traiani (not otherwise known) and, in VI, 24, loc. cit., pp. 71 ff.Google Scholar, repeats from Livy II, 32 (no doubt through Florus) Menenius Agrippa's famous fable of the stomach's revolt against the body, with its political application.

39 For this fact see also Berges, W., Die Fürslenspiegel des hohen und späten Mitielallers, Schriften des Reichsinstituts für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde (Monumenta Germaniae Historica), vol. II (Leipzig, 1938) p. 43Google Scholar.- True, organological ideas were sometimes applied to political functions by the Fathers. Dr. A.-H. Chroust kindly draws my attention to St. Augustine, , Contra Iulianum Pelagianum IV, 12, 61Google Scholar, Migne, , Patrol. Lat. vol. XLIV, col. 767 f.Google Scholar, where the Saint quotes an otherwise lost passage from Cicero's De Re Publico which presupposes the ancient corporation theory of the state (the passage is also mentioned in Schilling, O., Die Staats- und Soziallehre des hi. Augustinus, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1910, pp. 32 ff.)Google Scholar. Yet, we do not find a developed theory of the state as political body in the patristic and early mediaeval periods which seem to reserve the body-metaphor for the Church and, in order to describe the ideal structure of society in general, rather make use of the concept of harmonious order; cf. St. Augustine's famous definition in De Civitale Dei XIX, 13Google Scholar, Patrol. Lat. vol. XLI, col. 640Google Scholar: Pax civitatis ordinata imperandi atque obediendi Concordia civium. Pax coelestis civitatis ordinatissima et concordissima societas fruendi Deo et invicem in Deo. Pax omnium rerum tranquillitas ordinis. Ordo est parium dispariumque rerum sua cuique loca tribaens dispositio.

40 de Lubac, H., Corpus Mysticum. L'eucharistie et I'église au mojien âge (Paris, 1944).Google Scholar

41 Cf. Dom Jean Leclercq, O.S.B., Jean de Paris el I'ecclésiologie du Xllfe siêcle (Paris, 1942), p. 110: … mats I'église n'était pas seulement … un “corps mystique” urn par la même foi et les mêmes sacrements, élle était aussi une organisation politique temporelle.Google Scholar

42 See de Lubac, , op. cit. p. 287Google Scholar, but also pp. 131 ff., where it is pointed out how in the later Middle Ages the Church as Mystical Body was, nevertheless, in danger of being absorbed by the Church as sociological-juridical body.

43 Clerissac, Humbert, The Mystery of the Church (English translation, New York, 1937) pp. 46 f.Google Scholar

44 See especially Gregory VII's advocation of frequent Eucharistic Communion in his letter to the Countess Mathilda of Tuscany of 16 February, 1074, Regisfrum Gregorii VII I, 47Google Scholar, loc. cit., p. 71Google Scholar: … inter cetera quae tibi contra principem mundi artna Deo favenle contuli, quod potissimum est, ut Corpus Dominicum frequenter acciperes, indicavi… Frequent communion had become very rare since the end of the Early Christian period; cf. Dublanchy, E., article Communion Eucharistique (Fréquente) in Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique, vol. III, 1 (Paris, 1923) pp. 521 ff.Google Scholar Gregory VII was also greatly concerned with the Eucharistic heresy of Berengar of Tours which he condemned, even though he appears to have had some understanding for Berengar (cf. my book Theologie und Polilik vor dem Investiturstreit pp. 36 ff.Google Scholar; the interpretation given there of the relation between the Pope and Berengar needs some revision, especially since Erdmann, C., “Gregor VII. und Berengar von Tours,” Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken, vol. XXIX, 1937/1938, pp. 48 ff.Google Scholar, has proved that Berengar has forged some of the evidence for papal support alleged by him).

45 In this respect, then, I do not agree with Tellenbach's interpretation of Gregory VII's thought in his remarkable book Libertas (English translation Church, Stale and Christian Society, quoted in note 20), especially where he asserts (pp. 157 f. of the English edition) that “the old attitude of mistrust towards the world, the long-preserved aversion from the wickedness of earthly affairs found no echo in his vast creation” and that “even if he did occasionally use condemnatory expressions about the world, these are but relics of ideas he had left behind and are utterly foreign to his thought.” The opposite is more true; see the excellent pages in Arquillière, , Saint Grégoire VII, pp. 442Google Scholar ff. on Gregory VII's “sadness” with which correspond the bitter last words reported of him: “I have loved justice and hated iniquity, therefore I die as an exile” (Paul of Bemried, , Vita Cregorii VII, ed. Watterich, , Pontificum Romanorum Vitae, vol. I (Leipzig, 1862), p. 538)Google Scholar. It is equally erroneous to conclude from Gregory VH's exaltation of the Roman Church over the states that for him “secular government becomes an ecclesiastical office” (Tellenbach, , op. cit., p. 154Google Scholar; similarly Fliche, , La réforme grégorienne, vol. II, p. 413Google Scholar: La royauté, pour Grégoire VII, est un sacerdoce analogue à celui de I'évêque…). Again the opposite is more true. From Greg- ory VII onward the Church did its best to undermine the ecclesiastical character of the ruler, for reasons alluded to in this essay; see also, for instance, Kantorowicz, E. H., Laudes Regiae (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1946) pp. 142 ff.Google Scholar, for some materials and bibliography concerning, especially, the “long process” of “abrogation of the priestly essence resident in the emperor's office.”

46 See St. Aquinas, Thomas, In Polit., Opera Omnia, ed. Frette, S. E., vol. XXVI (Paris, L. Vives, 1875) p. 97Google Scholar: Secundo dicit (Aristotle)quod civitas est communilas perfecta, quod ex hoc probat quia cum omnis communicatio omnium hominum ordinetur ad aliquid necessarium vitae, ilia erit perfecta communilas quae ordinatur ad hoc quod homo habeal suficientur quicquid est necessarium ad vitam: talis autem communilas est civitas; cf. also De Regimine Principum I, 1Google Scholar. See in general de Lagarde, G., La naissance de I'esprit laique au déclin du moyen âge, vol. I (Paris, 1934)Google Scholar, chapter X: La renaissance aristoiélicienne ei la philosophie de I'etat, especially pp. 179 ff.Google Scholar

47 Cf. Gierke, O., trans. Maitland, F. W., Political Theories of the Middle Ages, pp. 113 f. and notes 22 ff.Google Scholar

48 Perhaps the best general acocunt of the survival and further elaboration of the two-power doctrine in the twelfth century can be found in the chapter on Sacerdoce el Royautc in Gilson, E., La philosophie au moyen âge, pp. 318 ff.Google Scholar

49 One of the best surveys of the relation between Roman Law and political theory in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries is that of de Lagarde, G., op. cit., vol. I, chapter IX. pp. 146 ff.Google Scholar

50 The literature on the genesis of this formula is extensive. Rivière, J., Le probleme de I'église el de I'éyat au temps de Phitipe le Bel, pp. 424 ff.Google Scholar, has shown that not the exact wording, but the essential meaning of the formula can be traced to the beginning of the 13th century, namely to Innocent III and, especially, to the canonist Alanus Anglicus. See also de Lagarde, , op. cit., vol. I, p. 165Google Scholar, and Ercole, F., Studi sulla dottrina politico e sul diritto pubblico di Bartolo, II: L'origine Francese delta formola “Civitas superiorem non recognoscens est sibi princeps,” in: Da Bartolo alT Althusio, pp. 157 ff.Google Scholar, where this whole question is thoroughly discussed. It must be noted, however, that the doctrine according to which the Empire is the world-state, superior to all kingdoms, maintained itself vigorously in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This is true not only for civilian lawyers and imperial publicists (as late as Dante, Ockham, Bartolus, etc.), but even for the canonist-Pope Boniface VIII who in his recognition of Albert I as German King and prospective Emperor, in 1303, set him over all kingdoms (Jerem. I, 10), subject only to the Pope, and reminded the French that de iure, i.e. according to Roman Law, they are and should be under the Emperor (cf. Monumenta Cermaniae Historica, Legum Sectio IV, Constitutions el Acta Publico Imperatorum el Regum, vol. IV, 1 (Hannover and Leipzig, 1906), p. 139).Google Scholar The creation of the triple-crowned tiara by Boniface VIII belongs in this context (see my article ‘Die Statue Bonifaz’; VIII. in der Lateranbasilika und die Entstehung der dreifach gekrönten Tiara,” Römische Quartalschrift, vol. XLII, 1934, pp. 35 ff.).Google Scholar

51 Cf. Ercole, F., Studi sulla dottrina politico e sul diritto pubblico di Bartolo, IGoogle Scholar: Impero universale e stati particolari: La Civilas sibi princeps e lo stato moderno, in op. cit., pp. 49 ff.Google Scholar

52 Cf. Sägmüller, J. B., “Die Idee von der Kirche als imperium Romanum im kanonischen Recht,” Theologische Quartalschrift, vol. LXXX (1898) pp. 69 ff.Google Scholar; Kantorowicz, E. H., Laudes Regiae, p. 139, note 90.Google Scholar

53 Cf. Boniface VIII's Bull Unam Sanctam of 18 November, 1302 (H., Denzinger. Enchiridion Symbolorum, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1937, no. 468, pp. 218 f.)Google ScholarPipino, Francesco, Chronicon, ed. Muratori, L. A., Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, vol. IX (Milan, 1726) p. 745Google Scholar, reports that Boniface VIII in receiving the envoys of the German King Albert I in 1298 exclaimed Ego sum caesar, ego sum imperator; if this is true, it was hardly more than an utterance made at the spur of the moment,' reflecting an already somewhat outdated view (cf. more or less in the same sense Boase, T. S. R., Boniface VIII (London, 1933), p. 217).Google Scholar

54 Rev. Dr. G. B. Phelan kindly draws my attention to the doubtful authenticity of this Exposition which, however, probably is based on St. Thomas' ideas if not on his actual words. Cf. Grabmann, M., Die Werke des hl. Thomas von Aquin, in Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie und Theologie des Mittelalters, vol. XXII, 1–2 (Münister, 1931) pp. 255 S.Google Scholar

55 II Thessal. II, 1–8Google Scholar: Rogamus autem vos fratres, per advenlum Domini nostri … ut non cito moveamini … quasi inslet dies Domini … quoniam nisi veneril discessio (interpreted as withdrawal from the Roman Empire) primum. … Et nunc quid delincai scitis ul revclalur in suo tempore … qui tenet nunc (interpreted as the Roman Emperor) teneat donee de medio fiat. Et tunc revelabitur ille iniquus (interpreted as the Antichrist) quern Dominus Jesus interficiel spirilu oris sui et destruel illustratione adventus sui eum. Cf, Expositioo in II Thessal. II, printed in older editions of the works of St. Aquinas, Thomas, e.g. Opera Omnia, ed. Morelles, P. C., vol. XVI (Antwerp, 1612) p. 172Google ScholarE: Sed quomodo est hoc? Quia iamdiu gentes recesserunt a Romano imperio et tamen necdum venit Antichristus? Dicendum est quod nondum cessavit, sed est commutalum de temporali in spirituale, ut dicit Leo papa in sermone de Aposlolis. Et ideo dicendum est quod discessio a Romano imperio debet inlelligi non solum a temporali, sed a spirituali, scilicet a fide catholica Romanae ecclesiae. This passage is also quoted in Bryce, J., The Holy Roman Empire (New York, London, 1911) p. 114Google Scholar, note 2, and in Poole, R. L., Illustrations of the History of Mediaeval Thought (London, 1884) p. 246Google Scholar, note 19, where the application of II Thess. II, 7 to the Roman Empire and the general belief in the duration of the Roman Empire to the end of the world are discussed. I am unable to identify St. Leo the Great's sermon referred to by the author of the Exposiiio, but related ideas occur in the interpretation of II Thess. II from St. Augustine De Civitate Dei XX, 18Google Scholar to Peter Lombard In Epis. II ad Thess. (Migne, , Patrol. Lat. vol. CXCII, col. 317 f.Google Scholar). The negative attitude to the belief in the eternity of the Roman Empire is shared by St. Thomas Aquinas' pupil Tolomeo (“Ptolemy”) of Lucca; for him the fourth world monarchy—since St. Jerome's Commentary to the Book of Daniel commonly identified with the Roman Empire and, at least since Otto of Freising, with the Holy Roman Empire—is followed by a fifth monarchy the monarchy of Christ, the Church (cf. De Regimine Principum III, 13 ff., ed. e.g. Mathis, J., as Divi Thomae Aquinaiis De Rtgimine Principum (Turin, 1924), pp. 65 ff.).Google Scholar

56 St. Aquinas, Thomas, Expositio in Ps. XLV, 3Google Scholar, Opera Omnia, vol. XVIII (Paris, Vives, 1876) p. 515Google Scholar b (referred to in Gierke, trans. Maitland, , op. cit. p. 124, note 40)Google Scholar: Haec civitas est ecclesia. Ps. LXXXVI: Cloriosa enirn dicia sunt de te civitas Dei. Tria sunt in isla civitate quae sunt de eius ratione.… Secundum est quod habeat suflicienliam per se … in civitate oportet invenire omnia necessaria ad vitam. Et haec sufficieniia est in ecclesia: quia quidquid necessarium est ad vitam spiritualem invenitur in ea.… Terlium est unitas civium: quia ab hoc, scilicet ab unitale civium, civitas nominatur; quia civitas quasi civium unitas. Et haec est in ecclesia.

57 See Gilson, E., Dante et la philosophie (Paris, 1939)Google Scholar for Dante's separation (not only distinction) of the realm of the state (the ideal form of which for him as well as for Ockham and the 14th century civilian lawyers such as Bartolus was still the Roman world-Empire, see also note 50) and of the Church (correspondence to his separation, not only distinction, of philosophy and theology). For Dante's concept of civilization, see Kern, F., Humana Civilitas (Leipzig, 1913)Google Scholar, Ercole, F., Per la genesi del pensiero politico di Dante: La base artistolelico-tomistica e I'idea dell umana civilta, in Il pensiero politico di Dante, vol. II (Milan, 1928)Google Scholar, Walsh, G. G., S.J., Dante Alighieri, Citizen of Christendom (Milwaukee, 1946).Google Scholar

58 Defensor Pacis, Dictio II, XXII, 5, ed. Previté-Orton, C. W. (Cambridge, 1928), p. 345Google Scholar: Uncle omnes apostolos, prophetas, doctores reliquosque fideles dicit (St. Paul) constituere corpus Chrisii quod est ecclesia tamquam reliqua membra, neminem autem sicut caput nisi solum Christum. This is an attempt to use St. Paul in order to deny the primacy of St. Peter and his successors. Similarly, the passage quoted in the following note obscures the fact that the doctrine of the Church as the Body of Christ had never been given up by the Church or the Papacy, in spite of all ecclesiastical in- stitutionalism and abuses connected with it.

59 Op. cit. pp. 116 ff.Google Scholar: In alia significatione importat hoc nomen ecclesia omnes presbyteros seu episcopos, diaconos el reliquos ministrantes. Et secundum hanc intentionem ecclesiasticae personae … dicuntur tantummodo clerici…. Adhuc autem in alia significatione apud modernos maxime importat hoc nomen ecclesia ministros illos, preshyteros seu episcopos atque diaconos qui ministrant et praesunt in metropolitana seu principali omnium ecclesiarum …: papa Romanus et cardinales ipsius qui iam ex usu quodam obiinuerunt did ecclesia.… Rurstim, secundum aliam significationem dicitur hoc nomen ecclesia, et omnium verissime … licet non iia famose seu secundum modernorum usum, de universitate fidelium credentium et invocantium nomen Christi.…

60 See above pp. 411 ff., also note 32.

61 Carlyle, Betide, A History of Mediaeval Political Theory in the West, vol. VI (1936)Google Scholar, see, especially, de Lagarde, , La naissance de Vesprit laique …, vol. II, pp. 240 ff.Google Scholar, and Passerin, A.d'Entrèves, The Mediaeval Contribution to Political Thought (Oxford, y) pp. 70Google Scholar ff. De Lagarde and d'Entrèves are no doubt right in pointing out that the Defensor Pacis doctrine on the Church is purely negative and has little to do with religious thought or feeling, but they seem to overlook the distorted use made by Marsilius of the traditional Corpus Christi doctrine. With regard to the ecclesiological and political doctrine of William of Ockham, recent research has tended to demonstrate that, in its principles, it was more conservative than that of Marsilius of Padua and, in part, formulated in opposition to the latter. Cf., for instance, Sullivan, J., “Marsiglio of Padua and William of Ockam,” The American Historical Review, vol. II (1897), pp. 409 ff., 593CrossRefGoogle Scholar ff.; de Lagarde, G., “Marsile de Padoue et Guillaume d'Ockam,” Revue des Sciences Religieuses, vol. XVII (1937), pp. 167 ff., 428 ff.Google Scholar, in future also vol. VII of La naissance deI'esprit laique.; Ph. Boehner, O.F.M., “Ockham's Political Ideas,” Review Of Politics, vol. V (1943) pp. 562 ff.Google Scholar; Scholz, R., Wilhelm von Ockham als politischer Denker and sein Breviloquium de Principatu Tyrannica, Schriften des Reichsinstituts für ältere deutsche Ceschichtslgunde (Monumenia Cermaniae Historica), vol. VIII (Leipzig, 1944)Google Scholar. Broadly speaking, Ockham did not attack Church government or papal primacy, but rather papal plenitude of power (plenitudo potestaiis). But it remains true that, like Marsilius, Ockham sharply separates the Ecclesia Universalis or Catholica, the Corpus Misticum (see Tractaha contra Johannem XXIIGoogle Scholar, ed. Scholz, R., Unbekannte kirchenpolitische Streitschriften aus der Zeii Ludmgs des Bayern, vol. II, p. 398Google Scholar, also Allegationes de Polestate Imperiali, ibid., pp. 426 f. and 428) from the Ecclesia Romana or Avinionica (see De Impera- torum et Pontificum Potestate, ed. Scholz, ibid., pp. 468 and 478). Against Ockham, Conrad of Megenberg, for instance, represents the ecclesiological doctrine, traditional since Gregory VII; cf. his Tractus contra Wilhelmum Occam, ed. Scholz, , op. cit., p. 367Google Scholar: … dicimus genus clericorum quandoque ecclesiam, et principem eius nonnumquam scripture nominant ecclesiam, scilicet papam, eo quod ille caput sit ecclesia Christianae …, also ibid., p. 365, where Conrad speaks of the Sacrosancta Romana et Universalis Ecclesia.