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The Mediaeval Theory of the Tyrant

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Wilfrid Parsons
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Extract

In that famous passage in his De Civitate Dei which has been called the first “Mirror of Princes,” St. Augustine outlines the qualities of the good king. The passage is toolong to quote here, but certain of the qualities listed are pertinent to this discussion. He tells us that kings are happy

If they rule justly; … if they make their power the handmaid of His majesty by using it for the greatest possible extension of His worship; … if more than their own they love that kingdom in which they are not afraid to have partners; if they are slow to punish, quick to pardon; if they apply that punishment as necessary to government and the defense of the republic, and not to gratify their own enmity; … if they prefer to govern depraved desires rather than any nation whatsoever; and if they do all these things, not through ardent desire of empty glory, but through love of eternal felicity, not neglecting to offer to the true God, who is their God, for their sins the sacrifices of humility, contrition, and prayer.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , April 1942 , pp. 129 - 143
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1942

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References

1 De Civitate Dei, V, 24. ML 41, 170–1. Dods' translation.

2 Cf. De Bono Conjugali, 16. ML 40, 384–5; In Psalm. XXXIV, 7. ML 37, 1653; Epist. CV. ML 33, 398.

3 Rom. 13, 1.

4 Ad Anastasium. ML 62, 68.

5 Moralia in job, XXI, 22. ML 76, 203. Cf. Regula S. P. Benedicti, cap. 64: “sciatque (abbas) sibi oportere prodesse magis quam praeesse.” Augustine: Sermo 140, 1; De Civ. Dei, XIX, 19; Contra Faustum, XXII, 56.

6 Epistola XI, 31. ML 77, 1282, and the parallel passage in Epist. X, 51. ML 77, 1107.

7 Varianum Lib. VIII, Ep. 13. ML 69, 746.

8 Ibid. Lib. X, Ep. 16. ML 69, 809.

9 Expos, in Psalm. CXXXVII, 5. ML 70, 981.

10 Expos. in Psalm L, 5. ML 70, 360.

11 Etymologiae, Lib. IX, iii, 4. ML 83, 342. He attributed the saying to Horace.

12 Sententiae, Lib. III, cap. xlviii, 7. ML 83, 748.

13 Coll. Can. S. Isidori, c. 49. ML 84, 385.

14 Depositio Ludovici. Monumenta Germanica Historica (MGH). Leg., sect, ii, vol. ii, no. 197.

15 Hincmar of Reims remarked later that “the Bishops, following a saner judgment and by consent of the people” restored him to power.” De Divortio Lotharii, q. VI. ML 125, 756.

16 Epist. ad Carolum Regem. MGH. Epist. IV, 503.

17 Epist. 18. MGH. Epist. IV, 44.

18 De Rectoribus Christianis, II, 3. ML 103, 293.

19 De Divortio Lotharii et Tetbergae, Quaest. VI. ML 125, 756.

20 De Universo, XVI, 3. ML III, 445.

21 Epist. 257. MGH. Epist. IV, 301.

22 Electio Karoli, 2. MGH. Leg. sect, ii, vol. ii, 276.

23 Electio Bosonis. MGH., ibid., ni. 284.

24 Epist. XX. ML 126, 119.

25 De Institutione Regia, VIII. ML 106, 294.

26 Rom. 13, 1.

27 Epist. 15. MGH. Epist. V, 223.

28 MGH. Leg. sect, ii, vol. ii, 205.

29 MGH. ibid. nos. 242, 275.

30 Ad Gebehardum, XXX. MGH. Libelli de Lite, I, 365.

31 ibid. XLIII.

32 ibid. XLVIII.

33 Medieval Political Theory in the West, III, 168. His further remark, however, thatManegold “is giving the first definite expression to the conception which came in later times tobe known as the theory of the social contract,” is a strange error. Rousseau's social contract is a pact made among the people, by each citizen with all the others. The medieval compact is one made between the people and its rulers, a very different thing. The basis of the former is subjective will; that of the latter is objective justice.

35 Etymologiae, V, 10. ML 82, 203.

34 Vita Cregorii VII, 86. ML 148, 85.

36 Proverbia Wipponis. ML 142, 1259.

37 Lines 871–872, Ed. Kingsford.

38 Op. Cit. V, 101.

39 For Gregory, cf. Orthodoxa Defensio Imperials, 9. MGH. L. de L., II, 540; For Peter Crassus, cf. Defensio Henrici IV. MGH. ibid., I, 450.

40 Certain unwary writers, reading in the writings of such men as Jonas, Peter Damian, Otto of Freising, Innocent III, Bernard of Clairvaux, etc., that the Church has the two swords, think of the Church in the sense of the Pope and the clergy; whereas it seems to me that the sense is clear that the Pope and the Emperor are two powers in the Church, each having one sword, though the sword is to be drawn ad nutum Pontificis. But the question deserves a separate treatment.

41 De Regia Potestate et Sacerdotali Dignitate, 9. MGH. L. de L., II, 468.

42 Summa Gloria, 27. MGH. L. de L., III, 80.

43 Polycraticus, VIII, 7. ML 199, 777–8.

44 Ibid., 20. ML ibid., 795.

45 Comm. in Politic., III, lect. 5.

46 Ethics, VIII, 10.

47 In Lib. II Sent., dist. xliv, q. 1, a. 3.

48 De Regimine, III.

49 Summa, I–II, 105, 1, ad 5.

50 II–II. 42, 1, ad 3.

51 In Lib. II Sent, ibid., q. 1, a2, ad 4.

52 II–II, 69, 4 in c.

53 In Lib. II Sent, ibid., q. 2, a. 2, ad 5.

54 De Regimine, VI.

55 II–II, 12, 2 in c.

56 Expos. in Epist. ad Rom., c. xiii, lect 1.

57 I–II, 96, 4, in c.

58 De Regimine Principum, II, 9.

59 De Monarchia, I, 12. Trans, ed. Dent, pp. 158–9.

60 Op. cit., 18.

61 De Regimine Principum, III, 2, 29.

62 Suarez will form the subject for a separate article.