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A History of Medieval Political Thought: 300–1450
Incorporating research previously unavailable in English, this clear guide gives a synthesis of the latest scholarship providing the historical and intellectual context for political ideas. This accessible and lucid guide to medieval political thought * gives a synthesis of the latest scholarship
* incorporates the results of research until now unavailable in English
* focuses on the crucial primary source material
* provides the historical and intellectual context for political ideas. The book covers four periods, each with a different * 300-750 - Christian ideas of rulership
* 750-1050 - the Carolingian period and its aftermath
* 1050-1290 - the relationship between temporal and spiritual power, and the revived legacy of antiquity
* 1290-1450 - the confrontation with political reality in ideas of church and of state, and in juristic thought. Canning has produced an ideal introductory text for undergraduate and postgraduate students of the period.
* incorporates the results of research until now unavailable in English
* focuses on the crucial primary source material
* provides the historical and intellectual context for political ideas. The book covers four periods, each with a different * 300-750 - Christian ideas of rulership
* 750-1050 - the Carolingian period and its aftermath
* 1050-1290 - the relationship between temporal and spiritual power, and the revived legacy of antiquity
* 1290-1450 - the confrontation with political reality in ideas of church and of state, and in juristic thought. Canning has produced an ideal introductory text for undergraduate and postgraduate students of the period.
272 pages, Paperback
First published November 14, 1996
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July 10, 2019
I slurped up the residual 170 odd pages of an absorbing book I had commenced reading almost a fortnight back. The product description states: ‘Incorporating research previously unavailable in English, this clear guide gives a synthesis of the latest scholarship providing the historical and intellectual context for political ideas.’ A tad hyped description, but an ‘all right’ read even so.
One of the first grand illustrations of the working of new forces in political thought of the West in the later medieval age is illustrated in the unparalleled volume of writings. Within a period of little more than fifty years, from 1052 to 1112, not less than 115 books appeared. Of the total, 50 managed to uphold the regal claim. The number may appear nothing to a modern reader. However, we have to consider it in the context of the medieval ages when there appeared no philosophical swathe for over six centuries. This should not mean that thought on political matters was relatively torpid during this time. Quite the reverse, the civil lawyers produced works of jurisprudence on the basis of Roman law. More than that, the controversy of the Church-State relationship continued unabated. All this contained a political philosophy in rudiment, but it was not reduced to the unity of a philosophical system until the time of the great scholastics of the 13th century, of whom the chief was Thomas Aquinas. As such, numerous important ideas, dominated the work of the intervening period, such as natural law, controversy of Church-State relationship, the rise of feudalism and so on. Canning touches in brief upon the political ideas of most of the leading thinkers of the Middle ages, from John of Salisbury, Marsilius of Padua, William of Ockham, Augustine, and Dante to Thomas Aquinas and John of Paris.
Canning divides his book into four parts, covering four periods, each with a different focus: a) 300-750 - Christian ideas of rulership; b) 750-1050 - the Carolingian period and its aftermath; c) 1050-1290 - the relationship between temporal and spiritual power, and the revived legacy of antiquity and d) 1290-1450 - the confrontation with political reality in ideas of church and of state, and in juristic thought. In this admirable survey of medieval political thought, the author touches on almost every facet of political theory this age went on to spur up. He shows, how medieval natural law was inherited from the Roman law, the Stoic philosophy, and developed under the control of the Christian doctrines.
A chief issue by which men's thoughts were governed in this period is the controversy of Church-State relationship. As the author shows, it is the principle of the separate spheres of secular and spiritual authority. Each is legitimate and therefore, each ought to be obeyed; but each must be restricted from encroaching upon the proper domain of the order.’ In this way, humankind came under two authorities - the Church and the State. The church was as universal as the empire and included all men. Both had their own laws, their own organ of legislation and administration and their own proper rights.
This relationship went to ascertain a theory of strict dualism in society. As St. Paul said, "Let every soul be in subjection to the 'higher powers: for there is no power but of God; and the powers that be are ordained of God." Then "Fear God. Honour the King." Subsequently, the question of Church-State relationship' received dealing at the hands of St. Augustine too, who held that the dissimilarity between spirituals and temporals is an essential part of the Christian faith and consequently a rule for every Government following the Christian dispensation.
Gelasius in the late fifth century laid down in fact the principle in a form to which the later writers constantly recurred. Nearly seven centuries after Gelasius, the Stephen of Tournai advocated the same teaching when he said, "Within one commonwealth and" under one king are two peoples; as there are two peoples, there are two ways of life as there are two lives, there are two authorities, as there are two; authorities, there is a two-fold order of jurisdiction. The Commonwealth is the Church; the king of the commonwealth is Christ: the two peoples are the two orders in the Church, clerics and laymen; the two ways of life are the spiritual and the carnal, the two authorities are the priesthood and the kingship; the two Cold jurisdictions is the divine law and the human. Give to each its due, and all will be in harmony." This implied the existence or two independent authorities which are also dependent upon each other. These two authorities were secular and spiritual. The medieval age disputes centered round this argument.
The disputes concerned the application of the principle of dualism. "But the difficulty arose," says Canning "from the lack of a clear definition as to what was secular and what was spiritual”. The ground on which the great churchmen attacked princes was that the latter were encroaching upon the spiritual domain and the plea or the princes always was that the churchmen were mingling in secular affairs. The relation between the spiritual and temporal powers absorbed the interest of the thinkers throughout the middle ages.
The disputants went on arguing their own cases. Some had propounded the predominance of the Empire over the Papacy while others held just the opposite. Thus in the 11th and 12th centuries, the intellectual energies of Europe were engaged for a long period in what is known as the "investiture controversy.
The claims of the Popes if carried to logical conclusion would destroy the system of dualism and make king subordinate to the Pope. The Pope, as head of the Church, possessed the undisputed right for sufficient cause to excommunicate any of its members, and therefore, to excommunicate emperors and king. But to excommunicate the king was tantamount to absolving his Christian subjects from their oath of allegiance to him. It was therefore, equivalent to a claim to depose the king. Thus an almost unlimited authority might be ascribed to be Pope over the secular powers. Still it might be argued that this was no encroachment, but a legitimate exercise of his purely spiritual jurisdiction.
The Rise of Feudalism dominated the Middle Ages as completely as the city state dominated antiquity. It was indeed the most influential of all the medieval institutions having its impact upon the legal, political and social ideas of the people during the Middle Ages. Feudalism affected the life of every class in the medieval community, and it even affected profoundly the position of at least the greater clergy, the bishops and there are indeed, few aspects of medieval life which were not touched by it.
The author of this volume shows that medieval thought in contrast with the modern or ancient thought is characterized by the idea of Monarchy. Monarchy and medieval theory were intimately connected with the doctrine of the Divine origin of kingship. All the kings were considered to be the agents of God and had, therefore, the divine right to govern the people. For this self-same reason, Barker also holds that "the Middle Ages are a time of kingship rather than of states."
Prior to coming across this volume, yours truly has had the delight of reading into philosophers like Gierke, Figgis and Maitland, all of whom have pointed out the subsistence of the theory of corporations in the Middle Ages. Canning is no exception. Human groups like cities, guilds, and Folk were supposed to possess a Group Mind or Group Personality. Even the Church and state were supposed to be Corporations. The Medieval theory of Corporations believed in the perception of ‘fictitious personality’ of the group. In point of fact, the medieval thinkers borrowed the idea of Juristic personality of group from Roman law. The Church was conceived as a corporation consisting of all beliefs and endowed with the decisive and residuary powers. Correspondingly, the king was deemed to be nothing more than the president of the Corporation.
Every student of medieval political thought is aware of the fact that the political theory of the Middle Age, is officially separated from that of Aristotle and Plato and from that of the 19th century, by one great conjecture that is, that the institutions of civilised society are founded upon 'Convention', not upon 'nature'. Canning too shows that the Roman law regarded state, as the product of contract between the king and the subjects. As such, they believed in the artificiality of the state. Similarly did the Christian fathers who held that state originated in the sin of man.
Towards the closing chapters of the book, the author brings up the fact that there is nothing more distinctive of Middle Ages, than the nonexistence of any theory of sovereignty. Political authority in the Middle Ages was never conceived as absolute. It was rather limited by the principles of divine reason and moral order. The Divine reason as represented by the Church and Pope was a brutal limitation upon the political authority. Law of nature had its swing in the Middle Ages and made it unfeasible for the political authority to be sovereign. Moreover, Canning points out that the Theory of Representation had its starting point in the Middle Ages. It was in the creation of a system which could be conceived of as representing the whole community that the political development of Middle Ages culminated. Marsiglio of Padua advocated the plan of a representative Church Council in which all provinces of sections of community were to be represented compliant with the number and quality of its inhabitants.
One of the bottomline theories of this book is the verity that Christianity had become the official religion of the greater part of the world and at the same time had its plea for the rest of the World. We cannot refute, therefore, that the medieval thought though unpolitical in nature, had the keynote of universalism.
This book offers nothing original to someone who has read extensively into the middle ages. A clean approach, fresh set of headings and very reasoned language is all that you could take away from this book. A three and a half on five I’ld say.
One of the first grand illustrations of the working of new forces in political thought of the West in the later medieval age is illustrated in the unparalleled volume of writings. Within a period of little more than fifty years, from 1052 to 1112, not less than 115 books appeared. Of the total, 50 managed to uphold the regal claim. The number may appear nothing to a modern reader. However, we have to consider it in the context of the medieval ages when there appeared no philosophical swathe for over six centuries. This should not mean that thought on political matters was relatively torpid during this time. Quite the reverse, the civil lawyers produced works of jurisprudence on the basis of Roman law. More than that, the controversy of the Church-State relationship continued unabated. All this contained a political philosophy in rudiment, but it was not reduced to the unity of a philosophical system until the time of the great scholastics of the 13th century, of whom the chief was Thomas Aquinas. As such, numerous important ideas, dominated the work of the intervening period, such as natural law, controversy of Church-State relationship, the rise of feudalism and so on. Canning touches in brief upon the political ideas of most of the leading thinkers of the Middle ages, from John of Salisbury, Marsilius of Padua, William of Ockham, Augustine, and Dante to Thomas Aquinas and John of Paris.
Canning divides his book into four parts, covering four periods, each with a different focus: a) 300-750 - Christian ideas of rulership; b) 750-1050 - the Carolingian period and its aftermath; c) 1050-1290 - the relationship between temporal and spiritual power, and the revived legacy of antiquity and d) 1290-1450 - the confrontation with political reality in ideas of church and of state, and in juristic thought. In this admirable survey of medieval political thought, the author touches on almost every facet of political theory this age went on to spur up. He shows, how medieval natural law was inherited from the Roman law, the Stoic philosophy, and developed under the control of the Christian doctrines.
A chief issue by which men's thoughts were governed in this period is the controversy of Church-State relationship. As the author shows, it is the principle of the separate spheres of secular and spiritual authority. Each is legitimate and therefore, each ought to be obeyed; but each must be restricted from encroaching upon the proper domain of the order.’ In this way, humankind came under two authorities - the Church and the State. The church was as universal as the empire and included all men. Both had their own laws, their own organ of legislation and administration and their own proper rights.
This relationship went to ascertain a theory of strict dualism in society. As St. Paul said, "Let every soul be in subjection to the 'higher powers: for there is no power but of God; and the powers that be are ordained of God." Then "Fear God. Honour the King." Subsequently, the question of Church-State relationship' received dealing at the hands of St. Augustine too, who held that the dissimilarity between spirituals and temporals is an essential part of the Christian faith and consequently a rule for every Government following the Christian dispensation.
Gelasius in the late fifth century laid down in fact the principle in a form to which the later writers constantly recurred. Nearly seven centuries after Gelasius, the Stephen of Tournai advocated the same teaching when he said, "Within one commonwealth and" under one king are two peoples; as there are two peoples, there are two ways of life as there are two lives, there are two authorities, as there are two; authorities, there is a two-fold order of jurisdiction. The Commonwealth is the Church; the king of the commonwealth is Christ: the two peoples are the two orders in the Church, clerics and laymen; the two ways of life are the spiritual and the carnal, the two authorities are the priesthood and the kingship; the two Cold jurisdictions is the divine law and the human. Give to each its due, and all will be in harmony." This implied the existence or two independent authorities which are also dependent upon each other. These two authorities were secular and spiritual. The medieval age disputes centered round this argument.
The disputes concerned the application of the principle of dualism. "But the difficulty arose," says Canning "from the lack of a clear definition as to what was secular and what was spiritual”. The ground on which the great churchmen attacked princes was that the latter were encroaching upon the spiritual domain and the plea or the princes always was that the churchmen were mingling in secular affairs. The relation between the spiritual and temporal powers absorbed the interest of the thinkers throughout the middle ages.
The disputants went on arguing their own cases. Some had propounded the predominance of the Empire over the Papacy while others held just the opposite. Thus in the 11th and 12th centuries, the intellectual energies of Europe were engaged for a long period in what is known as the "investiture controversy.
The claims of the Popes if carried to logical conclusion would destroy the system of dualism and make king subordinate to the Pope. The Pope, as head of the Church, possessed the undisputed right for sufficient cause to excommunicate any of its members, and therefore, to excommunicate emperors and king. But to excommunicate the king was tantamount to absolving his Christian subjects from their oath of allegiance to him. It was therefore, equivalent to a claim to depose the king. Thus an almost unlimited authority might be ascribed to be Pope over the secular powers. Still it might be argued that this was no encroachment, but a legitimate exercise of his purely spiritual jurisdiction.
The Rise of Feudalism dominated the Middle Ages as completely as the city state dominated antiquity. It was indeed the most influential of all the medieval institutions having its impact upon the legal, political and social ideas of the people during the Middle Ages. Feudalism affected the life of every class in the medieval community, and it even affected profoundly the position of at least the greater clergy, the bishops and there are indeed, few aspects of medieval life which were not touched by it.
The author of this volume shows that medieval thought in contrast with the modern or ancient thought is characterized by the idea of Monarchy. Monarchy and medieval theory were intimately connected with the doctrine of the Divine origin of kingship. All the kings were considered to be the agents of God and had, therefore, the divine right to govern the people. For this self-same reason, Barker also holds that "the Middle Ages are a time of kingship rather than of states."
Prior to coming across this volume, yours truly has had the delight of reading into philosophers like Gierke, Figgis and Maitland, all of whom have pointed out the subsistence of the theory of corporations in the Middle Ages. Canning is no exception. Human groups like cities, guilds, and Folk were supposed to possess a Group Mind or Group Personality. Even the Church and state were supposed to be Corporations. The Medieval theory of Corporations believed in the perception of ‘fictitious personality’ of the group. In point of fact, the medieval thinkers borrowed the idea of Juristic personality of group from Roman law. The Church was conceived as a corporation consisting of all beliefs and endowed with the decisive and residuary powers. Correspondingly, the king was deemed to be nothing more than the president of the Corporation.
Every student of medieval political thought is aware of the fact that the political theory of the Middle Age, is officially separated from that of Aristotle and Plato and from that of the 19th century, by one great conjecture that is, that the institutions of civilised society are founded upon 'Convention', not upon 'nature'. Canning too shows that the Roman law regarded state, as the product of contract between the king and the subjects. As such, they believed in the artificiality of the state. Similarly did the Christian fathers who held that state originated in the sin of man.
Towards the closing chapters of the book, the author brings up the fact that there is nothing more distinctive of Middle Ages, than the nonexistence of any theory of sovereignty. Political authority in the Middle Ages was never conceived as absolute. It was rather limited by the principles of divine reason and moral order. The Divine reason as represented by the Church and Pope was a brutal limitation upon the political authority. Law of nature had its swing in the Middle Ages and made it unfeasible for the political authority to be sovereign. Moreover, Canning points out that the Theory of Representation had its starting point in the Middle Ages. It was in the creation of a system which could be conceived of as representing the whole community that the political development of Middle Ages culminated. Marsiglio of Padua advocated the plan of a representative Church Council in which all provinces of sections of community were to be represented compliant with the number and quality of its inhabitants.
One of the bottomline theories of this book is the verity that Christianity had become the official religion of the greater part of the world and at the same time had its plea for the rest of the World. We cannot refute, therefore, that the medieval thought though unpolitical in nature, had the keynote of universalism.
This book offers nothing original to someone who has read extensively into the middle ages. A clean approach, fresh set of headings and very reasoned language is all that you could take away from this book. A three and a half on five I’ld say.
January 3, 2023
Canning's book is a perfect summary if you would like to receive basic insight into how political thought worked in the middle ages in Christian Europe. By middle ages, meaning from the start of the barbarian kingdoms on the ruins of the Western Roman Empire up until the 15th century. I enjoyed the first part of the book immensely about the lesser-known times of the Carolingians, it was easy to read and was illuminating about how these kingdoms came about, also shedding light on the fact that the simple name of 'barbarian kingdoms' is misleading, as these were Christian Kingdoms to the letter.
As we move on through the re-discovery of Aristotle first through arabic sources and the increasingly law-focused theological arguments of the 13th and 14th centuries make the content less enjoyable, but certainly a good summary of how the imperial and papal ideologies clashed with each other on the topic of earthly and heavenly sovereignity among others. Ending with the reform of the church through conciliarism through the synodal process.
I would say this is essential reading to all medievalists or those who would like to understand a little bit more of those times and how political thought worked back then.
As we move on through the re-discovery of Aristotle first through arabic sources and the increasingly law-focused theological arguments of the 13th and 14th centuries make the content less enjoyable, but certainly a good summary of how the imperial and papal ideologies clashed with each other on the topic of earthly and heavenly sovereignity among others. Ending with the reform of the church through conciliarism through the synodal process.
I would say this is essential reading to all medievalists or those who would like to understand a little bit more of those times and how political thought worked back then.
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