Conciliarism, Republicanism and Corporatism: the 1415-1420 Constitution of the Florentine Clergy*

1989 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
David S. Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Striking Feature ◽  
The Church

A striking feature of fifteenth-century historiography is the manner in which accounts of political thought in this period have tended to follow two basically distinct courses. One group of historians has pursued the avenue of humanist political theory, primarily in Florence, running from Coluccio Salutati and Leonardo Bruni at the beginning of the fifteenth century down to Machiavelli at its end, tracing the rise and decline of the republican ideal, or myth, in Florentine politics and from there into the mainstream of Western political theory. Another group has concerned itself with conciliar theory in the Church, pursuing its development through the councils of Pisa, Constance, and Basel to its demise in the early sixteenth century. These historians, too, have connected conciliar thought to the broader course of Europe's political development.

The Theory of Papal Monarchy in the Thirteenth Century: The Contribution of the Canonists

Traditio ◽  
1964 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 179-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Watt
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
The World ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Church ◽  
Christian Society

The work of the medieval canonists has always formed a significant chapter in the histories of medieval political thought. The law of the Church and its attendant juristic science forms the proper source material for the examination of the system of ideas which lay behind the functioning of papal government. Ecclesiastical jurisprudence was the practical branch of sapientia Christiana. It was concerned with a constitution and the exercise of power within its terms; with an organization and the methods by which it was to be run. It had of necessity to be articulate about the nature of the papacy, the constitutional and organizational linchpin. In consequence the canonists were the acknowledged theorists of papal primacy. To them rather than to the theologians belonged that segment of ecclesiology which treated of the nature of the Church as a visible corporate society under a single ruler. In that period of nearly a century which lay between the accession of Alexander III and the death of Innocent IV, canonists were required to register the increasingly numerous and more diverse applications of papal rulership to the problems of Christian society. The concept of papal monarchy came to be reexamined in academic literature because of the accelerating tempo of papal action. Under the stimulus of an active papacy, the canonists were led to examine many of the assumptions on which the popes based their actions and claims. The world of affairs conditioned the evolution of a political-theory, which in turn helped to shape the course of events.

scholarly journals COUNSELS OF PERFECTION AND REFORMATION POLITICAL THOUGHT

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-330
Author(s):  
SARAH MORTIMER
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Ethical Thought ◽  
Good Works ◽  
Reformation Theology ◽  
The Status ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Theological Critique ◽  
The Church

AbstractThe debate over counsels of perfection was a crucial aspect of the formation of political and ethical thought in the sixteenth century. It led both Protestants and Catholics to consider the status of law and to consider how far it obliged human beings, rather than simply permitting particular actions. From Luther onwards, Protestants came to see God's standards for human beings in absolute terms, rejecting any suggestion that there were good works which were merely counselled rather than commanded, and therefore not obligatory. This view of ethics underpinned the Protestant theological critique of Catholic doctrines of merit but it also shaped the distinctively Protestant account of natural law. It enabled Luther and his allies to defend magisterial control over the church, and it also formed a crucial element of Protestant resistance theory. By examining the Lutheran position on counsels, expressed in theological and political writings, and comparing it with contemporary Catholic accounts, this article offers a new perspective on Reformation theology and political thought.

The Orchard of Syon: An Introduction

Traditio ◽  
1958 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 269-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sister Mary Denise
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Medieval Literature ◽  
Devotional Literature ◽  
Critical Research ◽  
The Past ◽  
Spiritual Climate ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

By some inexplicable accident of literary history, The Orchard of Syon, in the nearly five hundred years of its existence, has not found its critical editor, nor is there any study of it available to readers. The first to rescue it from oblivion was Sir Richard Sutton, steward of Syon Monastery in the early sixteenth century, who, as Wynkyn de Worde informs us, found it ‘in a corner by it selfe’ and deemed it worthy of costly publication. Although it belongs to a body of medieval literature which has been in recent years the object of much critical research by medievalists, the work has, so far as modern readers are concerned, continued for over four centuries to lie ‘in a corner by it selfe.’ The energetic surge of vernacular devotional prose in the fourteenth century, not only in England, but in Italy, Germany, and Flanders — countries whose spiritual climate must have been especially favorable to mysticism — did not recede in the fifteenth century. Following upon the age of Chaucer, this century may seem to some present-day scholars literarily poor and unproductive, but it was a great age of English prose; an age, that is, when translations and experiments with original prose in the vernacular were building on the past, borrowing from other languages to meet the needs of the present, and shaping the prose of the future. The Orchard of Syon is an important specimen of this emerging prose, as well as of current devotional literature. Its connection with Syon Monastery, renowned in the history of England and of the Church, gives it added prestige.

The Contribution of Medieval Thought to the American Political Tradition

1956 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 462-474 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewart Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Natural Rights ◽  
The Body ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Full Understanding ◽  
Political Tradition ◽  
History Of ◽  
American Thought

That there was a continuity between medieval political thought and the body of systematic theory that surrounded the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution is by now a commonplace. But when we speak of the medieval contribution to the American political tradition, it is important to avoid the implication that what medieval thought contributed was identical with what American thought received. Between the close of the fifteenth century and the latter part of the eighteenth lie some two and a half centuries of crowded thought and experience, which more or less profoundly changed the meaning of concepts continuously in use. The more we learn of medieval theory, the clearer it becomes that it must be interpreted in its own terms rather than in terms of its derivatives. And the American political tradition, of course, cannot be fully understood in terms of its historic roots. Perhaps the chief service which the history of ideas can offer to political theory lies in providing material for the sharpening of concepts through a comparative analysis. For the full understanding of the meaning of an idea, one needs to know not only what it is, but also, I suggest, what it is not. Thus there may be value in an attempt to define the medieval meaning of some concepts that were a significant part of the medieval contribution: in particular, sovereignty, natural law and natural rights, and consent.

Battista Carioni da Crema (c.1460–1534) and the ‘Third Life’: Visions of Reform in Early Sixteenth-Century Italy*

2020 ◽  
Vol 135 (573) ◽  
pp. 303-336
Author(s):  
Querciolo Mazzonis
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Christian Life ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Religious Reform ◽  
Historical Significance ◽  
The Third ◽  
Spiritual Director ◽  
New Geography ◽  
The Church

Abstract This essay sheds new light on the spirituality and historical significance of the influential and controversial Dominican friar Battista Carioni da Crema (c.1460–1534). A popular spiritual writer, charismatic founder of devout associations such as the Barnabites, and a spiritual director of several well-known Catholic figures, including Gaetano Thiene, Battista’s significance has not yet been fully acknowledged. The essay considers his spirituality in the framework of reforming movements emerging in Italy in the first half of the sixteenth century. In dialogue with previous interpretations of Battista, the essay provides a novel and systematic analysis of his notion of perfection and concept of the Church. Synthesising ascetic and mystic spiritual influences rooted in the monastic and humanist culture of the fifteenth century, Battista presented a distinctive view of Christian life, which included an ecclesiological perspective and a new geography of the sacred. Defined as the ‘third life’ and conceived in a period of religious fluidity, it neither fitted emerging Lutheran ideas nor the orthodox Catholicism of the Roman Church. In addition, the essay argues that Battista’s proselytism can be seen as an attempt to reform society which preceded proposals for religious reform made by groups such as the Spirituali.

Oikos/Polis Conflict

1996 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 475-496
Author(s):  
Zeenath Kausar
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Western Society ◽  
The Third ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Church ◽  
Radical School

Conflict has been an inescapable phenomenon of Western society,particularly since the sixteenth century. If the era of the medieval West ischaracterized by the conflict between Pope and Emperor, which eventuallygave rise to modem nation-states, the postmodem era may rightly bedescribed as one of conflict between family and state.The postmodem conflict can be traced back to the oikos/polis conflictgenerated by Western political thought, which originated from Greekmisogyny. In the same way the church was overthrown in the conflict inthe medieval era, the family is being overthrown in the postmodern era bythe neo-Marxist radical school of postmodern feminism, which is alsocalled gender feminism.Quite contrary to gender feminists, contemporary Islamic revivalistsfind no conflict between the two institutions of family and state. They givedue recognition to both institutions and consider them as complementary toone another. This is quite observable in their views and activities in the areaof women’s issues, particularly that of women’s political participation.The aim of this paper is to examine the debate on women’s politicalparticipation between gender feminists and contemporary Islamic revivalists.The paper shall demonstrate how gender feminists prefer women’spolitical participation at the cost of deconstructing gender and family. Thecontemporary Islamic revivalists, however, support and encouragewomen’s political participation-but not at the expense of family and thedistinct identity of woman.The paper is divided into three parts. In the first and second parts, thearguments of gender feminists and contemporary Islamic revivalists onwomen’s political participation shall be analyzed. The third part shall identifyand discuss the differences between them. It is followed by a briefconclusion ...

The Anglo-Saxon Rood and other Features in the South Porch of St. Mary's Church, Breamore, Hampshire

1984 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 298-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Warwick Rodwell ◽  
E. Clive Rouse
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
Partial Reconstruction ◽  
South Wall ◽  
Primary Location ◽  
The Church ◽  
Upper Chamber

SummaryConservation in 1980 of the wall-paintings in the upper chamber of the south porch at Breamore church, where the notable Anglo-Saxon stone rood is sited, led to an archaeological study of the associated parts of the building. It was established that the rood is not in its primary location over the south door, but was only erected there in the fifteenth century. It is argued that the rood originally occupied a position over the western arch into the nave of the Saxon church, being enclosed within a chamber, now demolished. The Norman south doorway and added porch appear to be a refurbishment of an original entrance to the nave, although probably not the principal one, which, it is argued, lay at the west end. In the fifteenth century the church was repaired piecemeal, and this involved the demolition of the Saxon north porticus and western chamber, the partial reconstruction of the south porch and a lowering of its roof pitch, and the resiting of the displaced rood sculptures in the south wall of the nave above the porch. In the early sixteenth century the walls of the porch were raised, creating an upper storey which functioned as a chapel, probably dedicated in honour of St. Mary the Virgin. The rood then became a devotional object within the porch chapel, and an elaborate scheme of landscape painting was applied as a background, and was continued on the west wall of the chapel. The remaining areas of wall plaster in the chapel were painted with guttée-de-sang and sacred monograms. Later in the sixteenth century the Anglo-Saxon sculptures were deliberately defaced and their remains hidden by a layer of plaster. The re-exposure of the rood and paintings took place at an unrecorded date in the nineteenth century; the upper floor of the porch was removed in 1897, revealing the chapel to view from below.

Marsilius of Padua: The Defender of the Peace

2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 544-546
Author(s):  
Bettina Koch
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Undergraduate Education ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Marsilius Of Padua ◽  
History Of ◽  
Medieval Political Theory ◽  
The Church

Marsilius of Padua: The Defender of the Peace, Annabel Brett, ed. and trans., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. lxi, 569.Marsilius of Padua's Defensor Pacis is one of the key texts of medieval political theory. His thought forms a cornerstone of the transition from medieval to modern political reasoning and is one of the Western classics in the history of political ideas. This early fourteenth-century thinker is not only well known for his secular political thought but also for a theory of the Church that foreshadows the Reformation. The importance of Marsilius of Padua is demonstrated by a continuing and increasing scholarly interest in his ideas. Moreover, the growing number of translations and re-translations of Marsilius's writings indicates his significance for graduate and undergraduate education as well as for scholars whose primary expertise is not in medieval political thought.

scholarly journals Dating and Historical Context of a Greek Manuscript Containing Palaiologoi Emperors’ Portraits (Paris. gr. 1783)

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-95
Author(s):  
Marina A. Kurysheva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
National Library ◽  
Greek Manuscript ◽  
Joseph Ii ◽  
The Church

This article puts forward a new later dating of the Greek manuscript BnF, Paris. gr. 1783 kept in the National Library of France and containing portraits of emperors of the Palaiologoi dynasty. The manuscript contains important texts related to the Constantinople period of court history and culture. Historiographers used to date the manuscript to the fifteenth century according to the portrait of Patriarch Joseph II (†1439), a famous participant of the Ferraro-Florence Council, which can be seen in the Italian fresco paintings of the fifteenth century. Meanwhile, the study of the manuscript’s palaeographical features shows that it was written by an anonymous scribe from Crete who worked in Venice and Rome for Italian humanists in the middle — third quarter of the sixteenth century. The handwriting of the famous Cretan calligrapher, employee of Francis I’s library in Fontainebleau Angelus Vergecius, as well as some other scribes associated with him was typologically close to the handwriting of the main scribe of the manuscript. Analogies to this handwriting can also be seen in the handwriting of Manuel Provataris, another famous scribe of the epoch, a Cretan Greek from Rethymno, employee and copyist of the Vatican Library. The new palaeographic dating of the Paris. gr. 1783 manuscript changes the date of creation of portrait drawings of the Byzantine emperors of the Palaiologoi dynasty and Patriarch Joseph II. Also, it is important to change the dating of all texts contained in the manuscript including such important texts as one of the three lists of imperial tombs of the Church of Sts. Apostles in Constantinople, as well the list of the offices of the Byzantine court. The Paris. gr. 1783 manuscript should be excluded from the circle of Late Byzantine booklore and attributed to post-Byzantine book heritage.

scholarly journals Political Science in the Legacy of Classical Islamic Literature

1990 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-14
Author(s):  
Taha J. Al Alwani
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
The Past ◽  
Relevant Today ◽  
Political Analysis ◽  
History Of ◽  
Development Methods

In my own limited knowledge I know of no specialized studies in ourclassical legacy which could be described today as political thought, or astreatises on political systems, international relations, systems of government,the history of diplomacy, political development, methods of political analysis,political theory, political planning, or any of the other categories currentlystudied as a part of contemporary knowledge.Nonetheless, many of the issues discussed on these subjects were treatedin the classical legacy through the medium of fiqh (laws of Islam), whichin its long history touched upon many of the subjects studied today in thesocial sciences. Likewise, many of the questions dealt with in the field ofpolitical science were addressed by the early scholars of Islam within theframework of their writings on classical Fiqh of al Ahkam al Sultaniyah (thePrecepts of Power). Perhaps the book written by Shaykh Ibn Taymiyah, alSiyasah al Shar’iyah, was one of the most distinctive efforts in this directionas well as the book by al Khatib al Iskafi, Lutf al Tadbir, which also dealtwith certain issues which remain relevant today. Similar to such works areSuluk al Malik Fi Tadbir al Mamalik, Bada’i al-Silk, and others.These works show that the meaning of politics to the Muslim mind, andas envisioned by Islam, involves making arrangements for mankind inaccordance with the values prescribed by Allah (SWT) for the realizationof His purposes in creation, and in fulfillment of the trust of vicegerency,the duties of civilization, and the responsibility of the Ummah to act as awitness unto all mankind in its capacity as the “Middlemost Nation.”“Making arrangements” includes reading the past and learning its lessonsas well as interpreting, understanding, and analyzing the present in the lightof those lessons. Other elements included in “making arrangements” areplanning for the future and benefiting from all scientific knowledge that clarifies ...

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