Lineages of European Political Thought: Explorations along the Medieval/Modern Divide from John of Salisbury to Hegel

401 Pages·2009·1.43 MB·English

by  Cary Nederman

Lineages of European Political ought

Lineages of European Political
ought
 Explorations along the Medieval/
Modern Divide from John of Salisbury to Hegel
Cary J. Nederman

The Catholic University of America Press
Washington, D.C.
Copyright © 2009
The Catholic University of America Press
All rights reserved
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum re-
quirements of American National Standards for Information
Science—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1984.
∞
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nederman, Cary J.
Lineages of European political thought : explorations along
the medieval/modern divide from John of Salisbury to Hegel
/ Cary J. Nederman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8132-1581-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Political
science—Europe—History. 2. Political science—Early
works to 1800. 3. Philosophy, Medieval. I. Title.
JC111.N43 2009
320.092'24—dc22 2008042403
 For Karen Lynn Bollermann,
rough good times—and bad

CoNteNt S
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction. Why Study Medieval Political Thought? xiii
PArt I. Historiographies of the Early European
T radition: Continuity and Change
1. The Legacy of Walter Ullmann 3
2. Quentin Skinner’s State: Historical Methodology
and the Formation of a European Tradition 13
3. Pathologies of Continuity: The Neo-Figgisites 29
4. A Middle Path: Alexander Passerin d’Entrèves 49
PArt II. Dissenting Voices and the Limits of Power
5. Toleration and Community: Functionalist
Foundations of Liberty 63
6. The Royal Will and the Baronial Bridle:
The Bractonian Contribution 81
7. Political Representation: Modern Theory and
Medieval Practices 99
8. For Love and Money: Theorizing Revolt in
Fourteenth-Century Europe 122
PArt III. Republican Self-Governance and
Universal Empire
9. Brunetto Latini’s Commerical Republicanism 141
10. Marsiglio of Padua: Between Empire and Republic 160
11. Translatio Imperii: Medieval and Modern 177
12. Christianity and Republicanism: Another Look 190
viii CoNteNt S
PArt IV. The Virtues of Necessity: Economic Principles of Politics
13. The Origins of “Policy” in Twelfth-Century England 201
14. Economic Liberty and the Politics of Wealth 222
15. Money and Community: Nicole Oresme 235
16. Christine de Pizan’s Expanding Body Politic 248
PArt V. Modern Receptions of Medieval Ideas
17. The Persistence of Economic Nationalism: John Fortescue 261
18. Virtù, Foresight, and Grace: Machiavelli’s Medieval Moments 277
19. Arguing Sovereignty in the Seventeenth Century:
Bracton’s Readers 304
20. Hegel on the Medieval Foundations of the Modern State 323
Bibliography 343
Index 369
ACkNowledgmeNt S
I never intended to make a career out of the study of medieval
political theory. But twenty-five years after I completed a disser-
tation on the development of national traditions of state theo-
ry in France and England between 1250 and 1350, I find myself
still churning the waters of a field of research that continues to
be compelling and infinitely rewarding. Many friends and fellow
scholars have nurtured me over the past quarter of a century in
pursuing this endeavor. The litany of those to whom I owe a debt
begins with my doctoral supervisors, John Brückmann and Neal
Wood (now, sadly, both deceased), and runs through colleagues
of long standing, such as Kate Forhan, Paul Sigmund, Constan-
tin Fasolt, Marcia Colish, Walter Nicgorski, Jim Muldoon, Ant-
ony Black, John O. Ward, and Constant Mews, as well as of more
recent vintage, including Bettina Koch, Takashi Shogimen, Ger-
son Moreno-Riaño, and Vasileios Syros. Finally, my colleagues in
political theory at Texas A & M—Judy Baer, Lisa Ellis, Ed Portis,
and Diego Von Vacano—have been an important source of sup-
port and also criticism of many of the ideas contained in this vol-
ume. I hold none of the above responsible for my mistakes (which
I may perhaps be seen to be repeating in the present book), but I
do thank them for rendering my work less error-ridden as a result
of their careful and patient appraisals of my scholarship.
The impetus for this volume came from David McGonagle,
director of the Catholic University of America Press. Dave not
only solicited the manuscript but convinced me of the viability
of drawing together a series of my investigations, published and
unpublished, around the theme of the relationship between me-
dieval and modern categories in the history of Western political
thought.
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