The Political Thought of Pierre d'Ailly: The Voluntarist Tradition

383 Pages·1964·16.429 MB·English

by  Francis Oakley

YALE HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS
MISCELLANY 8l
David Horne, Editor
PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION
OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

The Political Thought of Pierre PA illy
THE VOLUNTARIST TRADITION
BY FRANCIS OAKLEY
NEW HAVEN AND LONDON, YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1964
Copyright © 1964 by Yale University.
Designed by Crimilda Pontes,
set in Baskerville type,
and printed in the United States of America by
The Vail-Ballou Press, Inc., Binghamton, N.Y.
All rights reserved. This book may not be
reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form
fexcept by reviewers for the public press),
without written permission from the publishers.
Library of Congress catalog card number: 64-20928
In Me?nory of My Father
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Book titles are not always satisfactory media for the communi¬
cation of intentions, and the title of this book is no more satis¬
factory than most. It means, nevertheless, what it says. The
book is a study in the political thought of Pierre d’Ailly. As
such, it is both less and more than a study of his ecclesiology.
It is less in that it ignores, brackets, or fails to do justice to
those elements in his thinking that are relevant to the Church
alone and not even indirectly to other political societies—as,
for example, his views on the locus of infallibility within the
Church. It is more in that it concerns itself not merely with
d’Ailly’s Conciliar views but also with those political and legal
ideas which he formulated independently of his more famous
ecclesiastical theories and prior to them.
The book speaks the language of an historian and it is di¬
rected chiefly to historians, perhaps not only to medieval his¬
torians. It is my hope, however, that it will also have something
to say to those whose primary interests center on philosophy or
political theory—at least to those among them who, unlike
the philosophy student of my acquaintance, do not “read Aris¬
totle only in order to refute him,” but believe that the long
history of Western thought is something more than a dreary
repository of “quasi-answers to pseudo-problems,” or a collec¬
tion of outmoded arguments congruent only to the pressing
Vll
PREFACE
needs of philosophers in search of therapeutic straw men.
It would make lengthy and, I fear, tedious reading if I were
to acknowledge individually all the obligations incurred in the
course of preparing this study. But some debts are outstanding.
I must thank the Prime Warden and Wardens of the Worship¬
ful Company of Goldsmiths for the award of the travelling
research scholarship which enabled me to spend two fruitful
years at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto,
and I must thank the Faculty members of the Institute, par¬
ticularly Professor J. Reginald O’Donnell, for their unfailing
kindness to me. I must thank Professors Roland H. Bainton
and Alexander Passerin d’Entreves of Yale University and my
colleague at Williams, Daniel D. O’Connor, for reading in
whole or in part one or other of the versions of the book and
for giving me the benefit of their help, criticism, and advice.
I must thank the Editors of the Journal of British Studies for
permitting me to include in the final chapter of the book ma¬
terial originally published in article form in that journal. I
must thank the President and Trustees of Williams College
for grants from the Class of 1900 Fund towards the cost of
preparing the manuscript for the press. I must thank my wife
for the countless reasons and more for which husbands who try
to write books should thank their wives. Finally, I welcome
the chance to acknowledge the heavy debt I owe to the patience,
generosity, and understanding of my mother and of my late
father.
F. O.
Williamstown, Massachusetts
April 1964
Vlll
Contents
Preface vii
Abbreviations and Citations xi
Introduction 1
1. Pierre d’Ailly: Student, Churchman, Theologian 9
2. Regnum, Sacerdotium, and Politia Ecclesiastica 34
3. Dominium 66
4. The Purpose and Form of Government 93
5. The Source of Authority:
Consent—Its Expression and Its Consequences 130
6. Law—Natural and Divine 163
7. Sources and Influence 198
Conclusion 233
Appendix I: D’Ailly and John of Paris 241
Appendix II: Abbreviatio dialogi Okam 243
Appendix III: Tractatus de materia 244
Appendix IV: Critique of the Meller Edition 343
Appendix V: On the Cardinalate 346
Appendix VI: On Voting by Nations 348
Bibliographical Note 350
Index 357