The Situation of Dominican Political Thought and Activities in France and England
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THE SITUATION OF DOMINICAN POLITICAL THOUGHT AND ACTIVITIES IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND by BARRIE ALFRED BRILL B.A., University of British Columbia, 1966 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of History We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA May, 1968 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his represen• tatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of History The University of British Columbia Vancouver 8, Canada Date May 2nd, 1968 THESIS ABSTRACT Chairman: Father T. J. Hanrahan. Title: The Situation o£ Dominican Political Thought and Activities in France and England. Examiners: This thesis investigates the political thought and activities of the French and English Dominicans. It began historically with a question concerning the nature of the work of John of Paris. Can his De potestate regia et papali be described as a fundamentally theological and philosophical exposition? Such a description would seem to imply a partial separation from the political situation in which he wrote and would see his treatise in relation to the vast mass of the theological literature of the day. In order to test this it would be sensible to undertake a comparative study and to try to see the situation of John of Paris and other Dominicans to discern the effects of this situation on their thought. To understand the major issues of medieval political thought, the preliminary chapter gives a brief account of the development of this thought. The influence which the Order of Preachers exerted on its members cannot be neglected. The heart of this thesis is found in two rather lengthy chapters dealing with the thought and activities of the members of the Dominican Order in both France and England. The result of this examination placed the political writings of the Dominicans in France -- of which John of Paris is the major example-- in a position apart from that of their other theological and philosophical works. In England, the philosophical and theological productions of the Dominicans are similar to those which were produced by the Dominicans in France except in one major respect, that of treatises dealing with political thought. The conclusion of this thesis is that the total situation in which these men found themselves must be taken into account in any attempt to understand their thought. In view of this it is evident that Leclercq's view must be modified to the extent that the political situation in which John of Paris wrote explains in part the fact that he wrote a treatise dealing with political affairs. The De potestate regia et papali cannot be regarded merely as a theological and philosophical exposition comme les autres. -iii- TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Chapter I 5 Chapter II 26 Chapter III 45 Chapter IV . 90 Conclusion 136 List of Abbreviations 139 Notes for Introduction 140 Notes for Chapter I . 141 Notes for Chapter II . 149 Notes for Chapter III • 158 Notes for Chapter IV 186 Notes for Conclusion 203 Bibliography 204 Appendix I 224 -iv- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to Father Hanrahan who has directed my Graduate work in Medieval History. His understanding, patience, and assistance has.contributed more to this work than I will ever be able to acknowledge. I would also like to express my gratitude to the Staff of the Library of the University of British Columbia who were able to find many scarce works for me. I would also like to thank the Staff of the Libraries of the University of Washington and the University of California, Berkeley, who made my visits to those institutions so enjoyable. INTRODUCTION This thesis had its origin in an investigation of the political thought of the French Dominican, John of Paris. His major political treatise was the De potestate regia et papali which was written during the last stages of the conflict between Boniface VIII and Philip IV. The modern editor of the treatise, Dom Jean Leclercq, O.S.B., denies that the De_ potestate regia et papali is merely polemic and argues that it is a serious attempt to solve basic theological and philo• sophical issues."- Such a judgement of the treatise of John of Paris tends to ignore the political situation in which ±'he Dominican was writing. Leclercq fully realizes that John of Paris signed the appeal for a council against the pope and he also acknowledges the fact that many of the arguments developed in the De potestate regia et papali echo the charges made by Philip IV and his ministers against the pontiff. In spite of these facts, Leclercq insists that the treatise is primarily a theological and philosophical exposition rather than an exercise in polemic. The investigation of the political thought of the French and English Dominicans and the situation in which they were working will offer another interpretation of the work of John of Paris. In both France and England relations with the Papacy were dis• rupted by the issuance of Clericis laicos by Boniface VIII. This bull involved the issue of clerical taxation which was concerned with the relationship between the temporal and spiritual powers. In France, Philip IV reacted to the bull in a most vigorous way. Edward I also regarded Clericis laicos as a threat but his solution to the problem posed by the bull was very different from that of Philip IV. It was during this conflict that John of Paris composed his tract, the De potestate regia et papali. Since the conflict posed the same problem in both England and Prance, it might seem logical to assume that similar treatises discussing political thought would be written in England, But no treatises similar to that of John of Paris were written during the conflict in England. It would seem that the different nature of the conflict in the two kingdoms explains, in part, at least, the fact that one finds a number of treatises dealing with political thought written in France during the conflict, while, at the same time, in a roughly similar conflict, no literature of this kind can be found in England. John of Paris revealed himself to be fully conversant with the political literature of the period. This Dominican was working in one of the most vigorous provinces of the Order. The Dominican province of England did not have to bow to France since it produced many important scholars. In England, as elsewhere, the Dominican friars became in• volved in secular activities. One might think that these men who were directly involved in the secular world would give a theoretical justifi• cation for their secular activities in their scholastic works. If a Dominican scholar wished to discuss political matters, he was given an adequate opportunity in his theological studies when he composed a Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard. Thomas Aquinas in his Commentary on the Sentences provided one of the most im• portant passages on the relationship between the temporal and spiritual powers to be found in the corpus of his work. Naturally, one wonders whether other Dominicans would emulate their confrere and use their Commentaries on the Sentences as a vehicle for political discussion. When the works of individual Dominican authors in England are investigated, one finds little political comment in them. Therefore, it can be said that Dominican political thought did not exist in a vacuum nor was it something that was necessarily diffused throughout the entire Order. It becomes apparent that a discussion of political thought by a Dominican author was usually occasioned by the specific situation within which he was working. Furthermore, it seems that many of the elements contained in the political thought of Dominican authors was conditioned by the influence of the structure of the quasi-democra• tic Order of which they were members. In order to understand the political thought of the Dominicans, it is necessary to have some conception of the main features of medieval political thought as well as the nature of the medieval state. A dis• cussion of these related subjects constitutes the first chapter of the thesis. The second chapter describes the main features of the structure of the Order of Preachers, its educational organization, and finally, the attitude of the governing bodies of the Order to the secular activi• ties undertaken by some Dominican friars. In the third chapter, we turn to France where the conflict between Boniface VIII and Philip IV is presented in some detail, along with an examination of the role played by the French Dominicans in this crisis which provides the necessary background to the scholarly work of John of Paris. The fourth chapter of the thesis includes a detailed examination of the conflict over Clericis laicos in England together with material which illustrates the political activities of the English Dominicans in the period from 1250 until 1350 and an investigation of the scholarly works of some English Dominicans in order to ascertain the nature of their political thought. In the conclusion, an attempt will be made to draw some tentative judgements concerning the political thought of the French and English Dominicans. CHAPTER I THE DEVELOPMENT OF MEDIEVAL POLITICAL THOUGHT The major problem which faced any medieval political theorist - theologian, philosopher, or legist - was the relationship between the temporal and spiritual powers.