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 CoNteNtS Acknowledgments ix Introduction. Why Study Medieval Political Thought? xiii PArt I. Historiographies of the Early European Tradition: 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 CoNteNtS 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 ACkNowledgmeNtS 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. ix x ackNowledgmeNtS My current doctoral student Mary Elizabeth Sullivan provided vital technical assistance as well as proving to be a fount of precise advice and helpful commentary. She also prepared the bibliography and the index. Additionally, I wish to acknowledge the next generation of scholars whom I have had the privilege of teaching at Texas A & M as well as with whom I have sometimes collaborated. These include Hassan Bahsir, Daniel Betti, Michael Burnside, Jesse Chupp, Phil Gray, Sara Jordan, Roberto Loureiro, Christie Maloyed, Mary Beth Sullivan, Ann Wilson, and Peyton Wofford. They have indeed taught me infinitely more than any knowledge I have conveyed to them. The Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research at Texas A & M University supported some of the research represented in this book, as did the Political Science departments at several institutions with which I have been affiliated over the years, including the University of Al- berta, the University of Canterbury, Siena College, the University of Ari- zona, and Texas A & M. To all of these institutional homes I owe a large measure of gratitude. A number of the chapters contained in this volume are significant- ly revised and updated versions of papers that have appeared previously as book chapters and journal articles. I wish to thank the following jour- nals and publishers for their kind permission to draw upon these already published materials: Chapter 1, Pensiero Politico Medievale 2 (2004): 11– 19; Chapter 2, Canadian Journal of Political Science 18 (June 1985): 339–52; Chapter 3, History of Political Thought 17 (Summer 1996): 179–94; Chapter 5, Cary J. Nederman and John Christian Laursen, eds., Difference and Dis- sent: Theories of Toleration in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1996), 17–37; Chapter 6, History of Political Thought 9 (Winter 1988): 415–29; Chapter 7, Alberto Melloni and Massi- mo Faggioli, eds., Representatio: Mapping a Key Word for Churches and Gov- ernance. Proceedings of the San Miniato International Workshop, October 13– 16, 2004 (Münster: LIT Verlag, 2006), 41–59; Chapter 8, István P. Bejczy and Cary J. Nederman, eds., Princely Virtues in the Middle Ages, 1200–1500 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2007), 179–201; Chapter 9, Political Theo- ry 31 (2003): 644–63; Chapter 10, History of Political Thought 16 (Autumn 1995): 313–29; Chapter 11, Journal of the History of Ideas 65 (2005): 1–15; Chapter 12, American Political Science Review 92 (December 1998): 913–18; Chapter 13, Constant J. Mews, Cary J. Nederman, and Rodney Thom- son, eds., Rhetoric and Renewal in the Latin West 1100–1500: Essays in Hon- ackNowledgmeNtS xi or of John O. Ward (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2003), 149–68; Chap- ter 14, Robert J. Bast and Andrew C. Gow, eds., Continuity and Change: The Harvest of Late-Medieval and Reformation History (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2000), 3–19; Chapter 15, History of Political Thought 21 (Spring 2000): 1–15; Chapter 16, Eric Hicks, ed., Au Champ des écritures: Actes du IIIe Colloque International sur Christine de Pizan (Lausanne, 18–22 juillet 1998) (Paris: Honoré Champion Éditeur, 2000), 383–97; Chapter 17, History of Politi- cal Thought 26 (2005): 266–83; Chapter 19, Political Science 40 (July 1988): 49–66; Chapter 20, Journal of Politics 49 (1987): 499–519. This book almost didn’t see the light of print at all. In the winter of 2006–2007, I despaired that I could accomplish the kind of synthetic proj- ect that I originally envisioned. But a magical week as the guest of Karen Bollermann in Scottsdale, Arizona, turned around my thinking and per- mitted me to write what forms the introduction to the present volume as well as to conceptualize its contents with clarity. I dedicate this book to Karen in love and deep appreciation for the myriad ways in which she has made me a better scholar and a better person. Introduction w h y S t u d y m e d I e va l P o l I t ica l thought? There is surely no field of study within the broad tradition of Western political theory that has been so grossly underrepre- sented in recent English-language scholarship as the Latin Mid- dle Ages. Numerous reasons may be adduced for this fact, but I suspect that many of them can be traced to a deeply ingrained pedagogical prejudice that is reproduced each semester in class- rooms throughout the English-speaking world. Princeton Univer- sity’s Paul Sigmund—himself one of the few political scientists whose career has run counter to this trend—is fond of citing a survey in which college-level political theory instructors identi- fied the teaching of medieval thought as among their most oner- ous and unpleasant tasks.1 Consequently, student exposure to the Middle Ages, when it occurs at all, is generally confined to St. Augustine (who is more properly a late classical figure) and St. Thomas Aquinas (who, for all his brilliance and originality, rep- resents merely one current in the stream of medieval thought). Academic discomfort with a millennium of theory has effectively achieved canonical status: shunned in graduate as well as under- graduate curricula, the topic is likewise disregarded in textbooks and anthologies, a situation that only exacerbates the ignorance of another generation of students of Western political philosophy about the Latin Middle Ages.2 1. The survey was by Steven Brzezinski and Sami Hajjar, Teaching Political The- ory: Preliminary Findings (Laramie: University of Wyoming [mimeo], n.d.).