Ideal Government and the Mixed Constitution in the Middle Ages

362 Pages·1992·12.63 MB·English

by  James M. Blythe

Ideal Government
and the Mixed Constitution
in the Middle Ages

Ideal Government
and the Mixed Constitution
in the Middle Ages
James M. Blythe
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
Copyright © 1992 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street,
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Oxford
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Catalojjinjj-in-Publication Data
Blythe, James M., 1948-
Ideal government and the mixed constitution in the
Middle Ages / James M. Blythe.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Political science—History. 2. Constitutional history.
3. Middle Ages. I. Title.
JA82.B59 1992 320'.09'02—dc20 91-21104
ISBN 0-691-03167-3
This book has been composed in Linotron Galliard
Princeton University Press books are printed
on acid-free paper and meet the giudelines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for
Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources
Printed in the United States of America
1 3 5 7 9 1 0 8 6 4 2
To those who helped and encouraged me
during the long years of my graduate work
and the four years since then that I spent
working on this book:
Sheila Martin, my mother Ann Blythe, my
aunts Charlotte Horton and Sara
Nancarrow, and my brother Richard
Blythe; and to those who died before I
finished: my father Donald Blythe, my aunt
Gwen Brace, and my uncle Richard
Horton.

Thanne kam ther a kyng: Knyghthod him ladde;
Might of the communes made hym to regne.
And thanne cam Kynde Wit and clerkes he made,
For to counseillen the Kynge and the Commune save
The Kynge and the Commune and Kynde Wit the
thridde
Shopen Iawe and leute—ech Iif to knowe his owene.
—William Langland, The Vision of Piers Plowman
(c. 1380)
It had been, it seems, a splendid constitution full of
senates and committees and checks and balances and
other things delightful to the political theorist. "If it
was that fine," said Stanford, "why didn't it last?"" It
lasted six hundred years, signor," said Graziella, "and
when it was quite worn out and would not work at
all any more, it was exported, of course, to the
United States of America."
—Sarah Caudwell, Thus WasAdonisMurdered (1982)

CONTENTS
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xvii
PART 1: The Mixed Constitution
CHAPTER 1
Introduction 3
CHAPTER 2
The Mixed Constitution in Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages 13
PART 2: Thomas Aquinas and His Successors
CHAPTER 3
Thomas Aquinas 39
CHAPTER 4
Giles of Rome 60
CHAPTER 5
Peter of Auvergne 77
CHAPTER 6
Ptolemy of Lucca 92
CHAPTER 7
Engelbert of Admont 118
CHAPTER 8
John of Paris 139
PART 3: The Fourteenth Century
CHAPTER 9
Aristotelian Political Thought in the Fourteenth Century 161
CHAPTER 10
Relativism and the Best Polity 165
KCHinAgPshTEipR, P11o pular Sovereignty, and the Mixed Constitution 180