The King's Two Bodies: A Study in Mediaeval Political Theology, new preface

309 Pages·1997·155.78 MB·English

by  Ernst H. Kantorowicz

Y9he
KING'S
o
BODIES
89rSTUDY IN MED IAEVAL
POLITICAL THEOLOGY
ERNST H .
KANTOROWICZ
Widl a new preface by William Chester Jordan
•
THE KING'S
TWO BODIES
A Study in
Mediaeval Political Theology
BY
ERNST H. KANTOROWICZ
WITH A NEW PREFACE
BY WILLIAM CHESTER JORDAN
, , ~ LfBRARY OF THE
C E U CENTRAL EUROPEAN
, • UNIVERSITY
. _ IU.JDAP~S~ ~-
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street,
Princeton, New Jersey
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, D.M.
Chichester, West Sussex
Copyright © 1957, by Princeton University Press; MAXIMI RADIN
Copyright renewed 1985 by Princeton University Press
Preface by William Chester Jordan copyright © 1997 (MDCCCLXXX-MCML)
by Princeton University Press
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED SACRUM
L.C. Card No. 57-5448
ISBN 0-691-01704-2 pbk.
Princeton University Press books are printed on acid-free paper and
meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on
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First Princeton Paperback printing, 1981
Seventh paperback printing, with a new preface by William Chester Jordan, 1997
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Printed in the United States of America
9 10 8
CONTENTS
PREFACE (1997) IX
by William Chester Jordan
PREFACE xvii
INTRODUCTION 3
I. THE PROBLEM: PLOWDEN'S REPORTS 7
II. THE SHAKESPEARE: KING RICHARD II 24
III. CHRIST-CENTERED KINGSHIP 42
1. The Norman Anonymous 42
2. The Frontispiece of the Aachen Gospels 61
3. The Halo of Perpetuity 78
IV. LA W-CENTERED KINGSHIP 87
1. From Liturgy to Legal Science 87
2. Frederick the Second 97
Pater et Filius Iustitiae 97
Iustitia Mediatrix 107
3· Bracton 143
Rex infra et supra Legem 143
Christus-Fiscus 164
V. POLITY-CENTERED KINGSHIP: CORPUS MYSTICUM 193
1. Corpus EccIesiae mysticum 194
2. Corpus Reipublicae mysticum 207
3. Pro patria mori 232
Patria religious and legal 232
Palrioti Propaganda 249
R,'x CI Patria 259
VI. ON c:ON .... NUITY AND CORPORATIONS 273
I. (!Ollllllllily 273
t\"VIIIII 275
)"'11)('"1:1 N,'c 'ssitas 284
vii
CONTENTS
2. Fictio Figura Veritatis 291 PREFACE (1997)
Imperium semper est 291
Universitas non moritur 302 THE REACTION to The King's Two Bodies, published forty years ago
and now reissued in this anniversary edition, was immediate and
VII. THE KING NEVER DIES 314 enthusiastic. Two reviews-one by Peter Riesenberg, the other
1. Dynastic Continuity :317 by William Dunham, Jr.-began with the same simple declara
2. The Crown as Fiction 336 tion that Professor Kantorowicz "has written a great book."1 Dun
Corona visibilis et invisibilis 336 ham went on to compare Kantorowicz's method (arguing back
The Fiscal Crown 342 from the known, in this case the Tudor doctrine of the king's
Inalienability two bodies, to its unknown medieval precedents) with that used
347
Crown and Universitas 358 in Frederic William Maitland's Domesday Book and Beyond: Three
The King and the Crown Essays in the Early History of England. 2 One of the half dozen or so
~~64
The Crown a Minor 372 most splendid pieces of historical writing and conceptualization
ever published, Maitland's book was an apt comparison; and
3. Dignitas non moritur 383
Phoenix Dunham intended his readers to appreciate Kantorowicz's sim
~185
ilarly bold undertaking.3 Riesenberg thought The King's Two
Corporational Symptoms in England 401
Bodies "perhaps the most important work in the history of medi
Le Roy est mort ... 409
Effigies 4,19 eval political thought, surely the most spectacular, of the past
several generations."4
Rex Instrumentum Dignitatis
4:37
Such praise proved to be nearly universal: "ce livre magistral";
VIII. MAN-CENTERED KINGSHIP: DANTE 451 the "most important contribution to the history of medieval
kingship since Fritz Kern's Gottesgnadentum und Widerstandsrecht,
IX. EPILOGUE 496
published almost a century ago"; "this great study."5 Among Ger
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 507 man reviewers the favorite word was Bewunderung, Kantorowicz
had written a "marvel."6 In England reactions were similar. "And
ILLUSTRA TIONS following 512
what a book he has written!" gushed E. F. Jacob on page two of
BIBLIOGRAPHY and INDEX
513 the Manchester Guardian of 19 August 1958. In the Spectator a
ADDENDA 568
I Dunham's review appeared in Speculum 33 (1958): 550-53; Riesenberg's in the
ArtllI,icfltI. Political Science Review 52 (1958): 1139-40.
~ Ounham, p. 550.
~ Milill:uul's book, originally published a century ago this year, was reissued by Cam
hrIIlR" I !Jdv"rsity Press in 1987 with a laudatory preface by J. C. Holt.
01{ "SI"J1lw,,,, p, 1139.
~ lu ,,"Jr, "I '1UNalion the reviewers cited are the following: Robert Folz in Revue
(t 'M,,'"II~ #1 "'I,I"II""I''''~ ",1I/(im<.18,\ 38 (1958): 374-78; Norman Cantor in American Histuri
,.,./11,,,,1.,,, HII (1'1 H): H I-Hll: K. E. McNally in joomal of Religion 38 (1958): 205.
'I 'J'hJl~, WII'h~,' "'''N''I''IIII lu (;ijttingiscite Gelehrte Anzeigen 212 (1958): 67; Rudolf
KI(I,,~ 111 II/"II/I\//I~ hlhlll/II' I HIl (195!) : 364; and Friedrich Kempf, "Untersuchungen
111)(', till. 1IIIIwh~. II .It I '11"'111°111' IIlIf die Staatslehre des MittelaIters (Bericht uber ein
1I('11f' 11111 It)," Wm'/II/In UWI/I"',rltd/I [III ('9M): 233. Although Fesefeldt hoped for a
\1111. II. (:111111111 " .111 IlIdllll. 11011" 1If11'("i'"'" ill that language, so far as I have been able to
"('I"IInlt"" 1,,·1111.' '1111'1
zx
viii
PREFACc' (1997)
PREFACE (1997)
vpptbmmuioeoeiorlcownietrtkasdeei,c rt seasA(t,dluh t h ebtmSohe dtniou susdu itlentyheghdc aeheie,dotn r.ilw"b enoM7luggoy telyn yd)drn i eeaoavreo nfevlfudrea els lw snoPa thvpaoiaeapplitrlptr - iorcroaaoapnttlvrhi dioiTean nhrtugaee llo ntsiGlisocemtgehsiycosoa,a f tlofealwlrrlfyeysh t y, ih cc meBahe le,vasl teeurfarndobpa rthc i"oythlmlotsiehmiue ceodg,ar ihfl ec tvarraheuapse l AbS"l"atrkm recaa"aaklvrdleeile.ice"dld1yh o5t,c hs oa"crgIOno oefdrupne, egclmt,yih "na.u s tRd mhRqdeeuiola ceeadMhadnias nieyrdbgdd doa tlsoShe oko eon"An u ebegtb o heywsoeo orktwwhnu hwei'lstrdoah ws s qae iPufsl tireiekeot nreef edlaatse, r usdvyocdioieronac tmgtaK oot iptrafvoyln jea at doimnrwereoec ovwwdiripe diiwhBtcshz,eee o rrritu. y no1atl2
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jelrtbotuahureevfrirep finist ssto,gohiht rbswt eleyhlh cea eikTpo,ngr irn?ntuhoaec g dniTdei'so sn ihetvt rthdeoet ewjer ldutkel oh edon o ewcgnobft eaewbuo tss oadh, .h mlo ief aeWk odnosp,ri dr rh sdaeit,ca nhi otrtaaecoe ubnsedcureod tsicwl due ychasi tr t iiathbtttiohfi n ocfobme eds ot ,cmywha tte hteeauptvy deocaeps rlh nac ibi t gioniwoinnecu d whs dryae teuhov n nnlicefdcg aar th eKsythi unemdeatsrchany ameyet tl ooh oidarltnarihonoftt ewer acdecr lti wc,artcc ohmizioonvsa'rneese t bfeatcshrvcoonoearvNodmil ek bworac eshtwhotd, ho ufee bel r ntsecu oauoT htt ocu; uta1thfhg hd 6 btihaeso hoi u erttoec th tjhrnfMeuhi ootrpriiwirnircrdsim aiittdossycslmoen.t e1 iau 7 cIt tA5nshah)H d;gleee o err ptswepsuowo adoa lwephii ntetaemaiidpccrod? esuyln a cK as(thaaaleasmi l n dAtcttoh rohnosoaretntmuoi equwgam unuheiimct exthznydpi o ot eociritrgonn tream aohvtbneeineesd gr t tyt wetohprod eerenw aek aeminr cs bi rseteatoeu dhc osbieaks f
book.10
cttohlo aAsune s lcyeah otToorhnuueesc hKor iefon vcfgi o'ewsmw hTemawrt'eo sm n Bwtiagootdhoritder ss)b ewai lanscso a ltalht eheddo oubtzogoeohon-tkm otuharcsa htm -atn ohewresersh e os (lt"weun.ad i1s1mi emisRe, teoyaar,lde"l wcthrraeTin thotkele.nd1 8 s EtaAonutr rdyto iopmreefew aEsnr rii ntts tseeitsnn Hs ae ba tyrort ofwi utnihbgteel iK lnlteiaggrn metsont,ort o Kraywa.d nimActzo i'srrsote rwlroisfin ecag zhn cwadosa nsao stafe l rllsveaoaat etsai t vb neoeo neninne-
scintillating and at least loosely connected, but which overall 12 Cecil Grayson, Romance Philology 15 (1961-62): 179-84. Grayson lavished his
praise on the Dante chapter of The King's Two Bodies; Kloos (n. 6 above) also called that
EDB1gb("G9aflieuyan9urce sdwt0hRrsc9e8c)m7ea i o hdn,SsnS Saeba peedpsimaet~e mpeeis,r Ancs .t t tvgts ar~Gl1hTcie"toscahe6 rarrchriyie nh2n,v e ddz e -wmxIwi2i6e sta1eAnsAe7ecm i lu.hgbptul k(sr hlrtg1eese( ~tiu9iybaoln,ols6 tud euntmb5Est en y )w1rergii :n9t nneF ) m5s 1gmtrt 82Asi7o iei R ,n6g lgfdnapde hewri.ie.(i nrtb c1h er1 1shh 9ac9tB7aa eth5,1lv Bio9stwn.e". u a)"w aTsre: isbt ein thire3haac deel7Zugh,s n9e,ehroa ie.nat,au Hsv l,nciRc tiinhie" sheg rtawE aihi sfwbrieetisrn ssrreoeds twscvnfeet oi rieinead Knri Swts ''edausaet, n hinnveealtei udo g shdmrkinRoiotaesyloeewtriw-vatr tiSaii)ernaectpi,nwie r zhjmn,etl yhu:ro3 dshnof'rieK5go ueMcrfv.baagu 1enilehBrte 8tan ttwaRep9h erthd e5eonhcywemw- ehsu9aikt icesstawr.sg u.i9 , et onn.is(pr1sgocPkcrh9 tao hi d6wrcberieh3seaants,s e: .l(s1.11 ' I'o'tI1c1M/~W(L1 lIniI0It"IIIo(Il1SI~I!fI J)n 1 t IIo'RM1P~I 'I ·"II1ui~ar1 eIltI sr7. Ilri I~tKnhn '<h(c ca~a 0alIl1nt; cImn1nl.l7:,bl" ~ldl1"o11 eel I0'o WfirPl,1s il E)lgtrPilti :te cel ..skct(1,r ~eo nl1s2lenHi't o.sc.t1i t 1,i1nhlh 3a Il- nseoJr-'ta oowroi1cblr4 u.lae 4D.o ,frvI2,l vIlna iIa0wHoe(ean~ n w)nl,it( s(d e sotl1aa eiKb 9fsnrHaxO tayT6dl k lnurh1dh ue1tebF )oaro0,oeaisrd ln losro"py(z tg w1p o(it(cD9cop.irn i.ac5 d.t3al. zed9 e03u'Sds5)er6-pt ,: t u3 3t haaosd.r15b)iIefeIln.0eos e' a p s5 v t aiutme-n1hnb)8 0oe dl.t issn h c(aeto1wea vo9b t. ieRy5fnor e9oneaRv)cl )u:.lpc: J elr1YI.e o nds8aSbi'tkh5oeclo,iel-rhsov8pmtoag r8eiMy er.ok.e t acan I.lrte nki.ct oihcetKinlh.lSi ,s,ee impa "hROsEaptIeisr.fqn vn ,u itbs.ee~ twe U e5H non5.-f
sQ(e1Jc9,toa5rn91te0d) r:,Tly om27 0Do33r u-e(n4 1hh.9 aa5rm8s)h ,a lny4d-5 m3C-aa5kn5et,o trah n(isnd n cJ.r. i tIF ic.a insCmdo ,s5 t maanabzyoo vb eien) ,a wAdndhneoadl- sEi nwo fat thrhte eL fAeirwmsites rc iiacnas enP goAelcintaitcdlayel,m Siycn i 3etn2hc1ee •.KM•,' (.I1Ilf.fI1 IiclIAlll/"It"l.I1t,Ilt,Wt ,l~,l,l l1, I, IuII-,.• " H , •IIII I,/I II•' i'•/' f'"II '' "~ , (",~1)"'~"1 "" " (1'./1 l1"lf.110'f17l'l11'1l1.I)1f,f0: " 1 I1I I,l1 /mu7I m-())HaI,I 7nIpiO1sp,t s.1( :1r 01eH.4p Io6rIfi-,mn 2wta1ein9tdnh; s iDtanhna a vtlih,im deG pAauoubnrudtthoalaolnjf,rti 'a sbC, iuIb"trKaltilioayun,gs ,tr SoaiKrcpoiahlwyni tciaacarnzlo dwsa uintahpd;e ,
Revie1w1 F75o r( 1th9e6 0p)h:r 2as9e5,- 9"t8o.u ch of nimiety: see H. S. Orner's review in English Historical (N11O('1l1i1n1 '11n1 CII:I 111111011 . ..1 '','l'l''h'" IlIIdlIl•l h• MI I UC:/oIIIIIIIIMM III'/II(I~~!::, ,"T "~p. LiIl)ie;s , BWoourrlces,a ua,n dH iIsdteaairse so fd t'huen Ghriesatat rMieend; ieavnald
jill "I/"~ 11,""'/I~lh / '~"""'1 (N.·w \"11 k. I )0 I). pp. 79-117.
x xi
PREFACE (1997) PREFACE (1997)
practicing Jew, probably an atheist, who developed a fascination designation for the collection), but it was not until 1938 that he
for the reputed organic unities of medieval religion and sodety.19 brought himself to leave Germany for good.22
A member of the Stefan George circle and a pallbearer at the He was fortunate to find a safe haven in the United States, was
master's funeral in 1933, he was in many ways an aesthete with offered a posi tion at Berkeley, and settled down to write his sec
20
some common, but, in hindsight, unhappy ethnic prejudices. ond book, Laudes Rigiae: A Study in Liturgical Acclamations and
Born in 1895 to a prosperous bourgeois family in Posen (Poz Mediaeval Ruler Warship (Berkeley, 1946). But Kantorowicz left
nan), he served in the Gennan anrty and was wounded in the the west coast a few years later when he, along with a few other
First World War. Mter the war he eagerly took part in the sup faculty members of the University of California, refused to take a
pression of communists in Gennany and was wounded again. loyalty oath. McCarthyite anti-communism was weighing heavy
Although he toyed with the idea of doing work in the eco on state institutions. It was not the substance of the declaration
nomic history of the eastern Mediterranean, he later decided to that the regents of the university asked Kantorowicz to make that
concentrate on medieval history. His first important work was a necessarily offended him. His anti-communism dated at least
biography of Emperor Frederick II. Published in 1927 without from his street-fighting days in the immediate aftennath of the
notes and with a heavy dose of almost Romantic myth making, it First World War. But he regarded the demand to take the oath as
was a best seller and later a Nazi favorite, but it provoked a an assault on academic freedom, and he fought it hard, mobiliz
torrent of sometimes frenzied criticism from the scholarly old ing support as best he could, although with only modest success.
guard. Kantorowicz responded in several ways, not least by pub To his great good fortune Kantorowicz again landed on his
lishing a supplementary volume tbat securely established his feet, for he soon received the offer of a pennanent position at
claim to know the sources intimately even if it did not answer all the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton along with the
the criticisms raised by his oppone~ts.21 privilege, whenever he chose to exercise it, of teaching graduate
Kantorowicz seemed about to embark on a more traditional seminars at the University. It was in Princeton, from 1951 until
university career after accepting an appointment at Frankfurt in his death on 9 September 1963, that he did his research. The
1930, but the political situation in Gennany grew more and King's Two Bodies, like Laudes Regiae, reconstructs some of the
more ominous. This arch-conservative with the aristocratic tem visions of organic wholeness articulated by medieval thinkers.
perament detested National Socialism and its adherents' shrill Kantorowicz increasingly directed his praise, however, at figures
anti-Semitism and seemingly pointless and philistine roughness, who embodied the religious ideals of the organic model of soci
all of which helped to erode his estimation of Gennan political ety. Although Frederick II still fascinated him, Kantorowicz's
culture. In 1934 he refused to take the oath to Adolf Hitler, gave most sympathetic portrait in Laudes Regiae, for example, is not of
up his academic post in Frankfurt, and went into a kind of retire that mythically heroic emperor but of his saintly contemporary
23
ment. A brooding melancholy followed during which time he and "rival," Louis IX of France.
collected and translated a number of English poems on the In the fall of 1962 Kantorowicz devoted his last seminar to a
themes of "death, affliction, and transfiguration" (his personal study of Dante's De Monarchia. In a short description written
19 On the probable atheism, I follow Boureau, Histaires d'un histarien, p. 137. 22 Boureau, Histaires d 'un histarien, p. 124.
20 Malkiel, a friend, did not try to hide these: "Among Kantorowicz's many, and 23 Laudes Regiae, pp. 3-4, "It was St. Louis, who in every respect enriched that trea
sometimes conflicting, loyalties and lines of curiosity, even the closest inspection does sure of grace on which all his successors would thrive. It was he whose kingship was
not uncover the slightest affectionate concern for Slavs, in general, or for Poles, in partic elevated 1.0 transcendancy by the Spiritualists and Symbolists of his age and who, in tum,
ular" ("Ernst H. Kantorowicz," p. 154). bestow'd the thin and light air of the angelic kingdoms upon his country. ... [Hle had,
21 The best general sketch of these incidents and their ramifications on futune schol as iL WI"n', 'ommended his government to Christ the victorious, the royal, the imperial,
arship may be found in the Abulafia article (n. 18 above), along with the important whom I ... fIlms ,If represented on earth more perfectly, perhaps, than any other kin'g ever
bibliographic supplement in the reprint. did."
xu xm
PREFACE (1997)
PREFACE (1997)
But because of the artistic, discursive, and symbolic slant Kanto
by a member of the seminar, the author recalls Kantorowicz's
rowicz gave to his subject, readers never regarded The King's Two
method, particularly his responses to fonnal queries from his stu
Bodies as "mere" history of ideas. Consequently, the book re
dents. He would prepare a small note card directing each ques 28
tained a grip on the historical imaginations of many scholars.
tioner to relevant texts and scholarly discussions of whatever he
When social history came to be enriched by other disciplines,
had been asked about. "Invariably, several of the references
especially cultural anthropology, in the course of the 1970S and
would point to The King's Two Bodies, though seldom, if ever, to
the text itself. ... Rather, Kantorowicz worked from the foot 1980s there was an even greater surge of interest in The King's
Two Bodies, as evidenced, it would seem reasonable to suggest,
notes, which were the repository of his learning. There he sent
from the proliferation of translations:29 Spanish in 1985; Italian
us again and again, and we quickly came to respect that source
as the treasure trove it was, and remains. "24 and French in 1989; German in 1990; Portuguese and Polish in
. If emphasis. were added to the quotation, one might legit 1997·
In 1957 Ernst Kantorowicz published a book that would be
Imately place It on the word remains. The initial enthusiasms for
the guide for generations of scholars through the arcane myster
The King's Two Bodies have been sustained over the course of four
25 ies of medieval political theology. The King's Two Bodies remains
decades. And Friedrich Baethgen's measured evaluation of the
as the fundamental legacy of a great scholar's career. It remains,
book in his memorial for Kantorowicz still commands wide en
indeed, a wonderfully exciting and constantly rewarding book.
dorsement: The King's Two Bodies has been and continues to be
indispensable for all investigations of Staatstheone and political William Chester Jordan
theology.26 This is not to say that the book has achieved a status
P.rinceton, New Jersey
27
beyond censure. It is always hard for novices and frequendy for
March I997
senior scholars to follow some of the arguments, let alone to
~8 It may not be the best evidence, but a search of citation. indexes, like th~ Am and
weav~ them into a coherent whole despite having the advantage I/umanities Citation Index (Philadelphia, 1976-), reveals a contmuous and relauvely high
of bemg able to tum to the efforts of earlier scholars to do so. I 'V .1 of recourse to the book. As I read the citation records, it seems to be "out perform
lllg" Lawrence Stone's magisterial Crisis .0f.the Aristocracy, 15.58-1641 (Oxford), ~hose
Nevertheless, for most readers the wonder and fascination of
ud!(inal publication date was 1965,. ~d It:S ":ot,.so far behmd FernandBraudei s syn-
the myriad subjects brilliantly treated in The King's Two Bodies 1h l'sls, La Mediterranee et le monde medtterraneen a l epoque de Phtltppe II (Pans), whose first
and the delight in the notes remain. When social history came to l'dition appeared in 1949· " . . "
~v f. Robert Lerner, "Ernst H. Kantorowicz (1895-1963), 10 Medteval ScholtirshtP:
prominence in the 1960s and 1970s, it might have appeared lIin!(r(lI)iliwl Studies on the Formation of a Discipline, I: History, ed. Helen Damico and joseph
inevitable that a work largely of high intellectual history or at Zavadil (N'w York and London, 1995), pp. 274-75· Lerner's entire article can be rec-
0111111 'lIl1ed as a useful assessment on the enduring quality of KanLOrowicz's scholarship.
least dependent on sources associated with the traditional his
tory of ideas would be displaced somewhat from center stage.
24 Professor Michael Mahoney (Department of History, Princeton University), in a
memorandum to the author of this preface, 14january 1997.
25 Mori~i~~i Watanabe reviewed the paperback reissue in 1983 and in a paragraph
summed up mlUal and some later reactions; Church History 52 (1983), 258-59.
26 Baethgen, "Ernst Kantorowicz," p. 12.
~7 There are a few harsh remarks in Malkiel, "Ernst H. Kantorowicz," pp. 214-15.
Malkie.1 regards The ~.ng's Two Bodies, because of its lack of overall integration-and, so
he belIeves, lack of VISion-as a "stubborn retreat from monumentality"; I do not know
what he me~n.s. Antony Black i~ an irreverent and iconoclastic article entitled, "Society
and t~e ~ndlVldual fro~ the Middle Ages to Rousseau: Philosophy, jurisprudence and
Co~sutuuonal Theory, Hzstory of Political Thought 1 (1980): 147 n. 13, repeats the reser
vauons of an earlier generation when he calls Kantorowicz's book "a masterpiece of
erudite onfusion."
X'll
xiv
PREFACE
AT the beginning of this book stands a conversation held twelve
years ago with my friend MAX RADIN (then John H. Boalt Pro
fessor of Law, at Berkeley) in his tiny office in Boalt Hall, brimful
floor to ceiling and door to window of books, papers, folders,
notes.-and life. To bait him with a question and get him off to an
always stimulating and amusing talk was not a labor of Hercules.
One day I found in my mail an offprint from a liturgical periodical
published by a Benedictine Abbey in the United States, which
bore the publisher's imprint: The Order of St. Benedict, Inc. To
a scholar coming from the European Continent and not trained in
the refinements of Anglo-American legal thinking, nothing could
have been more baffling than to find the abbreviation Inc., custom
ary with business and other corporations, attached to the venerable
community founded by St. Benedict on the rock of Montecassino
in the very year in which Justinian abolished the Platonic Acad
emy in Athens. Upon my inquiry, Max Radin informed me that
indeed the monastic congregations were incorporated in this
country, that the same was true with the dioceses of the Roman
Church, and that, for example, the Archbishop of San Francisco
could figure, in the language of the Law, as a "Corporation
sole"-a topic which turned our conversation at once to Mait
land's famous studies on that subject, to the abstract "Crown" as
a corporation, to the curious legal fiction of the "King's Two
Bodies" as developed in Elizabethan England, to Shakespeare's
Richard II, and to certain mediaeval antecedents of the "abstract
King." In other words, we had a good conversation, the kind of
talk you would always yearn for and to which Max Radin was an
ideal partner.
When shortly thereafter I was asked to contribute to a volume
of essays in honor of Max Radin on his retirement, I could do no
better than submit an essay on the "King's Two Bodies" (parts of
Chapters I-III, and a section of Chapter IV), a paper of which he
himself was, so to speak, a co-author or at least the illegitimate
father. The Festschrift unfortunately never materialized. The
contributions were returned to their authors, and though dis
pleased by the fact that a well-deserved recognition was withheld
from my fri nd, I was nevertheless not unhappy to see my manu
s ript hack be ause in the meantime I had enlarged both my views
XTJU
PREFACE PREFACE
and my material on the subject. I decided to publish my paper the point of view of presenting political cr~eds such as they were
separately and dedicate it to Max Radin (then a temporary memo understood in their initial stage and at a nme when they serve~
ber of the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton) on his 70th as a vehicle for putting the early modern commonwealths on theIr
birthday, in the Spring of 1950. Personal affairs such as the ex own feet.
asperating struggle against the Regents of the University of Cali Since in this study a single strand of a very complicated textu~e
fornia as well as other duties prevented me from laying my gift has been isolated the author cannot claim to have demonstrated m
into the hands of my friend. Max Radin died on June 22, 1950, any completenes~ the problem of what has been called "The Myth I
and the study, destined to elicit his criticisms, his comments, and of the State" (Ernst Cassirer). The study may b~ ~one t~e less a
his broad laughter, serves now to honor his memory. contribution to this greater problem although It IS restncted to
one leading idea, the fiction of the King's Two Bodies,. it~ tran~­
~ formations, implications, and radiations. By thus restnctmg hIS
In its present, final form, this study has considerably outgrown subject, the author hopes to have avoided, at least t? some.exten~,
the original plan, which was merely to point out a number of certain dangers customary with some all-too-sweepmg and a~bl­
mediaeval antecedents or parallels to the legal tenet of the King's tious studies in the history of ideas: loss of control over tOPICS,
Two Bodies. It has gradually turned, as the subtitle suggests, into material, and facts; vagueness of language and argument; unsub
a "Study in Mediaeval Political Theology," which had not at all stantiated generalizations; and lack of tension resul~ing fro~
been the original intention. Such as it now stands, this study may tedious repetitions. The tenet o~ t~e Ki~g's. Two ~odles and Its
be taken among other things as an attempt to understand and, if history served in this case as a umfymg pr~nclple ea~mg the assem
possible, demonstrate how, by what means and methods, certain blage and selection of facts as well as. thelT_s ~nthesls.
axioms of a political theology which mutatis mutandis was to re The origin of this study will explam how It happened that the
main valid until the twentieth century, began to be developed author swerved again (as in his study on the Laudes) from the
during the later Middle Ages. It would go much too far, however, normal tracks of the mediaeval historian and broke through the
to assume that the author felt tempted to investigate the emer fences this time, of.mediaeval Law, for which he was not prepared
gence of some of the idols of modern political religions merely on by his'training. For this trespass he owes apologies to the .profe~­
account of the horrifying experience of our own time in which sional jurist who, undoubtedly, will find many a flaw m thIS
whole nations, the largest and the smallest, fell prey to the weirdest presentation, although the author hi~self is aware of some of the
dogmas and in which political theologisms became genuine obses more likely shortcomings: overlabonng of texts on the one hand,
sions defying in many cases the rudiments of human and political missing of salient points on the other. But. those are t~e hazards
reason. Admittedly, the author was not unaware of the later aber to which the outsider will usually expose hImself; ~e wII~ h~v~ to
rations; in fact, he became the more conscious of certain ideologi pay the fine for intruding into the enclosure of a s~ster:dlsclplme.
cal gossamers the more he expanded and deepened his knowledge The incompleteness of sources is still another pomt ~n need of
of the early development. It seems necessary, however, to stress the apology. Every student laboring in the vineyard of mediaeval Law
fact that considerations of that kind belonged to afterthoughts, will be painfully aware of the difficulty of laying hands on even
resulting from the present investigation and not causing it or de the most important authors whose works, .s~ far as they are .pub
termining its course. The fascination emanating as usual from the lished at all (there is, for example, no edItion of the most mflu
historical material itself prevailed over any desire of practical or ential canonist of the late twelfth century, Huguccio of Pisa), are
moral application and, needless to say, preceded any afterthought. available only in the both rare and antiquated sixteenth-centu:y
This study deals with certain cyphers of the sovereign state and its printll. Comlllltations of the Law Libraries at Berkeley, Columbia,
perpetuity (Crown, Dignity, Patria, and others) exclusively from and H rVlml; the understanding kindness of the head of the Law
xviii
XlX