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Inventing the Individual
Larry Siedentop
Inventing the Individual
The Origins of Western Liberalism
The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
cambridge, massachusetts
2014
Copyright © Larry Siedentop, 2014
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First published in the United Kingdom in 2014
by Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books
First Harvard University Press edition, 2014
Cataloging-in-Publication Data available from the Library of Congress
isbn: 978-0-674-41753-3 (alk. paper)
In memory of my parents
History does not study material facts and institutions alone;
its true object of study is the human mind: it should aspire to
know what this mind has believed, thought, and felt in different
ages of the life of the human race.
Fustel de Coulanges
Contents
Prologue: What is the West about? 1
The World of Antiquity
1 The ancient Family 7
2 The ancient City 19
3 The ancient Cosmos 33
A Moral Revolution
4 The World Turned Upside Down: Paul 51
5 The Truth Within: Moral equality 67
6 Heroism Redefined 79
7 a new Form of association: Monasticism 88
8 The Weakness of the Will: augustine 100
Towards the Idea of Fundamental Law
9 Shaping new attitudes and Habits 113
10 Distinguishing Spiritual from Temporal Power 126
11 Barbarian Codes, Roman law and Christian Intuitions 141
12 The Carolingian Compromise 151
Europe Acquires its Identity
13 Why Feudalism did not Recreate ancient Slavery 165
14 Fostering the ‘Peace of God’ 178
15 The Papal Revolution: a Constitution for europe? 192
16 natural law and natural Rights 208
vii
Contents
viii
A New Model of Government
17 Centralization and the new Sense of Justice 225
18 The Democratizing of Reason 237
19 Steps towards the Creation of nation-States 252
20 Urban Insurrections 265
The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
21 Popular aspirations and the Friars 281
22 The Defence of egalitarian Moral Intuitions 293
23 God’s Freedom and Human Freedom Joined: Ockham 306
24 Struggling for Representative Government in the Church 321
25 Dispensing with the Renaissance 333
epilogue: Christianity and Secularism 349
Select Bibliography and Endnotes 365
Index 387
1
Prologue: What is the West About?
Does it still make sense to talk about ‘the West’? People who live in the
nations once described as part of Christendom – what many would
now call the post-Christian world – seem to have lost their moral bear-
ings. We no longer have a persuasive story to tell ourselves about our
origins and development. There is little narrative sweep in our view of
things. For better or worse, things have just happened to us.
Some may welcome this condition, seeing it as liberation from his-
torical myths such as the biblical story of human sin and redemption
or a belief in progress ‘guaranteed’ by the development of science.
Others will argue that a more inclusive narrative about globalization
has made anything like a Western narrative not only obsolete but also
morally dubious.
I cannot agree. If we look at the West against a global background,
the striking thing about our situation is that we are in a competition
of beliefs, whether we like it or not.
The development of Islamic fundamentalism – and the terrorist
movements it sometimes inspires – is the most obvious example. A view
of the world in which religious law excludes a secular sphere and in
which the subordination of women compromises belief in human
equality is incompatible with moral intuitions widespread in the West.
And that is only one example. The transmuting of Marxist socialism
into quasi-capitalism in the world’s largest country, China, provides
another. In China the governing ideology has become a crass form of
utilitarianism, enshrining majority interests even at the expense of just-
ice or human liberty. That, too, offends some of our deepest intuitions.
But do these intuitions mean that the West can still be defined
in terms of shared beliefs? It can offer beliefs usually described as
Prologue
‘ liberal’. But here we immediately encounter a problem. For in the
eyes of Islamic fundamentalists, and indeed in the eyes of not a few in
the West, liberalism has come to stand for ‘non-belief’ – for indiffer-
ence and permissiveness, if not for decadence. Why is that? And is the
charge justified?
This book is an attempt to find out. Its argument rests on two
assumptions. The first is that if we are to understand the relation-
ship between beliefs and social institutions – that is, to understand
ourselves – then we have to take a very long view. Deep moral changes,
changes in belief, can take centuries to begin to modify social institu-
tions. It is folly to expect popular habits and attitudes to change
overnight.
The second assumption is that beliefs are nonetheless of primary
importance, an assumption once far more widely held than it is today.
In the nineteenth century there was a prolonged contest between ‘ide-
alist’ and ‘materialist’ views of historical change, with the latter
holding that social order rests not so much on shared beliefs but on
technology, economic interdependence and an advanced social div-
ision of labour. Even the declining appeal of Marxism in the later
twentieth century did not discredit that view. Rather, in a strange
afterlife, Marxism infiltrated liberal thinking, creating a further temp-
tation to downgrade the role of beliefs. That temptation became all
the greater because of the unprecedented prosperity enjoyed by the
West after the Second World War. We have come to worship at the
shrine of economic growth.
This book, by contrast, will take moral beliefs as seriously as pos-
sible, by looking at a series of ‘moments’ when changed beliefs began
to impact on social relations over a period of nearly two millennia.
That is not to say that beliefs have been the only cause at work. The
story of Western development is not simple or unilinear. No cause has
been uniquely powerful at all times. Nonetheless, it seems to me that
moral beliefs have given a clear overall ‘direction’ to Western history.
So I tell a story about how the ‘individual’ became the organizing
social role in the West – that is, how the ‘civil society’ which we take
for granted emerged, with its characteristic distinction between public
and private spheres and its emphasis on the role of conscience and
choice. It is a story about the slow, uneven and difficult steps which
2
What is the West About?
have led to individual moral agency being publicly acknowledged and
protected, with equality before the law and enforceable ‘basic’ rights.
A fundamental change in moral belief shaped the world we live in.
But this is not to say that those who introduced or promoted that
change foresaw or desired its eventual social consequences. My story
is, in part, about the unintended consequences of that change of belief.
Tracing those consequences is an important part of the story of West-
ern liberalism.
Today many people in the West describe themselves as Christians,
without regularly going to church or having even a rudimentary
knowledge of Christian doctrine. Is this just hypocrisy or ignorance?
Perhaps not. It may suggest that people have a sense that the liberal
secular world they live in – and for the most part endorse – is a world
shaped by Christian beliefs. If so, by describing themselves in that
way, they are paying tribute to the origins of their moral intuitions.
Is it mere coincidence that liberal secularism developed in the Chris-
tian West? This book is an attempt to answer that question. Telling a
story about the development of a concept over two millennia is, to say
the least, not fashionable. Understandably, historians have become
nervous of anything like teleological argument, surveying the damage
done by historicist theories of ‘progress’ put forward in the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries. I have tried to avoid that danger.
Nor is that the only danger. The division of intellectual labour and
the sheer accumulation of knowledge today pose a great risk for any-
one trying to pick a way through such a long period. Specialists are
bound to have reservations, noticing omissions and distortions, if not
outright mistakes. But must we abandon the attempt to identify and
follow longer threads in historical development? In my view, that
would be too high a price to pay.
Inevitably, this book is a work of interpretation rather than of pri-
mary scholarship. It draws on sources which I have found to be the
most penetrating and original, selected from the myriad of sources
available. The process of selection has, I am sure, left many valuable
sources aside. Nonetheless, there are a number of historians, living
and dead, whose writings strike me as both towering achievements
and crucial aids in pursuing answers to the questions I explore. I am
greatly indebted to their example. They are the real heroes of this
3
book: Fustel de Coulanges, François Guizot, Brian Tierney, Harold
Berman and Peter Brown. If this book does nothing more than draw
their writings to the attention of a wider readership, it will have
achieved something. Yet my hope is that this book may also contrib-
ute to a better understanding of that liberal tradition which is at the
core of Western identity.
A lifetime of reading, conversation and argument has shaped the
pages that follow. Some of the most important friendships which have
influenced me are now, alas, matters of memory: friendships with Paul
Fried, Myron Gilmore, John Plamenatz, Isaiah Berlin and John Bur-
row. Burrow read the larger part of the manuscript before his death,
providing, as always, comments that were penetrating, helpful and
witty. Others who have read and commented on virtually the whole
manuscript include Guglielmo Verdirame, Henry Mayr-Harting,
Diarmaid MacCulloch and Edward Skidelsky. Their comments and
criticisms have been invaluable. To Guglielmo and to Henry Newman
I owe a special debt – for innumerable evenings when conversation
ranged over all the issues of our time. Their generosity and loyalty
helped to make this book possible.
Finally, I want to salute Ruth Dry, at Keble College, Oxford, whose
patience in the face of the successive revisions of the manuscript has
been remarkably good-humoured.
LAS
Keble College, Oxford,
August 2013
Prologue
4
The World of Antiquity
1
The Ancient Family
If we in the West are to understand the world we have created, we must
first of all understand another world very remote from our own –
remote, not in space, but in time.
The distant past often lives on in surprising ways. Let us take the
practice of a man who carries his bride over the threshold of their new
home. Who would suppose that this amiable custom is the survival of
beliefs that underpinned a society utterly different from our own? It
was in many ways a repugnant society. It was a society in which the
worship of ancestors, the family as a cult and primogeniture created
radically unequal social identities, not just between men and women
but also between the first-born son and other male offspring.
So to understand a custom that in its origins was not amiable but
stern and obligatory, we must put our preconceptions to one side. We
must imagine ourselves into a world where action was governed by
norms reflecting exclusively the claims of the family, its memories,
rituals and roles, rather than the claims of the individual conscience.
We must imagine ourselves into a world of humans or persons who
were not ‘individuals’ as we would understand them now.
Since the sixteenth century and the advent of the nation-state,
people in the West have come to understand ‘society’ to mean an
association of individuals. Until recently that understanding was
accompanied by a sense of difference, a sense that other cultures had
a different basis of organization, whether that was caste, clan or tribe.
But in recent decades the Western impact on the rest of the world
through capitalism, the spread of democracy and the language of
human rights has weakened such a sense of difference. Globalization
has made it easier to project an individualized model of society – one
7
8
The World of Antiquity
that privileges individual preferences and rational choice – onto the
whole world.
We have become victims of our own success. For we are in danger
of taking this primacy of the individual as something ‘obvious’ or
‘inevitable’, something guaranteed by things outside ourselves rather
than by historical convictions and struggles. Of course, every human
has his or her own body and mind. But does this establish that human
equality is decreed by nature rather than culture?
Nature, in the form of genetic endowment, is a necessary, but not a
sufficient condition. A legal foundation for equality, in the form of
fundamental rights for every person, is also required. In order to see
this, it is important to understand how far the Western world has
moved away from its origins, as well as how and why. We need to fol-
low the steps between then and now. It will not always be easy.
Widespread complacency about the victory of an individualized
model of society reflects a worrying decline in historical understand-
ing. For example, to regard Aristotle’s definition of slaves as ‘living
tools’, or the presumption in antiquity that women could not be fully
rational agents, merely as ‘mistakes’ – symptoms of an underdevel-
oped sense of justice – scarcely advances comprehension of the past.
After all, radical social inequality was far easier to sustain and more
plausible in societies where literacy was so restricted.
It is commonplace to locate Western cultural origins in Greece,
Rome and Judaeo- Christianity. Which of these sources should be con-
sidered the most important? The question has received different
answers at different periods. In the middle ages, Christianity was
seen as the crucial source, a view that the sixteenth-century Reforma-
tion preserved. The eighteenth- century Enlightenment saw things
differently, however. In their attack on ‘superstition’ and clerical privi-
leges, Enlightenment thinkers sought to minimize the moral and
intellectual distance between modern Europe and Graeco- Roman
antiquity. They did this by maximizing the gap between the ‘dark’
middle ages and the ‘light’ of their own age. For them, natural science
and rational enquiry had replaced Christian belief as the agency of
human progress. The liberation of the individual from feudal social
hierarchies – as well as the liberation of the human mind from
self- serving clerical dogmas – represented the birth of modernity.
9
The Ancient Family
So the millennium between the fall of the Western Roman empire
and the Renaissance became an unfortunate interlude, a regression in
humanity. Gibbon’s famous history of Roman decline and fall invited
modern Europeans to share in elegant mourning for antiquity, mixing
sadness with the fun of anti- clerical mockery. As for the moral import
of Christian beliefs, it often received short shrift. Gibbon’s comment
about a late Roman matron who gave her daughter to Christ because
she was determined to be ‘the mother- in- law’ of God says it all. For
Gibbon and many of his contemporaries, the modern era of individ-
ual emancipation was a return to the freer, secular spirit of antiquity – a
view that remains widespread, even if it is now largely purged of viru-
lent anti-clericalism.
But just how free and secular were ancient Greece and Rome? In
order to answer that question, we have to probe the religious and
moral beliefs that originally gave rise to the institutions of the ancient
city- state, the polis. For those beliefs shaped a distinctive conception
of society, a conception of society that was not seriously challenged
until the first century ad.
Once we look closely at the beliefs and practices which shaped
Greece and Rome in their infancy, and which survived in large part at
their apogee, we find ourselves drawn back to an utterly remote moral
world – to an Indo-European world that antedated even the polythe-
ism we normally associate with Greece and Rome. We find ourselves
entering a mind- set that generated a conception of society in which
the family was everything. It was not only (in our terms) a civil but
also a religious institution, with the paterfamilias acting not only as
the family’s magistrate but also as its high priest.
To recapture that world – to see and feel what acting in it was like –
requires an extraordinary imaginative leap. The writer who has best
succeeded in making that leap into the minds of the peoples settling
Greece and the Italian peninsula several millennia ago was a French
historian, Fustel de Coulanges. His book The Ancient City (1864),
one of the most remarkable books of the nineteenth century, reveals
how prehistoric religious beliefs shaped first the domestic and then
the public institutions of Greece and Rome. It exposes the nature of
the ancient family. ‘The study of the ancient rules of private law ena-
bles us to obtain a glimpse, beyond the times that are called historic,
10
The World of Antiquity
of a succession of centuries during which the family was the sole form
of society.’1
Working backwards from the earliest Greek and Roman law codes,
Fustel de Coulanges explores a world in which ancestor worship cre-
ated a domestic religion. His book remains by far ‘the most influential
of modern works on the ancient city’.2 Yet Fustel himself distrusted
much modern writing about antiquity, apparently considering that
terms like ‘rationality’ and ‘private property’ can introduce anachron-
ism and prevent us from entering minds and institutions so different
from our own. ‘If we desire to understand antiquity, our first rule
should be to support ourselves upon the evidence that comes from the
ancients.’ 3 It is that determination that gives Fustel’s work its great
value.
Fustel draws not only on the first law codes, but also on the earliest
historians, philosophers and playwrights in order to recapture the
meaning of the beliefs that shaped the ancient family and city. He may
at times exaggerate the symmetry and reach of those beliefs, when
tracing the emergence of the Greek and Roman polis from a prehis-
toric society of families. Other causes were at work. The reality was
at times more messy than Fustel suggests. For the way humans under-
stand themselves never captures the whole truth. It selects, simplifies
and at times distorts. Nonetheless, Fustel’s ability to trace the roots of
institutions from language itself and early law is remarkable. Thus,
his account remains close to the understanding which ancient
thinkers – not least Aristotle – had of their own social development.4
Their beliefs about themselves were Fustel’s central concern. They will
also be ours.
For Fustel, at its origin the ancient family was both the focus and
the medium of religious belief. It was an instrument of immortality, at
once a metaphysic and a cult. The practices of the ancient family met
the needs of self- conscious creatures seeking to overcome the fact of
death. Around the family hearth – with the father tending its sacred
fire, offering sacrifices, libations and incantations learned from his
father – members of the family achieved union with their ancestors
and prepared their future. The fire on the family hearth could not be
allowed to die out, for it was deemed to be alive. Its flickering, imma-
terial flame did not just represent the family’s ancestors. It was their
11
The Ancient Family
ancestors, who were thought to live underground and who had to be
provided with food and drink, if they were not to become malevolent
spirits. Tending the fire therefore became an overarching obligation.
The eldest son would succeed his father as custodian of the rites of the
family hearth, that is, as its high priest. And his eldest son would fol-
low him.
The circle established by religious belief was exclusively domestic.
Gods could not be shared. Only deceased males related by blood
could be worshipped as family gods. And it was believed that dead
ancestors would only accept offerings from members of the family.
Strangers were therefore excluded from the worship of the dead, for
fear of gross impropriety or sacrilege. ‘The ancient Greek language
has a very significant word to designate a family. It is … a word which
signifies, literally, that which is near a hearth. A family was a group of
persons whom religion permitted to invoke the same sacred fire, and
to offer the funeral repast to the same ancestors.’ 5 If the hearth was
not properly protected and tended, the ancestors (‘gods of the inter-
ior’) who ‘rested’ beneath it would become dissatisfied and wandering,
as demons making trouble for the living rather than as gods.
These beliefs in the sacred fire and divine ancestors, revealed by
study of the roots of the Greek and Latin languages (which Fustel
supplemented with other Indo-European sources such as the Vedas),
should not be dismissed as mere anthropological curiosities. For prac-
tices established by these beliefs survived, even if modified, into
historical times as the domestic practices of Greece and Rome. Indeed,
they established the framework of everyday life until the advent of
Christianity.
In the house of every Greek and Roman was an altar; on this altar there
had always to be a small quantity of ashes, and a few lighted coals. It
was a sacred obligation for the master of every house to keep the fire
up night and day. Woe to the house where it was extinguished. Every
evening they covered the coal with ashes to prevent them from being
entirely consumed. In the morning the first care was to revive this fire
with a few twigs. The fire ceased to glow upon the altar only when the
entire family had perished; an extinguished hearth, an extinguished
family, were synonymous expressions among the ancients.6
12
The World of Antiquity
The absolute authority of the eldest male, keeper of the sacred fire and
preserver of the family cult, later found expression as paterfamilias.
His authority was a direct consequence of religious belief. And for
any son to remain single was deemed to be a dereliction of duty,
because it was a threat to the immortality of the family.
Other domestic practices in Greece and Rome – the subordinate
role of women, the nature of marriage, property rights and inherit-
ance rules – were also direct consequences of religious belief. Let us
take the role of women first. Women could participate in the worship
of the dead only through their father or husband. For descent was
traced exclusively through the male line. But even then religion gov-
erned the definition of relationships so entirely that an adopted son,
once he was admitted to the family worship, shared its ancestors,
while a son who abandoned the family worship ceased altogether to
be a relation, becoming unknown.
If we return to the example of a bride being carried across the
threshold of her new home, we can now begin to understand the ori-
gins of the practice. In a world where the family was the only social
institution, and the family worship the source of personal identity, the
move from one family to another was a truly momentous step for a
young woman, a step that changed her identity completely. So what
had to happen for a marriage to take place? First, the daughter had to
be separated for ever from her own family, in a formal ceremony
before its sacred fire. But in renouncing her family worship, she lost
all identity. She became, temporarily, a non-person. That is why her
future husband had to carry her across the threshold of his family
house. Only when she had been received into the worship of her new
family, in another solemn ceremony before their sacred fire, did she
acquire a new identity – an identity that enabled her to enter and
leave the house of her own accord. Now, once again, she had ances-
tors and a future.
Clearly, the family – past, present and future – was the basic unit of
social reality. It was necessarily the building block of any larger social
units. Nothing could legitimately violate its domain. Fustel argues
that this reflected a prehistoric period when the family, more or less
extended, was the only social institution, long before the growth of
cities and governments. Beating the bounds of the family domain was
13
The Ancient Family
understood as establishing not just a physical but also a moral fron-
tier. Outside that frontier were strangers and enemies. Nor were these
two sharply distinguished. Initially at least, those outside the family
circle were not deemed to share any attributes with those within. No
common humanity was acknowledged, an attitude confirmed by the
practice of enslavement.
There was an intimate connection between these beliefs about the
nature of the family and the origin of the idea of property rights.
The family hearth or altar, and with it the divine ancestors or gods of
the family, provided the focus of a sedentary life, of a fixed relation-
ship with the soil.
There are three things which, from the most ancient times, we find
founded and solidly established in these Greek and Roman societies:
the domestic religion; the family; and the right of property – three
things which had in the beginning a manifest relation, and which
appear to have been inseparable. The idea of private property existed
in the religion itself. Every family had its hearth and its ancestors. These
gods could be adored only by this family, and protected it alone. They
were its property.7
The boundaries of the family property were also the boundaries of a
sacred domain. Just as two sacred fires and the gods they embodied
could not be merged, even through intermarriage, so family enclo-
sures had to remain distinct.
This primitive belief survived in practices centuries later, when the
Greeks and Romans first built cities. For while urban houses had to
be much closer together, they could not be contiguous or joined –
some space, however slight, had to separate them. ‘At Rome the law
fixed two feet and a half as the width of the free space, which was
always to separate two houses, and this space was consecrated to “the
god of the enclosure”.’ 8 No doubt the building of tenements later
compromised this prohibition. But it shaped Roman property law at
the outset.
Today when we see other humans, we see them first of all as indi-
viduals with rights, rather than family members, each with an assigned
status. That is, we now see humans as rational agents whose ability to
reason and choose makes it right to attribute to them an underlying
14
The World of Antiquity
equality of status, a moral equality. We are even inclined to see this
moral equality as a fact of perception rather than a social valuation,
so ingrained is our assumption that rational agency demands equal
concern and respect.
Yet as we can already see it was not always so. In recapturing the
prehistoric religious beliefs and practices that gave rise to the Greek
and Roman city, the roots of their domestic institutions, we find our-
selves entering a world of, so to speak, small family churches. No one
was allowed to worship at more than one hearth or sacrifice to more
than one series of divine ancestors – for each series constituted a per-
petual divinity, joining past, present and future family members and
protecting them exclusively. To be involved in sacrifices at more than
one sacred hearth would have been seen as monstrous, an impiety
likely to bring disaster to both families.
As each family had its own gods, from whom it sought protection
and to whom it offered sacrifices, separation from the family worship
involved losing all personal identity. That is why Fustel de Coulanges
was right to insist that the ancient family was founded, not on birth,
affection or physical force, but rather on religion. Powerful religious
beliefs that antedated belief in the gods surrounding Zeus or Jupiter
shaped the domestic institutions of the Greeks and Romans. These
beliefs reflected a period when there were only families, more or less
extended – that is, a period before the creation of cities.
Larger associations did, however, gradually develop. And the emer-
gence of polytheism was a symptom of the development of such
associations. If, originally, the only unit of lasting human association
was the family, and the basis of that association was religious belief,
then certain conditions had to be satisfied before wider associations
became possible. Before cities could emerge, new associations of fami-
lies had to develop – first the gens or extended family, then clans
(called phratries in Greek and curiae in Latin), and finally tribes. Fus-
tel did not claim that there was always a tie of family within these
larger associations. But when they were formed, their beliefs obliged
them to find a common divinity. Each extension of human association
required the establishment of a new worship, recognition of a divinity
superior to the domestic divinities.
Vestiges of these intermediate associations long survived amid the
15
The Ancient Family
institutions of the Greek and Roman city. In so far as each step for-
ward in human association required an extension of religious
belief – the acknowledgement of shared divinities – the original model
of the domestic religion continued to impose itself. Its tenacity still
strikes ancient historians.9
Evidently we are a long way from the Enlightenment’s vision of a
free, secular spirit dominating antiquity, a world untrammelled by
religious authority or priesthood. Driven by anti-clerical convictions,
these eighteenth- century thinkers failed to notice something import-
ant about the Graeco- Roman world. They failed to notice that the
ancient family began as a veritable church. It was a church which con-
strained its members to an extent that can scarcely be exaggerated.
The father, representing all his ancestors, was himself a god in prepar-
ation. His wife counted only as part of her husband, having ancestors
and descendants only through him. The authority of the father as
priest and magistrate initially extended even to the right to repudiate
or kill his wife as well as his children. Celibacy and adultery were
accounted serious crimes, for they threatened, in different ways, the
family worship.
Yet the father exercised his authority on the basis of beliefs shared
by the family. His was not an arbitrary power. The overwhelming
imperative was to preserve the family worship, and so to prevent his
ancestors, untended, being cast into oblivion. This restriction of affec-
tion to the family circle gave it an extraordinary intensity. Charity,
concern for humans as such, was not deemed a virtue, and would
probably have been unintelligible. But fulfilling obligations attached
to a role in the family was everything. ‘The sense of duty, natural
affection, the religious idea – all these were confounded, were con-
sidered as one, and were expressed by the same word.’10 That word
was piety (pietas).
Nor should we suppose that the claims of family piety were much
weakened in later, historical times, when families were joined in larger
associations. Observing those claims continued, for example, to shape
the daily routine of the Roman citizen. ‘Morning and evening he
invokes his fire … and his ancestors; in leaving and entering his house,
he addresses a prayer to them,’ Fustel notices. ‘Every meal is a reli-
gious act, which he shares with his domestic divinities; birth, initiation,
16
The World of Antiquity
the taking of the toga, marriage, and the anniversaries of all these
events, are the solemn acts of his worship.’11
Virgil’s great epic, the Aeneid, written when the Roman republic
was giving way to the empire, is a testament to the claims of piety in
circumstances of distress. Bernini’s statue of Aeneas, Anchises and
Ascanius – kept today at the Villa Borghese in Rome – embodies those
claims. It shows Aeneas, after the fall of Troy, carrying away his father
Anchises and the household gods, while his son Ascanius carries the
household fire. Father and son are carrying away what mattered most
to them. It is a powerful visual representation of the idea of piety.
On close inspection, then, the domestic institutions of the Greeks
and Romans – institutions that provided the foundation for their pub-
lic law and political institutions – were shaped by beliefs about the
claims of sacred ancestors. Nowhere is this clearer than in the idea of
property rights that resulted. In the earliest Greek and Roman law, the
sale of property was virtually forbidden. And even in later, historical
ages such a sale was surrounded by prohibitions and penalties. The
reason is clear. Family property was integral to the family worship.
‘Religion required that the hearth should be fixed to the soil, so that
the tomb should neither be destroyed nor displaced. Suppress the
right of property and the sacred fire would be without a fixed place,
the families would become confounded and the dead would be aban-
doned and without worship.’ 12 It followed that property belonged not
to an individual man, but to the family. The eldest male possessed the
land as a trust. The rule of succession made this clear. For property
followed the same rule as family worship. It devolved upon the eldest
son, or, in the absence of male children, it went to the nearest male
relative. Daughters could not inherit. In Athens if the deceased had
only a daughter, she was required to marry the heir – even if the heir
or she was already married!
The disposal of property was not a matter of contract or individual
choice. In the earliest period the Greeks and Romans understood
property primarily as a means of perpetuating the family worship. In
Athens, the will or right of testament was unknown until Solon’s time
(sixth century bc), and his innovations only permitted it for the child-
less. It later made headway only against very strong religious scruples.
Fustel de Coulanges has no difficulty finding examples of the survival
17
The Ancient Family
of such scruples even in Athens’ greatest period. Plato, in his Laws,
treats contemptuously the wish of a man on his deathbed to dispose
of his property as he pleases: ‘Thou who art only a pilgrim here below,
does it belong to thee to decide such affairs? Thou art the master nei-
ther of thy property nor of thyself; thou and thy estate, all these things,
belong to thy family; that is to say, to thy ancestors and to thy
posterity.’13
It is tempting for a moment to adopt the idiom of the eighteenth-
century Enlightenment and call these beliefs ‘prejudices’. These
prejudices founded a hierarchical conception of society in antiquity,
and they long survived the earliest, undiluted forms of ancestor wor-
ship. It is true that many legal arrangements founded on these prejudices
were modified in historical times: the disposal of property was made
easier and paternal authority came to be somewhat restricted. Changes
occurred which prepared the ground for a moral revolution.
Yet the Greeks and Romans continued to understand ‘society’ as
an association of families, each with its own cult – and not as an
association of individuals. Hence justice within the family remained
basically a matter for the paterfamilias, not for the city. Paternal
authority deriving from the domestic religion entailed the subordina-
tion of women.
The Greek laws and those of Rome are to the same effect. As a girl, she
is under her father’s control; if her father dies, she is governed by her
brothers; married, she is under the guardianship of her husband; if the
husband dies, she does not return to her own family, for she has
renounced that forever by the sacred marriage; the widow remains sub-
ject to the guardianship of her husband’s agnates – that is to say, of her
own sons, if she has any, or, in default of sons, of the nearest kindred.14
Thus, the inviolability of the domestic sphere and the exclusive char-
acter of family worship were intimately joined together. They
established a moral boundary that the ancient city, as it developed,
was obliged to respect. The domain of legislation stopped at the prop-
erty of the family. Interfering with property was interfering with a
domestic religion, that is, with the most sacred obligations. The treat-
ment of debtors confirms this. For while a debtor lost control of his
own labour, his property could not be touched.
18
The World of Antiquity
We are now in a better position to understand the chief conse-
quence of Greek and Roman religious beliefs for the ordering of their
society and government. It is a consequence which even Fustel does
not identify clearly enough. In order to understand it, we must aban-
don the modern distinction between public and private spheres, the
distinction that underpins our notions of civil society and individual
liberty.
For the Greeks and Romans, the crucial distinction was not between
the public and private spheres. It was between the public and domes-
tic spheres. And the domestic sphere was understood as the sphere
of the family, rather than as that of individuals endowed with rights.
The domestic sphere was a sphere of inequality. Inequality of roles
was fundamental to the worship of the ancient family. Little wonder,
then, that when the ancient city was created citizenship was available
only to the paterfamilias and, later, his sons. Women, slaves and the
foreign- born (who had no hearth or worship of their own, no recog-
nized ancestors) were categorically excluded. Family piety ruled them
out. Piety raised a barrier that could not be scaled.
There was an intensity of feeling within the ancient family unknown
to us. But this intensity came at the price of moral transparency – of
what we could call the claims of humanity.
19
2
The Ancient City
We have explored a pre- historic world in which the family was
everything, a world in which obligation, gods and priesthood were
exclusively domestic. How do we get from such a world to the world
of cities and historical memory in Greece and Italy? How did the
range of human association increase, gradually giving birth to polit-
ical institutions, to the polis or city- state – indeed, to the very idea of
politics?
It is important to find out, because the city- state later gave rise to a
tradition of political discourse – usually called classical republicanism –
which is still influential. It is a tradition that has at times been invoked
to condemn such basic institutions of the modern world as the
nation- state, the market and representative government. This was
particularly the case during the second half of the eighteenth century.
Perhaps inspired by the writings of Jean- Jacques Rousseau, leading
French revolutionaries began to invoke the ‘virtue’ of ancient citizens –
their single- minded concern with res publica or the public weal – in
an attempt to remould European society and government. The rhet-
oric of Robespierre, for example, suggested that ancient citizenship
provided the test of ‘true’ liberty. For him, ancient liberty became the
most authentic liberty.
This claim ought to give us pause. We have already discovered an
ancient world which was by no means secular. We have discovered
that the family and its worship of sacred ancestors – veritable small
churches – were the building blocks of ancient society. If that society
did not sustain anything like the role of the individual, with equality
before the law and individual rights, how can its political institutions
be identified with liberty? What kind of liberty is being spoken of,
20
The World of Antiquity
when such a claim is made? Did the development of the ancient city
lead, after all, to the destruction of the family as a cult and the emer-
gence of individual rights? Did ancient citizenship mark the advent of
secularism? And if not, what was the meaning of ancient liberty?
To answer these questions, we must look more closely at the tran-
sition from a world of families to a world of cities – moving from the
third and second millennia to the first millennium bc.
Although the family which shaped pre- Greek and Roman institu-
tions was our point of departure, it would be a mistake to conceive of
that family in modern terms, as anything like a modern nuclear fam-
ily. The very religious beliefs which helped to constitute that family
led to its rapid expansion in size. Younger sons and their offspring
remained attached to the family hearth and its sacred fire. Moreover,
as the number of subordinate families grew in successive generations,
the patriarchal family (or gens) acquired dependants. Some became
permanently attached to the family by being admitted to an inferior
role – resembling that of women – in the family worship. There might
also be slaves, with no religious connection, attached to the family.
How did such patriarchal families or gentes eventually form larger
associations? They did so in the only way known to them. That
is, they came to acknowledge a shared ancestor and founded a
common worship. An altar was raised to a divinity or ‘hero’ held in
common. A ceremonial meal – comparable to the ‘sacred’ repast of
the household – was then established. These wider associations
required their own priesthood, assembly and rites. For a new religious
identity sustained the phratry or curia, what we might call a clan.
When these new associations, in turn, increased in size and proximity,
they came to establish a still wider association, called a tribe. The
tribe too required its sacred altar and a god. That god was also gener-
ally ‘a man deified, a hero’.
The ancient city came into being when several tribes became associ-
ated, by founding a common worship, a worship that supplemented
rather than replaced the pre-existing worships of gens, phratry or curia
and tribe. Here Fustel de Coulanges’s account has come in for criti-
cism. He may well have exaggerated the coherence attending the
founding of cities. Were they always founded by clans having familial
origins? Probably not.1 Yet, as we have seen, Fustel did not claim that
21
The Ancient City
there was always a tie of family within these larger associations. Nor
does his argument exclude the likelihood that incorporation in a polis
changed the role of associations. And one fact remains. In terms of
their formal organization, both Greece and Rome built civic institu-
tions around the claims of such subsidiary groups. They catered for the
claims of phratries or curias as well as tribes, giving each a formal role.
The city that emerged was thus a confederation of cults, an association
superimposed on other associations, all modelled on the family and its
worship. The ancient city was not an association of individuals.
Religious ideas expanded with the increased scale of association.
Fustel does not argue that religious progress brought about social
progress in any simple way, but he does emphasize the intimate con-
nection between the two. Thus, as the scale of association increased,
the gods of nature or polytheism became more important – for these
were gods who could more easily be shared, gods less exclusively
domestic than ancestors, gods associated with the forces of nature
rather than with divine ancestors. These were gods who represented
the sea, the wind, fertility, light, love, hunting, with familiar names
such as Apollo, Neptune, Venus, Diana and Jupiter. The building of
civic temples to these gods offered physical evidence of the enlarge-
ment of religious ideas. Still, the gods of each city remained exclusive,
so that while two cities might both adore ‘Jupiter’, he had different
attributes in each city.
Particularism was the rule. Even after a city was founded, it was
inconceivable for the city not to respect the divine ancestors, the
sacred rites and magistracies of the different groups that had attended
its foundation. For the souls of the dead were deemed to live on under
the ground of the cities they had helped to create. The statesman
Solon, who in the sixth century bc endowed Athens with laws, was
given the following advice by the oracle of Delphi: ‘Honour with
worship the chiefs of the country, the dead who live under the earth.’2
The city had to respect their authority in matters concerning their
descendants. For the city’s authority was all of a piece with theirs.
Gods and groups marched hand in hand.
This corporate, sacramental character of the ancient city dominated
its formal organization. Whether it was a question of procedures for
voting, military organization or religious sacrifices, care was taken to
22
The World of Antiquity
represent tribes, curiae and families – and to conduct civic life through
them. It was deemed important that men should be associated most
closely with others who sacrificed at the same altars. Altars were the
bonds of human association. That emerged in the Greek and Roman
conception of warfare. In one of Euripides’ plays, a soldier asserts
that ‘the gods who fight with us are more powerful than those who
fight on the side of the enemy’.3
The progress of a young Athenian or Roman towards full citizen-
ship recapitulated the progress of association that underpinned the
city. Born into a family and joined to its worship a few days after
birth, the youth was years later initiated successively into the cults of
curia and tribe (each involved a ceremonial meal, a ‘sacred’ repast),
before in his late teens being formally accepted as a citizen in a public
ceremony.
At the age of sixteen or eighteen, he [a young Athenian] is presented for
admission to the city. On that day, in the presence of an altar, and
before the smoking flesh of a victim, he pronounces an oath, by which
he binds himself always to respect … the religion of the city. From that
day he is initiated into the public worship, and becomes a citizen. If we
observe this young Athenian, step by step, from worship to worship,
we have a symbol of the degrees through which human association has
passed. The course which this young man is constrained to follow is
that which society first followed.4
The successive worships into which the ancient citizen was initiated
left no space for individual conscience or choice. These worships
claimed authority over not just his actions but also his thoughts. Their
rules governed his relations with himself as well as others. There was
no sphere of life into which these rules could not enter – whether it
was a matter of dress, deportment, marriage, sport, education, con-
versation or even ambition. If a citizen was deemed likely to acquire
too much influence over others, and thus become a potential threat to
the government of the city, he could be ostracized, that is, driven from
the city. No subversive action or proof of intent was required. The
safety and welfare of the city was everything.
The religious character of the ancient city was stamped on its form
of government. ‘If we wanted to give an exact definition of a citizen,
23
The Ancient City
we should say that it was a man who had the religion of the city.’ 5
Originally, the magistrates of the city were also its priests; the two
functions were not distinguished. The ceremonies attached to every
association, the sacred meals dedicated to their presiding deities, were
in the city the responsibility of the magistrates. Honouring the gods of
the city was their primary duty. And just as the gods had originally
been exclusively domestic, the gods of the city were not shared with
strangers. Even gods of nature adopted by a city became, as we have
seen, patriotic. Thus, the priesthood of one city had no connection
with the priesthood of another city. There were no doctrines held in
common. For the gods of the city were exclusively interested in its
welfare, its protection. They were ‘jealous’ of it.
Kingship was the highest priesthood, presiding over the cult estab-
lished with the city itself. The king was hereditary high priest of that
association of associations that was the ancient city. The king’s other
functions, as magistrate and military leader, were simply the adjuncts
of his religious authority. Who better to lead the city in war than the
priest whose knowledge of the sacred formulas and prayers ‘saved’
the city every day? And, later, when kingship gave way to republican
regimes, the chief magistrate of the city – the archon in Athens, the
consul in Rome – remained a priest whose first duty was to offer sac-
rifices to the city’s gods. In fact, the circlet of leaves worn on the head
of archons when conducting such sacrifices became a universal sym-
bol of authority: the crown.
Just as the highest magistrate was a priest, so the laws he defended
were originally the laws of a religion, a perpetual endowment trans-
mitted to the city by its heroic founder. Laws were the necessary
consequences of religious belief. There was nothing like the modern
notion of sovereignty, of a merely human agency with the authority to
create new law. The priests jealously guarded the laws of the city, for
the laws were understood to be the work of the gods. Indeed, they
probably took the form of prayers before they came to be written
down, and at first they may have been sung.
These ancient verses were invariable texts. To change a letter of them,
to displace a word, to alter the rhythm, was to destroy the law itself, by
destroying the sacred form under which it was revealed to man. The
24
The World of Antiquity
law was like a prayer, which was agreeable to the divinity only on con-
dition that it was recited correctly, and which became impious if a
single word in it was changed. In primitive law, the exterior, the letter,
was everything; there is no need of seeking the sense or spirit of it. The
value of the law is not in the moral principle that it contains, but in the
words that make up the formula. Its force is in the sacred words that
compose it.6
Even when laws were written down and became more numerous, they
continued to be deposited with the priests. They could not be inspected
by just anyone. For the laws were civil in a stringent sense: that is,
they applied only to citizens. Living in a city was by no means to be
placed under the protection of its laws. For example, neither slaves
nor strangers resident in the city had such protection. Laws could
establish a relationship only between men who shared in the worship
of the city, sacrificing at the same altars. They alone were citizens.
Religious belief shaped the character of ancient ‘patriotism’. Serv-
ing the ‘fathers- land’ emerges in the word itself. The defenders of an
ancient city under siege were not moved by interest as we understand
the term. They were not defending a public institution that had cre-
ated and guaranteed individual rights. Neither were they inspired by
the kind of historical narratives that have been created to celebrate
and reinforce the identities of modern nation-states. There was noth-
ing self- serving, abstract or sentimental about ancient patriotism.
The ancient citizen saw himself as defending the land of his ances-
tors, who were also his gods. His ancestors were inseparable from the
ground of the city. To lose that ground was to lose the gods of the
family. Indeed, the loss of the city meant that the gods had already
abandoned it. That is why, whenever a new city was about to be
founded, the first public rite involved its members digging a trench to
receive soil carried from their previous city, representing the soil in
which their ancestors had been buried. Citizens could then still say
this was the land of their ancestors, terra patria. In Plutarch’s account,
Romulus, the founder of Rome, did exactly that, in order to establish
a new residence for his ancestral gods. The foundation of a city was
not the construction of a few houses, but the assertion of a hereditary
religious identity, ‘patriotism’.
25
The Ancient City
When defending his city, the ancient citizen was therefore defend-
ing the very core of his identity. Religion, family and territory were
inseparable, a combination which turned ancient patriotism into an
overwhelming passion. The enslavement that often followed the
unsuccessful defence of a city merely confirmed a truly dreadful anter-
ior fact: the loss of identity that necessarily accompanied the loss of
domestic gods.
We can now understand why patriotism was not only the most
intense feeling but also the highest possible virtue for the ancient citi-
zen. Everything that was important to him – his ancestors, his worship,
his moral life, his pride and property – depended upon the survival
and well- being of the city. That is why devotion to the ‘sacred father-
land’ was deemed the supreme virtue. In devoting himself to the city
before everything else, the citizen was serving his gods. No abstract
principle of justice could give him pause. Piety and patriotism were
one and the same thing. For the Greeks, to be without patriotism, to
be anything less than an active citizen, was to be an ‘idiot’. That,
indeed, is what the word originally meant, referring to anyone who
retreated from the life of the city.
So it is no accident that exile was the most severe punishment the
citizen of a polis could suffer. It was worse than death, or rather it was
a living death. To be exiled meant to be separated from the religious
rites and relationships that were the source of personal identity. The
city- state or polis was not simply a physical setting or place for the
citizen. It was his whole life.
Let him leave its sacred walls, let him pass the sacred limits of its terri-
tory, and he no longer finds for himself either a religion or a social tie
of any kind. Everywhere else, except in his own country, he is outside
the regular life and the law; everywhere else he is without a god, and
shut out from all moral life. There alone he enjoys his dignity as a man,
and his duties. Only there can he be a man.7
This, of course, is why Aristotle later famously argued that the life of
the citizen was the only life worth living.
Fustel de Coulanges illustrates the nature of the ancient city by
noticing that the ancients made a distinction we do not make. They
distinguished the urbs from the civitas when referring to the city.
26
The World of Antiquity
What is the difference? The urbs is the physical location, the place of
assembly and worship. But the civitas is the moral nexus, the religious
and political association of the citizens. And in unusual circumstances
that association might survive the destruction of the urbs. That, for
Fustel, is the significance of the story of Aeneas, as told by Virgil. By
preserving the sacred fire of Troy, after the sack of the city, Aeneas has
preserved the moral basis of its association – which is to say, its gods.
His quest thereafter is really their quest. It is they who identify their
new home as Rome, and their will that prevents him settling any-
where else, even in Dido’s Carthage. The epic, then, is not about one
man’s struggle, but about the successful struggle of the gods of Troy
to become the gods of Rome.
Gods gave the lead to their cities. Only by taking this assumption
seriously can we understand the practices of Greek and Roman cities
in historical times, when republican regimes had replaced the original
kingships. Votes were not enough by themselves to confer legitimacy
on magistrates. In Athens, drawing lots was deemed to be the best
means of ascertaining the choice of the gods. In Rome, election to
consulships could only take place from a list offered by the presiding
priest, who had spent the previous night observing the skies while
intoning the names of candidates. If the auspices were deemed
unfavourable, a name was excluded. That is why the Romans some-
times found themselves electing candidates whom they despised,
rather than popular figures. The will of the gods was what mattered.
It was this belief that led the Greeks and Romans into their (to us)
strange practices of divination. ‘If Romulus had been a Greek, he
would have consulted the oracle of Delphi; if a Samnite, he would
have followed the sacred animal – the wolf or the green woodpecker.
Being a Latin, and a neighbour of the Etruscans, initiated into the
augurial science, he asks the gods to reveal their will to him by the
flight of birds.’ 8 These practices did not disappear in the later develop-
ment of cities. They survived long into Greek and Roman history.
By the sixth century bc, nonetheless, things had begun to change.
In both Greece and Italy, a radically hieratic society – in which pater-
familias was combined with priesthood – came under attack from
the lower classes, classes that previously had no part in the govern-
ment of the city. We must remember how few in numbers the citizens
27
The Ancient City
originally were. Citizens were originally simply the patres, something
surviving in Roman usage when senators were called the ‘fathers’ of
the city. In many cities younger sons could not become citizens while
their father, the family’s priest, was alive. Nor could the heads of jun-
ior branches of the family, formed over generations, claim that status.
Even less could clients, who had no blood relationship to the family
and its cult, have the privileges of citizenship.
Of course, to describe what was originally an unquestioned super-
iority of status as ‘privilege’ already suggests changing beliefs. It was
symptomatic of a period when class conflicts began to erode the social
structure on which the ancient city had been raised – conflicts between
the ‘equals’ and ‘inferiors’ in Sparta, between the Eupatrids and thetes
in Athens, and between the patricians and plebeians in Rome. But we
ought not to exaggerate the extent or rapidity of change. Ancient
beliefs, and the social structure they had created, were tenacious.
Even when social conflicts began to widen membership of the citi-
zen class, the original basis of citizenship – sharing in the worship of
the gods of the city – long remained. Evidence of the resistance of
beliefs to change was the extreme difficulty of founding a single state
in Greece out of its many city- states, a difficulty resting finally not so
much on geography or technical backwardness, but on obstinate
attachment to civic gods, who did not welcome strangers. Even mar-
riage between people from different cities was viewed as strange, if
not immoral. And when circumstances forced temporary alliances
between cities, these would be represented on medals as two gods
holding hands. The gods were not to be confounded!
Fear of the gods governed Greek and Roman conduct in war and in
peace. Even if all the preparations had been made, an expedition or a
battle could be postponed if the priests suddenly reported unfavour-
able auspices – a comet or partial eclipse perhaps, a flight of birds or
something missing in the entrails of a sacrifice. Spartan campaigns
were always regulated by the phases of the moon, while Athenian
armies never undertook a campaign before the seventh day of the
month. During the Peloponnesian War, the destruction of the Athe-
nian fleet outside Syracuse – which led to the decline of Athens – owed
not a little to reliance on omens. ‘The Athenian, like the Roman, had
unlucky days; on these days no marriage took place, no assembly was
28
The World of Antiquity
held, and justice was not administered.’ 9 To do otherwise, was to
tempt the gods.
The intermingling of religion and government remained complete.
From the sixth to the third century bc changes in the form of polis
government – from monarchy to aristocracy, from aristocracy to
democracy – did not reduce the authority of the city- state over its
members. There was no notion of the rights of individuals against the
claims of the city and its gods. There was no formal liberty of thought
or action. Participation in the assembly and service as a magistrate, if
chosen, were obligatory and enforced. Citizens belonged to the city,
body and soul.
The liberty of the ancient citizen – celebrated by the classical repub-
lican tradition – was thus far removed from our own idea of liberty.
Ancient liberty consisted of having a share in the government of the
city, in public power. It consisted of the privilege and duty to attend
the assembly, speak in debates, judge the arguments, take sides and
vote, with the further possibility of serving as a magistrate or on a
jury, if required. Ancient liberty did not tolerate indifference to the
political process. The public thing, res publica, was everything.
The domestic sphere, with its personal attachments or relation-
ships, might count as nothing. Fustel de Coulanges tells a story about
Sparta, drawn from Plutarch, that Rousseau later held up to the eight-
eenth century as exemplary. The Spartan army had suffered a serious
defeat at Leuctra, with terrible loss of life. When the news reached the
city, relatives of the dead were required to appear ‘with gay counte-
nances’, while the mothers of those who survived were required to
weep and lament their survival. There is probably an element of myth
here. Yet nothing better illustrates the unlimited demands of the
ancient city – the absence of a private sphere with legitimate claims –
than this story.
Citizenship, with its superior status and its share in public power,
was demanding. Citizens were constantly on display – like actors per-
forming before their public, a public consisting, however, of their
inferiors, of younger sons, clients, women and slaves. If divested of the
religious beliefs that had created the role, citizenship retained great
aesthetic appeal, the appeal of superiority and power, gravitas and
pride. Or so it must have seemed to a class of men who gradually
29
The Ancient City
increased in numbers, a class settled in the polis but not forming part
of its ‘people’. Why not? The defining feature of this class, called in
Rome the plebeians or plebs, was that it had no religious connection
with the city or its foundation. Probably formed of later arrivals, the
plebs had no domestic altars, and therefore no ancestors, no gods. The
plebs did not have even that indirect connection with a family wor-
ship shared by clients. It was this class that, along with the clients,
began to contest the limits of citizenship.
So the history of Greek city-states from the sixth century bc until
the advent of the Roman empire is dominated by class conflict – by
argument about who should be included in the citizen class. But argu-
ment was still limited by assumptions inherited from the cult of the
ancient family. That is, there was no question of women, slaves or the
foreign- born being included in public life. They remained confined to
the domestic sphere, the sphere of inferiority. Only one city, Rome,
offered an important exception to this rule.
The long period of aristocratic ascendancy in Greek and Italian
cities, founded on the family and its worship, had already reduced
kingship to a religious role, stripping kings of political authority. The
reason for this is clear enough. Kings had frequently made common
cause with the lower classes. They had formed alliances with clients
and the plebs, directed against the power of the aristocracy. Chal-
lenged both from without (by a class which had no family worship or
gods) and from within (by clients questioning the traditional ordering
of the family), the aristocracy of the cities carried through a political
revolution to avoid a social revolution.
Nonetheless, a social revolution slowly took place. Fustel de Cou-
langes, living in the mid- nineteenth century, drew on modern European
history in order to understand that revolution. For it was a question
of understanding a very gradual, incremental process, a transform-
ation of social structure not unlike the process which had eroded
feudal institutions in France from the thirteenth to the eighteenth cen-
tury. Two of Fustel’s immediate predecessors, François Guizot and
Alexis de Tocqueville, had explored the role of class conflict in for-
warding that process. Fustel finds something remarkably similar when
trying to understand the social forces that undermined the aristocratic
institutions resting on the ancient family and its worship.
30
The World of Antiquity
Analysing a social revolution involved going beyond what could be
found in the narratives of ancient historians. Their focus had been
primarily political. They were concerned to describe and analyse
observable political events in the world of city- states. Alliances, for-
eign wars and civil wars – these were their bread and butter. Even the
subtlest of the ancient historians, Thucydides, takes the social struc-
ture of the polis largely for granted. Fustel, on the other hand, seeks
to understand a fundamental change in that structure, drawing on
incidental information in ancient sources, especially information
about the nature and distribution of property.
The first major change took place within the patriarchal family.
Primogeniture came under attack and gradually gave way, with the
consequence not only that younger sons inherited and became full
citizens, but also that junior branches of the ancient families or gentes
became independent. These developments greatly increased the num-
ber of citizens, and reduced the power of the ancient family heads as
priests.
A second major change followed. The clients of the family were
gradually liberated, becoming free men. At the outset clients could not
own property. They did not even have any security of tenure on land
they worked for the paterfamilias. They were little better than slaves.
‘Possibly the same series of social changes took place in antiquity
which Europe saw in the middle ages, when the slaves in the country
became serfs of the glebe, when the latter from serfs, taxable at will,
were changed to serfs with a fixed rent, and when finally they were
transformed … into peasant proprietors.’10
Fundamental to these changes was a rise in expectations. That rise
was, in turn, due to the comparisons that became possible once the
patriarchal family was merely part of a larger association, the polis or
city-state. No longer was the paterfamilias, the magistrate and priest,
the only representative of authority in sight, the only spokesman of the
gods. The paterfamilias gradually lost his semi-sacred status through
being immersed in civic life. His inferiors now ‘could see each other,
could confer together, could make an exchange of their desires and
griefs, compare their masters, and obtain a glimpse of a better fate’.11
Obtaining the right of property was their first and strongest desire,
preceding any claim for the full privileges of citizenship. But the latter
31
The Ancient City
was bound to follow, for obtaining greater equality on one front only
increased a sense of exclusion on the other. Citizenship, in turn,
unleashed a process of abstraction which could and did threaten
inherited inequalities.
No one understood this better than a series of rulers called tyrants.
Tyranny was acceptable to the previously underprivileged classes
because it was a means of undermining the old aristocracy. Tyrants
were so called because ‘kingship’ evoked a religious role, a role that
recalled the subordinations based on the ancient family and its wor-
ship. The lower classes supported tyrants in order to combat their
former superiors. Tyranny was an instrument that could be discarded
when it had served its purpose, unlike the sacred authority claimed
by the original kings. It was an instrument serving a sense of relative
deprivation.
The dynamics resulting from a sense of relative deprivation slowly
destroyed the hold of the original aristocracy on the city. But it would
be utterly wrong to conclude that it destroyed aristocracy as such. On
the contrary, what moved the younger sons, clients and plebs was a
desire to share in the privileges of the citizen class – to cut a figure
comparable to that of a class which had hitherto combined the grav-
itas of priests, the pride of rulers, and the glory of warriors. It was a
class that enjoyed being seen in a heroic pose, stripped for action. The
ancient taste for nudity was no mere accident. Nudity expressed a
sense of social superiority – the superiority of citizens who rose above
mere domestic concerns, seeking glory for themselves through the
city, and for the city through themselves. To be seen naked was to be
seen as superior to the meretricious and even sordid wants of women,
merchants and slaves.
The domestic sphere, a sphere of radical inferiority, remained. The
social revolution, which reshaped ancient city-states in the centuries
before their eclipse under the Roman empire, did not tamper with
that sphere. The social revolution was a struggle of the underprivil-
eged for greater privilege. It was not a struggle for justice, as we
understand the term.
The claims of the city remained pre- eminent. An enemy of the city
had no rights. A Spartan king, when asked about the justice of seizing
a Theban citadel in peacetime, replied: ‘Inquire only if it was useful,
32
The World of Antiquity
for whenever an action is useful to our country, it is right.’12 The treat-
ment of conquered cities reflected this belief. Men, women, children
and slaves were slaughtered or enslaved without compunction.
Houses, fields, domestic animals, anything serving the gods of the foe
might be laid waste. If the Romans spared the life of a prisoner, they
required him to swear the following oath: ‘I give my person, my city,
my land, the water that flows over it, my boundary gods, my temples,
my movable property, everything which pertains to the gods – these I
give to the Roman people.’13
When the fortune of their own city was at stake, the Greeks and
Romans were implacable.
33
3
The Ancient Cosmos
The heroic role played out by the Greek and Roman citizen constantly
confirmed his superiority. But it was not just a matter of ritual or pub-
lic theatre. Whether as magistrate, priest or warrior, the citizen’s
actions were deemed to incorporate a powerful rationality. His actions
were proper responses to the claims of the city and its gods. Decisions
by the assembly of citizens allowed for no independent review. The
idea of individual rights was absent. Social subordinates were, after
all, not deemed to be fully rational. No doubt women, merchants and
slaves had important social functions, but their minds did not rise
to the public sphere and its concerns. Instead, gossip, mercenary cal-
culation and uncomplaining obedience were their respective lots.
We are encountering a conception of ‘reason’ very different from
that of the modern world, for it ‘carried’ within it hierarchical assump-
tions about both the social and the physical world. We can see these
assumptions about the superiority of the citizen and his cult of hon-
our emerging in Xenophon’s dialogue, the Hiero:
All creatures seem in a similar fashion to take pleasure in food, drink,
sleep and sex. But that love of honour does not grow up in animals
lacking speech. Nor, for that matter, can it be found in all human
beings. The lust for honour and praise grows up only in those who are
most fully distinguished from the beasts of the fields: which is to say
that it grows up only in those judged to be real men and no longer mere
human beings.1
The citizen was a kind of superman. Public life, founded on reli-
gious observances, gave citizens the opportunity to express both their
34
The World of Antiquity
piety and patriotism. For citizens, it was assumed, joined a sense of
the proper ordering of things to their taste for glory. What we would
call their ‘status’ was understood rather as natural endowment. This
assumption probably had roots in a period when citizens, relatively
few in number, were not only priests and magistrates, but also had a
virtual monopoly of literacy – with the status it conferred. However
that may be, the assumption of superiority was later reinforced by the
role of oratory in enlarged assemblies, the sophistication of public
argument and the military prowess expected of citizens.
Yet gradual expansion of the citizen class did change the nature of its
prestige. The sacerdotal family had to share the stage with new ways of
organizing the citizenry. Family piety had to combine with new ways of
thinking. In Athens, the move from aristocratic to democratic govern-
ment altered the nature of the tribes. They became, in a sense, offshoots
of the public assembly, reflecting the claims of citizenship and voting
rather than of the sacerdotal family. A similar symptom of social change
in Rome appeared when the army was no longer organized simply
according to family and gens. Instead, centuries – that is, numbers –
became the basis of its organization. Former clients and plebeians had
often become rich (the introduction of money facilitating the circula-
tion of property) and they played an increasingly important military
role. The original aristocratic means of making war, the cavalry, had
declined as compared to expensive, heavily armoured infantry: Greek
hoplites and Roman legionaries. Thus numbers and money – introduc-
ing a touch of abstraction – came to count for more within the privileged
citizen class, supplementing its religious foundation.
Wider participation in the government of the city, and the import-
ance of public debate which resulted, had formidable intellectual
consequences. New skills were fostered, skills required for careful
argument and effective persuasion in the assembly. Logic and rhet-
oric thus came into existence as public disciplines. The ability to make
a coherent case, defend it and present it persuasively to an audience
of equals became a sine qua non for leadership in the city. The
development of these critical and imaginative capacities contributed,
by the fifth century bc, to the emergence of abstract, philosophical
thinking out of religion and poetry. Athens became both its centre and
a symbol.
35
The Ancient Cosmos
Yet these developments had an important unintended consequence.
Reason or rationality – logos, the power of words – became closely
identified with the public sphere, with speaking in the assembly and
with the political role of a superior class. Reason became the attribute
of a class that commanded. At times reason was almost categorically
fused with social superiority. So the assumption grew that reason could
command – even when, paradoxically, it involved defining an immut-
able order or ‘fate’. Thus the Roman writer Seneca felt able to prescribe
the role of the stars: ‘On even the slightest motion of these hang the
fortunes of nations, and the greatest and smallest events are shaped to
accord with the progress of a kindly or unkindly star.’2
The assumption that reason ‘governed’ shaped the understanding
of both the social world and the physical world. In the physical world,
the assumption emerged as a belief that purposes or ends (what Aris-
totle called ‘final causes’) governed all processes and entities. In that
way, relationships within the non-human world were assimilated to
reasons for acting in human life. It followed that reason could identify
that towards which each thing ‘naturally’ tends, finding its proper
place in a ‘great chain of being’. In the social world, the assumption
emerged as belief that there was a natural hierarchy, a superior class
entitled by ‘nature’ to rule, constrain and, if need be, coerce. Thus, in
a society where some were born to command and others to obey, the
motivational power of reason seemed self- evident. Out of its own
resources, reason could guarantee action.
This assumption deserves our attention. For it runs contrary to a
central tradition in modern philosophy, especially to an empiricist
tradition that gives reason a merely instrumental role. In this modern
view, reason as a faculty cannot motivate: it does not move us to
action. Reason merely provides us with the means of calculating the
consequences of different courses of action. Characteristically, modern
thought interposes a separate event in the individual – ‘willing’ –
between deliberation and action. Yet even today it remains a matter
of controversy whether Greek philosophers had a distinct concept of
the will. If they did, it seems to have developed relatively late. What is
more immediately striking is that Homeric Greek, the Greek of the
Iliad and Odyssey, did not even have a word for ‘intention’.3
By identifying rationality with social superiority – by taking for
36
The World of Antiquity
granted the deference of inferiors, of a domestic sphere – the ancient
world had less need for a doctrine of the will. It had less need to posit
a separate event or faculty preceding action in every person. The
notion of human agency was shaped by the structure of society. Some
were simply born to command and others to obey. Hence there was
no ontological gap between thought and action. The status of the per-
son who reasoned guaranteed the availability of action if required.
We can see the persistence of this assumption in antiquity, even
after philosophy had emerged from the critical habits fostered by
public debate in the assemblies. In the Republic, Plato asks what a just
society would be like. He replies by arguing that we can most easily
understand what it would be like by analogy with a just person. So
what is characteristic of a just person? A just person is governed by
reason, the highest faculty. Reason governs actions, and draws on the
appetites for fuel. What are the social implications, according to
Plato? As reason is the attribute of only a few – in fact, only of
philosophers – it is philosophers who therefore ought to govern. They
ought to direct the actions of a warrior class, which is in turn sus-
tained by a large inferior class of what we might now be inclined to
call workers.
Plato’s use of this analogy is revealing. While he ostensibly argues
from a picture of the just self to that of a just society, it is hard to
resist the conclusion that the argument really proceeds in the other
direction – and that he conceives of a just self on the model of a radi-
cally stratified society, a society in which there are groups ready- made
to act on the conclusions of deductive argument. Of course, Plato’s
argument does not necessarily identify philosopher-kings with the
traditional citizen class. To that extent, we can see the impact of
more abstract, philosophical reflection. But his conception of society
remains one in which radical status differences ensure the harmony of
thought and action. For Plato, everyone is born with an attribute that
fits him or her for a particular social role, his or her ‘proper’ place.
Several features of the ancient world make sense against the back-
ground of these assumptions – its contempt for labour and distrust of
commerce, its admiration for military valour and, not least, its con-
ception of the universe or cosmos.
We have already seen that civic virtue or patriotism, unlimited
37
The Ancient Cosmos
devotion to the welfare of the city, was accounted the highest virtue.
Now the chief threat to civic virtue was deemed to be a taste for ‘lux-
ury’, a taste that the development of money had no doubt fortified.
The admirers of Sparta often attributed this taste to Athens and Cor-
inth. In their view, luxury led inexorably to the corruption of a city.
Luxury distracted citizens from their proper concern, which was the
public weal. By indulging a taste for luxury, citizens were led instead
into a preoccupation with wealth and its perquisites: consumption,
display and pleasure. By contrast, Sparta was cited as the model for
citizens living an austere common life, always ready to answer the call
of duty, with weapons at hand. Spartans were stripped for action.
Doubtless there was more than a little propaganda in this view. But
that did not make it any less influential, either at the time or later,
when it became a stock-in- trade of the classical republican tradition.
For this rhetoric captured an important aspect of thinking about the
city- state. The growth of luxury represented a withdrawal into the
domestic sphere, and a weakening of the citizens’ public ardour, fos-
tering instead a kind of self- indulgence and even effeminacy. And the
latter quality was a symptom of the inferior nature of the domestic
sphere.
Honour, rather than pleasure, ought to be the concern of the citi-
zen. For honour or ‘glory’ was the public reward for virtue. Socrates
dramatized the choice facing citizens when repeating the story of a
debate between ‘Vice’ and ‘Virtue’ staged before the young Heracles.
After Vice has offered the boy rapid access to happiness through
pleasure, Virtue exclaims:
What can you know of real pleasure … ? You fill yourself full of every-
thing even before you feel the need. Before feeling hunger, you eat;
before feeling thirst, you drink. In order that you may take pleasure in
dining, you contrive the presence of chefs; in order that you may take
pleasure in drinking, you equip yourself with expensive wines and rush
about in search of snow in summer; and in order that you may take
pleasure in sleeping, you provide yourself not only with soft bedding,
but with a frame for your couch as well … You force sex before it is
needed, contriving everything and using men in place of women. You
train your friends, behaving arrogantly at night and sleeping through
38
The World of Antiquity
the most useful hours of the day. You never hear praise, the most pleas-
ant of all things to hear; and you never see the most pleasant of all
things to see: for nothing is more pleasant to see than one’s own noble
work.4
The admiration of other citizens – not to mention inferiors – was
what mattered. And that admiration had to be won through single-
minded devotion to the public weal. It was a goal that required clear
thinking and self- control. The heroes in Thucydides’ account of the
war between Athens and Sparta (the Peloponnesian War, 431–404 bc)
are the prototypes, making a contrast with the self- indulgent, aber-
rant behaviour of an anti- hero like the traitorous Alcibiades.
At the heart of this rhetoric was a simple contrast between mascu-
line hardness and feminine softness. If the former was associated
especially with the warrior citizens of Sparta and early Republican
Rome, the latter was associated not only with the more pleasure- loving
societies of Athens and Corinth but also, later, with Imperial Rome.
Thus commerce became associated with ‘giving in’ to appetites – with
refinements, sensual pleasures and a narcissism that subverted civic
spirit. Commerce became the enemy of simplicity. It became almost a
synonym for decadence. Commerce, along with the taste for luxury it
promoted, turned men into quasi- women. Cicero, the orator and
Roman moralist, liked to cite a saying by Archytas of Tarentum on the
evils posed to the polis by luxury and sensuality: ‘the greatest of these
evils is that it predisposes men to unpatriotic acts’.5
The cult of the heroic male nude, who steadfastly resisted the lure
of ‘mere’ appetites, served to complete the contrast between the quali-
ties required for public life and the qualities fostered by the domestic
sphere. For the citizen had to be prepared to be a warrior. He had not
only to defend the territory and gods of his city, but also be ready to
take part in any expeditions the assembly might decide upon. The
Spartan warrior was always on call.
As we have seen, military expeditions against other cities were not
judged on abstract grounds of justice. What alone mattered was the
prospect of success. The king of Sparta, Archidamus, urged war
against Athens in the following way: ‘Remember, then, that you are
marching against a very great city. Think, too, of the glory or, if events
39
The Ancient Cosmos
turn out differently, the shame which you will bring to your ancestors
and to yourselves, and, with all this in mind, follow your leaders, pay-
ing the strictest attention to discipline …’6
Apart from glory, the advantage to be gained by success was as
much economic as political. For in antiquity there was no clear dis-
tinction between military and economic activity. How could there be?
Part of the point of warfare and conquest was enslavement of the
enemy. War was also the recruitment of labour. Little wonder, there-
fore, that labour was seen as dishonourable. It was associated with
defeat and permanent social inferiority.
Inevitably, such radical status differences spilled over into judge-
ments about the proper uses of the mind, that is, about rationality.
The contrast between the ‘noble’ qualities of the citizen and the infer-
ior skills of the merchant were a case in point. The grave reflection
and persuasion that fostered knowledge of the public weal stood in
sharp contrast to the bargaining and calculation of the marketplace.
It was deemed demeaning for the citizen to use his mind in such a
way. He had better things to do. (Is this why Romans regarded the
enormous wealth accumulated by generals and governors in their ser-
vice as ‘inadvertent’?)
Of course, the faculty of speech and reason – logos – carried with it
another possibility: disagreement. If men could disagree about how
words were to be used in the most mundane, domestic matters, how
much greater were the discords that might result from arguments in
the assembly. At worst, appeals to the public good might simply cloak
citizens’ defence of partial interests, while the pursuit of honour might
become the plaything of vanity, in what might be called the Alcibiades
syndrome. When such things happened, the polis had become cor-
rupt. The domestic sphere had come to overwhelm the public sphere,
alone the sphere of nobility.
The danger of civil war always lurked in the background of public
argument. For it could undermine the city entirely, leading to the
destruction not just of the urbs but also of the civitas, the moral com-
munity or nexus of association. This extreme danger could take the
form of one faction or class within the city appealing to another city
for its intervention – a tactic that helped the neighbouring Macedo-
nian kingdom gradually to subdue Greek cities. Such action amounted
40
The World of Antiquity
to the renunciation or abandonment of logos, of rational argument in
the assembly. It was the collective equivalent of the penalty of exile
for particular citizens, because it plunged the city into a similarly
strange world without norms, a world without family or civic gods
whose aid could be counted on.
The threat that held the prospect of stasis or civil war at bay was
the threat of conquest. The citizen class were necessarily also warri-
ors, concerned to protect the independence of the city. That concern
helped to unify factions. It turned the idea of the public weal or com-
mon good into a kind of glue. For, as we have seen, conquest could
lead to enslavement, to sudden, total loss of that superior status which
defined ancient citizenship.
For citizens, conquest involved not merely the loss of goods but of
gods, of personal identity. It may be that what finally sweetened a bit-
ter pill, the loss of complete autonomy for the city, was an overlordship
which preserved the outward forms of civic independence and
worship – and with them, the superior status of the citizen. Thus dom-
ination by Philip of Macedon and Alexander the Great, who had
overcome the cities of the Greek heartland by the late fourth century
bc, was preferable to slavery.
Just as previously inferior groups had acquiesced in tyranny within
the city, in order to enter the citizen class and share in its privileges,
that enlarged citizen class eventually sacrificed self- government – very
reluctantly – to the preservation of its privileges. But, in consequence,
its superior social status, which was deemed to incorporate a superior
rationality, was forced to come to terms with a wider world and a
more remote form of government. It has been argued that by the third
and second century bc many Greeks welcomed the ‘imperial’ pro-
gress, first of Macedon and then of Rome, as a relief from the incessant
social conflicts within their own cities.
This created a serious crisis of identity. For if the need to defend
the independence of the polis had hitherto justified the primacy
of the public sphere – underpinning the self- abandonment of citizens
to the excitements of government and warfare – what could now pre-
vent citizens retreating into the inferior pleasures of the domestic
sphere? What could prevent them forfeiting the claims of rational
superiority that had been central to their role and their self- respect?
41
The Ancient Cosmos
With the decline of the polis, a whole conception of society and of the
rational self was at risk.
For most citizens of Greek cities, ‘law’ and ‘justice’ had been identi-
cal. Participation in making the law helped to give citizens a sense
that obeying the law was an imperious duty. It was at the core of a
citizen’s rightful pride. And it was cited to explain the Greeks’ super-
iority over mere ‘barbarians’. Herodotus tells the story of a deposed
Spartan king, Demaratus, who took refuge at the Persian court of
Xerxes. When the Persian king, planning his invasion of Greece, asked
whether the Greeks would resist, given their very inferior numbers
and the fact that they had no master to compel them to fight, Dema-
ratus replied:
They are free, yes, but not entirely free. For they have a master, and that
master is Law, whom they fear even more than your subjects do you.
Whatever this master commands, they do, and his command is always
the same. He does not permit them to flee in battle, against whatever
odds, but compels them to stand firm, conquer or die.7
The decline of the polis threatened to undermine such pride – and
with it, the whole aristocratic model of society.
Little wonder that some philosophical movements, notably that of
the Sophists, had already begun to speculate whether law or justice
was anything more than the rule of the strongest. Both struggles
within the citizen class and constant warfare between cities, culminat-
ing in the prolonged struggle between Athens and Sparta, had lent
plausibility to their arguments. But such scepticism came up against
impressive intellectual resistance. In the ancient world it was not only
the conception of the self – of rationality and action – that carried the
imprint of a highly stratified society. That imprint can also be detected
in the conception of the universe or cosmos which prevailed in Greece
and Rome.
After all, we should never forget that it was the Greeks who invented
‘nature’. That is, they invented the concept that has had such a long
and varied career, being turned to the uses of very different societies
and cultures during two and a half millennia. In its original form,
which the Romans accepted from the Greeks, the concept of nature
was about as far removed from the nineteenth-century Darwinian
42
The World of Antiquity
picture of nature ‘red in tooth and claw’ as it could be. It was origin-
ally a concept that conveyed a rational order or hierarchy of being.
Everything had a fixed place in ‘a great chain of being’.
The Greek conception of nature did not at first make any sharp dis-
tinction between nature (physis) and culture (nomos), between the
cosmos and the social order. Instead, it presented the two as a single
continuum. Binding them together was the assumption of natural
inequality, the assumption that every being has a purpose or goal
(telos), which fits it to occupy a particular place in the great chain of
being. Only when tending towards that goal is it fulfilling its nature
and contributing to the preordained harmony of things. To be fully
rational was to be able to grasp this ‘natural’ order.
When the Greeks turned to speculating about the order of the heav-
ens, these habits of thought came into play. Greeks projected their
hierarchical vision onto the universe. That vision shaped their under-
standing of the heavens, an understanding elaborated by Aristotle
and, later, turned into a sophisticated model by Ptolemy. Accepted by
the Romans, the Ptolemaic model of the cosmos would not be ser-
iously challenged until the late middle ages.
We can see the impact of this hierarchical vision in the way a differ-
ence of opinion among Greek thinkers about the cosmos was resolved.
One of the first cosmologists, Aristarchus, had placed the sun at the
centre of things, with the earth orbiting around it. Yet the very idea of
the earth moving around the sun proved uncongenial to the Greek
mind. How could their stable, ‘rational’ hierarchy be founded on
movement? So a rival model was increasingly preferred, which placed
the earth at the centre of things, surrounded by eternal and incorrupt-
ible heavens.8
In that way the assumption of natural inequality shaped the Greeks’
understanding of the planets as well as the stars. For them, these
were ‘heavenly’ bodies in more than one sense. That is, they encir-
cled the earth in a series of ever-larger crystalline spheres, with the
outer and ‘higher spheres’ of the stars beyond the inner and lower
planetary spheres. The more distant the sphere, the purer and more
spiritual it was assumed to be. Aristotle assigned a separate intelli-
gence to each of the spheres. The moon, so close to the earth, was the
43
The Ancient Cosmos
least refined of the heavenly bodies – the lowest in intelligence. The
most remote stars of the final sphere represented the most refined
intelligence and controlled the others. ‘Ancient thinkers were alter-
nately inspired and oppressed by a vertiginous upward view. As they
stepped out under the night sky, they thought of themselves as look-
ing upward at layer after layer of vibrant beings, each more glorious
than the last, each very different from their heavy selves.’ 9 Distrust of
matter informed this view of things celestial. The visible cosmos was
represented as a spiritual ascent, by analogy with the assumption that
the mind should govern the body, which was, after all, mere ‘base
matter’.
Despite the constraints imposed by these hierarchical assumptions,
Greek cosmologists and Ptolemy did display extraordinary ingenuity
in charting the movements of ‘heavenly’ bodies without the aid of
telescopes. Drawing on Babylonian sources and developing sophisti-
cated mathematical techniques, the Ptolemaic model of the cosmos
accounted for much of what could be seen with the naked eye, mak-
ing it possible for the ancients to predict eclipses and solstices. Yet
what we would call physical events continued to be seen by them
as signs or ‘auspices’ – signals revealing the will of the gods. Thunder
and lightning, the movements of birds, the behaviour of an animal
when released from its cage – all of these ‘portents’ could influence
decision- making in the ancient polis. Despite the emergence of
more abstract thought, nature remained full of purpose for the Greeks
and Romans. Divination was the art of identifying those pur-
poses. While the Greeks appealed to oracles as well as omens, the
Romans had ‘a doggedly enduring faith in the predictive power of
astrology’.
So even the powers of abstraction, whether in the form of math-
ematics or philosophy, appeared to confirm the claims of rational
superiority through the imagery of ascent. It is no surprise that Plato’s
so- called ‘Neoplatonic’ followers relied so much on that imagery. By
definition, the superior mind was able to disentangle itself from ‘base’
matter, enabling it to hear ‘the music of the heavenly spheres’, a trait
which, for Plato, created the philosopher-king’s right to rule.
The Sophists, however, began to challenge this view of things. They
44
The World of Antiquity
were a fascinating group. They were the first professional teachers or
intellectuals, that is, they were paid for their services – which immedi-
ately brought them up against a deep prejudice in a residually
aristocratic society. Even more importantly, perhaps, the Sophists,
who often came from small cities and modest backgrounds, wandered
from city to city. They were not citizens anywhere, which placed them
outside the sphere of morality in the eyes of traditional Greeks. Soph-
ists were literally ‘amoral’, because they did not belong to the moral
world of any polis. Even the way they taught seemed to undermine
their claims to teach the skills required by citizenship. For they prided
themselves on being able to show, with equal ease, how to defend or
refute successfully any particular proposition.10
When Socrates argues with Protagoras, the leading Sophist, it is
clear that he greatly respects Protagoras’ dialectical skills. The Soph-
ists had begun to distinguish ‘nature’ from ‘convention’. Often they
made the two antithetical. Yet they did not pursue a single strategy.
Some might champion what existed ‘by nature’ – brute rule of the
strongest, for example – while others defended what existed by ‘con-
vention’ or custom, unwritten moral rules on which, it was claimed,
positive law depended. But whatever strategy they pursued, the Soph-
ists fostered habits of thought which disturbed the assumption that
nature and culture belonged to a single moral continuum, a hierarch-
ical order in which the gods lay behind the laws on which society was
founded. In this way they encouraged a kind of scepticism.
Was reason really the anointed instrument of moral and social
order? Or did the claim that reason can and should rule merely mask
the role of appetites, vanity and mere force in human affairs? Did rea-
son provide not a privileged access to the nature of things but rather
a means of manipulation? Whether the Sophists intended it or not,
such questions began to be asked. For the Sophists’ approach raised
doubts about a teleological understanding of the world.
To be sure, the Sophists met powerful philosophical opposition.
Responding to ‘sophistry’, Plato and Aristotle sought to place social
and political argument once again within the framework of a world
order defined by purpose or telos. Anxious about the future of citizen-
ship in the polis – for Aristotle ‘the only life worth living’ – their
45
The Ancient Cosmos
efforts restored teleology to a dominant position. Whether it was
Plato’s mathematically inspired forms, or Aristotle’s typology of
causes, rational understanding was the crux. Such knowledge was
presented not only as a necessary but also a sufficient condition for
achieving harmony – for identifying and conforming to the rational
order or logos behind the material world of sensations and shifting
appearances. Knowledge of goals was the key to both natural and
social order.
This defence of teleology enabled philosophers to see themselves as
the vanguard of a superior class, the class of citizens. For a long time
their concerns remained tied to the concerns of the polis, to fostering
the skills of the citizen. As we have seen, the idea of logos or rational
order was fused with the idea of public speaking and with the voca-
tion of the citizen. Even when the persistent asking of questions and
pursuit of rational conclusions stirred unease in the city – and might
lead, as in the case of Socrates, to charges of subversion – a case could
still be made that fostering self- awareness gave a city such as Athens
an important competitive advantage, an advantage in knowledge and
therefore power. For just as thought and action were fused in the
Greek mind, so were knowledge and skill. In the fifth century bc,
the astonishing defeat of the Persians by the Greeks and the growth
of the Athenian empire had seemed a vindication of such associations
of ideas. Yet in the following centuries these near certainties were
shaken.
The idea of logos had shaped Greek understanding of law as well
as the cosmos. The original sanction of the gods of the city gradually
took refuge in the idea of logos. But if debates in city assemblies pro-
moted abstract argument at the expense of domestic worships and
civic gods, the weakening of the Greek city-states after the Pelopon-
nesian War and the rise of Macedonian power – reducing formerly
proud city- states almost to colonies – gave the idea of logos an even
more powerful impetus. The logos which had been embodied in the
city and its laws began to make way for a logos embodied in a univer-
sal rational order, in what would be called ‘natural law’.
Observing the shift of power from cities to large military empires
had an important effect on minds. The new scale of social organization
46
The World of Antiquity
could not be ignored. The centralizing of power at the expense of
local autonomy led philosophers to question assumptions that had
previously sustained the life of the polis. Was the life of the citizen
really the only life worth living? Was the virtually complete hold of
civic life over body and soul justified when the city had ceased to be
autonomous and self- governing? Was it really ‘idiotic’ not to be tot-
ally immersed in the life of the polis?
In the Hellenistic period – following the apogee of the city- state –
philosophers began to speculate about a universal or ‘human’ nature
that underlay different social conventions. Yet their speculations
were directed especially at demonstrating their rational superiority,
an ability to rise above the local and parochial. To that extent, it
was a reassertion of the assumption of natural inequality which had
for so long sustained a hierarchical conception of society. These
philosophers’ speculations did not have any radical moral import.
They were not subversive. They were not designed to challenge or
undermine the ‘aristocratic’ beliefs and practices of the ancient
world, though the weakening of the city-state and the advent of large
empires, first the Macedonian and then the Roman, no doubt influ-
enced them.
Aristocratic assumptions about the proper ordering of society began
to take refuge in a larger world. That is the strategy – irresistible in its
way – that can be detected within newer philosophical movements
such as Stoicism. In its austere message of self-control, Stoicism brought
to a new height the assumption that reason can and should govern,
with the passions entirely subjugated to reason. The model of moti-
vation Stoics relied upon still bore the impress of a superior class
commanding subordinate social forces. Becoming a ‘citizen of the
world’ offered a new form of privilege, even if it was the privilege of
renunciation, withdrawal and contemplation rather than of civic par-
ticipation. It rested on the same postulate of rationality that had set
citizens of the cities apart from their inferiors, a postulate that pre-
served a sense of superiority and provided a citadel for pride when the
walls of the city had been breached.
Such a refuge exacted a high price, however. It divorced social
superiority from observable local power. It weakened the hold of the
47
The Ancient Cosmos
citizen class, previously religious, military and theatrical, over their
inferiors. For during the Hellenistic period the splendid monuments,
buildings and games sponsored by civic notables – as in Alexandria,
the city founded as a memorial to Alexander the Great – could not
entirely conceal the loss of self- government. Are we to suppose that
their inferiors did not notice?
A Moral Revolution
51
4
The World Turned Upside
Down: Paul
At the core of ancient thinking we have found the assumption of nat-
ural inequality. Whether in the domestic sphere, in public life or when
contemplating the cosmos, Greeks and Romans did not see anything
like a level playing field. Rather, they instinctively saw a hierarchy or
pyramid.
Different levels of social status reflected inherent differences of
being. The paterfamilias, priest or citizen did not have to win or justify
his status. His superior status reflected his ‘nature’. It was self- justifying.
And so entrenched was this vision of hierarchy that the processes of
the physical world were also understood in terms of graduated
essences and purposes – ‘the music of the spheres’. Reason or logos
provided the key to both social and natural order. Thought and being,
it was assumed, were correlative. Each, in the end, provided the guar-
antee for the other. These assumptions about reason ensured that the
categories of the mind could, in a sense, ‘command’ reality, even when
that involved defining an immutable order or ‘fate’.
Natural inequality meant, however, that rationality was not equally
distributed among mankind. The distractions of the senses, vagaries
of desire, the snares of imagination – all of these drastically restricted
the distribution of rational understanding. Nor could the social role
especially identified with rationality – that of the citizen – always be
counted on to deliver it. A life governed by reason required that the
pride given by status be joined to discipline and self- denial. For Plato,
only a select few, the guardians, were able to leave behind the unreli-
able world of sensations and gradually ascend to knowledge of the
forms. Even followers of Aristotle, who viewed the physical world
52
A Moral Revolution
with less suspicion, did not doubt that their telos or ‘function’ in a
hierarchy of being established that some humans were slaves ‘by
nature’.
Thus, reason or logos and a hierarchical ordering of things –
everything ‘in its place’ – were virtually inseparable. From a modern
vantage point, both rested on an assumption that looks irredeemably
aristocratic. In the first century bc, however, this aristocratic model
came under threat.
We have already encountered one threat. The relentless spread of
Roman power, until the Mediterranean became a Roman basin, was
accomplished even before the Roman Republic became an empire
under Augustus. In terms of political life, Rome had become the centre
and the rest of the Mediterranean world the periphery. Rome was like
a giant theatre or stage, with the citizens of subjugated and dependent
cities reduced to mere spectators sitting on its benches. They were
ceasing to be actors on their own stages. Their inherited roles were
jeopardized.
The undermining of local autonomy – of that civic life which pro-
vided the justification of citizenship and its privileges – had profound
social and intellectual consequences. The ancient family had given
birth to an aristocratic model of society, while polytheism had
expressed the self- esteem of so many autonomous centres of political
life. Just as the ancient citizen class was stricken by a mortal illness,
because of centralization, so the familiar civic gods were fading into
mere ghosts. In their place was a fierce, remote and often unfathom-
able power: Rome.
Where were people, not least the citizen classes, to turn in such an
unfamiliar landscape? It is hardly surprising that a period of religious
ferment coincided with these institutional changes. Mithras, Osiris
and other exotic deities attracted followers. The growth of mystery
cults, the search for personal ‘salvation’ and a new openness to for-
eign beliefs reflected the displacement of ancient citizenship. And this
weakening of local identities afflicted inferiors as well as superiors,
for it was not only the civic gods who began to lose their hold. So too
did the whole structure of ancient rationalism, which – as we have
seen – had been complicit in hierarchy, identifying reason as the attri-
bute of a superior class.
53
The World Turned Upside Down: Paul
Developments in Platonic philosophy provide an uncannily accur-
ate picture of these wider developments. Instead of being content
with the model of a rational ascent up the great chain of being by a
few – that ascent which tied thought and being so closely together –
philosophers began to worry about the source of all being. They began
to worry about what was called the Absolute, a first cause that was
beyond comprehension. This search for the power that lay behind
everything turned philosophy in a more mystical direction. It began to
reshape ethical thinking as well. For it led to moral rules being con-
sidered, not so much as rational conclusions derived from the nature
of things, but as commands issuing from an agency that was ‘beyond’
reason.1
It was as if the trials of dealing with Roman power were being pro-
jected onto a universal screen. Was ‘will’ rather than ‘reason’ the key
to things? If so, could a philosophical tradition that presented reason
as the key both to nature and to right living provide an adequate con-
ception of the will? Already, the attraction of mystery cults suggested
that intensely personal acts of faith or dedication were gaining ground
against the claims of a ‘rational’ order.
Such new questions gave, inadvertently, an enormous advantage
to a religious tradition which, by the first century bc, had ceased
to be a merely local tradition. An important Jewish diaspora was
bringing radical monotheism to the attention of many Greek- and Latin-
speaking urban dwellers around the Mediterranean. Synagogues
became centres of interest in many cities. They attracted numerous
followers, even while ritual requirements such as circumcision and
diet preserved the tribal identity of Judaism. Eventually these follow-
ers acquired a name. They were ‘God- fearers’.
Just what was it that, rather suddenly, made Jewish beliefs so inter-
esting? It was partly a matter of imagery. The image of a single, remote
and inscrutable God dispensing his laws to a whole people corre-
sponded to the experience of peoples who were being subjugated to
the Roman imperium. But it was not just imagery. It was also a ques-
tion of meaning, the meaning of law. For the Jews ‘law’ meant not
logos or reason, but command. The law, properly so called, was Yah-
weh’s will.
The feeling of privileged control that had accompanied ancient
54
A Moral Revolution
citizenship – the product of taking part in public discussion and
decision- making in the polis – had infiltrated the ancient sense of
rationality itself. It had led to the conclusion that reason could gov-
ern. Now both the feeling and the conclusion were compromised by
the decline of the polis.
Conforming to an external will was becoming the dominant social
experience. And the voice of Judaism spoke to that experience, as no
other did. The message of the Jewish scriptures was radical. Virtue
consisted in obedience to God’s will. His will was not something that
could be fathomed by reason. It could not be deduced from first prin-
ciples. Nor could it be read in the book of nature. Scripture alone
mattered, because it was the record of God’s commands and prom-
ises. Historical events – the medium of God’s will – were privileged
over deductive reasoning. The Jewish God refused to be pinned down:
‘I will be who I will be.’
A new sense of time thus went hand in hand with the new aware-
ness of will. For both Greeks and Romans the dominant model for
understanding change had been cyclical – the cycle of birth, growth
and decay had seemed to fit only too well their experience of political
constitutions being corrupted, of ‘virtue’ being undermined by ‘lux-
ury’. Only the efforts of heroic legislators could restore virtue, and
that but temporarily, before the cycle reasserted itself. Permanence
was provided by the cycle itself. And that predictability fitted well
into the framework of ancient rationalist thinking.
The Jewish sense of time was different. It was unilinear rather than
cyclical. Even the repeated lapses of Israel into idolatry did not dispel
belief in God’s overall control and direction of events. Had he not led
his people to the ‘promised land’, and saved them repeatedly? The
Jewish God expressed himself in time. Nothing would ever be the
same as before. That was the nature of time. Is it fanciful to trace this
sense back to the experiences of a nomadic people in the desert, aware
that wind blowing across the sand transformed their landscape from
one day to the next?
But there was something else. Although the law had always been
understood as the inheritance of Yahweh’s ‘chosen’ people, the law
embodied his will for all of his people. And all were deemed to be cap-
able of sinning against that law, even the most famous Jewish kings
55
The World Turned Upside Down: Paul
such as David. Law therefore did not have the aristocratic connota-
tions it had acquired through its identification, by Greeks and Romans,
with the logos of a citizen class. Nor did Yahweh’s will have the static
quality conveyed by logos or reason. It was as if the imagery surviving
from their nomadic past provided a different simile for the Jews’
monotheism. God’s will was like the wind shifting the desert sands.
Nothing could resist it.
The concept of the will began to provide a new foundation for
philosophical reflection by the first century ad. A gap opened up
between the rationalism of earlier thought and this new voluntarism.
Typical of the older view was Seneca’s comment on the gods: ‘They
who believe the gods do not want to do harm are mistaken; the gods
cannot.’2 That is, the gods themselves are constrained by the rational
structure of reality. They too must submit to a comprehensible natural
order.
Later Platonists had, it is true, begun to compromise that rational-
ism in their account of the Absolute. They held that, because the first
cause of being was beyond rational understanding, it could only be
revealed in momentary illuminations to those whose rational discip-
line had led them away from sense experience to knowledge of the
forms. But what such moments of illumination revealed was ineffable,
beyond the resources of language to express. All that could be said
about the Absolute was negative: that it was not limited, not necessi-
tated, not the subject of knowledge. But if that was so, then the
Absolute was not constrained by the supposed unity of thought and
being, indeed by anything at all. The Absolute could act as it chose,
whenever and however.3
The experience of submitting to a remote Roman ruler may well
have contributed to such philosophical preoccupations among learned
members of the citizen class. But for the urban populations of the
Mediterranean at large that experience was more likely to result in a
religious disposition than philosophical conviction. The set of roles
provided by the city-state was disturbed. Withdrawing from accus-
tomed roles into the self – a kind of inner exile – was often the result.
The drama of the polis was losing its hypnotic hold. Instead of acting
out parts written by their prescribed ‘natures’, people had little choice
but to identify themselves in another way. An act of submission now
56
A Moral Revolution
seemed to be the precondition of knowledge. So it began to appear
that obedience led to understanding, rather than the reverse. It was a
remarkable turnabout. For making obedience precede understanding,
rather than follow from it, amounted to an intellectual revolution. It
was a revolution that overturned the basis of the claim to superiority
of the citizen class.
By the second century ad the new direction taken by argument
made philosophers more self- aware. They no longer claimed that
Moses and Plato had taught the same truth. Galen, writing about ad
170, contrasted Jewish belief in a creator whose unconstrained will
brought everything into being, with Plato’s and Aristotle’s conception
of a creator whose work is constrained by the dictates of reason – ‘even
a god is not able to change his nature.’4
If the God of the Old Testament was known through the dictates of
his will, his reasons were beyond human comprehension. ‘For my
thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways … For
as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than
your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.’ A new sympathy
with these words of the prophet Isaiah was a sign that the ancient
Mediterranean world was on the brink of a profound change. Postu-
lating an act of will was becoming necessary to understand that world.
It might, indeed, look as if Jewish habits of thought were about to
triumph completely over Graeco- Roman habits of thought, as if, in a
battle between the idea of agency on the one hand, and that of ration-
ality on the other, agency was about to drive rationality from the field.
Did not the Jewish idea of ‘law’ correspond more closely to everyday
experience – and help to cope with it – than ‘reasons’ founded on
nature? Yet no such complete victory of Jewish thinking took place.
And it did not take place at least in part because of the vision of a
young Jew, Saul of Tarsus.
We have been looking at the impact of a religious tradition issuing
from Palestine, a tradition that privileged time and will as against rea-
son and nature. But Palestine itself had not been immune to outside
influences. Ever since the Greek- dominated kingdoms established fol-
lowing Alexander’s conquests, the Near East had been exposed to
Greek influence in both obvious and less obvious ways. The Greek
language had become virtually a lingua franca. Few among the Semitic
57
The World Turned Upside Down: Paul
peoples had not encountered it and learned a smattering of Greek,
while some, like Saul of Tarsus, had become wholly proficient in its
use. Hellenized Jews were not uncommon. Greek culture had a very
significant presence in all major cities, even in Jerusalem. Altogether,
after three centuries of exposure the Near Eastern world was deeply
Hellenized.
The spread of Roman power added to this intermingling of cul-
tures. But it also created a new threat to Jewish nationhood and
identity – an identity that had been defended stubbornly for centuries,
in the face of repeated invasions and periods of exile. Little wonder
that Judaism became increasingly volatile at this period, with the
growth of Messianic movements, some of which looked forward to
the advent of a national saviour, others of which renounced the world
in anticipation of ‘the last days’.
One of these movements was the Jesus movement. Jesus of Naza-
reth seems to have begun as a disciple of one who later became known
as John the Baptist. But Jesus came into his own and acquired follow-
ers, who accompanied him as he preached in the Galilean countryside.
Just what did he preach? As far as we can tell, he preached repentance
and the imminent end of the world. He spoke of God as his ‘father’
who loved all his children, not least the socially marginal. Those who
truly repented of their sins could hope to enter the Kingdom of God.
They should become like children, showing charity and trusting in
God’s mercy.
Apparently there was no unanimity among his followers about the
exact nature of Jesus’ mission. Some were probably still tempted to
see him as the Messiah, in the sense of a leader who would lead Israel
to victory over its enemies. Others understood the ‘kingdom’ in more
mystical terms. Uncertainty about the nature of his claims, on the part
of the Jewish and Roman authorities, may have contributed to his
arrest, trial and crucifixion in Jerusalem. Shortly afterwards, the con-
viction that Jesus had survived death and that his work must go on
gave this movement (‘the way’) new life in Jerusalem, where it was led
by his brother James and disciple Simon Peter, the so-called ‘Jerusalem
church’.
Beyond these sparse facts, little can be asserted with confidence
about the historical Jesus of Nazareth. What we do know, however, is
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A Moral Revolution
that Jesus’ followers very soon perceived his crucifixion as a moral
earthquake. And the aftershocks of that earthquake continue into our
own time. Followers of Jesus began to claim that his sacrificial life and
death amounted to a dramatic intervention in history, a new revela-
tion of God’s will. Understanding that revelation would, in due course,
provide crucial underpinning for what we understand as the nature
and claims of the individual. It provided the individual with a foot-
hold in reality.
First, Jesus crucified; then, Jesus resurrected. Previously in antiquity,
it was the patriarchal family that had been the agency of immortality.
Now, through the story of Jesus, individual moral agency was raised
up as providing a unique window into the nature of things, into the
experience of grace rather than necessity, a glimpse of something tran-
scending death. The individual replaced the family as the focus of
immortality.
The earliest surviving writings about Jesus are the work of Saul of
Tarsus, who, of course, became St Paul. It is Paul who, translating the
word ‘Messiah’ or ‘anointed one’ into Greek, began to speak elo-
quently and with determination to a non-Jewish world about Jesus as
‘the Christ’ – the Son of God who died for human sins and whose res-
urrection offers mankind the hope of eternal life. ‘The Christ’ thus was
not a proper name but a title and an idea. It originally referred to an
anointed one who would deliver Israel from its enemies, but Paul gave
the term a new meaning and spoke of the Christ offering salvation to
all humanity. ‘The Christ’ stood for the presence of God in the world.
It is hardly too much to say that Paul invented Christianity as a
religion. Paul felt that through Jesus he had discovered something
crucial – the supreme moral fact about humans – which provided the
basis for reconstructing human identity, opening the way to what he
called ‘a new creation’. ‘Even though we once knew Christ from a
human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if any-
one is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed
away; see, everything has become new!’5 For Paul, it was through the
Christ that God was reconciling the world – individual souls – to him-
self, ‘not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the
message of reconciliation to us’. Spreading that message of love became
Paul’s great missionary enterprise.
59
The World Turned Upside Down: Paul
So we must now do our best to enter into Paul’s mind.
Paul, who as Saul of Tarsus had persecuted members of the Jesus
movement, had a famous conversion experience when travelling from
Jerusalem to Damascus. He was thrown from his horse, according to
a New Testament account, by the power of a vision of Jesus. But
whether his conversion was quite so instantaneous and complete is
open to doubt. It is more likely that he spent some years pondering
the significance of Jesus of Nazareth, finding the terms in which to
express his new convictions. Paul’s vision gradually became a concep-
tion, his remarkable conception of the Christ.
In Paul’s eyes, the Christ reveals God acting through human agency
and redeeming it. The Christ reveals a God who is potentially present
in every believer.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or dis-
tress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? No,
in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved
us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor anything in all
creation … will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ
Jesus our Lord.6
Through an act of faith in the Christ, human agency can become the
medium for God’s love – what Paul sometimes calls ‘faith acting
through love’. The faith accepting that love amounted to an inner
crucifixion, from which could emerge a transformed will, embodied
in the person of Jesus. For Paul, it was a personal transaction, the cre-
ation of another, better self. ‘I have been crucified with Christ. It is no
longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live
in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me.’7
In effect, Paul’s vision of a mystical union with Christ introduces a
revised notion of rationality – what he sometimes describes as the
‘foolishness’ of God. It is a foundation for a rationality reshaped
through faith. It constitutes a depth of motivation unknown to ancient
philosophy. ‘No one can lay any foundation other than the one that
has been laid; that foundation is Jesus the Christ.’8 For the sacrificial
nature of love is open to everyone. And it counts everyone as a child
of God. ‘Let it be known to you, therefore, my brothers, that through
60
A Moral Revolution
this man forgiveness of sin is proclaimed to you; by this Jesus every-
one who believes is set free …’ Paul’s message is directed not merely
to Jews but to all humanity. It is an invitation to seek a deeper self, an
inner union with God. It offers to give reason itself a new depth.
Rationality loses its aristocratic connotations. It is associated not with
status and pride but with a humility which liberates.
Paul’s conception of the Christ overturns the assumption on which
ancient thinking had hitherto rested, the assumption of natural
inequality. Instead, Paul wagers on human equality. It is a wager that
turns on transparency, that we can and should see ourselves in others,
and others in ourselves. A leap of faith in human equality reveals –
beneath the historical accumulation of unequal social statuses and
roles – the universal availability of a God-given foundation for human
action, the free action of love. That action is what Paul’s vision of the
Christ revealed. As deployed by Paul, the concept of the Christ
becomes a challenge to the ancient belief that humans are subject to
an immutable order or ‘fate’.
Paul’s vision on the road to Damascus amounted to the discovery
of human freedom – of a moral agency potentially available to each
and everyone, that is, to individuals. This ‘universal’ freedom, with its
moral implications, was utterly different from the freedom enjoyed by
the privileged class of citizens in the polis.
In his conception of the Christ, Paul brings together basic features
of Jewish and Greek thought to create something new. We can see this
in a famous passage from his letters, the letter to the Galatians, dating
from about twenty years after Jesus’ crucifixion. Paul uses Jesus’
emphasis on the fatherhood of God to insist on the brotherhood of
man and, indirectly, to proclaim his own role as apostle to the Gen-
tiles. ‘There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free,
there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.’ 9
Paul’s ‘one’ signals a new transparency in human relations. Through
his conception of the Christ, Paul insists on the moral equality of
humans, on a status shared equally by all. And his great mission
becomes the salvation of individual souls, through sharing his vision
of the Christ – a vision which makes it possible to create a new self.
The argument that all humans can become ‘one in Christ’ – and
that through him all may share in the righteousness of God – reveals
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The World Turned Upside Down: Paul
Paul grafting a new abstractness onto Jewish thought. It is an abstract-
ness that would foster Christian understanding of community as the
free association of the wills of morally equal agents, what Paul
describes through metaphor as the ‘body of Christ’. The metaphor
conjures up a mystical union which moralizes individual wills by
relating them to the source of their being. This mixture of elements
which became Christianity was profoundly indebted to developments
in Greek thought. For the discourse of citizenship in the polis had
initiated a distancing of persons from mere family and tribal identi-
ties, while later Hellenistic philosophy had introduced an even more
wide- ranging, speculative ‘universalist’ idiom. That intellectual
breadth had, in turn, been reinforced by the subjection of so much of
the Mediterranean world to a single power, Rome.
What Paul did, in effect, was to combine the abstracting potential
of later Hellenistic philosophy – its speculations about a universal or
‘human’ nature – with Judaism’s preoccupation with conformity to a
higher or divine will. In order to do so, Paul ceases to think of that
will as an external, coercive agency. For him, the death of Christ pro-
vides the symbol and the means of an inner crucifixion, of leaving
behind the life of ‘the flesh’ for the life of ‘the spirit’, that is, leaving
behind inclinations and desires that will die with the flesh. ‘Dying in
Christ’ means acquiring a will properly so called. It is a liberation or,
as Paul often calls it, the beginning of a ‘new creation’. And the act of
faith required is an individual act, an internal event.
Paul overturns the assumption of natural inequality by creating an
inner link between the divine will and human agency. He conceives
the idea that the two can, at least potentially, be fused within each
person, thereby justifying the assumption of the moral equality of
humans. That fusion is what the Christ offers to mankind. It is what
Paul means when he speaks of humans becoming ‘one in Christ’. That
fusion marks the birth of a ‘truly’ individual will, through the creation
of conscience.
When human action had been understood as governed entirely by
social categories, by established statuses and roles, there was no need for
another foundation for shaping intentions. But introducing the assump-
tion of moral equality changes that. It obliges Paul to look deeper into
the human agent. Suddenly there is a need to find a standard to govern
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A Moral Revolution
individual action and a force within each person to act. In his concep-
tion of the Christ, Paul claims to have found that standard and that
force. Now, the identity of individuals is no longer exhausted by the
social roles they happen to occupy. A gap opens up between individu-
als and the roles they occupy. That gap marks the advent of the new
freedom, freedom of conscience. But it also introduces moral obliga-
tions that follow from recognizing that all humans are children of
God.
For Paul, belief in the Christ makes possible the emergence of a
primary role shared equally by all (‘the equality of souls’), while con-
ventional social roles – whether of father, daughter, official, priest
or slave – become secondary in relation to that primary role. To this
primary role an indefinite number of social roles may or may not be
added as the attributes of a subject, but they no longer define the
subject. That is the freedom which Paul’s conception of the Christ
introduces into human identity.
Yet the individual freedom implied by the assertion of this primary
role did not mean that Paul dissolved traditional social bonds without
replacing them. His was not an ‘atomized’ model of society. Far from
it. Rather, Paul creates a new basis for human association, a voluntary
basis – joining humans through loving wills guided by an equal belief.
In his eyes, the motivating power of love is the touch of divinity within
each of us.
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and angels, but do not have love, I
am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers,
and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith,
so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give
away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may
boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing … Love is patient; love is
kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude … It bears all
things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things … Love
never ends.10
Love creates what Paul calls a mystical union in the ‘body of Christ’.
The metaphor conveys what, in his eyes, is distinctive about Christian
association. An unseen bond of wills joined by conscience identifies
this mystical body, distinguishing it from associations founded on
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The World Turned Upside Down: Paul
birth, gender or social status. Human agency acquires a new inde-
pendence and dignity.
Paul thus attaches to the historical figure of Jesus a crucial moment
in the development of human self- consciousness. Before Paul, specu-
lation about a ‘human’ nature had not carried a strong moral message.
By contrast, Paul’s Christ carries a revolutionary moral message. For
Paul, the Christ is a God- given challenge to humans to transform their
conception of themselves and reach for moral universality. Through
faith, they can achieve a moral rebirth. They can move beyond the
Jewish law or mere rule- following. Baptism became the symbol of
receiving that ‘Holy Spirit’, which meant that believers were hence-
forth ‘in Christ’ and free. Paul relies on the imagery of casting off the
shackles of slavery, a potent image in a world where slavery remained
such a basic institution. His message is one of universal hope.
In his preaching, as he moved from city to city along the Anatolian
coast and into Greece, Paul insisted that his God was a God who is
‘with us’. The age of the ‘spirit’ has succeeded the age of the ‘flesh’. The
resurrection of Jesus (with a spiritual body rather than a body of ‘flesh
and blood’) heralds the beginning of that new age – which is not to say
that ‘the saints’ would not falter or often relapse into old ways. In fact,
Paul spent much of his time corresponding with churches he had
founded, fighting against habits of thought which, in his view, recreated
forms of bondage, neglecting charity in favour of rules and attributing
to ‘principalities and powers’ a reality they did not possess.
Despite constant setbacks and eventual martyrdom, Paul may be
said to have prevailed. For his understanding of the meaning of Jesus’
death and resurrection introduced to the world a new picture of real-
ity. It provided an ontological foundation for ‘the individual’, through
the promise that humans have access to the deepest reality as indi-
viduals rather than merely as members of a group. Here we see the
power of abstraction, which had previously led Hellenic philosophers
to speculate about a human nature prior to social conventions, being
turned to a new moral use. The self can and must be reconstructed.
That conviction enabled Paul to conclude that Christian liberty super-
sedes the Jewish law. It provided the justification for his mission to
convert the Gentile world to the God of Israel revealed in the Christ.
The wish of some Jewish Christians to make conversion to Judaism
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a prerequisite for becoming Christian – requiring circumcision for
males, for example – aroused Paul’s fury and contempt, not least
because it jeopardized his conception of his own mission. For Paul,
Christian liberty is open to all humans. Free action, a gift of grace
through faith in the Christ, is utterly different from ritual behaviour,
the unthinking application of rules. For Paul, to think otherwise is to
regress rather than progress in the spirit. That is how Paul turns the
abstracting potential of Greek philosophy to new uses. He endows it
with an almost ferocious moral universalism. The Greek mind and the
Jewish will are joined.
Individual rationality, rationality in all equally, is purchased at the
price of submitting to God’s will as revealed in the Christ. For Paul,
when rationality and the will are presented as alternatives, they are
false alternatives. In the Christ, both the power of God and the wis-
dom of God are revealed. Jesus is the Christ because his death and
resurrection give humans, as individuals, access to the mind and the
will of God. God ceases to be tribal. ‘The law was our guardian until
Christ came, so that we might be made righteous by faith. But now
that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Jesus
Christ you are all sons of God, through faith.’11
Often, it is true, ‘I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I
hate’.12 Yet through the gift of faith, human actions can cease to be
bound by mere habit. For Paul, only in the Christ are wisdom and
power joined. Only through faith are the human capacity to act and
the faculty of reason reconciled. ‘For Jews demand signs and Greeks
desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to
Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both
Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.’ 13
So what has Paul achieved by arguing in this way? What does aban-
donment to the love of God as ‘revealed’ in the Christ entail? We
cannot know everything this meant to Paul. But we can identify at
least part of what it meant to him, disengaging moral principles from
his apocalyptic vision of a universe transformed. In order to do that,
we must look closely at one premise of Paul’s argument. The premise
of moral equality requires a human will that is in a sense pre- social. It
is that will which Paul’s great discovery, his mystical vision of the
Christ, provides. The Christ provides a foundation in the nature of
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The World Turned Upside Down: Paul
things for a pre-social or individual will. Individual agency acquires
roots in divine agency. The Christ stands for the presence of God in
the world, the ultimate support for individual identity.
Delving below all social divisions of labour, Paul finds, beneath the
conventional terms that confer status and describe roles, a shared
reality. That reality is the human capacity to think and choose, to will.
That reality is our potential for understanding ourselves as autono-
mous agents, as truly the children of God.
But if thought depends upon language, and language is a social
institution, how can rational agency have a pre- social foundation?
That is the dilemma Paul’s argument comes up against. For Paul, the
gift of love in the Christ offers a pre- linguistic solution, through a leap
of faith – that is, a wager on the moral equality of humans. Faith in
the Christ requires seeing oneself in others and others in oneself, the
point of view which truly moralizes humans as agents. So Paul’s
solution – a paradoxical one, to say the least – is that human auton-
omy can only be fully realized through submission, through submitting
to the mind and will of God as revealed in the Christ. That act of sub-
mission is the beginning of ‘a new creation’.
Was Paul wrong? His expectation of the imminent return of the
Christ was disappointed. And the postponement of the ‘last days’ led
to considerable embarrassment for ‘the saints’ in the churches he
established during his journeys. By the end of the first century what
became the Christian church was abandoning its emphasis on the
imminent end of the world. Yet Paul’s vision of a world transformed
may have been more misleading in form than in content. For, in fact,
his conception of the Christ laid the foundation for a new type of
society: ‘The present form of the world is passing away.’14 While that
insistence by Paul in a letter to the Corinthian church is open to more
than one interpretation, Paul himself seemed to believe that the new
creation was already under way.
What did submission to the Christ involve? In religious terms, it
called for human relationships in which charity overcomes all other
motives. But, even when separated from an apocalyptic vision of
human community (the ‘body of Christ’), the promotion of ‘Christian
liberty’ involves submitting to the premises of moral equality and reci-
procity. ‘You were called to freedom … Only do not use your freedom
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as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word … Love your neighbour as
yourself.’15 Those premises promised to create a transparency and
freedom previously lacking in human relations.
So in Paul’s writings we see the emergence of a new sense of justice,
founded on the assumption of moral equality rather than on natural
inequality. Justice now speaks to an upright will, rather than describ-
ing a situation where everything is in its ‘proper’ or fated place. Paul’s
conception of the Christ exalts the freedom and power of human
agency, when rightly directed. In his vision of Jesus, Paul discovered a
moral reality which enabled him to lay the foundation for a new, uni-
versal social role.
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The Truth Within: Moral Equality
The imagery that dominated Paul’s teaching was an imagery of
depth – of going ‘beneath’ and finding ‘the depths of God’. Despite
Paul’s conflicts with leaders of the Jerusalem church over the Jewish
law, the extent of its obligations for Gentile followers, his emphasis
on innerness and freedom spread through churches developing
around the Mediterranean. These churches, which at first were really
Christian synagogues, increasingly conveyed a Pauline message, pro-
claiming that, through the gift of grace in the Christ, ‘the Kingdom of
God is within you’.
Fierce Jewish opposition to the Jesus movement helped to give it a
more distinct identity. Moreover, the destruction of Jerusalem by the
Romans in ad 70 reinforced the role of Gentile converts and Paul’s
influence. In the following decades what was beginning to be called
the ‘Christian church’ ceased to be primarily a Jewish sect, as it had
been when dominated by Jesus’ brother James.
The development of that ‘church’ at the end of the first century and
early in the second century remains largely a matter of surmise. There
was as yet no fixed canon of Christian gospels, nor any agreement
about the relationship between Christian writings and Jewish scrip-
tures. Indeed, disagreements about some matters soon became so
important that they became the means of beginning to define Chris-
tian ‘orthodoxy’ later in the second and in the third century. It is by
looking at those disagreements that we can get a sense of the nature
of a movement now so widespread that it was coming to the attention
of the Roman authorities.
As apocalyptic expectations weakened, the need for Christians to
explain themselves grew. From the middle of the second century Justin
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Martyr and Irenaeus of Lyons wrote the first significant apologetics.
Echoing Paul, Irenaeus argued that ‘it is not sacrifices that sanctify a
man; for God has no need of sacrifices’, rather, ‘it is the purity of the
offerer’s disposition that sanctifies the sacrifice.’1 The quality of the
individual will or disposition was becoming the Christian leitmotiv.
Paul’s imagery of depth had fostered the sense of a realm of con-
science that demanded respect. Individual agency and divine agency
were now understood as parts of a continuum.
Slowly that sense or intuition was formalized. The church which
presided over major developments in thinking systematically about
the core of Christian beliefs was the church of Alexandria. The church
of that sophisticated city came to count among its membership intel-
lectuals formed by the schools of Greek philosophy, particularly later
Platonism. Their attempts to adapt the categories of Greek philoso-
phy to their new belief in a God who had revealed himself in Jesus – in
Paul’s ‘the Christ’ – led to arguments over imagery, over the role of
human agency or freedom and over the claims of reason. These argu-
ments became the first important steps in developing the notion of
humans as morally equal agents, as individuals properly so called.
The arguments also reveal how Christian beliefs caused trouble for
minds shaped by the rationalism of the ancient world. For that ration-
alism was impregnated with assumptions about natural inequality,
hierarchy and fate.
The argument over imagery was more implicit than explicit. It was a
struggle between the imagery of descent and the imagery of ascent.
Paul’s conception of God ‘with us’ had privileged the imagery of des-
cent. The incarnation was a matter of knowledge, but it was knowledge
of an inner event and reality – as Clement of Alexandria, writing late
in the second century, emphasized by quoting from Paul on ‘that
knowledge of God in Christ in whom all the treasures of knowledge
and wisdom are hidden’. Clement was aware that the new emphasis
on descent made a contrast with the traditional Platonic imagery of a
rational ascent, of climbing a mountain that led away from unreliable
sense experience to certain knowledge, for at least a few. So Clement
quotes from the Gospel of John in order to present the Christian God
as the ground or foundation of individual being:
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The Truth Within: Moral Equality
John the apostle writes: ‘No one has seen God at any time; the only-
begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.’
(John 1.18) He (John) uses the name ‘bosom’ of God to refer to his
invisibility and ineffability; for this reason some people have used the
name ‘depth’ to indicate that he is inaccessible and incomprehensible,
but embraces and enfolds all things.2
Knowledge of the depths revealed by the Christ – the discovery of a
will that redeems – raised, in turn, the question of human freedom.
For if faith in the Christ can free humans from the bondage of sin,
then each must have a potential for freedom, a free will.
Yet old habits of thinking were not overcome easily. The reality of
time, will and sin – imports from the Jewish tradition – had now to be
joined to a Greek framework which prized knowledge, orderliness
and control. We can observe such joining in the arguments of Origen,
a pupil of Clement who wrote early in the third century. Origen
reflects on the nature of religious language, in order to show that
God’s dealings with man can only be described in human terms, with
all their limitations. Thus, to say that God is ‘angry’ or that he ‘repents’
should not be taken literally. These terms are rather like the language
adopted by a loving father when dealing with his children.
So it is with human freedom and God’s ‘foreknowledge’ of the out-
come. The two are not inconsistent, Origen insists:
In the passage, ‘Speak to the children of Israel; perhaps they will hear
and will repent’ (Jer 26 2.3), God does not say ‘perhaps they will hear’,
as if he were in doubt about it. God is never in doubt and that cannot
be the reason … The reason is to make your freedom of choice stand
out as clearly as possible and to prevent your saying: ‘If he foreknows
my loss then I am bound to be lost and if he foreknows my salvation
then I am quite certain to be saved.’ Thus he acts as if he did not know
the future in your case, in order to preserve your freedom of choice by
not anticipating or foreknowing whether you will repent or not. So he
says to the prophet: ‘Speak; perhaps they will repent’.3
Divine government of the world or providence does not exclude
human freedom. On the contrary, when properly understood, individual
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choice, action and the consequences of action are evidence of provi-
dential government, which is not the same as fate.
For Origen, God had created ‘rational creatures endowed with the
faculty of free choice’, who were led ‘each one by his own free will,
either to imitate God and so to advance or to ignore him and so to
fall’. The variety of the human world reflects a freedom that is the
crux of human agency. Thus the ‘diversity between rational creatures’
had its origin ‘not in the will or judgement of the creator, but in the
choice made by the creature’s own freedom’.4
In these attempts to join Jewish and Greek categories of thought,
there is a quite new emphasis on demonstrable fact as against meta-
physical speculation. There is a new prejudice against multiplying
entities or essences, a reluctance to populate the world with beings
intermediate between God and man. Early Christians saw themselves
as involved in a war against ‘demons’, even suggesting that the
demons existed only so long as people believed in them. Here we can
perhaps see Paul’s inveighing against belief in ‘dark’ powers or rudi-
ments taking hold, although references to ‘angels and demons’ long
survived in Christian discourse. But, at bottom, the new structure of
ideas was hostile to them.
It is no accident that early Christian apologists emphasized the sim-
plicity of their faith – the way it focused on human intentions or the
will, rather than on spurious beings that give an inflated impression of
what humans might control or influence. ‘I am fully convinced that the
solemn ceremonies and secret rites of idolatry build up credence and
prestige for themselves by means of their pretentious magnificence –
and by the fees that are charged,’ Tertullian, a formidable Carthaginian
convert, insisted early in the third century. ‘For God, being the creator
of the whole Universe, is in no need of smells or of blood. That is the
fodder of petty demons. We do not merely despise these demons; we
subdue them; we put them to daily disgrace; we drive them out of
people, as multitudes can testify.’ 5 These apologists were implacable
opponents of black magic. In a sense they were redefining the sphere
of human action, laying the foundation for what eventually became a
clearer distinction between ‘internal’ reasons for acting and the phys-
ical causes of external events.
Critics of Christianity like Celsus late in the second century were
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disturbed by such attitudes. Celsus argued that Christianity separated
man too sharply from the rest of nature and demeaned nature by
reducing it to a mere instrument for human purposes. ‘They say that
God made all things for man,’ he complained. ‘He forsakes the whole
universe and the course of the heavenly spheres to dwell with us
alone.’6 Celsus had a serious point. But he failed to see the importance
of clarifying the sphere of human freedom for identifying individual
moral responsibility. For Christian converts, receiving the ‘holy spirit’
in baptism stood for liberation from the confusions of paganism as
well as the literalism of Judaism. Being ‘in Christ’ meant receiving that
spirit. It directed attention where it ought to be directed: to real moral
choices and works of charity. It made sacrifices in the temples of local
deities and male circumcision unnecessary.
‘What wretched unbelief to deny to God his distinctive attributes –
simplicity and power!’ Tertullian once exclaimed.7 In a way, his
attitude anticipates a principle laid down by an Oxford philosopher
in the late middle ages. ‘Ockham’s Razor’ insists that explanations
should always be made in the simplest terms possible, avoiding the
multiplication of entities. Human desires and intentions should not be
confused with natural processes. It may not be far-fetched to suggest
that Ockham’s principle had its roots in early Christian reassessment
of the role of human agency, roots which nourished a sense of the dif-
ference between nature and culture, of the limits of human reason.
For there is no doubt that early Christian apologists associated the
polytheism of paganism with misuse of the mind and the will. In dei-
fying natural forces and creating local gods, paganism drew attention
away from crucial questions about the individual will and man’s
God- given responsibility. Even Judaism had fallen into the trap of
largely identifying the will with external conformity to the law, which
had led Paul, in reaction, to look ‘inward’, to motivation. This Chris-
tian awareness of the ‘love of God’ as the source of upright action was
intensely practical. Something of this can be glimpsed in the fourth
century in St Basil’s apology for Christianity against those who,
defending once again the assumptions of ancient rationalism, con-
demned Christians for worshipping ‘what they do not know’. In reply,
Basil turned the distinctions of Greek philosophy against its latest
defenders:
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They should not be asking us whether we know God’s essence; they
should be enquiring whether we know God as awe-inspiring, as just, or
as merciful. And these are the things that we confess that we do know.
If on the other hand they say that God’s essence is different from these
attributes, they must not produce spurious arguments against us on the
basis of the simplicity of that essence. For in that case they have them-
selves admitted that his essence is something different from every one
of his attributes. His activities are various but his essence is simple. Our
position is that it is from his activities that we come to know our God,
while we do not claim to come anywhere near his actual essence. For
his activities reach us, but his essence remains inaccessible.8
What emerges from these early texts is a chastened conception of the
role of reason – what might be described as a more democratic, less
aristocratic conception of reason. Deductive reason can aid in the dis-
covery of truth, but it cannot lay down the truth out of its own resources.
Reason cannot and indeed should not try to coerce reality. Christian
humility was presented as a precaution against that error. The ‘foolish-
ness’ of God’s revelation in the Christ was a permanent warning.
What adds to the interest of these texts – and what became important
for Christian ‘orthodoxy’ – is that they responded to the arguments,
not just of pagans or Jews, but of other Christians who found it hard
to give up the framework of ancient rationalism. As late as the fourth
century Gregory of Nyssa, one of the Fathers of the Church, speaks
with an unreconstructed Platonic voice, when describing Moses
receiving the law on Mount Sinai. ‘When the herd of irrational animals
is driven as far as possible from the mountain, he [Moses] approaches
the ascent to higher thoughts,’ Gregory comments. ‘The fact that no
animal is permitted to appear on the mountain indicates, in our judge-
ment, that in the vision of intelligible reality, one is passing beyond
knowledge derived from sense experience.’9
Gregory does not hesitate to draw conclusions about the proper
ordering of the Christian Church:
The multitude could not hear the voice from above but left it to Moses
to learn for himself the hidden secrets and to teach the people whatever
divine truths he might acquire from the teaching coming from above.
The same is true of the ordering of the Church. It is not for everyone to
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push themselves forward to try to comprehend the mysteries. They
should select one of their number who is able to grasp divine truth;
then they should give careful attention to him . . .10
The aristocratic bias of his Platonism is clear enough. For Gregory,
reality continues to be essentially intelligible, but only for a few.
His imagery remains that of Platonic ascent. In his view, most people
are incapable of reaching further than the foot of what is truly a
mountain – ‘for such indeed is the knowledge of God’.
Ancient rationalism was not defeated rapidly. In fact, in the second
century it had already mounted a powerful rearguard action, an
action associated with the movement known as Gnosticism. Gnosti-
cism was in part a reaction against Jewish influences. The Gnostics
fell back on the Platonic assumption that knowledge was the condi-
tion of enlightenment and that a hierarchy of being stigmatized ‘base
matter’. They too relied on the imagery of ascent, an ascent possible
for the elect. Self- liberation required renunciation of the material
world and its ‘darkness’, in order to return upwards to the world of
‘light’. For Christian Gnostics, the Christ provided knowledge of that
world of light. Yet those capable of achieving that knowledge strongly
resembled Plato’s guardians. In effect, the Gnostics moved away from
Paul’s assumption that liberation through faith was the condition of
knowledge and salvation. The ‘foolishness’ of God was not altogether
to their taste.
Christian Gnostics did not hesitate to multiply essences and enti-
ties: in one Gnostic text no fewer than thirty ‘highest’ levels of being
or light were enumerated! These highest levels of being were pure
thought, flowing from the transcendent God. They were uncontamin-
ated by matter or ‘darkness’. However, this descending order of pure
being reached a point of impurity, when the lowest of these beings –
Sophia or wisdom – succumbed to sexual desire and gave birth to a
material world ruled by Yahweh, an inferior god. When Adam, in
turn, was created, he retained a vestige of the world of light or pure
being, but through his body was joined to the material world and its
temptations, the world of Yahweh. Only the advent of Christ, the very
figure of light, revealed again the true nature of God and made salva-
tion possible for the elect.11
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These Gnostic ideas reveal the problems that marrying Christian
convictions with Platonic metaphysics introduced. They introduced a
disdain for the material world foreign to Judaism, a flirtation with the
assumption of natural inequality that Paul had overturned, and a
doubt about whether Yahweh and the Christian God were one and
the same. Indeed, the radical dualism of the Gnostics threatened the
very conception of the incarnation – for it made problematic the
intimate union of God and man in the Christ. For the Gnostics, spirit
and matter could not be combined.
If the Gnostics represent – in relation to ancient rationalism – a
conservative or even reactionary wing of the Christian movement,
there was another wing. And that wing reveals the socially subversive
potential of Christian beliefs, a potential that would take many centu-
ries to emerge fully. Still, we can get an impression of its potential by
looking at a text and at a man. The man is Marcion, the most contro-
versial figure to emerge in Christian thought since Paul. Born towards
the end of the first century, Marcion was the son of a presbyter-bishop
on the Black Sea coast, and became a wealthy merchant and ship-
owner. But he was also a frustrated intellectual, with a passion for
finding out and defining what was new and distinctive about Chris-
tian beliefs. That passion finally led him to Rome and into what the
‘orthodox’ began to call ‘heresy’.
In Marcion’s eyes, Paul’s letters and the Gospel according to Luke
provided all that was necessary. He presented a radical and simplified
version of Paul’s teaching. Free from Paul’s anxiety about dealing
with the Jerusalem Church, Marcion issued a kind of declaration of
independence. The loving God revealed by the Christ was not the jeal-
ous God of the Old Testament, who was a primitive, tribal being. The
revelation of Christ needed no support from the Jewish scriptures. It
was a new revelation, sufficient unto itself, the means of salvation for
those who trusted in God’s goodness. Marcion wanted to purge the
Christian gospel – indeed, he was perhaps the first to try to assemble
‘the’ gospels – of irrelevant Jewish elements.12
Marcion fastened onto the universal dimension of Paul’s concep-
tion of the Christ, emphasizing the abstract individualism latent in the
conception rather than presenting it – as Paul had done – as a new
covenant with the God of Israel. Evidently Marcion was influenced by
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Gnostic ideas. But he avoided the dualism which turned the Christ
into a purely spiritual being with only the appearance of a human
form. What he did not avoid, on the other hand, was the temptation
to understand salvation as the return of disciplined souls to God.
Marcion neglected those features of Paul’s thought that depicted
Christian churches as ‘loving’ associations founded on belief in human
equality, a new type of community.
The fate of the individual soul rather than a community of ‘the
saints’ became the focus of Marcionism. Apparently the churches
Marcion established were rather hieratic, perhaps a hangover from
Gnosticism. Nonetheless, his churches were also criticized for giving
women an important role. If Marcion was a heretic, it was probably
because he developed the individualism latent in Paul’s thought to the
point where he would one day be considered a proto-Protestant.
The other source which gives a glimpse of the potential for Chris-
tian radicalism is a text discovered about fifty years ago in the Egyptian
desert, the Gospel of Thomas. There is doubt about its exact date,
though most scholars believe that in its present form it dates from the
mid- second century. Certainly it reveals Gnostic influences. But it
probably also incorporates an important early Aramaic tradition of
Jesus’ sayings, a survival of what scholars suppose may have been
many ‘sayings gospels’. In any case, the Gospel of Thomas contains
extraordinary passages devoted to what can only be described as
women’s ‘liberation’.
We have seen that the conventional view in antiquity was that
women could not be fully rational beings. Their subordination, like
that of slaves, was justified in that way. The Gospel of Thomas urges
a new project on believers: nothing less than turning women into
men! They are to become as ‘one’. By that it is clearly meant that
women should be enabled to become rational agents, to recognize
that they have the same rational and moral capacities as men. ‘When
you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the
outer and the outer like the inner … and when you make male and
female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the
female be female, then you will enter (the kingdom).’ 13 That recon-
struction of the self, which Paul had urged on his followers, is here
tied overtly to a change in the status of women. The implication of the
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text is that only when women are free can men also be truly free – that
the reciprocity which belief in human equality entails is only possible
when their shared nature is fully acknowledged.
In the Gospel of Thomas the proper use of the mind leads to moral
transparency. It continues the work of liberation from hierarchical
agencies that Paul had urged. As reported by Thomas, Jesus’ words
overturn the subordination of women, one of the pillars on which the
ancient family – and with it a whole conception of society – had
rested. His words are consistent with passages in the canonical gos-
pels in which Jesus asks that his followers be prepared to throw over
even the ties of family, rejecting parents and siblings when the service
of God so requires.
Such injunctions privileged individual agency over corporate
agency, conscience over inherited social roles. They may also throw
light on the roots of Pauline individualism in Jesus’ sayings. Certainly
they make it easier to understand Paul’s conviction that faith, which
reveals the foundation of human agency, liberates. In the Gospel of
Thomas we can see the moral intuitions generated by Christian beliefs
being given a new application. Belief in the moral equality of humans
was beginning to threaten fundamental status differences.
Of course, the Gospel of Thomas was a minority report. But it
reveals that the moral intuitions generated by Christianity were hard
to contain, even when the organized church was anxious to placate
Roman authorities and deny that it had any conspiratorial or subver-
sive character. Paul had already firmly asserted that the ‘powers that be
are authorized by God’. By and large, the early Fathers of the Church
agreed. To combat Celsus’ argument that Christians’ loyalties made
them bad citizens, Origen argued that Christian morality offered a bet-
ter foundation for public power: ‘The more pious a man is, the more
effective he is in helping the emperors – more so than the soldiers who
go out into the line and kill all the enemy troops that they can.’14
This was a fateful argument. For what does it suggest? Origen was
meeting Celsus’ complaint that the Christians’ unwillingness to sacri-
fice to the civic gods, accept public office and take up arms when
asked was compromising the safety of the Roman empire and under-
mining the piety that sustained it. In reply, Origen argued, at least by
implication, for a wholly different conception of society. He argued
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for a society that recognized moral limits to the claims of public
power, invoking a sphere of individual responsibility that transcended
the traditional duties of citizenship: ‘We know of the existence in each
city of another sort of country, created by the Word of God.’15 Ori-
gen’s implication was that a society founded on Christian morality
offered, in the long run, a better prospect of stability and survival. ‘We
who by our prayers destroy all demons which stir up wars, violate
oaths and disturb the peace, are of more help to the emperors than
those who seem to be doing the fighting.’16
Thus, even before Augustine’s ‘city of God’, Christian apologists
were invoking ‘the country of God’ to assert the claims of the individ-
ual conscience. Such claims of conscience seemed to follow irresistibly
from the assumption of moral equality. Equality, choice and responsi-
bility hung together in their minds. Irenaeus repeatedly insisted on
this as early as the mid- second century: ‘God’s just judgement falls
equally on all men, and never fails.’
If God has created humans as equals, as rational agents with free
will, then there ought to be an area within which they are free to
choose and responsible for their choices. Identifying such an area was
at first a means of self- defence by Christians. But soon it was also
more than that. Tertullian saw clearly the implications of Christian
moral beliefs. ‘Here lies the perfection and distinctiveness of Christian
goodness,’ he argued. ‘Ordinary goodness is different; for all men love
their friends, but only Christians love their enemies.’ 17 Respecting a
range of freedom of choice in all humans might be seen as one aspect
of the latter.
The suggestion that belief in ‘equal liberty’ appeared in early
Christian apologetics will surprise many and irritate some. For the
anti-clericalism which has been an integral part of liberal historiog-
raphy does not lend itself to such a conclusion. Besides, the distrust of
anything like teleological explanations in history – of what is often
called the Whig interpretation of history – reinforces such scepticism.
But texts are facts. And the facts remain. In the mid- second century
Irenaeus of Lyon asked, ‘what new thing did the Word bring by com-
ing down to earth?’ For Tertullian, writing only a few decades later,
the answer was clear. ‘One mighty deed alone was sufficient for our
God – to bring freedom to the human person.’ 18
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Tertullian was perhaps the most remarkable of the Church Fathers
before Augustine. And he was in no doubt about the claims of
conscience.
We worship the one God … There are others whom you regard as
gods; we know them to be demons. Nevertheless, it is a basic human
right that everyone should be free to worship according to his own con-
victions. No one is either harmed or helped by another man’s religion.
Religion must be practised freely, not by coercion; even animals for sac-
rifice must be offered with a willing heart. So even if you compel us to
sacrifice, you will not be providing your gods with any worthwhile ser-
vice. They will not want sacrifices from unwilling offerers – unless they
are perverse, which God is not.19
Here we may find one of the earliest assertions of a basic right, a
rightful power claimed for humans as such, that is, as individuals. Did
Tertullian’s argument also imply that authority, founded on consent,
was different from mere physical power, the ability to constrain?
Probably. That seems to lurk behind the suggestion by many early
apologists that Christians might, after all, be the ‘better citizens’, des-
pite their unwillingness to sacrifice to civic gods or the emperor. For
they gave social order a foundation in consciences. In any case, Tertul-
lian’s determination to defend the claims of conscience – a sphere of
personal choice – is unmistakeable.
But would such a determination survive after the Christian Church
was recognized by the Emperor Constantine in 313 and, in due course,
became the official religion of the Roman empire?
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6
Heroism Redefined
By the second half of the third century Christianity had become a
major phenomenon in the Roman empire – and Christians a group
that could not be ignored. Intermittent persecution gave way to more
determined campaigns, by Decius and Valerian in the decade after 250,
to impose on Christians the worship of civic gods and the emperor. Yet
the campaigns were soon abandoned. Christians, especially in the East,
were now too numerous, too wealthy and too well placed to be perse-
cuted for long, though they were still far from being a majority.
In any case, the ‘martyr’s crown’ may have increased the moral
appeal of Christianity. The sight of individuals from all classes of
society – women as well as men, slaves as well as patricians – enduring
suffering and death, often without complaint, sometimes even with a
kind of triumph, dramatized the character of the new faith. It was, in
a dreadful way, powerful theatre.
Later Christian apologists probably exaggerated the number of
martyrs, but that scarcely matters. The important thing is that the cult
of the martyrs began to redefine heroism as previously understood.
The ancient hero had been – Odysseus-like – an aristocrat. Springing
from a leading family and often associated with the foundation of
cities, the ancient hero was typically male, strong, wily and successful.
His conversion into a demigod reflected the nature of ancient polythe-
ism. Fame was the medium of heroism. Family and civic piety
preserved the hero’s reputation. He was an eminently social being.
By contrast, the Christian martyr – whether facing stoning by a
crowd, ferocious animals in a crowded stadium or burning on a pyre –
was defying society. The refusal of martyrs to bend under the claims
of family and civic piety or to worship the Emperor meant that they
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A Moral Revolution
were alone. They were unwilling to submit. Little wonder that the
Roman authorities described martyrs as ‘enemies of the human race’
because of their insistence on standing alone.
But were they really alone? The martyrs claimed to be acting in the
name of a more important relationship, a relationship that under-
pinned their wills. Apparently they had found something within
themselves more precious than social conventions or conformity. But
that was not all. The interior conviction that marked them out was
something that disregarded gender, class and status. Martyrdom illus-
trated the exercise of an individual will, founded on conscience. It
made that will visible.
In making martyrs of Christians, the ancient world was consecrat-
ing what it sought to destroy and destroying what it sought to
preserve. For the Christian martyrs gained a hold over the popular
imagination. And it is easy to see why that should have been so. The
martyrs offered a model of heroism open to all, a democratic model
of heroism. As Tertullian remarked early in the third century, the mar-
tyrs’ blood provided ‘the seed of the church’.
The idea of the individual – of an underlying moral status shared
equally by all – may first have entered the minds of many non-
Christians reflecting on scenes or tales of martyrdom. That there was
something to be admired in the martyrs may have made at least some
pagan persecutors, as well as their audiences, at times rather wistful.
Thus an unintended consequence of the persecution of Christians was
to render the idea of the individual, or moral equality, more intelli-
gible. The glimpse of a depth of motivation, at once individual and
potentially universal, was not easily forgotten.
Christianity was still primarily an urban phenomenon, attracting at
first especially the ‘middle sort’ of people. It spread through persua-
sion and example, in ways that upper- class pagans found demeaning.
‘We see them in our own homes, wool dressers, cobblers and fullers,
the most uneducated and common persons, not daring to say a word
in the presence of their masters who are older and wiser,’ Celsus fam-
ously complained. ‘But when they get hold of the children in private,
and silly women with them, they are wonderfully eloquent, to the
effect that children must not listen to their father, but believe them,
and be taught by them.’1
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Heroism Redefined
Was it an accident that women and even slaves also played an
important part in the growth of Christianity, and that, through them,
it spread into the upper classes? The Christian movement gained from
being marginal. The offer of dignity through belief in the Christ did
not openly challenge patriarchy or servitude. But it offered self- respect.
A moral revolution was under way.
The church had already found it necessary to organize itself. A
hierarchy of offices emerged. The informal distinctions of the first
century gave way to a structure of bishops (for each city), aided by
presbyters and deacons. ‘The exact history of this transition within
two generations from apostles, prophets and teachers to bishop, pres-
byters and deacons is shrouded in obscurity, though our sources give
occasional glimpses of the process.’2 But adjusting to hierarchy did
not stop there. By the later third century Christians also occupied
important positions in the Roman administration, at the centre and in
the provinces. Christians were to be found even among high officers
in the army. The church had, moreover, acquired rich benefactors, and
the largest episcopal sees developed elaborate welfare organizations.
Indeed, they amounted to mini- welfare states, through their provision
for poorer members. Bishops were fast becoming important civic
figures.
This penetration of the Roman state by the church had important
consequences for each. On the one hand, it led to striking changes in
the rhetoric and the behaviour of the urban governing classes. On the
other hand, it threatened the sense of an egalitarian ‘community of
saints’ that had sustained the church as a persecuted minority, and led
to a movement within the church to reject the world and its ‘tempta-
tions’. Let us look now at each.
Peter Brown has brilliantly explored the changing rhetoric and
behaviour of the urban governing classes in late antiquity. Their
emphasis on proper deportment – on noble birth and paideia or
culture – had an important function in the empire. Dignified carriage,
formalized speech and elaborate manners were meant to convey
their superior status. Such attributes amounted to the only available
restraint on the exercise of unbridled power. It was an unbridled
power that was constantly on view, both in domestic and public life.
‘From wives and slaves in the household to the abject courtiers of
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A Moral Revolution
tyrannical rulers, the lives of so many persons in so many situations
appeared to depend on the whim of their superiors.’3
The anger of superiors was exceedingly dangerous. Unsurprisingly,
the upper classes seized every occasion to remind the Imperial govern-
ment that, thanks to their codes of deportment and public speaking
skills, they were indispensable for the control of the cities. Education,
manners and ceremony, binding the emperor to the upper classes of
his cities, offered the only thing approaching a constitutional restraint
on the exercise of power. So it was no accident that this paideia of the
upper classes increasingly focused on the subtleties of decorum, even
if at times it was hardly more than a tone of voice. It was a form of
self- defence. And it was frail enough.
A defining characteristic of belonging to the class of civic notables
(and condition of its self- confidence) was exemption from corporal
punishment. But as the class of notables was expanded to increase the
range of tax gathering, the privileges that had previously protected
noble birth and paideia were put at risk. Incidents of flogging and
torture were no longer restricted to the lower classes. It was a dread-
ful breach of decorum. In consequence, anxiety about their status
increasingly afflicted civic notables. Nudity, once the badge of social
superiority, was becoming instead nakedness in the face of a remote,
capricious public power.
However, by the end of the third century one section of the urban
elites embarked on a different course for dealing with the emperor
and provincial governors, a course which drew on their Christian
beliefs and enabled them to become the spokesmen of the lower
classes. A new rhetoric served their bid for urban leadership. It was a
rhetoric founded on ‘love of the poor’. Drawing on features of the
Christian self- image – the church’s social inclusiveness, the simplicity
of its message, its distrust of traditional culture and its welfare
role – ‘love of the poor’ made possible, Brown argues, a regrouping
within the urban elites. It was a rhetoric that reflected and served an
alliance between upper- class Christians and the bishops of cities, who
were themselves often men of culture or paideia.
This new rhetoric was put to use ‘in the never ending task of exer-
cising control within the city and representing its needs to the outside
world.4 It was a kind of Christian populism, which served notice on
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Heroism Redefined
the emperor and his servants that the bishops were now an indispens-
able factor in urban government. The bishops claimed to be better
able to mobilize and shape opinion than members of the urban elite
who continued to worship civic gods, for the bishops’ ‘love of the
poor’ now extended beyond their congregations and embraced the
whole urban population. ‘In the name of a religion that claimed to
challenge the values of the elite, upper- class Christians gained control
of the lower classes of the cities.’ 5 They drew on a long-standing
Christian rhetoric that attributed the spread of the faith to the humil-
ity of its unlettered preachers – to men who, like the apostles Peter
and Paul, conspicuously lacked the paideia and manners of the trad-
itional urban elites.
Yet the fact that this new rhetoric of the poor made possible a
regrouping within the urban elites should not distract us from its
wider significance. Its advent marked a fundamental change in the
terms of public discourse. The aristocratic values that had previously
shaped that discourse – conveyed by such terms as piety and paideia –
were displaced by values that can properly be called democratic. The
rhetoric of the poor carried within it the seeds of a new form of soci-
ety. ‘Urban notables had presented themselves as standing at the head
of an entire social hierarchy, made up of all active participants in the
life of the city. The Christian bishop, by contrast, erected his claim to
authority over a social void. The poor were defined as those who
belonged to no social grouping.’ 6 Thus, ‘love of the poor’ extended
public concern beyond the citizen class, a privileged class. Bishops’
‘love of the poor’ reached out to the servile, destitute and foreign-born,
to groups without standing in the hierarchy of citizens. They were
offered a home. It was an irresistible offer.
In this way the inclusive character of the Christian church – its
‘universality’ – could be proclaimed long before it had anything like a
majority of adherents in the city. This claim also enabled it to begin to
turn a moral status (the ‘equality of souls’) into a visible social role,
the individual. For it was as individuals that both the rich and the
poor, including those who had previously existed outside the bounds
of the citizen class, approached the sacraments of the church. They
were baptized and received the Eucharist as individuals seeking salva-
tion, rather than as members of a group.
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Christian churches thus began to dissolve the corporate character
of an aristocratic society. However, at the same time that the church
was penetrating urban society with new moral norms, a protest move-
ment developed within the church, a movement expressing anxiety
about any such embracing of the world. It took the form of a with-
drawal from urban life. And it presented the character of Christianity
in a peculiarly vivid way.
The instinct of withdrawal had antecedents in Judaism. Groups such
as the Essenes had fled to remote regions to embrace an ascetic life. But
the Christian form of withdrawal was, especially at the outset, far more
individualist. It began in the later third century in Egypt and Syria, with
individuals withdrawing into the ‘wilderness’, individuals who grad-
ually became known as ‘anchorites’ or ‘monks’. It is important to note
that they withdrew as individuals rather than as members of previously
organized groups. For it throws light on the nature of their goal. Their
goal was salvation. But it was salvation understood in a particular way.
They sought to develop a higher will by overcoming their personal
appetites. St Antony, the most famous early monk, described their goal
as seeking the help of the Holy Spirit to gain ‘control over their souls
and bodies in order that both may be sanctified …’
The era of martyrs had come to an end. But in many Christians the
need to demonstrate the depth of motivation released by their new
beliefs had not. For some, ascetic practices at home no longer seemed
to suffice. These ascetics at first took up residence in caves and other
deserted areas outside cities and villages. Gradually some moved fur-
ther away, building mud-brick cells on mountainsides or occupying
abandoned military outposts. These monks cultivated a life marked
by celibacy, poverty and self- denial – away from the clamour of the
agora and forum, away even from the ceremonies of the church. They
sought to overcome the temptations of the world, its demons, by com-
muning with God in solitude, that is, through themselves.
The monks sought to gain control over their bodies – to create wills
properly so- called – through study of the scriptures, meditation and
prayer. It seemed to them the principal step required by Christian
belief. The withdrawal into the self was at the same time a reach for
moral universality. ‘Therefore brothers, let us be equal, from the least
to the greatest, whether rich or poor, perfect in harmony and humility,’
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Heroism Redefined
urged one leading monk.7 By renouncing selfish, transient desires,
monks sought, through the habit of obedience, to incarnate a superior
will. Innerness was everything. The story of a young anchorite trying
to learn from a venerated elder tells us as much:
As far as I can I say my little office [says the younger man], I fast a little,
I pray and meditate, I live in peace and as far as I can, I purify my
thoughts. What else can I do? The old man stood up and stretched his
hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he
said to him, ‘If you will, you can become all flame.’8
Many urban Christians who did not share their solitude, but imposed
austere practices on themselves at home (‘dedicated virgins’ were not
uncommon), shared the monks’ view that an ascetic life was ‘the
whole yoke of the lord’. That widely shared view helped, in turn, to
give the monks great prestige.
Of course, for many monks solitude remained relative. They were
city-dwellers by origin, and what they understood by ‘wilderness’ could
be rather suburban. Often their cells were within easy walking distance
of the cities. And as the monks’ reputation for austerity spread, they
became the object of solicitous visits from their urban Christian breth-
ren, who were perhaps moved as much by curiosity as by piety.
There was undoubtedly a degree of extravagance in the way some
monks renounced the world and communed alone with their God.
Simeon the Stylite, who lived on top of a column outside Antioch for
years, is the most obvious example. One of Simeon’s disciples is said to
have lived on a column outside Constantinople for thirty-three years.
But other forms of self-mortification – such as wearing a heavy iron
chain or feeding on grass – also flourished. Such anchorites often
described their ways of defying society as ‘becoming fools for Christ’s
sake’.9 It is hardly surprising that many of the urban clergy deplored
what they saw as these monks’ theatricality. Nonetheless, the self-image
projected by the monks gave them a remarkable moral authority. The
charisma attached by city-dwellers to ‘isolation’ resulted in healing
powers being attributed to monks. They were sometimes called ‘prac-
tical’ philosophers – philosophers who did not rely on literacy or
bookish learning for wisdom or influence.
A democratic, if not populist, message was lurking. When the Copt
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A Moral Revolution
who became St Antony was questioned by a visiting philosopher
about the absence of books in his mountainside refuge, he replied that
all he needed for contemplation was ‘God’s creation’. Antony, a
wealthy farmer’s son, had given away his inheritance, and retreated to
the countryside, where he relied on the Bible, prayer and manual
labour to resist the ‘demons’ that tempted him. He had no Greek, the
language of high culture, but felt no need to apologize for the fact.
‘My book … is the nature of God’s creation; it is present whenever I
wish to read His words.’ 10 Struggles with sexual temptation – whether
in the form of women or boys – were continual. ‘He kept vigil to such
an extent that he often continued the whole night without sleep,’
Antony’s first biographer, Athanasius, reports. ‘He ate once a day,
after sunset, sometimes once in two days, and often even once in four,
while his food was bread and salt and water only.’ (The Egyptian cli-
mate must have helped, for Antony allegedly lived to be 105.)
When we imagine away the more extreme manifestations of a
movement that quickly assumed large proportions in Egypt and Syria,
we are left with something revealing about the character of Christian-
ity: its egalitarianism, its potential for inwardness. As long as churches
had been small and persecuted, a strong sense of community (‘of the
saints’) had to some extent obscured that character. Such besieged
communities constrained, so to speak, the moral impulses released by
Christian belief. But the monks gave those impulses a dramatic release.
Traditional urban spaces were far too constricted for their message.
No one understood this more completely than St Augustine. Know-
ledge of the monastic movement in Egypt and Syria took some time to
reach the West. But when Augustine was first told about the move-
ment associated with St Antony (circa 386), he grasped its inward and
democratic import at once. ‘The uneducated rise up and take heaven
by storm, and we, with all our learning, here we are, still wallowing in
flesh and blood …’11
The movement of monks into the wilderness involved a rejection
of traditional forms of community, in particular the city or polis –
without at first pretending to any organization or common life.
Solitude, prayer and the scriptures were enough, it was claimed, to lift
monks onto a higher moral plane. Undistracted by crowds and the
noise of the city, they sought God in solitude and silence, overcoming
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Heroism Redefined
temptations, demons and natural hazards. If the martyrs had offered
a more democratic model of heroism, the monks could be portrayed
as a new type of athlete, an athlete who sought not physical perfection
or competitive glory but conquest of the will. The desert rather than
the amphitheatre was the setting for victory. The audience was God
rather than crowds. An inner voice rather than outbursts of applause
was the medium of success.
By the end of the third century some parts of the Egyptian and Syr-
ian countryside were becoming ‘crowded’ with monks. A century later
tourists from Rome visiting Egypt, who were curious about what was
initially an Eastern phenomenon, complained about the overcrowd-
ing. Some sites in Egypt were occupied so intensively that a form of
community sprang up, at first very loose and informal. Monks would
gather together once or twice a week for services, served by priests
from a neighbouring city. No doubt the urban clergy encouraged this
regularizing of the religious life of the monks and the promise of dis-
cipline it brought to what must have seemed an anarchic development
of Christianity.
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A New Form of Association:
Monasticism
The equality of souls in search of salvation was at the heart of Chris-
tian beliefs. It was the dominant moral fact about the movement that
created the church. Yet during the first century that fact had been
embedded in a mystical vision of ‘the last days’ approaching – a belief
that the return of the Christ would soon usher in a new creation.
It was the weakening of expectations about an imminent second
coming of the Christ that led to rethinking in the following centuries.
If the Christ was already in the world, as Paul had suggested, how did
that change things? If the Holy Ghost made it possible for believers to
become ‘one in Christ’, what should ‘the saints’ bring to the world
around them? What should be their attitude to the society and gov-
ernment of the Roman empire?
Historians have often discussed early Christian attitudes towards
the government of the Roman empire. But they have been less atten-
tive to the question of how Christians began to conceive of society in
view of the moral intuitions generated by their new beliefs. That is a
pity. For Christian beliefs had begun to impinge on the traditional
conception of society by the later second century. Indeed, these beliefs
began to lay the foundation for a new conception of society.
Why have historians been slow to explore this matter? Two reasons
stand out. The first is that they have been impressed by the determin-
ation of the early church not to offend the Roman authorities – by its
anxiety to establish that the Christian movement was not subversive
or conspiratorial. Some have even traced this self- protective instinct
back to ‘prudent’ Gospel accounts of the Roman governor Pilate
declaring that he could attribute no crime to Jesus. The second reason
has to do with the formidable influence of St Augustine. Augustine
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A New Form of Association: Monasticism
wrote the City of God after the sack of Rome by Alaric’s Goths in ad
410. He denied that, by overthrowing the old civic deities, Christian-
ity was responsible for that disaster. Instead, he sought to minimize
the significance of the event, arguing that all human institutions were
subject to decay and disaster. He insisted that the city of God could
not be identified with any institution, not even with the church itself.
Augustine’s argument could easily be construed, however unfairly, as
rejecting any interest in social reform or reconstruction.
It is a mistake, however, to suppose that Christian beliefs had not
already begun to reshape the prevailing conception of society. One
symptom of change, fifty years earlier, can be found in the Emperor
Julian’s attempt to restore paganism as the official religion of the
empire and reopen the temples. For Julian’s version of paganism was
of a paganism ‘purged’ by Christian moral intuitions. The new priest-
hood he sought to create was to have as its test ‘the love of God and
of fellow men’, while ‘charity’ was to be its vocation. Indeed, Julian
often complained that what pagans failed to understand about Chris-
tians was that ‘their benevolence to strangers, their care for the graves
of the dead and the pretended holiness of their lives’ explained the
rapid spread of Christian ‘atheism’ – by which he meant the Christian
rejection of polytheism.1
Evidently Julian was sensitive to the egalitarian moral thrust of
Christianity. And he hoped to reconcile polytheism with that thrust,
removing its traditional involvement with hierarchy, its association
with the assumption of natural inequality. Yet removing such features
threatened paganism with a complete loss of identity. So Julian’s pro-
ject was probably doomed from the outset.
Christianity was turning outward and visible things inwards. The
basilicas built in Rome by the Emperor Constantine, after his conver-
sion in 312, gave architectural expression to the difference of focus
between paganism and the new moral beliefs. In place of the ancient
temple, with its splendid columns and decorations on the exterior, the
Christian basilica was simple, unadorned brick on the outside, with
columns and decorations reserved for the interior. The change was
symptomatic. Where paganism had concerned itself primarily with
external conformity of behaviour, Christianity now concerned itself
especially with inner conviction.
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During the fourth and fifth centuries heated debates raged through-
out Christian churches. For this was the period when Christian
‘orthodoxy’ was defined against other views that came to be regarded
as heresies. It was the period of ‘universal’ church councils, those of
Nicaea (325) and Chalcedon (451), held under the patronage of
Christian emperors. Heresies described as Arianism, Docetism, Sabel-
lianism and Donatism were identified, which turned on difficult
questions about the Trinity, the relationship between Father, Son and
Holy Ghost. Fortunately, we do not have to concern ourselves with
most of the issues debated. But one cannot be ignored. That is the
issue about the nature of the Christ, what theologians have since
called the Christological question. Just what was the relationship
between the human and the divine in the Christ? How were the two
natures related in Jesus?
The answers given to these questions differed between east and
west, north and south, within the now far-flung Christian churches.
The positions taken up can easily seem abstruse – whether, for example,
the Son was coeternal with the Father, or whether divinity was fully
present in Jesus throughout his life or developed gradually. However,
lurking behind all the variations in argument lay an issue central to the
development of the conception of the individual.
What does it imply about human nature to say that, in Jesus, God
became ‘flesh of our flesh’? In what sense can it be said that God is
active in the world, and that God is ‘with us’? These questions raised
others, especially after the appearance of Christian emperors. Just
how should Christians conceive of society? And what sort of govern-
ment is appropriate to such a society? Behind apparently abstruse
theological debates, intensely practical issues were emerging. The
Christological debate carried them, although in other terms and con-
cealed beneath its surface.
Historians have been struck by the extent to which theological
issues became matters talked about in the streets of Alexandria and
Constantinople, capable of arousing strong, even violent, popular feel-
ings. In a famous sermon, Gregory of Nyssa described his encounters
with public opinion in fifth-century Constantinople. ‘If in this city you
ask anyone for change, he will discuss with you whether the Son is
begotten or unbegotten; if you ask about the quality of bread, you
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A New Form of Association: Monasticism
will receive the answer that the Father is greater, the Son is less; if you
suggest that a bath is desirable, you will be told that there was noth-
ing before the Son was created.’ 2 Were these preoccupations simply a
matter of fashion?
Such popular feelings ought to have alerted historians to the larger
issue at stake. For at stake was nothing less than how society should
be conceived, something in which people in the street were deeply
involved, even if they were unable to identify the nature of their con-
cern. By itself, their involvement in these abstruse discussions suggests
a progress of the idea of equality, the idea of a shared human nature.
The demos – the ‘people’ – had ceased to refer merely to the privileged
citizen class. Even slaves, after hearing passionate sermons in churches,
might develop theological opinions. But this progress of equality
could and did point in very different political directions. The fourth
and fifth centuries give evidence of two opposed conclusions about
the proper form for government, drawn from the Christian assump-
tion of the moral equality of humans.
The first conclusion was drawn at the expense of the traditional
urban upper classes and their paideia. It was the conclusion that the
new moral beliefs entailed equal subjection to a central government,
that is, to Rome’s imperial majesty. This conclusion was parasitic on
monotheism. It likened the imperial role to that of the divine ruler of
the universe. The emperor’s role provided a foretaste of the role of the
Godhead, linking every person directly to the font of authority. Inter-
mediaries became suspect. The cult of the ancient family, the association
of citizens in the polis, local notables: these could no longer legiti-
mately interpose themselves into the only relationship which had a
divine sanction. Humans, despite their manifold inherited social roles,
were becoming individuals, each deemed to have a soul. The ancient
vision of hierarchy, social as well as natural, was fading.
Here we begin to see the impact of the Christological controversies.
Peter Brown has noticed and described that impact.
The emperor no longer yielded to the philosopher because he shared
with him the same restraints imposed by an elegant and ennobling pai-
deia. He yielded to bishops and to holy men because even Christ himself
had yielded, to become a man like those he ruled. Swathed in majesty,
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the emperor made plain, not that he shared a culture with his upper-class
subjects, but, rather, despite all appearances to the contrary, he shared
a common humanity with all Christians.3
This assimilation of imperial power to a Christ-like authority began
to transform not only the perception of government, but also the con-
ception of society, through its insistence on equal subjection and its
distrust of intermediaries.
One of the earliest Christian historians, Eusebius of Caesarea, was
a contemporary of the emperor Constantine. At times his writings
amount to an apology for the analogy between divine majesty and
imperial majesty. Eusebius too was influenced by what Brown calls
the mood accompanying the Christological controversies, an aware-
ness of the ‘awesome condescension’ of God in stooping to identify
himself with the human condition, through the incarnate Christ. In a
sense the analogy made it easier to understand each party. If God
became the emperor of heaven, the emperor was ‘very much God on
earth’. In principle, the emperor claimed an unmediated connection
with each of his subjects, and was equally concerned for each.
Of course, the condescension of God in assuming a human nature
also imposed a decisive obligation on individuals. Here too the ana-
logy held. The new Christian Roman empire took the first steps along
a very long road, which would transform the older Roman idea of
imperium into the modern notion of sovereignty, substituting the
individual for the family as the unit of subjection. What have been
described as the ‘individualist’ trends in later Roman law – the weak-
ening of paterfamilias, improved status for women and changes in
inheritance rules, for example – probably both contributed to this
Christian mind- set and reflected it.
Yet if the incarnation revealed God as present to the world in a new
way – if individual agency and divine agency were now understood as
parts of the same continuum – then another line of argument, yielding
a different political conclusion, was also plausible. For ‘Christian humil-
ity’ might be invoked as effectively as ‘Divine Majesty’. This alternative
could present the claims of authority as moving ‘from within or below’
upwards, rather than as descending from ‘on high’. In that sense, the
assumption of moral equality proved to be double-edged.
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A New Form of Association: Monasticism
The early church illustrated this alternative road, although in a
patchy, incoherent way. For once the age of apostles and prophets had
passed, presbyters and bishops were chosen by general consent of
believers. The ‘laying on of hands’ on candidates for presbyters, from
which group ‘bishops’ gradually emerged as the senior figures, illus-
trates earliest practice. The choice of bishop was itself often the result
of popular ‘acclamation’, even when the candidate had been
pre- selected by virtue of his learning and paideia. Here we can see a
kind of compromise between the traditions of the urban notables and
a more egalitarian emerging culture.
The choosing of ‘superiors’ by ‘inferiors’ was the norm, though it
was not formalized or systematic. It was only later, when the church
became closely joined to the Roman empire, that this norm had to
compromise with another, that is, with the practice of ‘superiors’
choosing ‘inferiors’. Even before the official toleration and then adop-
tion of Christianity by the empire, the role of the bishops as spokesmen
for their cities in dealings with the emperor had given an aristocratic
turn to the proceedings of urban churches. Nor did wealth hurt. It
contributed to the clergy becoming an autonomous, self- perpetuating
body – coming to resemble in that way the class that had traditionally
provided the curia of the ancient city. For the superior magistrates of
the city had exercised their jurisdiction as a personal right, as an
undoubted inheritance or birthright. Their authority was not a matter
of delegation or representation.
Yet while urban churches compromised with the aristocratic world
in which they had developed, the new, chaotic movement of monks
preserved the primitive norms of the church. As the monks became
more numerous and concentrated in certain places, the first steps in
organizing monasticism were taken. As we have seen, the urban clergy
encouraged this development, since the monks had often lived apart
from the rites and sacraments of the church. Nonetheless, the gradual
organization of monasticism reveals more about the moral thrust of
Christianity than what had become the ‘state’ religion of the Roman
empire by the late fourth century could do. As hermits or anchorites
became cenobites – that is, as asceticism became communal – Christian
beliefs began to generate a new conception of ‘community’, an utterly
new form of social organization.
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The need for organization was made obvious by the scale of the
movement of monks into the countryside or ‘desert’. Take, for example,
the mountain of Nitria in Egypt. By the fourth century it had become
exceedingly populous. ‘On the mountain live some five thousand men
with different modes of life, each living in accordance with his own
powers and wishes, so that it is allowed to live alone or with another
or with a number of others,’ observed Palladius, in his Lausiac
History.
There are seven bakeries in the mountain which serve the needs of both
these and also of the anchorites of the great desert, six hundred in all …
In the mountain of Nitria there is a great church by which stand three
palm trees … Next to the church is a guest house where they receive the
stranger who has arrived until he goes away of his own accord, without
limit of time, even if he remains two or three years … In this mountain
there also live doctors and confectioners. And they use wine and wine is
on sale. All these men work with their hands at linen-manufacture so
that all are self-supporting. And indeed at the ninth hour it is possible to
stand and hear how the strains of psalmody rise from each habitation so
that one believes that one is high above the world in Paradise. They
occupy the church only on Saturday and Sunday.4
Recent studies emphasize the extent of organization all this implied –
with monks employing an agent to sell their products and purchase
supplies, while in some places the monks also established proto-
hospitals.
Little wonder, then, that monasticism was acquiring a group iden-
tity, both in the eyes of the monks and for outsiders. The first striking
thing about that new identity was that its basis lay in voluntary asso-
ciation, in individual acts of will. This was a radical departure from
the beliefs and practices of the ancient world. Family cult, civic sta-
tus and servitude had been assigned by birth or imposed by force. It
is true that the mystery cults had developed through individual ad -
hesion. But it was as if they could not show their face in a world
organized so differently, and hence they remained semi-secret, ‘mys-
terious’ societies.
The primitive church had also developed through individual ‘con-
version’. But in the face of official hostility and even persecution, the
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‘saints’, too, remained concealed from the world, in an enforced soli-
darity. Their beliefs and practices were at least half-hidden – giving rise
to the lurid stories about cannibalism and sexual promiscuity which
long circulated among pagans. Secret meetings in private houses, buri-
als in catacombs: these were the practices of the earliest Christians.
There was little or no self-advertisement. Rather, martyrdom, rumour
and discreet proselytizing were its modes of development.
Monasticism was different. Even its exaggerations announced a new
confidence when challenging the form of existing society. Separating
themselves physically as well as morally from the ancient family and
the polis, monks offered the picture of a world founded on different
principles. Their struggles to subdue themselves by means of a deeper
relationship – despite the many offences against good taste and civility
involved – suggested how the individual conscience could and should
constrain social relationships, giving them a new foundation.
The transition from solitary hermits to communal monasticism
confirmed a new form of sociability, a sociability founded on the role
of individual conscience, on accepting the claims of a universal moral
law. In no sphere did this emerge more clearly than in the status and
treatment of women. We have seen that women had played an import-
ant part in the growth of the early church. By the third century
‘dedicated virgins’ had acquired a new prestige in upper-class families
and, indeed, in the Christian community at large. What was the most
striking possible evidence of a woman’s freedom in the ‘new age’? The
answer was sexual renunciation, a manifest act of individual will. 5
Monasticism soon gave these moral developments further impetus.
The creation of ascetic communities for women – what were to
become convents – marked the emergence of women from the ancient
family, from the permanent subordinations of the domestic sphere. It
is hardly surprising that upper- class women led the way.
But that was not all. The way of life associated with the monks also
had another important, if unintended, consequence. It rehabilitated
‘work’– separating work from its association with a servile status,
from the stain of ancient slavery. Work acquired a new dignity, becom-
ing even a requirement of self- respect. Basil of Caesarea urged that
‘we must not use the ideal of piety as an excuse for idleness or a
means of escaping toil’. After all, idleness opened the door to ‘demons’,
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to images, fancies and appetites, which undermined the construction
of a morally upright will. And it was to such a will that the monks
sought to subordinate themselves. Personal salvation was understood
as a laborious, lifetime quest. It was not a matter of momentary
ecstasy or sudden initiation.
The idea of mutual support, through work, became central as the
isolated life of anchorites gave way to communal monasticism or
cenobitism. At first there was resistance to relinquishing the belief
that solitary communing with God was the highest possible calling.
But by the early fourth century the Egyptian monk Pachomius, who
helped to shape a more communal asceticism, was inclined to the
opposite view. One source has Pachomius saying that while ‘in the
view of people living as anchorites’ the life adopted by cenobites ‘does
not seem perfect’, in truth ‘they are far superior to those who live as
anchorites for they walk in the obligingness of the Apostle’.6
Sharing a common life, while seeking personal salvation, seemed to
conform more closely to the Gospels. The form of community consist-
ent with equality of souls was essentially a community of shared values.
Such a communal life ought, according to an early life of Pachomius, to
‘fashion the souls of men so as to present them pure to God’. Working
and sharing, on the basis of equality, contributed to forming ‘a perfect
koinonia like that of the believers which Acts describes: “They were one
heart and one soul”.’7
Gradually work was assimilated to prayer. It became almost a form
of prayer. St Basil of Caesarea (c. 330 – c. 378), who gave Eastern
monasticism its Rule, did not see any conflict between the two. For ‘it
is God’s will that we should nourish the hungry, give the thirsty to
drink, and clothe the naked’.8 Such a reconciliation of the claims of
conscience with an emphasis on social obligations was to shape the
future of monasticism, Western as well as Eastern.
For Basil, the scriptural foundation of the monastic life – a life both
solitary and social – was summarized by the first two commandments
of Jesus: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with
all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and great command-
ment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself.’9 This joining of equality with reciprocity provided the basis
for Basil’s conception of a monastic community. Together, the two
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assumptions created an unprecedented version of authority. To be in
authority was to be humble. ‘Let meekness of character and lowliness
of heart characterize the superior,’ Basil urged.
For if the Lord was not afraid of ministering to his own bond-servants,
but was willing to be a servant of the earth and clay which he had made
and fashioned into man … what must we do to our equals that we may
be deemed to have attained the imitation of him? This one thing, then,
is essential in the superior. Further he must be compassionate, showing
long- suffering to those who through inexperience fall short in their
duty, not passing sins over in silence but meekly bearing with the rest-
ive, applying remedies to them all with kindness . . .10
This remarkable new model of authority – and the rhetoric it inspired –
had a long future ahead of it. It would receive a crucial elaboration in
the sixth- century Rule of St Benedict, which shaped later Western
monasticism. Benedict’s Rule reinforced the democratizing of the idea
of authority, insisting that monastic leaders temper their government
with a ‘listening’ culture and respect the different needs of individual
monks. The object was ‘to work towards the fellow citizenship of the
heavenly kingdom’. To promote such moral equality, Benedict sought
to eliminate social distinctions within the monastery.
How were the new monastic communities governed? The answer
seems to be that at first it was by a mixture of antecedent practice and
the authority of elderly monks who had proved their holiness. In the
Egyptian desert, Pachomius and Shenoute took the earliest steps by
organizing houses of monks, standardizing their dress and establish-
ing a routine of worship. Shenoute introduced monastic vows and a
period of probation. But, once again, the crucial figure was to be Basil,
who insisted that monasteries should be relatively small, that they
might even be located in cities, that monks share property, and that
their time be divided between work and prayer, with six services dur-
ing the day and two during the night. Basil discouraged exaggerated
asceticism. Instead, monks were to involve themselves in the life of the
world around them, by founding schools and hospitals.11
Basil accepted that final authority over the monasteries belonged to
the local bishop. But he also believed that this authority should be
exercised only intermittently. For the monks should govern themselves,
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guided by those who had proved their worth, led by an abbot. So
the ideal was clear enough. The ideal was self- regulation, often
summarized as the monks being of ‘one heart and one mind’. Such
self- regulation was meant to minimize the need for sanctions.
By taking individual responsibility so seriously, the ideas of moral
equality and limited government became closely associated. Outward
conformity of behaviour was all that had been expected in the ancient
family and polis. But monasticism consecrated a vision of social order
founded on conscience, on hard-won individual intentions rather
than publicly enforced status differences. However difficult to achieve,
there was in theory ‘no distinction’ between persons on the grounds
of social status, whether of higher or lower class, slave or free- born.
The struggle for self- control, which had marked monks from the
outset, led to calls for an obedience that was stringent but self- imposed.
That is why we find a paradoxical joining of the Pauline celebration
of Christian liberty with the emphasis on monastic obedience. Liberty,
it now seemed, consisted in obedience to rules that an individual’s
conscience imposed on itself, in the self-imposition of rules. The
authority of the abbot should be like that of an unerring conscience.
Of course, these principles were often compromised in practice.
Social conditions changed, particularly in the West, as the Roman
empire succumbed to successive invasions by Germanic tribes in the
fifth century. The habit of families ‘giving’ their children to monaste-
ries and convents developed, in part as a reaction to growing social
disorder. And the notion that the children’s ‘vocation’ had to be con-
firmed by themselves when they reached maturity – in a free act of
will – tended to be more theoretical than real. As a result the authority
of the abbot had to be reinforced. With many younger novices, and in
the face of ‘barbarous’ social conditions, Western monasteries did not
so much establish schools for the laity (as with Basil’s Eastern model)
but became schools themselves.
Yet something survived the chaos and the compromises. Today, the
mixed reputation enjoyed by monasticism since the sixteenth century
makes it hard to recapture the prestige it had enjoyed in its earlier
centuries. Yet at the end of antiquity the image it offered of a social
order founded on equality, limiting the role of force and honouring
work, while devoting itself to prayer and acts of charity, gave it a
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A New Form of Association: Monasticism
powerful hold over minds. Monasticism preserved the image of a
regular society when the pax romana was being undermined, first by
the overthrow of the Western empire (476) after the Germanic inva-
sions, and then by Muslim conquests in the East.
The image of social order that monasticism preserved was not that
of the ancient world. Rather, it suggested a new foundation for social
order. For, despite its many failings and compromises, monasticism
associated the ideas of law and of obedience not with unthinking cus-
tom or external force, but with individual consent and the role of
conscience. Monasticism offered the glimpse of ‘another world’, a
world that at least approximated to Christian moral intuitions.
Slowly, but surely, that glimpse of another world further eroded beliefs
and practices surviving from the ancient world.
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8
The Weakness of the
Will: Augustine
The apostle Paul deployed his vision of the Christ to call for a recon-
struction of the self. He did so in terms that were passionate, direct
and poetic. At the end of the fourth century Paul had a worthy succes-
sor, whom we know as St Augustine (354–430).
Augustine sprang from Thagaste in Roman North Africa. His
devout and determined mother, Monica, brought him up as a Chris-
tian. But when studying in Carthage, his search for ‘wisdom’ led him
into dualist, Manichaean beliefs. Later, while making a career as a
rhetorician in Rome and Milan, he was attracted by Neoplatonic
philosophy. Christianity, however, retained a hold on his conscience.
Immersing himself in Paul’s letters while in Milan, he underwent a
profound conversion in 386. In his Confessions, Augustine describes
how, reduced to tears by an inspection of his conscience, he picked up
the volume of Paul’s letters he had been reading.
I seized it and opened it, and in silence I read the first passage on which
my eyes fell: Not in revelling and drunkenness, not in lust and wanton-
ness, not in quarrels and rivalries. Rather, arm yourselves with the Lord
Jesus Christ; spend no more thought on nature and nature’s appetites.
I had no wish to read more and no need to do so. For in an instant, as
I came to the end of the sentence, it was as though the light of confidence
flooded into my heart and all the darkness of doubt was dispelled.1
Paul permanently changed the orientation of Augustine’s mind. That
new orientation enabled him to give a more systematic and philo-
sophical form to Paul’s project.
Reconstructing the self – by opening the self to the work of grace –
led Augustine to focus on the human will and on the conditions of its
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The Weakness of the Will: Augustine
exercise. It led him in due course to write a spiritual autobiography of
genius, the Confessions. That intense account of Augustine’s relations
with himself and with his God (the Confessions takes the form of a
long prayer) has led some to attribute the birth of the individual to
Augustine. For he portrayed ‘the will’ as the indispensable middle term
between ‘reason’ and ‘appetite’. He embedded the will in our concep-
tion of the self. Certainly there is an almost incredible self-consciousness
in his writing. The fall of man is not a second-hand story for him.
Augustine sees himself in the human species and the human species
within himself. The equality of our plight underpins everything he
wrote as a Christian.
Augustine drew on the resources of ancient thought and literature
to make the case for Christianity. For he not only had a great love of
the Latin classics. He had also argued his way through many of the
standard positions of ancient philosophy. In particular, his mind had
been susceptible to that deep suspicion of the material world – to the
contrast between mind and matter – which had been its hallmark.
Even after he left behind the extreme dualism of the Manichaean
philo sophy, Augustine remained attracted to aspects of the Neopla-
tonism of Plotinus, with its vision of ascending from the everyday
world to purer realms of thought and being.
Augustine was no stranger to the appeal of elitism. When he took
up residence in Milan, he found himself surrounded by a refined and
congenial company, which for a time impressed him with what culti-
vated and philosophically inclined minds could achieve. The imagery
of ascent was seductive. It enabled Augustine and his friends to think
of moving towards ‘perfection’.
Augustine’s conversion, however, exploded his previous certainties.
The imagery of ascent began to seem a delusion, the goal of achieving
personal perfection through cultivation of the intellect unattainable.
Paul’s imagery of depth was far more compelling, while his insist-
ence on the role of feeling in motivation – as against pure acts of
judgement – corresponded more closely to human experience. In
Augustine’s view, Paul’s conception of the Christ rightly made humil-
ity the key to salvation: ‘I beseech You, God, to show my full self to
myself.’ The ‘rational’ self cannot forsake the source of its own being
without falling victim to self-delusion: ‘Work out your salvation in fear
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and trembling: for it is God that works in you, both that you should
wish and act with a good will.’2 Only the pride of the intellect could
suppose that the human will can be completely self- determining. The
incarnation revealed that something more is needed. ‘My mind, ques-
tioning itself upon its own powers, feels that it cannot rightly trust its
own report.’ Augustine’s conception of the self became a subtle mix-
ture of autonomy and dependence.
Feelings or the calls of ‘delight’ are the springs of human action.
‘Who can embrace wholeheartedly what gives him no delight?’ Augus-
tine asked, under Paul’s sway. ‘But who can determine for himself that
what will delight him should come his way, and, when it comes, that it
should, in fact, delight him?’3 Paul’s ecstatic awareness that the cen-
trality of the will was matched, in the absence of grace, by a weakness
of the will, overwhelmed Augustine. His writings became and remained
to a large extent a commentary on Paul.
Augustine continued the demolition of the foundation of ancient
beliefs and practices that Paul had begun. Equal subjection to divine
power – in the depths of motivation – now seemed to make a mockery
of the assumption of natural inequality. Belief in the innate superior-
ity of some souls had to be discarded. ‘I just cannot find what criterion
to apply in deciding which men should be chosen to be saved by grace.
If I were to reflect on how to weigh up this choice, I myself would
instinctively choose those with better intelligence or less sins, or both;
I should add, I suppose, a sound and proper education …’ Almost
bitterly, Augustine added: ‘And as soon as I decide on that, He will
laugh me to scorn.’4 These new convictions obliged Augustine to
reassess the claims of the superior intellect and, along with those
claims, indirectly, the whole aristocratic structure of ancient society.
The Christ had revealed that God’s love is available to all. It is
simply a fact that not all avail themselves of it. For Augustine, this is
a mystery beyond human comprehension. The right response to the
mystery is humility, a constantly renewed innerness, not a reassertion
of the belief that superior minds can leave behind the common lot of
mortals. When he became a bishop at Hippo in North Africa, Augus-
tine was confronted daily with the diversity of human motivation. For
a Christian, there was only one option. ‘One depth calls to another.’
Augustine revises the Neoplatonic account of the soul’s journey
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The Weakness of the Will: Augustine
and adapts it to Pauline imagery. It is no longer a process of ascent or
moving beyond the physical world. The answer lies within. As Peter
Brown has observed:
The Confessions are a manifesto of the inner world: ‘Men go to gape at
mountain peaks, at the boundless tides of the sea, the broad sweep of
rivers, the encircling ocean and the motions of the stars: and yet they
leave themselves unnoticed; they do not marvel at themselves.’ A man
cannot hope to find God unless he first finds himself: for this God is
‘deeper than my inmost being’, experience of Him becomes ‘better’ the
more ‘inward’. Above all, it is man’s tragedy that he should be driven to
flee ‘outwards’, to lose touch with himself, to ‘wander far’ from his
‘own heart’: ‘You were right before me: but I had moved away from
myself. I could not find myself: how much less, then, could I find You.’ 5
The Confessions provide us with a story, not primarily about the
development of Augustine’s mind, but rather about the development
of his ‘heart’ or ‘feelings’. The search for God proves to be a search for
the only ‘delight’ that is not precarious or illusory.
For Augustine, the conscious action of the individual has now to be
understood as a mysterious merger of intellect and feeling, the result
of an obscure process in which the heart is ‘stirred’. By understanding
the will as a compound of intention and feeling, Augustine in effect
repudiates the assumption that had pervaded ancient thinking: the
assumption that reason, largely from its own resources, can motivate.
For Augustine, conversion is the work of grace. And that opening of
the self to grace begins with the realization that ‘He hath made us and
not we ourselves …’6
Even conversion is only the beginning of a difficult journey, a jour-
ney during which the new self is assailed by doubts and temptations
that can be overcome only with the help of grace. Augustine’s emphasis
on the role of grace enables him to give a more realistic account of the
confines of human choice:
It will not be held against you, that you are ignorant against your will,
but that you neglect to seek out what it is that makes you ignorant; not
that you cannot bring together your wounded limbs, but that you reject
Him that would heal them. No man has been deprived of his ability to
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know that it is essential to find out what it is that it is damaging not to
be aware of; and to know that he should confess his weakness, so that
He can help him who seeks hard and confesses.7
With this analysis of the complex nature of the will, Augustine com-
pletes the demolition of ancient rationalism. The patriarchal family,
the aristocratic society underlying the polis, the cosmos as a hierarchy
of ends or purposes: all of these became suspect and vulnerable with-
out its support. Instead of confidence in deduction, we have prayer.
For through prayer humans can seek the support of grace for their
better intentions. Only with such support can they hope to act as they
ought to act. So confessing one’s weakness to God is ‘the countenance
of true piety’.
Deductive reasoning is downgraded in relation to fact. Reason – no
longer identified with social superiority – has to confront and make
sense of a world it cannot entirely control. And that is true even within
the self. Intentions, however upright, are often constrained by fact.
And nothing is more factual, in Augustine’s eyes, than the shackles we
forge for ourselves. Therein lies the human predicament – the corrup-
tion of the will. Through the faculty of memory, humans become
subjugated to their acquired tastes and sensibilities. They find them-
selves at the mercy of the consequences, often unforeseen, of their
previous choices.
In our present state, we do have the free power to do or not to do any-
thing, before we are caught up in any habit. When we do have this
freedom to do something, the sweetness and pleasure of the act holds
our soul, and it is caught in the sort of habit it cannot break – a habit
that is created for itself by its own act of sin.8
The pleasure springing from past actions is ‘inflicted’ on the memory,
a pleasure that is ‘mysteriously’ intensified through recollection and
repetition.
In that way feelings or dispositions become compulsive and free-
dom of choice is constrained. Augustine thus presents previous actions
rather than the world of matter as the source of corruption of the will.
His analysis enables him to understand the Pauline dilemma: ‘that
which you wish not, that you do.’ And, again following Paul, Augustine
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The Weakness of the Will: Augustine
identifies prayer – opening oneself to the action of grace – as the only
way out of such a vicious circle: ‘We had destroyed ourselves, but He
who made us made us anew.’
So, for Augustine, the inwardness of the individual is by no means
a sphere of silence. It is a sphere of dialogue, of conversation with
God. No wonder that the Confessions take the form of an extended
prayer. Inventing the individual – in the sense of acknowledging the
equality of humans in the face of their maker – is not an exercise lead-
ing to isolation. Instead, it is the creation of a self- consciousness that
undercuts merely social identities, statuses conferred by the conven-
tional terms of a language. The deepest struggles of the self are
pre- linguistic. They are struggles to find words that do justice to our
feelings both of freedom and of dependence.
Augustine’s conception of God makes him a crucial agent in our
innermost struggles. Yet by recognizing the need for human intentions
to seek support in an even deeper agency, Augustine does not deny the
reality of free will. Rather, he tries to clarify the conditions that make
‘true’ freedom possible, the conditions in which good or just inten-
tions can become effective. For so often our habits trap us in previous
decisions: ‘If you want to know what I mean, start trying not to swear:
then you will see how the force of habit goes on its own way.’9
The transformation of the will – escape from undesirable habits
and dependencies reinforced by ‘memory’ – requires more than a mere
act of judgement. Only when the very ground of our being is involved,
Augustine insists, can we hope to escape from ‘darkness’ into the
‘light’ of moral transparency. Yet even then we shall have only inter-
vals of relief and serenity. For habits fight back.
Sometimes You fill me with a feeling quite unlike my normal state, an
inward sense of delight, which, if it were to reach fulfilment in me,
would be something entirely different from my present life. But my
heavy burden of distress drags me back: I am sucked back to my habits,
and find myself held fast; I weep greatly, but am firmly held. The load
of habit is a force to be reckoned with!10
Following Paul, Augustine becomes the incomparable champion of
human frailty, of the dependence of an upright will on divine support.
That, in turn, makes Augustine an obstinate opponent of anything
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like a perfectionist ethic. On his understanding, the reality of free will
does not mean that human intentions – or even a sudden ‘conversion’ –
can be a sufficient condition of acting rightly.
It is that conviction that underpinned the greatest philosophical
dispute of Augustine’s later years, the dispute with Pelagius over the
will. Whereas Augustine was an African by origin, Pelagius hailed
from the British Isles. Unusually gifted, both men had made their way
to Italy and Rome. Yet Augustine’s stay had been relatively short.
After his conversion Augustine became a priest and, soon afterwards,
bishop of the city of Hippo in North Africa. That meant that his
convictions were informed by his heavy pastoral duties. By contrast,
Pelagius remained a layman in Rome and open to the intellectual cur-
rents circulating around the Mediterranean world – not least to the
strenuous achievements of Eastern monasticism.
Pelagius, too, made his reputation through writings inspired by
Paul’s letters. But his message was very different. For Pelagius, God
was the lawgiver who created obligations which humans could satisfy
if they chose to. God demanded a complete obedience that was within
the power of man to achieve. In an eloquent exposition of the thirteen
letters of Paul, Pelagius did not mince his words: ‘Since perfection is
possible for man, it is obligatory.’ But that conception of the power of
the will jeopardized Augustine’s emphasis on its fallibility.
Pelagius did not have the systematic mind of Augustine. It is prob-
ably best to understand him as a reformer, someone who sought to
raise the level of moral ambition in souls informed by Christian belief.
His acolytes in Rome often belonged to senatorial families. They
hoped to carry his arguments about human freedom and responsibil-
ity into law and public administration. Little wonder that Pelagius
deplored what he saw as a kind of fatalism or quietism about the
action of grace implicit in Augustine’s Confessions. Might not such
overly subtle probing of the conditions of exercising the will weaken
the role of good intentions? Might not an exaggerated emphasis on
the sinfulness of mankind hinder Christians becoming what they
ought to be?
The relationship between Augustine and Pelagius can perhaps be
understood by analogy with that between the great European philos-
ophers of the seventeenth century and their reformist successors, or
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The Weakness of the Will: Augustine
philosophes, in the eighteenth century. Unlike Descartes, Hobbes and
Spinoza, who became remarkable for their comprehensive philosophi-
cal systems, eighteenth- century writers like Voltaire and Diderot were
far more polemical, more directly involved in social reform. Like Pela-
gius, the latter were less concerned with elaborating ideas than with
changing the world around them. Yet there is an even more striking
comparison available with the most formidable eighteenth-century
philosopher. For Immanuel Kant resembles Augustine, holding that,
while we must seek to perfect ourselves, what we ‘can’ achieve will
always fall short of what we ‘ought’ to be. The fact that moral perfec-
tion is unattainable, and that we are all stuck in a struggle in which
we shall not fully succeed, conjures up Augustine’s anguished insist-
ence on the weakness of the will, on the moral equality of humans.
For Augustine (and Kant), none of us can ever claim to be a success
in moral terms. We all fail, and it is this failure – tragic, but also
humbling – that contains a powerful egalitarian message. But that
need not obscure the nature of Pelagius’ reformist ambitions. Pelagius
and his followers were greatly influenced by the Eastern monastic
movement. They interpreted monasticism as a challenge, a challenge
to convert a Roman world that was now ‘officially’ Christian into a
‘truly’ Christian society, that is, a society trying to live up to the moral
demands of Christianity. In pursuing their goals, the Pelagians in
Rome spoke to the Christian members of a governing class – a class
with influence – whereas Augustine dealt with a humbler, provincial
audience.
Where Augustine struggled to bring an awareness of the action of
grace into the humdrum life of his parishioners, Pelagius and his fol-
lowers attacked the hypocrisy of a society which had officially adopted
Christianity but which remained saturated with traditional pagan
beliefs and practices – a society in which ‘giving’ often became a
vehicle for the pride of the rich, in which the cult of the family and the
paterfamilias remained powerful, and in which slavery and torture
were still publicly unchallenged.
Just as the monastic communities of the East had begun to offer the
image, however blurred, of a new form of society, a society founded
on the assumption of the moral equality of humans, so the followers
of Pelagius sought to introduce a new moral stringency into the Roman
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A Moral Revolution
world, to make what was officially the norm into what was really the
norm.11 This perfectionism was perhaps also a response to the needs
of a governing class living through a crisis, the loss of control follow-
ing the Germanic invasions of the Western empire and, not least, the
sack of Rome by Alaric’s Goths in 410.
Pelagius sought a strict, universal observance of the new Christian
law. Thus, Peter Brown quotes from the fervent letter of a Pelagian
follower in Sicily: ‘Who believes in God, attends to His command-
ments; this is love of God; that we do what he commands.’ All believers
should therefore approach something like the condition of monks.
For Christian obligations did not vary according to social status.
Surely it is not true that the Law of Christian behaviour has not been
given to everyone who is called a Christian? … Do you think that the
fires of Hell will burn any less hotly for men licensed (as governors) to
give vent to their sadism, and will be made hotter only for those whose
professional duty it is to be pious …There can be no double-standard
for one and the same people.12
Evidently Pelagius, in his exhortations, wanted Christians to be seen
to change their behaviour, to become a visible, distinctive and irre-
proachable society, a manifest reproach to surviving pagan habits and
attitudes.
Augustine could not accept this. Was there not a real danger that
the grace of God revealed in the Christ was being sacrificed to a more
sophisticated version of the law? Augustine’s exploration of human
motivation, drawing heavily on Paul’s letters, led him to see in Pela-
gian arguments a return to the rationalism of the ancient world, and
to the elitism which it sustained. For Augustine, it was a fundamental
mistake to suppose that the church could become a conspicuous soci-
ety of ‘perfect’ Christians. Grace did not work like that. The mind
could not command love. Reason, through intentions, could not
motivate in the fashion required by Pelagius’ exhortations. No human
institution could attain perfection.
Augustine’s insistence on the complexity of the human will – and
the role of grace in human motivation – would leave a permanent
mark on later Christian thinking about the self. The dominant ancient
view portraying the will oversimply as ‘an act of desire (whether
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The Weakness of the Will: Augustine
rational or not)’ gave way to ‘a concept of the will as a power of the
soul distinct from the intellect and from appetite’.13 Understanding
the complexity of the will as a motive force and the frailty of human
intentions led Augustine to oppose ‘naive’ views of the transformative
potential of the church. It also helped him to deal with pagan argu-
ments exaggerating the church’s impact on recent events.
Countering claims that the adoption of Christianity and abandon-
ment of the ‘pagan’ gods had led to the sack of Rome in 410, Augustine
insisted, in his great work, the City of God, that human weakness and
vices beset all societies (the ‘earthly cities’). All were subject to the
vicissitudes that follow from the weaknesses of human nature. Nor
was the church exempt. The city of God (or ‘eternal city’) could not
therefore be identified with the organized church. At best, the church
could help to open the individual soul to the work of grace, encourag-
ing humility, continence and prayer. ‘From the raised benches of the
clergy, the precept “Render no man evil for evil” is read out as given
by divine authority, and wholesome counsel is proclaimed in the midst
of our congregations, as if it were in school rooms open, now, to both
sexes, to all ages and to all ranks of society.’14 The appeal of the church
was universal. But the outcome lay in the hands of God. Conscience
could not be created or directed so simply as Pelagius required.
Nonetheless, it was the task of the church to try to create and tend
consciences. For conscience provides access to the city of God, a sense
of belonging to another, a better or ‘heavenly city’. In conscience the
quality of what the self loves must be the test. Although in human
affairs good and bad are always – like motives – mixed, and all that
can be expected of public policies is that they strike a balance of advan-
tage, what the evangelist John spoke of as the ‘glance of the heart’ still
makes it possible to distinguish the ‘faithful’ from the ‘faithless’.
The faithful are far from perfect. When Augustine describes the
Christians familiar to him in Hippo, he does not exaggerate their pro-
pensity for good works, nor underestimate their pleasure in sexual
relations and eating. He acknowledges their occasional flights of van-
ity and bouts of anger. They are not above litigation to protect their
property. But they also possess something that gives them moral per-
spective, a conscience. That possession made for a decent Christian,
‘looking on himself as a disgrace, and giving the glory to God’.15
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A Moral Revolution
For Augustine, the faithful are those who see themselves as sojourn-
ers on earth. It is not that they refuse to take part in public affairs or
fail to try to improve things here and now. But, finally, they identify
themselves in another way. They are not the slaves of worldly ambi-
tions or pleasures. They are not restricted to the conventions of their
society or the boundaries set by their government. They have a better
hope, a hope that they carry into their relations with others. It is
a hope that can make them stern judges of themselves. But it is also a
hope that can nourish charity towards others.
His Christian beliefs had now led Augustine outside philosophy,
outside the Neoplatonic concern with the fate of the individual mind.
He no longer saw the faithful soul in isolation, bent on ‘escaping’
from an inferior material world. Christians neither could nor should
turn their backs on the world. But they should bring to that world the
attitudes of what Peter Brown – in a happy phrase – calls ‘a resident
alien’. And here I must let Brown have the final word: ‘So the City of
God, far from being a book about flight from the world, is a book
whose recurrent theme is “our business within this common mortal
life”; it is a book about being otherworldly in the world.’16
Little wonder that Augustine became the greatest single influence
on Western theology for the next thousand years. His writings would
be copied, studied and venerated in monasteries and cathedrals by
Latin-speaking clergy who shaped the culture of the lands which
became Europe. Before Augustine, theology had been largely the
preserve of the Greeks. He inspired the Latin church with a new con-
fidence in its own intellectual and moral resources, endowing it with
an incomparably subtle account of human agency.
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Fundamental Law
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9
Shaping New Attitudes and Habits
So far we have been looking chiefly at the impact of Christianity on
beliefs. We have seen the extraordinary process by which Christian
thinkers drew on the resources of Greek philosophy to give their new
convictions a systematic and public form. It was a drawing together
that involved compromises on both sides. Christian convictions were
submitted to the disciplines of logic and metaphysical speculation, to
the requirements of disciplined argument. In doing so, those convic-
tions sometimes lost the poetic fervour they had carried in the
primitive church. But at the same time Greek philosophy was also
transformed. Its traditional assumptions about natural inequality and
the motivating power of reason were gradually abandoned.
Yet if reason had lost the almost coercive power attributed to it by
much ancient philosophy, the habit of disputation – of disciplined
argument – was preserved by the church in later antiquity. From the
fourth century onwards nothing was more characteristic than the
holding of church councils, local, provincial and universal, to discuss
matters of doctrine and discipline. It is tempting to see these councils
as insinuating a form of representative government into a Roman
world which, after the decline of the polis and the influence of local
notables, had become centralized and authoritarian. But in any case,
the habit of disputation became engrained in the life of the church.
Paradoxically, the need to define ‘the truth’ contained in what were
now regarded as canonical scriptures – to defend that truth against
false opinions or ‘heresy’ – ensured that the de facto multiplicity of
opinions on many points was constantly on display.
Historians often emphasize that in the sixth century the Emperor
Justinian closed the philosophical schools of Athens. In so doing, they
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imply that rational argument was giving way to an age of faith. But it
is a mistake to conclude that the philosophical tradition the schools
represented was entirely lost as a result. It had already penetrated and
helped to shape the doctrines of the church, while leaving in conten-
tion such basic matters as the nature of the Christ and of the Trinity,
free will and the role of good works, the operation of grace and
predestination.
It is true that argument came to rest on a new set of assumptions –
assumptions about the relationship between individual souls and God
being fundamental, about the limits and fallibility of human reason,
and about the moral dangers springing from polytheism. But, as we
have seen, ancient philosophical argument had also rested on a dis-
tinct set of assumptions – assumptions that privileged the identity of
the family and the polis over the individual, that cast some humans as
by nature slaves or ‘living tools’, and that often presented the higher
faculties of the mind as making possible a liberation from the physical
world into a superior realm of pure ideas.
Any set of basic assumptions opens up some avenues for thought,
while closing down others. Is it too much to suppose that new assump-
tions in later antiquity opened up new opportunities for human
understanding and action? Is it fanciful to suggest that the individual-
ist implications of Christian moral beliefs had the potential to change
not only the prevailing conception of society but that of the physical
world as well, ‘nature’ as well as ‘culture’? Finally, is it surprising that
a religion which postulated the incarnation – a God who is ‘with us’ –
would change the understanding of time itself, holding out a hope that
undermined older beliefs in a relentless cycle of growth and decay?1
I think not. But, that being said, it would be folly to suppose that
such fundamental changes in mind- set could take place overnight.
Centuries would be required for the implications of Christian moral
beliefs to be drawn out and clarified – and even more time would pass
before long- established social practices or institutions were reshaped
by these implications.
That is not to deny that some changes took place rapidly. We have
seen that the monastic movement in Egypt and Syria involved a rad-
ical departure from the world of the polis, a movement so individualist
that at times it bordered on the anarchic. Nonetheless, it laid down
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Shaping New Attitudes and Habits
markers of a new world, a world in which individual conscience
rather than assigned status provided the foundation for social rela-
tions, and in which work was rehabilitated, becoming almost a form
of prayer.
Paganism was in retreat, though its powers of resistance – not least
among the old Roman aristocracy – should never be underestimated.
Later emperors prohibited public sacrifices, which had been central to
the polis as a religious association. The closing of pagan temples was
followed by attacks on rural shrines associated with animistic cults,
both carried out in the name of a triumphant monotheism that opposed
the multiplication of moral agencies as a distraction from the all-
important relationship between individual souls and their God.
Of course, older polytheistic beliefs and practices hung on, espe-
cially in rural areas. The cults of local divinities and festivals honouring
personified natural forces – not least those associated with generation
and regeneration – were sometimes overcome only by being reprocessed
as Christian. Assigning a date for the birth of the Christ, just after the
winter solstice, is only the most obvious example. In order to appro-
priate the advantages both of change and of continuity, Christian
buildings or altars were also often raised on the ruins of earlier temples
and shrines. The church of San Clemente in Rome illustrates just such
a transition; below the foundations of the original fourth-century
church lie the remains of a temple of Mithras.
For a long time such concessions to popular tastes probably limited
the intellectual impact of Christianity on the less educated, as did the
cult of ‘the saints’ which grew out of the stories of martyrdom in the
early church. The veneration of saints and their relics – which would
assume major importance in the middle ages – gave polytheism a
benign afterlife. That veneration re- peopled the religious world with
more familiar and approachable, less intimidating figures.
Nonetheless, Christian beliefs did reshape practices in one crucial
area from an early date. They destroyed the ancient family. That is,
they destroyed the family as a cult or religious association. We have
seen that the beliefs and practices of the ancient family had provided
the building blocks for an entire society underlying the ancient polis or
city-state. The privilege as well as the duty of the eldest male in the
family was to act as its priest or pontiff. He was in charge of preserving
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the sacred flame of the family hearth – which was, after all, the living
expression of its ancestors – and all the rites associated with it.
The authority of the paterfamilias over other members of the fam-
ily sprang directly from this priestly role. This religious character of
the ancient family made it, rather than the individual, the fundamen-
tal social unit. The unequal statuses of the public institutions of
Greece and Rome had their origin in the unequal statuses consecrated
by the cult of the ancient family. By transferring religious authority
from the father to a separate priesthood, the Christian church removed
the religious basis of the paterfamilias. It curtailed the claims to
authority of the family head, relaxing the ties of subordination that
had previously bound its members.
An early symptom of this was the changed role of women. It became
much harder to look upon women as mere chattels, as completely
subject to the authority of the paterfamilias. The early church insisted
on the equal obligations imposed by the bond of marriage. When a
priest became the authority on matters of conscience, women could
look outside the family for guidance and support. Clergy provided a
new moral space and served as a kind of court of appeal, something
that probably benefited younger sons as well as women.
We have seen that women had played an important part in conver-
sions to Christianity – leading to complaints by some pagan writers
about their ‘unfortunate’ and ‘credulous’ influence on children and
spouses. By the third and fourth centuries this new role was confirmed
in the role of the ‘dedicated virgin’, a role which did not make any
sense unless it was assumed that the woman had a mind and will of
her own. Such women were no longer confined by the statuses of the
ancient family.
Nor is it surprising that such declarations of independence by
women seem to have been especially frequent in upper-class families.
It is as if the confidence engendered by the superior status of a family
was appropriated by some women and put to a new use, helped by
Christian belief in the equality of souls. With social confidence and
also, no doubt, financial means, such Christian women took on new
roles. They became patronesses, disciples and travellers. They prized
associations with leading Christian intellectuals. They use associa-
tions with such men to further their education.
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Shaping New Attitudes and Habits
The career of St Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin (the
famous Vulgate version), suggests as much. Both in Rome and, later,
in Palestine, Jerome attracted the attention of ‘pious matrons’. In
Rome, he created a salon in the household of a rich woman called
Paula, a salon which became a major centre of Christian learning,
argument and devotion. When Jerome left Rome and took up resi-
dence in Bethlehem, he became part of the larger attraction of Eastern
monasticism for visitors from the West. In what he called his ‘cave’, he
received far more visits from Roman matrons than he had bargained
for, leading to moments of extreme irritation …
By the late fourth century it had become fashionable for rich heir-
esses in the West to make a tour of the sites associated with Eastern
monks and ascetics, not least St Antony. For example, Etheria, an aris-
tocratic lady from Spain, travelled first through the Egyptian desert to
Sinai, then through Palestine to Jerusalem, and finally to Constantino-
ple, ‘determined to see everything from monastic cells to the rock
which Moses struck’.2
It is not easy to trace exactly the route of other changes in the
ancient family, under the influence of new Christian beliefs. But it is
clear that husbands were enjoined, in the name of the Christ, to treat
their wives, at least spiritually, as equals. So the condemnation of
adultery was extended to include husbands as well as wives. On the
other hand, debates about divorce and remarriage did not at first yield
any clear conclusions. But the fact of argument itself reveals how far
the ancient family had travelled since the time when husbands had the
power of ‘life and death’ over their wives and children.
The power of fathers over sons was steadily reduced in later Roman
law. And other changes, which we might call ‘humanitarian’, are
noticeable. In 316 Constantine decreed that criminals should not be
branded on the face, for ‘man is made in God’s image’. The Romans
had long given slaves more protection than had the Greeks. The law
was already deemed to forbid treating slaves ‘with excessive or cause-
less harshness’. But in the fourth century the process for freeing
slaves – manumission – was made easier. Constantine decided that
slaves could be freed before a bishop as well as before a magistrate.
Were these developments results of the infiltration of Christian
norms? No doubt in Christian circles attitudes towards slavery were
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changing. There was no direct challenge to the law. But the freeing of
slaves was accounted an important virtue. Paul’s letter about a run-
away slave, Onesimus – in which Paul had made clear his hope of
manumission ‘for the sake of the gospel’ – could always be cited in
support. And within churches, masters and slaves were counted as
‘brothers’. Indeed, several slaves succeeded in becoming bishops.3
The relationship between Christianity and the eventual abolition of
slavery in the West is a complicated and contested subject. There is no
doubt that extravagant, over- simplified claims have been made about
the role of the church in opposing slavery. In fact, the early church
was extremely cautious about pronouncing on the subject. And that
was for at least two reasons. The first had to do with the law. Since the
time of Paul, the church had tried to avoid confrontation with the
Roman authorities, enjoining obedience to the law and established
authorities in the name of peace and order. The second reason was
habit. It was exceedingly difficult for those brought up in a radically
stratified or aristocratic society to see any alternative. Thus as late as
Augustine we find some Christian apologists explaining the institu-
tion of slavery as an unavoidable consequence of human sin. In their
eyes, trying to save the souls of slaves – and in that sense admitting
their spiritual equality – did not require an onslaught on the institution
itself. Not unlike the Stoics, such Christians urged that slavery of the
soul was the real problem, rather too easily sidestepping the question
of legal slavery.
Nevertheless, Christian norms were making a difference. There had
been critics of slavery in antiquity, such as Seneca, who urged gentler
treatment of slaves and were uneasy about the institution for pruden-
tial reasons. A revolt of the slaves was a terrifying prospect. There
were also critics who acknowledged cases of ‘unjust’ slavery, where
the fortunes of war had resulted in the enslavement of someone
who was not ‘by nature’ a slave. However, the usual bias continued
to be that of Aristotle, who insisted that ‘some are free men and
others slaves by nature’. The contrast between ‘barbarians’ and citi-
zens was extreme. The usual presumption remained one in favour of
inequality.
By contrast, Christian insistence on the equality of souls in the eyes
of God reversed that presumption. It reversed the burden of justifica-
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Shaping New Attitudes and Habits
tion, obliging believers to find other reasons to tolerate slavery, if they
so wished. We can, for example, detect that reversal in Augustine,
who wrestled uneasily with the question of slavery, before coming to
the conclusion that slavery of the soul was more important than, and
independent of, legal slavery. But already there were Christians who
had gone much further. A presumption in favour of equality shaped
the attitudes of Gregory of Nyssa, who in fourth-century Constanti-
nople delivered a fierce attack on slave- owning, in one of his most
eloquent sermons.
Gregory’s sermon is a meditation on the statement: ‘I bought male
and female slaves.’ Gregory does not mince his words. In his view,
buying a slave denies, by implication, the jurisdiction of God:
For what price, tell me? What did you find in existence worth as much
as this human nature? What price did you put on rationality? … God
said let us make man in our image, after our likeness. If he is in the like-
ness of God, and … has been granted authority over everything on
earth from God, who is his buyer, tell me? Who is his seller? To God
alone belongs this power; or rather, not even to God himself. For his
gracious gifts … are irrevocable. God himself would not reduce the
human race to slavery, since he himself, when we had been enslaved to
sin, recalled us to freedom.
The owners of slaves are pretending, in effect, to be ‘masters of the
image of God’.
What does this power contribute to you as a person? Not longevity, nor
beauty, nor good health, nor superiority in virtue. Your origin is from
the same ancestors, your life is of the same kind, sufferings of soul and
body prevail alike over you who own him and over the one who is sub-
ject to your ownership – pains and pleasures, merriment and distress,
sorrows and delights, rages and terrors, sickness and death. Is there any
difference in these things between the slave and his owner? Do they not
draw in the same air as they breathe? Do they not see the sun in the
same way? … If you are equal in all these ways, therefore, in what
respect have you something extra, tell me, that you who are human
think yourself the master of a human being and say, ‘I brought male
and female slaves’, like herds of goats or pigs.4
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Gregory of Nyssa was not expressing the dominant opinion in the
church, yet neither was he a lone voice in the wilderness.
Two things were coming together in a way that made a central
tactic of ancient philosophical argument – a tactic which many Chris-
tian thinkers took on board from the Stoics – less and less plausible.
That tactic was to separate body and soul sharply, insisting that every-
thing the soul required could be achieved independently of social status
or bodily condition. What now made that tactic less plausible was that
Christians of all social conditions, even slaves, met together in the same
urban space. They shared Christian sacraments in the basilica.
The Christian basilica was an architectural form taken over from
the Romans. Originally it had been simply a rectangular meeting hall.
But of course in its original form its use was hedged around by the
unequal statuses of the ancient city. In its Christian form, however, in
principle no one was excluded. The pride of citizenship and the indig-
nity of being an inferior had less place in the Christian basilica. While
a degree of segregation survived, people assembled essentially as
‘souls’. Here they were exposed to a horizon that extended beyond
the walls of the city and to a rhetoric that portrayed them all as chil-
dren of God. From the pulpit it was emphasized that the judgement of
God would fall on all equally and that God’s love was available to
each. Popular processions to the tombs of local ‘saints’ and martyrs,
involving a mixing of social strata and sexes, also promoted a more
democratic form of sociability.
It was in the Christian basilica that a new social form was born, a
form that gave birth to the medieval city. The early medieval city in
Western Europe came to differ significantly from the cities of antiquity.
The most important figure in urban life during the transition from
antiquity to the early middle ages was the local bishop. In the last cen-
tury of the Western empire it was the bishops who became the de
facto rulers of the cities, taking up many of the functions previously
provided by the imperial administration and gradually supplanting
the hereditary urban elite or curiales. The law codes of two emperors,
the Theodosian (438) and Justinian (529–33) codes, testify to this
changed role. It involved not just humdrum matters of administra-
tion, but the defence of the city as well. Justinian ordained: ‘We desire
that the defenders of the cities, being well instructed in the holy
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Shaping New Attitudes and Habits
mysteries of the orthodox faith, be chosen and instituted by the ven-
erable bishops, the priests, the notables …’5
Now the distinctive thing about the bishops’ new urban role was
that it was based on an appeal that was ‘democratic’ rather than ‘aris-
tocratic’. This appeal – as ‘the love of the poor’ – had emerged earlier
in the cities of the Eastern empire. But there it remained circumscribed
by the survival of the Imperial administration and the emperor’s
authority. In the West, the decline and fall of the empire by the end of
the fifth century led to greater fluidity and uncertainty, but also, per-
force, to more innovation.
Although the bishops often came from the traditional urban elite of
the empire, their local authority now had a different foundation: it
was founded on a faith shared with much of the urban population.
The rhetoric that such bishops relied upon was, as we have seen,
inclusive rather than exclusive. It was a rhetoric that encouraged
women, the urban poor and even slaves to feel part of the city in a
way that had not previously been possible. This rhetoric had its physi-
cal counterpart as well. In contrast to the segregated spaces of the
ancient city, the Christian population of the cities began to share the
same spaces, hearing the bishops’ ex cathedra words in the basilica or
principal church, and taking part in the same rites, that is, baptism,
the mass and funerals. Processions to the tombs of local martyrs were
for everyone.
It would be a mistake to suppose that the ceremonies of the church
at this period closely resembled those of the middle ages, after an
increase of pomp had proved useful in impressing the invaders of
Western Europe and when the separation of the clergy from the laity
was more complete. Perhaps no one has captured the dignity and sim-
plicity of the sacraments of the early church more successfully than
the seventeenth- century French painter, Nicolas Poussin. An extraor-
dinary intensity and innerness leaps from his cycle of paintings on the
sacraments, which conjure up an urban space and social relations that
were being transformed.
The sacraments of the church fostered social relations that prefig-
ured the end of antiquity. The hierarchical order of the polis began to
fade. Its remnants – deference to the notables and the partial segrega-
tion of males and females, even in church – mattered less than a new
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sense of sharing something on an equal basis. Civic notables were
introduced to a new moral world by the words they heard and
repeated. The equality of souls postulated by Christian beliefs began
to be seen and felt. The translation of moral equality into the primary
social role was under way. The result, ultimately, was the destruction
of the aristocratic character of the ancient city.
Did the bishops, who so frequently sprang from aristocratic fami-
lies, really intend such an outcome? The answer is almost certainly
not. They lived what seems in retrospect a strange life. Their instincts
and habits belonged to one world, while their new convictions
belonged to another. Yet they moved between the refined pleasures of
an aristocratic society and the moral challenges of a more egalitarian
or democratic order without noticing the contrast – or, at least, without
feeling any great discomfort. In his shrewd assessment of the moral
condition of Christian notables in the later fifth and sixth centuries, the
nineteenth-century French historian François Guizot emphasizes that,
while notables could be found at the extremes both of a pagan style of
life and of a life of pious austerity, the larger number combined ele-
ments of the two in a rather surprising way.
At one extreme some notables in the south of Gaul led a life of
scarcely diminished grandeur, the life of Roman aristocrats. Having
occupied leading posts in the Western empire during its last years,
they had come to terms with the Germanic invaders, and retired
to their country estates. Even then there were uncomfortable moments.
There is a hilarious description by one patrician of the ordeal of
breakfasting with foul- smelling ‘barbarians’ whom he had been
obliged to lodge. Unsurprisingly, their manners left much to be desired
in his eyes. While many of these patricians had become Christian, it is
difficult to know whether their faith was more than nominal. In any
case, Guizot describes how
they lived on their lands far from the mass of the population, passing
their time by hunting, fishing and in all sorts of amusements. They had
fine libraries, and often a theatre where plays by some rhetorician,
often a client, were performed. On Ausonius’ estate, the rhetorician
Paul had his comedy On Extravagance performed himself composed
the music for the intervals, and presided over proceedings. On such
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occasions there were intellectual games, literary conversations. The
ancient authors were discussed … and verses were written celebrating
even the smallest episodes of life.6
Altogether, Guizot concludes, the life such notables led was elegant,
varied and agreeable. But it was also ‘soft, egoistical and sterile, removed
from any serious occupation, from any urgent and general interest’.
At the other extreme was the life of bishops such as Hilaire, bishop
of Arles in the fifth century. Hilaire passed his life almost entirely in
the confines of the city.
As soon as he wakened, whoever wanted to see him was received. He
heard complaints, and sought to accommodate differences, acting as a
justice of the peace. Afterwards he made his way to the church, where
he celebrated mass, preached and taught, often for several hours.
Returning home, he had his meal, and during this time he listened to
the reading of some edifying text or else he dictated, while people could
freely enter and listen. He also worked with his hands, sometimes spin-
ning cloth for the poor, at other times working in the fields of his
church. In that way his day passed, in the midst of his people, given
over to serious and useful occupations.7
Such bishops could not avoid involvement in the affairs of the city.
Concern for the public weal was forced on them almost hourly. But
the conception of the public weal they brought to bear was no longer
that of the radically stratified ancient polis.
The assumptions of ancient citizenship were being discarded – and
discarded, tacitly, even by bishops far more worldly than Hilaire of
Arles. Such bishops led a life that combined serious public duties with
the pleasures of an aristocratic past. Trained in law and rhetoric, they
savoured elegant literary pursuits and a cultivated social intercourse.
But they also understood that they could not afford to stand apart
from the great moral revolution of their age, ‘if they wished to pre-
serve some real importance and exercise an active influence’. It was
probably this motive which led many members of the former Roman
senatorial aristocracy to become bishops.
One such fifth-century bishop stands out: Sidonius Apollinaris,
bishop of Clermont. Sidonius sprang from a rich and distinguished
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senatorial family. Yet he was able to adapt to the tenor of his age,
without abandoning tastes that had long set his family and class apart.
To illustrate this, Guizot quotes a light-hearted but revealing letter
that Sidonius, a native of Lyons, wrote to his friend Eriphius: ‘You tell
me to send you some verses I wrote at the request of your father- in-law,
that respectable man, who in the midst of a society of equals, is equally
ready to command or to obey.’ Sidonius goes on to describe a proces-
sion to the sepulchre of St Just outside Lyons: ‘Before daybreak, we
made the annual procession in the midst of an enormous crowd of
both sexes, which the basilica … could not contain, despite its being
surrounded by such spacious porticos.’8
When matins had been celebrated, with choirs of priests and monks
singing the psalms in alternation, the ‘diverse classes of society’ dis-
persed in a ‘suffocating’ heat, to await the celebration of mass. The
‘principal citizens’ made their way to the tomb of the consul Syagrius,
where on a fine lawn surrounded by vine- covered trellises, they
engaged in animated conversation – not allowing their gaiety to be
compromised by talk about ‘tributes’ or ‘the powers that be’ (refer-
ences, surely, to the Germanic invaders …).
After a certain time, however, boredom set in. So ‘we separated into
two groups, according to age, with some calling loudly for a game of
tennis, the others calling for tables and dice’. Philimathius, the
father- in- law of Eriphius, did not take sufficient account of his age.
He was soon prostrate with heat and fatigue from playing tennis.
While recovering, he asked Sidonius to compose a verse in honour of
the damp cloth he had been given to cool his forehead! Sidonius
warned that ‘the Muses’ might be offended by such a public display.
Philimathius countered that Apollo might rather be offended by his
disciples working in secret. ‘You can judge what applause met such a
rapid and well-phrased response.’
The quatrain then produced by Sidonius, and its sequel, tell us more
about an age of transition than pages of analysis: ‘On another morn-
ing, whether when leaving a hot bath, or when hunting has covered
your forehead with sweat, may the handsome Philimathius still find
this cloth to dry his moistened brow, so that water may flow from his
brow into this cloth as into the throat of a heavy drinker.’ 9 Hardly had
this quatrain been composed, however, when the bishop of Lyons
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Shaping New Attitudes and Habits
appeared. Sidonius’ company jumped to their feet and joined the
others moving towards mass.
Such processions were, in fact, an important part of early Christian
solidarity, whether they were processions inside churches or to them,
into cities or to visit the tomb of a founding ‘saint’. How were they
organized? We do not really know. They may have reflected the older
social hierarchy to an extent, though the passage above suggests a tradi-
tional elite feeling the need to ‘catch up’ with a popular movement.
Fear of boredom pointed to their privileged past. But new convic-
tions, even if mixed with a large dose of opportunism, opened up a
different future for such men.
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10
Distinguishing Spiritual from
Temporal Power
Every set of beliefs introduces its own logic and its own constraints.
This was certainly true of Christianity. We can see this if we ask about
the impact of Christian beliefs on law and government in the two or
three centuries after the end of the Western empire in 476.
It was, of course, a period marked by terrible disorder. The decline
of cities and shift of power to the ‘barbarians’ in the countryside, the
rise and fall of new kingdoms established by Germanic leaders who
sought to imitate Roman ways, the successful struggle of the Chris-
tian church to convert the newcomers, the conflict between orthodox
and Arian Christians (who denied that the Son was ‘of one substance
with the Father’), uncertainty about the legal condition of persons
and property – all of these things marked the period.
Yet despite the disorder – and, if truth be told, at times because of
the disorder – important innovations took place. These innovations
were halting and far from consistent. Yet they were pregnant with the
possibilities of further change. By the ninth and tenth century they
began to give Western Europe a distinct identity, an identity distinct
not merely from the surrounding Islamic world, but also from the
Eastern or Byzantine empire.
The first of these innovations was an unintended consequence of
the new urban role of the bishops and clergy. As the bishops were so
often the de facto rulers of the cities, they assumed – and had to
assume – a primary role in dealing with the Germanic invaders of the
empire. At stake was not only the safety of the cities and their Roman-
ized populations, but also the very future of the church. It was a
pope, Leo the Great, who succeeded in ‘dissuading’ Attila and his
Huns from sacking Rome itself in 452, with the help, perhaps, of
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Distinguishing Spiritual from Temporal Power
a quantity of gold. This new role of the clergy in defending the cities
and dealing with the ‘barbarian’ invaders confirmed their ascendancy
over the traditional magistrates of the city. The clergy became diplo-
mats and administrators.
In fact, the new role of the clergy was undermining the very foun-
dation of traditional urban government. The ancient city had been
founded on the privileges of birth, which included the hereditary pos-
session of leading urban magistracies by particular families. The
ancient family was both a civic and a religious institution. And just as
the transfer of religious authority to the clergy had weakened the
authority of the father in the family, so it also compromised heredi-
tary claims to urban magistracies.
Even in the late empire, when wealth as well as birth had led to mem-
bership of the curia (the governing senate), the position of curialis, once
conferred, was hereditary and could not be abandoned – something
demonstrated by laws that forbade curiales joining the army, clergy or
civil service, at a time when the fiscal burdens imposed on them had
become onerous. In a sense, the curiales themselves began to revolt
against their own status, against the burdens of a birthright.
That civic magistrates should continue to occupy positions as a
birthright began to seem anomalous, especially in view of the import-
ance of the clergy as administrators, judges and diplomats. The
traditional claim to civic authority based on birth confounded a prop-
erty right, a civic function and a religious duty. New distinctions were
needed, and – indistinctly at first – began to be made.
When the clergy found themselves performing major civic func-
tions, how did they conceive of their task? Their view of the world
privileged the salvation of souls. Their range of concern – as Augus-
tine had so eloquently argued – was the whole human race. Nobody
was excluded in principle, from the clergy’s concern. So it is hardly
surprising that, when they were considering the interests of the city,
the clergy’s view tended to include everyone, not just the traditional,
privileged citizen class. A church council in late sixth-century Gaul
went so far as to ban bishops from having dogs – for fear that they
might frighten away supplicants!
This is not to say that bishops were unaware of inherited status dif-
ferences or innocent of deference to wealth. The force of habit saw to
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that, especially if – as was often the case in the fifth and sixth centuries –
they came from an aristocratic background themselves. But the
beliefs the clergy shared with the urban populace, and which now
provided the foundation of their authority, were not based on the
claims of family or class. Rather, they were based on the claims of
the individual. The church had long since become a refuge for those
excluded from the citizen class.
By making the clergy as a class the spokesmen of religion, the
church had downgraded not only the role of the family and of
birthright, but also, indirectly, the juridical foundation of urban
government. The rhetoric that the new, de facto rulers of the cities
relied upon – what might be called ‘the rhetoric of the Christian
people’– rested on belief in the equality of souls. So it is not surprising
that the first impact of this rhetoric was on urban government.
If no one was born with a right to rule, then upon what could
the right to rule be based? The role of the chief magistrates could
be understood as that of representing the curia and deriving their
authority from it – while the curia, in turn, could be understood as
representing the community, the entire urbs rather than just the trad-
itional citizen class. By the early sixth century these new attitudes
became formalized in the law code of the Visigothic kingdom.
This development amounted to nothing less than the emergence of
a principled basis for representative government. In his History of
Civilization in France, Guizot drew attention to these changes in
urban government after the fall of the Western empire. He empha-
sized that in the fifth and sixth centuries southern Gaul was the most
prosperous and cultured region in the West. Urban life retained con-
siderable vitality not only in Lyons, Nîmes and Bordeaux, but also in
a city such as Toulouse, which became the first capital of the Visi-
gothic kingdom. Guizot’s conclusions deserve more attention than
they have received. They will shape much of this chapter.
In the ancient Roman municipality the superior magistrates … exer-
cised their jurisdiction as a personal right not at all by way of delegation
and as a representative of the curia; it was to themselves, and not to the
curia, that the power belonged. The principle of the municipal regime
was more aristocratic than democratic. That had been the result of the
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Distinguishing Spiritual from Temporal Power
ancient Roman mores and especially of the primitive amalgam of reli-
gious and political powers in the superior magistrates. In the Breviarium
(Visigothic Code), the aspect of the municipal code changes; it is no
longer in his own name, but in the name of and as a delegate of the
curia that … (the magistrate) exercises his power. To the curia as a
whole now belongs the jurisdiction. The principle of its organization
has become democratic; and so is underway the transformation that
will turn the Roman municipality into the medieval commune.1
Yet there is one thing – perhaps the most important of all – which
Guizot does not make clear.
This legal development is important not only for what it reveals
directly, about government, but also, indirectly, about society. It
reveals that the rhetoric of the Christian people was undermining a
whole conception of society. The conception of society as founded on
‘natural inequality’ was giving way to a conception of society as
founded on ‘moral equality’, as an association of individuals rather
than an association of families. Sidonius Apollinaris was hardly
alone when he noted, with ill-disguised regret, that (after the fall of
the Western empire) society was no longer formally – that is,
legally – classified.
A new world is announced by this development – a world whose
underlying principle, as Guizot observes, would be democratic rather
than aristocratic. And it is suggestive that this development – a new
juridical basis for urban government – first appeared in the Visigothic
code. For, among all the Germanic kingdoms established on the terri-
tory of the former Western empire, the Visigothic kingdom was the
one in which the clergy had far the greatest influence.
Yet it was not only church doctrine that pushed the clergy in the
direction revealed by the Visigothic code. Antecedent practice also
contributed. For although the clergy had become formally separate
from the Christian laity by this period, the practice of the early Church
survived in the election of bishops and abbots, sometimes even of
popes. Underlying this practice was the principle that superiors should
be chosen or elected by those who would then be subordinate to them.
Not only did the local clergy often elect their bishops; the urban
populace as a whole played a part in the choice of a bishop. ‘By
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acclamation’ – even if it contained an important element of deference –
meant more than simply perfunctory ratification. It meant something
like election.
There were no fixed rules about the election of bishops. The elec-
tion of Ambrose as bishop of Milan in 374 is often cited as an example.
The young Ambrose had just been sent to Milan as governor by the
emperor, when the death of the local bishop led to a fierce struggle
between two parties of the clergy and people – the Catholics and
Arians – about who should succeed. Ambrose decided to visit the
cathedral and observe the conflict for himself. Hardly had he arrived
and made enquiries, however, when someone in the crowd (the voice
of a child, by some accounts) cried: let us name Ambrose bishop! And
so it happened that the young governor entered on a career that would
lead him to become St Ambrose.
A century later the involvement of the people and clergy was
scarcely less noticeable. In a letter Sidonius Apollinaris describes the
tumultuous election of a new bishop at Châlons. The people of the
city were divided:
The assembly of clergy found a number of factions … having been
inspired by a triumvirate of competitors. One of them, who was with-
out merit, proclaimed his illustrious descent; another … relied on the
vociferous support of parasites who had been won over by (the offer-
ings) of his kitchen; a third had made a secret deal, if he achieved his
ambition, to divide the domains of the church among his supporters.2
A group of bishops, who had arrived in Châlons to preside over the
election, grasped the nature of the situation. Consulting among them-
selves, they suddenly put forward the name of a modest and honest
deacon, John. Although he was not a priest, John – a man of unques-
tioned virtue – was proclaimed bishop, ‘to the great astonishment of
the intriguers’.
These are glimpses of a society in which the ancient hierarchy was
in shambles. Not only had the Roman army and the imperial admin-
istration withdrawn, the class of local notables or curiales had lost all
vigour and independence. The intensity and turbulence of life was
now to be found in the church, rather than in traditional institutions.
‘The Roman people’ had become, as Guizot suggests, ‘the Christian
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Distinguishing Spiritual from Temporal Power
people’. In the church, the principle that superiors should be chosen
by inferiors – the principle of consent – had not yet given way to the
principle that superiors choose their inferiors, though the latter gained
ground after the adoption of Christianity as the official religion of the
empire. It is tempting to see the ‘progress’ of the latter principle as a
symptom of attitudes of the ancient world leaving a final mark on the
new faith. Nonetheless, the crucial moral fact about this period of
transition is that there was a fierce, prolonged competition between
the two principles.
Even when, in the later middle ages, the church had come to
be dominated by the second principle – that superiors choose their
inferiors – the first principle survived in the medieval commune. And
the roots of that new juridical basis for urban government can be
traced back to the fifth and sixth centuries, when the bishops and
clergy held sway over cities. In retrospect, this domination of the cities
by the clergy might seem worrying. Did it not pave the way for theo-
cracy, for later papal claims that could be interpreted as a threat to the
independence, even perhaps the existence, of secular authorities? Such
a conclusion would, however, be mistaken.
We must try to put ourselves into the minds of the clergy who were
faced with the collapse of the empire. They had to deal with invaders
with whom they did not at first share any beliefs and who had a vir-
tual monopoly of material force. They were overcome by fear. What
they sought was not supremacy but survival. And survival involved
getting some access to the minds of the invaders. Rather than directly
challenging Germanic customs, the clergy sought to identify a sphere
of their own, a sphere where force, by its very nature, could not pre-
vail. And they had long since been used to distinguishing the ‘sacred’
from the ‘profane’, invoking the Christ’s injunction to give to Caesar
what is Caesar’s and to God what is his. Now they pointed to a
‘ God- given’ law that offered to mortals the hope of life after death, a
‘moral’ law distinct from custom or human command.
When dealing with the Germanic invaders the clergy could there-
fore hardly fail to dwell upon the difference between eternal or
‘spiritual’ and mere temporal concerns. The clergy defended a realm
to which they alone offered access. The law of an invisible king – the
Christ who offered the hope of ‘salvation’ to individuals – became a
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moral sword wielded with dramatic effect by the hard-pressed clergy.
An eloquent sixth- century Irish missionary to the continent, Colum-
banus, conjures up their frame of mind: ‘I am coming from the end of
the world, where I have seen spiritual leaders truly fighting the Lord’s
battles.’ The strength of their convictions, acting without the benefit
of force (though reinforced by the wealth and elaboration of life in
episcopal cities), mightily impressed the invaders.
The sharp edge of the moral sword wielded by churchmen cut
through to – and exposed – an ‘awareness of self’. For it turned on a
day of judgement, that moment at death when the soul would be sum-
moned by its maker, before being directed to heaven or hell. The
widely copied homilies of the late sixth-century Pope Gregory the
Great spread the message. ‘Let us consider how severe a Judge is com-
ing, who will judge not only our evil deeds but our every thought.’ 3
The clergy were certainly not above manipulating credulity or relying
on material analogies. Often they referred to what they offered as
‘medicine’ for souls. (Even Gregory the Great liked to call the clergy
‘doctors of the soul’.) Yet, in its essentials, the realm the clergy claimed
for themselves and sought to defend was unseen. It was within.
Columbanus made the point to his converts: ‘This is no god which
dwells far from us that we seek … For He resides in us like the soul
in our body … Ever must we cling to God, to the deep, vast, hidden,
lofty and almighty God.’4
Of course, the self- interest of the clergy played a part in their efforts
at conversion. The relics and tombs of saints and martyrs – together
with the ‘miracles’ often attributed to them – sustained the import-
ance of the episcopal cities and gave bishops useful bargaining
counters in their dealings with the invaders. These dealings were com-
plicated by the fact that the Goths had been converted to an Arian
understanding of Christianity relatively early, while the Franks, under
their leader Clovis, only converted to the ‘orthodox’ or Catholic faith
in ad 506. As a result, the finer, controversial points of doctrine were
often subordinated to the immediate needs of the clergy.
Nonetheless, the nature of their beliefs pushed the clergy beyond
mere self- interest. Under the Franks’ Merovingian dynasty, sixth- and
seventh-century church councils were dominated by questions of pub-
lic morality and welfare. Without claiming the right to settle secular
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Distinguishing Spiritual from Temporal Power
matters, the clergy succeeded in introducing the norm of ‘charity’ into
the sphere of public policy, where it had not previously had any
acknowledged role. The idea of an overarching moral framework for
legislation made its appearance.
If the Christian Church had not existed, the … world must have been
abandoned to purely material force. The Church alone exercised a
moral power. It did more: it sustained, it spread abroad the idea of a
rule, of a law superior to all human laws. It proposed, for the salvation
of humanity, the fundamental belief that there exists, above all human
laws, a law which is denominated, according to periods and to cus-
toms, sometimes reason, sometimes the divine law … 5
Whereas later anti- clericals would interpret this proclamation as a
form of oppression, Guizot argues that it laid the foundation for a
development that would take centuries to accomplish, a formal sepa-
ration of spiritual from temporal power and liberation of the human
mind.
With the church originated a great fact, the separation of spiritual and
temporal power. This separation is the source of liberty of conscience;
it is founded on no other principle but that which is the foundation of
the most perfect and extended freedom of conscience. The separation
of temporal and spiritual power is based upon the idea that physical
force has neither right nor influence over souls, over conviction, over
truth. It flows from the distinction established between the world of
thought and the world of action, between the world of internal and
that of external facts. Thus this principle for which Europe has strug-
gled so much, and suffered so much, the principle which prevailed so
late, and often, in its progress, against the inclination of the clergy, was
enunciated under the name of the separation of temporal and spiritual
power, in the very cradle of European civilization.6
That is not to say that the clergy understood the implications of the
principle they began to defend. For them, it was a principle that offered
protection against brute force that might extinguish the church and its
mission. It was their own sword, the sword of spiritual power.
Few if any among the fifth-century clergy would have realized – or
readily accepted – that freedom of conscience might be invoked not
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just to defend the church, but also to limit its claims. Nonetheless, in
putting forward this principle the church was being true to the logic
of its belief in the equality of souls. Distinguishing spiritual from tem-
poral power rests on the premise of the individual conscience. For
that premise can be construed as meaning that there must be a sphere
within which everyone ought to govern his or her own actions, an
area of choice, governed by conscience. Some early Christian thinkers
had moved tentatively towards that conclusion: Tertullian, Ambrose,
Martin of Tours and Augustine (for much of his life). Yet they would
remain a ‘liberal’ minority for a long time to come.
Another innovation that impinged on developments in law and
government was the alliance of the new religion with the cause of
learning, a merger of Christianity and the philosophical tradition.
Some will be surprised by this claim. For it is true that those teaching
in surviving ancient schools – whether as grammarians, rhetoricians or
philosophers – were usually sympathetic to paganism and hostile to
the new religion. But the reality was that vigorous intellectual debate
had already largely deserted these survivors of ancient learning.
The dependence of professors on Imperial favour and the strict
regulation of students in the ancient schools had resulted in forms of
servility and a sadly devalued syllabus. Often literary production con-
sisted of slight variations on established forms and abridgements of
earlier grammatical, historical and philosophical texts. With students
coming mostly from privileged classes in the process of dissolution,
the ambition to learn faltered. Ancient learning – crafted for a social
structure in tatters – did not engage with the problems of the age. It
became a matter for display, not least to impress the Germanic in-
va ders. At the Visigothic and Frankish courts ‘displays of old-fashioned
Latin rhetoric and poetry were still appreciated’.7 Sons of the in-
va ders’ leaders were frequently sent to the new royal courts to learn
the ‘subtlety of words’. But it was ornament rather than the substance
of ancient learning that appealed.
The contrast with the Christian world could not have been greater.
Two things especially contributed to its intense intellectual life, a life
reflected in the constant circulation of letters and longer writings
about both church discipline and philosophical issues such as the
nature of the soul, freedom of the will, grace and necessity. First, the
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Distinguishing Spiritual from Temporal Power
bishops, though often recruited from the old privileged and instructed
class, were immersed in the affairs of the world. They could not
indulge in ‘pure’ speculation, speculation for its own sake. They had
to respond to unexpected events and new arguments. Secondly, they
had the advantage of debating issues of Christian doctrine that were
not yet settled – which is to say that there was an extraordinary free-
dom of discussion. The canon of the gospels was now settled, but
interpretation of the gospels over the most basic questions was still
open. Despite social and political instability, at least thirteen church
councils, debating both theological and practical issues, took place in
Gaul during the sixth and seventh centuries.8 The church gave ancient
philosophy an ‘afterlife’.
Lacking any inherited Christian schools, learning in what had been
the Western empire – especially in Gaul – took refuge in the monaster-
ies being created in the fifth century. Western monasticism rapidly
came to differ from that in the East. Where monks in Egypt and Syria
had originally sought the solitude of the ‘desert’ to escape worldly
temptations, Western monasteries – in the face of invasions and the
fall of the empire – became refuges for community and learning.
Monasteries became schools. Young men from noble families who
gathered at a monastery like Lérins, near Marseilles, did not seek iso-
lation, but rather deeper instruction in the new faith. ‘The monasteries
of southern Gaul became the philosophical schools of Christianity: it
was there that people meditated, discussed and taught; it was from
there that new ideas, boldness of thought, even heresies came.’9
Why was that so important? Historians frequently emphasize how
these monasteries were crucial for the transmission of classical culture,
especially through the copying of ancient texts. But the monasteries
assured something else that was just as important, yet more immedi-
ate. They laid the foundation for the emergence of an educated clerical
class, drawing heavily from the former class of notables, but weaning
them from the attitudes and habits of social privilege.
Lérins sent out into the world zealous thirty- year- olds from old fami-
lies, fully capable of deploying the old skills of rhetoric and government,
but in a new manner, for a new, high cause. The transformation of the
old order began with the body. A harsh ascetic regime changed the
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body out of recognition. It lost all of its previous aristocratic ease. Lux-
uriant hair was cut short. The flush of high living was drained from the
face by penitential fasting. The proud eye and haughty step of the ‘nat-
ural born’ leader of Gallic society were curbed by a monastic discipline
of humility.10
Not all monasteries would perform this role. In the seventh and
eighth centuries many became virtual refuges for landless younger
sons of the nobility. Yet others remained open to a wider social intake.
We have seen that Eastern monasteries offered at least a blurred image
of a new form of society, a civil society founded on belief in human
equality. Western monasteries, perforce, did more. They began to form
a class of clerics who, as bishops, brought more egalitarian attitudes
to the government of society.
The urgent need for the church to create a tolerably educated cler-
ical class contributed to an important difference between Western
Europe and the Eastern empire. In the latter, the imperial administra-
tion remained in place. The Eastern empire preserved – in aspic, as it
were – relations between church and state that had been characteristic
of the whole empire in the century after Constantine’s adopted Chris-
tianity. Those relations were marked by a considerable deference of the
church to the state. Memories of subordination died hard, especially
when mixed with gratitude for the official adoption of Christianity. In
consequence, the clergy in the East did not feel any need to reshape the
state.
In the West, by contrast, the clergy developed a different attitude
towards the Germanic invaders of the empire, whether Visigothic,
Burgundian or Frankish. Not only had the clergy succeeded in con-
verting the newcomers, they retained a marked intellectual superiority
over them. In the fifth century leading figures from the former imper-
ial administration at times became advisers to the new kings, who
were clad ‘in furs’ rather than arrayed ‘in purple’. But by the sixth and
seventh centuries that role fell increasingly to the higher clergy, who
had become, in effect, the only educated class. The fact that bishops
were often recruited from old patrician families probably increased
their influence over the newcomers. They became advisers, confessors,
tutors and even, at times, critics. They introduced the new rulers not
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Distinguishing Spiritual from Temporal Power
merely to the ‘subtlety of words’ and complexities of Roman law and
public administration, but also to the elements of Christian doctrine
and morality.11
The clergy thus acquired a significant role in the creation of the new
kingdoms in the West. Indeed, by the sixth century Frankish kings
were complaining, according to the chronicler Gregory of Tours, about
the power and wealth of the bishops: ‘There is no one with any power
left except the bishops,’ King Chilperic lamented. ‘No one respects me
as king; all respect has passed to the bishops in their cities.’ Gregory of
Tours’ History of the Franks gives an extraordinarily vivid picture of
the turmoil that reigned in post-Roman Gaul, turmoil that was not
merely physical but also moral. The quandary of the bishops emerges
in Gregory’s wonderful opening sentence: ‘A great many things keep
happening, some of them good, some of them bad.’
What did these bishops want? And what did they combat? To be
sure, they combated the survivals of paganism – a struggle that, in the
countryside (the word pagani originally meant simply countryfolk),
would continue for centuries. But at the courts of the new kings, the
bishops’ influence was directed at preserving Roman law (the Theo-
dosian Code) for the benefit of the urban population and at softening
the customary ‘laws’ of the invaders. In due course they developed a
larger ambition. That is suggested, at least, by the course of events in
the Visigothic kingdom, where, as we have seen, the clergy played an
even more important part than they did in the Frankish and Burgun-
dian kingdoms.
The social evolution of the new kingdoms can be inferred from the
successive law codes that they promulgated from the fifth to the sev-
enth century. There has long been controversy about the dating of the
Salic law of the Franks, which set down in writing what had hitherto
been the unwritten customs of the Franks, many of them dating from
the period before they settled in the empire. Other provisions of the
Salic law suggest a later date, when the Franks had already been set-
tled among the Romans. In any case, the Salic law was a code that
applied only to the Franks. The Roman population continued to be
governed by its own laws. So law was entirely ‘personal’, that is,
applying to men of the same race. Law was not territorial.
This system of ‘personal’ rather than ‘real’ legislation (legislation
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that applies to everyone in a territory) became the rule in the new
kingdoms for two centuries or more. Nonetheless, as Guizot shows,
important changes can be detected in the successive codes promul-
gated during those centuries. These changes reveal a gradual fusion of
the two societies, Roman and Germanic – a fusion in which the Ger-
manic tribes, giving up the customs of a wandering life and acquiring
fixed property, adopted elements of Roman civil and criminal law.
Thus, ‘the Ripuarian law is less Germanic than the Salic law; the law
of the Burgundians less Germanic than the Ripuarian law; the Visi-
gothic law even less than the Burgundian law’.12
Guizot may oversimplify. But there was a trend. For in acquiring
fixed property, the invaders acquired more permanent relations both
among themselves and with the Roman population. Roman civil and
criminal law catered for those relationships in a way that traditional
Germanic customs could not. In the cities of Italy and southern Gaul
this process had begun early, but it was the clergy who became central
in promoting it throughout all the new kingdoms. Indeed, it was the
clergy of the Visigothic kingdom who carried the process to an ori-
ginal conclusion. Visigothic law was debated and shaped by a kind of
parliament, the Council of Toledo (their second capital), in which the
clergy played the leading part. Under their influence, Visigothic kings
in the seventh century abandoned the system of personal legislation
for the system of real or territorial legislation. Roman and Germanic
laws were fused, with the formal abolition of Roman law. The two
peoples became one. The code that resulted, the Forum Judicum, was
incomparably more sophisticated than earlier Germanic codes, hav-
ing a subtlety and consistency that owed much to Roman law.
But the Visigothic code was territorial legislation with a difference.
It was Roman law tempered by moral intuitions generated by Chris-
tian beliefs. It was not a return to the rule of law under an imperium
that had traditionally considered the domestic sphere, the sphere of
the family and its cult, as ‘sacred’. Nor did the Visigothic code pre-
serve the basic distinctions of ‘barbarian’ law. ‘Among the barbarians,
men had, according to their relative situations, a determinate value;
the barbarian, the Roman, the freeman, the vassal, etc., were not held
at the same price, there was a tariff of their lives.’13 The Visigothic
code left ‘personal’ law behind. Suddenly, a stronger commitment to
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Distinguishing Spiritual from Temporal Power
equality emerges. What the clergy introduced into the Visigothic
code – although not without ambiguities and vestiges of the past –
was the principle that all men have ‘equal value in the eyes of the law’.
That egalitarian emphasis was even more pronounced in the
regulations for monastic life laid down by Benedict of Nursia (circa
540). His ‘Rule’ would provide a blueprint for the reform of Western
monasticism. It elaborated the new conception of authority springing
from the writings of St Paul and St Augustine. For Benedict’s Rule
‘was one of simplicity and self- discipline, not of penitential austerity
or self- inflicted mortification’. Benedict emphasizes an equal ‘inner-
ness’. He appeals to the ‘ears of the heart’ in order to found a community
based on consciences. The authority of the abbot over fellow monks
becomes a matter of ‘mutual listening’. Thus, even the voice of the
youngest, latest recruit should be treated with respect. ‘Now the rea-
son,’ says Benedict, ‘why we have said that all should be called to
council, is that God often reveals what is better to the youngest.’14 In
particular, Benedict takes pains to shield the monastic community
from the social distinctions of the outside world. Patronage and
favour for particular monks are forbidden. Monks are to wear the
same clothes, eat the same food and do the same tasks.
Such uniformity served a moral purpose. The Life of Benedict (writ-
ten by Pope Gregory the Great) describes how the son of a local
notable, having became a monk, reacted when obliged to share the
task of holding a lamp behind Benedict, so that the abbot could have
his dinner: ‘Who is this’, he thought to himself, ‘that I should have to
stand here holding the lamp for him while he is eating? Who am I to
be acting as his slave?’15 Alert to the recalcitrance of social status and
worldly pride, Benedict’s Rule was designed to create a far more egali-
tarian community.
Benedict’s Rule gives the abbot great authority, it is true. But it is
essentially a moral authority, founded on and constrained by the con-
sent of the community. For the monks are assumed to share a common
goal, a sense of justice that should govern the relations of ruler and
ruled. ‘As to Benedict’s idea of authority as stewardship, it passed dir-
ectly into a work by the greatest of Benedict’s admirers, Gregory the
Great, a work which would shape the notion of authority for centu-
ries to come, Regula Pastoralis (Pastoral Care).’ The Pastoral Care was
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in large part given over to the responsibilities and subtleties of
exercising spiritual power. Thus, ‘the care of souls’ requires diverse
forms of encouragement and moral guidance, irrespective of social
standing – ‘mixing soft words with threats, the sternness of a school-
master with the tenderness of a father’.16
Subjection to the abbot’s authority was a way of affirming the
moral equality of souls and the importance of caring for them. And
that mandate would be extended, not only to bishops but also to lay
rulers. Gregory’s emphasis ‘on the heavy responsibilities of the ruler
for the souls of his subjects’ was diffused throughout Western Europe
from the seventh century onwards.
In what he wrote on the duties of the Christian rector (ruler), he cre-
ated the language of an entire governing elite. With the Regula Pastoralis
to guide them, the kings and clergy of Latin Europe no longer needed
to look to the surviving ‘Christian empire’ of east Rome to guide them.
Gregory had given them a mission to rule and code of conduct as clear
and as all- embracing as any that had once inspired the governing
classes of the Roman empire.17
Increasingly, acknowledging that subjects had souls was making a
difference to the question of what constituted proper governance. It
was another step in inventing the individual.
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Barbarian Codes, Roman Law and
Christian Intuitions
Language itself provides important evidence of social and intellectual
change. In the period that was long called the ‘dark ages’ – the sixth,
seventh and early eighth centuries – this evidence is particularly
important. Urban life was under threat during this period. But it was
far from being almost extinguished, as historians once supposed.
In the south, a life that was still recognizably Roman survived,
though churches and markets were now more central to life than tem-
ples or amphitheatres. Indeed, the latter often served chiefly as quarries
for building material. In the north, where cities had been smaller, new
religious building more often took place outside the Roman walls, in
sub- urbs.
The meaning of basic terms referring to life in the cities was shift-
ing. Two terms, urbs and civitas, began to be confused. Under the
empire, urbs had referred to the physical city and its walls, whereas
civitas referred to the larger association of citizens, some of whom
might live outside the urbs. Isidore of Seville, in the seventh century,
tried to defend the original meaning. ‘The civitas is a multitude of men
united by a bond of association, so-called from the citizens … For
although the urbs itself is made by its walls, the civitas gets its name
not from stones, but from the inhabitants.’ 1
Unwittingly perhaps, Isidore’s distinction reveals the changes taking
place in minds. His reference to ‘inhabitants’ as well as ‘citizens’ sug-
gests why the term civitas began to take on a more territorial meaning.
The citizenry in the ancient world had, of course, formed only one
class among the inhabitants. But as the forms of ancient civic govern-
ment decayed, and the clergy assumed an ever more important role,
‘inhabitants’ came to refer to ‘souls’ rather than citizens. It became
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inclusive rather than exclusive. The idea of the civitas began to merge
with that of the bishop’s seat and territory, the ecclesiastical diocese.
The result was that in the Merovingian period urbs and civitas were
used almost interchangeably. ‘There was no unambiguous word in
Merovingian Latin for town as such; both urbs and civitas could
mean the town with its rural surroundings.’2
Viewing the population as a whole, rather than merely in terms of
status, was reshaping linguistic usage. The old social classifications
were eroding. Perceptive members of the former privileged classes
grasped soon enough that superior status would now have to rest on
something other than formal classification. In 478, two years after the
fall of the Western empire, Sidonius Apollinaris remarked that ‘since
old grades of rank are now abolished, which once distinguished the
high from the low, in future culture must afford the sole criterion of
nobility’.
It was not only statuses previously attached to civic government
and public law that were being undermined, however. The beliefs the
clergy propagated also threatened attitudes and habits that had sus-
tained the family among the Germanic tribes. These attitudes and
habits bore a considerable similarity to those that, more than a mil-
lennium earlier, had first given rise to the institutions of the Greek and
Roman city- state. Paterfamilias, the subordination of women and
inflexible rules of inheritance provided the core, though paternal
authority among the Germans was less priestly and allowed more
freedom to younger sons, at times even to women.
The influence of both Christian doctrine and late Roman law began
to challenge these attitudes and habits among the Goths, Burgundians
and Franks. The process can be seen in law codes issued by the new
kings, who were inspired by the Roman idea of imperium. Instead of
simply confirming antecedent practice, the kings began to legislate –
to do what the emperors had done. For example, important changes
emerge between the earliest collection of Frankish customary law, the
Salic law (circa 510), and the second major compilation, the Lex
Ribuaria (after 600). Famously, the former prohibits any female inher-
itance of ancestral land, while the latter relaxes such restrictions. The
absorption and development of Roman law in the successor kingdoms –
something which should never be underestimated – testifies to the
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prodigious moral effort made by the clergy to influence Germanic
manners.
Of course, it would be a mistake to exaggerate the pace of change
in Germanic manners. The church and the survivors of a Roman edu-
cated class met with reverses more often than successes in dealing
with the newcomers. Any reader of Gregory of Tours’ sixth-century
History of the Franks will soon be convinced of that. Habits of vio-
lence, lack of foresight and the ingrained pleasure of leading an
unregulated life meant that betrayal and murder were commonplace
in the ruling families of the new kingdoms. Among the Franks, in par-
ticular, there was widespread suspicion of the Visigoths, who were
perceived as having become unduly submissive and over-impressed by
‘Roman ways’. Frankish opposition to the rule of King Sigibert’s
widow, the Visigothic princess Brunhild, stemmed partly from that.
Yet a remarkable example of change even among the Franks can be
found in a seventh- century collection of legal formulas edited by Mar-
culf. In it we find King Chilperic, who reigned from 561 to 584,
expressly rejecting ancestral customs: ‘A long- standing and wicked
custom of our people denies sisters a share with their brothers in their
father’s land; but I consider this wrong, since my children came
equally from God … Therefore, my dearest daughter, I hereby make
you an equal and legitimate heir with your brothers, my sons.’3 How
tempting it is to imagine a priest, his face full of encouragement, writ-
ing down these lines dictated by Chilperic! For the church became a
major beneficiary of changes following the introduction of wills and
weakening of family control over property. It was not long before the
cathedral churches and monasteries became major landowners.
But we ought not to be distracted by what was, in part, an unin-
tended consequence of new beliefs. Far more important is the fact that
Christian insistence on the equality of souls suggested, although at first
only in an indistinct way, a new image of reality. Concern with the fate
of the individual soul was nibbling away at a corporate, hierarchical
image, along with the polytheism that had traditionally expressed it.
Church councils and missionaries from the fifth to the seventh cen-
tury regularly attacked the multiplication of moral agencies, which
they understood as pagan survivals – ‘demons’. Thus, one Visigothic
priest, Martin of Braga, asked his Galician congregation: ‘How can
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any of you, who have renounced the Devil and his angels and his evil
works, now return again to the worship of the Devil?’ Just what did
Martin have in mind? He had in mind practices such as ‘observing the
first days of the month, burning candles at trees and springs, marrying
on the day of Venus (Friday), invoking the names of demons, and so
on’.4 Successive church councils condemned, in particular, the cult of
angels – prayers and amulets invoking Uriel, Michael and Raguel – as
demon- worship and idolatry. Such cults threatened the all- important
relationship between God and the individual soul.
Later sixth-century Merovingian councils reveal the church fighting
not merely an entrenched paganism, but also – something considered
even more dangerous – a widespread willingness to combine pagan
and Christian practices.
It is not permitted to dress up as a calf or a stag on the Kalends of Janu-
ary or to present diabolical gifts … it is forbidden to discharge vows
among woods or at sacred trees or at springs … nor let anyone dare to
make feet or images out of wood … it is forbidden to turn to soothsay-
ers or to augurs, or to those who pretend to know the future …
Such church legislation probably had little effect at first. For the
Merovingian church remained primarily urban. There was as yet little
attempt to establish it in any comprehensive way in the countryside.
That attempt – and with it the creation of a more or less instructed
rural priesthood, capable of delivering sermons and trying to set a
moral example – was made rather by the Carolingian church, from
the later eighth century.
An extraordinary example of the persistence of ancient beliefs and
practices – and their ability to infiltrate Christian rites – is the way the
mass was widely understood in the sixth century. Peter Brown shows
how it was assimilated to the immemorial habit of offering ‘sacred’
meals to ancestors. Despite their new beliefs, Christians continued to
feed the dead. ‘Families offered food, wine and money at the Christian
Eucharist so that their dead should still be “remembered” as part of
the Church.’ The seventh century saw a dramatic change. ‘Only in the
seventh century did the Eucharist – the Mass – lose this quality of a
“meal” relayed from the family to the dead. The Mass came to be
spoken of as a “sacrifice” which only a priest could offer. The laity
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could contribute nothing to this “sacrifice”.’5 The displacement of
moral authority from the family to the clergy reveals the subversive side
of the new religion. The clergy focused attention on the fate of the indi-
vidual soul, rather than on the claims and continuity of the family.
Nothing shows more clearly the individuation encouraged by
Christian beliefs than what Brown calls the ‘Christianization of death’.
He detects a profound change under way in the seventh century – a
new fascination with the ‘day of judgement’, the fate of the individual
soul after death. This fascination overwhelmed an older sense that
Christian beliefs and practices already gave glimpses of paradise in
this world, foretastes of eternal bliss. Instead of such confidence,
seventh- century Christians – living in a far less stable world – worried
increasingly about sin and its consequences for the individual on that
final day of reckoning.
There was less hope of communal salvation, more anxiety about
‘the dread last journey of the soul’. Brown tells the story of Barontus,
a late seventh- century nobleman turned monk at Bourges, who had a
fearful dream about what awaited him on his deathbed. Suspended in
the air above his native city, would his soul belong to the angels who
beckoned him to paradise or to the ‘clawed, toothed demons’ who
sought to pull him down below earth? Could his sins be purged before
that decisive moment?
Previously Christian believers had been, perhaps, more confident of
salvation. But the other world to which they hoped to come had been
more faceless. Apart from great, well-known saints, the identity of indi-
vidual believers had tended to be swallowed up in the golden haze of
paradise. By contrast, the timorous Barontus had a face. It was a face
etched in terms of his ‘purged’ and ‘unpurged’ sins. These sins made
him distinctive. He saw himself built up, like a coral reef, by his indi-
vidual sins and his individual virtues … Barontus’ otherworldly
experiences may seem bizarre to us. But they addressed with a new pre-
cision the problem of how much of the present self survives, as a unique
individual … beyond the grave.6
Little wonder that Brown and others identify in this questioning a
new depth of self- consciousness – which is to say, a more individual-
ized picture of the way things are.
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Despite frequent reverses at the hands of ancient beliefs and prac-
tices, the church persisted in its moral enterprise, which was, after all,
its raison d’ˆetre. It is impressive how its frontal attack on ‘supersti-
tion’ survived even the decline of formal education and literacy by the
seventh century. The beginnings of a clearer separation of moral from
physical phenomena was lurking in the habits of mind fostered by
Christian beliefs. For that all-important struggle within the self to
create an upright will, portrayed eloquently by Augustine, sharpened
a sense of the involuntary. Even in the self, not every event embodied
an intention, while the old habit of discovering intentions behind non-
human, physical events now risked the charge of impiety.
The church’s struggle against polytheism began to tell. A complete
knowledge of the reasons for things was an attribute only of God, an
attitude which Augustine’s reflections on the mysterious workings of
grace in this world had strengthened. The ‘certainties’ of a priori argu-
ment came up against the limitations imposed by Christian belief in a
God who expressed himself through time rather than in syllogisms.
When logical studies re- emerged in the eleventh century, it is no acci-
dent that the status of general terms or categories became a central
issue. A sense of the limits of deductive argument – its fallibility in the
face of the experience of things not under human control – then con-
tributed to a clearer distinction between ‘reasons’ for human action
and the ‘causes’ of external events.
So in the midst of what have been called the ‘dark ages’, the church
initiated a process that began to strip intentionality from the physical
world – leaving it ultimately as just that, the physical world. Legisla-
tion by church councils was directed against seeing different parts of
the physical world as the habitations of spirits or demigods. To be
sure, the habit of interpreting events in nature, especially natural dis-
asters, as evidence of divine ‘anger’ long persisted. Nor was the church
always above taking advantage of that habit. Indeed, the purging of
intermediate beings or demigods may have intensified the habit at
first. To an extent, the cult of local saints (who might intercede
with the deity) that developed so rapidly in the fifth and sixth centu-
ries provided a substitute for polytheism. Praying over the relics of
a founding ‘saint’ or martyr helped to meet the need for religious
feelings tied to familiar local surroundings within a faith expressed
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in universal terms. It also helped cities to survive as centres of
pilgrimage.
However, the inwardness privileged by Christian belief and its con-
cern with intentionality did not merely help to shape the doctrines of
the church and its legislation. The clergy also sought to introduce that
concern into public criminal law, whenever they could. We can see
such an attempt to ‘pin down’ intentionality – by distinguishing the
intentional element in events from the involuntary – in the provisions
of Visigothic legislation.
In the seventh century the clergy- dominated Council of Toledo,
drawing on Roman law, tried to replace verdicts based on physical
combat or oaths sworn by kinsmen with a careful search for evidence.
It also sought to recalibrate the relations between crime and punish-
ment. Law codes began to change accordingly. We can recognize in
Visigothic legislation ‘the efforts of an enlightened legislator to over-
come the violence and want of reflection of barbarous manners’.
The chapter, De coede et morte hominum, compared with laws corres-
ponding thereto in other [Germanic] nations, is a very remarkable
example. Elsewhere, it is the damage done which seems to constitute
the crime, and the punishment is sought in the material or pecuniary
reparation. Here the crime is reduced to its true, veritable and moral
element, the intention. The various shades of criminality, absolutely
involuntary homicide, homicide by inadvertence, homicide with or
without premeditation are distinguished and defined nearly as correctly
as in our codes, and the punishments vary in just proportion.7
Nor was that all. Moved by their belief in the equality of souls, the
clergy began to reject the German custom of assigning different legal
values to the lives of men.
The only distinction which he (the legislator) kept up was that of the
free man and the slave. As regards free men, the punishment varies nei-
ther according to the origin nor the rank of the deceased, but solely
according to the various degrees of culpability of the murderer. With
regard to slaves, although not daring to deprive the master of all right
to life and death, he at least attempted to restrain it, by subjecting it to
a public and regular procedure.8
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Here we see the clergy not only borrowing from Roman law, but also
developing it.
Later Roman law had already pointed towards more humane treat-
ment of slaves. But in the language of the Visigothic code there is a
new urgency:
If no malefactor or accomplice in a crime should go unpunished, with
how much more reason should we condemn those who have commit-
ted homicide lightly and maliciously! Therefore, as masters, in their
pride, often put their slaves to death, without fault on their part, it is
right that this licence should be entirely extirpated, and we ordain that
this law should be perpetually observed by all. No master or mistress
can put to death without public trial any of their male or female slaves,
nor any person dependent on them.9
The notion of pride invoked here by the legislator suggests the impact
of Christian moral intuitions. But then, as we have seen, the clergy
had even greater influence with Visigothic kings than they had with
the Merovingians.
However, the overthrow of the Merovingian dynasty by a leading
Frankish family, a family that had shown its mettle when Charles Mar-
tel (‘the Hammer’) defeated the Muslim invaders at Poitiers in 733,
had important consequences. The Merovingians had presided over a
decentralized, even disorganized, kingdom, with the civitates or dio-
ceses enjoying great autonomy. Leading Franks had often married into
Roman senatorial families, who continued to dominate local affairs as
counts and bishops. The new dynasty proved to be more controlling
and ambitious, especially when Charles Martel’s grandson, whom we
know as Charlemagne, became king of the Franks in 768.
In a reign of nearly fifty years, Charlemagne not only confirmed
beyond doubt the legitimacy of the new dynasty, but established
Frankish control over most of Western Europe, from northern Italy to
the Baltic Sea. The first decades of his reign saw him constantly on the
move, campaigning against the pagan Saxons, consolidating Frankish
hold over the Lombard kingdom and beginning the reconquest of
Spain from the Muslims. Following the example of his father, Pepin,
Charlemagne maintained close ties with the papacy. It was a mutually
beneficial relationship, which culminated in Charlemagne’s coronation
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as Western emperor by the pope in St Peter’s, Rome, on Christmas
Day, ad 800. There is little doubt that Charlemagne dreamed, in part,
of restoring a Roman imperium that had once existed. He wanted to
re- establish social order, to create defensible frontiers and to suppress
barbarism. But that was not all he wanted. He wanted to establish a
‘Christian empire’ – to propagate ‘correct’ beliefs and practices.
The preconditions for order and unity seemed to be improved edu-
cation and a reformed clergy reaching into rural areas. In a sense,
Charlemagne revived the relationship between public power and the
church that had characterized the Visigothic kingdom before it fell to
Muslim invasion early in the eighth century. But there was also a dif-
ference, for now the will to reform undoubtedly came from
Charlemagne himself. It was he who sought out the most gifted clergy
in Europe, brought them to his court – for example, Alcuin of York,
from a monastery in northern England – and initiated them in the
project of reformation (renovatio).
During his long reign Charlemagne came to dominate the church in
a way that resembled the relations between Byzantine emperors and
the Eastern church. He imposed his will not only in matters of church
government and clerical discipline – promoting the monastic reforms
of Benedict of Aniane and insisting on improved education of the
clergy, for example – but also in matters of doctrine.
That strength of will, the habit of domination joined to moral aspir-
ation, emerges from a story about Charlemagne’s reactions to the
iconoclastic controversy in the eighth- century Byzantine empire. His
comments are recorded in the margins of a manuscript of a report
prepared for the emperor by Theodulf, a Frankish clergyman. When
Theodulf argues that the Greek church was impudent to try to settle
the controversy over the worship of images without consulting other
churches, Charlemagne says: ‘That’s it.’ When Theodulf then goes on
to say that the primary duty of bishops is to teach the Christian
people, Charlemagne adds: ‘Of course!’ (Brown)
His was a heady combination of power and aspiration. But it would
be wrong to suppose that he succeeded in creating a ‘state’, as we
understand the word. Charlemagne’s empire remained an expression
of his will, his energy. In some of its aspirations, it pointed to the future.
But, in its limited ability to create a legal system and its reliance on
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constraint, it revealed the heavy legacy of the past. Guizot captures
the precarious nature of the enterprise:
Master of an immense territory, he (Charlemagne) felt indignant at see-
ing all things incoherent, anarchical and rude, and desired to alter their
hideous condition. First of all he acted by means of his missi dominici,
whom he dispatched into various parts of his territory, in order that
they might observe circumstances and reform them, or give an account
of them to him. He afterwards worked by means of general assemblies,
which he held with much more regularity than his predecessors had
done. At these assemblies he caused all the most important persons of
the territory to be present. They were not free assemblies, nor did they
at all resemble the kind of deliberations with which we are acquainted;
they were merely a means taken by Charlemagne of being well informed
of facts, and of introducing some order and unity among his disorderly
populations.10
Charlemagne’s inclination to consult others contrasted with his deter-
mination to decide by himself. But the contrast was in large part
imposed by the circumstances in which he acted. For Charlemagne’s
achievement was not only precarious, but also ambiguous. He was
moved by a vision of a society ‘more extended or more regular than
was compatible with the distribution of power and the condition of
men’s minds’, as Guizot observes.
Without knowing it, Charlemagne presided over both the last gasps
of antiquity and the foundation of Europe. It is that duality we must
now explore.
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The Carolingian Compromise
Charlemagne achieved less than he hoped for and more than he
intended.
One way of looking at the ferment of the Carolingian period is to
see it as a struggle over the meaning of lordship or dominium. There
has been much argument over the question whether late Roman law
saw the emergence of the idea of subjective rights in the form of
dominium – basic rights belonging to individuals as such – rather
than an objectively right ‘outcome’ prescribed by law. Though the
question is a difficult one, I think the balance of evidence is against
any such emergence of the idea of subjective rights (or the theory of
justice it implies) in the late Roman empire.
In the eighth century the connotations of lordship or dominium
remained those of control or power, something surviving in our word
domination. The idea of lordship acted to constrain the range of pub-
lic legislation – setting limits on its sphere of operation. Antecedent
facts established dominium. It was not deduced from any abstract
principle of equality. The function of the idea of lordship was to pro-
tect a sphere of inequality or subordination, a domestic sphere
including forms of inheritance, women and children, servants and
slaves. In that way lordship or dominium entrenched an aristocratic
model of society, protecting wealth and paterfamilias. The Roman
idea of public power – expressed as imperium – had tacitly accepted
this restriction on its sphere of operation. The unit of subjection was
primarily the family rather than the individual. In that sense, the two
ideas of imperium and dominium complemented each other. Domin-
ium established a range of domestic control or property outside the
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legitimate claims of public jurisdiction, reflecting the religious charac-
ter of the family that had originally underpinned the ancient city.
Although no one was more insistent on the claims of lordship than
Charlemagne, this subtle relationship between the ideas of imperium
and dominium was disturbed during his reign. And the reason it was
disturbed is to be found in Charlemagne’s determination to recreate
the Western empire and, at the same time, to ensure that it became a
thoroughly ‘Christian empire’. To combine those goals, Charlemagne
and his advisers – the most gifted Churchmen of his day – began, in
effect, to graft Christian moral intuitions onto the body of established
legal concepts.
The idea of authority traditionally conveyed by imperium – with
public power accepting the father as virtually unchallenged ruler over
the domestic sphere – began to change. This change happened almost
inadvertently. It happened because Charlemagne and his clerical advis-
ers came to rely increasingly on what might be called the ‘rhetoric of
the Christian people’ when addressing the relationship between rulers
and the ruled. I am not suggesting that changing the meaning of imper-
ium was a self-conscious enterprise. That would be to misread the
social and intellectual circumstances of late eighth- and ninth-century
Europe. What I suggest, rather, is that Charlemagne and his advisers
brought to the task of rebuilding central government and restoring
social order over an extended territory new intuitions about the
grounds of obligation, intuitions generated by Christian beliefs.
Just how important were these moral intuitions? Here the historian
has to tread warily. For it would be just as easy to exaggerate as to
underestimate their importance. The question turns on a universalism
inherent in Christian beliefs. Since the time of Paul, Christian thought
had been directed to the status and claims of humans as such, quite
apart from any roles they happened to occupy in a particular society.
It is hardly too much to say that Paul’s conception of deity provided
the individual with a freehold in reality. It laid a normative founda-
tion for individual conscience and its claims. In the ninth century this
moral universalism began to impinge on the Carolingian conception
of the proper relations between rulers and the ruled. But, just as
important, it did so only within limits. To understand those limits, we
must examine the ‘rhetoric of the Christian people’.
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The Carolingian Compromise
Let us look first at the innovative character of this rhetoric: at its
morally subversive side. The rhetoric had roots in the writings of Pope
Gregory the Great, the Roman aristocrat who became a monk and
then, reluctantly, bishop of Rome towards the end of the sixth cen-
tury. Gregory’s writings became enormously influential during the
next two or three centuries. They could be found in most monastic
and cathedral libraries, and diffused the rhetoric of the Christian
people. Privileging the ‘care of souls’ and laying down a fundamental
equality before God and his ‘terrible judgement’, the rhetoric of the
Christian people helped to bring about important developments in
the government of the Carolingian empire.
We are told that in ad 792 Charlemagne, wishing to secure the alle-
giance of his subjects and to restore a stable empire for ‘the Christian
people’, asked for an oath of allegiance from every man. What is start-
ling about his action is that he expected the oath to be sworn, not only
by freemen, but by slaves on royal and church estates as well! Such a
request would have been inconceivable in antiquity, a world in which
slaves could be defined as ‘living tools’. In 802 Charlemagne asked for
another oath, this time requiring the oath to be taken by ‘all men’ over
the age of twelve, apparently extending the range of self-assumed obli-
gation. Nor was that all. The language of his later edicts at times pointed
beyond gender differences, with phrases such as ‘every Christian per-
son’ and ‘absolutely everyone, without exception’. Charlemagne’s oaths
implied that slaves and women had souls as well, a moral capacity
making their oaths and their loyalty worth having.
Charlemagne insisted that all people taking the oaths should be
able to understand them. For those taking the oaths would, if the
oaths were violated, then be liable to stern punishment for ‘infidelity’.
The significance of this condition should not be underestimated. ‘The
oaths were administered in the vernacular of each region. Those who
took them could never claim that they had not understood what was
spoken on that occasion. Each person was henceforth engaged by his
oath to serve Charlemagne “with all my will and with what under-
standing God has given me”.’ 1 That emphasis on individual will and
understanding represents a momentous moral step. It opened the way
to a new understanding of the foundation of social order.
A new, publicly sanctioned concern with innerness is striking. The
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meaning of Christian rites was reasserted, directed against pagan
practices that had often become associated with them. Thus, Charle-
magne himself took the lead in defending the meaning of baptism and
redefining the role of godparents. In a letter written from his palace at
Aachen in 802 (or 806), he described his intervention at a recent
baptism:
At Epiphany, there were many persons with us who wished (as spon-
sors) to lift up infants from the holy font at baptism. We commanded
that each of these be carefully examined and asked if they knew and
had memorized the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed. There were many who
had neither of the formulae memorized. We commanded them to hold
back … They were quite mortified.2
Charlemagne and his clergy sought to make the role of godparent a
conscientious one – distinguishing it from Roman and Frankish hab-
its of inviting others to ‘lift up’ their infants in order to build useful
family alliances and find patrons.
In a number of ways, then, the moral norms associated with the
phrase ‘the Christian people’ were working a revolution in minds, a
revolution that foreshadowed the end of ancient slavery, even when
many vestiges of it survived in the Carolingian empire. Not only did
Carolingian legislation preserve the Visigothic ban on capital punish-
ment of slaves by their masters without a public trial. It also stipulated
that slaves who were married could not be separated, even if they
belonged to different masters. The domestic sphere was no longer, in
principle, beyond public control. The individual began to emerge as
the unit of subjection, a social role as well as a moral status. The
spread of rural churches and parish priests serving all believers – with
the shared spaces and the shared sacraments they introduced –
contributed to this still fragile development.
It is true that the emphasis on oath- taking and loyalty had Ger-
manic as well as Christian roots. The loyalty of the members of a
mobile war- band to their leader had, at least ostensibly, been based on
oaths. But such oaths had created powerful groups, aristocratic
enclaves, within the German tribes. There was no suggestion of uni-
versality. The farmers, women and slaves who stayed behind the
German war-bands were not oath-takers. Nonetheless, this tradition
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The Carolingian Compromise
of oath- taking no doubt made it easier to adopt and expand the prac-
tice within the Carolingian empire.
A message of universality or moral equality was carried by the rhet-
oric of the Christian people. It treated everyone as a moral agent. But
at the same time that rhetoric carried limits to its own application.
Outside the sway of the church and the rites of baptism, people were
not considered, in a sense, fully human. They had not acquired ‘souls’.
When dealing with pagan Saxons on his northern frontiers and when
combating Muslims to the south, Charlemagne showed himself utterly
ruthless. Any appeal to ‘humanity’ in the treatment of foes would
have been dismissed as dangerous softness – if, that is, the appeal had
even been intelligible to him. Charlemagne at times relocated entire
populations. And in 782 he had 4,500 Saxons beheaded outside
Bremen.
Yet within his territory – and when attempting to recreate stable
government and social order for ‘the Christian people’ – we find a dif-
ferent attitude. Running through his acts and legislation is an
intermittent but striking respect for the role of conscience, reinforced
by the urgings of at least some of his clerical advisers. Charlemagne’s
enforced conversions in Saxony thus drew a sharp protest from Alcuin
that men can be coerced into baptism, but not into faith. ‘Faith must
be voluntary not coerced. Converts must be drawn to the faith not
forced. A person can be compelled to be baptised yet not believe. An
adult convert should answer what he truly believes and feels, and, if
he lies, then he will not have true salvation.’3 For Alcuin, this moral
conviction was at the very heart of Christianity. Enforced belief, he
implied, is a contradiction in terms.
It is perhaps too easy to dismiss Charlemagne’s reliance on missi
dominici (inspectors dispatched to the regions), and frequent assem-
bling of leading figures from all parts of the realm to provide
information about local conditions, as falling short of what we would
call free assemblies. Yet the care Charlemagne took to keep in close
touch with his notables and clergy, to carry them with him, suggests
something more than mere prudence. His desire to set an example – to
create a unity of will by identifying truly public interests – emerges
not least from the practice of bringing the sons of leading families to
his court. He sought not only to engage their loyalty but also to
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improve their minds. At times they acted as his secretaries. Central to
his hope for the young was the presence of the learned clerics he had
assembled, though he had the good sense to combine their influence
with his own love of hunting!
How was the greatly extended imperial territory to be governed?
Charlemagne fell back on the idea of lordship. But now it was an idea
of lordship modified by German customs and Christian moral intui-
tions. Charlemagne did not suppose that society could be governed
without a permanent governing class. The question was how that
class should be related to the rest of the Christian people. As we have
seen, the idea of loyalty founded on oath-taking, traditional among
German war- bands, suggested itself. In the successor kingdoms, it had
already shaped the practice of giving land or benefices to followers,
and expecting services in return.
In practice, many such benefices had already become hereditary.
And the danger of the same thing happening to public – that is, royal –
lands was always present. The chief unit of administration remained
the counties, which often coincided with the territory of a former civi-
tas. Carolingian rulers would grant the counts appointed as governors
some part of the royal domain in the county to provide for their
needs – and Charlemagne at times complained that ‘counts and other
persons who hold benefices from us treat these as if they were their
own allodial possessions’.4 Indeed, by the end of his reign, the office
of count itself was widely becoming hereditary and the land originally
attached to the office a private possession.
Nonetheless, the universalizing of oath-taking – assimilating the
relationship of superiors and inferiors to that of lords and their
oath- bound followers – reveals the rhetoric of the Christian people
modifying German habits. For it introduces, however precariously, an
element of free will into general social relations, acknowledgement of
a role for conscience. Charlemagne recommended that all free men
should place themselves under a superior or lord, in return for bene-
fits and protection. No doubt local circumstances often made that a
practical necessity. Yet by presenting it as an act of will, he introduced
a new feature into the relations between rulers and the ruled.
Charlemagne hoped to create a social structure that combined hier-
archy with at least nominal consent. In his General Capitulary of
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The Carolingian Compromise
806 he insisted ‘that every free man who has received from his lord
(seigneur or senior) the value of one solidus ought not to leave him,
unless the lord has attempted to kill him, strike him with a baton, dis-
honour his wife or daughter, or steal his property’.5 Subordination
was thus mitigated by exchange and a touch of freedom.
This attempt to stabilize the relationship between persons and
property by joining the need (deemed unavoidable) for social hier-
archy with at least a few claims arising from the equality of souls
proclaimed by the church gives the reign of Charlemagne its original-
ity. The combination emerges clearly in Charlemagne’s General
Capitulary for his missi in 802: ‘all men should live a just and good
life in accordance with God’s commands, and should with one mind
remain and abide each in his appointed place or profession: the clergy
should live in full accord with the canons without concern for base
gain, the monastic orders should keep their lives under diligent con-
trol, the laity and secular people should make proper use of their
laws, refraining from ill-will and deceit, and all should live together in
perfect love and peace.’ 6
This may seem optimistic to the point of fantasy. Nonetheless, what
we can glimpse behind the developments of this period is an awkward
movement between two visions of the way things should be. It was
the tension between these two visions that began to give Christianity
a more ‘other- worldly’ character. For the traditional vision of social
order – rooted in the assumption of natural inequality – conjured up
a fixed social hierarchy. Yet the Christian vision was of the equality of
souls in the eyes of God. How could these different visions be related?
The problem had begun to weigh on minds as the idea of the ‘other’
world became more invasive.
We have seen how torment about the fate of the individual soul on
the day of judgement had by the seventh century begun to displace an
earlier collective vision of the salvation of the Christian people. That
more confident vision had been parasitic on an ancient corporate con-
ception of society, reinforced in the earlier centuries by the solidarity
fostered by persecution ‘of the saints’. By the eighth and ninth centu-
ries that collective confidence had gone. Dhuoda, wife of the palace
chamberlain during the reign of Louis the Pious, Charlemagne’s son,
gives us a glimpse of the new mood in an anxious letter to her son:
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Towards the Idea of Fundamental Law
Constant prayer by you and others is needed by me now. It will be
more, much more needed, after my death … From an immense fear of
what the future has in store for me, my mind is searching about every-
where. I am unsure from my merits just how I can be freed in the end.
Why? Since I have sinned in thought and speech. Speech itself, if idle,
leads to wicked business. Still, I shall not despair of the mercy of
God … For me to achieve salvation at some point, I leave no other, my
noble son, who might work as hard on my behalf as you.7
Concern for the individual soul and its fate loomed ever larger, as the
high price paid for Christian emphasis on human equality and the
claims of conscience.
The writings of Gregory the Great, reflecting the monastic trad-
ition, helped to foster such concerns. They encouraged constant
self- examination.
The more Christians strove for perfection, he believed, the more clearly
they would see their own imperfection. For this vision of the self, Gre-
gory uses the word horror. By this, he did not mean the fear of Hell.
Rather, he referred to a nightmare sense of vertigo experienced by pious
persons at the sight of the sheer tenacity, the insidiousness, and the min-
ute particularity of their sins. The righteous were encouraged to make
their own the districtio, the ‘strict accounting’, of himself. They must
look at themselves as God saw them . . .8
That desire for transparency can, of course, be traced back further to
Augustine and Paul. But in Gregory’s terse prose Carolingians found a
language peculiarly suited to their own time. For it encouraged them to
seek a Christian identity which might bind together such a disparate
empire. A new intensity of self-consciousness constantly breaks through.
These concerns help to explain Charlemagne’s constant effort to
propagate ‘correct’ beliefs and practices among the Christian people –
to root out the ignorance and backsliding that stood in the way of a
reformation of the populus dei. The duty of the clergy, Charlemagne
emphasized, was ‘to lead the people of God to the pastures of eternal
life’. It is telling that in his later years the emperor insisted that the
missi dominici he dispatched to inspect parts of the realm should
always be two in number, one a layman, the other a cleric.
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The Carolingian Compromise
Charlemagne offers the example of a ruler trying to follow the advice
of Gregory the Great. In his Pastoral Care, which drew on the Rule of
St Benedict, Gregory had insisted that ‘the care of souls’ was the pri-
mary duty of those leading the Christian people. As we have seen,
Gregory turned the abbot’s authority over monks into a model not only
for bishops but also for lay rulers. In order to achieve his goal, Gregory
emphasized the importance of engaging the individual conscience.
Rulers should seek to exercise moral authority and not just naked
power over their subjects. That was their ‘heavy responsibility’.9
Seventh- century Visigothic kings had been influenced by the urg-
ings of Gregory the Great, but it was Charlemagne – with advisers
such as the Anglo- Saxon monk, Alcuin of York – who turned them
into an ambitious social programme. Christian humility required that
rulers speak to the conscience of every person, regardless of his or her
social condition. It was an ambition, as Gregory himself had acknow-
ledged, with roots in St Paul’s emphasis on innerness. For Gregory,
like Paul, moral authority ought to imitate the condescension of God,
seeking out and inhabiting the depths of the human condition.
In this way, the focus of justice became more egalitarian. But at a
price. For a stronger sense of the self brought in its wake greater dis-
trust of the self. Gregory the Great had acknowledged that ‘the mind
will often lie to itself about itself’. Consequently, his Pastoral Care
insisted that the ideal ruler should seek to be ‘intimately close to each
person through compassion, and yet hover above all through contem-
plation’. Spiritual guidance required something like the selflessness
of God.
Thus, both public order and the care of souls fell within the ruler’s
remit, as Charlemagne understood his Christian duty. Public order
required sanctioning a diversity of law and custom within the empire,
different admixtures of Roman law and German custom. But the uni-
versality of the empire was to be guaranteed by ‘Christian law’. That
was why correct texts and speech became so important. Such correct-
ness provided the basis for an educated class, lay as well as clerical, to
govern and minister to souls throughout the empire. Yet the purified
Latin which Charlemagne and his advisers sought – with the help of
a revised script, the Carolingian hard – did not yet cut them off from
the vulgar forms of Latin developing among their Romanized peoples.
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Rather, it was to be the guarantee of universality in a Christian empire
caring for souls.
Those who see the Carolingian empire as an essentially backward-
looking enterprise, driven by the dream of restoring the former Roman
empire, are wrong. Carolingian leaders were confident that they were
doing something original in working to promote correct beliefs in the
whole Christian people. Nor did they separate promoting such beliefs
from the defence of reason and learning.
The work of Agobard, who was sent from Aachen to be archbishop
of Lyons in 806, illustrates this unity. In Lyons, Agobard encountered
widespread belief in a world of demons inhabiting the lower atmos-
phere, demons who could become accomplices of human ill-will and
manipulate the physical world. The work of these demons took the
form of thunder, lightning and hailstorms. Agobard would have none
of this. He was an unusually radical monotheist who insisted that God
alone had supernatural power. No demons could control the weather.
Those who attributed such events to demons were only ‘half-believers’.
In Agobard’s eyes, underdeveloped reason was an obstacle to correct
belief and individual salvation. His arguments implied that the work
of conscience required the full development of reason.10
Growing anxiety about the individual’s salvation reinforced the
prestige of monastic vocations. Monks were now deemed to be part
of the clergy, but a distinctive part. It had long been the view among
Christians that the monastic life represented the most authentic Chris-
tian life, that it corresponded most closely to the moral demands of
the faith. Did not the very simplicity of the monk’s habit confirm this
impression? We have seen that Western monasticism was organized in
communities from the outset. The ideal that it held up was one of soli-
tude in company, with discipline of the soul fostered by an austere life
of contemplation, study and work.
The monasteries represented in principle (though, of course, not
always in fact) a world in which the equality of souls became clearer –
a world in which human association had a conscientious basis reflected
in the practice of self- government, individually and collectively. The
authority of the abbot or abbess summarized the higher self that was
the goal of association. That higher self was a preparation for and a
foretaste of the ‘other’ world.
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The Carolingian Compromise
But the election of an abbot by his monks – when local nobles did
not frustrate canon law by turning monasteries into aristocratic
enclaves, as had often been the case under the Merovingian dynasty –
could have striking consequences in this world. In well-endowed
monasteries, such an election could catapult someone, however mod-
est his origins, into one of the commanding positions in the empire.
Ruling over enormous estates, such an abbot was much less likely to
be intimidated by the pretensions of the lay aristocracy. That was cer-
tainly the case with Alcuin, whom Charlemagne made abbot of the
monastery of Tours in 797. Alcuin had promoted educational reform
by making texts more immediately intelligible with the help of punc-
tuation (which had been lacking in Roman manuscripts). Using
monastic resources, he sought to create a clerical elite for his master’s
empire. But not only that. Spreading literacy and understanding to the
local clergy and their congregations was also important, for it could
contribute to social order and might constrain the ambitions of local
lords.11
Reformation of the monasteries soon became part of Charlemagne’s
programme of renovatio. There were hundreds of such monasteries
across his empire. In fact, monastic foundations were displacing the
ancient city as the primary model of human association. The hopes
and fears fostered among Christians who had lived in a pagan world
were being reshaped. The contrast between the rude, often dangerous
conditions of rural life and the gentle, regular routines of monastic
communities – with carefully tended gardens and fields – must have
made the latter seem, at times, like a glimpse of another world, of para-
dise. ‘By the ninth century the old Merovingian custom of rewarding
lay bureaucrats or loyal counts with a bishopric was unknown; most
bishops … were appointed to the episcopate from the monastery,
bringing to their office a more rigorous and idealistic attitude.’12
The paradox is that, as Christianity became more ‘other-worldly’ –
as it sought a clearer idea of another world – it was forging a powerful
instrument for social reform. The vision of moral equality acquired a
new cutting edge. What in the ninth century were still intuitions and
images shaping the rhetoric of the Christian people would, two centu-
ries later, contribute to a new sense of justice. But, even before then,
that vision would be sharpened by contrast with the violence and
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disorder which accompanied the break-up of the Carolingian empire.
That vision would make it possible for the church to embark on a
remarkable course of reform in the tenth century.
We have seen how Charlemagne tried to combine two visions of the
foundations of social order in his rule – lordship and ‘the care of souls’.
In the course of pursuing the second vision he had created a far better
educated and more cohesive higher clergy, a disciplined Christian elite.
It was that elite that survived the decay of his empire. In the late ninth
and tenth centuries the higher clergy sought to preserve unity through
its vision of the care of souls. It pursued that vision with determin-
ation, struggling against the consequences of increasingly hereditary
local lordships, which were helping to destroy centralized government.
The local power of lords even threatened to destroy the universality of
the church itself, assimilating the secular and spiritual realms. A few
bishops succumbed to the temptation. They not only went hunting,
but also, in armour, led their followers into battle.
In struggling against such developments, leading clergy of the church
that Charlemagne had ‘corrected’ began to create a new world. For it
was no longer the ancient church, the urban church of Augustine, Gre-
gory of Tours or Gregory the Great. The solidarities of an ancient and
urban Christianity were making way for a faith with an increasingly
individualist bias. That bias was reinforced by the changed distribu-
tion of population, the growing importance of the countryside and the
fracturing of public power – by the extreme localism which developed
at the end of the Carolingian empire, paving the way for what we
know as feudalism.
Europe Acquires its
Identity
165
13
Why Feudalism did not
Recreate Ancient Slavery
Charlemagne’s call for a universal oath of allegiance led to the first
serious impinging of Christian moral norms on social roles, a precar-
ious attempt to distance the self (or ‘soul’) from inherited statuses, in
order to give those statuses a sanction in consciences. In the century
and a half after Charlemagne’s death that impinging turned into
something quite different. Instead of sanctioning inherited statuses, as
Charlemagne intended, it acquired a subversive potential.
It is usual to regard the later ninth and tenth centuries as the tran-
sition to feudalism, just as it is usual to see feudalism as the antithesis
of modern Europe – a society founded on radical social inequality,
with the ownership of land carrying with it the right to govern serfs
tied to the land. But if we look more closely at this period of transi-
tion, we discover that the moral foundations of modern Europe were
being laid, foundations which would later support the individual as
the organizing social role, the state as a distinctive form of govern-
ment, and an exchange or market economy.
Why should we understand feudalism as the prelude to modernity
rather than its antithesis? To understand why, we must look at changes
in the conditions of labour that led to feudalism.
A prodigious amount has been written about feudalism. The term
itself is a problem. Some have argued that it should be abandoned,
because the social relations the term describes were not new and never
made up a complete social system. Coloni, rustici, tributarii: the terms
from later Roman law referring to tied labour are numerous and their
meanings hard to distinguish. Indeed, it is far from clear that there
was much consistency in their use, especially in the chaos resulting
from the Germanic invasions and the fall of the Western empire.
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Europe Acquires its Identity
Yet one or two things are clear. The social condition indicated by
these terms was different from that of slavery. Servi or slaves could be
sold by their master, and, at least originally, could not marry or have
property. Coloni, by contrast, were tied to the land but could not be
sold apart from that land. They could, moreover, marry and hold
some property. They could not be separated from their family nor be
subject to payments in kind which were not customary.
François Guizot has provided a suggestive account of the origins of
this social condition, which may have included the largest number of
people working the land in fifth- and sixth-century Gaul and Italy. He
denies that it was the sudden result of conquest, or that it was the
result of aristocratic ambitions gradually subordinating a free rural
population. Rather, he suggests that the condition of the rural popu-
lation antedated not only the Germanic but also the Roman conquest
of Gaul. It was the condition of rural labour characteristic of a clan or
tribe, a social form primitively established among the peoples of West-
ern Europe, whether Italic, Celtic or Germanic.1
Rural labourers belonging to a clan or tribe were, like Roman col-
oni, tied to the land. They had a hereditary right to cultivate the land
rather than full ownership of it. They owed the chieftain of the clan
rents in kind, followed him into battle when required and could not
abandon their status. (In Roman law, coloni who absconded could be
pursued and seized by their proprietor, wherever they might be found
and in whatever occupation, even if they had joined the clergy.)
At first glance, the condition of coloni might seem little better than
that of slaves. Yet there were important differences, both physical and
moral. The coloni were not at risk of constant, arbitrary physical pun-
ishment as slaves were. Under Roman law, coloni, unlike slaves, could
make a formal legal complaint against the proprietor – for example, if
rents were suddenly increased or if a crime were committed against
them. (As we have seen, the Visigothic clergy tried to alleviate the con-
dition of slaves by extending a comparable ‘right’ to them.) That
safeguard in Roman law meant that the coloni had at least a marginal
public standing and protection, what might be called quasi-citizenship.
They were not entirely divorced from res publica. That safeguard had
not, of course, been available to agricultural labourers in a tribe or clan.
On the other hand, such labourers had perhaps enjoyed a consolation
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Why Feudalism did not Recreate Ancient Slavery
lost by later Roman coloni. Their subordination was mitigated by the
sense of belonging to a clannish ‘family’.
Overall, the most striking thing about this condition of rural labour
was its durability. Roman proprietors succeeded Gallic chieftains and,
four centuries later, Germanic chieftains displaced many Gallo- Roman
proprietors, without any basic change. Nor is that surprising. Ger-
manic chieftains were used to having labourers tied to the soil, before
crossing the Rhine.
Along with the important remains of ancient slavery and many
small free or ‘allod’ holders (their extent is a matter of controversy,
but varied from one region to another, with allods more common in
the south), this was the condition of rural labour inherited by the
Carolingians. Yet something important had happened as a result of
the invasions. The Germanic invaders had no experience of large- scale
rural slavery, the kind that had maintained the vast patrician estates.
In the extreme disorder following the invasions – when relations
between people and property were so disturbed – the new German
proprietors of the soil took little notice of the difference between
slaves and coloni. They tended to assimilate the former to the latter,
the condition of rural labour they were familiar with.2
In this process of assimilation, the slaves gained, but the coloni lost
advantages. What became precarious for coloni was the access to
public justice provided under the Roman empire. Merovingian and
Carolingian rulers struggled to keep a public jurisdiction alive, relying
on their counts, who were supposed to be the agents of central gov-
ernment. But, at best, this access to public justice became more
difficult. At worst, it failed almost entirely. As a result, the status of
coloni as quasi- citizens was compromised.
Charlemagne tried to reassert the public sphere and restore easier
access to justice. ‘We will and order that the counts do not remit the
sitting of their courts, nor abridge them unduly, in order to give them-
selves to the chase or to other pleasures.’ The oaths Charlemagne
demanded of coloni may, at least in part, have been an attempt to
reaffirm their traditional public status – an attempt to circumscribe
the powers of landed proprietors. And he had some success. But it was
only temporary, a rearguard action in favour of a doomed form of
quasi- citizenship.
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Europe Acquires its Identity
On the other hand, the ninth and the tenth centuries saw ancient
slavery virtually disappear from royal and ecclesiastical estates.
Smaller- scale farming, through the settling of former slaves as well as
coloni on family holdings, became widespread. On such estates slaves
and coloni lived side by side, often intermarrying. The distinction
between them was slowly blurred. They led similar lives. At the same
time many allod- holders, to secure protection, ‘recommended’ their
property to an ecclesiastical or lay patron, and received it back as a
hereditary tenure with rents attached. By the late tenth century ancient
slavery survived chiefly on the smaller estates.3
Medieval serfdom thus emerged from a convergence of these earlier
statuses of rural labour, with the condition of many slaves and former
allod-holders coming to resemble that of coloni. Yet there was to be a
crucial difference between medieval serfs and Roman coloni, a differ-
ence that justifies calling the ninth and tenth centuries ‘the end of
antiquity’. For just as important as the decline of ancient slavery and
the growth of small- scale family farming was the introduction of
a new element of instability into the condition of coloni, a moral
instability that would make medieval serfdom turbulent and rela-
tively short-lived. What were the sources of this instability? Here we
must take into account both external circumstances and new beliefs.
The most obvious change in circumstances was political. The weak-
ening of the Carolingian empire in the later ninth century led to rapid
erosion of centralized administration and, with it, any effective royal
supervision of local justice. By 876 Charles the Bald was granting
benefices to his men that emphasized their hereditary character, even
if the principle of his imperium remained:
We have ordered this charter to be written, through which we grant to
him the estates already mentioned, in all their entirety, with lands, vine-
yards, forests, meadows, pastures, with the people living upon them …
so that he for all the days of his life, and his son after him, may hold
and possess them in right of benefice and usufruct.4
Having thus alienated so much of the royal estate, the last Carol-
ingians did not so much dictate to their counts as negotiate with them.
So the number of imperial edicts or capitula declined. And their aims
became less ambitious. But the fragmenting of power and authority
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Why Feudalism did not Recreate Ancient Slavery
did not stop at counties. A royal right to command (called the ban-
nus) which had devolved to the counts, devolved further to local
landowners. By the end of the tenth century many proprietors (sei-
gneurs or lords) had effectively become the rulers of people attached
to the land – taxing, judging and punishing them. The fracturing of
the empire into numerous hereditary, virtually independent fiefs was
an accomplished fact.
Even if the seigneur’s right to command had devolved from the
royal bannus and was not seen simply as a property right, it increased
the power in his hands. The supervision of local justice by means of
missi or government inspectors, which had been Charlemagne’s ambi-
tion, scarcely survived. And the mallus, a public law court presided
over by the count, was rapidly losing its importance in many regions.5
There could be only one result. Local lords began to exercise the
‘rights’ of high justice (matters of life or death, military service and
taxation) which had previously been part of the public sphere. These
new ‘rights’, though descended from public authority, would soon be
claimed as inherent in lordship.
The change of dynasty in 987, when Hugh Capet was crowned king,
is often seen as confirming the change from kingship to local lordship
as the effective mode of government. Early Capetian kings had little
influence outside the region of Paris. Widespread castle-building and
the power of castellans (castle governors) were only the most obvious
symptoms of that change. The effect of these changed circumstances
must have been very disturbing. Many former slaves had been moving
towards the condition of coloni. But at the same time the coloni and
former allod-holders were losing their quasi-citizenship (which
excluded slaves) inherited from the later Roman empire.
As the administration of justice fell into the hands of local landown-
ers, rural labourers faced an unprecedented concentration of power.
Was an arbitrary power of taxation – enjoyed, at least in theory, by
Frankish monarchs as the successors to the Roman imperium – to be
added to landowners’ right to collect customary rents? Would there
henceforth be no limits to the powers of the landowner? And if so,
would the condition of rural labourers revert to something more like
that of ancient slaves than of coloni? There was an obstacle to that
happening.
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As we have seen, norms associated with the rhetoric of ‘the Chris-
tian people’ had already invaded Carolingian public life. The language
of Charlemagne’s capitula instituting oaths of allegiance promoted a
tentative moral universalism. His language conjured up the vision of
a status shared equally by all ‘souls’. But would the universal moral
status implied in oath-taking ‘by all’ have the same fate as the quasi-
citizenship once enjoyed by coloni when justice became entirely local?
If so, the fracturing of power could restore a form of lordship or
dominium as hard as any known to the ancient world, with labourers
sinking again to the level of mere property, Aristotle’s ‘living tools’.
Without centralized justice or any source of universal status, a new
version of slavery might replace the ancient one.
The obstacle to that happening was the Christian church and its
beliefs. The church adjusted to an emergent feudalism, but could not
endorse it. In the late ninth century Archbishop Hincmar issued a
warning to one of Charlemagne’s successors:
We bishops, consecrated as we are to God, are not like ordinary men
such as lay people who can enter into a relationship such as a vassal or
who can take an oath, which is forbidden to us by evangelical, apos-
tolic and canonical authority … We do not fight for a terrestrial king,
but on behalf of the celestial Ruler … for the whole people entrusted
to us.6
To emphasize the role of the church will immediately raise hackles.
For there is no doubt that in the past exorbitant claims have been
made for the role of the church in the disappearance of ancient slavery.
In reaction, others, like Karl Marx, have subscribed to a materialism
that rules out beliefs as effective causes.
Yet it is clear that the church and its beliefs played an important
part in both social and political change at the end of antiquity. But its
relationship to the two levels of change was different. The church
contributed to the undermining of ancient slavery and emergence of
serfdom only indirectly, almost unwittingly. By contrast, the church’s
reaction to the dissolution of the Carolingian empire was another
matter. For its reaction – sporadic and incoherent at first – gradually
took the form of a new militancy, which led to a programme of reform
founded on a far bolder notion of its legitimate sphere of action. But
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Why Feudalism did not Recreate Ancient Slavery
before turning to the eleventh-century reformist programme with its
new doctrine of legitimacy, we must first look more closely at the
church’s role in influencing social change during the ninth and tenth
centuries.
Just what did the church contribute to changing the conditions of
rural labour? As we have seen, the institution of slavery had been
weakened by the Germanic invasions and by the subsequent‘discovery’
that small- scale cultivation by families carried very real advantages.
Technical changes such as the use of watermills and improved rota-
tion of crops were aspects of that discovery. Yet new moral beliefs also
played a part.
Charlemagne and Louis the Pious had made an enormous effort to
spread Christianity into the countryside – to cover rural areas of the
empire with a network of churches, a network previously confined to
cities and their neighbourhoods. The goal was to have a tolerably
educated clergy serving the Christian people everywhere and reaching
all social conditions. After all, the word ‘pagan’ had originally meant
simply ‘country folk’. A Merovingian abbot described the countryside
as ‘an area inhabited by peasants, who neither fear God nor respect
any man’.7 That was the challenge the church confronted. Not sur-
prisingly, progress was achieved with least difficulty on royal and
ecclesiastical estates.
The church laid great emphasis on marriage and the protection of
the conjugal bond. In the ninth century Archbishop Hincmar was
among the first to proclaim marriage a ‘sacrament’, a voluntary and
permanent union between two individuals or ‘souls’ blessed by the
church. Such clerical emphasis on the conjugal bond helped to dimin-
ish further the contrast between slaves and coloni. While slaves
continued to be a source of labour on smaller estates, many others
were now installed with their families on a plot of land and could
reap some benefit from its yield, a step away from ancient slavery.
The ancient conception of lordship or dominium, which had made
it possible to consider slaves as mere chattels, was being transformed,
at least in part, out of concern for the sanctity of marriage and respect
for the family. The roots of the transformation can be traced back as
far as Justinian’s sixth-century law code: ‘Who can bear children to be
separated from their parents, sisters from their brothers, wives from
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their husbands?’ This moral revolution helps to explain why Charle-
magne did not use his imperium merely to defend an unchanged
lordship. He also used it to introduce a precarious element of equality.
Many of his capitula continued to be tribal (‘personal’) rather than
territorial (‘real’). They recognized the customs and addressed the
needs of the Franks, Romans, Burgundians, Saxons and Lombards.
Yet other capitula – those concerned with political and religious
matters – were universal in scope, addressed to all the inhabitants of
the empire.
The degree of universality varied according to the subject of the
capitula. ‘It was especially in matters of civil and penal law that diver-
sity according to race figures in the legislation of this period; unity is
complete in religious legislation and also tends to prevail in political
(“constitutional”) legislation which fell under the influence of central
power.’ That universality had religious roots. Especially ‘in matters of
religion the “Christian law” was the true, universal law of Charles’s
empire. It was what every baptized Christian had in common with
every other subject of Charles’s Christian empire.’8 This dual charac-
ter of Charlemagne’s laws reflected his ambitions for consolidating a
diverse empire on the one hand, and for the care of souls on the other.
Can we detect the influence of the clergy, reinforcing Charlemagne’s
will, in his universal legislation? Some, but by no means all, of the
universal legislation followed his convoking of ‘national’ assemblies.
Other laws applying to all were issued simply on the strength of his
imperium and after discussion with his closest advisers, who were
often clerics. They brought a distinctive viewpoint to legal discus-
sions. It was a viewpoint which identified the church and its rites with
the defence of moral equality and the claims of the poor. ‘Their sweat
and their toil made you rich. The rich get their riches because of the
poor. But nature submits you to the same laws. In birth and death you
are alike. The same holy water blesses you; you are anointed with the
same oils; the flesh and blood of the lamb (the Christ) nourishes you
all together.’ 9 Bishop Theodulf of Orléans did not mince his words
when addressing the Carolingian elite. It would be perverse to assume
that such injunctions had no effect on minds.
One measure taken was especially significant, for it began to fuse
the older Roman idea of a public sphere with the new belief in the
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Why Feudalism did not Recreate Ancient Slavery
equality of souls. Charlemagne made tithing in support of local
churches a legally binding obligation. The obligation to pay tithes (‘a
tenth part of the fruits of the earth, corn above all, wine, hay and the
young of beasts’) became universal. It was imposed irrespective of
social status, succeeding, in a way, the old Roman capitation tax. But
one of its features was new. The penalty for failure to pay the tithe
was excommunication, exclusion from the sacraments and the loss of
all standing among the Christian people.
As we have seen, emphasis on the equality of souls shaped other
features of Charlemagne’s capitula, beginning with his insistence
that oaths should be taken by ‘everyone, without exception’, in order
to give his rule a foundation in consciences. And to make that cred-
ible, there was growing reliance on the vernacular for oath-taking.
Such an insistence on oaths that could be fully understood and were
‘meaningful’ – elicited from individuals rather than clans or classes –
would have been inconceivable in antiquity. For it would have
threatened dominium, that domestic sphere of inequality protected by
religion, inheritance rules and paterfamilias.
Recognizing a distinct moral existence in ‘all souls’ made it difficult
to sustain such attitudes inherited from antiquity. The church, for all
its aberrations, struggled against them. In the cities of late antiquity,
the clergy had found their followers among poorer citizens as well as
those outside the pale of the citizen class. They had also welcomed
slaves into the Christian community. The constituent beliefs of the
church made such inclusiveness almost unavoidable. In the cities,
the church had long regarded manumission as a private virtue. But the
spread of the church into rural areas – providing shared spaces as well
as sacraments – helped to discredit further the idea that souls could be
owned.
Baptism, after all, was of individuals. Only God could ‘own’ souls.
This new universality – the attributing of conscience and will to ‘all
souls’ – helped to sound the death knell of ancient slavery. For, as a
recent economic historian acknowledges, it ‘tended to remove the
moral frontier separating the free man from the slave’.10 By the later
tenth century what had once been a sharp conceptual difference
between slaves and coloni was becoming blurred. The terms servi and
coloni were used as if they were interchangeable.
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If belief in moral universality was the hallmark of the faith of the
clergy, it faced a formidable challenge in the century after Charle-
magne’s death in 814. The disintegration of centralized government,
which increasingly made power local and unpredictable, obscured the
universal vision carried by the rhetoric of the Christian people. As a
result, it seemed that the moral unity promoted by Charlemagne
and his clergy might be lost for ever. That is why the church began to
forge a different role for itself. Church councils established a new
ascendancy during the reign of Charlemagne’s son, Louis the Pious.
Charlemagne had encouraged the ambitions of the church, holding
them in check through the strength of his will. But under his son the
pronouncements of church councils became emphatic, even peremp-
tory. Councils declared that secular laws had no legitimacy if they
contravened the laws of God. Louis was told, moreover, that ‘he did
not wield power because of his ancestors, but from God’.11
This attitude emerges clearly in the writings of Hincmar, who as
archbishop of Reims was adviser to several of Charlemagne’s succes-
sors. Hincmar showed considerable political dexterity and loyalty to
the Carolingians, not least because of their concern for the ‘care of
souls’. Yet, if the occasion demanded, Hincmar did not hesitate to call
these rulers to order:
Some so- called wise men say that the prince, being king, is not subject
to the laws or judgement of anyone, if not that of God alone … and
that in the same way he must not, whatever he has done, be excom-
municated by his bishops; for God alone has the right to judge him …
Such language is not that of a Catholic Christian; it is full of blasphemy
and the spirit of demons. The authority of the apostles says that kings
ought to be submitted to those who anoint them in the name of the
Lord and who look after their souls … The blessed Pope Gelasius
wrote to the Emperor Anastasius: ‘There are two principal powers by
which the world is governed: pontifical authority and royal dignity;
and the authority of the pontiffs is all the greater because they have to
render accounts to the Lord for the souls of kings …’
Hincmar was quite prepared to invoke the final judgement and the
‘other world’ to oppose princely interference in the affairs of the church.
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Why Feudalism did not Recreate Ancient Slavery
Writing to Louis III in 881, he strikes a note not heard during the reign
of Charlemagne:
While living amidst the pomp of your ancestors at Compiègne, ask
yourself where your ancestors died and now repose; so that your heart
does not become puffed up in the face of him who died for you and for
all of us, and who was then raised from the dead, and no more dies.
And be certain that you will die; and as you do not know on what day
or at what hour, you therefore have need, like all of us, to be ready for
the call of the Lord … You will pass away soon; but the holy church
with its leaders, under the Christ, its sovereign leader, and according to
his promise, will remain eternally.12
This fascinating letter contains the seeds of the future, intuitions and
beliefs that led the church to lay, almost unwittingly, the foundations
of a new world.
To dismiss Hincmar’s arguments as examples of clerical arrogance
and ambition would be to miss the point. It would miss what became
the dominant passion of the higher clergy in the late ninth century: a
passion for unity aroused by the fracturing of the Carolingian empire.
This localizing of political power threatened to overwhelm the church,
leaving it without an overarching identity or means of coordinated
action.
The threat to political unity was a threat to the universality of the
church’s mission. That is why a ‘political’ will began to form within
the church. Previously, it had worked in concert with secular rulers –
at first to insure its own survival in the face of the invasions, and then
to ‘civilize’ barbarian laws with the help of Roman law. These experi-
ences had already distanced the Western church from the deferential
role the Eastern church played in relation to the Byzantine emperor.
But by the tenth century monastic developments in the Frankish
church pointed to a different role. The universality of its moral claims
made the church ‘jealous’ of the Carolingian empire, aghast at its dis-
solution and determined to save some form of unity.
What form did the defence of unity take? Insistence on the equal
subjection of souls to God and his church had always been its first line
of defence. And, ultimately, it was that belief which would make
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medieval serfdom turbulent and relatively short-lived. Christian
beliefs provided grounds for an appeal against injustice that had not
been available in the ancient world. The grounds of social protest
began to change, even if at first not clearly or consistently. For it was
not merely in defence of customary ‘law’ that tenth-century peasant
uprisings took place. A new, more egalitarian voice can be heard in
some of their protests.
Accounts of peasant uprisings in the late tenth century have a mark-
edly different flavour from the accounts of revolts by slaves in the
ancient world. Take the following description of an uprising in Nor-
mandy in 997:
For in all the various regions of the Norman land, the peasantry assem-
bled in numerous bodies, and unanimously resolved to live henceforth
according to their own fancy [wills?], declaring that, despising what the
established law had laid down touching their share of wood and water
to be enjoyed by the people, they would govern themselves by their
own laws; and to enact and confirm these, each troop of these persons
elected two deputies, who were all to assemble at a certain place in the
centre of the country, and there to pass these laws.13
The writer does not conceal his disdain for ‘this rustic assembly’,
describing its forcible repression with relief. But what strikes us now
is the self- respect displayed by the ‘rustics’.
That is not to say that the clergy encouraged social discontent – far
from it. Nonetheless, in preaching about another world in which
God’s justice prevailed, they inadvertently provided a basis for dis-
content founded not simply on desperation but on self- respect. The
universalism of Christian aspiration had a subversive potential
unknown to the members of Germanic tribes or to Gallo- Roman col-
oni. The new network of rural churches began to reveal this potential
by internalizing Christian beliefs.
A new sense of social justice was being born. Among the clergy, it
was nourished by memories of the reforming zeal of the Carolingian
clerical elite. At the popular level, as we shall see, the new sense of
justice at first consisted of little more than confused moral intuitions
and hopes. But even though far from being coherent, its advent marked
the death of an assumption, the assumption of human inequality that
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Why Feudalism did not Recreate Ancient Slavery
had underpinned the ancient world. That assumption had shaped the
ancient forms of religious belief, the family and government. And so
deeply was it entrenched, that it had taken centuries to displace. Yet
by the tenth century the nature of both religious belief and the family
had changed. Moreover, the traditional way of thinking about gov-
ernment was about to be challenged by the church.
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Fostering the ‘Peace of God’
During the tenth century centralized power in the Carolingian empire
withered away. The fragmenting of the empire and the localizing of
power led to incessant struggles between rival lords and their unruly
retainers. Castle-building became a mania. A new class of armed
horsemen – milites or knights – came into existence, obliging lords to
compete for their support. These knights seem to have sprung from
among the small landowners. They roamed the countryside, looking
for plunder. Neither peasants nor church property were immune.
Unpunished violence became almost the norm. Charles the Bald, Char-
lemagne’s grandson, had ordered his counts to tear down many newly
built castles, but with little effect.
East of the Rhine, it is true, a new German dynasty emerged which
limited disorder. It sought to preserve the Carolingian ideal of a
‘Christian’ Roman empire, giving bishops an even more important
role in government than Charlemagne had done. After the coronation
of Otto I as emperor in 962, German rulers promoted ecclesiastical
reform in their lands and gradually acquired considerable influence
over the papacy – with dramatic, unintended consequences in the fol-
lowing century. But that is only half the story.
To the west, in ‘Francia’, the tenth century saw a struggle within the
church itself to restore ‘order’. While regretting the old order of the
Carolingian empire, the church fell back on its beliefs – what else
could it do? – when obliged to find a new foundation for order. In
doing so, some monastic leaders began to innovate. During the tenth
century their innovations were piecemeal. Only in the following cen-
tury were they fused into a coherent doctrine by the papacy. But new
attitudes towards government which would underpin that doctrine
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Fostering the ‘Peace of God’
emerged during the tenth century. They took the form of appeals to
defend the ‘liberty’ of the church.
Changes in attitude often precede and mould changes in ideas.
Thanks to a struggle undertaken within the church, the assumption of
moral equality began to impinge in new ways. It generated attitudes
which would no longer be dominated by the radical inequality asso-
ciated with ancient slavery, paterfamilias and a contempt for work.
This emerging sensibility bore the impress of monasticism and it had
the potential to reshape the condition of labour, the status of women
and attitudes towards the poor.
The reform movement began as a response to increasingly serious
threats to the church. We can only begin to understand how church-
men came to innovate – and why they felt obligated to do so – if we
take into account the nature and extent of those threats.
The church was losing control of its own affairs. In Rome, the pap-
acy had become a mere plaything of local aristocratic families. In
West Francia, the princes and counts were appointing bishops and
abbots (who by canon law ought to have been elected by cathedral
clergy or by monks) and giving away many church properties as fiefs
to their followers. Local landowners, meanwhile, regarded parish
churches located on their lands as their ‘property’. Sometimes they
appointed their servants as priests. And monasteries were once again
at risk of becoming little more than aristocratic preserves.
Is it surprising that deference to the church and the clergy declined,
along with their prestige? On the one hand, bishops and abbots were
often tempted to regard themselves as secular lords, indulging not
only in hunting and drinking, but even, at times, leading military
expeditions. On the other hand, secular lords began to claim a right
to judge clerics. The principle that only ecclesiastical tribunals could
try clerics – the ‘lot of the lord’ – was flouted.
It was not that the laity had previously been excluded from the
affairs of the church, but the practice of direct ‘election’ of bishops by
local congregations in the primitive church was now eroded. A
sixth- century church council at Orléans had continued to defend it:
‘No one is to be consecrated as a bishop unless the clergy and people
of the diocese have been called together and have given their con-
sent.’1 But what had this come to mean in practice? It meant little
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more than that the laity ‘acclaimed’ the choice when the new bishop
was presented to them. By contrast, the nobles customarily took part
in deliberations with the clergy preceding the election. They also had
the canonical right to present candidates for churches on their own
domain. Yet after the fragmenting of the Carolingian empire, princes
and magnates were no longer content to observe these traditional lim-
its to their roles.
As a result, the quality of the clergy, which the first Carolingians
had struggled hard to improve, was compromised. The proliferation
of rural churches had led to ordination at a younger age. Now church
offices, both major and minor, were sometimes simply purchased
(‘simony’). Many new incumbents had little or no instruction. Priests
and even bishops might be married or ‘living in sin’. Both simony and
marriage raised a further danger, that church properties would become
hereditary possessions. There was a risk that ‘the bishop’s office might
become hereditary like that of the count’.
The apparently irresistible advance of the hereditary or ‘feudal’
principle in the tenth century threatened the very identity of the
Frankish church. If the bishop’s office became hereditary like that of
the count, what would remain of the universality of the church and its
mission? It had, after all, originated as a kind of revolt against the
claim of the ancient family, against the empire of a domestic religion.
In consecrating individual will and conscience, the church had created
new moral ground. Was that now to be lost to a ‘naked’ hereditary
principle – that is, a hereditary principle denuded of family divinities
by the previous successes of the church?
In the eyes of its leaders, the threat to the church must have seemed
even greater than that posed by the barbarian invasions. For the
threat came from within, in what was ostensibly a Christian society.
It was a threat of inward perversion, a threat to belief in the sover-
eignty of God.
So it is hardly surprising that, in self- defence, churchmen gave ever
more emphasis to a ‘moral law’ derived from the sovereignty of God,
a law that applied to ‘all souls equally’. Hincmar had led the way in
the previous century, invoking the sovereignty of God in order to set
moral limits on the imperium of later Carolingian rulers and present
the bishops as defenders of those limits:
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Fostering the ‘Peace of God’
When it is said that the king is not subject to the laws or the judgement
of anyone, if not that of God alone, that is true provided that he is king
in the proper sense of the word. He is called king because he reigns and
governs; if he governs himself according to the will of God, directs
others to the right path and corrects miscreants by leading them from
the wrong to the right path, then he is king, and is not subject to the
judgement of anyone, except that of God alone. For laws are instituted
not against the just but against the unjust. But if the king is an adul-
terer, murderer, depraved, a rapist, then he must be judged … by the
bishops, who sit on the thrones of God.2
For Hincmar, not only was justice the final criterion of secular law, but
the church was its spokesman. The sovereignty of God invested the
church with overarching moral authority. And that, in turn, was pre-
served by and justified the ‘liberty’ of the church. The emerging issue,
therefore, was the right of the church to govern itself – choosing and
investing its own leaders – and to pronounce freely on moral issues.
Appeals to basic moral law reshaped the church’s self-understanding.
Much use was made of a mid-ninth-century collection of documents
now called the Pseudo-Isidorian Forgeries, which drew on authentic
earlier sources but ‘improved’ them with a view to strengthening the
church’s claim to be the court of final appeal. Typical was an assertion
in the document attributed to ‘Benedict Levita’: ‘The law of empires is
not above the law of God, but under it.’3 Thus the influence of the cler-
ical elite, fostered by Charlemagne and his son, Louis the Pious, in
order to ‘correct’ beliefs, was far from disappearing. Memories of their
reforming role and their moral authority helped to rekindle sparks of
reform in the tenth century. For bishops such as Agobard and Hincmar
had boldly tried to bind rulers to what they considered basic Christian
principles. That new boldness began to leave its marks on society at
large. Not least, under the church’s influence, the claims of God were
slowly insinuated into the understanding of property rights.
The condition of labour emerging under feudalism – with coloni
and slaves often assimilated – was to be marked by belief that there
were limits to the rightful power of one man over another. There was
an opening, however slight, for a private sphere and for freedom. It is
probably no coincidence that the tenth century also saw the stirrings
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of a market economy. New relations of exchange grew up between
the countryside and towns, which ceased to be administrative centres
and became marketplaces instead – something that the dispersal and
localizing of feudal power helped to make possible. In turn, that
growth of ‘boroughs’ impacted on the countryside. New attitudes and
ideas accompanied and played a part in this.
The confusion of coloni and slaves that might have presaged a
return to the conditions of slavery, coincided instead with ‘incessant
revolts which, from the tenth century, characterized the relations of
the rural population with their masters’. While in theory the terms
‘villein’ and ‘serf’ preserved the earlier distinction, the fact that these
terms came to be used interchangeably worked to the advantage of
the serfs or former slaves. What resulted? Unstable expectations –
with villeins fearing loss of their former status, while slaves glimpsed
a better status for themselves – fed rural resistance. In this way was
forged the principle later recognized by feudal jurisprudence: ‘And
know well that, according to God, thou hast not full power over thy
villeins. Therefore, if thou takest of his beyond the lawful rent that he
owes thee, thou takest it against God, and on the peril of thy soul, and
as a robbery.’ 4 The sense of a God- given human status imposing limits
on the exercise of power was growing. This was, in large part, a reac-
tion to widespread uncertainty about the meaning of ‘public justice’.
The fact that Frankish royal authority (the bannus) had devolved to
the local lord meant that justice was in danger of being perceived as
little more than the exercise of a property right, with ‘law’ being hard
to distinguish from the arbitrary will of that lord. The appeal to God’s
law filled a moral vacuum, therefore, providing a refuge for the idea
of justice. And this refuge had an egalitarian potential that would
prove hard to control.
Often barely literate, the rural clergy were regarded as little better
than villeins by local lords, which probably made it easier for the
clergy to identify with the rural poor. It would be absurd to pretend
that they were consciously subversive. Were they even capable of any
refined moral instruction? Nonetheless, the rudiments of the faith
they served – driven home by shared sacraments, the images in
churches and tales of saints’ lives – conveyed a basis for self- respect
and even resistance that had not been available in the ancient world.
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Fostering the ‘Peace of God’
The residual influence of the Carolingian clergy can be detected in
attempts to defend a more refined conception of the nature of mar-
riage and the status of women. Hincmar had gone so far in defence of
the sanctity of marriage that, with the support of Pope Nicholas I, he
rejected the attempt by Lothar, king of Lorraine, to set aside his child-
less wife in favour of a previous ‘wife’ who had borne him children.
The previous union had been based on Germanic custom. The church’s
conception of marriage as an indissoluble union of souls based on
personal volition and sanctioned by God was now advanced against
the older German view of marriage as a union of bodies based on con-
venience.5 Lothar’s first ‘wife’ was declared a concubine.
The episode was piquant. But not only that. It also drew attention to
the importance of moral agency, suggesting that obligations under-
taken in conscience had a God-given status demanding respect. And it
made the suggestion all the more powerfully as the individual affected
was a woman, thus confronting ancient assumptions about her infer-
ior nature and status. The wife was not a chattel to be disposed of at
will. Within marriage, the church insisted, there was at least a core of
moral equality. Hincmar had invoked the equality of souls before God
in order to reject arguments based merely on custom or convenience.
It is impossible to know what impression this made on a largely
illiterate laity. But at least some of the educated clergy continued to
draw inspiration from such events. In order to defend the church, they
insisted on the ‘sovereignty’ of God and his moral law ever more defi-
antly. If the collapse of the Carolingian empire and disappearance of
centralized justice had created a moral vacuum, the clergy sought to
fill it.
The disappearance of unity, which so alarmed the Frankish church,
led some monastic leaders to draw on their own experience of monastic
government. The roots of a rival to the Roman idea of an imperium
resting on lordships and paterfamilias can be traced to this period.
Monastic reform had begun under Charlemagne. He had deplored the
lax practices developing in many Frankish monasteries, which were
treated simply as the property of the founder’s family and failed to
observe the Rule of Benedict. Under Louis the Pious, another Benedict –
Benedict of Aniane – was set over all monasteries, so that the Benedictine
Rule (which insisted on the free election of abbots and sought to keep
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Europe Acquires its Identity
social distinctions at bay) might be observed with greater regularity. It
was an attempt to preserve popular respect for monastic life.
The disintegration of the Carolingian empire and the growth of
Viking raids frustrated that reform movement. Yet at the outset of the
tenth century isolated reformers – at Abingdon in England, at Aurillac
in West Francia and at Gorze in Germany – still sought to apply the
Benedictine Rule scrupulously. Almost unwittingly, they contributed
to a new, monastically inspired approach to government. Their piece-
meal efforts prepared the way for a more ambitious movement of
monastic reform during the tenth century, a movement openly deter-
mined to protect monastic ‘liberty’ from secular encroachments. And
that determination led gradually to the recasting of relationships in
government in terms of the requirements of ‘souls’ rather than the
traditional claims of lordship (dominium) and paterfamilias.
The new vision of how ‘the Christian people’ should be served
would prove to be far more subversive than Charlemagne’s vision.
For it no longer combined ancient and Christian moral impulses.
Where Charlemagne and his clerical advisers had relied on aristo-
cratic subordination and personal ties to promote unity in the empire
and church, tenth-century Frankish reformers engaged in ‘purifying’
monastic life developed attitudes that would, in the next century, lead
Pope Gregory VII to put forward what was virtually a constitution
for Europe. Monastic reform thus generated a more aggressive,
uncompromising ambition in the church, a political ambition.
We should not be surprised by this development. The emergence of
a more egalitarian conception of society, inspired by monasticism,
brought in its wake the need to think about government in a new way.
In Germany, emperors preserved the intimate entente between church
and state that had been the badge of Charlemagne’s project. By now,
however, the Frankish West was different. In the absence of a strong
central government, some Frankish monasteries took things into their
own hands and found new ways of introducing ‘order’ into the church.
And they associated such order with independence of the church from
secular rule.
The idea that the proper unit of subjection – the true subject of
claims in justice – was the individual or ‘soul’ rather than lordships or
the patriarchal family had long since gained ground among the
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Fostering the ‘Peace of God’
educated clergy. It was implicit in their basic beliefs. But develop-
ments in the late tenth-century Frankish church had released it in a
new form, as a concern for ‘peace’ and the protection of ‘everyone’.
Clerics influenced by the monastic reform movement initiated a series
of demonstrations against the disorder and violence of the age in the
name of the ‘care of souls’. They did so by invoking ‘God’s law’.
Yet who could speak with final authority about the moral law? The
first Carolingians had not only created an educated clerical elite. They
had also encouraged the ambitions of the papacy. The restoration of
a Western ‘Roman’ empire under Charlemagne had helped to revive
Papal claims to a universal jurisdiction, claims which not only led to
conflicts with the Byzantines, but could also be invoked to limit the
authority of Frankish bishops. The mid- ninth-century pontificate of
Nicholas I was a harbinger of things to come. His claims to papal sov-
ereignty set down precedents that survived what was to be the most
scandalous period of papal history.
The claim of papal sovereignty – and with it the moral authority of
the church over the Christian people – would be reasserted dramati-
cally in the eleventh century. As we have seen, the ground was prepared
by German emperors who introduced reform- minded clerics into the
papal court. Yet it was not so much German reformist influence but
remarkable developments in Frankish monasticism that would trans-
form the papacy in the eleventh century.
In 910, with the foundation of the abbey of Cluny, Frankish monas-
ticism turned the corner towards enduring reform, based on stricter
adherence to the Rule of Benedict. The founder, Duke William of
Aquitaine, enabled the monks of Cluny to elect their abbots, free not
only from interference by his own descendants but also from the local
bishop. Cluny would be subordinate only to the authority of the pap-
acy. The second abbot of Cluny, Odo, extended this reform by
founding other monastic houses, which became ‘priories’ subject to
the disciplines of Cluny. In this way a network of reformed monaster-
ies spread throughout the Frankish domains, free from the threats of
corruption assailing the Frankish episcopacy.6
It would be difficult to exaggerate the influence, direct and indirect,
of this Cluniac reform movement. The direct influence can be found
not only in the way many older monasteries rapidly submitted to the
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Europe Acquires its Identity
disciplines of Cluny, but also in the frequent election of monks from
Cluny to bishoprics, where they began to defend the principle that the
church should choose its own leaders. These bishops sought to restore
order to their dioceses, attacking the sale of offices, rooting out cler-
ical immorality and trying to recover church property that had been
alienated. They met with fierce resistance from secular lords.
The indirect influence of Cluny was perhaps even more important.
It restored the prestige of monasticism as representing a truly Chris-
tian life, an ordered life of personal dignity, work and self- government.
It laid emphasis on learning and prayer as well as physical labour. It
offered, tacitly, a challenge to the church to exert itself in a society
plagued by the warfare of minor aristocrats and knights, who were
profiting from the disappearance of older forms of authority. Such
knights went in for banditry and, in the words of one historian,
‘organising protection rackets’. Altogether, the Cluniac reform move-
ment raised the sights of the church, inciting it to defend moral
authority in a world apparently given over to mere power.
As the year 1000 approached, the fragmenting of secular power and
castle-building by local lords in West Francia created an impression of
anarchy – the ‘dissolution of all things’ – which some interpreted as the
approach of the Antichrist. As a result, the Frankish church not only
had an opportunity but felt an imperious need to stamp its own image
on society. It alone now had a coherent conception of right rule. For
the previous belief in an imperium – in an autocratic ‘Roman’ empire
set over and regulating temporal lordships – no longer corresponded
to social facts. It was up to the church to restore order. But how was it
to begin?
In fact, movements sprang up almost simultaneously in a number
of places towards the end of the tenth century. Stimulated by the
abbot of Cluny, the clergy encouraged the expression of a new sens-
ibility. In 975 the bishop of Le Puy convened a meeting of the knights
and peasants of his diocese, eliciting from them an oath to respect the
property both of the church and of paupers or the ‘powerless’. In
989 a church council in Burgundy went even further. It excommuni-
cated ‘those who attacked bishop, priest, deacon or clerk, while at
home or travelling; those who robbed a church; those who stole a
beast from the poor or the tillers of soil.’ 7 By the end of the century
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Fostering the ‘Peace of God’
many other public meetings and church councils had extended this
‘Peace of God’, so that it included ‘pilgrims, women and children,
labourers and the instruments of their work, monasteries and ceme-
teries’. These were to be left ‘undisturbed and in perpetual peace’.
Such councils had first appeared in the south of France. But they
soon spread to its northern regions as well. Indeed, the movement
became an irresistibly popular one. ‘Peasants of every class, from the
most prosperous, through the middling ranks, to the lowest of all’
flocked to the councils. The power of the movement was such that by
1017 it constrained the nobles and knights to accept a ‘truce of God’.
They ‘swore to desist from all private warfare from noon on Saturday
until prime on Monday’.
This would allow due reverence to be paid to the Lord’s Day; those
who broke this ‘truce of God’ would be cut off from the sacraments of
the church and the society of the faithful in life; no priest might bury
them, no man might pray for their soul. Those who swore to and
observed the truce were assured of absolution from God . . .8
The movement was at the same time religious and secular. Contem-
poraries greeted it with wonder and delight, almost as if it were the
Second Coming. They had a sense that they were witnessing some-
thing of fundamental importance, that Christian moral beliefs were
finally shaping society at large. The church was defending the defence-
less. ‘The movement … depended upon and encouraged an outburst
of religious fervour such as had not appeared in the written sources
since the sixth century, if then.’9
A few decades later a Burgundian monk, Ralph Glaber, summed up
the impression made by the peace movement: ‘In obedience to divine
goodness and mercy the heavens began to clear, to blow favourable
winds and to proclaim by their peaceful society the generosity of the
Creator.’ Regional assemblies, convoked by bishops, became the means
of expressing the new movement of opinion, opinion in which reli-
gious fervour, often accompanied by ‘miracles’ of healing, associated
the power of God with the creation of social order on a new basis.
A voice coming from heaven and speaking to men on the earth could
not have accomplished more … These miracles excited such enthusiasm
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Europe Acquires its Identity
that the bishops lifted their crosses towards heaven and all present
stretched their hands to God, crying in a single voice: ‘Peace, peace,
peace!’ They saw in such miracles the signs of a perpetual agreement
and of the obligation which bound them with God.10
Enveloping West Francia, the ‘Peace of God’ sought to protect indi-
vidual souls through ‘peace and security’ for all. Is it fanciful to see
here the glimmerings of a new notion of social justice, one with less
regard for inherited status differences? It may be no accident that just
at this time Odilo, abbot of Cluny from 994, introduced a new festi-
val day for Christians, the Feast of All Souls.
Odilo had played an important part in bringing about the ‘Peace of
God’. By the end of the tenth century the Cluniac reform movement
was sufficiently strong and confident to have hopes of reshaping the
church and society at large. That strength and confidence turned on a
new independence or liberty of the church, an autonomy which fos-
tered different attitudes from the ‘intimate’ relations of the higher
clergy and secular aristocracy under Charlemagne. In the Cluniac net-
work of monasteries, learning, prayer and the chanting of services
were joined to an earlier emphasis on agricultural labour for monks.
Monastic communities were becoming harbingers of a new world.
Within their confines, disciplined lives gave a dignity to labour, fur-
ther dispelling the stigma of ancient slavery.
At the time of the Germanic invasions monastic life had made a
deep impression on Gallo-Roman minds. But it was as the refuge from
a disintegrating world that monasteries had then chiefly impressed. By
the year 1000 monasteries were becoming models rather than refuges.
Monastic labour would soon be engaged in reclaiming and clearing
enormous tracts of land in Europe, helping to create the agricultural
landscape that survives even now.
Yet it was as a model of human association that monasticism had
its greatest success. For it consisted of self-governing societies founded,
at least in principle, on consent, and working under a rule that recog-
nized the moral equality of brothers. The life of willing service and
self- discipline offered by monasticism at its best sharpened the con-
trast with the ancient model of lordship (dominium), in which some
were born with the right to command and others with the duty to
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Fostering the ‘Peace of God’
obey. Reformed monasticism offered to people at large a glimpse of
equality.
The late tenth century became a formative moment for ‘Europe’.
Not only was it the moment when fragmentation of the Carolingian
empire reached an extreme point. Its events also mark the sapping of
attitudes about ‘fate’, closely associated with the assumption of nat-
ural inequality and the emergence of a new actor on the public stage:
‘the people’. During the Carolingian period the people had been ‘off-
stage’. Now, suddenly, they appear ‘onstage’. They are actors, with a
purpose. Clearly, the tremendous effort made to extend the influence
of parish churches throughout the countryside in the previous two
hundred years had made a difference. Progress had been achieved
‘with the internalising of the Christian faith’.11
The idea of a more ‘open’ future was a symptom of Christian moral
beliefs affecting the population at large. The peace movement stimu-
lated a remarkable outburst of lay piety. And the physical evidence of
that outburst can still be seen. For in the decades following the peace
movement – that is, well into the eleventh century – there was an
extraordinary upsurge of new church building. Should we not see this
building activity as the embodiment of a new hope? In the 1040s
Ralph Glaber thought so. As he noted, ‘simultaneously with the peace
movement, and the growth of lay piety which sustained it, “a white
robe of churches” began to cover the French countryside.’12
Suddenly, the future seemed more ‘open’. For Adalbert, an aged
bishop looking back on the reign of Charlemagne, it was a matter for
regret: ‘Changed are all the orders of society! Changed utterly are the
ways of men!’ Exactly what the more ‘open’ future would consist in
remained unclear. Yet a lack of clarity did not reduce its appeal for
‘the people’. Indeed, it can be argued that the lack of clarity followed
from the nature of Christian beliefs.
The rejection of fate and advent of hope followed from uncertainty
about the salvation of ‘souls’. Such uncertainty created fears as well as
hopes. We have already seen a more individualized picture of ‘the
other world’ spreading among the Christian people. The collective
sense of salvation that had sustained the persecuted ‘saints’ of the
early church had given way to individual hopes and fears about per-
sonal salvation, to an acute perception that each soul would one day
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Europe Acquires its Identity
be judged according to its merits. That was unavoidable. And its
un avoidability implied some freedom of choice, a moral challenge to
all equally.
Not even uncertainty about whether judgement took place at the
moment of death or would have to await the return of the Christ
weakened the egalitarian focus of the final judgement. Indeed, by the
late tenth century that focus was reshaping popular understanding of
‘the other world’. Egalitarian intuitions intensified its ‘otherness’, the
stark contrast it provided with existing social conditions. The move-
ment of the ‘Peace of God’ conveyed such a message. It translated into
this world a minimal respect of souls for one another, a touch of heaven
on earth.
So fear of the day of judgement was balanced by hope. The biblical
scenes painted on the walls of churches – especially scenes of the pas-
sion of the Christ and his resurrection – testified that the immortal
soul, rather than the immortal family, was the primary constituent of
reality. Is it mere chance that the doctrine of purgatory emerged at
this time, with its emphasis on a period of purging individual sins?
The doctrine reflected the spread from monasteries of penitential rules
and the practice of individual confession. The claims of family, clan
and caste were weakening.
But it was not only emphasis on the day of judgement, the new
notion of purgatory and wall paintings that drove home a message of
hope. Largely illiterate congregations also heard tales of saints’ lives,
stories which demonstrated that salvation did not depend upon social
status – and that individual faith could triumph over even the most
unfavourable circumstances. The Lives of the saints offered a kind of
imagined mobility, a moral standing that could be achieved rather
than inherited. That freeing of the imagination from inherited social
status contributed to new moral intuitions. The Lives of the saints
became a remarkable genre. In today’s terms, they combined elements
from stories of the Wild West, crime novels and science fiction with
morality tales. In effect, they democratized the ancient cult of the
hero, for the moral triumph they celebrated was a triumph open to
everyone. It did not depend on birthright, gender, bodily strength or
mere cunning. The tenacity of the saint could outdo even the cunning
of Odysseus.
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Fostering the ‘Peace of God’
No wonder that the search for and reverence for relics of the saints
became an obsession, almost an industry, in the tenth century – leading
at times to unsavoury ‘thefts’ and even violent combats. After all, pil-
grimages to the most important shrines, such as that of St James at
Compostela, had created important economic arteries. The wealth
bestowed on reliquaries is a testament to that. In retrospect, such ven-
eration may seem distasteful, riddled with superstition and corruption.
But in the tenth century such pilgrimages became the vehicle of a
more democratic sociability. The physical remains of saints put believ-
ers, whatever their origins, in touch with hope, a quality of will made
possible by ‘God become flesh’.
The message of hope was reinforced by the recruitment of clergy. The
church’s emphasis on celibacy and resistance to clerical marriage pre-
vented the clergy degenerating into a caste. The opportunity for social
advancement through a career in the church, even if it was still hedged
in by the privileges of birth, weakened the perception that social stand-
ing was entirely governed by ‘fate’. It helped to give the church a hold
over opinion, something it would badly need in the next century, when
it felt obliged to free itself from secular power and feudalism.
At best, we can only recover fragments of identity from the tenth
century, fragments that afford glimpses into minds beginning to be
liberated from the assumptions of an ancient social order. The pieces
were dispersed and disorderly. They were present in some minds far
more than in others. Nonetheless, they were sufficiently widespread
to prevent feudalism achieving the ‘staying power’ of that ancient
society founded on the permanent inequalities of lordship, paterfamil-
ias and slavery.
These fragments of identity mark the beginnings of the modern
Western world. However incompletely at first, they began to make up
a new picture of society and government. It was a picture that would
later give the terms ‘authority’ and ‘public’ a new meaning. Government
would no longer be conceived primarily as a rule over families, clans
or castes. It would be conceived as rule over individuals.
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15
The Papal Revolution: A
Constitution for Europe?
By the end of the tenth century Christian moral intuitions were giving
rise to a new sensibility. They were creating a sentiment expressed as
concern for the safety and well-being of everyone, at least of all ‘the
Christian people’. It would be premature, however, to describe this
sentiment as ‘public’ opinion. For its expression was localized and
fostered by the clergy, who drew on the fears created by private war-
fare and unpunished violence, disorders which had followed the
disappearance of anything like centralized justice.
Just how deep did this sensibility go as yet? To be sure, those con-
cerned with expanding their lordships may often have feigned a
sensibility that they did not really share. Nonetheless, across all social
situations, attitudes inherited from antiquity and based on the assump-
tion of natural inequality were changing. Increasing emphasis on
‘protection of the poor’ (the Council of Reims in 1049 decreed that
‘no one should injure poor men by thefts or frauds’) and insistence on
the sanctity of marriage are but two examples of changing moral atti-
tudes. The church stated that the parties to a marriage were equal
before God, made divorce more difficult, worried about allowable
degrees of consanguinity, and struggled to limit the authority of the
paterfamilias.
So, at least in some areas and intermittently, the clergy opposed the
weight of custom. The church’s belief that a day of judgement for sins
awaited all equally remained its most effective weapon. It pointed to
the need for self- examination, pricking the skin of conscience. The
day of judgement depicted in church frescos must have been imprinted
on the minds of even the most sceptical churchgoers.
The basic terms of Christian belief, which accorded primacy to the
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The Papal Revolution: A Constitution for Europe?
soul, took little account of the ‘feudal’ stratification of society. That
omission was important. The church’s ‘care of souls’ encouraged a
form of self- respect that had not been available in antiquity. For the
most part it was minimal, and left few marks on the surface of events.
Yet it could also emerge suddenly and with a vengeance. We have
already seen how peasant uprisings in late tenth-century Normandy
revealed a new – and almost ‘democratic’ – willingness to challenge
old subordinations.
By the second half of the eleventh century symptoms of a new sens-
ibility were becoming more noticeable. Indeed, Europe was – at the
prodding of the church – acquiring a moral identity. The previous idea
of a ‘Christian empire’ was receding, making way for the idea of a
‘Christian Europe’. Three developments especially deserve our notice,
each connected in a different way with the earlier ‘peace movement’.
The first was a new, idealized vision of the relations between the sexes,
‘courtly love’. The second was an attempt to create a code of conduct
promoting knights’ ‘courtesy’ and ‘honour’ rather than brutality in
their dealings. The third was a new focus for personal identity, through
an appeal by the papacy to the peoples of Europe as ‘Christians’. Each
of these developments involved new aspirations. The all- important
relationship between God and individual souls – emphasized by the
clergy – can be found within each, suggesting how the church was
shaping opinion. Let us look briefly at each.
The first development, the genre of ‘courtly love’, sprang from the
south of France. It was a movement associated with the troubadours,
song and poetry, celebrating an idealized pursuit of chaste love, the
admiration of a courtier for ‘his lady’. It was a portrayal of love as
romance rather than as something merely carnal or utilitarian. And in
its portrayal of love, it flattered both the admirer and the admired,
conjuring up elevated, even if wistful and unfulfilled, longings. The
influence of the church was not overt. But it was there.
The second development was an attempt to refine the dealings of
the lords with their mounted and armoured supporters, that is, with
knights. Closely connected with the widespread building of castles,
knights were at first probably little more than armed thugs given to pil-
laging their neighbourhood. Drawn mostly from the class of small
landowners, they were ‘masters’ rather than nobles. But the gradual
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Europe Acquires its Identity
creation of a code of chivalry, which insisted on the loyalty of knights
to their lords as well as their duty to protect the weak and unfortu-
nate, amounted to another attempt to moralize what at the outset had
been a rather sordid role. The notion of ‘chivalrous’ conduct entered
the world, leading to the creation of special orders of Christian
knights, the milites Christi. ‘From the Council of Clermont and the
opening of the crusades, the church may be said to have undertaken,
not unsuccessfully, the conversion of the feudal knighthood and its
capture for the service of religion.’1
The third development was connected not with peace but with war.
It was a development in which the papacy played a crucial part in
fostering a new identity: ‘Christian Europe’. The appeal by Pope
Urban II for volunteers to halt the expansion of Islam – following a
disastrous defeat of the Byzantines – created in Europe a new con-
sciousness of itself. A veritable tide of enthusiasm released by the
pope’s appeal at Clermont in 1095 (‘thousands cried with one voice:
“Deus le volt!” – It is God’s will!’) soon led to attempts to liberate the
Holy Land itself. ‘Prior to the crusades, Europe had never been excited
by one sentiment, or acted in one cause; there was no Europe. The
crusades revealed Christian Europe.’2
The crusades were a truly universal event, involving all strata of the
population. They revealed ‘a people’ with a shared identity capable of
breaking through the skin of feudal stratification. In fact, it was the
wildly popular character of the First Crusade which finally shamed
the rulers of Europe to lead the Second and Third Crusades. ‘Who
were the first crusaders who put themselves in motion? Crowds of the
populace, who set out under the guidance of Peter the Hermit, with-
out preparation, without guides, and without chiefs, followed rather
than guided by a few obscure knights; they traversed Germany, the
Greek empire, and dispersed or perished in Asia minor.’ 3 A papal sum-
mons released this new European identity, appealing to the consciences
and energies of individuals regardless of their social status. It was, of
course, intensified by the centuries- old conflict with Islam and no
doubt benefited from the aroma of foreign adventure and loot. But
the new identity also owed something to popular impatience with feu-
dal vendetta and the yearning for ‘Christian’ solidarity which had
emerged in the peace movement.
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The Papal Revolution: A Constitution for Europe?
The statement by a church council in Narbonne in 1054 catches a
new mood sweeping across feudal Europe: ‘No Christian should kill
another Christian, for whoever kills another Christian undoubtedly
sheds the blood of Christ.’ 4 The proclamation takes no notice of feu-
dal stratification. Even more striking evidence of the emergence of
‘Christian Europe’ as a moral fact can be found a hundred years later.
The murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury cathedral
by courtiers of the English king, Henry II, in 1170, released powerful
emotions across Europe. As he fell to the floor near the cathedral altar,
Becket allegedly cried out: ‘I am ready to die for my Lord, that through
my blood the Church may be given peace and liberty.’ Within a few
years pilgrims from many countries began to make their way to the
place of ‘martyrdom’, while representations of the ‘outrage’ prolifer-
ated. A notion of ‘God’s law’ and the limits of violence was penetrating
the popular mind.
But could the church harness what it was helping to create? Could
this emerging European identity be given a more permanent, institu-
tional expression? Could appeals to ‘God’s law’ be translated into
practices more durable than the ‘Peace of God’ and ‘Truce of God’? If
so, the monastic movement of reform would have to act outside the
monasteries. And in order to do that, a fulcrum for action was
required. There was only one fulcrum available: the papacy.
Only Rome could offer a central agency for general reform. The
history of Western Europe from the mid- eleventh to the thirteenth
century is the history of the papacy being recruited and transformed
by the reform movement. Within a few decades the papacy became so
central to the reform movement that some historians have doubted
whether the Cluniac movement was as important as the ‘Gregorian’
reforms issuing from Rome. Cluny was not, indeed, the only source of
pressure for reform. There were isolated movements for reform of the
church in England, Flanders and Italy. But, as we have seen, it was
from the new German empire that the first effective impetus for
reform at the centre came. German emperors had renewed the Carol-
ingian project of a ‘Christian empire’. A project of moral reform was
embedded in their imperial system. So in the eleventh century German
emperors began to prise the papacy away from the hold of Roman
aristocratic families.
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Europe Acquires its Identity
This ‘liberation’ of the papacy had a major unintended conse-
quence. It opened the way to the introduction of the far more
intransigent, monastically inspired reformist attitudes of Cluny into
Rome. Such attitudes contributed, in turn, to papal policies that
would put an end to the Carolingian entente of church and empire,
eventually creating bitter conflicts between the two.
It is doubtful whether comprehensive reform of the church could
have succeeded without the attitudes generated by Cluny and its
scores of affiliated monasteries. As we have seen, Cluny had provided
the means of purifying the monasteries and raising the level of the
higher clergy, who now began to act in concert with a view towards
general reform. Their efforts had already helped to foster the new
sensibility emerging at the turn of the millennium.
The eleventh century saw a number of remarkable popes – especially
the fiery, determined Hildebrand, who became Pope Gregory VII
in 1073 – draw out new implications from the moral intuitions
that had underpinned the ‘Peace of God’ and ‘Truce of God’. As
early as mid- century Pope Leo IX gathered around him a group of
reform-minded clergy. Leo worked closely with the German emperor,
Henry III, a friend of abbot Hugh of Cluny, to promote reform by
appointing men of outstanding ability as cardinals and advisers in the
curia. Hildebrand was only one of the group – including minds as dif-
ferent as the legalistic Cardinal Humbert and the moralizing Peter
Damian – who developed in this monastically inspired reformist
atmosphere. Each of these cardinals had been a monk, and all shared
a discontent with the condition of the church. Their influence ushered
in a period when the popes themselves would be drawn from a monas-
tic background. Leo IX’s pontificate thus saw a first crucial, if
informal, step towards what has been called the ‘papal revolution’,
the creation of a clerical elite determined on systematic reform.
Leo IX convened synods in Rome to condemn abuses in the church,
while more bishops devoted to reform were appointed from Cluniac
monasteries. The practice of sending papal legates with a Cluniac back-
ground to ‘enforce’ reforms in France, Germany and England also
developed. Pope Leo personally led the way, travelling north of the Alps
to promote a new discipline in the church. By the end of the century a
pope, Urban II (1088–99), was recruited from the order of Cluny.
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The Papal Revolution: A Constitution for Europe?
The success of the reform movement inspired a new confidence in
Rome, and with it a quite new determination. That determination
would, in turn, profoundly affect the relationship between the papacy
and the German empire, the greatest secular power in Western Eur-
ope. Between 1050 and 1300 a fierce struggle developed between the
papacy and the German empire over competing claims to jurisdiction.
The significance of that struggle for the future can hardly be exagger-
ated. What made the struggle so pregnant with the future? It obliged
both the papacy and secular rulers to reconsider fundamental ques-
tions about their identity and claims. In doing so, the struggle acquired
a permanent influence on ways of thinking about society and govern-
ment in Europe. In the long run, it contributed to the emergence
of constitutionalism in Europe. But it also had a more immediate
effect. It generated the idea of the state endowed with a ‘sovereign’
authority.
The struggle between papacy and empire forced the nations of West-
ern Europe out of a tradition-bound mode of life and thought. It
gradually obliged them to move beyond the ambiguities of a concep-
tion of ‘law’ that mingled (and confused) customary practices, legislative
enactments and moral principles. The struggle led to a clearer separ-
ation of these ideas and had consequences that were not foreseen.
At first glance, the issues remained those that had inspired defend-
ers of the ‘liberty of the church’ in the previous century: a dangerous
stranglehold by temporal forces over the church, from the top to the
bottom. German emperors were tempted to see the papal office as in
their gift. Kings and leading feudatories took the same view of bisho-
prics, rewarding loyal followers with the office or auctioning it off.
And minor feudal lords considered parish churches on their lands to
be at their disposal. Altogether, lay control and sale of church offices,
and immorality among the clergy (whether involving marriage or
concubines) heightened a sense that the church was losing control of
its own affairs. For these ‘abuses’ raised the possibility that the clerical
offices might become hereditary and the clergy a mere caste. If so, the
church would be entirely submerged in the feudal system.
The very notion of two spheres, the sacred and secular, was at risk.
The prestige of the Cluniac monasteries owed something to the popu-
lar perception that, against the odds, they sustained a ‘truly Christian
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life’. But these reformed monasteries threw the general, ‘deplorable’
condition of the church into even sharper relief.
Influenced by Cluny, rigorous and anxious minds gathered in Rome
began to recoil from the accumulated ‘abuses’. Under the direction of
the new cardinals, the church came to feel an imperious need to pro-
tect and regulate itself, to define itself as a separate body, provided
with its own laws and means of discipline. No longer could the church
be content to be governed by Christian rulers or simply identified
with the Christian people. For serious threats to the church no longer
came from a pagan empire or marauding Germanic invaders. They
now came from within an ostensibly Christian world.
How could the church combat these threats? There seemed to be
only one way. It must develop its own legal system, a system that
would make it possible to wrench control over its affairs from secular
hands. The church needed its own legislation, its own system of
courts, its own forms of discipline. Unfortunately, what it already pos-
sessed of these things was incoherent and unreliable, for church ‘law’
was a scattering of biblical citations, opinions of the early Fathers,
decisions of a few universal councils and some papal letters.
The question of law thus became central. If the church was to
develop a system of law, it would have to define the proper relation-
ship between the church and lay rulers, between the sacred and the
secular. In the later eleventh century the project to create coherent
‘canon law’ led to bitter controversy over the lay investiture of clerics,
the practice whereby lay rulers appointed bishops to their office,
themselves investing them with a pastoral staff and ring. Could lay
rulers properly bestow the symbols of rule over souls, if that rule was
the responsibility of the church, its raison d’eˆtre?
The struggle over lay investiture of clerics led to the most serious
rethinking of the relationship between the secular and sacred since the
century following the conversion of Emperor Constantine. After its
adoption as the official religion of the Roman empire, Christian scrip-
ture and tradition laid the foundation for acknowledging two spheres
of authority, in contrast to the unitary vision sustained by pagan civic
religion. The church had, after all, grown up outside the institutions
of pagan life. Long before Constantine, it had been obliged to develop
its own organization, forms of discipline and self- help. It had done so
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comforted by Jesus’ injunction ‘to give to Caesar those things that are
Caesar’s, and to God those things that are God’s’.
So from the outset the church had distinguished sacred from secu-
lar matters. Yet after Constantine, this ‘duality’ was overlaid by
Christian feelings of gratitude and deference over support from the
Roman imperium. The emperors acquired, de facto, considerable
influence over the affairs of the church. Little wonder, therefore, that
Augustine, while emphasizing the indispensable role of government in
coping with the consequences of human sin, carefully distinguished
the ‘city of God’ from the church.
If the popes were often submissive to imperial authority, the found-
ing of a ‘new Rome’ in Constantinople and creation of a new
patriarchate there saw such submissiveness become the rule in the
Eastern church. However, the weakening of imperial authority in the
West and papal jealousy of the pretensions of the Constantinople
patriarchs began to give the Western church a new voice. Near the
end of the fourth century St Ambrose insisted that ‘where matters of
faith are concerned it is the custom for bishops to judge Christian
emperors, not for emperors to judge bishops’ (and ‘palaces belong to
emperors, churches to the priesthood’).5
In 390 Ambrose excommunicated Emperor Theodosius for his
responsibility in ordering a massacre in Greece. This resulted in Theo-
dosius doing penance in the cathedral of Milan, a trial of strength that
was not soon forgotten in Rome. It probably contributed to the bold
claim by Pope Gelasius in a letter to the Eastern emperor at the end of
the fifth century: ‘Two there are, august emperor, by which this world
is chiefly ruled, the sacred authority of the priesthood and the royal
power. Of these the responsibility of the priests is the more weighty in
so far as they will answer for the kings of men themselves at the divine
judgement.’6 Yet during the following centuries of invasion and dis-
order in the West this claim seldom advanced beyond the threshold of
memory. In their dealings with the Eastern emperors, popes – even
Gregory the Great – reverted to a submissive tone, not least because
they were often asking for military support against the Lombard
invaders of Italy. It was chiefly in the face of repeated claims by patri-
archs of Constantinople to equal status that the popes revived an
earlier intransigence.
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The Western church became even more closely involved in secular
affairs as a result of the ‘barbarian’ invasions. We have seen how the
bishops came to dominate municipal government, making it more dif-
ficult to distinguish the sacred from the secular. Yet they used their
position not only to defend the interests of the cities, but also to
impose on the imagination of the invaders that the church represented
a ‘law’ superior to all human laws, a lawgiver whose power exceeded
that of any human agency. In this way they preserved the idea of
moral accountability in a world otherwise given over to brute force.
This helped bishops to acquire considerable influence in the post-
invasion kingdoms.
With the creation of the Carolingian empire, that pattern was rein-
forced. The Carolingians sought to strengthen the role of the church
in order to use it as an instrument for ‘correcting’ government of the
Christian people. They also forged a close alliance with the papacy.
But the basis of this relationship between sacred and secular remained
aristocratic, one of personal connections and friendships. Both parties
were aware of the fragility of their control over events. So no funda-
mental clash of claims or doctrine resulted.
Despite a late eighth- century attempt to assert papal sovereignty
over what had been the Western empire – a forgery known as the
‘Donation of Constantine’ – the papacy remained more an observer
than a promoter of change until the mid- eleventh century. There was,
it is true, a nominal hierarchy in the Western church, with archbish-
ops receiving their ‘metropolitan’ pallium from Rome in return for a
satisfactory profession of faith, while they in turn required a similar
profession from their suffragan bishops.
However slight the practical effects of this system might be, the prin-
ciple of a supreme arbiter of the faith was maintained by this slender
chain of authority at a time when papal legates were very infrequent,
when there were no General Councils in the West, when papal letters
seldom conveyed commands, and when papal commands anyhow
could not be enforced.7
Though often presented as the ‘memory’ of better days, the idea of
papal rule of the church was a mere wistful dream before the eleventh
century.
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The second half of the eleventh century saw dramatic change.
Determined to define and defend the church as a distinct body within
Christendom, and to protect its independence, popes began to make
far more ambitious claims. They began to claim legal supremacy for
the papacy within the church, what within a few decades would be
described as the pope’s plenitudo potestatis, his plenitude of power.
But how could this become more than a mere claim? How could the
papacy become a truly effective agency of government? What would
be required for church ‘canons’ to become law properly so called?
The only way forward was to remove all doubt about the source of
law and to secure its autonomy, taking what we would now call
‘constitutional’ steps. Two such steps were needed. The first was pro-
cedural, a way of identifying the legitimate holder of supreme legal
authority. The second was a matter of substance, of clarifying the
nature of that supreme authority. Each was indispensable if the church
was to become an autonomous legal body. In taking these constitu-
tional steps, the reformers no doubt had in mind the Roman law
notion of imperium. The emperor’s final legal authority had, in an
unsystematic way, shaped papal ambitions from the time of Constan-
tine, emerging as a claim to universal rule over the church. But the
reformers were probably also aware of the lack of any reliable pro-
cedure for choosing Roman emperors. For the papacy suffered from
the same problem.
The first step taken by papal reformers was to secure the independ-
ence of the papacy itself. The Cluniacs had always defended papal
primacy, in part because it provided the guarantee of their own inde-
pendence from local secular influence. But events of the tenth century
(when the papal office had been virtually auctioned off between lead-
ing Roman families) had shown only too vividly how the papacy itself
could be corrupted by secular powers. So in 1059 the procedure for
papal elections was reformed, with the creation of a college of cardi-
nals as electors, intended to be free from external constraint.
It was enacted in the sight of God that the election of the Roman pon-
tiff should be in the power of the cardinal bishops, so that anyone who
is enthroned without their previous agreement and canonical election
and without the subsequent consent of the other orders of clergy and
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of the people shall not be held for a pope and apostle but rather for an
apostate. 8
German emperors had acquired the habit of imposing their own can-
didates as popes, denying any significant role to the Roman clergy and
people. The decree of 1059 was thus, in the words of an eminent
medievalist, a ‘declaration of independence’.
It was a declaration that marked the emergence of constitutional
order in the church, providing it with a rule that could underpin its
self- government and enable it to act as an independent body within
Christendom. That rule would make it possible, as a second step, to
claim, unequivocally, supreme legislative authority for the papacy, a
plenitude of power. That was the step taken by Gregory VII, the fiery
former monk Hildebrand.
The pontificate of Gregory VII is usually taken to mark the high
point of the struggle over investitures between the papacy and the
German emperors. Yet the war of words had begun before the reign
of Gregory VII. Cardinal Humbert had led the struggle in the 1050s,
by insisting on the moral superiority of the church as the justification
of its independence and authority:
Anyone then who wishes to compare the priestly and royal dignities in
a useful and blameless fashion may say that, in the existing church, the
priesthood is analogous to the the soul and the kingship to the body,
for they cleave to one another and need one another and each in turn
demands services and renders them one to another. It follows from this
that, just as the soul excels the body and commands it, so too the
priestly dignity excels the royal or, we may say, the heavenly dignity the
earthly.9
Might it follow that not only could emperors not appoint popes, but
that popes had the right to depose emperors in some circumstances?
Certainly, it was finally his excommunication by Gregory VII that
obliged a bare- footed European Henry IV to seek pardon from the
pope in the snow-covered courtyard at Canossa.
In the face of German refusals to abandon the lay investiture of
bishops – not to mention claims that the emperor had the right
to choose and even depose popes – Cardinal Humbert pushed his
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opposition to simony or the sale of offices to an extreme point. He
went so far as to reject attempts to distinguish investiture as a grant
of property from the conferring of a spiritual office (the ‘compromise’
which in fact prevailed between the church and secular rulers in the
next century). Humbert ‘denounced the practice of lay investiture as a
usurpation of sacramental functions by an unqualified lay ruler, and
he also insisted that a cleric who was elevated to the episcopate with-
out due canonical election could not be regarded as a true bishop
at all’.
Hildebrand, when he became Pope Gregory VII, completed the
constitutional revolution by boldly setting out the sphere of papal jur-
isdiction. Even before coming into conflict with the young Emperor
Henry IV (who did not share his father’s sympathy for the reform
movement), Gregory VII laid down his conception of the church in
the Dictatus Papae. This is a fascinating document. It takes us into a
new world, a world in which papal sovereignty is asserted to be the
fulcrum of Christian civilization. The church is presented as a
self- contained legal order, with the papacy as the supreme source and
final judge of what is lawful.
In the Dictatus Papae, Gregory puts forward a dramatically unitary
vision of authority within the Church, which begins and ends with the
papacy, due to its God-given (given, that is, to St Peter and his succes-
sors) responsibility for the care of souls. Even a short selection from
Gregory’s propositions reveals the radical character of the document:
That the Roman Pontiff alone is rightly to be called universal.
That he alone can depose and reinstate bishops.
That his legate, even if of lower grade, takes precedence in a council.
That we … ought not to stay in the same house as those excommuni-
cated by him.
That for him alone it is lawful to enact new laws according to the needs
of the time.
That he may depose Emperors.
That no synod may be called a general one without his order.
That to this See the more important cases of every church should be
submitted.
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That he should not be considered as Catholic who is not in conformity
with the Roman Church.
That the Pope may absolve subjects of unjust men of their fealty.10
Gregory was more original than he may have realized. For in the
Dictatus Papae he merged the Roman law conception of imperium,
or supreme legal authority, with the church’s ‘care of souls’. In conse-
quence, the basic unit of subjection to a legal order became the
individual.
Gregory’s claims tie the church as a legal system to an individual-
ized model of society. Nor was this accidental. Gregory’s vision of
papal authority over individuals followed directly from the Christian
idea of the sovereignty of God over souls. Therefore, in putting for-
ward his vision of the church as a legal order, Gregory VII did not
merely defend the liberty of the church. He also insisted on its moral
primacy, a primacy that he understood as having important secular
implications.
Gregory’s opponents – especially the German Emperor Henry IV –
seized on his ‘innovation’, in order to condemn Gregory as an
over- ambitious ‘usurper’ and apostate. ‘Without God’s knowledge he
has usurped for himself the kingship and the priesthood. In this deed
he held in contempt the pious ordinance of God, which especially
commanded these two – namely, the kingship and the priesthood –
should remain, not as one entity, but as two.’ 11 These criticisms were
not entirely off the mark. In some of his pronouncements Gregory did
seem to reduce temporal government to merely an instrument of
papal supremacy. He moved beyond excommunication as an indirect
way of undermining royal power by encouraging subjects to withhold
their obedience. In 1080, when excommunicating Henry IV for the
second time, Gregory’s strong language (‘I forbid all Christians to
obey him as king’) conjured up the vision – or nightmare – of a papal
theocracy in Europe.
Yet, on closer inspection of his writings, we find that this was hardly
his goal. Gregory’s claims fell far short of a complete theocratic pro-
gramme. ‘Although he asserted a right to depose Henry he never
suggested that the king’s authority was in principle delegated to him
by the pope; nor did he claim in practice the right to choose anyone
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he wished as king, but rather acknowledged that the right of election
belonged primarily to the princes.’ 12 Still less did Gregory himself seek
to assume the imperial mantle. What Gregory did seek was a kind of
moral supervision of secular rulers, through his access to and author-
ity over the consciences of their subjects.
That moral supervision was claimed at times in the name of ‘just-
ice’. But what did Gregory understand by that word? A fundamental
reversal of assumptions had taken place. Justice was no longer under-
stood in terms of natural inequality, but rather of natural equality.
The emphasis on the moral equality of humans running through
Gregory’s pronouncements is remarkable. It followed directly, in his
mind, from acknowledging the sovereignty of God.
Gregory’s assertion of papal sovereignty transformed the notion of
government inherited from ancient Rome, the idea of imperium.
Gregory touched on the difference between the pagan notion of
imperium and Christian ‘sovereignty’ in a letter to Bishop Hermanus
of Metz, written in 1081 and defending his policies towards the
German emperor. Claims derived from the imperium of ancient Rome
have to be reviewed, he implies, in the light of Christian beliefs. ‘Is not
a sovereignty invented by men of this world who were ignorant of
God subject to that which the providence of almighty God established
for his own glory and graciously bestowed on the world?’13 For
Gregory, the latter had a superior moral foundation. It rested on the
care of souls.
The ‘fear of God’ figures in Gregory’s letters as the threshold to a
proper sense of justice:
All kings and princes of this earth who live not piously and in their
deeds show not a becoming fear of God are ruled by demons and sunk
in miserable slavery. Such men desire to rule, not guided by the love of
God, as priests are, for the glory of God and the profit of human souls,
but to display their intolerable pride and to satisfy the lusts of their
mind.14
Gregory’s egalitarianism even led him into an astonishing inversion of
social roles: ‘All good Christians, whosoever they may be, are more
properly to be called kings than are evil princes; for the former, seek-
ing the glory of God, rule themselves rigorously; but the latter, seeking
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their own rather than the things that are of God, being enemies to
themselves, oppress others tyrannically.’ 15 The pope did not feel he
was innovating. Rather, he was drawing out the deepest moral intui-
tions of the church.
To buttress his case, Gregory drew on Paul, Augustine, and his pre-
decessor, Gregory the Great. From Augustine’s book on Christian
doctrine, he cited a judgement about the uncontrolled ambition of
rulers: ‘He who tries to rule over men – who are by nature equal to
him – acts with intolerable pride.’ From Gregory the Great, he cited
something equally emphatic: ‘When a man disdains to be the equal of
his fellow men, he becomes like an apostate angel.’16 For Gregory VII,
the beliefs of the church suggested a different basis for government.
Humility and service rather than pride are the keys to right government.
Here nothing less than the support of the Gospels would do. ‘He
who would be the first among you, let him be the servant of all’ (Mark
10: 44).
The argument was clear. God would judge rulers according to what
they have done for ‘all souls’, irrespective of social standing.
They shall render unto God an account for all men subject to their rule.
But if it is no small labour for the pious individual to guard his own
soul, what a task is laid on princes in the care of so many thousands of
souls! And if Holy Church imposes a heavy penalty on him who takes
a single human life, what shall be done to those who send many thou-
sands to death for the glory of this world?17
This was a bold inversion of ancient pagan values, which had iden-
tified morality with the strength and glory of the polis, and with the
fortunes of a privileged citizen class. By contrast, Gregory’s monastic
vision subordinates the secular sphere, and with it the nature of gov-
ernment itself, to the requirements of morality, understood as the care
of individual souls. His vision subordinates government to fundamen-
tal moral claims.
In making that move, Gregory swept away the remains of a vision
of society and government that had survived the Roman empire, the
notion of an imperium resting on lordships and paterfamilias. Human
inequality had been its underlying assumption. Now, moved by moral
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intuitions generated by Christianity, Gregory was introducing a new
model for society and government, whether he fully realized it or not.
The process of turning the church into a unified legal system did
not take place overnight. Its complete development awaited the thir-
teenth century. Yet its implications would prove to be revolutionary.
For although it was the popes who first claimed a ‘sovereign’ author-
ity within their sphere, it was not long before secular rulers came to
understand their authority in the same way. The example of the
church as a unified legal system founded on the equal subjection of
individuals thus gave birth to the idea of the modern state.
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Natural Law and Natural Rights
Gregory VII’s vision had monastic origins. By the eleventh century the
communal character of Western monasticism – which had merged the
ideals of a solitary, contemplative life and a life of social responsibility –
was being translated onto a wider stage. Augustine had shown the
way. He had rejected the sharp contrast in early Eastern monasti-
cism between life in ‘the desert’ and life in ‘the city’. The Cluniac
reform movement raised the possibility that greater self- discipline
might be extended to society at large. It contained the seeds of a social
revolution.
Gregory’s vision of a social order founded on individual morality
and self-discipline, rather than on brute force and mere deference, had
taken centuries to prepare. But it required the vocation of the reformed
monasteries to give that vision a confidence and sweep which began to
create a new world. From the eleventh to the thirteenth century the
church sought – in a high-handed, even arrogant way – to constrain
secular rulers by means of this new framework of ideas. The struggle
between the empire and the papacy over investiture went on for dec-
ades. We have no need to follow all the episodes of the struggle. Secular
rulers – for whom richly endowed and influential bishoprics were
important instruments of government – proved unwilling to divest
themselves entirely of a role in investiture. Nor did the papacy have the
means of excluding them. So, in the course of the twelfth century, a
compromise emerged, drawing on traditional dualist thinking.
It was in England, perhaps because of the relative power of the
Anglo-Norman crown, that the compromise first appeared. In slightly
different forms, the compromise soon took root in Germany and
France as well. The Concordat of Worms (1122) came to symbolize it.
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The compromise involved the sharp separation of spiritual office from
temporal possessions. The bishop as a feudal lord holding lands from
the king had a different persona from the bishop as part of a sacra-
mental order, the church. Canonical election of bishops was protected.
However, the king’s role in investing the bishop after election with his
temporal possessions, whether properties or jurisdictions, could be dis-
tinguished from the church’s role in investing a bishop with his spiritual
office. The latter took the form of an archbishop, representing Rome,
bestowing the pastoral staff and ring, symbols of the ‘care of souls’.
Kings retained very considerable influence. But, in abandoning the
right to confer the symbols of spiritual office, they in effect acknow-
ledged the autonomy of the church and of the moral sphere. Were
they also acquiescing in the emergence of a kind of constitutional
order in Europe, an order giving the papacy a unique role? That now
became the question.
The papacy stood out against any claim by secular rulers to be the
sole source of law. It presented itself as the court of final appeal for
Western Europe. In that sense it sought to create a constitution for
Europe, although, of course, such a constitution was never written or
fully accepted. Whatever their other disagreements and struggles, the
feudal nobility, national monarchies and independent communes of
medieval Europe were united by a distrust of papal ambitions – by the
attempts of some popes to make systematic a set of norms which
would have formalized the papacy’s role as the court of final appeal
in a European Rechtsstaat. Yet that is certainly how the most lucid
and ambitious medieval popes understood their calling.
What are often described as the theocratic pretensions of Innocent
III ( 1198–1216) can be seen as such an attempt to create a legitimate
pan- European order, an order which recognized and protected certain
ecclesiastical and moral claims against secular powers, of whatever
kind. The public response across Europe to the ‘martyrdom’ of Thomas
Becket, murdered in his cathedral by ‘agents’ of the English king, sug-
gests that the papacy had made headway in shaping opinion. On the
other hand, the claim to a universal jurisdiction by Innocent III and
Innocent IV (1243–54) was also seen as threatening an unpreced-
ented subordination of the secular sphere, with the ‘sword’ of secular
power, in the form of the empire, merely delegated by the papacy.
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So the focus of disputes over the relationship of sacred and secular
powers shifted from the issue of investiture during the twelfth cen-
tury. Instead, the ‘constitutional’ issue of the rights of the papacy
vis- à- vis the empire became central. Ever since the coronation of
Charlemagne as emperor by the pope in the year 800, the papacy had
at its disposal an historical precedent for claiming overlordship of the
Western empire. By the end of the twelfth century it was asserting that
claim strenuously.
In making claims for papal ‘sovereignty’, Innocent III and Innocent
IV were doing more than protecting the papacy from the efforts of
emperors of the new Hohenstaufen dynasty (notably Frederick
Barbarossa and Frederick II) to establish control over Italy as well as
Germany. They were not merely intent on preventing renewed secular
domination over the affairs of the church. They were also claiming an
overarching moral authority over secular affairs. In doing so, they
moved beyond the traditional argument that spiritual authority was
inherently superior to secular power because ‘the soul ought to gov-
ern the body’.
An intellectual revolution was making that analogy seem simplistic.
The attempt to create a regular government of the church directed
from Rome drew on ideas that led Innocent III and Innocent IV to
become innovators, almost despite themselves. These popes put for-
ward a model for a properly governed Christian society, a model that
was to be of crucial importance for the emergence of a new form of
secular government, the state. What were the sources of this develop-
ment? They were twofold: the egalitarian moral intuitions long since
generated by Christianity were being joined to far greater knowledge
of Roman law. Roman law had helped to shape the law codes of the
post-invasion Germanic kingdoms, but from the late eleventh century
it acquired a radically new importance.
Here we must be careful. For at times it has been suggested that the
revival of Roman law was the real source of the papal reform move-
ment or ‘revolution’. But that is putting the cart before the horse. We
have seen how important the austere moral attitudes generated by the
monastic reform movement were for the papacy. The perceived need to
protect and reform the church by creating an autonomous system of
canon law was the real catalyst for the revival of interest in Roman law.
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It is no accident that the revival can be traced to the final decades
of the eleventh century. Gregory VII may have encouraged the Count-
ess Matilda of Tuscany to establish law lectures at Bologna, in order
to promote the study of Roman law. Within a few decades this school
of law acquired a remarkable reputation. It began to attract students
from across Europe. By the end of the century a jurist, Irnerius, was
lecturing at Bologna on the body of Roman law, the Corpus Juris
Civilis of Justinian. Irnerius and other jurists did not merely discover
in Roman law a rich, sophisticated collection of rules relating to dif-
ferent conditions of life and society. Their encounter with Roman law
stimulated reflections on the nature and requirements of a legal sys-
tem, a kind of jurisprudence. For them, Roman law conjured up the
vision of an autonomous, self- contained legal system.
Such a vision inevitably prompted comparison with the rules or
canons supposedly governing the life of the church. These seemed
painfully inadequate when compared to the elaborate, articulated
structure of Justinian’s Corpus. There had, it is true, been earlier col-
lections of canons that brought together the decisions of ‘universal’
church councils, papal decrees and the opinions of church Fathers
such as Augustine and Gregory the Great. But these collections were
centuries-old and incomplete, often incoherent or inconclusive. The
new Roman lawyers or ‘civilians’ viewed them with some contempt.
What was needed to introduce order and unity into the laws of the
church? What were the logical and practical prerequisites of a legal
system? Justinian’s Corpus Juris Civilis suggested a clear answer: ‘The
emperor is not bound by statutes.’ Supreme authority had to be
invested in a single agency that would itself be above the law. Just as
the emperor’s imperium had become the final source of Roman law,
the laws of the church required a source that was not itself bound by
law and so was able to prevent contradictions or anomalies develop-
ing within the system. Such a source for law also provided the means
of abrogating undesirable customs.
The revival of the study of Roman law from the later eleventh cen-
tury provided a new and sophisticated model for legal argument in
the church, making it far more than merely a competition in quota-
tions from the Old and the New Testaments. The revival had its first
impact through the refashioning of papal claims. It reinforced the
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ambition of the reforming papacy, leading the popes to insist that an
unquestioned source of validity and a court of final appeal were indis-
pensable, if the church was to develop a coherent legal system.
During the twelfth century a new breed of lawyers, the canonists,
set about creating such a system for the church. Within a few decades
they achieved a sophistication that made them the equals of the civil
lawyers. Indeed, the canonists enjoyed certain advantages over the
‘civilians’. Instead of merely commenting on a ‘complete’ or ideal sys-
tem of Roman law, they were involved in creating a new system, one
which would be in daily use throughout the rapidly expanding net-
work of church courts. Whereas in most of Western Europe Roman
law was introduced only when local or customary law proved insuffi-
cient, canon law was applied in the first instance in all ecclesiastical
jurisdictions.
There was a deep excitement attached to the creation of canon law.
It derived from the need to sift through the rules of Roman law to
establish which were compatible with Christian beliefs. As Ivo of
Chartres insisted at the end of the eleventh century, only those parts
of Roman law acceptable to the church should be adopted. Yet before
long the areas invaded by canon lawyers included important parts of
both private and criminal law, for the church took a close interest in
matters such as marriage, testaments, adultery, divorce, perjury, usury
and homicide. Little wonder that at times civil lawyers felt their
domain was under threat.
The papacy was the fulcrum of the system canon lawyers were
creating. Theirs was an audacious enterprise, for the attempt to
invest one agency with a monopoly of final legal authority flew in
the face of the habits and attitudes of a feudal society, with its rad-
ical decentralization, multiple jurisdictions and emphasis on custom.
Changes in language – the infiltration of legal terms – soon reflected
this attempt to identify the legitimate claims of the papacy as what we
would call ‘sovereign’ claims. By the later eleventh century, as we have
seen, papal authority was more and more often referred to in terms of
a plenitude of power, plenitudo potestatis. This term became a virtual
synonym for legislative sovereignty.
There was a closely linked emphasis on the role of the papacy as a
court of final appeal. In the 1080s, Manegold of Lautenbach argued
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that ‘according to the harmonious witness of the holy fathers, no one
is permitted to judge its [the Roman church’s] judgements or reverse
its sentences and no one may rightfully have the will or power to dis-
obey its decrees … and whatever is done against its discipline can in
no wise be held lawful’. 1 Drawing on Roman law, new procedures for
appealing to the papacy were introduced, bringing in their wake the
rapid expansion of papal bureaucracy.
By the 1140s the impact of Roman law on the thought and practice
of the papacy reached a point where Bernard of Clairvaux, a famous
ascetic and Cistercian monk, felt compelled to warn one of his former
followers who had become pope:
What slavery can be more degrading and more unworthy of the Sover-
eign Pontiff than to be kept thus busily employed, I do not say every
day, but every hour of every day, in furthering the sordid designs of
greed and ambition? What leisure hast thou left for prayer? What time
remains over to thee for instructing people, for edifying the church, for
meditating on the law? True, thy palace is made to resound daily with
noisy discussions relating to law, but it is not the law of the Lord, but
the law of Justinian.2
Bernard was not entirely fair, for he failed to take account of the
Christian modifications of Roman law involved in the creation of
canon law. But his stinging rebukes do conjure up the extent of the
intellectual revolution under way.
In developing a distinctively Christian legal system, popes and can-
onists based their arguments on the equality of souls in the eyes of
God, with its implications for the claims of morality. They sought to
establish that there is a moral law (‘natural’ law) superior to all
human laws, and, consequently, that the spiritual realm cannot be
made subject to the secular sphere. The claims of public power cannot
obliterate the claims of conscience, when the latter are properly under-
stood. It is true that the popes and canonists also assumed – more
questionably – that the church uniquely represented these claims of
conscience. In their eyes, Paul’s idea of ‘Christian liberty’ and the lib-
erty of the church were necessarily joined. Nonetheless, they laid
down principles that could, one day, be turned against the church as
well as against secular rulers.
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The revolution under way was greatly reinforced by the appearance
in about 1140 of a systematic study of canon law, Gratian’s Decre-
tum, a work which, in its own way, could bear comparison with
Justinian’s Corpus and was rapidly accepted as authoritative. A monk
of Bologna, Gratian presented his study by examining texts and argu-
ments on both sides of disputed questions in canon law. Typically, he
sought to reconcile such differences. But where that was not possible,
he often rendered his own verdict. The existence of such a synthesis of
church law had a major impact on minds and practices throughout
Western Europe. During the rest of the twelfth century hundreds of
commentaries on the Decretum were written across Europe. They tes-
tified to an extraordinary outburst of intellectual activity. As Brian
Tierney has observed, ‘the works of these Decretists, most of them
unpublished so far, contain the most sophisticated thought of the age
on problems of church and state’.
Discussions about the proper relationship between the papacy and
the empire rapidly gained in subtlety and precision.
Supporters of popes and princes were no longer content to ask whether
the Scriptures and the Fathers had attributed a higher authority to the
priests or to kings. They also tried to define what precise classes of legal
cases could be judged by a pope, what were the limits (if any) to his
legislative authority, what legal sanctions he could use in his dealings
with temporal rulers, and whether he could hear appeals from their
courts.3
In turn, papal legislation or decretals, influenced by the arguments of
the canon lawyers, accumulated so rapidly that by 1234 a new
compilation of canon law, called the Decretales, was needed. Lawyer-
popes, whose outlook had been shaped by canon law, were thus able
to influence its further development by means of their decretals. The-
ory and practice were joined.
During the later twelfth and the thirteenth century nearly all the lead-
ing popes were not only theologians but also canon lawyers. They drew
on Roman law to create a more systematic legal system for the church.
Some of these popes had lectured in a university before being called to
the papacy, for legal studies flourished in the new universities of Bol-
ogna, Paris and Oxford. Not only had Innocent IV, for example,
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lectured on canon law at Bologna before becoming pope, he managed
to write a major commentary on the Decretales during his pontificate.
The papal claim to a ‘sovereign’ authority reached its climax under
the pontificates of Innocent III and Innocent IV. Innocent III, in par-
ticular, did not mince his words when describing the pope’s status and
role: ‘You see then who is this servant set over the household, truly the
vicar of Jesus Christ, anointed of the lord … set between God and
man, lower than God but higher than man, who judges all and is
judged by no one …’ 4 Innocent III did not contest the ordinary juris-
diction of secular courts. But he did assert the right of the papacy to
act as the court of final appeal for all cases, whether ecclesiastical or
civil, when the ‘matter is difficult and ambiguous’, ‘when the judge is
suspect’, or ‘when there is no superior judge’. This appellate jurisdic-
tion, he argued, was founded on the authority conferred on Peter and
his successors by the Christ – the right to defend moral law (ratione
peccati) central to the mind of a pope who was both theologian and
lawyer.
Paul, when writing to the Corinthians to explain the plenitude of
power, said, Know you not that we shall judge angels? How much
more the things of this world? (1 Corinthians 6.3) Accordingly (the
papacy) is accustomed to exercise the office of secular power some-
times and in some things by itself, sometimes and in some things
through others.5
Sovereignty, the plenitude of power, was henceforth deemed to be
intrinsic to the jurisdiction of the papacy.
Yet ‘plenitude of power’ was not the only innovation in the lan-
guage deployed by popes that revealed the intellectual revolution
under way. For centuries popes had described themselves as the ‘vicars
of St Peter’, a description that confirmed their special status by relat-
ing it to the tomb and body of the apostle in Rome, where his presence
attracted thousands of pilgrims each year (even in ‘dark’ centuries
when the hazards of travel abounded). This physical connection with
the ‘founder’ of the Roman church had not only fostered acts of pri-
vate devotion but also facilitated political agreements sworn ‘in the
presence of the apostle’. Altogether, the papacy’s role as guardian of
Peter’s tomb had helped to preserve for Rome its dominant place in
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the imagination of Western Christians. During the twelfth century,
however, that self- description of the popes gave way to another.
Rather than styling themselves as the ‘vicars of St Peter’, popes increas-
ingly referred to themselves as the ‘vicars of Christ’.6
What lay behind this change? The development of the papacy as an
effective agency of government – and the impact of more abstract
thinking stimulated by Roman law – led to a downgrading of the
physical connection with the apostle and an emphasis instead on
the legal jurisdiction conferred by his divine master. The claim by
Rome to possess universal jurisdiction drew attention to its ultimate
source, the Christ.
This symptom of more legalistic thinking in the interests of creating
effective papal government completed a process that had begun under
the Carolingians. The rhetoric of the ‘care of souls’ had reshaped the
language of government and administration. There was no longer any
equivocation about the unit of legal subjection. Papal sovereignty was
tied to ‘equal subjection’. It was tied – through the care of souls – to
the government of individuals, whose moral status as children of God
gave them an equal claim to concern and respect.
In this way canon law developed around a new theory of justice, a
theory resting on the assumption of moral equality. To find it, we have
only to look at the opening words of Gratian’s famous Decretum:
‘Natural law [jus] is what is contained in the Law and the Gospel by
which each is to do to another what he wants done to himself and
forbidden to do to another what he does not want done to himself.’
Here the biblical ‘golden rule’ has been imposed on the ancient theory
of natural law, so that equality and reciprocity are made the main-
springs of justice. Without, perhaps, fully realizing the novelty of his
move, Gratian fused Christian moral intuitions with a concept inher-
ited from Greek philosophy and Roman law. Relations of equality
and reciprocity are now understood as antecedent to both positive
and customary law. They provide ultimate standards for judging the
contents of each. By identifying natural law with biblical revelation
and Christian morality, Gratian gave it an egalitarian bias – and a
subversive potential – utterly foreign to the ancient world’s under-
standing of natural law as ‘everything it its place’.
This new theory of justice, developing within canon law, would
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have far- reaching consequences. For it marked a departure from the
assumptions about status embedded in Roman law since antiquity.
For example, the second-century jurist Gaius had relied on three tests
to establish personal status:
Is the person free or unfree?
Is the person a citizen or foreign born?
Is the person a paterfamilias or in the power of an ancestor?
Evidently, Gaius did not assume an underlying equality of moral sta-
tus. His use of ‘person’ was purely descriptive and physical. It carried
no moral implications. The church, following Constantine’s conver-
sion, had accepted much Roman private law, modelling its courts and
procedures on that law. But when knowledge and practice of Roman
law declined after the fall of the Western empire, the overriding con-
cern of the clergy was to save as much as possible, by helping Germanic
rulers to create law codes for their new kingdoms and trying to pro-
tect their Romanized subjects. The understanding of Roman legal
terms became fragile. For centuries there was neither leisure nor the
ability to review basic assumptions about status in Roman law.
Gratian’s interpretation of the requirements of natural law amounted,
however, to just such a review. It amounted to a reversal of assumptions
in favour of human equality. For, in effect, it stipulated that all ‘persons’
should be considered as ‘individuals’, in that they share an underlying
equality of status as the children of God. Instead of traditional social
inequalities being deemed natural – and therefore not needing justifica-
tion – an underlying moral equality was now deemed natural. This
reversal of assumptions meant that paterfamilias and lordship were no
longer ‘brute’ facts that stood outside and constrained the claims of
justice. They too were now subject to the scrutiny of justice.
Papal insistence on ‘equal subjection’ to its rule carried this reversal
of assumptions, with its potential for subverting paterfamilias and
traditional lordships. The first prohibition of lay investiture by Pope
Nicholas II in 1059 stressed the nature of the papacy’s universal
authority: ‘We must be diligently solicitous for all men with the vigi-
lance that pertains to our universal rule, taking heed for your
(individual) salvation.’ And Gregory VII had reinforced that language:
‘By thy favour, not by any works of mine, I believe it is and has been
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Europe Acquires its Identity
thy will, that the Christian people especially committed to thee should
render obedience to me thy specially constituted representative. To me
is given by thy grace the power of binding and loosing (souls) in
Heaven and upon earth.’ There was to be no exception of persons,
emphasized Innocent III: ‘but it may be said that kings are to be
treated differently from others. We, however, know that it is written
in the divine law, “You shall judge the great as well as the little and
there shall be no difference of persons”.’7 The ancient formula defin-
ing justice as ‘the set and constant purpose to give every man his
due’ – a formula adopted by canon lawyers from Justinian’s Institutes –
was thus shorn of any remaining belief (as in Aristotle) that unequal
birthrights constitute a morally relevant ground for treating people
differently.
Of course, the canonists did not foresee all the implications of this
reversal of moral assumptions. They were not social revolutionaries.
But the fact remains that they laid the foundation for a move away
from an aristocratic society to a ‘democratic’ society. Such a reversal
of assumptions not only foreshadowed a fundamental change in the
structure of society. It also freed the human mind, giving a far wider
scope and a more critical edge to the role of analysis. It made possible
what might be called the ‘take off’ of the Western mind.
While the recovery of much Greek philosophy in the twelfth century
(often translated in Spain from Arabic texts) held up a powerful
example of abstract thinking to the medieval West, the assumption of
moral equality in canon law created a new habit of generalization. Can-
onists habitually considered how any rule of law or practice would
affect ‘all souls’. Their concern, unknown to antiquity, was with the
experience of ‘all equally’. In that way, belief in a human agency prior
to established social roles – the distinction between individuals and the
social roles they occupy – cut through a compartmentalized view of the
world. Where the older corporate conception of society had inhibited
any temptation to generalize, it was experience of human agents as
such that dominated the writings of the canonists. And by distancing
human agency from particular social roles, it made possible a sharper
distinction between ‘is’ and ‘ought’ – statements of observable facts and
moral prescriptions.
This change gave a tremendous impetus to logical speculation. For
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Natural Law and Natural Rights
it immediately called into question the status of terms which had sus-
tained a corporate conception of society. Instead of terms designating
classes of phenomena being deemed to have a substance or reality in
their own right, terms began to be seen as mental constructions, as
what we now call concepts. From Abelard in the twelfth century to
Ockham in the fourteenth, that contributed to a debate between ‘real-
ists’, who defended the objective, extra-mental reality of general terms
or concepts, and ‘nominalists’ who insisted that ‘a universal thing
does not exist, except in individual things and through individual
things’. This latter view rapidly gained ground.8
We can see the impact of this intellectual revolution on thinking
about political authority. The canonists were greatly influenced by the
notion of imperium in Roman law. Yet their translation of imperium
into the papal claim of sovereignty changed its meaning. Individuals
rather than established social categories or classes became the focus
of legal jurisdiction. Individuals or ‘souls’ provided the underlying
unit of subjection in the eyes of the church, the unit that counted for
more than anything else. In effect, canon lawyers purged Roman law
of hierarchical assumptions surviving from the social structure of the
ancient world.
This shift away from the assumptions of the ancient world gave
birth to the idea of sovereignty. By making the individual the unit of
legal subjection – through the stipulation of ‘equal subjection’ – the
papal claim of sovereignty prepared the way for the emergence of
the state as a distinctive form of government. But if we look closely,
the papal claim introduced equality both as a foundation and as a
consequence. While ‘equal subjection’ is a necessary condition for the
state and sovereignty, moral equality also provides the basis for limit-
ing the power of the state and its sovereign authority. The intellectual
sword raised by the papacy was thus two- edged.
The papal claim of sovereignty initiated the translation of a moral
status into an organizing social role. As we have seen, this required
the definition of a primary or meta- role (‘the individual’) shared
equally by all persons. Other social roles became secondary in rela-
tion to that primary role. To that primary role, an indefinite number
of other roles might be added as the attributes of a subject. But they
no longer exhausted the subject’s identity. Being a ‘seigneur’, ‘serf’ or
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Europe Acquires its Identity
‘burgher’ might be added to or subtracted from an individual’s iden-
tity, but the individual or ‘soul’ remained. That had not been the case
in ancient societies.
The idea of sovereignty thus provided the keystone for the new
conception of society. For only through equal subjection to a sover-
eign could there be a primary or meta- role in a society, and therefore
‘individuals’ sharing equally a fundamental, moral status. That is how
the papal claim of sovereignty or plenitudo potestatis transformed the
meaning of ancient imperium. And before long that change of mean-
ing had repercussions in the secular sphere.
The investiture controversy had taken a heavy toll of the idea of
sacral kingship. Before the controversy, both the church and secular
rulers had used the idea to claim a pre- eminence. It was invoked by
kings to insist on their right to govern the church and by the church
to assert a God- given duty to regulate secular affairs. Yet the repeated
attempts to resolve the investiture controversy, and the compromise
that slowly emerged, led to a remarkable ‘moral’ transaction.
On the one hand, kings ceased to be regarded, as in the tenth cen-
tury, as the ‘vicars of Christ’ – almost as high priests. Their thrones
were still surrounded by religious symbolism. But they were no longer
the direct agents of spiritual government. The dualist tradition had
triumphed over royal theocracy. Kings acknowledged, at least tacitly,
the moral claims of an independent spiritual order, liberties of the
church that lay outside their jurisdiction and constrained it. But at the
same time the papacy acknowledged the autonomous jurisdiction of
temporal powers. So there was a stand-off. Two structures of author-
ity were acknowledged, and, in the gap between them, an important
part of the future of European liberty would be lodged.
Yet there was more to the compromise than might at first appear.
Despite the apparent stand-off, a new common denominator emerged.
Secular rulers learned much from the papal revolution. They were not
simply losers. However distrustful of papal pretensions many rulers
remained, the papal claim to sovereignty began to ease them into the
conception of society that now shaped papal ambitions, a conception
that stood in sharp contrast to the elaborate hierarchies of feudalism.
In accepting the church’s claim to a jurisdiction founded on the care
for souls, rulers were themselves encouraged to think of society in a
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Natural Law and Natural Rights
less hierarchical, more individualized way. They were not immune to
a theory of justice resting on the moral intuitions generated by Chris-
tian beliefs, even if, at times, they manipulated those beliefs. So the
papal claim to possess a sovereign authority began to transform secu-
lar thinking about social relations. The example of the church as a
unified legal system, founded on the subjection of individuals, gave
birth to the project of creating states. And this development doomed
feudalism.
The model of a government claiming ‘sovereign’ authority suggested
to secular rulers a means of extending their jurisdiction. By recogniz-
ing the claims of the individual or ‘soul’ as primary, they might establish
their authority as rulers directly over individuals rather than having to
reach persons indirectly, as members of groups, whether families,
castes or corporations. ‘Sovereigns’ might break out of the limits of
feudal kingship and found what we have learned to call the ‘nation-
state’. The papal claim to a sovereign authority thus awakened new
ambitions in secular rulers. It initiated the process that led to the cre-
ation of European nation-states. Of course, that process would prove
to be fitful, difficult and slow. But, in the end, it dealt a death blow to
the corporate conception of society inherited from antiquity.
So the apparent triumph of feudalism in Europe – with the extreme
parcelling out of public authority and the spread of a new form of
subjection, serfdom – coincided with developments that doomed it.
Feudalism could not resuscitate the assumption of natural inequality.
For the ‘moral transaction’ I have described meant that feudalism
could not establish itself in the durable way that ancient slavery had
done. Feudalism ran up against moral intuitions and a conception of
society in which the self- interest of both the church and secular kings
became engaged.
The lawyer- popes did not succeed in establishing a papal constitu-
tion for Europe. But in the course of failing to do so, they laid the
foundations of modern Europe.
A New Model of
Government
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17
Centralization and the
New Sense of Justice
We are now in a position to identify the opposing tendencies at work
in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The extreme parcelling out of
public authority that was a feature of early feudalism, so that the idea
of a public jurisdiction almost disappeared into a property right,
opened the way for a redefinition of the nature and grounds of public
authority. It enabled the church, under the papacy, to insist that the
primary unit of concern and subjection was no longer the family, tribe
or caste, but the individual.
With the dismemberment of the Carolingian empire and localizing
of political power in the Frankish West, the experience of centralized
control – and the confidence bred by exercising it – passed from the
secular sphere to the church. That was the larger significance of the
monastic reform movement emanating from Cluny. By freeing mon-
asteries from local secular influences and disciplining its affiliates,
Cluny rehabilitated the idea of centralized government, though now
within the confines of the church. It created a new ambition as well as
new confidence among monastic leaders.
We have seen that, in order to act on that ambition and with that
confidence, three things had proved to be necessary. The first was
the recruiting of a reformist elite at the centre of the church in Rome
during the pontificate of Leo IX. The second thing that proved neces-
sary was an unequivocal assertion by Gregory VII of the pope’s
legislative supremacy, in the form of papal decrees (decretals). The
third involved the creation of a far more systematic body of canon
law, which both drew on and transformed Roman civil law. These
changes began to reshape the structure of European society and gov-
ernment. They lay behind the shift in meaning from ancient imperium
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A New Model of Government
to papal ‘sovereignty’. And the impetus for that change came from
monasteries. Remarkably, the papacy itself was occupied by a series
of former monks, starting with Hildebrand, from 1073 to 1119. Only
later did the ‘monkish popes’ make way for ‘lawyer- popes’.
The development of papal government and administration turned
the papacy from a passive authority into an active power in the period
from 1050 to 1300. And this papal activity soon impinged on life at
every level of society in Western Europe. The elaboration of canon
law was central to this process. Canon law became, in that way, the
original vehicle of modernity. Harold Berman is right to describe it as
‘the first modern Western legal system’ and to argue that ‘the papal
revolution’ is an apt description of what resulted.1
How were the popes able to promote legal reform so rapidly? They
had several means: by calling and presiding over general councils of
the church; through papal decrees and settling disputes, acting both as
legislator and supreme court of appeal; and by supplementing bishops’
courts with legates who supervised the local enforcement of the deci-
sions of councils as well as papal decrees.
The Oxford medievalist Richard Southern has provided impressive
statistical evidence of the growth of papal activity in these fields after
1050. Whereas in the five centuries before 1123 there had been only
three councils recognized as general or ecumenical (and they had all
been held in the Byzantine empire, with only a papal representative
present), from 1123 to 1312 there were seven such councils, all of
them called by and presided over by a pope. They pursued an ambi-
tious programme touching both doctrine and government. There was
a similar growth in the use of papal legates, who often convened local
councils to carry out their missions. In England there had been only
one such council (in 786) before the later eleventh century, whereas
between 1070 and 1312 there were more than twenty councils.
But it is the growth of papal correspondence that is most revealing.
Only one letter a year survives from the pontificate of Benedict IX
(1032–46). That rises under the reformist Leo IX (1049–54) to thirty-
five a year. But after 1130 the acceleration is truly remarkable, according
to Southern. Under Innocent II (1130–43) the annual average rises to
seventy-two; under Adrian IV (1154–9) to one hundred and thirty;
under Alexander III (1159–81) to one hundred and seventy-nine; under
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Centralization and the New Sense of Justice
Innocent III (1198–1215) to two hundred and eighty; under Innocent
IV (1243–54) to seven hundred and thirty; and under John XXII
(1316–34) to three thousand six hundred and forty-six!2
Reformist popes did not anticipate the extent to which active papal
government and church courts would draw business to Rome. Yet this
happened so rapidly that the papal office itself was transformed. Legal
reform and the growth of bureaucracy went hand in hand. It is worth
quoting again from St Bernard’s admonishing letter to his protégé
Eugenius III in 1150: ‘I will speak to you as Jethro spoke to Moses
and say, “What is this thing you are doing to the people? Why do you
sit from morning to evening listening to litigants?” What fruit is there
in these things? They can only create cobwebs.’ It is no accident that
by the later twelfth century nearly all the popes were lawyers as well
as theologians. They could hardly have dealt with the matters that
came to them otherwise.
Why could the popes not govern without being overwhelmed by
litigation? The development of canon law and a hierarchy of courts
administering it – with the papacy at the apex – created a system that
offered litigants coherence, relative predictability and other benefits.
It was a system that stood in contrast to the secular courts, in which
the application of customary and feudal law allowed recourse to
Roman law only intermittently. But that was not all. The prospect of
freedom from the pressure of local interests and magnates (whether
secular lords or bishops) created an incentive to take advantage of a
system of written law operating in a wider sphere. Altogether, the
appeal of a legal system that was more coherent, predictable and cen-
tralized favoured the rapid growth of litigation.
We can see this in the first wave of litigation reaching the papacy
after 1050. Monasteries and convents rushed in, seeking confirmation
of their charters and privileges, not least, their freedom from the
interference of local bishops. To be sure, their requests were often
accompanied by generous gifts to the papacy, monetary and other-
wise. Thus, monastic benefices more often went to papal nominees as
a result. In that way an incentive was also created at the centre to
entertain petitions from litigants. However, the attraction for Rome
was not simply pecuniary. Tacit admissions of its claim to a plenitude
of power strengthened its authority.
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A New Model of Government
The habit of looking to Rome for the settlement of grievances and
conferring of benefits grew apace. By the mid- twelfth century the con-
sequence was clear. The papacy was becoming not merely the court of
final appeal, but even a court of first instance for some types of litiga-
tion. Southern gives a piquant example of this judicial activism, an
example that flies in the face of preconceptions about the feudal
period as one marked by extreme localism. It is the example of a
mid- twelfth- century dispute about rights over an English church
located in the diocese of Lichfield. Did the rights of presentation to its
living still belong to the canons of Evreux in Normandy? They alleged
that ‘their’ vicar had been expelled by the earl of Worcester, who had
then ‘sold’ on the rights of presentation to the archdeacon of Chester!
In 1144 Pope Lucius II wrote to the bishop of Worcester, instructing
him to take as his fellow judge the bishop of Hereford, and decide the
matter:
By the time we hear of it the case had already travelled from Normandy
to Rome and from Rome to England, and now two English bishops
were required to summon representatives of an earl, an archdeacon, a
cathedral chapter, and two or three vicars or ex- vicars from both sides
of the Channel, and settle the affair on papal authority. If we reflect on
this it is very remarkable. At a time when England was in a state of
acute civil war, when relations with Normandy were severed, and local
powers were everywhere supreme, the pope could expect his orders to
be carried out two thousand miles from Rome, in a dispute about a
property worth perhaps £10 a year.3
At first popes made little attempt to stem the tide of litigation to
Rome, even when it was at the expense of bishops’ and archbishops’
courts. As we have seen, the tide reinforced papal claims to a supreme
legislative and judicial authority. By the thirteenth century those
claims had reshaped attitudes and habits across Europe. The curia
was then able to establish more graduated procedures under papal
supervision.
The union of papal supremacy with canon law helped to introduce
order not only into the affairs of the church but into secular life as
well. Canon lawyers continued to invade the sphere of civil lawyers.
It could hardly have been otherwise, for the church was interested in
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Centralization and the New Sense of Justice
all the principal moments of life, from birth to burial. Through its
involvement at these crucial moments of life, it left a permanent mark
on the social order emerging in Europe.
Canon law helped to give a new direction to the European mind. Its
systematic character and the procedures required for administering it
stimulated an analytical frame of mind, leading, inexorably, to the
emergence of philosophy as a discipline distinct from theology. It was
not just that new standards of precise argument were encouraged.
The egalitarian foundation of canon law raised questions which led
to challenges to assumptions inherited from the corporate society of
antiquity.
Logical studies developed with astonishing rapidity during the
twelfth century. The egalitarian foundation of canon law immediately
raised the question of how general terms are related to the experience
of individuals, and it engendered a debate which raged for two or
three centuries, the debate between ‘realists’ and ‘nominalists’. Did
general terms correspond to something with an independent existence
or were they merely convenient ways of bringing together individual
experiences, giving them a linguistic unity? Increasingly, general terms
ceased to be understood on the model of Platonic ideas, as having a
reality superior to that of mundane experience. The underpinnings of
a corporate society were being removed. So it is not too much to claim
that the church presided over Europe in its formative period, some-
thing that secular rulers envied, resented and learned from.
What did secular rulers learn? They learned that a system of cen-
tralized justice favoured the transition from law understood chiefly as
custom (the ‘discovery’ or clarification of something that already
exists) to law understood as the expression of a sovereign will. They
learned that the concept of sovereignty offered them a means of cen-
tralizing not only authority but also power in their kingdoms, a basis
for undermining ‘feudal’ jurisdictions. It was an irresistible offer.
But that was not all. Something else lay behind the extraordinary
impact of canon law, something with less immediate appeal for secu-
lar rulers, but which had long- term consequences for their rule. Canon
law introduced a new standard for legal comparison, a ‘rational’ basis
for comparison that cast the norms of customary and feudal law into
unfavourable light.
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If we are to appreciate this deeper impact of canon law, we must put
aside prejudices surviving from eighteenth-century anti-clericalism.
To a large extent, the standards introduced into social life by canon
law were more humane and equitable than those that had preceded
them. For the church, the care of souls meant that attaching different
values to human life, according to social status, did not govern the
consideration of cases. Whether it was a question of the standards of
proof required to win a case or the penalties inflicted on those who
lost, canon law also moved beyond the norms preserved in customary
and feudal law.
There was no question of innocence or guilt being established by
the outcome of ‘ordeals’ – such as surviving hand-to-hand combat
and submergence in water – or by the sheer weight of numbers of
family and friends testifying on behalf of the plaintiff or the accused.
Instead, ‘rational’ proof required the sifting of evidence, the probing
of witnesses and written records. In this way, the roots of tribal prac-
tices that had survived from the Germanic invasions of the Roman
empire were cut. The fourth Lateran Council of 1215 effectively abol-
ished trial by ordeal by forbidding clergy to take part in them.
The church, drawing on the inheritance of Roman law, had strug-
gled against such ‘barbarous’ practices since the fall of the Western
empire. It had made headway as early as the Visigothic law codes,
when it had distinguished the truly moral element in crime – that is,
intention – from its physical aspects. But political disorders and edu-
cational decline took a heavy toll of the church itself in succeeding
centuries. Only with the development of canon law in the twelfth
century can we see the full extent of the church’s potential for chang-
ing social attitudes and habits. Thus, basic forms of legal procedure
for both civil and criminal cases were invented by canon lawyers –
drawing on Roman precedents – and applied in church courts, before
being adopted by secular courts in the late thirteenth century. This
Romano-canonical procedure, which involved judges investigating
disputed facts and required recording of evidence in writing, contrib-
uted to the emergence of what by the fourteenth century was virtually
a new common law for Western Europe: a jus commune which fused
elements of civil, canon and customary law.4
Not only formal legal procedures but also informal attitudes changed.
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These attitudes reflect the direction given to legal change by the moral
intuitions inspired by Christian beliefs. Early canonists even discussed
whether the biblical injunctions in favour of equality, reciprocity and
humility permitted anyone to act as a judge of another human being!
Nothing testifies more clearly to the extent of moral change.
A late eleventh- century tract, Concerning True and False Penance,
prescribes the proper attitudes for a judge. The judge must take the
golden rule seriously, and put himself in the place of the person being
examined, for attempting to understand a person’s motives is also the
best way of taking account of the context of action, inducing humility
as well as understanding.
For one who judges another … condemns himself. Let him therefore
know himself and purge himself of what he sees offends others … Let
him who is without sin cast the first stone (John 8.7) … for no one is
without sin in that all have been guilty of crime. Let the spiritual (that
is, ecclesiastical) judge beware lest he fail to fortify himself with know-
ledge and thereby commit the crime of injustice. It is fitting that he
should know to recognize what he is to judge.5
Evidently, relations of equality and reciprocity were setting a new
standard of ambition. This moral vantage point fostered a mildness in
canon law which distinguished it not only from customary and feudal
law but also from Roman civil law.
New ideas of punishment emerged. The most striking thing about
them is the extent to which they separate the need for punishment
from the desire for retaliation or retribution. Instead, there is constant
emphasis on penance and deterrence, an emphasis taken over from
earlier monastic penitential practice. The aim of the church is to reach
and stir the conscience of the offender, as well as to influence the will
of others who might consider offending. ‘If you study the nature of the
punishments of the church, and the public penances which were its
principal mode of chastisement, you will see that the chief object is to
excite repentance in the soul of the culprit, and moral terror in the
beholders, by example’.6 The analogy with what are usually considered
to be essentially modern, secular ideas about penal reform – conveyed
by the term a ‘penitentiary system’ – is striking.
Another consequence of the developing system of church law and
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courts was more careful consideration of the difference between sin
and crime.
In the late eleventh and the twelfth centuries a sharp procedural dis-
tinction was made for the first time, between sin and crime. This
happened partly because the ecclesiastical hierarchy succeeded in with-
drawing from secular authorities jurisdiction over sins – thereby,
incidentally, giving the word ‘secular’ a new meaning. Any act punish-
able by royal or other ‘lay’ officials was henceforth to be punished as a
violation of secular law and not as a sin, that is, not as a violation of a
law of God. When the secular authority punished for robbery, for
example, it was to punish for the breach of the peace, for the protection
of property, for the offence against society. In this world, it began to be
said, only the church has the jurisdiction to punish for sins – thereby,
incidentally, giving the word ‘church’ a new meaning . . .7
Just as intentions had scarcely been distinguished from actions in
‘barbarian’ justice, so the ideas of crime and sin had scarcely been
separated, making it difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish social
claims from religious duties.
Such distinctions made by canon lawyers began to reshape social
attitudes. The claim of papal sovereignty over the church had already
made it possible to create a ‘spiritual’ jurisdiction apart from the ‘secu-
lar’. Yet the canonists soon found that they had to distinguish between
two types of authority over sin. All the church could offer in the case
of ‘internal’ sins – thoughts and desires contrary to God’s will – was
the consolation of its sacraments, confession, penance and absolution.
By contrast, ‘external sins’ were those that offended against both God
and the discipline of the church as a corporate body. Such sins fell
under the jurisdiction of church courts applying ecclesiastical law.
In the twelfth century the philosopher Peter Abelard reinforced
such canonist thinking about a sphere of conscience. Abelard’s argu-
ments reveal how the development of canon law can scarcely be
separated from that of theology. He distinguished between a ‘heavenly
forum’ of judgement – for God alone can see into hearts and minds –
and the ‘earthly forum’ provided by ecclesiastical courts. The latter
could only judge external actions. Indeed, as Berman reminds us, that
conclusion rapidly became a principle of canon law: ‘the church does
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not adjudicate matters that are hidden.’ (Abelard even doubted
whether the preparation of a crime that was not executed should be
punished.) The canonists protected the sphere of intentions by forbid-
ding all legal actions if they were not founded on a pre- existing law.
Peter Lombard, a pupil of Abelard’s who wrote The Book of Sen-
tences (circa 1150), which became the standard theological text for
centuries, formulated the underlying principle: ‘there is no sin if there
was no prohibition.’8
The concern of canon lawyers to identify and protect the role of
intentions is striking. That concern is the key to a host of legal devel-
opments in the twelfth century.
In marriage law, by the end of the twelfth century, the simple consent
of two parties, without any formalities, could constitute a valid, sacra-
mental marriage. In contract law, a mere promise could create a binding
obligation – it was the intention of the promisor that counted. In crim-
inal law, the degree of guilt and punishment was again related to the
intention of the individual defendant, and this led, as in modern legal
systems, to complex considerations about negligence and diminished
responsibility.9
Canon lawyers were redefining the sphere of personal responsibility –
and, at the same time, creating a sphere of personal autonomy. Choice
and responsibility were being closely joined.
Take, for example, issues about marriage, the status of women and
natural children. The fourth Lateran Council adopted measures to
ensure that marriage was based on consent rather than coercion. In
combating family pressures, canon law became far more restrictive
about the degrees of cousinhood permitted to couples wishing to
marry. Divorce, in turn, became more difficult. The status of women
as wives and mothers gained from the protection of the church. It
became more difficult for fathers to turn natural children into legitim-
ate heirs. (When the last count of Montpellier in 1202 sought a
dispensation to legitimate a natural son, so that he might inherit, Pope
Innocent III denied the request.)
Just as canon lawyers cleared a new path when exploring the sphere
of intentions and personal responsibility, so they became innovators
when they considered the nature and grounds of association.
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We have seen how, at the end of the Western empire, the role of
bishops as leaders of their cities undermined the hereditary basis of
civic offices. Members of the curia began to be understood as the rep-
resentatives of the urban populations rather than as their masters. But
while this change had some impact on late Roman law, that impact
was limited by the collapse of the empire, the withering of urban life,
and the importance of customary law in the new Germanic kingdoms.
It was only with the papal revolution that the legal overthrow of the
aristocratic basis of association and its replacement by a democratic
basis was confirmed and extended. By declaring the independence of
the church from secular authorities, and creating a legal system
founded on belief in moral equality, canon lawyers transformed the
meaning of a ‘corporate’ body.
Four fundamental changes in corporation law were introduced by
the canonists, changes in the principles that had governed corpora-
tions in Justinian’s Corpus Juris Civilis. Yet simply noticing these
changes is not enough. What was their source? These changes fol-
lowed directly from substituting the belief in moral equality for the
ancient belief in natural inequality. That substitution generated the
four changes. First, canonists rejected the view that only associations
recognized by public authority could possess ‘the privileges and liber-
ties of corporations’. In canon law, by contrast, any group of persons
organizing themselves to pursue a shared goal – whether as a guild,
hospital or university – could constitute a legitimate corporation. This
model of voluntary association, of association based on the individual
will, can be traced back to the way monastic communities had been
created. Implicit is the assumption that authority flows upwards
rather than from the top down.
Secondly, the Roman view that only a public authority ‘could create
new law for its members and exercise judicial authority over them’
was replaced by the view that any corporation ‘could have legislative
and judicial jurisdiction over its members’. That is, by becoming mem-
bers of a corporation individuals could be deemed to have accepted
its rules. The monastic model impinged here too. For the model of
voluntary association was joined to the idea of self- government, the
principle of electing superiors (just as monks elected their abbot) as
the representatives of the community. The authority of superiors thus
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became a delegated authority. Authority is again understood as flow-
ing upwards.
The third change reveals that reversal in the lines of authority even
more dramatically. The canonists ‘rejected the Roman view that a cor-
poration could only act through its representatives and not through
the ensemble of its members’. Instead, canonists insisted that in mak-
ing some decisions corporations were bound to seek the consent of
their members. But here speaking of ‘representatives’, when referring
to the maxim in Roman law, confuses the issue. For the reference is to
officers whose authority was not delegated by members of the corpor-
ation; rather, it was a birthright or bestowed by imperial authority.
Such officers were not representatives.
The reaction to that aristocratic view of the nature of a corporation –
as constituted from above – also explains the fourth change made by
canonists. They rejected the maxim in Roman law that ‘what pertains
to a corporation does not pertain to its members’. By contrast, canon
lawyers took the view that the property of a corporation was the
‘common property’ of its members, with both the advantages and
liabilities that entailed for each member; it did not belong to its offi-
cers, to dispose of as they saw fit.10
The overturning of these Roman law maxims provides the clearest
possible evidence of the way canon lawyers rejected the aristocratic
assumptions underlying Roman law. It reveals how creative they
were. At times a majority principle for decision-making seems to be
emerging. Canon law was not simply parasitic on Roman law. Canon-
ists promoted an understanding of the corporation as a voluntary
association of individuals who remain the source of its authority,
rather than as a body constituted by superior authority and wholly
dependent on that authority for its identity.
It was a model of association that presaged a new world. Altogether,
canon law gave a new direction to the European mind. The systematic
character of canon law and the procedures required for administering
it stimulated philosophical thought, contributing to its separation
from theology. Not only did canonist argument encourage new stand-
ards of precision. The egalitarian foundation of canon law suggested
questions which led to challenges to terms and assumptions inherited
from the corporate society of the ancient world.
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We should not underestimate the significance of the philosophical
debate which would rage for three centuries between ‘realists’ and
‘nominalists’. What was at issue – the status of general terms – had
profound social implications. Did general categories correspond to a
superior reality on the model of Platonic ideas or were they effectively
human constructions and tools? Were humans meant to be governed
by Plato’s ‘guardians’ or by themselves? Under the banner of ‘nomi-
nalism’, the assumption of moral equality was advancing.
237
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The Democratizing of Reason
Changes initiated by the papacy from 1000 to 1300 laid the founda-
tion for a new type of society. They were revolutionary changes. Yet it
has taken a long time to recognize them as such. Why were they so
long underestimated?
They used to be described as the ‘Gregorian reforms’. Yet that
description can be misleading, by giving too much credit to one pope,
and failing to make clear that the reform movement began before
Gregory became pope and continued long after his pontificate. It also
fails to make clear the profound impact of these reforms outside the
church, their impact on secular government. A more recent descrip-
tion – the ‘twelfth-century renaissance’ – can also miss the full nature
of the changes under way. Often it focuses on cultural developments
at the expense of institutional changes. Moreover, describing these
developments as a ‘rebirth’ misses their originality. It gives too much
credit to classical sources and underestimates the role of the
church.
There is much to be said for another description, the ‘papal revolu-
tion’, introduced by Harvard’s Harold Berman. Yet even that does not
quite get to the heart of the matter. For what made the papal revolu-
tion so dynamic that it began to transform secular government as
well? What was it about the legal system created by the church and
founded on theology that gave it such subversive potential? The
deeper source was the invention of the individual, the introduction of
a primary social role which began to undercut the radical differences
of status and treatment ‘carried’ by traditional social roles. The equal-
ity of status defined into that new role sent Europe along a road which
no human society had previously followed.
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Under way was nothing less than a reconstruction of the self, along
lines more consistent with Christian moral intuitions. For the new
sense of justice – introduced first into canon law and later into civil
law – privileged equality and reciprocity. In that way, the ‘golden rule’
began to transform the socializing process. It threatened the social
stratification we know as feudalism almost from its outset. What
ultimately superseded feudalism was a new social role shared by all
equally, the individual.
Promoted by papal reforms, the translation of a moral status (the
‘soul’) into a social role recast the basis of thought and action in
Europe. As that translation spread from the church into the secular
sphere – with the first steps that would lead to the creation of
nation-states – it changed the relations of Europeans with themselves.
It gave thought and action a character that they did not and could not
possess in traditional societies. Translating a moral status into a social
role created a new image of society as an association of individuals
rather than of families, tribes or castes. The claim of papal ‘sover-
eignty’ made that translation possible. For the claim of equal subjection
to a sovereign authority has a remarkable implication. No subject of a
sovereign has an intrinsic obligation to obey any other person as such.
So the right to command or duty to obey is no longer written into
separate hereditary or customary roles. The appearance of a sovereign
authority distances agents from other roles they happen to occupy. It
turns them into role-bearers, agents whose identity is not exhausted by
their other roles. They are invited to develop wills of their own and
become individuals.
Papal sovereignty thus promoted an identity at odds with the roles
associated with feudalism, sowing the seeds for an eventual conflict of
identity. By introducing an attribute shared by all equally, papal sov-
ereignty and canon law allowed a general presumption in favour of
equality to enter. They weakened – in the event, fatally – the ancient
presumption that inequalities of status and treatment need no justifi-
cation, for they are ‘natural’ and unavoidable.
Such a reversal of assumptions opened the prospect of a new trans-
parency in social relations. The substitution of moral equality for
natural inequality paved the way for new forms of comparison, com-
parisons that Christian thought had hitherto confined to the afterlife,
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The Democratizing of Reason
to the ultimate fate of souls. As we have seen in the advice given to
judges, this substitution encouraged people to understand themselves
through others and others through themselves. Once legitimated, the
process of comparison became an almost irresistible source of social
change, breeding both hope and resentment, ambition and insecurity.
It provided the recipe for a new type of society, a society that would
be restless and progressive – a society that would one day challenge
the ‘privileges’ of the church itself. The pontiffs and canon lawyers
who promoted the papal revolution are unlikely to have foreseen all
the implications of their reforms.
In societies resting on the assumption of natural inequality, the pro-
cess of comparison is inhibited. For that assumption raises impervious
shields around unequal assigned identities; it does not introduce the
claims of a common humanity or, with them, the pursuit of moral
transparency. Canon law, by contrast, promoted such transparency
through provisions for marriage, property and inheritance. Consent
and free will provided the basis for rules in each area. In the case
of marriage, consent was required at every step: for betrothal, for
the formalities of marriage and for its physical consummation. The
church made careful provision for annulment, if marriage was
founded on mistaken identity, fraud or coercion. It sought to protect
the married woman. ‘Before God the two parties to marriage were
equal and this doctrine of equality was first taught by Christianity. In
practice it meant, above all, that obligations, especially that of fidelity,
were mutual.’ 1 Nor was that all. Feudal magnates who looked on
their wards merely as valuable property to be disposed of, came up
against the church’s insistence on consent. And in the case of the rules
governing inheritance, an overriding concern in Germanic custom
and Roman law to perpetuate the family as a unit was modified to
respect the individual testator’s wishes, for the ‘protection of his soul’.
As a consequence, the ‘testament’ became a ‘will’, a term evoking the
individual.2
Such rules projected and privileged the image of society as an asso-
ciation of individuals, each endowed with conscience and free will. By
creating ‘universal’ claims and thus fostering the habit of comparison,
canon law also provided a model for the growth of secular authorities
able and willing to promote such claims.
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Popes were well aware of the depth of moral change they were
promoting, even if they did not foresee many of its consequences. By
the thirteenth century Innocent III could marvel at the rapidity of
change. ‘How jurisdiction first began I do not know unless perhaps
God assigned to some person or persons to do justice to criminals or
unless in the beginning the father of a family had complete jurisdic-
tion over his family by the law of nature, though now he has it only
in a few minor matters.’ Thanks to the doctrine of papal sovereignty,
the connotations of ‘nature’ were changing. Appeals to ‘nature’ were
increasingly associated with equality, that is, with the basic claims of
individuals. ‘But it may be said, that kings are to be treated differently
from others. We, however, know that it is written in the divine law,
“You shall judge the great as well as the little and there shall be no
difference of persons”.’3
Through the impress of Christian beliefs on canon law, differences
of status no longer seemed to reflect an objective natural order. In
church courts, such differences seemed less important than the every-
day reality of choice and human sin, matters that in local churches
were constantly called to mind by homilies about the Last Judgement.
Invoking a day of judgement testified to the reality of human freedom
(something also implied by the church’s constant struggle against vul-
gar forms of determinism such as belief in astrology, the stars’ control
over human destiny). That emphasis on the judgement of individual
souls generated – during the twelfth and the thirteenth centuries – a
new belief in the ‘purging’ of individual sins during a transitional
period after death (‘purgatory’) but before the apocalyptic Last Judge-
ment. A touch of freedom thus invaded even the afterlife.4
The undermining of traditional identities and practices went very
deep. Drawing on the vision of a better world (where the equality of
souls prevailed and virtuous choice would gather its proper reward),
canon law helped to transform thought itself. Evidence of this trans-
formation in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries is abundant and
startling. As we have seen, generalization became both interesting and
plausible, in a way that was scarcely possible in societies founded on
the belief in natural inequality. The image of society as an association
of individuals made shared traits, actual or potential, a far more
important subject for speculation. The habit of generalizing helped to
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The Democratizing of Reason
strengthen, in turn, the faculty of abstraction, of searching out, bring-
ing together and labelling common attributes.
We can see this if we look at the changes in Roman law introduced
by twelfth-century canonists. Berman has emphasized how Roman
law was distrustful of and, indeed, avoided abstractions. It was radi-
cally case-bound, and sought only to find the right answer to particular
legal questions. It derived particular rules from cases, but not general
principles. The habitual turn of the canonist mind was different. It
sought to identify the shared features of particular legal decisions and
raise them to the level of a concept. Behind the rules it sought to iden-
tify principles. This urge for abstraction was generated by the new
image of society promoted by the doctrine of papal sovereignty. It
meant that canon lawyers brought to bear not just legal techniques
they acquired from the study of Roman law, but a ‘democratized’
interest in generalization and abstraction, an interest combining know-
ledge of Aristotelian logic with Christian moral intuitions.5
Ancient Roman jurists had gradually adopted Greek methods of
classification but had restricted them to a particular context – quoting
the jurist Paul who insisted that ‘by means of a rule a short account of
matters is passed on and … if it is inaccurate in any respect, it loses
its effect’. Such rules were therefore not general. Roman lawyers
resisted attempts to make logical consistency the basis of a jurispru-
dential system. It is easy to understand why Roman lawyers resisted
as they did. Their conception of society – which took radical differ-
ences of status for granted – impeded the process of generalizing,
making it seem almost pointless.
From the late eleventh century onwards, however, the students of
rediscovered Roman law brought a new attitude of mind to bear.
The western European jurists of the eleventh and twelfth centuries car-
ried the Greek dialectic to a much higher level of abstraction. They
attempted to systematize the rules into an integrated whole – not
merely to define elements common to a particular species of cases but
also to synthesize the rules into principles and the principles themselves
into an entire system, a body of law . . .6
The difference sprang from the new concern that law should be under-
stood as applying to ‘all (souls) equally’. Hence it needed to be systematic.
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Formal equality of status made generalizing and abstraction seem
‘natural’.
Theology led the way. Both directly and indirectly through its influ-
ence on canon law, theology shaped dialectical reasoning in the
twelfth century. Early in the twelfth century Abelard’s Sic et Non (Yes
and No) suggested a framework for analysis, soon to be reinforced by
Peter Lombard’s Sentences, the standard textbook for systematic the-
ology. Both promoted a ‘dialectical’ form of reasoning, comparing the
arguments for and against particular propositions.
Theological argument and legal argument interacted and created a
common discipline. The habit of generalizing, from the bottom up,
into a system of coherent propositions or principles – and then apply-
ing those principles, from the top down, to examples or cases – began
to create a distinctive mind- set. It involved the analysis of logical and
textual inconsistencies, while fostering attempts at synthesis. The full
title of Gratian’s Decretum – A Concordance of Discordant Canons –
perfectly illustrates this new problem-solving approach.
Thinking about basic Christian doctrine lent itself to this model of
argument. For if faith was the result of revelation and therefore ‘given’,
the task of reason was to explore it and try to understand it, not to
dictate its content. Thinkers became much less inclined than in the
ancient world to assume that reason, merely from its own resources,
could dictate conclusions about the nature of things. Instead, those
results had to be compared with the contents of faith in order to root
out anomalies and inconsistencies, as in Abelard’s Sic et Non. This
form of dialectical reasoning in theology helped, in turn, to shape legal
argument.
If the constraint of faith contributed to a more experimental under-
standing of the role of reason, that new understanding was soon
extended to other matters. For twelfth-century canonists had to bal-
ance their Christian moral intuitions with a complex and often
conflicting inheritance of Germanic customs, Roman law and Greek
philosophy. Little could be taken for granted in the face of such diverse
beliefs and the practices they sustained. Yet creating a legal system for
the church made finding such a common ground indispensable. Aris-
tocratic, theocratic and imperial traditions had to be ‘tamed’ and
reconciled with the moral intuitions generated by Christian beliefs. In
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The Democratizing of Reason
order to find common ground for discussion, lawyers, both civil and
canon, paid careful attention to assumptions and definitions. For
specifying such assumptions and definitions helped to make possible
a more widely shared conversation across Europe. During the twelfth
century that conversation acquired an institutional nexus, with the
emergence of universities at Bologna, Paris, Montpellier and Oxford.
Theological and legal argument thus shaped each other, giving rise to
what later came to be described as the ‘scholastic method’ – a method
that made reasoning more precise yet also more tentative, gathering
evidence in order to test the validity of arguments and generalize the
results.
What we are encountering is a decisive transition. ‘Reason’ (under-
stood as a faculty commanding reality and very unequally distributed
in society) was giving way to ‘reason’ (understood as an attribute of
individuals who are equally moral agents). In the twelfth century, rea-
son began to lose the ontologically privileged position it had been
accorded by an aristocratic society. Its propositions were open, at
least in principle, to equal scrutiny, grounded in a shared faith. (Did
not St Bernard complain that under Abelard’s influence matters of the
faith were being discussed at the crossroads?) The role of reason was
being democratized. Reason ceased to be something that used people,
and became something people used.
This democratizing of reason was a stupendous achievement – and
it rested on that understanding of society as an association of indi-
viduals ‘carried’ by the papal revolution. That becomes clear if we
look at three questions widely debated in the course of the twelfth
century: the meaning of natural law, the grounds of political obliga-
tion and the status of abstract ideas. The debates developing around
each of these three questions reveal the development of a more ana-
lytical, less status-governed intelligence in Europe.
Appealing to ‘nature’ or natural law (jus naturale) as the founda-
tion of justice rapidly became standard for the canonists. For example,
they defended the new forms of legal procedure designed to permit a
fair trial in those terms, as something that was required by ‘nature’
rather than merely by custom or positive law. But this was no longer
‘nature’ as understood by the ancient Stoics. The canonists’ egalitar-
ian concern for individual conscience and free will led them gradually
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to recast natural law as a system of natural rights: pre- social or moral
rights inhering in the individual. In that way, the canonists converted
the primordial Christian concern with ‘innerness’ into the language
of law.
That conversion laid the foundation of modern liberalism.
When the canonists drew on the Stoic doctrine of natural law, they
adapted a language that had been a means of speculation about social
conventions rather than an instrument of moral reformation. By con-
trast, canonists invested this language with urgent moral content.
Almost instinctively, they introduced into it a strong distributive prin-
ciple, the golden rule. As we have seen in Gratian’s Decretum, equality
and reciprocity – the claims of individuals – were its hallmarks.
The assumption of moral equality gave rise, in turn, to the claim for
equal liberty. For if humans have an equal moral standing, then it fol-
lows that there must be an area in which their choices ought to be
respected. Otherwise, what is the point of having a moral capacity?7
Canonists commenting on the Decretum – the Decretists – perceived
a connection between Gratian’s concern for the role of conscience
and St Paul’s emphasis on ‘Christian liberty’. Did not Gratian insist
that the rights of liberty could never be renounced, even if a man were
enslaved?
Gratian and the Decretists began to argue that all humans have an
intrinsic moral nature, which confers on each person licit pre-social
claims, claims prior to custom and positive law. So the canonists moved
away from the idea of a preordained external ordering of things – with
its implicit emphasis on ‘fate’ – to the assertion of subjective right, the
right of individuals. Instead of associating ‘nature’ with an objective
and harmonious hierarchy (‘everything in its place’), they interpreted
it as a force or power inherent in human personality. The result was a
conception of natural right that privileged human freedom.
The idea of natural right formalized in legal terms the egalitarian
moral vision that had shaped Paul’s conception of the Christ and had
been elaborated by Augustine, leading the latter to reject the hierarch-
ical assumptions underpinning ancient thought, temptations of pride
which he considered to be subversive of the ‘city of God’. Paul and
Augustine had drawn on Jewish tradition, with its emphasis on the
commands of God (the Torah), to revise the ancient association of
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The Democratizing of Reason
rationality with inequality. For them, God’s will was to be discovered
‘within’ each and every self, demanding and making possible a consci-
entious response, a moralized will. By associating ‘right reason’ with
individual will, Paul and Augustine put forward a ‘democratic’ vision
of rationality. Rationality lost its association with hierarchy. Instead,
through its association with the conscience and will of the individual,
rationality gave a new dignity to the human self, the gift and burden
of freedom.
Paul and Augustine transformed Jewish belief in a divine will
directed at a ‘chosen’ people. They universalized the claims of that
will and internalized it, making it available to all of humanity. In
doing so, they created the potential for ‘Christian liberty’, a rightful
power for individuals. By combining the assumption of human equal-
ity with the need to discover the divine will, a new relationship with
deity became possible, one that was personal rather than tribal. Yet if
Paul and Augustine conjured up a vision of moral freedom, it was the
twelfth- century canonists who converted that vision into a formal
legal system founded on natural rights.
It is only recently that the origins of the idea of natural rights have
been traced to twelfth-century canon law. Previously, those origins
were assigned to the later middle ages or the early modern period. But
Brian Tierney has demonstrated that twelfth-century canonists were
the originators. The story he tells is fascinating.8
Arguments about the meaning of natural law (jus naturale) developed
rapidly among Gratian’s commentators, for they noticed the confu-
sions resulting from different uses of the term. They soon moved away
from the Stoic sense of an objective, external order. But they also
became dissatisfied with Gratian’s definition of natural law as a set of
moral precepts, founded on scripture but discernible by reason. They
were anxious to anchor natural law, unequivocally, in individual
agency. So they began to use the term to refer to a subjective force or
power intrinsic to man, and to a corresponding sphere of freedom,
where action is neither commanded nor forbidden by ‘nature’.
In about 1160 the canonist Rufinus elaborated this new and import-
ant version of jus naturale as rightful power. ‘Natural jus is a certain
force instilled in every creature by nature to do good.’ 9 That right-
ful power implied, in turn, an area of individual liberty. So Rufinus
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A New Model of Government
distinguished the commands and prohibitions of nature from an area
of variability (‘demonstrations’), where appeal to the idea of nature
did not rule out different conclusions (for example, property to be
held ‘in common’ or privately). This new category staked out and
protected an area of liberty. ‘Natural jus consists in three things, com-
mands, prohibitions and demonstrations. It cannot be detracted from
at all as regards the commands and prohibitions … but it can be as
regards the demonstrations, which nature does not command or
forbid …’10 Understood in that way, natural law or jus ceased to be a
relatively simple set of ‘dos and don’ts’. It was a crucial innovation,
for it created a sphere where choice was authorized. Authorizing a
range of choices created ‘an area of permissiveness where rights could
licitly be exercised’. The idea of a right entailed such an area of choice.
Increasingly, the canonists insisted on the role of choice. Odo of
Dover commented in about 1170 that ‘natural jus is a certain force
divinely inspired in man by which he is led to choose what is right and
equitable’. And in the English In nomine, we find that ‘natural jus is a
certain ability by which man is able to discern between good and evil,
and in this sense natural jus is a faculty … and this is free will’.11
By the 1180s the sphere of freedom was identified as a sphere where
the rightful claims of the individual could be exercised or not:
Jus naturale … licit and approved, neither commanded nor forbidden by
the Lord or any statute … as for instance to reclaim one’s own or not, to
eat something or not to eat it, to put away an unfaithful wife or not to put
her away … whence, upon the words of the Apostle, ‘All things are licit
for me’, Ambrose commented, ‘by the law of nature’ [lege naturae].12
The trend was clear. Individual agency was becoming the ground of
natural law.
By the later twelfth century some commentators had moved a long
way from Gratian.
Many Decretists included a definition of jus naturale as a kind of sub-
jective force or power inherent in human personality, along with many
other definitions. But the greatest of them all, Huguccio, was unusual
in insisting that this was the one primary and proper meaning of the
term. According to his definition, ‘natural jus is called reason, namely
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The Democratizing of Reason
a natural force of the soul …’ Huguccio added that, in a second sense,
the term could be used to refer to the moral laws known through rea-
son, which could be summed up in the scriptural rule ‘Do not do to
others what you do not want done to yourself’.13
What is truly remarkable is the way that Huguccio then turns his
argument against Gratian. For it reveals how the assumption of moral
equality was leading canonists to anchor reason in individual agency
rather than in the external world. Huguccio argues that the second
sense – moral laws or precepts – is not really a proper definition of
natural jus. ‘We ought to say that moral precepts are effects of natural
jus or derive from natural jus rather than that they are natural jus.’14
What lay behind this dramatic move? The ancient doctrine of nat-
ural law was being revised to take account of belief in the incarnation,
the idea that ‘God is with us’. For that belief removed the previous
radical divide between divine agency (whether in the form of the
‘gods’ of polytheism or the Old Testament’s Yahweh) and human
agency. The idea of the incarnation is the root of Christian egalitari-
anism. It lies behind the transformation of the ancient doctrine of
natural law into a theory of natural rights. For the idea of the incar-
nation suggested that deity is not something remote from human
agency but rather something intrinsic to its rightful exercise. The
fourteenth-century theologian Jean Gerson summarized this develop-
ment: ‘Natural Dominium is a gift of God by which a creature has the
right [jus] immediately from God to take inferior things for his use
and preservation.’ 15 The divine logos or ‘word’ ceased to be an exter-
nal constraint and became instead the means of human liberation.
If insisting on a sphere of permissiveness – where the agent is free
to choose responsibly – was the first step taken by the canonists, the
second was to identify specific natural rights. This did not happen
overnight. Nor were their arguments always consistent. In particular,
there was ambiguity about the consequences of conflicts between
human laws and natural rights. Although Gratian had asserted that if
human laws conflict with natural jus they are invalid, he had not
really worked out the implications. Yet Tierney is able to say that by
1300 a number of particular rights were regularly defended in terms
of natural jus. ‘They would include rights to property, rights of consent
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A New Model of Government
to government, rights of self- defence, rights of infidels, marriage
rights, procedural rights.’ Moreover, the first steps were taken to give
those rights teeth, by making them enforceable against positive law.
How did a form of ‘judicial review’ emerge? The canonists defined
as fundamental the right of self- preservation, a right that could be
defended even against ordinary property rights. And they developed
the idea by focusing on the role of intention. Huguccio led the way,
redefining ‘theft’ so that a poor man was not guilty of theft if he took
something from its owner believing that the owner would accept his
genuine ‘need’ for it. But Huguccio went much further. He rejected the
conventional view that the ‘common ownership’ held up as good by a
‘demonstration’ of natural jus referred to a primitive condition that
had been superseded by human law and divine commandments per-
mitting private property (for example, ‘thou shall not steal’):
When it is said that by natural jus all things are common … this is the
meaning. By natural jus, that is, in accordance with the judgement of
reason, all things are common, that is they are to be shared with the poor
in time of need. For reason naturally leads us to suppose that we should
keep only what is necessary and distribute what is left to the needy.16
So Huguccio redefined the word ‘common’ to mean ‘common … that
is … to be shared’. Tierney concludes, rightly, that the canonists were
coming to understand property as a social institution that was both
private and public, creating individual entitlements but also carrying
an obligation to share with others ‘in time of need’. One of the Decret-
ists would even go so far as to argue that a man in need could ‘declare
his right for himself’!
But declaration is one thing, enforcement quite another. Could such
rightful claims be enforced? Even Huguccio doubted that they could.
In his view, ‘many things are owed that cannot be sought by judicial
procedure, such as dignities, dispensations and alms … but they can
be sought as something due mercifully for the sake of God and piety’. 17
Yet his successors were more determined. In the thirteenth century
canonists created a legal procedure for making such claims enforcea-
ble. The bishop’s court was invested with the right to intervene through
a process called ‘evangelical denunciation’, a process enabling a per-
son in extreme need to appeal for help as his ‘natural right’ to the
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The Democratizing of Reason
bishop’s jurisdiction. The bishop could then require the rich to give alms,
on pain of excommunication. By incorporating this procedure into the
standard textbook on the Decretum, ‘a judicial sanction for the rights
of the poor’ emerged.18
The development of such natural rights claims both reflected and
reinforced the new view of reason, a view associating it with human
agency, with choice and upright intentions, and providing a basis for
social intervention that makes it the ancestor of the modern welfare
state. The same ‘modern’ associations can be glimpsed in two other
areas of twelfth-century debate.
It is hardly accidental that one of the earliest examples of a con-
tractual model for understanding the proper relationship between
rulers and ruled – what in later centuries would be called social con-
tract theory – had emerged by the late eleventh century. Once the
focus of obligation was the soul or individual conscience, it seemed to
follow that political obligation presupposed an element of choice or
election. Writing to defend Pope Gregory VII’s deposition of Emperor
Henry IV, Manegold of Lautenbach argued that the authority of a
king was conditional:
For the people do not exalt him above themselves so as to concede to
him an unlimited power of tyrannizing over them, but to defend them-
selves against the tyranny and wickedness of others. However, when he
who is chosen to repress evil-doers and defend the just begins to cherish
evil in himself, to oppress good men, to exercise over his subjects the
cruel tyranny that he ought to ward off from them, is it not clear that
he deservedly falls from the dignity conceded to him and that the
people are free from his lordship and from subjection to him since it is
evident that he first broke the compact by virtue of which he was
appointed?19
Here the ‘compact’ being broken was not a feudal one. It was not the
betrayal of the reciprocal obligations created by vassalage. Rather,
Manegold is concerned with a ruler’s obligations to the generality of
his subjects – ‘the people’ – even while he assumed that magnates
would play an important role in enforcement. If Manegold’s inspir-
ation came from any contemporary practice, it is likely to have come
from the monastic practice of electing an abbot who was expected to
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A New Model of Government
act as both a father and the servant of his monks. In any case, one
thing about such an early example of a contractual model for political
obligation is clear. It reveals how the image of society as an associ-
ation of individuals was acquiring increasing influence over minds.
Another, third area in which the new image of society and its impact
on rationality can be glimpsed by the early twelfth century is philo-
sophical argument, for this period sees philosophy growing out of the
tutelage of theology. The dominant figure was the brilliant, combative
logician Peter Abelard. His insistence that all knowledge is open to
re-examination expanded the new analytical approach shaping civil
and canon law. ‘By collecting contrasting divergent opinion, I hope to
provoke young readers to push themselves to the limit in the search for
truth, so that their wits may be sharpened by their investigation. It is
by doubting that we come to investigate, and by investigating that we
recognize the truth.’20 Abelard liked to provoke conventional minds by
insisting that ‘the Lord (Jesus) said “I am truth”, not “I am custom”!’
Abelard especially began to probe the relations between words and
things. His thinking was stimulated by the canonists’ attempt to derive
principles or maxims from different types of legal decision, in order to
create a system of law. He began to worry about the status of such
maxims, learning from Aristotle (by way of the writings of Boethius)
that maxims were maximum or ‘universal’ propositions from which
the conclusions of syllogisms could be drawn. Such statements of
logical entailment differ from statements of fact. In the former, as
Abelard put it, ‘the truth of the antecedent requires the truth of the
consequent’.
But did universal propositions merely summarize meanings of
propositions they implied or were they ‘real’ in their own right? Was
‘a universal term’ (nomen) also ‘an individual thing’ (res)? Abelard
contributed to the growing attack on the ‘realist’ interpretation, refus-
ing to attribute an external reality to classes defined by shared
characteristics. Instead, Abelard insisted that ‘universals are names
(nomina) invented by the mind to express the similarities or relation-
ships among individual things belonging to a class’.21 Abelard did not
doubt the reality of things. But he emphasized that the process of
abstraction simplifies the complex world of things. The relations
between things are concepts. ‘When I hear man a certain figure arises
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The Democratizing of Reason
in my mind which is so related to individual men that it is common to
all and proper to none.’ Thus, general terms or concepts abridge the
world of things. They do not exist as one thing among others.
This preoccupation with the difference between ‘words’ and ‘things’
was no mere accident. The Christian preoccupation with ‘innerness’
and human agency – an intensified awareness of the difference between
‘inner’ and ‘outer’ experience, between the will and the senses –
contributed to a veritable outburst of logical studies in the twelfth and
the thirteenth centuries. It reflected a growing distrust of the coercive
potential of general terms or concepts, if an extra-mental reality is
attributed to them. Distinguishing the constructive role of the human
mind from information provided by the senses gave nascent European
philosophy a quite different flavour from ancient philosophy. The
movement it eventually generated – ‘nominalism’ – would exemplify
the more analytical, less status-governed intelligence released by the
papal revolution.
Classes or categories were deemed to organize the experience of
individual minds, to give them a ‘handle’ on the world. This was a far
cry from the ultra- realist position associated with Plato’s doctrine of
‘forms’ deemed to be more real than mere sense experience, a view
which early medieval thinkers often associated (less fairly) with Aris-
totle too. Yet Abelard distanced himself from Aristotle too. For it is
hardly too much to say that, through his analysis of the relationship
between words and things, Abelard initiated a process which would
ultimately lead to the purging of explanations in terms of intentions
(‘final causes’) from our understanding of the physical, non-human
world. The claims of reason were being redrawn.
In refusing to give classes or categories a higher status than individ-
ual, discrete experiences of things – by making classes abridgements
rather than coercive – Abelard helped to shape the outlook of his
contemporaries. In his work, we can see the image of society as an
association of individuals contributing to a new philosophical de -
parture: definitions imposed by reason create concepts and logical
entailment, whereas knowledge of the external world is contingent,
based on the experience of individual things. Abelard’s account of
knowledge had an important future ahead of it, one that would
reinforce the democratizing of reason.
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Steps towards the Creation of
Nation- States
The papal revolution turned the church into a self- governing corpor-
ation, a quasi-state. And this had remarkable consequences. It is now
time to look more carefully at the impact of the system of canon law
on other forms of government.
We have seen how fearful the church had become about losing its
independence and even its identity, as a result of what were deemed to
be the encroachments of dukes, counts and other feudal magnates –
rulers who treated church property and positions as part of their own
domains. By turning itself into a distinct corporate body governed by its
own laws, the church had sought to identify and protect its ‘rightful’
domain, the government of souls. This, in turn, led the papacy into con-
flict with German emperors who had preserved a Carolingian entente
between secular and sacred claims. But in asserting and defending its
own exclusive domain, the papacy helped to define another domain.
By claiming a monopoly of authority over spiritual matters, the
church withdrew central religious responsibility from other forms of
government. It redefined their role, withdrawing their right to govern
the sacred. Instead, their central role became that of keeping the peace
and protecting property rights. In that way, the difference between
secular and spiritual spheres – implicit in Christian thinking from the
outset – became explicit and practical. Through the creation of a legal
system for the church, it acquired teeth. Christian dualism no longer
referred simply to the difference between the moral claims of ‘this’
world and the ‘next’: it became anchored in the institutions of this
world. The development of canon law led to the creation of an admin-
istration centralized in the papacy and a hierarchical system of church
courts.
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The contrast between this centralization in the church and the
localized, incoherent pattern of secular governments began to create
new ambitions in secular rulers, who were, after all, often advised by
clerics trained in the new canon law and able to draw on direct experi-
ence of centralized papal government. The increasing coherence of
church government came to pose a challenge to secular rulers. Should
they not strive to achieve something like the same coherence, by cen-
tralizing authority in their governments? A desire to emulate papal
centralization became nothing less than a passion in many secular
rulers during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It is the con-
sequences of that passion that we must explore. But, first, we must
notice the predicament of the secular sphere when compared to that
of the church.
The Cluniac reforms and the papal revolution had been able to
draw on a deep, if only latent, sense of unity in the church. By con-
trast, there was little if any sense of unity in the secular sphere. For in
that sphere pluralism was the outstanding, recalcitrant fact. That
pluralism emerged, not least, in disagreements about the meaning of
‘law’. Until the papal revolution, the idea of ‘law’ in Western Europe
covered a very unstable mixture of moral precept, custom and legal
innovation. But now the papal claim of a sovereign authority, under-
pinning the new system of canon law, began to force clearer distinctions
on both thought and action. The traditional phrases borrowed from
Pope Gelasius contrasting ‘papal authority’ with ‘royal power’ – as
well as references to the need for ‘two swords’ from the Gospel of
Luke – suddenly seemed little better than clichés.
For, despite these traditional phrases and the moral intuitions
behind them, the truth was that before the papal revolution spiritual
and temporal authority in Europe had been so mixed as to be difficult
to separate. Kings had come to understand their role in sacral terms,
while emperors had often made and unmade popes. The papal revo-
lution changed that. It pointed towards the de- sacralizing of kingship
and of all secular government. It was in that sense that the church cre-
ated the secular realm.
But could the secular realm imitate the legal and administrative
reforms conjured up by the papal revolution? It was far from clear
that it could, for the secular sphere included utterly divergent forms
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of government and law. It included kingship (which often looked back
with nostalgia on the Roman claim of imperium), feudal magnates
both great and minor whose claims were based on custom and
force, manorial practices with a similar basis, new towns or boroughs
with a form of self- government more oligarchic than democratic,
and, finally, rules governing trade, a mixture of custom and urban
legislation.
The diversity was dizzying rather than dazzling. It posed a formid-
able challenge to rulers who wished to emulate the papal revolution.
Incoherence, disorder, recourse to violence: by the twelfth century all
of these things betrayed the inability of Western European feudalism
to organize itself into a unified legal system. Nonetheless, if unity on
the model of papal government of the church was to be created, the
only plausible contenders were kings. For their traditional identity
was by far the most inclusive. It embraced memories of Roman imper-
ium, the Carolingian empire, at least nominal feudal overlordship
and, frequently, patronage of the new boroughs or towns.
The legal and administrative model held up by the church rapidly
became a matter of both ‘emulation and competition’ for kings. In the
long run, that emulation and competition led to the creation of the
European nation- state. It led to kings claiming a ‘sovereign’ authority
modelled on that claimed by the popes. But this did not happen sud-
denly or easily. Would- be sovereigns had to overcome major obstacles,
both practical and intellectual.
Feudalism had reduced kingship in France (the German emperors,
too, were losing power) to hardly more than a symbol, while the
effective reins of government were in the hands of feudal magnates
related, through vassalage and homage, in such a complex web of
privileges and obligations that it could hardly be called a ‘system’.
Even in England, where a more centralized form of feudalism emerged
after the Norman Conquest, the power of the crown was soon con-
strained by the alliance of feudatories. Nor were kings and feudal
magnates the only rivals. The growth of urban centres and trade led
to a kind of insurrection across Western Europe of ‘burgs’ or ‘bor-
oughs’ seeking the right of self- government from their local lords,
whether bishops or feudal. Urban autonomy served, in turn, to draw
serfs seeking enfranchisement away from the countryside. It stimu-
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Steps towards the Creation of Nation- States
lated the growth of conventions governing trade at a distance and,
locally, often had a subversive impact on the government of manors.
All these contending institutions claimed legitimacy in the name of
‘the law’. Yet their conception of law was still rooted more in custom
rather than in anything like legislative enactment, so assimilating their
customs and pretensions to the model of a unified legal system posed
enormous problems. For, as we have seen, the papal model repre-
sented an intellectual revolution, a conception of jurisdiction over
individuals rather than groups. Administrative hierarchy developed at
the expense of social hierarchy. Nor was that all. The papal model
presented the sovereign as essentially a lawmaker. Law, that is, became
the expression of a sovereign will (even if that will was assumed to be
subordinate to natural and divine law). Legislative enactment or ‘fiat’
overturned ‘custom’ – traditional social practices – as the criterion of
law ‘properly so- called’. Thus, legal innovation no longer had to mas-
querade as the ‘rediscovery’ of neglected custom. Rather, it became
the crux of government, the heart of a sovereign authority.
Applying the papal model to secular government had another strik-
ing consequence. It gave kingship a more territorial basis. At the risk
of oversimplifying, the ‘king of the Franks’ became the ‘king of France’.
In the past, kings had been related only indirectly to their peoples.
They had governed through a series of lordships and status differences,
that is, through intermediaries (whether feudal, ecclesiastical, tribal or
paternal). Indeed, that chain of intermediaries defined the kingdom.
But applying the papal model broke the chain. ‘The king was no longer
primarily chief warrior of the clan (or federation of clans) and chief
baron in the feudal hierarchy.’1 He became a sovereign over a
well-defined territory inhabited by his subjects, individuals.
The development of the French monarchy in the twelfth and thir-
teenth centuries illustrates this. From its near eclipse under the first
Capetian kings at the turn of the millennium, royal power spread
from a restricted area in the Île de France across an ever- increasing
area of what became France. By the reign of Louis VII it was clear
that royal jurisdiction was growing on the basis of a new title and
claim. No longer was it the elected military kingship of the Germanic
tribes. Nor did it hark back to Roman imperium or theocratic royalty.
Rather, Capetian kings increased their sway by acting as intermediaries
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and defenders of the ‘public weal’, at times playing off the claims of
feudatories against each other, at other times sponsoring new urban
insurrections against feudal ‘oppressors’, and at most times seeking to
create and extend a sphere of general legislation. The cause of justice
with which Capetian kings identified themselves had thus a distinctly
new, individuated flavour.
That is how the model of authority inspired by the papal revolution
undermined a corporate conception of society. It fed a desire in rulers
to overcome difficult, often uncontrollable intermediaries. Yet the
pluralism of European society posed a formidable obstacle to realiz-
ing such an ambition. Imposing a common measure on that pluralism
was no easy matter for would- be sovereigns. They could only set lim-
its on traditional attitudes and jurisdictions in a step-by-step process,
a process which amounted to presenting themselves as arbiters, which
is why Guizot described them as ‘justices of the peace’. They profited
from the new egalitarian sense of justice lurking in the papal model of
a unified legal system, providing its ultimate basis of coherence. So in
emulating that model, would- be sovereigns also helped to propagate
the new sense of justice. This explains not only how kings came to
redefine their own role, but also how the different mentalities associ-
ated with the pluralism of European society began to be fused.
It is difficult for us to re- enter a social world where so little was
shared. It is true that, at least ostensibly, Christian beliefs provided a
common denominator. But beyond that, what? In the twelfth century
each group – whether of feudatories, serfs or townspeople – was a
world unto itself. People did not locate themselves in a world of com-
monality. That provided the deepest challenge to the moral revolution
‘carried’ by canon law and the papal revolution.
Thus, the first step would- be sovereigns had to take was intellec-
tual. They had to come to terms with the nature of papal pretensions.
While the papacy was helping to define the secular sphere by asserting
a monopoly of authority over spiritual matters, the popes – encouraged
by their location at the original centre of the Roman empire – also
claimed a ‘universal’ jurisdiction. What did this mean? Could it be
reconciled with a claim by secular kings to be ‘sovereigns’ in their
own right, the claim increasingly recognized and defended, not least
by the influential thirteenth- century theologian Thomas Aquinas?
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Steps towards the Creation of Nation- States
The bishops of Rome were now obliged to consider the meaning of
their claim to a universal jurisdiction far more carefully.
We can see that if we examine the thinking of the formidable canon
lawyer turned pope, Innocent IV. For this pope helped to resolve an
issue that had lain dormant for centuries, an issue that had not really
been faced by those who relied on the rhetoric of the ‘care of souls’
from the time of Gregory the Great, through Carolingian times and
into the eleventh century. Did only Christians have souls? Were moral
claims generated by belief in the equality of souls in God’s eyes
restricted to those who have been baptized in the Christian faith and
entered the church? Christian rulers had often seemed to work on
that assumption. Charlemagne’s furious massacre of Saxon ‘heathens’
had not, apparently, troubled his conscience. As both lawyer and
pope, Innocent IV approached the issue through a particular ques-
tion. How do infidels stand in relation to the papal claim of a universal
jurisdiction?
Innocent reached his conclusion by relying on the language of nat-
ural law, but in its revised form as a theory of natural rights. His
conclusion encapsulates the fine mixture of Greek philosophy and
Christian moral intuition that had permeated canonist thinking. For
he argues that all humans, by their nature, have some natural rights
or liberties.
I maintain … that lordship, possession and jurisdiction can belong to
infidels, licitly and without sin, for these things were not only for the
faithful but for every rational creature, as has been said. ‘For he makes
his sun to rise on the just and the wicked and he feeds the birds of the
air’ (Matthew, 5.6). Accordingly, we say that it is not licit for the pope
or the faithful to take away from infidels their belongings or their …
jurisdictions …
At first glance Innocent’s argument might seem to undermine the papal
claim to a universal jurisdiction. But he quickly dispels that impres-
sion, by refining the nature of that claim:
Nevertheless, we do certainly believe that the pope, who is the vicar of
Jesus Christ, has power not only over Christians but also over all infi-
dels, for Christ had power over all … and he would not seem to have
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been a careful father unless he had committed full power over all to his
vicar whom he left on earth … But all men, faithful and unfaithful
alike, are Christ’s sheep by creation even though they are not of the fold
of the church and thus from the foregoing it is clear that the pope has
jurisdiction and power over all de jure though not de facto.2
By making that distinction, Innocent IV identified the papal claim to
sovereignty with the universal claims of justice, understood in terms
of equality and reciprocity. It was the claim to speak with unlimited
authority over issues to do with morality and conscience, a claim
from which revelation allowed neither retreat nor concession.
This passage illustrates how the new habits of thought were mak-
ing possible a clearer separation of the claims of justice from prevailing
social facts. In traditional societies, norms and facts, laws and cus-
toms were not clearly separable ideas. It required the emergence of a
sovereign agency – with its claim to rest on and have authority over
individuals – to make such distinctions fully intelligible. For the claim
of a sovereign authority separated the idea of human agency – with all
its potential revealed in the Christ – from established social practices.
It was that claim which made possible the emergence of the idea of
natural rights.
But if the idea of natural rights could be used to protect the posses-
sions and jurisdictions of infidels outside the Christian fold, could it
not also be invoked to protect non-believers and dissenters within
Christian societies? This was far from being Innocent IV’s intention.
Yet such respect for the rights of conscience may be lurking in his argu-
ments. For they relied on a conception of moral claims founded on a
‘proper’ understanding of human agency, an understanding champi-
oned by canon lawyers that could and would be turned against legal
privileges for the church.
Did kings and would- be kings glimpse such a possible development
of the idea of secularism? It is a tantalizing question. But it is difficult,
probably impossible to answer. Certainly the monarchies, feudal
nobilities and independent communes of medieval Europe shared a
deep distrust of papal pretensions, to the extent that they were never
reconciled to the attempts of popes such as Innocent IV to make
explicit and systematic norms presenting the papacy as the final court
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of appeal in Europe. Yet despite their continuing struggle against
papal pretensions, secular rulers carried two things away from the
conflict. The first was papal acceptance that secular jurisdictions
had their own origin and validity. The second was a gradual disen-
gagement from a corporate conception of society. This made the
relationship of secular rulers to the papal revolution one of emulation
as well as competition.
Accepting the model of authority promoted by the papal revolution
to that extent was useful for the kings in pursuing their ambitions. By
confirming the individual as the basic unit of legal subjection, it
became a part of the arsenal they deployed when asserting their ‘sov-
ereign’ rights. The salient part of that arsenal remained the image of a
legal system projected by canon law. Beneath its strong emphasis on
uniformity and coherence lay the assumption of moral equality.
Canon law and civil law increasingly influenced each other. They held
what amounted to a conversation. When canon law was silent on
some question, canonists had recourse to Roman civil law. On the
other hand, understanding innovations in canon law, which sprang
from the church applying its moral beliefs to a society so different
from that of ancient Rome, helped to turn students of civil law into
something more than antiquarians. When there was a conflict between
civil and canon law over a question, resolving that conflict made both
types of lawyer more self- conscious about the values involved. For
example, the question of whether an oath never to change the con-
tents of a will could override freedom of testament saw canonists
emphasize the moral obligation created by the oath, while civilians
usually defended testamentary freedom.3
The interaction between canon and civil law helped to develop and
strengthen the new sense of justice. Increasingly, lawyers were trained
in both systems. Many canon lawyers were, in fact, laymen. Nothing
illustrates better the interaction of the two legal systems – and the
new sense of justice – than the way canonists turned a maxim of pri-
vate law into a principle of public law: ‘what touches all should be
approved by all’, a principle that would later have profound political
consequences.
Of course, what secular rulers first appreciated in these legal devel-
opments was not so much their humane potential as their potential
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A New Model of Government
for a more efficient organization of government. The example of the
papal bureaucracy was not lost on them.
As a result of the Gregorian reforms the papal curia had become
divided into separate sections dealing with legislation, judicial deci-
sions, and administration. The sight of administrators relying on
careful written records to spread their sway over remote localities, the
example of lawyers and courts using the papal claim to a plenitude of
power to bring archbishops and bishops within a single hierarchical
organization, the impact locally of papal delegates dispatched to carry
out the will of the curia, the successful raising of revenues: these things
did not fail to make an impression on secular rulers struggling to
impose their authority over powerful feudal vassals.
The efficiency and coherence of papal government made such an
impression on lawyers themselves that they began to distinguish
‘authority’ from ‘administration’. If authority was ‘the inherent right
to direct affairs, administration was the actual exercise of power’. 4
Thus, it was the pope’s ability to govern the far-flung church that
secular rulers first wished to emulate. And, not surprisingly, they asso-
ciated such ability with an enhanced role for lawyers. So emperors
and kings began to consult lawyers, employ them and even found
schools of law. After all, both civil and canon law offered such rulers
the tantalizing prospect of a primacy which feudal institutions denied
them. That is why the new idea of a legal system led to such revolu-
tionary changes in European government.
In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries a distinct pattern emerged.
Feudal kingship gave way to a new form of kingship, a form involving
centralization of authority and the growth of bureaucracy. Royal
councils, traditionally composed of tribal chiefs or feudal magnates,
were reformed along the model of the papal curia. The names given to
new, separate agencies varied. But the pattern involved separating
legislative, administrative and judicial functions, and giving each into
the hands of people with some appropriate training. Often these were
‘new’ men rather than leading feudatories. In this way a wider pool of
talent became available, men whose modest origins also made them
more amenable to discipline. (Once again, kings learned from the
church, which had opposed marriage of the clergy at least partly on
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Steps towards the Creation of Nation- States
the grounds that it might make church offices hereditary and turn the
clergy into a caste.)
These changes can be observed in southern Italy and in Sicily, the
principality put together by Norman invaders from the later eleventh
century. Two things may help to explain why its rulers created the
‘first modern system of royal law’. The first was the fact of proximity
to Rome and constant contact with papal government. But the second
and more important was their need for a legitimacy that the papacy
could bestow. These Norman ‘intruders’ wished to become kings
properly so called (a wish which also led Duke William of Normandy
to cultivate relations with the papacy, before invading England in
1066).
What institutions did the Norman rulers create? They created ‘a
system of civil service examinations’ which provided officials to staff
new central agencies, a chancery which prepared and issued royal
decrees, a treasury (the dogana) which organized and directed an effi-
cient system of taxation, and a high court claiming direct jurisdiction
over the most serious cases and providing itinerant judges to deal
with lesser cases outside the capital of Palermo. Altogether, the pat-
tern strongly resembled that of the reformed Roman curia.
But Norman innovations did not stop there. These rulers inherited
a peculiarly complex set of ‘legal’ traditions, the result of Sicily and
southern Italy having been subject, at various times, to Byzantine,
papal and Arab rule. The consequent absence of anything like coher-
ent customary law made it easier for the Norman rulers to assert
themselves. Early in the twelfth century a shrewd, determined ruler
who styled himself King Roger II did just that. ‘He carved out of the
legal universe a separate jurisdiction, that of the king of Sicily in mat-
ters of high justice, and then he defined that jurisdiction by a set of
interlocking principles and rules that created a unified … body of
law.’ Roger did not hesitate to claim a sovereign right for himself.
Roger II declared that the king is a ‘maker of laws’ (conditor legum).
Indeed, Roger promulgated the first modern code of royal law in …
the Assizes of Ariano. This is called a modern code and the first of its
kind in the West because it did not purport to be merely a collection of
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A New Model of Government
rules and principles, but instead was a systematic presentation of what
were thought to be basic features of the legal system … It was pre-
sented as positive law, enacted by the king as legislator. It drew, to be
sure, on customary law, natural law and divine law, and it fused many
diverse features of the Byzantine, Moslem, Lombard, Norman and
Romano- canonical legal traditions, but it recast those sources in the
form of a new and comprehensive legislative act.5
The Assizes of Ariano deserve such a description because of their
unequivocal character. They set out Roger’s claim to legal supremacy
not only over the feudal nobility, urban communes and the popula-
tion at large, but also, in some respects, over the church as well.
In the next century the most brilliant of Roger’s successors, the
ambitious Frederick II, carried these changes further, intending, prob-
ably, to apply to the whole of Italy the institutions of his kingdom of
Sicily. How did Frederick go about this? He strengthened the central
bureaucracy, insisted on legal training and laid even greater emphasis
on written records and consistency in administration. Whenever
possible, he avoided making feudal magnates the agents of local gov-
ernment. They were often obstinate and under-educated. Instead, he
recruited ‘new men’ to act both as his ‘vicars’ for the government of
provinces and as his potestates for the government of cities.
Frederick II issued a revised and even more ambitious code of laws
for Sicily. When introducing his new code, he borrowed Roman law
texts to establish his lawmaking supremacy and proper rules for pro-
cedure in his courts. He was especially careful to insist that whenever
judges faced competing rules drawn from royal legislation and feudal
or customary law, their first obligation was to apply royal legislation.
Only if there was nothing relevant to the case in royal legislation, could
the judge turn to the rules of feudal or customary law.6
France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries exhibits similar insti-
tutional changes, though with one noticeable difference. In France,
the extension of royal jurisdiction and centralization gained especially
from the tacit alliance between the crown and newly important bor-
oughs directed against the local powers of bishops and secular lords.
Supporting urban uprisings – ‘swearing the commune’ – became an
important instrument of policy for Louis IX and Philip Augustus.
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They too changed the composition of the royal council in favour of
‘new men’, while creating separate bodies to extend their fiscal reach
and superintend legal decisions (the parlement of Paris). The power of
the French crown grew from ‘listening to complaints’ and then inter-
vening as an arbiter.
The extent to which the new model of kingship was tied to a bur-
geoning class of lawyers soon became a matter for anecdote. There is
a story about how one of Frederick’s predecessors, the emperor Fred-
erick Barbarossa, sought confirmation of the extent of his ‘sovereign’
powers from the leading lawyers at Bologna. When Barbarossa asked
two famous jurists, Bulgarus and Martinus, whether he was ‘lord of
the world’, Bulgarus said that his power was limited by private prop-
erty, while Martinus said that his power had no limits. As a reward,
Martinus was given a horse by the emperor, while Bulgarus went
away empty- handed … The story shows how the question of sover-
eign right was a live one.
It was no accident that royal patronage of law schools in the new
universities became widespread. These law schools taught only civil
and canon law. They had no place in their curriculum for the study of
feudal or customary law. In this way, the law schools came to supply
advisers to rulers who were seeking to overcome the diversity of cus-
tomary law in their kingdoms, with the help of the new concept of a
sovereign right.
England and Castile all provided variations on the same pattern.
Thus, Edward I of England (1272–1307), whose interest in legal
reform led to him being described as ‘the English Justinian’, recruited
the son of the great Bolognese jurist Accursius to advise him. In
thirteenth-century Castile, Alfonso the Wise came to Roman law
under the influence of his tutor, who had studied at Bologna.7 In Paris,
meanwhile, interest in legal studies developed so rapidly that a pope
attempted to forbid its study on the grounds that it was undermining
interest in theology!
Little wonder that a Byzantine visitor to Western Europe in the early
fourteenth century was impressed by one thing more than anything else:
the omnipresence of litigation, courts and lawyers.8 He was not pre-
pared for it. It had no counterpart further east. He was, in fact,
encountering the attempt to create the rule of law on a new, individualist
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A New Model of Government
basis, spreading from the church into the secular sphere. To be sure,
papal sovereignty, which had opened the way to an ambitious legisla-
tive programme and the centralizing of justice in the church, encountered
fewer obstacles than attempts by secular rulers to assert the same pre-
rogative. Those rulers’ use of Roman and canon law was circumscribed
by entrenched local custom, the nobility’s defence of feudal law as well
as by the ‘liberties’ of municipalities.9
Yet if progress towards the rule of law in the secular sphere was
halting, a popular culture favourable to it began to develop and with
it a new genre of writing. A strange, vernacular fusion of religion and
law can be seen in the popularity of fourteenth-century tracts recount-
ing the so- called ‘trial of Satan’: Christ presides over the court. Satan
appears before it, and brings an action against mankind. Through a
series of legal moves, Satan claims possession of humanity for its sins,
moving from procedural devices (such as the failure of mankind, the
accused, to appear before the court) to substantive claims about ‘his’
property since the Fall. Eventually the Virgin Mary appears as an
advocate for the defence. She argues that as Satan was the cause of the
fall of mankind, he should not be able to benefit from his own crime.
Unsurprisingly, Satan loses the case.
Such tracts are not just amusing or bizarre. Their popularity reveals
how religion and law were being fused to create something new in
Western Europe. For these tracts did not only help to instruct people
in basic features of legal procedure. They conveyed a sense that the
moral guarantees offered by the Christian faith could and should
become a matter of social justice as well as of grace.
That sense would provide one of the foundations of modern
secularism.
265
20
Urban Insurrections
Kings were the first to recognize the advantages of the new idea of
sovereignty, with the prospect of a jurisdiction over individuals that it
offered. The vision of a society freed from the constraints imposed on
feudal kingship touched their self- interest directly. It was a vision of
greater power. But that vision also drew on the moral intuitions of
clerics who, trained in canon law, often acted as royal advisers.
To be sure, these moral intuitions had been present in the Christian
church from its outset. But the development of the church into a
self-governing corporation, with a legal system founded on the assump-
tion of moral equality, gave those intuitions a new potency and reach.
It gave them access to the less privileged reaches of society, where they
could become agents of further change.
We can see this if we look at a revolution contemporary with the
papal revolution: the insurrection and enfranchisement of the towns
or ‘boroughs’. Along with the papal revolution and the new ambitions
of kingship, the revival of urban life is one of the remarkable features
of eleventh- and twelfth- century Europe.
What had become of the ancient city? However much cities had
suffered from the Germanic invasions, they did not disappear. Approx-
imations of Roman urban life survived, especially in Italy, southern
France and Catalonia. We have seen how, in the aftermath of the inva-
sions, bishops (many drawn from the old senatorial class) became the
de facto leaders of cities. Yet the disappearance of ancient social clas-
sifications meant that civic magistrates were no longer deemed to
have a hereditary claim. They were understood as representatives of
the people. Other forms of ancient civic life, however, at first survived
the invasions unchanged.
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One meets at this epoch … with frequent convocations of the curia;
there is mention made of public assemblies and municipal magistrates.
The affairs of the civil order, wills, grants and a multitude of acts of
civil life, were legalized in the curia by its magistrates, as was the case
in the Roman municipality. The remains of urban activity and liberty, it
is true, gradually disappeared. Barbarism, disorder and always increas-
ing misfortunes, accelerated the depopulation. The establishment of the
masters of the land in the rural districts, and the growing preponder-
ance of agricultural life, were new causes of decay to the towns. The
bishops themselves, when they had entered the frame of feudalism,
placed less importance on their municipal existence. Finally, when feu-
dalism had completely triumphed, the towns, without falling into the
servitude of serfs, found themselves entirely in the hands of a lord,
enclosed within some fief, and robbed of all the independence which
had been left them … in the first ages of the invasion.1
The condition of towns by the ninth and tenth centuries cannot be
described either as one of freedom or of servitude. Rather it was a
marginal, insecure and unregulated condition. Apart from servants of
the local bishop or count, most of the inhabitants of towns farmed to
survive.
Yet feudalism, which at first took such a toll of urban independ-
ence, soon gave the cities a new lease of life. From the tenth century
urban population grew rapidly. Why? When urban life began to
revive, the towns no longer conformed to Greek or Roman models.
They were not fully independent city- states. Nor were they adminis-
trative centres, where a hereditary elite extracted an agricultural
surplus from country estates worked by slaves, for the benefit of a
distant imperial government. Serfdom and the extreme localism that
resulted from the dissolution of the Carolingian empire – with rela-
tively small fiefs governed by lords from their castles – began to
create a different relationship between towns and their surrounding
countryside. A new interdependence between town and countryside
developed. The agricultural surplus created by serfs attached to plots
of land on a lord’s domain created a demand for other goods, which
artisans and merchants located in a nearby town could exploit.
That is why the reviving cities and towns ceased to be administrative
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Urban Insurrections
centres or places for leisure. They became marketplaces instead. They
catered for new needs felt by a feudal class that was more sedentary.
So the growing urban population consisted chiefly not of clergy or
notables, but of artisans and merchants. In that way, the seeds of a
new social class – devoted to commerce rather than the pursuits of
war and the chase – developed in the midst of feudalism. This new
class consisted of people who wanted the freedom to move about, buy
and sell: the creation of a jurisdiction and ‘peace’ that would provide
security needed for trading.
In retrospect, it was more than a new social class being born. For
that class would, eventually, provide the model for a new type of soci-
ety. So we must ask what attitudes and habits the refugees from the
countryside and from the feudal system brought with them into their
new circumstances. How did the contours of their minds – their
mores – begin to shape urban institutions?
If we compare these refugees with the founders of ancient cities, we
notice one difference above all. For these refugees, the religious ques-
tion was already settled. There existed a priesthood and a corporation
called the church, governed by its own laws. There was no need or
temptation to create new beliefs as well as new institutions. The
church, after all, claimed a monopoly of religious authority. The urban
associations that were being formed had, therefore, no inclination to
claim such authority. They were prepared to acknowledge a religious
authority external to their own affairs, an authority which laid down
a basic moral framework for their transactions, exemplified in the
oaths for mutual assistance and solidarity (‘swearing the commune’)
that provided the earliest form of new urban governments. That
appeal to individual conscience drew on moral intuitions fostered by
the church. Yet the church did not seek to govern the new urban cen-
tres directly.
The ‘sacred’ sphere now possessed its own form of government. So
the affairs of the rapidly growing urban settlements could – within
limits imposed by Christian beliefs – be left to their inhabitants. And
so it was. They began to govern themselves. These towns or boroughs
became the first secular governments – governments that, freed from
quasi- religious ideas of lordship and paterfamilias, acknowledged an
underlying equality in their inhabitants and the freedom this implied.
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Kings might have begun to see the advantages of such a presumption
in favour of liberty, but kingship was still tainted with its earlier theo-
cratic claims. Feudalism might rest on a form of servitude more
equivocal than ancient slavery, but inequality remained its defining
characteristic. By contrast, with a kind of innocence, townspeople
were creating a new form of society.
Only later did townspeople relate their new liberty to the moral
equality proclaimed by Christian beliefs. Yet that relationship emerged
almost immediately in the language they adopted when ‘swearing the
commune’ and defending its interests. It was the language of brother-
hood. Thus, a twelfth- century Flemish borough charter prescribed:
‘let each help the other like a brother’. This language of equality and
reciprocity – of moral transparency – was not the language of the
ancient polis, but rather that of St Paul. Its adoption by eleventh- and
twelfth- century burghers gave their struggle for concessions from feu-
dal lords the advantage that follows when conviction is added to
interest.
As and when that happened, urban egalitarianism was reinforced.
Burghers were not, of course, relying on anything like the idea of nat-
ural rights being developed by canon lawyers. Theirs was an instinct
rather than a theory. If Christianity declared all men equal in the sight
of God, should not they be equal in the sight of the law? However
indistinctly at first, that was the novel idea ‘carried’ by the rapidly
growing boroughs. Unlike in the ancient city, liberty was being
claimed, not merely for the borough, but also for the individuals who
lived and worked in it. It was the agitated, inchoate birth of the ideal
of equal liberty. For personal liberty rapidly became identified with
the very meaning of ‘burgher’. To struggle for the freedom or ‘fran-
chise’ of a borough was also to struggle for a new personal status. ‘It
is to Jesus Christ that we owe the development of the laws and advan-
tages of our city,’ proclaimed the citizens of Marseilles in 1219.2
Thus the church was both present and absent at the birth of a new
form of society, something that has confused discussions of the nature
of secularism ever since. Christian beliefs provided a sanction for the
individual as the fundamental social role, an egalitarian understand-
ing of justice. But in most other respects, the church did not seek to
shape urban institutions directly. Its influence remained indirect. The
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Urban Insurrections
medieval borough developed as an association of individuals rather
than as an association of families. The family was no longer itself a
religious cult and form of worship. And, unlike ancient cities, the gov-
ernments of towns or boroughs did not claim religious authority.
They did not perform religious rites or administer religious rules.
The contrast with ancient cities could hardly be greater. As we have
seen, their formation had been an avowedly religious act. It involved
the creation of a new cult, an association of family and tribal cults
through civic magistrates who at the same time acted as priests. The
ancient city fused religious and political functions. And its mould was
aristocratic. From the outset, it conferred on the heads of certain fami-
lies a hereditary right to officiate and govern. Neither ancient lordship
nor paterfamilias shaped the new urban centres. Instead, the gradual
enfranchisement of the boroughs created a class of people who were
formally equal and free to move about, buy and sell. They were no
longer slaves or serfs attached to the land. For burghers, land itself
became a commodity rather than the source of permanent privilege
or subjection. Burghers had already formed self-governing trade asso-
ciations such as guilds or hanses. In due course, they were also
acknowledged to have the right to manage the affairs of their boroughs,
to legislate, impose taxes and even make war. A German proverb
expressed the new social reality: ‘the air of the city makes free’.
The process of enfranchisement did not happen overnight. Often it
involved repeated struggles against feudal overlords and bloody
defeats. At first the bishops, who lived in the cities, proved more reluc-
tant than secular lords to forgo their traditional dominance of urban
affairs. But they did so as feudal lords rather than as spokesmen of a
church disentangling itself from secular jurisdictions with the help of
canon law. Indeed, it was not unknown for some churchmen – monastic
authorities and the lower clergy – to support an urban population
against the feudal pretensions of a bishop, if only to defend papal
authority.
Urban uprisings against feudal lords spread like wildfire across
Western Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. They were not
coordinated uprisings, though travellers’ tales of successful uprisings
elsewhere no doubt offered much-needed encouragement to other
burghers at times. Deeper causes were at work. Similar circumstances
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A New Model of Government
were leading to similar outcomes. What exactly were the circum-
stances and the outcomes? And what role did the church play at each
stage in these unprecedented social developments?
To find out, we must examine several steps in the development of
the boroughs. First we must look more closely at the process of their
formation, then at the ‘charters’ that symbolized and consolidated
their enfranchisement, and, finally, at social developments within the
boroughs following their enfranchisement. The church’s influence on
each step was indirect, but it was nonetheless important.
A long if ill-defined tradition – which identified the churches as
places of refuge – gave birth to the convention that any serf who lived
in a town for more than a year could not be forcibly removed by his
former master. The traditional ‘right’ of sanctuary in a church thus
contributed to the growth of urban populations.
Before the boroughs had established themselves, before their strength
and their ramparts enabled them to offer an asylum to the afflicted
population of the country, when they as yet had no safety but that
afforded by the church, this sufficed to draw into the towns many
unhappy fugitives. They came to shelter themselves in or around the
church; and it was the case not only with the inferior class, with serfs
and boors, who sought safety, but often with men of importance, rich
outlaws.3
Such ‘outlaws’ introduced a less servile attitude, and contributed to a
new recalcitrance in the towns. Even more important was the success
of merchants who had learned to band together in guilds or hanses, in
order to trade at a distance with greater security. These would provide
the nucleus of a new urban government.
If the towns grew with the arrival of refugees from the countryside,
they prospered with the rebirth of trade. They became centres of and
for work, centres where no superior class cast work in an inferior
light. But as the prosperity of merchants and artisans grew, so did
their insecurity. As trade increased, the wealth of the urban centres
attracted the attention of local lords, who soon attempted to appro-
priate that wealth through tolls, taxes and outright confiscations.
Now settled within their fiefs, such lords had not lost the avidity of
bandits. ‘Instead of going to pillage at a distance, they pillaged at home.’
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Urban Insurrections
By the late eleventh century this created such fury among townsmen
that they rose against their local feudal oppressors.
This reaction of townsmen runs against an assumption inherited
from ancient political rhetoric that commerce leads to the ‘corrup-
tion’ of manners, installing weakness and effeminacy in the place of
warlike ‘virtue’. The experience of social equality in boroughs led to a
different result. Townsmen became fighters. ‘Nothing can irritate a
man more than being interfered with in his work, and despoiled of the
fruits which he had promised himself from it … There is in the pro-
gressive movement towards fortune of a man or a population a
principle of resistance against injustice and violence far more ener-
getic than in any other situation.’4 Responding to the threats to their
livelihoods, townspeople banded together and formed militias. They
created virtual corporations that existed in fact before their rights
were recognized. These took the form of all the inhabitants swearing
an oath of mutual aid and solidarity. Assemblies of the people, who
were summoned by the bells of the church or criers, began to make
their own decisions. They began to exercise many sovereign rights.
Feudalism itself contributed to this outcome. For in the relations of
vassals to their suzerain, the right to which feudalism constantly
appealed was the right of resistance. In this respect, the townspeople
can be said to have learned from their ‘betters’.
The medieval borough acquired its identity through an insurrection
which, though not at all coordinated, became general.
The enfranchisement of the commons in the eleventh century was the
fruit of a … veritable war, a war declared by the population of the
towns against their lords. The first fact which is always met with in
such histories is the rising of the burgesses who arm themselves with
the first thing that comes to hand; the expulsion of the followers of the
lord who have come to put in force some extortion; or it is an enter-
prise against the castle … If the insurrection fails, what is done by the
conqueror? He orders the destruction of the fortifications raised, not
only round the town but round each house. One sees at the time of the
confederation, after having promised to act in common, and after tak-
ing the oath of mutual aid, the first act of the citizen is to fortify himself
within his house.5
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Insurrections often did fail – at first. But the towns became ever more
militant and the houses of townspeople ever more like small fortresses.
So after sometimes prolonged struggles, many boroughs achieved
what they sought, liberties and immunities giving them a large degree
of self- government. They were often supported by kings (especially in
France) who saw these urban uprisings as a way of reducing the
power of feudal lords.
Let us now look more closely at the ‘charters’ created when an
insurrection succeeded. This will involve constructing an ideal type of
the charters, for, not surprisingly, there was a great variety in their
terms. These terms reflected differences between the more centralized
feudalism of England and weaker royal power in France, between
European regions where a secular lord or the church retained the
upper hand and those (as in Flanders) where the wealth and size of
the boroughs gave them greater bargaining power. Nonetheless, a
number of features were widely shared.
Charters turned citizens de facto into citizens de jure. The early
twelfth- century charter of Beauvais was typical. It stipulated that ‘all
men within the walls of the city and in the suburb shall swear the
commune’, before setting out the rights and privileges of burghers.
Charters were ‘peace treaties’ at the end of a war. But they were also
more than that. They created new legal entities. They created the bor-
oughs as self- governing corporations, with their own jurisdiction. The
charter gave an urban corporation its own sphere of competences and
defined its relations with a local lord or king. It created the basis for a
new legal system.6
It would be an exaggeration to say that the boroughs achieved com-
plete sovereignty. For limits on their rights remained. Kings usually
reserved the rights of ‘high justice’ over capital offences. Local lords or
bishops often reserved the right to appoint judges or collect a particu-
lar tax from the borough. Nonetheless, the charters set limits on such
claims over the boroughs, giving the boroughs immunity from the full
range of royal and feudal impositions. They firmly excluded new, arbi-
trary claims on the boroughs. This was a crucial principle. For apart
from pre-established claims, the boroughs acquired a sovereign right,
the right to govern their own affairs – which is not to say that kings
and local lords did not sometimes regret the concessions they had
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made and threaten the ‘liberties’ of a borough. But the claim of a right
could survive such facts.
Thus, the model of a legal system – of a self-governing corporation –
shaped the enfranchisement of the boroughs. That model, with its
roots in the church and canon law, promoted egalitarianism by rein-
forcing the notion that the individual was the fundamental unit of
legal subjection. Such a development in urban centres should not be
taken for granted, as something ‘natural’ or unavoidable. There was a
major difference between European and Islamic cities in that respect.
Islamic cities developed, but they were never legally constituted. They
grew, but they were never founded as autonomous legal entities.
By contrast, some eleventh- and twelfth- century charters became
models widely copied by other boroughs founding themselves, for
example, that of London by other English cities and that of Magde-
burg by German-speaking cities further east. Such charters established
a clear difference between urban law and both feudal and canon law.
Urban law developed as a mixture of local custom, improvisation
and, especially, rules of commerce developed by merchant guilds trad-
ing at a distance and recognizing the importance of reciprocal rights
for protecting profits from trade. It is certainly no accident that bor-
ough charters devoted a great deal of attention to protecting the
claims of ‘foreign’ merchants. Equality and reciprocity shaped dispo-
sitions in borough charters. It was an inheritance of canon law,
although now these principles were applied to keep temporal peace
and serve justice rather than to promote the faith as such.
Here, once again,we meet the paradox of the papal revolution. By
proclaiming the church’s independence from ‘secular’ government, it
helped to create the latter. The de- sacralizing of kingship was under
way, but would take far longer to accomplish. So enfranchised bor-
oughs (even when churches played an important role in the local
economy) provide the first examples of secularism. ‘They were wholly
separate from the church, and in that sense they were the first secular
states of Europe.’7
Let us now look at developments within the boroughs after their
enfranchisement. If we look closely at these developments, we can
learn other things about secularism. The first is the connection between
secularism and constitutionalism, a connection that became explicit
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in the charters organizing the boroughs, defining their immunities and
specifying citizens’ rights. Were they ‘the first modern written consti-
tutions’? That is going too far, for they did not attempt to provide an
entire framework for government, leaving much to be settled. What is
closer to the truth is that the charters were one of the sources from
which modern social contract theory would develop. For the borough
charters were more like an original social contract than a full-blown
constitution. Yet they certainly had constitutional features.
The new idea of a sovereign authority exercised directly over moral
equals – that is, over individuals – presupposed a rule locating the sov-
ereign. Thus, the claim of papal authority over the church was grounded
in belief that the Christ had made Peter and his successors the repre-
sentatives of God’s moral authority over souls on earth. Yet the definitive
assertion of papal sovereignty by Gregory VII was preceded by a ‘con-
stitutional’ measure to free papal elections from interference by secular
rulers, to ensure that the church was self-governing.
The first feature of the borough charters was to secure self-
government by lodging final authority in the assembly of all citizens.
Secularism introduced a formal equality of status for citizens, who
had the right to take part in the assemblies. Popular assemblies had
the right to legislate, levy taxes and make war. As we have seen, cer-
tain rights reserved by the king or a local lord might limit the
sovereignty of newly enfranchised boroughs. But in other respects
they were free. Boroughs were usually exempt from feudal services
and dues, as well as from royal taxes, except those that had been
agreed in advance. Their independence emerges especially in the
absence of obligation except by prior agreement.
In the boroughs, as in the church, the exercise of a sovereign author-
ity before long raised difficult questions about the distribution of
authority and representation. Such questions followed directly from
the assumption of moral equality. For the right to govern and the duty
to obey were no longer allocated by inherited differences of status, by
assuming inequality to be natural. Were there, in consequence, moral
limits to legal subjection to a sovereign authority? Could sover-
eign authority be shared or delegated? And what was the status of
intermediate or partial associations, associations composed of only
some subjects of the sovereign body?
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Urban Insurrections
In the church, these problems emerged in arguments about the rela-
tionship between papal authority and general councils of the church,
as well as in arguments about whether a heretical pope could be
deposed. Did not the pope’s ‘plenitude of power’ have to respect
divine and natural law, in order to command the consciences of
believers? And what autonomy did this plenitude of power leave to
archbishops, bishops and monastic orders?
In the boroughs, lodging a monopoly of power in an assembly of the
citizens gave rise to analogous questions. Were popular assemblies able
to formulate coherent policies or deal justly with individual dissent?
How much authority should such assemblies confer on magistrates?
How could magistrates be held to account? Did self-government
require the creation of a more permanent body deemed to represent all
the citizens? In the first phase of their history – during insurrections
and the immediate aftermaths – the boroughs were the scenes of an
almost unlimited, even anarchical democracy. It is true that there were
urban magistrates, but they were elected annually and were subject to
one overriding control, the ever-present threat of popular rioting. This
volatile internal situation drastically limited the ability of the boroughs
to deal confidently with local lords and kings, often providing the lat-
ter with pretexts for intervention.
The need for more stable government brought change. The devel-
opment of trade and the importance of guilds or hanses – ‘industrial
corporations’ – had created a set of richer merchants in the boroughs.
Their influence on the organization of work was increasingly reflected
in the arrangements of urban government, which became far more
oligarchic. This involved the emergence of a council or senate deemed
to represent the community as a whole. This body was invested with
the right to choose the leading magistrates, often from within its
own members. At first such councils were elected for a fixed period,
but later they acquired the right to renew their own membership.
Assemblies of the citizens became rare, though the right was never
extinguished. References in municipal documents to ‘the leading citi-
zens’ became more frequent.
But that was not the only constitutional development. A form of
separation of powers also began to emerge. A more permanent
judiciary – with professional judges – was created, in place of judges
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A New Model of Government
who had at first been elected by the popular assembly for a term so
short that it allowed them little independence. And the publication of
laws rather than appeals to custom (which often meant the opinion of
elders) became the usual basis for judicial decisions.
The protection for individual rights also became more explicit and
systematic – and here again the influence of canon law is perceptible.
The civil rights granted by urban law … included a rational trial pro-
cedure, with judgement by peers rather than proof by ordeal or trial by
combat. There were to be no arbitrary arrests and no imprisonment
without legal process. Body attachment for debt was prohibited. Types
of punishment were limited. In theory, rich and poor were to be judged
alike. Citizens had the right to bear arms. They had the right to vote.
Immigrants were to be granted the same rights as citizens after resi-
dence for a year and a day. Merchant strangers were to have rights
equal to those of merchant citizens.8
This account may be rather idealized. But it remains true that urban
government contained the seeds of a modern constitutional order.
Through their legal innovations, medieval boroughs gave birth to a
new social class, a class intermediate between the original castes of
feudal society, the nobles and serfs. This class is what we have come
to call the ‘middle’ class or bourgeoisie. And it is no accident that we
call it a class rather than a caste. Formal recognition of a fundamental
equality of status – the status of citizens – distinguished this class
from feudal castes, which preserved more of the ancient assumption
of natural inequality. Despite oligarchic trends in the government of
boroughs, the equality of citizenship remained a counterpoise to de
facto inequalities of wealth, status and power. This fundamental
equality proved to be deeply subversive. Over the coming centuries it
would lead to the collapse of the original feudal castes into this ‘mid-
dling’ social condition, with the emergence of nation-states.
We must be careful, however, not to project back into the twelfth
century the class that took possession of society during the early mod-
ern period. In its origins it was comprised largely of artisans and
merchants. Even after the enfranchisement of the boroughs it retained
a sense of social inferiority, preventing it from assuming any great
role in the public life of Europe. In their dealings with royalty and the
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Urban Insurrections
feudal nobility, the burghers remained humble and even submissive –
except when it was a question of defending the immunities of their
boroughs! It was only when lawyers, wealthy bankers, physicians and
scholars were added to their ranks that they became fully conscious
of themselves as a class.9 Only then did they begin to acquire a will to
fashion society as a whole after their own model.
Such a will – what François Guizot describes as a truly political
will – had previously depended on a sense of social superiority, on
aristocracy. The challenge facing the new middle class was to create a
‘democratic’ will on the basis of equal rights, that is, on civil and pol-
itical liberty.
The Birth Pangs of
Modern Liberty
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Popular Aspirations and the Friars
Egalitarian moral intuitions generated by Christianity have played a
crucial part in our story. They can be traced back to Paul’s mystical
vision of believers becoming ‘as one’ in the Christ, the vision of an
utter transparency of mind and will. But in a simpler form, the bib-
lical ‘golden rule’ conveyed these egalitarian intuitions, making them
easily accessible.
We have just seen how these intuitions helped to shape new urban
institutions. Refugees from the countryside, most of them former
serfs, were the major source of growing urban populations. Typically,
they were poor and illiterate. But that did not prevent them already
having some inkling of the meaning of ‘the equality of souls’. Were
they not told in sermons that they had a will and a conscience, and
that they would be held to account for their thoughts and actions on
the day of judgement? This was not the language in which ancient
slaves had been addressed. Nor did it escape the notice of serfs that
their feudal lords accepted, if only tacitly, the language of the church.
This, of course, is surmise. How can we find firm evidence of the
spread of egalitarian moral intuitions among the poor and illiterate?
What exactly should we be looking at? The answer can be found, I
think, by looking at the role of comparison. For a process of compari-
son is unleashed by the assumption of equality, a process forestalled
in cultures resting on the contrary assumption of natural inequality.
Popular movements in the medieval countryside – rural radicalism –
betray this substitution of one assumption for another. They betray
something more than the mere desperation of the slaves who, under
Spartacus, revolted against Roman power in the first century bc. They
betray conviction, the vision of a social order transformed along
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The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
Christian lines. This was imagined as a return to an ‘original’ Chris-
tianity, a condition of simplicity, brotherhood and sharing. 1 If we are
to disentangle that vision – and neither overestimate nor underesti-
mate its importance – we must be careful. For the vision was joined to
a bewildering variety of other beliefs and attitudes: belief in the mil-
lennium, a form of dualism so exaggerated that good and evil scarcely
touched, ‘superstitious’ credence in omens and portents, the cult of
saints and their relics, the excitement of joining a popular movement
and taking up a wandering life, and, not least, the distrust of clerical
authority. So we must ask difficult questions about the moral condi-
tion of the rural poor. To what extent had the church really touched
them? And if the rural poor had acquired egalitarian intuitions, how
were they expressed?
In contrast to the bourgeoisie, who acquired a consciousness of
themselves as a class through struggling against their feudal oppres-
sors, the rural poor did not acquire such a consciousness. How could
they? Dispersed and ignorant, with imaginations limited by confined
lives, serfs in the eleventh century could not have understood notions
like ‘country’ or ‘nation’. In some ways they must still have considered
their own condition as a thing fated, their ‘nature’ or ‘lot’ in life. And
yet there was the church in their midst. And the church did not speak
of fate, but rather of salvation or damnation, and so of a soul at risk
in every person, of crucial choices open to each. Taking Christianity
into the countryside, with the creation of rural parishes during the
Carolingian period, may already have contributed to the emergence of
serfdom as a status quite distinct from ancient slavery. But the influ-
ence of the church did not stop there.
We have seen how the monastic reform movement stimulated the
papal revolution and helped to shape new urban institutions. What
was its impact in the countryside?
From the beginnings of monasticism in Western Europe monks had
enjoyed a special standing among the poor. They aroused respect and
even affection because they were understood as representing the
Christian life more fully than any other group, including – perhaps
especially – the secular clergy. Evidently the austere, communal life
of monasteries that observed the Benedictine Rule carried resonance
for the poor. Not only was it a life requiring chastity, prayer and
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Popular Aspirations and the Friars
obedience, but it did not hold labour in contempt. By the tenth cen-
tury the sharp contrast with bishops who bought their offices and
adopted the ways of feudal lords, with priests living openly with con-
cubines and promoting the interests of ‘natural’ children, was
threatening to bring the church into disrepute among the poor.
Apart from the monastic life, what claim did the church have to
represent another, more spiritual world? This question had generated
the Cluniac reform programme, a programme that created a new
image in the countryside of what the entire church ought to be. For
Cluniac reformers held up the image of a radically purified church – a
church free of both simony and clerical immorality. They attacked
members of the secular clergy for wantonness, drunkenness, greed,
theft, fighting and even sacrilege. They conjured up a church so rotten
that it was in danger of merging completely with the secular world.
Nor was that all. Cluniac reformers began to ask questions that
disturbed the laity, especially the rural poor, whose approach to the
church was largely uncritical. Were the sacraments offered in village
churches by simoniac or immoral priests really valid? Was the tithe a
form of exploitation rather than an indispensable support for the true
church? Did members of the church hierarchy who had purchased
their office – including perhaps the local bishop – have any legitimate
authority? Why should any Christian submit to those whose life was
so contrary to the life of the Christ?
The development of a radical and simplified – doubtless an over-
simplified – model of what the church ought to be had far-reaching if
unintended consequences in rural areas. It created what might be
called a thirst for legitimacy, for a purer form of the church. And that
thirst, in turn, developed out of egalitarian moral intuitions. We can
get a taste of what satisfied that thirst by looking at the leadership of
some radical movements in the twelfth and the thirteenth centuries.
An instructive early example is the preaching of a former monk
called Henry, who became an itinerant preacher. When he arrived in
Le Mans in 1116, preceded by his ‘disciples’, he was at first tolerated
by the local bishop. But when the bishop left for Rome, Henry’s real
message emerged. With a powerful voice and wearing only a hair
shirt, he denounced the corruption of the local clergy. ‘After a short
course of Henry’s preaching the populace was beating priests in the
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The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
streets and rolling them in the mud.’ When Henry later moved into the
countryside of southern France and Italy, his message became more
extreme:
Baptism, he taught, should be given only as an external sign of belief.
Church buildings and all the trappings of official religion were useless; a
man could pray anywhere as well as he could in a church. The true
church consisted of those who followed the apostolic life, in poverty and
simplicity; love of one’s neighbour was the essence of true religion.2
Here it is not difficult to see the belief in equality and reciprocity
shaping moral intuitions.
The pattern of religious radicalism in the villages of the countryside
was fairly constant. An obscure man – with varying rumours about
his origins as ‘a monk’ or perhaps even ‘a noble’ – suddenly emerges
from the forests, often claiming to have become a holy man through
a period of solitary withdrawal and profound meditation. He begins
to preach, and his preaching is eloquent, far more so than that of vil-
lage priests. The number of his followers grows rapidly, and with
them his confidence and his pretensions increase.
The career of a certain Tanchelm, who acquired so many followers
in Flanders and the southern Netherlands early in the twelfth century
that the cathedral chapter of Utrecht became extremely anxious, illus-
trates the pattern. According to a report of the chapter,
Tanchelm began his preaching in the open fields, dressed as a monk. We
are told that his eloquence was extraordinary and that multitudes lis-
tened to him as to an angel of the Lord. He appeared to be a holy
man – the Chapter of Utrecht complained that like his master the Devil
he had all the appearance of an angel of light. Like so many other wan-
dering preachers, he started by condemning unworthy clerics – such as
the priest at Antwerp … who was living in open concubinage – and
then broadened his attack to cover the church as a whole. He taught
not merely that sacraments were invalid if administered by unworthy
hands but also that … holy orders had lost all meaning, sacraments
were no better than pollutions, and churches no better than brothels.
This propaganda proved so effective that people soon stopped partak-
ing of the Eucharist and going to church. And in general, as the Chapter
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ruefully remarked, things came to such a pass that the more one
despised the church the holier one was held to be.3
Increasingly Tanchelm claimed a Christ-like status for himself – going
so far as to betroth himself to the Virgin Mary! Far from being dis-
mayed by such a development, his followers welcomed it. One group
even bound themselves together as his twelve ‘apostles’.
None of this was entirely new. There had been the occasional
prophet or messiah in previous centuries. But the frequency and scale
of messianic movements increased dramatically from the late eleventh
century onwards, and their following was overwhelmingly the rural
and urban poor. These movements were rooted in moral conviction
and difficult to extirpate. The chapter of Utrecht argued that the
whole diocese was in danger of being lost to the church ‘for ever’ if
Tanchelm went his way unhindered.
The slide from someone preaching an apostolic way of life to his
claiming to be not just an apostle, but a living saint and vessel of the
holy spirit, took place with some regularity. In the mid-twelfth century
a Breton called Eon (or Eudes de l’etoile) led a movement that chal-
lenged the established church in Brittany. Although a layman, he
celebrated mass for his followers and, apparently, claimed to be the son
of God. ‘In the end he organized his followers in a new church, with
archbishops and bishops whom he called by such names as Wisdom,
Knowledge, Judgement and by the names of the original apostles.’4
Such movements revealed and ministered to the new thirst for legit-
imacy. It is hardly surprising that they caused great alarm among
church leaders. How well did these leaders understand the nature of
the challenge? It is fair to say that they did not underestimate it. By
the twelfth century many leading churchmen had been shaped by the
movement of reform. When some of Eon’s followers became little bet-
ter than brigands, looting and burning churches, the archbishop of
Rouen felt able to have Eon captured by force. But his estimation of
the nature of the challenge Eon represented emerges from the status
of Eon’s ‘trial’. He was summoned before a special synod in Reims
cathedral by no less than the pope, Eugenius.
At first church authorities responded to such threats in a piecemeal
way. They countered would- be messiahs with some of their own most
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The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
gifted and ‘orthodox’ preachers. But within half a century or so there
developed a more permanent – though at first extremely controversial –
remedy: the mendicant orders, the Franciscans and Dominicans. The
sudden growth of these two orders amounted to an almost revolu-
tionary development. They discarded the pomp of the established
church, and reached out to the poor through preaching and charitable
acts, while themselves depending upon the giving of alms in urban
centres. In a dramatic way, they both responded to the new sensibility
among the poor and strengthened it. The evidence for that is the aston-
ishing speed with which the Franciscans and Dominicans developed
during the thirteenth century.
Both orders responded to the new sensibility. Yet on closer inspec-
tion they were very different in inspiration. For the characters of their
founders, Dominic and Francis, left a distinctive mark on each. In their
approach to church order and belief, it was the difference between
reform ‘from above’ and ‘from below’, between an emphasis on refut-
ing heresy with correct doctrine and an urge to adopt a Christ-like life
of poverty and humility. So let us explore the difference.
Dominic was an educated Spanish canon who, returning by way of
the Languedoc from a visit to Rome, was struck by the threat posed
by a heresy called Catharism. Allegedly Catharism had spread from
eastern Europe into Italy and southern France, though it probably
had domestic roots which were just as important: a reaction against
church rituals and clerical privilege in favour of a more austere spirit-
ual life, even a quest for personal perfection. Led by perfecti who had
‘liberated’ themselves from the material world, the Cathars displayed
contempt for the established church. Their name for themselves was
‘the good Christians’.
Dominic concluded that Catharism constituted a grave threat to
the church, and that the only effective remedy was for those preaching
‘true’ doctrine to adopt an ‘apostolic’ way of life, shunning all privi-
leges and display in favour of austerity. Dominic also saw education
as crucial to effective preaching against heresy. His followers soon
established relations with the new universities at Paris and Bologna.
But, most important of all, Dominic had papal approval and support
for his mission. By the time of his death, in1221, the Dominicans were
formally established as a new order in the church. Their close ties
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Popular Aspirations and the Friars
with the papacy – and their obedience to it – would make possible the
spread of Dominican ‘houses’ throughout Western Europe.
Rome had always been concerned to root out heresy. In its own
eyes, it was the crucial instrument for defining ‘orthodoxy’. Yet for
centuries its means of action were limited. Often it had to rely on pro-
vincial church councils to pursue dissent and tolerate protracted
debate. For it did not then have the means to impose its will on the
Western church. By the thirteenth century, however, the papal reform
movement, inspired by Cluny, had changed all that. The papacy was
far stronger and more confident. Administrative and legal changes
had turned the papacy into a powerful centralized government. The
papacy had become almost ‘imperial’.
Dominican preaching became part of a virtual war waged by the
papacy against the Cathar heresy. The Cathars were accused of rein-
venting the Manichaean heresy, of adopting a dualism so extreme that
the idea of the incarnation itself was at risk, and of embracing a kind
of spiritual elitism, led by the perfecti. Since our knowledge of Cathar
beliefs, apart from their rejection of the sacraments, derives almost
entirely from opponents, it is difficult to reconstruct them with confi-
dence. But that Cathars shared the new sensibility, deploring the
ostentation and worldliness of many clergy as an ‘affront to true reli-
gion’, is clear.
The new confidence of the papacy had already led it to sponsor
crusades to counter the spread of Islam and recover the holy sites in
Palestine. Now it also sponsored a crusade of northern feudatories led
by Simon de Montfort against Cathars in the Languedoc, a crusade
which led to the infamous massacre of nearly twenty thousand inhab-
itants of Béziers. In theory, the papacy only ‘borrowed’ the secular
arm to pursue heresy. But the episode revealed how the principle of
equal subjection defined into the idea of papal sovereignty could lead
to the coercion of belief, despite the fact that leading canon lawyers
were developing a theory of natural rights.
Could belief really be enforced? Or was enforced belief a contradic-
tion in terms? For the moment, the papal and Dominican concern for
‘correct’ belief ignored such doubts. Yet such doubts had played an
important part in Christian thinking about the role of conscience
from the outset. Was the reformed papacy in danger of denying the
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The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
moral intuitions which had helped to create the reform movement?
Just as some popes had been tempted to override the distinction
between secular and spiritual powers in their struggles with the
German emperors – despite the fact that the distinction provided the
principal weapon of the reform movement – so the papacy now
ignored the claims of conscience underpinning that distinction in
order to extirpate heresy.
A papal court of enquiry, the Inquisition, was created by Gregory
IX, extending (and tending to replace) a right of enquiry into threats
to ‘the purity of the faith’ which the bishops had long exercised. Even
writers well disposed to the papacy concede that ‘the juristic prin-
ciples which the procedure embodied bore hardly any resemblance to
those which were commonly accepted and consistently advocated
by the papacy itself’.5
Is it a mere accident that contemporary canon lawyers tended to
elaborate a series of natural rights, rather than emphasize a general
right to freedom? They were perhaps being cautious. Yet during the
thirteenth century the exercise of papal sovereignty (not only in deal-
ings with the Cathar heresy) did begin to prompt new questions about
the limits of its sovereign authority. If the sovereignty of German
emperors and other secular rulers was limited by the natural rights of
their subjects – rights which helped to define the spiritual sphere
defended by the church – were there not also limits on the pope’s
authority? In conferring a so-called ‘plenitude of power’ on the suc-
cessors of Peter, did not God restrict its exercise by conferring rights
on individuals? Were not certain individual rights an expression of
divine will, formulated in natural law?
The language of natural rights was beginning to impinge on public
argument. And in an unexpected way, this development was for-
warded by the other great order that emerged in the thirteenth century,
the Franciscans.
Francis was an extraordinary person. He was consumed by the
desire to imitate the life of the Christ. The son of a well-to-do mer-
chant of Assisi, the young Francis abandoned a life of pleasure when,
after stumbling on an abandoned chapel, he felt an imperative and
radical need to live according to the model of the Gospel, ‘selling
everything, giving everything to the poor, giving up every form of
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Popular Aspirations and the Friars
worldly glory, wealth, aid, comfort, organization, everything’.6 The
life he embraced stood out against the increasingly acquisitive mer-
cantile life of the Italian cities. Yet it soon brought him followers – so
many, indeed, that he was at times almost alarmed by them. The gen-
tle life and character of Francis made a powerful impression on his
contemporaries. It was almost as if the Christ was in their midst again.
The idealizing of renunciation and poverty struck a deep popular
chord. Within a few years Francis and eleven of his followers were in
Rome, giving an account of their movement, the aims of which had
far more to do with ‘the spirit’ than ‘the letter’. Consequently, Francis’
relations with the papacy were more complex and uneasy than those
of Dominic. For one thing, with their ‘grass-roots’ appeal, the Francis-
cans already had thousands of followers across Europe. With an
unregulated, almost mass following they resembled some of the heret-
ical movements of the previous century more than the carefully
regulated Dominicans, which meant that they were less amenable to
papal direction and control.
If the subtext of the Dominicans was the importance of ‘equal sub-
mission’, the spontaneous growth of the Franciscans pointed rather in
the direction of ‘equal liberty’. The Dominicans and Franciscans did
learn from each other, with the Franciscans eventually adopting some
of the organization of the Dominicans. Yet at first the contrast in their
popular appeal was dramatic. ‘When the two leaders met in Rome in
1218, Dominic was still the leader of only a handful of preachers,
while Francis was the reluctant head of an organization with branches
in nearly every country in Western Europe.’7 The popular – it is tempt-
ing to say democratic – roots of the Franciscan movement and its
resistance to hierarchy help to explain one of its most surprising con-
sequences: the development of argument about natural rights. Why
did a movement, practising poverty, humility and charity, lead to a
new emphasis on natural rights? It is a remarkable story.
An important ‘exchange’ took place in early Franciscan thinking.
Francis set out to imitate the life of the Christ. But it was soon assumed
by his contemporaries that ‘the Franciscan way of practising pov-
erty … showed how Christ and the apostles must have lived’. Francis
himself had little or no interest in the law. In the course of the thir-
teenth century, however, his followers drew on the distinctions of civil
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and canon law in order to define the Franciscan way of life. They then
projected these distinctions back onto the world of the Gospels. ‘The
Franciscans came to believe wholeheartedly that Christ and the apos-
tles, like good Franciscans, had renounced all “property, possessions,
usufruct and right of use”, retaining for themselves only a simple “use
of fact”.’8 Thus, it was the Franciscan emphasis on the renunciation of
property that led the order to stimulate important developments in
the language of rights.
Bonagratio of Bergamo helped to initiate what became a formid-
able argument within the early fourteenth-century church. He argued
that, following the example of the Christ, Francis had sought to renew
the ‘state of innocence’ (that is, before Adam’s sin and fall from grace).
The crucial fact about the state of innocence, Bonagratio argued, was
that there had been no property rights, no ‘mine’ or ‘yours’; instead
the use of all things was to be common to all. ‘If blessed Francis vowed
and promised to observe the gospel, living without property singly or
in common, it follows that such was the teaching and the rule of the
gospel and consequently Christ had nothing, singly or in common.’9
The Christ had only what the Franciscans called a ‘simple use of fact’.
The obvious retort by critics was that consumption itself was a
kind of ownership, inseparable from use. Bonagratio met that criti-
cism by arguing that natural law prescribed that every living creature
should seek to preserve its own life, and that such a ‘natural’ instinct
underpinned the human use of consumables such as food, clothing
and shelter. This natural instinct was different from the rights govern-
ing the ownership and use of property established by human laws.
Such rights, insisted Bonagratio, could be renounced voluntarily. Yet
by insisting that legal rights and entitlements could be renounced in
this way, Bonagratio laid down – at least in effect – a more fundamen-
tal natural right, the right to freedom. The claim of that right, with its
egalitarian implications, led to a vigorous response from the papacy.
The Franciscan position was judged to be potentially subversive of
order, both in church and state. It had been almost a cliché of natural
law theory that in the ‘state of nature’ all things were held in common.
‘But none of the many canonists who had commented on that text
had interpreted it as meaning that the fruit Adam ate did not become
his own, or that he had no right of use or usufruct in the things he
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actually did use.’10 By the late 1320s Pope John XXII decided that the
Franciscan arguments had to be opposed and discredited.
John XXII’s counter-argument is fascinating and paradoxical. In
order to reject the view that no property rights were present in the
state of nature or ‘innocence’, he fell back on a position just as indi-
vidualist as the claim of a general right to freedom. He wished to
reinstate property into the state of innocence. His argument had two
steps. First, he insisted that the division of property after the advent of
sin by Adam and Eve implied that there had been common property
before. So the Franciscan argument that there had been only a ‘simple
factual use of things without individual or common ownership’ failed.
The second step in John’s critique was far more radical. Before the
creation of Eve, property could not have been held ‘in common’. So
when God gave Adam dominion over the earth and its creatures, he
made Adam – as an individual – the owner of the earth. Therefore,
‘what God established at the very beginning of things in an ideal state
of nature was not common possession but individual property’. Indi-
vidual ownership was traced back to the beginning of things and the
will of God as creator. Property was not a mere creation of human
laws, and could not, as the Franciscans claimed, be renounced, for
even the act of consuming things created property. Property and
human agency were intimately joined.
What is striking about this debate is not so much an area of
disagreement – that is, whether the right of property could be
renounced – as the larger area of agreement. For both arguments work
within a radically individualist framework. Both turn on individual
claims, whether they are inalienable God-given rights of ownership or
the natural right of renouncing property entitlements created by
human laws. In that way, the assumption of moral equality set the
stage for both positions in the debate.
Both positions were markedly voluntarist, and stressed the role of
the individual will. At the very outset of the debate, a Dominican,
John of Paris, rejected the theocratic view that all dominium – whether
the ownership of property or the authority of the rulers – belonged
ultimately to the pope. Such a view seemed to ignore the claims of
individual agency, even in the eyes of the member of the order which
owed so much to the papacy. John of Paris insisted that ‘individuals as
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individuals have right and power and true dominion’: ‘They acquired
this right, not from any ruler, either pope or king, but by their own
“skill, labour and industry”. The pope was only an administrator of
property that belonged to the church, the king only a judge who could
settle disputes about lay possessions. Neither was the source of the
individual’s right to property.’ 11 This summary of John’s argument
catches the individualist turn of thinking taking place in mendicant
orders devoted both to reaching the poor and to keeping them within
the bounds of orthodoxy. God- given natural rights were coming to
the fore.
Should we not conclude that their wish to adopt ‘the apostolic life’
had an important effect on the mendicant way of thinking? By recog-
nizing mendicant orders in order to reach the poor and preserve
orthodoxy, the reformed papacy achieved only a partial success. The
development of the orders, especially the Franciscans, had a major
unintended consequence: it laid the foundation for a radical critique
of the role of the church in society, a critique which, drawing on the
language of natural rights, began to emerge in the fourteenth and fif-
teenth centuries.
Through the idea of natural rights, Paul’s emphasis on ‘Christian
liberty’ acquired renewed life and potency. This was a moment of the
greatest importance. For it was the moment when the egalitarian
moral intuitions generated by the church began to be turned against
the church itself, creating misgivings that eventually led to a prin-
cipled rejection of any coercive or ‘privileged’ role for the church. In
this way, these moral intuitions provided the basis for what would
become the central project of secularism: the identification of a sphere
resting on the ‘rightful’ claims of individual conscience and choice, a
sphere of individual freedom protected by law. A commitment to
‘equal liberty’ was emerging from Christian moral intuitions.
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Moral Intuitions
We have just seen how Franciscan-inspired debate about the origin of
property rights became focused on the individual and his rights. This
was no isolated development. What stands out from fourteenth-century
writings about both church and government is the extent to which the
image of society as an association of individuals was gaining ground. It
was becoming the shared basis for argument. This image of society had
spread from the rhetoric of the ‘care of souls’ into canon and civil law,
shaping first of all the claim of papal sovereignty and then the claims of
secular rulers to a sovereign authority. By the fourteenth century it was
also shaping arguments about the origin and nature of authority as
such. The primary unit of subjection to authority was identified as the
individual. A corporate conception of society was rapidly waning.
One symptom of the change was the reinterpretation of terms inher-
ited from antiquity. This had already been noticeable in the new
meanings which canon lawyers were giving to the term ‘natural law’,
meanings which moved away from duty-imposing rules (such as ‘thou
shalt not lie’) towards subjective rights. This move reflected the need to
recast thinking on a ground which acknowledged all humans as moral
agents, as free choosers. Franciscan use of the ‘state of nature’ conven-
tion to establish a natural right to renounce all property was but one
example of such reinterpretation. New distinctions were also made
when discussing ‘liberty’ and dominium. These distinctions added to
the conceptual groundwork for separating a private sphere from the
public sphere, what would later be called ‘civil society’ from ‘the state’.
We can see this process under way in the thinking of the Franciscan
theologian and philosopher, John Duns Scotus, at the end of the thir-
teenth century. His analysis of the nature of moral obligation is striking.
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The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
Duns Scotus lays it down that ‘an act is neither praiseworthy nor
blameworthy unless it proceeds from the free will’.1 For him, freedom
is a prerequisite for moral conduct.
Why is this important? In effect, Duns Scotus separates two ele-
ments in St Paul’s vision of ‘Christian liberty’. When rejecting reliance
on the Jewish law, Paul had held up the quality of the will – love of
the Christ – as a liberation from mere rule- bound behaviour, and
offered a moralized conception of liberty. For him, aligning the will
with the Christ meant freely choosing the injunctions of brotherly
love, the claims of human equality and reciprocity. To be ‘truly’ free
was to love God in that sense.
Duns Scotus disentangles two things from Paul’s vision. He identi-
fies freedom as a necessary condition of moral conduct. But he does
not believe that it is a sufficient condition. He does not identify it
wholly with morality. Freedom may result in ‘blameworthy’ as well as
‘praiseworthy’ choices. For the latter to be the case, human choices
must conform to justice, what Duns Scotus calls ‘right reason’: ‘To
attribute moral goodness is to attribute conformity to right reason.’
Every morally good act must be objectively good, in the sense of having
an object conformable to right reason; but no act is good on this count
alone … ‘the goodness of the will does not depend on the object alone,
but on all the other circumstances …’ But though the end holds the pri-
mary place among the circumstances of the act, an act is not morally
good merely because the end is good: the end does not justify the means.2
Freedom emerges as a necessary but not a sufficient condition for
morality:
‘It is necessary that all the requisite circumstances should occur together
in any moral act, for it to be morally good; the defect of any one cir-
cumstance is sufficient in order that (the act) should be morally bad.’
‘Evil should not be done in order that good (results) may eventuate.’
For an act to be good, then, it must be free, and it must be objectively
good and be done with the right intention.3
By separating the ideas of freedom and justice, while presenting both
as necessary conditions of moral conduct, Duns Scotus took an
important step. He was not alone, however. Through preoccupation
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with the will and the conditions of its exercise, a distinctive Francis-
can philosophical tradition had formed by the fourteenth century.
This emerges unmistakably in the work of the greatest Franciscan
theologian and philosopher, William of Ockham.
Just as Duns Scotus distinguishes two elements within the idea of
‘Christian liberty’, Ockham distinguishes two meanings of the term
dominium, meanings that had previously often been run together.
Ockham benefited from the work of canon lawyers. They had
begun to refer to the ‘rights’ of dominium (jus dominii) – a usage
unknown in antiquity when dominium or lordship was understood as
a privileged social fact rather than an individual right. Dominium
then conjured up a superior social position, a position which, by def-
inition, was not shared by all. Once the term ‘right’ was introduced by
the canonists, however, a new universality entered. And that, in Ock-
ham’s eyes, revealed an ambiguity in the ancient usage. He argues that
the ancient use of dominium combined, in ‘modern’ terms, two differ-
ent meanings: a right to rule and the right to own. These two meanings
have to be separated, Ockham implies, if thinking is to be clear.4
In effect, Ockham adjusts the traditional use of dominium to the
new assumption of moral equality. As long as thinking rested on the
assumption of natural inequality, there had been no need to separate
the two meanings – indeed, no possibility of doing so. For dominium
had then conveyed the inherent mastery or domination of some over
others, a domination that combined ownership and rule. Thus, the
patrician’s ownership of his slaves was also the power to rule, while
the role of the paterfamilias meant that the father not only governed
but also in a sense owned his family. Such radical inequality had been
fundamental to ancient societies. Radical differences of status were
conveyed by the term dominium, differences so fundamental that they
constrained all other social arrangements.
If such radical differences of status were not taken for granted,
however, then the need to distinguish different meanings became
urgent. It was especially urgent for Ockham, because he wished to
probe the grounds of obligation to obey both secular and religious
authorities, particularly the emperor and the pope. When we examine
his arguments, it becomes clear how far moral intuitions had changed
since the Carolingian period. Ockham cannot accept what might be
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The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
called the schizophrenia of the Carolingians, oscillation between
egalitarian emphasis on the ‘care of souls’ and a universal oath of alle-
giance to the ruler on the one hand; and on the other hand, reliance
on dominium or lordship (mastery or de facto power) as the means of
preserving social order.
Ockham insisted on the difference between mere power and a ‘licit’
or rightful power, power understood as a jus or ‘right’. To call a power
‘rightful’ implies a higher norm – ‘right reason’ or justice. That norm
introduces the God- given belief in moral equality, that is, recognition
of freedom of the will and individual moral agency. 5 Thus, if domin-
ium is to be understood as a jus or ‘right’, and not merely mastery
or de facto power, it has to respect the norms of equality and reci-
procity. And the right to rule must be distinguished from rights of
ownership.
This introduction of the language of rights into discussions of gov-
ernment and property paved the way for a clear distinction between
‘the state’ and ‘civil society’. While not understanding it in our terms,
the Franciscans Duns Scotus and Ockham put into place the basic
building blocks of modern secularism. In refining the idea of Christian
liberty – separating the idea of freedom from that of justice and mak-
ing both conditions of morality as well as distinguishing rights of
ownership from a right to rule – they prepared a revolution in the
understanding of the ‘proper’ ground of all authority. They moved
from an aristocratic towards a democratic idea of authority.
The canon lawyers had contributed greatly to this development,
through their dialogue with theologians. By the thirteenth century
something else was added. Philosophy was emerging out of theology,
leading to ever more intense debate about the ‘proper’ relationship
between reason and faith. But not only that. The developments in both
theology and philosophical argument testified to the presence of a new
institution which fostered intellectual ambition and achievement, giv-
ing far more reality to talk of ‘schools of thought’ or ‘traditions’.
Such traditions required more than the curiosity, moral seriousness
and dialectical skills of individuals. They were made possible by the
emergence of a new form of association that gave thinking greater
discipline and continuity. For in addition to the growth of urban cen-
tres and trade during this period – spreading the seeds of a social class
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intermediate between the feudal aristocracy and serfs – the European
university made its appearance.
The university was something almost unprecedented. It gave the
claims of individual reason and dissent a public space which had previ-
ously been lacking. It made possible a new social role, the intellectual,
thinkers who ‘navigated’ between the claims of church and secular
government. For one of the striking things about the early history of
universities is their success in generating a competition of favours from
church and state. Both popes and princes went out of their way to
encourage and protect the fledgling universities. Both sought to benefit
from the new institution. But neither succeeded in mastering it.6
The more complex social division of labour which resulted from the
growth of urban centres and market exchanges had created both a new
setting for learning and greater demand for it. As a consequence, the
traditional centres of learning – the cathedral and monastic schools –
were becoming anachronistic. The twelfth century presided over these
changes. Details of how what became the ‘masters’ and ‘scholars’ of a
new corporation – a universitas in canon law – first took form are tan-
talizingly few. But two things are clear from the oldest universities.
First, in Bologna it was the students, organized into ‘nations’, who
employed their teachers, while in Paris it was the teachers who joined
together and shaped the emerging university. Secondly, different sub-
jects led the way in different places, law at Bologna, theology at Paris,
natural philosophy at Oxford, medicine at Montpellier.
During the thirteenth century the new universities were given char-
ters by the pope or a secular ruler and their structures were formalized
in statutes. The charters conferred privileges on both students and pro-
fessors, protecting them from local policing, feudal services and
taxation by granting them an independent jurisdiction and giving them
the right to confer degrees after a carefully regulated course of study.7
Usually a student had to complete a degree in arts before moving to
the study of theology, law or medicine, culminating in the doctorate
which qualified him for university teaching. It was not long before the
university-educated came to occupy many of the most important posts
in both ecclesiastical and secular government in Europe.
The assembly of minds which the new universities promoted gave a
tremendous fillip to argument. The marshalling of arguments ‘for’ and
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The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
‘against’ – which had roots in the dialectics championed by Abelard
and the methods applied in Gratian’s Decretum – shaped the form of
university teaching. ‘Disputations’ were as important as lectures on
required texts. In a disputation some proposition had a ‘defender’
who was confronted with an ‘objector’, while the arguments put for-
ward on both sides were finally arranged and assessed by the presiding
professor.
During the twelfth century the recovery of Aristotle’s major works –
especially his Physics, Metaphysics and Ethics – also raised intellectual
sights. To the advantages derived from the association of minds in
universities was added the example of close argument of the highest
order. Translated from Arabic texts rather than from the original
Greek, Aristotle’s works offered at once a model and a challenge.
Could Christian thinkers expound their doctrine with the same subtlety
and precision? The combination of a university education and the
challenge offered by Aristotle’s philosophical writings led to far more
ambitious works combining theology and philosophy being under-
taken by the second half of the thirteenth century. The goal was to
create a synthesis which reconciled faith and reason by showing how
philosophy could generate a ‘natural’ theology consistent with Chris-
tian revelation.
The most remarkable thinkers who pursued this goal are now remem-
bered as saints: Bonaventure, Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas. Yet
despite sharing that status, there were important differences in the use
they made of Aristotle. No doubt all of them claimed to reject ‘pagan’
philosophy when it conflicted with Christian revelation. Yet Bonaven-
ture remained within the Augustinian tradition – concerned, above all,
with relating the individual will to God’s will – while adapting some
arguments from Aristotle. Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas, on the
other hand, sought to integrate far more of Aristotle (‘The Philosopher’
as he was called) with Christianity.8
It is striking that these thinkers (as well as Duns Scotus and William
of Ockham) were all either Franciscans or Dominicans. The mendi-
cant orders had at first encountered strong opposition when they
sought – as ‘regular’ rather than ‘secular’ clergy – to integrate ‘houses’
of study into the new universities and take an important part in the
teaching of theology. Yet by the mid- thirteenth century they succeeded
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in establishing ‘chairs’ at Paris and gaining recognition for their
houses at Oxford and Bologna.
The mendicant orders can lay claim to great intellectual achieve-
ments in the thirteenth and the fourteenth centuries. However, the
Franciscan and Dominican traditions in theology and philosophy
came to differ in an ever more fundamental way. And that difference
was to have extraordinary influence on the future development of
Europe, both on its thought and on its institutions. The fourteenth
century saw this difference emerge in the form of intractable tensions
between the claims of philosophy and theology, tensions which jeop-
ardized the attempt to create a synthesis of Aristotle and Christian
beliefs.
The importance of the difference between the two traditions can
hardly be overstated. Examining this difference and its source requires
some oversimplification, for neither the Franciscans nor the Domini-
cans offered a uniform point of view. Nonetheless, by the fourteenth
century many Dominicans revered Thomas Aquinas as their ‘Doctor’
and his synthesis of Aristotle and Christian beliefs as definitive for the
church. While the Franciscans never proclaimed a ‘Doctor’ in the
same way, they tacitly recognized Duns Scotus and William of Ock-
ham as their outstanding thinkers and spokesmen.
The difference between the two traditions has been described as
that between ‘Augustinians’ and ‘Aristotelians’, between ‘conserva-
tives’ and ‘radicals’ as well as between contrasting accounts of the
relationship between will and reason. The latter description gets near-
est to the source of the difference. Yet even it does not go deep enough.
What did the contrast between the Dominican emphasis on ‘reason’
and the Franciscan emphasis on ‘will’ spring from? It sprang from
radically different assessments of the extent to which ‘pagan’ philoso-
phy could safely be appropriated for the understanding and exposition
of Christian doctrine. But behind that difference lay another that was
even more fundamental. What were the consequences of such appro-
priation for the Christian-inspired belief in moral equality?
The Franciscan tradition harboured serious doubts about whole-
sale borrowing from Aristotle’s theory of knowledge and his metaphysics
of ‘nature’. Ancient rationalism seemed to re- emerge in Aquinas’ view
that ‘the root of freedom has the will as its subject, but reason as its
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The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
cause’.9 The Franciscans detected in such borrowings a residue of the
ancient assumption that reason could ‘command’ reality, and that, out
of its own resources, reason could demonstrate the deepest metaphys-
ical and moral truths. In Franciscan eyes, that assumption was
arrogant. It elevated human fiat above the facts of moral experience,
the complexity of human motivation and dependence of the will on
‘grace’. Franciscans found such arrogance lurking in Aristotle’s tele-
ological model of nature. For its hierarchical framework – postulating
‘essences’ and ‘final causes’ – threatened the humility required by the
truth revealed in the Christ. It threatened the assumption of moral
equality.
The Franciscan tradition held that belief in moral equality entailed
humility in the use of reason. For if humans are equal, they are also
equally fallible. This duality of moral experience led Franciscans –
following Augustine – to pay closer attention to the nature of human
agency. Their insistence on the importance of the will was balanced by
recognition of its inconstant nature. Humans are free and endowed
with rationality. But an upright will also depends on the support of
revelation to supply motive force.
In contrast to Dominican emphasis on rationality and ‘correct’ doc-
trine, Franciscan emphasis on human agency involved a revised view
of the role of reason. Reason became the companion of the will rather
than its arrogant master. For the mere use of reason could not guar-
antee what mattered most, an upright will. Left entirely to its own
resources, reason could not take us to the heart of the matter. Such
access required the union of individual wills with a higher will,
through the practice of humility, prayer and the gift of grace. A kind
of spiritual training or ‘pilgrimage’ was needed. Reason acquired the
status of ‘right reason’ only when it submitted to the moral law
revealed by revelation, enjoining brotherly love and humility about its
own claims when exploring a world it has not created.
In Franciscan eyes, excessive borrowing from pagan philosophy –
associated with Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica (1273) –
jeopardized the originality of Christianity. It obscured what had led
the early Christian Fathers to reject even Stoic ethics. The tentative
universalism in Stoicism did not reach the deepest layers of the self as
the Christian revelation did. Nor did Judaism –- for all of its emphasis
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on God’s will – go so deep. While pregnant with further moral devel-
opment, Judaism remained tribal. By contrast, Christianity held up
the prospect of an essentially individual rather than a tribal relation-
ship with divinity. It called individual wills into existence and gave
them a glimpse of the transcendent. It offered a relationship that
informed social life rather than being determined by it. Franciscan
arguments implied that neither pagan philosophy nor Judaism could
fully emancipate the individual from conventional social roles. Both
failed to reach the depths that only humility – illustrated by the life of
Francis, who sought to imitate the Christ – could plumb. For Francis-
cans, that was the significance of the incarnation. The idea of ‘God
with us’ linked human agency with a higher agency.
It was no accident that Augustine was a major source of inspiration
for the Franciscan tradition. For it is only a slight exaggeration to say
that Augustine, drawing on Paul, invented the idea of the will. Argu-
ably, the Christian assumption of moral equality made such an idea
indispensable. It distanced individuals from whatever social roles they
might occupy. As we have seen, the individual became the ‘primary’
role, while other social roles became secondary. Such roles became the
attributes of a subject endowed with a will. But they could not exhaust
the subject’s identity. Thus individual identity was deemed to be
extrinsic to social relations and the rightful criterion of them. The will
acquired a privileged status as the threshold of divinity, the precondi-
tion for entering what Augustine called the city of God.
If we are to understand the Franciscans, we must again look back
at Augustine.
Augustine introduced a more complex notion of human agency
than that to be found in ancient philosophy, a notion incorporating
both the freedom and the weakness of the will. Influenced by Augus-
tine, Franciscans such as William of Ockham adopted a view of
human agency which stripped reason of the motivational power often
attributed to it by the ancient schools of philosophy. Reason could
and should shape action. But it could not, by itself, determine action.
Instead, the practice of humility and an infusion of grace had to sup-
plement upright intentions, ‘right reasons’ for acting. For humans
were equal, not least in their weakness.
Franciscan thinkers benefited from the abstracting potential that
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the Church Fathers had drawn from pagan philosophy when creating
Christian theology, with its moral universalism. But they also accepted
Augustine’s assessment of the limitations of ancient philosophy, limi-
tations emerging especially in its model of human agency. What
disturbed the Franciscans was that Aquinas’ attempt to assimilate the
larger part of Aristotle might reintroduce (even if only implicitly) the
model of human agency characteristic of ancient rationalism. Why
was Aquinas less concerned about this possibility? The reason is clear
enough. Aquinas’ intellectual formation and that of Augustine resulted
in each having a very different relationship with ancient philosophy.
They had moved in opposite directions.
Augustine had worked his way through the pagan schools and
become dissatisfied with them before he became a Christian. Aquinas,
on the other hand, was a believer before he discovered in Aristotle a
range of speculation far exceeding that in previous Christian theology.
So Aquinas sought to extend and strengthen Christian thinking with
the help of ‘The Philosopher’. 10 Was Aquinas over-impressed by Aris-
totle as a result? He could hardly fail to be. The translation of many
more of Aristotle’s works into Latin by the thirteenth century had
revealed the extraordinary range and rigour of his thought. Nonethe-
less, the Franciscans came to draw on Augustine’s critique of ancient
philosophy precisely because it mirrored their own doubts about
Aristotle’s influence.
Before his conversion, Augustine had taken the schools of ancient
philosophy – Stoic, Peripatetic and Platonic – on their own terms. He
had not judged them from the standpoint of Christian belief. Yet by
the time Augustine took up residence in Milan and came under the
influence of its bishop, Ambrose, he remained unsatisfied. The true
nature and needs of the self seemed to elude the ancient schools. They
failed to identify a relationship which, Augustine began to suspect, is
the only relationship that can liberate and satisfy the self. It was his
study of St Paul’s letters that enabled Augustine to escape from what
he saw as the limits of ancient philosophy. For Paul took the idea of the
self down to a deeper, pre-social level. Paul’s conception of the Christ –
a mystical union of individuals through love of the Christ – made
possible a descent into the self and a fuller understanding of human
agency. Thus, the will and the conditions of its exercise became Augus-
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tine’s preferred study. For him, God’s grace, revealed by the Christ,
provided the means of entry into a truer self offered to all equally.
This discovery enabled Augustine to identify the assumption affect-
ing all the pre- Christian schools of philosophy, the assumption of
natural inequality, which Paul’s conception of the Christ overturned.
Even the tentative universalism in Stoicism now struck Augustine as
redolent of pagan pride rather than Christian humility. It was a mat-
ter for speculation rather than the source of a moral imperative.
Whether the assumption of natural inequality took the form of Plato’s
division of society into guardians, warriors and workers, Aristotle’s
distinction between citizens and slaves (‘living tools’) or the Stoics’
aristocratic view that only a few could ever attain ‘true’ knowledge
and virtue, that assumption effectively ruled out the moral universal-
ism which, for Augustine, was the crux of Paul’s message.
Even before incorporating this contrast into his greatest work, the
City of God, Augustine had combated what he regarded as elitist
temptations surviving from pagan philosophy. That can be seen in his
attack on Pelagianism as well as his critique of early monasticism. At
first glance Pelagius’ vindication of free will might seem far more
egalitarian than Augustine’s emphasis on grace. For Pelagius held that
God’s gift to man was a free will, which enabled him to choose and
follow the good: ‘Once the accretion of evil habits contracted through
contact with the “world” had been washed away through the trans-
formative effects of baptism, every Christian believer was both able
and obliged to reach out for perfection. For Pelagius, every Christian
was the master craftsman of his or her own soul.’ 11 For Augustine, by
contrast, Pelagius’ account of human agency was dangerously over-
simplified. Pelagius misunderstood the implications of free will. He
assumed that Christians could simply decide to be good and become
so. In Augustine’s eyes, this view was contaminated by ancient ration-
alism, by the assumption that reason, on its own, could motivate. This
was to misunderstand the complex nature of the will and the extent
to which grace was required to reinforce good intentions. Humility,
rather than the pride of ancient reason, provided the key.
The Pelagian controversy brings out the nature of Augustine’s egali-
tarianism, his sensitivity to the enormous difficulties humans face in
reforming their wills. For Augustine, the genius of Christianity lay in
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its understanding of and compassion for human weakness. For Augus-
tine, freedom of the will did not exclude recognizing the importance
of other causes, in particular, the impact of habits acquired over a life-
time. Such habits posed terrible obstacles to any lasting reformation
of the will. Pelagianism, with its exclusive emphasis on self- control,
led to a kind of elitism. It separated Christians into two groups, the
more perfect and the less.
His [Augustine’s] instinctive suspicion of any form of spiritual elitism
was reinforced by the theology of human action and divine grace which
he developed in the course of his debate with Pelagius … Thus Augus-
tine came to realize that he had to abandon the old idea that what
distinguished the monastic life from other forms of Christian living was
the pursuit of perfection through self- denial. The question of perfection
could not be allowed to be the monopoly of one group of Christians.
The Christian community could not be allowed to be divided by a dou-
ble standard, one for the ordinary Christian, another for an ascetic
elite . . .12
Seeking to create a spiritual elite drew implicitly on the assumption of
natural inequality, threatening to reintroduce an inherent superiority
of some over others (dominium). As Peter Brown remarks, for Augus-
tine, however, the support of grace for an upright will was a need
shared by all Christians equally, ‘a source of comfort to the humble
and a warning to the proud’.
Ancient philosophers, living in societies founded on the belief in
human inequality, had projected hierarchy onto the ‘natural’ order of
things. It infected their ideas of nature and social order. How could it
have been otherwise? It was ‘natural’ for them to conflate the dictates
of reason with the commands of a superior social position. Christian
beliefs dispelled that confusion. If Christian belief provides the foun-
dation for the individual as a moral status and a social role, it helps to
explain Franciscan anxiety about the results of trying to merge ancient
rationalism with those beliefs. For many ideas associated with ancient
rationalism – the unequal distribution of reason among men, the eter-
nity of the world and reliance on a theory of essences – pointed back
to the belief in natural inequality.
Would the enthusiasm for Aristotle lead to the Christian God being
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The Defence of Egalitarian Moral Intuitions
made subject to rationality as understood by the ancients? If so, seek-
ing a synthesis of Aristotle and Christianity came at too high a price
for the Franciscans. It risked extracting from Christianity its Jewish
roots: the idea of creation and a God who acts in history, the emphasis
on a higher will and distrust of human pride. By contrast, Aristotle’s
account of man as a social being could remove any appeal beyond the
norms of particular societies, however unequal. The attempt of Aqui-
nas to join Aristotelian rationalism with Christian doctrine might in
that way subvert the idea of human agency defended by Paul and
Augustine, a pre- social basis for individual identity.
At risk was the role of conscience created by Christian beliefs, a
domain which required principles higher than merely social norms.
Had not the ancient Greeks called anyone who sought to stand out-
side the norms of his society ‘an idiot’? Was the Christ therefore (as
well as his follower, St Francis) an idiot? The crux of the Franciscan
tradition was its defence of egalitarian moral intuitions. But that
raised another question. What kind of society and what form of the
church could satisfy the intuition that there is something in every man
that goes beyond the social, creating a rightful domain for individual
conscience and choice?
Such was the momentous question emerging in Europe by the four-
teenth century. It was prompted by the erosion of feudal status
differences, through papal and royal claims to a ‘sovereign’ authority,
as well as the challenge posed by Aristotle’s account of citizenship and
‘the good life’. It was a question with unprecedented subversive poten-
tial, opening a kind of Pandora’s Box. For it led to Christian moral
intuitions being turned against authoritarian forms of both church
and state. It was a question that created powerful pressures for reform
and ushered in a new world.
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23
God’s Freedom and Human
Freedom Joined: Ockham
Things are not always what they seem to be. This is especially true of
the fourteenth century. The fourteenth century witnessed intellectual
developments which make it the gateway to modern Europe. It intro-
duced themes that became central in the following centuries: the
rightful claims of conscience and civil liberty, the importance of gov-
ernment by consent as well as the difference between understanding
‘nature’ and ‘culture’. Yet at first glance the fourteenth century can
seem to be trapped in rather arid debates about the attributes of God,
debates that involved, in turn, disagreements about the role of
philosophy as distinct from that of theology.
Why did these debates have such unexpected and far-reaching
consequences? We have already encountered a deeper stratum of
argument. Lying under the surface was an attempt by Franciscan
thinkers to purge the remains of ancient rationalism from Christian
thinking. In their view, such elements contaminated Christian think-
ing, leading it into a framework of ideas shaped by the assumption of
natural inequality. For Franciscans, this emerged whenever theolo-
gians tried to explain the world in terms of ‘rational necessity’ rather
than divine and human liberty.
So what was meant by ‘rational necessity’ and why had that notion
come to seem unacceptable for understanding the relationship of God
to the world?
By the later thirteenth century Franciscans were criticizing Aquinas
for relying too much on Aristotle’s philosophy in his Summa Theo-
logica. At first their criticisms were piecemeal, but this situation soon
changed. During the fourteenth century Franciscan ‘nominalism’ – the
philosophical movement increasingly dubbed ‘the modern way’–
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God’s Freedom and Human Freedom Joined
became more ambitious and assertive. We have already met its leading
thinker, William of Ockham, who had studied and taught at Oxford.
Summoned to Avignon to defend his ideas in 1324, Ockham came in
for papal censure for defending the Franciscan position over the
renunciation of property rights. He felt obliged to take refuge with the
German emperor. Despite the papal censure, which led to his excom-
munication, Ockham’s influence spread rapidly. In the church at large,
his nominalism became associated with the ‘Spiritual Franciscans’,
who embraced a moral radicalism distrusted by the papacy.
The surest way of understanding the nominalist movement and its
appeal is to look more closely at Ockham’s differences with Aquinas.
For this will enable us to come to grips with systems of thought which
began to pull Europe in different directions. It will also enable us to
understand better what was meant by ‘rational necessity’ and why
that notion became the focus of Ockham’s attempt to root out the
remains of ancient rationalism from Christian thinking.
Let us start with questions about the nature of God – for it is
important to remember that both Aquinas and Ockham were theolo-
gians as well as philosophers. What was the issue between them? It
turned on the question of God’s rationality versus God’s freedom.
William of Ockham sought, above all, to assert God’s freedom, believ-
ing that the world we experience and the moral duties we acknowledge
are the results of his choices as creator. They are not the result of
ideas or ‘essences’ which can be known a priori and which constrain
even God’s actions. For Ockham, God’s creation cannot be ‘second-
guessed’. We have not created ourselves, but we have been created
with free will. Is that not the clue given to us about the nature of
things? Ockham’s nominalism celebrated contingency rather than
rational necessity.
The nominalists thus turned their back on a long-standing form of
philosophical argument. Postulating ‘eternal ideas’ or essences can be
traced back to Plato’s doctrine of forms – archetypes deemed to be
more real than our day-to-day experience of things. These forms pro-
vided, ex hypothesi, the keys to metaphysical truth which could be
identified by minds sufficiently philosophical. Such minds were able
to break through mere appearances to the nature of things. While dif-
fering from Plato in other respects, Aristotle preserved the idea of
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The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
forms or essences when he postulated the ‘final causes’ of things, that
towards which ‘by nature’ they tend as their goal.
Early Christian thinkers, educated in Greek philosophy, revised
these arguments by lodging such forms or essences as ‘eternal ideas’ in
the mind of God. And medieval theologians such as Bonaventure had
continued to postulate such ideas. For them, it was by means of eter-
nal ideas that God had constructed the world. 1 Thus, the form or
eternal idea of a ‘human nature’ constrained even God when it was a
question of man’s duty or obligation. The moral law was dictated by
man’s nature. Not even God could alter it.
Augustine too had referred to eternal ideas in the mind of God. Yet
his insistence on a direct, intimate relationship between God’s will
and individual wills suggested another direction – a direction which
could potentially overturn the basis of the theory of essences or eter-
nal ideas. Ockham moved in that direction. It is true that Aquinas’
references to eternal ideas in the mind of God were nuanced. But they
were enough to convince Ockham that Greek rationalism – with its
belief in the eternity of the world and essences – posed a threat to
belief in God’s freedom as creator. 2 That freedom was at the heart of
Ockham’s voluntarist philosophy, the source of his defence of free-
dom against necessity.
Aquinas could hardly deny that Aristotle had assumed the eternity
of the world, a permanent structure to which superior minds had
access. 3 Did that not compromise Christian belief in a God who acts
freely in time rather than being constrained by pre- established rational
forms? And did not such forms imply an overly unified structure of
rationality which ran contrary to the idea of individual human souls
endowed with a free will? In Aristotle’s system, immortality belonged
to essences or ideas rather than to individual souls. For Ockham, such
conclusions subverted the vision of a God who acts in history and has
a direct relationship with souls, a vision turning on freedom.4
Why did Ockham insist, above all, on God’s freedom? The biblical
argument that freedom reveals the way humans are made ‘in the
image of God’ suggests one possible answer. The nominalists were
reasserting the Jewish sources of Christian thought against Greek
influences. But there is another possibility. The canonist conversion of
natural law into a theory of natural rights, founded on the assump-
309
tion of moral equality, was feeding back into the conception of divinity
itself. Emphasizing the claims of the will in human agency led Ock-
ham to emphasize the same trait in divine agency. Human freedom
and God’s freedom were becoming mutually reinforcing characteris-
tics. That is why contingency and choice, rather than eternal ideas and
a priori knowledge, loomed so large in his thinking. Ockham denied
that the kind of a priori knowledge of the universe required by the
doctrine of eternal ideas or ‘essences’ is possible. Exaggerating the
capabilities of human reason, it compromises God’s freedom and
power, his ‘sovereignty’.
In order to defend God’s sovereignty, Ockham (developing a trad-
ition initiated by Abelard) insisted on the difference between two
types of reasoning: deductive and inductive. Deductive reasoning
explores the relations between the meaning of words, and turns on
issues of consistency and logical entailment. By contrast, inductive
reasoning is concerned with the relations between words and ‘things’,
the world of sense experience. Its propositions are at best probable,
requiring verification by the senses, what Ockham calls ‘intuitions’ of
the external world. So it follows that ‘necessary’ truth belongs only to
the former, and not to the world of things.
In Ockham’s eyes, the doctrine of necessary or a priori knowledge
misleads the human mind by privileging its capacity for definition
over the contingent facts of experience. The assumption that universal
categories such as ‘man’ are more real than the experiences of ‘men’
jeopardizes belief in God’s direct relation to individuals. Such philo-
sophical ‘realism’ fosters the illusion of a corporate human mind.
Thus, belief in universals or concepts as eternal ‘things in themselves’
does not only put God’s freedom at risk. But the doctrine is also a
threat to individual freedom, to the belief in equal moral agency.
By emphasizing the role of the will, Ockham associated reason with
individual experience and choice rather than with ‘legislating’ about a
timeless ‘nature’ of things. But he does not present the will as uncon-
strained. Rather, the self, which is a gift of God, is obligated by the
principles of equality and reciprocity, by ‘right reason’. 5 That, indeed,
is fundamental to understanding ourselves as creatures of God. So
while accepting that human reason can be distinguished from the will
for certain purposes, Ockham, like Augustine, denies that intellect
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The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
and will are entirely distinct faculties. Rather, they are companions.
Human agency is a unity. Acts spring from the whole self or soul.
That is how Ockham recast the role of reason. It is tempting to see
his attack on the doctrine of eternal ideas as another stage in the pro-
longed struggle between polytheism and monotheism, for the rejection
of essences and ‘final causes’ bears some resemblance to the attack on
belief in ‘demons’ conducted by the early church. Both sprang from
an aversion to populating the world with agencies intermediate
between God and humans, agencies endowed with purpose or goals.
In Ockham’s eyes, belief in such agencies obscured the direct relation-
ship between the Creator and the created.
That is the background to the principle of explanation associated
with his name: ‘Ockham’s Razor’. It calls for economy in explanation,
avoiding the introduction of unnecessary entities or terms. Sharing
with other nominalists the belief that ‘it is futile to work with more
entities when it is possible to work with fewer’, Ockham argued that
‘a plurality must not be asserted without necessity’. And, with more
than a little sarcasm, he used his ‘razor’ to remove Aristotle’s ‘final
causes’: ‘The special characteristic of a final cause is that it is able to
cause when it does not exist; from which it follows that this move-
ment towards an end is not real but metaphorical.’6 Ockham concluded
that even Aquinas’ sophisticated use of Aristotelian philosophy
offended against the principle of economy in explanation. It exempli-
fied what we would call the pathetic fallacy or anthropomorphism, by
projecting categories drawn from human action, such as goals or pur-
poses, onto the physical world and misrepresenting the location of
moral agency.
The fourteenth century saw a bitter contest develop between doc-
trines associated with Aquinas and Ockham, between ideas which
continued to carry the impress of the ‘ancient’ assumption of natural
inequality and ‘modern’ ideas that divine and human liberty are indis-
solubly joined. The protagonists remained the Dominican and
Franciscan traditions. While the Dominicans increasingly accepted
Aquinas’ status as the uniquely authoritative ‘doctor’ of the church,
the Franciscans followed a path which distanced the use of reason
from the constraints imposed by Aquinas’ attempt to synthesize rea-
son and faith. Ockham, in particular, held that any attempt to create
311
a ‘natural’ theology by drawing on ancient rationalism and the idea of
‘necessary truth’ was doomed to fail, for it required reason to prove
more than it was capable of proving.
We have seen that in the ancient world belief in natural inequality
contributed to a teleology which associated rationality with hierarchy.
Hierarchy had come to shape the image of both nature and society.
The model it held up was ‘everything in its proper place’. For Ock-
ham, by contrast, Christian understanding of the soul’s relationship to
God founded the claim of ‘equal liberty’. Rational agency became a
birthright, shared by all humans equally.
Ancient rationalism had not conferred freedom and responsibility
on individuals as such. That is why it had never fully generated a mor-
ality founded on the notion of individual ‘rights’. Rather, ancient
philosophers had emphasized fate, pride and shame, an entirely social
matrix for morality. 7 They took for granted the privileged life of the
citizen in the polis. The ancient citizen acted out a role in the presence
of his inferiors. Even Aristotle’s account of virtue as ‘moderation’ or
the austere ethic of Stoicism carried messages different from that of
Christianity. ‘Virtue’ understood as proud self- control and a will
regenerated by humility through belief in human equality are not the
same thing.
Ockham drew on the Augustinian tradition which portrayed a des-
cent into the self as leading, paradoxically, to discovery of a higher
will. That tradition presented the individual will, when properly
directed, as a vehicle of divine agency. Such continuity of agency had
no place in the polytheism of the ancient world, nor in the model of
reason fostered by a society which rested on the assumption of nat-
ural inequality. That is why Ockham rejected the doctrine of rational
necessity in the name of God’s sovereignty and human freedom.
Did Ockham also benefit from social changes when developing his
‘modern’ critique of ancient rationalism? Probably. By the fourteenth
century permanent differences of social status were under threat in
Europe. They no longer seemed unavoidable. The moral intuitions
‘carried’ by Christian beliefs had acquired deeper roots. We have
already seen how a corporate conception of society was giving way to
the image of society as an association of individuals. The new ‘sover-
eign’ legal systems in church and state propagated that image. And
God’s Freedom and Human Freedom Joined
312
The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
the rapid growth of cities and commerce – with the emergence of a
‘middling’ class which advertised the advantages of social relations
based on choice rather than inherited status – made it vivid.
Plague, in the form of the Black Death in mid- century, reinforced
this trend by creating a sudden scarcity of labour. But decades before
its arrival, a French king, Louis le Hutin, had declared in 1315 his
determination to end serfdom and ensure that all the French were
‘free’. The words of his decree reveal the extent of the revolution in
minds:
Louis, by the Grace of God King of France and Navarre … As accord-
ing to the law of nature each must be born free, and that by some
usages and customs, which of great antiquity have been introduced and
hitherto preserved in our kingdom … many of our common people
have fallen into servitude and diverse conditions which very much dis-
please us; we, considering that our kingdom is called … the kingdom
of the Franks [free men], and wishing that the fact should be truly
accordant with the name … upon deliberation of our great council,
have ordered and order that generally through our kingdom … such
servitudes be brought back to freedom and that to all those who from
origin or recently from marriage or from residence in places of servile
condition are fallen … into bonds of servitude, freedom be given… . 8
No doubt rulers appreciated that such an appeal could be useful in
their struggle against feudal lords. But it is clear, in any case, that per-
sonal identity was increasingly being joined to the idea of freedom.
The world had begun to seem more open- ended, even the world of
serfs.
If so, was God to be less free than his creatures? Was it plausible that
a ‘sovereign’ God’s actions could be subject to necessity? As we have
just seen, Ockham and his Franciscan followers thought not. For
them, the core of Christian revelation was the ‘grace’ which the Christ
offered to all equally. That grace held out the prospect of an individual
relationship with divinity which transcended social relations and required
a new understanding of the role of reason. It was this conviction that
turned Ockham and his followers into harbingers of ‘modernity’.
For a millennium the doctrines of the church and the role of its
priesthood had – without any socially subversive intention – weakened
313
the association of hierarchy with reason. Ockham and his nominalist
followers brought this development to a climax. They did two remark-
able things: they reconstructed the idea of justice and revised the test
for scientific truth. Their work was truly revolutionary. Nominalists
laid the foundations for what we now call ‘liberal secularism’ as well
as for what we call experimental or ‘empirical’ science.
Taking the moral autonomy of individuals as their weapon, the
nominalists broke through a set of assumptions which had confined
the structure of society and the pursuit of knowledge within an hier-
archical or corporate framework. Ockham replaced those assumptions
with the assertion of individual rights (justifying a private sphere of
choice) and the verification principle (which made knowledge of
the external world always subject to disproof by further experience).
In drawing a sharper contrast between the terms in which we
understand our own actions and our knowledge of external, physical
processes, the nominalists, in effect, began to separate ‘culture’ from
‘nature’ – emphasizing the central role of reasons and intentions in
the former, while driving explanations in terms of purpose from the
latter.
It was a bittersweet moment. Distinguishing between knowledge of
nature and knowledge of culture did not merely challenge traditional
assumptions about the unity of knowledge. It also called into question
the possibility of proving God’s existence by constructing a ‘natural’
theology, the enterprise which Aquinas, under the influence of Aristo-
tle, had pursued. Thus, Ockham’s emphasis on faith and freedom
confronted Aquinas’ rationalist account of natural law.
We can see this by looking more closely at two respects in which
Ockham differed radically from Aquinas. The first is Ockham’s
emphasis on natural rights and liberty rather than on traditional nat-
ural law. The second is his insistence on the difference between
demonstrative reasoning and causal explanation, between ‘rational
science’ and ‘experimental science’. In each case, we see the human
mind embarking on a new voyage, a voyage of discovery.
Ockham’s understanding of justice emerged as the claim for ‘equal
liberty’. Freedom became a birthright, a right founded on the nature
of human agency. For two hundred years canon lawyers had been
converting the ancient doctrine of natural law into a theory of natural
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The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
rights. They had come close to asserting a general right to freedom.
But it was left to Ockham and his followers to take that final step.
That is why the ‘poverty debate’, which involved the Franciscan order
in repeated conflicts with the papacy, became so important. It was the
Franciscan emphasis on a natural right to freedom, justifying their
claim to renounce property of any kind, that finally led to Ockham’s
excommunication.
Freedom was central to Ockham’s understanding of rational agency.
He defined it as the power ‘by which I can indifferently and contin-
gently produce an effect in such a way that I can cause or not cause
that effect, without any difference in that power having been made’. 9
Knowledge of freedom comes not from a priori reasoning but from
experience of ourselves as agents. That knowledge, in turn, underpins
our sense of moral responsibility. ‘No act is blameworthy unless it is
in our power. For no one blames a man born blind, for he is blind by
sense (caecus sensu). But if he is blind by his own act, then he is
blameworthy.’10 The human will does not will anything necessarily –
not the pursuit of happiness or even the enjoyment of God for those
with faith! For Ockham, this radical character of freedom makes it
both possible and important to distinguish between acting out of con-
viction and mere conformity of behaviour.
In Ockham’s eyes, it was no accident that Paul had spoken of
‘Christian liberty’. By linking freedom to a regenerated will, the idea
of ‘Christian liberty’ undermined the ancient meaning of freedom, free-
dom understood as a form of privilege, a social status or rank. However,
the idea of Christian liberty had not merely been egalitarian. It had
also, by definition, been fully moralized. To be truly free, for Paul, was
to be moral. But the nominalists’ emphasis on the will led them to
revise this account of ‘Christian liberty’, and to abandon a fully mor-
alized definition of freedom.
We have seen how Duns Scotus distinguished freedom from ‘right
reason’ or justice, arguing that freedom and upright intentions are
separable ideas, while each is a necessary condition for moral action.
But if freedom is separable from the idea of ‘right reason’ or justice,
what is to be done if it conflicts with some claim of justice? Here Ock-
ham goes further than Duns Scotus, for he celebrates autonomy as
such. We can see this in two remarkable turns taken by his argument.
315
The first is his defence of mistaken moral judgements, while the
second emerges in his insistence that individuals can choose to
renounce some natural rights.
In order to protect the sphere of conscience, Ockham argues that
allowance must be made for well-intentioned conduct, even if it con-
flicts with a dictate of ‘right reason’ or justice. When an agent
believes – mistakenly – that his intention accords with justice, he is
obligated to follow his conscience. That is why promoting the claims
of justice must not lead to the extinction of freedom, for freedom
remains a necessary condition of moral action. So Ockham defends
what might be called ‘conscientious mistakes’ of judgement.
‘Right reason’ – the canonists’ golden rule – continued to provide
the standard of justice for Ockham. But he argues that the sphere of
conscience, with the freedoms required to sustain that sphere, should
be defended against interpretations of ‘right reason’ which jeopardize
liberty: ‘A created will which follows an invincibly erroneous con-
science is a right will; for the divine will wills that it should follows its
reason when this reason is not blameworthy. If it acts against that rea-
son (that is, against an invincibly erroneous conscience), it sins… .’11
If the role of conscience is to be protected by society, there must be
room for such mistaken judgements. By insisting that intentions
formed in a ‘conscientious’ way deserve respect, Ockham implies that
in the absence of freedom, the notion of moral conduct itself becomes
incoherent. ‘Enforced’ morality becomes a contradiction in terms.
That does not mean there are no enforceable moral limits to choice.
Ockham makes it clear that some actions remain ‘blameworthy’, pro-
viding grounds for social intervention and punishment. Thus, acting
in good faith involves accepting constraints imposed by equality and
reciprocity. But if society is to encourage acting in good faith, without
making the mistake of assuming that morality can be enforced, a sys-
tem of individual rights – allowing considerable freedom of judgement
and conduct – becomes indispensable. For only a system of rights can
protect the role of conscience and foster self-respect.
Some of these rights are ‘natural’ rights. Ockham distinguishes
three types. The first are those which free and equal individuals carry
into any association, but which they can modify by express or tacit
agreement. Thus, the right to choose rulers in church and state can be
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The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
lodged in some intermediate body, such as the college of cardinals or
the electors of the German empire. But ‘the people’ can always claim
back their residual rights if that body fails to act appropriately. The
second type of natural right is inoperative, for it is a right that humans
might claim (to take whatever they need, for example) if they were
fully moralized agents, as in the Garden of Eden before sin and imper-
fection entered the world.
The third type of natural right recognized by Ockham takes us into
a morally imperfect world, as well as into a major controversy involv-
ing the Franciscan order and the papacy. It is the type of natural right
bound up with a moral principle such as self- preservation. The duty
to preserve one’s life creates a right to do so, a right which cannot be
renounced. However, there are some natural rights, Ockham argues,
which can be renounced. That is the case with the right to property.
The Franciscans argued that they renounced all property rights, even
the ‘rights’ of use in favour of a ‘precarious’ use of temporal things,
that is, a use which depends upon the permission of others and which
can be withdrawn at any time. This was deemed to be central to the
‘apostolic poverty’ of the Franciscan order, its charitable nature and
dependence on alms. ‘There is, indeed, a precept of right reason that
temporal goods should be appropriated and owned by men; but it is
not necessary for the fulfilment of the precept that every individual
man should exercise the right of private property, and he can, for a
just and reasonable cause, renounce all rights to the possession of
property.’11 The crucial requirement for Ockham is that such a renun-
ciation be voluntary, for that makes it legitimate.
As in his defence of conscientious mistakes, Ockham again lays radical
emphasis on personal autonomy, subordinating even one natural right to
its preservation. This emphasis gives Ockham’s nominalism its historical
importance. For it is the moment when we can observe the egalitarian
moral intuitions generated by Christianity being turned against doctrines
and institutions that do not acknowledge the difference between acting
from conviction and mere conformity of behaviour – even if they are
doctrines and institutions of the church. It is, in effect, the birth of liberal
secularism.
I am not claiming that Ockham’s argument is entirely coherent or
that he foresaw all of the implications of secularism. For example, he
317
does not develop the possibility – raised by his argument – that our
intuitions of justice may not be clear enough or may come into con-
flict with one another. But one thing is certain. Ockham placed such
importance on moral autonomy that he was willing to defend, within
limits, mistaken judgements about what justice requires. Such a rad-
ical emphasis on autonomy had been gathering force for some time.
But if anyone has a claim to be its leading spokesman, it is William of
Ockham.
Ockham has often been accused of a kind of authoritarianism by
emphasizing God’s freedom over God’s rationality. For the followers
of Aquinas, Ockham’s critique of reason’s ability to reveal metaphysi-
cal truth makes his subsequent appeal to ‘right reason’ inconsistent.
Does not Ockham here reintroduce the rationality which he had
rejected along with ‘essences’ and ‘eternal ideas’? Yet Thomists fail to
understand what Ockham understood, that the theory of natural rights
involves subjecting the ancient idea of natural law to a new distribu-
tive principle, the biblical golden rule, with its stipulation in favour of
equality and reciprocity. Human autonomy is authorized ‘by God and
nature’. The golden rule introduced a principle of justice which over-
threw the assumption of natural inequality. And, in Ockham’s eyes,
that move is at the heart of Christian revelation. It is God’s will.
The subject of excommunication himself, Ockham turned his
defence of natural rights against abuses of authority, especially against
what he considered to be the danger of exaggerated papal preten-
sions. For him, it was axiomatic that the power of rulers was limited
by the rights of their subjects. ‘Ockham’s favourite way of proving
this was to argue that the evangelical liberty proclaimed in scripture
limited papal power by safeguarding the natural and civil rights of the
pope’s subjects.’12 But such limits also applied to secular rulers, even
to the emperor who had given Ockham shelter and protection. Indi-
viduals cannot alienate their moral autonomy because it is God-given.
Human agency and divine agency were joined in Ockham’s mind
by the claims of ‘right reason’ and natural rights. Those claims pro-
tected the role of individual conscience. A disciple of Augustine rather
than Aristotle, Ockham found his own way of defending the city
of God from the city of man. To be fair, in seeking to combine Aristo-
tle with Christian beliefs, Aquinas had been aware that Aristotle’s
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The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
polis-inspired conception of citizenship might compromise Christian
commitment to an order ‘beyond this world’. The more positive value
that Aquinas attributed to secular order was not meant to detract
from the claims of the ‘soul’. Yet despite his precautions, Aquinas
imbibed more of the ancient sense of justice as natural inequality than
perhaps he realized. That emerges not least in his use of the idea of
natural law. For, unlike Ockham, Aquinas did not convert moral
agency into a full- blown theory of natural rights.
For Ockham, the role of reason itself had to be revised to accord
with the assumption of moral equality. How does this emerge in his
writings? Ockham goes out of his way to argue that God might have
created a different moral order, commanding moral inequality or even
hatred of himself. Logic cannot rule out the possibility that God might
have imposed a different moral imperative. But he did not. That was
crucial for Ockham. It is why he defended God’s freedom against
rational necessity.
Ockham’s attack on the habit of projecting terms drawn from human
action (especially ‘goals’ or ‘purposes’) into our understanding of the
non-human world accounts for his second step into modernity. As we
have seen, he drew attention to the difference between ‘reasons’ for
human actions and the ‘causes’ of external events. The two ideas, ‘rea-
sons’ and ‘causes’, should not be confused. For the human mind operates
in different ways when shaping action and when investigating the
non-human world. Ockham’s argument, elaborated by his followers,
helped to foster a new curiosity about the physical world, freeing its
study from preordained conclusions. A rationalist mind-set would no
longer prescribe the roles of physical processes, by lodging them within
an assumed ‘great chain of being’.
Ockham and his followers moved the analysis of causation from
the model of ‘rational’ science to that of ‘empirical’ or ‘experimental’
science. In that respect Ockham considered himself the heir of Aristo-
tle, but not an uncritical heir. He took up one type of cause identified
by Aristotle – ‘efficient’ causes – and turned it into the paradigm of
empirical explanation. Yet Ockham insisted that concepts which sum-
marize the attributes of external ‘things’ must be constrained by
observable facts. That is why he applied his ‘razor’ to such concepts,
rejecting the introduction of entities unless they can be verified through
319
our repeated experience of things. That, indeed, became his test for
causal explanations.
Is it far-fetched to see Ockham anticipating the eighteenth-century
philosopher David Hume’s account of causation as‘constant conjunction’ –
one thing repeatedly following another? His words seem clear enough.
‘I say that this is sufficient for something being an immediate cause,
namely that when it is present the effect follows, and when it is
not present, all other conditions and dispositions being the same,
the effect does not follow.’13 While he did not use the term himself,
Ockham presents knowledge of the relations between things as ‘hypo-
thetical’, always subject to revision in the light of further experience.
That is why ‘demonstrative knowledge’ – certitude which springs
necessarily from the very meaning of the words used – differs in its
nature from ‘probable knowledge’, or what we now call ‘empirical’
knowledge. For Ockham, therefore, it is a category mistake to postu-
late necessary truths about the world of sense experience.It confuses
the claims of inductive and deductive reasoning.
There is no simple connection between Ockham’s nominalism and
his account of natural rights. Yet his insistence on the difference between
deductive and inductive reasoning served the same purpose as his
defence of human autonomy. Both served to establish that God’s activ-
ity in the world is a work of freedom in which humans can and should
participate. Just as Ockham’s insistence on the reality of freedom had
led him to limit the claims of ‘right reason’ or justice, so it shaped his
account of the limits of deductive reasoning. Acknowledging the right
to make conscientious mistakes and insisting on the merely probable
nature of empirical knowledge were both rooted in his belief in the real-
ity of God’s freedom and the fact of human fallibility.
Ockham and other nominalists did not renounce reason. Rather,
they refined its uses. Their work amounted to a protest against the
‘domestication’ of reality, against a rationalism which claimed to con-
tain God’s activity within a framework of human assumptions and
definitions: what has been called ‘Greek necessity’. For Ockham and
his followers, such claims to capture the world of experience in a sys-
tem of essences or final causes was an example of hubris. So if we are
to grasp the originality of nominalism, we must look both backward
and forward.
God’s Freedom and Human Freedom Joined
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The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
Looking backward, Ockham’s critique of essences and eternal ideas
can be seen as the ultimate stage of a war which from its outset the
Christian church had waged against polytheism. For polytheism sur-
vived as a temptation to multiply the non-material agencies at work
in the world, agencies that interposed in the relations between God
and man. Ockham wielding his ‘razor’ preserved something of the
spirit of that war against ‘pagan’ superstition. Looking forward, there
is little doubt that Ockham’s analysis of empirical reasoning – his
understanding of causation in terms of regular succession or constant
conjunction of events – contributed to developments in the following
century which provided the bridge between Aristotle’s physics and
modern physics. Ockham’s insistence on the difference between ‘rea-
sons’ and ‘causes’ prepared the way for a kind of Christian positivism,
and for the disenchantment of the physical world.
Yet Ockham’s programme was not reductionist. He was no material-
ist. Underpinning his analysis of the difference between understanding
‘culture’ and ‘nature’ was a firm faith that God’s free activity lay
beneath each. Ockham would have been dismayed to see how, a few
centuries later, his analysis of causation became joined to materialist
assumptions directed against theism, a combination he would have
dismissed as a new form of rationalist arrogance.
Ockham’s defence of both natural rights and the limitations of
human reason sprang from his belief in the omnipresence of God’s
freedom. If we were to put this defence in contemporary scientific
terms, we might say that Ockham took up his stand on the principle
of indeterminacy. He would have welcomed evidence of a ‘big bang’
at the beginning of things and the difficulty of capturing space- time in
a single, unified theory. In our time, freedom has moved cosmology
beyond a mechanistic model of the universe.
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24
Struggling for Representative
Government in the Church
We are nearing the end of our story. We have seen how Christian egali-
tarianism (the ‘care of souls’) first shaped the distinction between
spiritual and temporal authority, creating a sphere for individual
conscience.We then followed the gradual but far from complete pene-
tration of this egalitarianism into traditional beliefs – emerging as a
kind of schizophrenia among the Carolingians. Finally, we discovered
its full potential for transforming institutions in the papal revolution
of the twelfth century, when the idea of a ‘sovereign’ authority over
individuals, embodied in a coherent legal system, not only transformed
the church, but also began to inspire secular rulers with the project of
creating ‘states’ out of the jumble of feudal jurisdictions.
The egalitarian moral intuitions generated by the ‘care of souls’,
which had helped to undermine ancient slavery, became a far more
formidable weapon once they were defined into the idea of sover-
eignty. Permanent inequalities of social status came under increasing
threat. But if creating a sovereign authority provided the means of
liberating people from the ties of inherited status and custom, it also
created a new threat.Would the claim of ‘sovereignty’ create a monop-
oly of power as well as of final legal authority? Would the idea of
sovereignty become an instrument of tyranny rather than liberation?
Would ‘equal subjection’ crush the claims of ‘equal liberty’?
These questions arose first in the church. For by the fourteenth cen-
tury there was considerable disquiet in the Church about the growth
of papal ‘absolutism’. What, after all, had been the crux of the papal
revolution? Identifying the papacy as the final judge and supreme
legislator of the church had been necessary to create a self- contained
system of canon law. Such a postulate was necessary to establish the
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The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
‘equal subjection’ of all Christians to church authority. The pope, as the
‘sovereign’ pontiff, could then address his subjects individually – as
members of the ecclesia christiana – rather than through intermediaries.
Yet what had been the result of acknowledging papal sovereignty?
During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries papal power and preten-
sions had escalated. Developments since the papal revolution revealed
only too clearly the centralizing potential of the idea of sovereignty.
Increasing papal control over dioceses, monasteries and religious
orders – especially control over the granting of benefices – had led to
ever greater papal claims. At the outset of his pontificate, in 1198,
Innocent III declared that he was ‘lower than God, but higher
than man’.
According to Innocent III, the Pope’s plenitudo potestatis not only set him
above all other prelates but also above the law, supra jus … Innocent IV
went still further, asserting that the possession of plenitudo potestatis
enabled the Pope to exercise temporal power as well as spiritual power …
The ground was thus well prepared for the concept of plenitudo potesta-
tis as an illimitable, all-embracing sovereignty . . .1
This expansion of papal claims led to conflicts with secular rulers,
the dramatic disputes between Innocent IV and the Emperor Freder-
ick II and between Boniface VIII and the French king, Philip the Fair.
Secular rulers complained that the papacy was itself endangering the
distinction between sacred and secular authority. Yet even before
these conflicts, opposition to extreme papal claims had developed
within the church itself. The church had existed for more than a thou-
sand years. It had developed with a multiplicity of jurisdictions, such
as those of bishops, cathedral chapters and monasteries, a multiplicity
reflected in the ever-increasing amount of litigation coming before
church courts. Recognizing the papacy as the final legal arbiter was
one thing, but abandoning claims long sanctioned by custom or ear-
lier church ‘law’ was another.
Papal ambitions ran up against not only the traditional autonomy
of diocesan bishops but also the new importance of the college of
cardinals. In due course, both of these contributed to the reaction
against extreme papal claims. But it was a reaction prepared by the
canonists who, while developing the system of church law, had also
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Struggling for Representative Government in the Church
been debating the extent of papal authority. How should the church
respond to papal claims, if exaggerated? Canon lawyers commenting
on Gratian’s Decretum (the Decretists) did not doubt papal ‘headship’
of the church. They cited gospel accounts of the Christ describing
Peter as the ‘rock’ on which he would build the church and giving
Peter the ‘keys’ to the kingdom of God.
Yet, while respecting the primacy of the papacy, the canonists, as
lawyers, were also concerned to identify the limits of papal authority,
a concern emerging in their discussions of whether a heretical pope
could be removed and whether crimes or scandalous conduct could
also justify replacing a pope. However, the procedure for doing any
such thing remained uncertain for these canonists, who acknowledged
that a pope could not normally be judged by his legal ‘inferiors’.2
Questions about papal authority were becoming increasingly spe-
cific and urgent. Could popes, on their own authority, redefine the
articles of faith? Did a heretical pope cease, ipso facto, to be pope?
Could a pope be judged or deposed by a general council of the
church? And what became of papal authority when a pope died,
resigned, or, worse still, if there were rival pontiffs? Did not ultimate
authority reside in the church as a whole, the ecclesia christiana?
Worries about the centralizing of power in the papacy may have
contributed to the canonists translating the ancient theory of natural
law into a theory of natural rights. In their eyes, the protection of
moral agency – and with it, God’s claim on man – was the justification
for investing sovereign authority in the papacy. Running through the
canonists’ writings was a concern for the quality of intentions. They
began to stake out the difference between a legitimate authority, rest-
ing on consent, and mere conformity of behaviour, resulting from
coercion or the fear of power. The strong implication of such canonist
thinking was that natural rights provided a framework which con-
strained the exercise of authority within the church.
To answer questions about the limits of papal authority, canonists
fell back on the egalitarian moral intuitions that had given rise to the
idea of sovereignty. They drew on the belief in moral equality in order
to review claims that popes were not subject to any human authority,
to censure or deposition. The canonists began to argue that only the
whole church or ‘congregation of the faithful’ could be considered
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The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
unerring in faith.Typically, William of Ockham would later make this
point with his cutting irony, saying that even if the entire church hier-
archy became corrupt, the faith would be preserved by ‘women,
children and idiots …’
Brian Tierney has shown how canonistic thinking about the limits
of papal authority developed through several stages. In the twelfth
century, among the Decretists, there was a widespread, if only tacit,
acceptance that papal authority could not extend to redefining the
articles of faith. These had been defined by the four earliest ‘universal’
councils of the Church. ‘The Pope, it was held, was supreme judge in
cases involving articles of faith, but the Pope himself was required to
judge in accordance with the canons of the General Councils.’3
Nor was that all. The protection of God’s claims on conscience –
what St Paul had called ‘Christian liberty’ – also limited the papal
claim to a sovereign authority. Thus, while the twelfth-century canon-
ists regularly asserted papal primacy, the well-being of the whole
church remained their final criterion. ‘It was commonly held that he
[the pope] could not dispense against the decree of a Council in any
matter that affected the general well-being of the Church.’4 And for
canonists that well-being was now understood partly in terms of nat-
ural rights. But how was excessive centralizing of power in the papacy
to be avoided in practice? That was the rub. The Decretists did not
succeed in finding a solution.
By the thirteenth century the accumulation of papal legislation, or
decretals, ushered in a new phase of canonist commentary. At first
glance this phase – described as that of Decretalists rather than of the
Decretists– seemed to represent the triumph of extreme papal claims.
For the discussion of papal sovereignty was shaped by popes Innocent
III and Innocent IV, who were themselves canon lawyers and laid a
radical emphasis on plenitudo potestatis.
That was not the whole story, however. At the same time the canon-
ists developed a new theory about the nature of ‘corporations’, a theory
which had the potential to undermine extreme interpretations of papal
sovereignty. It was a theory which sought to defend the moral agency
of individuals by limiting the claims to authority of those governing
‘corporations’. ‘In the first half of the thirteenth century they [the can-
onists] built up the doctrine, denied only by Innocent IV and hardly
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Representative Government in the Church
challenged after Hostiensis, that authority in a corporation was not
concentrated in the head but resided in all the members …’5
The theory developed out of reflections about the authority of
bishops, in relation to their diocese and to the canons of their cath-
edral. This was interpreted as a ‘delegated’ authority, limited by the
purposes for which it was delegated and always subject to the best
interests of those whom it represented. Corporations were no longer
understood as having a reality apart from their members. ‘Medieval
lawyers described corporations as a fiction of the law precisely because
they attributed actual reality only to the individual persons who com-
posed it.’ 6 This was a fundamental change. For it involved passing
from representation understood as personification – relying on the
metaphor of the ‘head’ ruling the body – to representation understood
as the explicit delegation of authority from the members of the com-
munity to its head. Representation ceased to be a metaphor.
The development of this theory of corporation law amounted to the
emergence of a theory of representative government. It was driven by
the needs of the church, contending with complex relations between its
multiple jurisdictions. These needs sprang not only from ancient asso-
ciations such as the diocese and the monastery, but new forms of
association such as the friars and the universities. The new understand-
ing of the nature of a corporation was applied to these associations,
and involved attributing an underlying equality of status to their mem-
bers. Claims to authority could therefore no longer be taken for granted.
Questions … were constantly arising on the level of practical litiga-
tion. Where did authority in a church reside, in the head or in all the
members? And who were the ‘members’ of a church in this sense?
Could a bishop act in the affairs of his diocese without consulting his
canons? If so, in what types of business? If not, did he need the consent
of the canons or only their counsel? Could an abbot take an oath on
behalf of his whole convent of monks? Did he require consent of the
monks to act as their representative in so doing? What was the source
of a prelate’s jurisdiction? How could a bishop be prevented from act-
ing against the interests of his church? Did the rights of a bishop
devolve to his canons during an episcopal vacancy? Did they so devolve
if the bishop was negligent?7
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The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
The theory of corporation law developed in response to these ques-
tions was at first applied only to parts of the church, rather than to the
church as a whole. But it reshaped legal language and thinking in a way
that was fraught with consequences. Canonists insisted that the author-
ity of bishops must no longer be understood in terms of ownership. It
was not dominium in the ancient sense of the word, with the radical
subordination that implied. Only the community of the faithful as a
whole could be said to have dominium over the church and its goods.
By contrast, the bishop’s authority was a conditional authority,
founded on and respecting the moral agency of those subject to his
authority. The bishop began to be described as an agent or ‘proctor’,
a term drawn from Roman law, but reinterpreted by the canonist
Hostiensis so that the most important transactions by their bishop
required the express consent of the canons. In other decisions, the
proctor was deemed to have a mandate from those he represented,
but even so it was a mandate which restricted his authority to the
defence of their interests, the purposes for which they had, explicitly
or implicitly, granted the authority.
What were the implications of Hostiensis’ – who had lectured
on canon law and became a cardinal – adaptation of the idea of
proctorship?
It may be that in this refinement of the proctorial concept is to be found
an important link between the earlier medieval concept of representa-
tion as mere personification and the later idea, growing ever more
explicit in the fourteenth century, that a true representative needed an
actual delegation of authority from his community; for it was generally
agreed among the canonists that the jurisdiction and administrative
authority of a bishop were derived from election, not from consecra-
tion to the episcopal order.8
Hostiensis’ reinterpretation reveals how rapidly a corporate understand-
ing of society was eroding: representation was one thing, personification
quite another.
Not only the claims of bishops but the claims of the heads of other
legally constituted bodies increasingly came to be understood in terms
of proctorship rather than ancient dominium. The idea of a ‘head’
thus ceased to convey an inherent and unquestionable superiority.
327
And if at first this reinterpretation of the Roman law notion of proc-
torship was applied only to parts of the church, the fourteenth century
saw bolder thinkers begin to apply it to the church as a whole, with
dramatic consequences for views of the papacy.
In effect, canon lawyers had encountered a problem which, centuries
later, would come to haunt modern liberalism. The new understanding
of society as an association of individuals – its ‘individuated’ image –
could easily become a threat to the role of intermediate associations,
located, that is, between the association ‘of all’ and the individual. The
identification of a sovereign authority had a radical centralizing poten-
tial because it was a claim to speak for ‘all equally’. By identifying
sovereign authority with universality – in the manner of popes Innocent
III and Innocent IV – the autonomy of associations that were less than
universal became problematic.
So the intellectual challenge which canonists faced was the need to
reconcile their egalitarian moral intuitions with a defence of inter-
mediate associations. How could the authority of such associations be
made legitimate in the face of a sovereign agency representing, ex
hypothesi, the claims of all? The canon lawyers developed a powerful
response: an original theory about the nature of corporations, paving
the way for a more general case for representative government in the
church. They turned the moral intuitions that originally gave rise to
the idea of sovereignty against ‘absolutist’ interpretations of the form
of government it entailed.
Inadvertently, the canonists thereby laid another part of the foun-
dation of modern liberal thought. They extended and refined earlier
arguments about the difference between ownership and political
authority, between ancient dominium and the right to rule. They did
this by demonstrating that an egalitarian understanding of society
implied by the idea of sovereignty dispersed moral authority in a way
that was incompatible with the interpretation of papal authority as a
form of ownership or dominium. The canonists appealed to the ideal
of a church (‘the community of the faithful’) in which reason and free-
dom are dispersed against the assumption of unlimited authority by
any human agency. This vision, in turn, provided the ‘deep’ moral
foundation for constitutionalism in the church, for a formal dispersal
of authority and power.
Representative Government in the Church
328
The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
By the fourteenth century an increasing number of voices were call-
ing for something like representative government in the church. Calls
for reform focused on the role of general councils. Was not a general
council of the church the supreme authority in matters concerning the
faith and well being of the church? Did not the authority of such a
council constrain even the pope’s ordinary jurisdiction, his claim to be
the final judge and legislator of the church?
The struggle between Boniface VIII and Philip the Fair, which began
in 1297, gave these questions a new urgency. The French king – urged
on by many cardinals and Franciscans – appealed to a general council,
contending that Boniface was a usurper (that is, that the resignation of
his predecessor, Celestine V, was ‘forced’ and invalid) and a heretic.
Ironically, both sides of the argument that followed drew on the new
theory of corporations to make their case. The relationship between
the papacy and church authorities – as well as papal relations with
secular rulers asserting their sovereignty – came under unprecedented
critical scrutiny.
Had the concentration of power as well as authority in the papacy
created a monster? Philip the Fair’s resistance to the theocratic claims
in Boniface’s bull, Unam Sanctam, drew the attention of the whole of
Europe to constitutional issues. As a result, the papal attempt to sub-
mit all nations to its sovereign authority suffered a serious and lasting
reverse, while within the church critics of the papacy gained in confi-
dence. Stimulated by the new theory of corporations as well as their
own interests, many bodies – not least the bishops and the college of
cardinals – felt the need for a more collegiate governance of the
church. They were ready to welcome a retreat from the ‘extravagant’
papal claims in the name of the ‘community of the faithful’. Thus, the
absolutist version of papal authority was coming under threat even
before the schism which created the conciliar movement.9
Late in the fourteenth century an extraordinary series of events
gave such voices in the church not only an opportunity to express
their views, but forced them to do so. In April 1378 the cardinals
elected as pope the archbishop of Bari, who took the name of Urban
VI. His conduct, however, soon led many cardinals to regret their
decision, and a few months later they declared the election null and
void. When Urban refused to accept their decision, the cardinals pro-
329
ceeded to elect a new pope, Clement VII. Neither ‘pope’ would give
way to the other, and before long Clement established his own rival
curia at Avignon. The previous decades, when popes had governed the
church from Avignon, had greatly increased French influence in the
curia. Clement gained French support, while the Italian cardinals sup-
ported Urban VI. The secular rulers of Europe responded differently
to these rival claims of legitimacy, moved not least by national rival-
ries. Europe was torn apart by schism.
The constitutional question lurking in earlier canonist speculation
suddenly became central and unavoidable. It drew attention to the
possible role of a general council of the church, as offering far the
most likely way of putting an end to schism.
By 1409 such a council, at Pisa, proceeded to depose both ‘popes’
and elect another, who styled himself Alexander V. The result, how-
ever, merely complicated the schism, with three contenders for the
papal throne. Five years later the emperor Sigismund summoned
another council at Constance. Its aim was no longer simply to end the
schism, but to undertake a general reform of the church, to give
the church what would amount to a constitution, clearly dispersing
authority and power. The council comprised not only representatives
of the secular clergy and the monastic orders, but also doctors of the
new universities, who introduced a powerful voice in support of ‘con-
ciliarism’, that is, regular meetings of general councils, to be recognized
as the ultimate authority in the church.
This conciliar movement, drawing on canonist thinking and the
writings of Ockham, won the support of some of Europe’s leading
intellectuals. With growing confidence, the Council of Constance
‘proclaimed the indissolubility of the general council, and its superior-
ity over the papal power; it undertook to make these principles
prevalent in the church, and to reform the abuses which had crept
into it, above all the exactions by which the court of Rome had pro-
cured supplies’.9 To achieve these ends, the Council of Constance
appointed a commission of reform, drawing its members from across
the orders and nations of the church.
At this point, however, the papal party rallied, insisting that such a
comprehensive programme could not be carried out without the par-
ticipation of the pope. So the rivals were finally induced to give way,
Representative Government in the Church
330
The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
and a new pope, Martin V, was elected. However, his proposals for
reform proved unsatisfactory to the council, which dissolved, not
having achieved its programme. The meeting of a new council at Basle
in 1431 met with no greater success. The papal party then brought
about a rupture in the council by moving it to Italy, while the unrec-
onciled partisans of reform remained at Basle.
By the mid- fifteenth century the papacy had – relying on the cen-
tralized administration that had been created since the twelfth
century – regained control over the church. The project of reform
which the church had failed to carry through did not die, however.
The cause of church reform was almost immediately taken up by
secular rulers who drew their own conclusions from the series of frus-
trated general councils and the resurgence of papal pretensions. The
French king, in the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges (1438), and the
German empire, at the Diet of Mayence in 1439, introduced greater
autonomy and more collegiate government into national churches.
But even these national reforms championed by secular rulers were
soon abandoned as a result of papal pressure and diplomacy, return-
ing the situation in the church, at least in appearance, to one of papal
absolutism.
But it was only an appearance. For the project of reform, which had
eluded both the leaders of the church and secular rulers, had now
taken root among the people.
Was it mere chance that the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries saw
such widespread popular agitation within the church, with Pietist
movements in the Netherlands and Germany fostering a distrust of
clerical authority, while the Lollards in England and the Hussites in
Prague openly criticized the established church hierarchy, especially
the papacy? In the eyes of John Wycliffe, leader of the Lollards, the
church had lost its way, preoccupied with legal supremacy and the
accumulation of wealth rather than the care of souls, its proper role.
Wycliffe spoke for many across Europe when he called for translation
of the scriptures into popular languages, so that they could be
widely read and properly understood, giving people a basis for judg-
ing the claims of the clerical establishment. The understanding of
‘authority’ was taking a dramatic turn, away from aristocracy towards
democracy.
331
Christian egalitarianism had already more than once fostered a
kind of populism. But what is striking about movements in the four-
teenth and fifteenth centuries is the way they combined the promotion
of individual devotion through real knowledge of the scriptures with
a deep-seated anti-clericalism. The belief that claims of authority had
to make themselves both intelligible and acceptable to individual con-
sciences was on the rise. That is why the programme of devolving
authority and power within the church had exposed a popular need,
even before the invention of printing added its ‘democratic’ influence.
That is also why forcible repression of the Lollards and the Hussites
was not the end of the story.
The fact that the Council of Constance condemned Huss and his
associates as heretics cannot conceal a deep affinity between their
projects. By defining a direction for reform of the church, the concili-
arists had unleashed – only half- wittingly – what amounted to an
impulse which could no longer be contained.
The popular reform of John Huss was for the instant stifled … But as the
reforms of the councils had failed, as the end which they had pursued
had not been attained, popular reform ceased not to ferment. It watched
the first opportunity, and found it at the commencement of the sixteenth
century. If the reform undertaken by the councils had been well carried
out, the Reformation might have been prevented. But one or the other
must have succeeded; their coincidence shows a necessity.10
These observations by François Guizot should give us pause to reflect.
We have the advantage of far longer experience of European his-
tory, when considering consequences of the ‘failure’ of the conciliar
movement.
How great a difference would the success of the conciliar move-
ment have made to the future of Europe? Might it have preserved the
unity of European Christianity? And how would that have affected
the emergence of liberal secularism, often held to be the outcome of
Protestantism? Would a united church that had adopted conciliarism –
a decentralized church in which national churches and interests had
freer play and greater influence – have developed with a form of secu-
larism less strident and aggressive than the form which developed in
post- Reformation Europe? These questions are fascinating, but finally
Representative Government in the Church
332
The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
unanswerable. In any case, they should not be allowed to obscure the
argument of this book: that in its basic assumptions, liberal thought
is the offspring of Christianity. It emerged as the moral intuitions gen-
erated by Christianity were turned against an authoritarian model of
the church.
The roots of liberalism were firmly established in the arguments of
philosophers and canon lawyers by the fourteenth and early fifteenth
centuries: belief in a fundamental equality of status as the proper
basis for a legal system; belief that enforcing moral conduct is a
contradiction in terms; a defence of individual liberty, through the
assertion of fundamental or ‘natural’ rights; and, finally, the conclu-
sion that only a representative form of government is appropriate for
a society resting on the assumption of moral equality.
These roots of liberalism were, however, dispersed in the fifteenth
century. They had not yet been combined to create a coherent pro-
gramme or theory for reform of the sovereign state, into what we
have come to call ‘secularism’. That development awaited develop-
ments in the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries – the Renaissance
and the Reformation – when the fragmentation of Christianity led to
religious wars, civil and international. In an attempt to restore a
broken unity, Catholic and Protestant churches resorted to force. It
was an appeal to force which led sensitive minds gradually to put
together the credo of secularism, drawing on the insights of so-called
‘medieval’ thinkers.
Increasingly, the adjective ‘barbarous’ – which in earlier centuries
had been applied by churchmen to the beliefs and practices of the
tribes overrunning the Western Roman empire – would be reapplied
to the attitudes and actions of the churches.
333
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Dispensing with the Renaissance
If liberalism can be described as the child of Christianity, should it be
called a ‘natural’ rather than a ‘legitimate’ child? There is good reason
for thinking so. The reason is that liberalism as a coherent doctrine
was not born willingly. It was certainly never a project of the church.
Indeed, as a political theory it developed against the fierce resistance
of the Catholic and even, for a long time, most Protestant churches.
Its emergence was the result of a ‘civil war’ in early modern Europe, a
war in which ‘liberal’ moral intuitions generated by Christianity were
increasingly turned against attempts to ‘enforce’ belief.
The civil war has distorted our understanding of the relationship
between liberalism and Christianity. And that is because the proto-
liberal beliefs which had developed within the church by the fifteenth
century – the belief in moral equality and a range of natural rights, in
a representative form of government and the importance of freer
enquiry – only came together when they were deployed against the
church’s claim to have a right to ‘enforce’ belief, with the help of secu-
lar rulers.
Mounting opposition to that claim from the sixteenth to the eigh-
teenth century – after the Reformation put an end to confessional
unity in Europe – played a crucial part in the birth of modern liberal-
ism. It shaped liberalism as a coherent doctrine directed against the
idea of an authoritarian church, whether Catholic or Protestant. Lib-
eralism became a doctrine which paved the way for a far more
systematic separation of church and state – that is, for secularism.
Indeed, the two terms became almost inseparable. Liberal secularism
sought to limit the role of government through a structure of funda-
mental rights, rights that create and protect a sphere of individual
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The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
freedom, a private sphere. Religion thus became a matter for the pri-
vate sphere, a matter of conscience. Liberal secularism sought to
protect that private sphere, moreover, by means of constitutional
arrangements that would disperse and balance powers in the state.
This profound moral and intellectual development did not take
place overnight. It emerged by fits and starts over several hundred
years. The story of its development – from sixteenth-century natural
rights theory, through the writings of Grotius and Hobbes, Locke and
Montesquieu, to early nineteenth- century thinkers such as Constant,
Tocqueville and J. S. Mill – has often been told. It is a story about
what might be called the liberal ‘moment’ in European history.
Understandably, the story presents the development of liberal secu-
larism largely in terms of opposition to ‘illegitimate’ claims of the
church. Yet that is not the whole story. For the story often begins with
what it calls a ‘rebirth’ rather than a ‘birth’. It begins with the Renais-
sance in Italy, the rediscovery of ancient ‘humanism’. And it presents
the Renaissance as marking a decisive break with what had gone
before in Europe.
The Renaissance is presented as the end of the middle ages, a cru-
cial step in the process of individual liberation. We have inherited
from historians such as Burckhardt the view that the individual
re- emerged and burst into bloom in the Italian Renaissance. The
Renaissance is held to have marked the end of a kind of religious
ty ranny, a tyranny of the mind – opening European eyes to the appar-
ently far wider range of values and interests exhibited in classical
antiquity. And there can be no doubt that a passion for the ancient
world did seize many minds.
In Burckhardt’s eloquent account, fourteenth- and fifteenth-century
Italian city- states witnessed the unabashed pursuit of fame, wealth
and beauty, an inversion of values, a rehabilitation of self- assertion.
Surrounded by physical remains of ancient cities, and themselves liv-
ing in city- states, Italian humanists came to take as models of refined
taste the achievements of antiquity in sculpture, painting, architecture
and writing.This rebirth of humanism revealed man to himself, free-
ing him to explore new needs, create new ambitions and taste new
pleasures.1 It fostered an unabashed enjoyment of this world, free of
religious guilt.
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Dispensing with the Renaissance
While the earliest Italian humanists may have sought to merge
Christian and ancient values, by the late fifteenth century humanists
often displayed a contempt for the church. Machiavelli went further
than most. He contrasted favourably the patriotism of the ancient
citizen with the virtue of the Christian. Other humanists displayed
impatience with the arid ‘scholastic’ preoccupations of the universities,
with the ‘obscure’ arguments about logic and natural law pursued by
canon lawyers and philosophers. Such arguments seemed to them too
remote from human affairs, from real desires, needs and – not least –
pleasures. Their preferred philosopher was Plato, whose dialogues
conjured up a civilized, urban world rather than the austere monastic
setting suggested by scholastic disputations about Aristotle.
If the Renaissance is understood as a first step towards liberal secu-
larism because it began to throw off the shackles of religion authority,
the next step identified is the growth of scepticism after the religious
wars issuing from the Reformation, with their attempts to enforce
uniformity of belief. This new scepticism – epitomized in the writings
of Montaigne – fuelled anti- clericalism and calls for toleration. Such
calls were soon made by invoking fundamental or ‘natural’ rights.
The language of rights thus became integral to the growth of liberal
secularism. The sphere of freedom defended in this way widened
gradually until it included even atheism. By the eighteenth century
anti-clericalism had become so virulent in parts of Europe that it led
to an onslaught on religious belief as such. The result was that liberal
secularism in Europe came to be understood as essentially anti-
religious. Its roots were interpreted in that light, with the help of the
idea of the Renaissance. Any suggestion that the roots might be traced
to Christianity became outlandish.
Yet justifying the process of secularization – the separation of a pri-
vate realm from the public sphere – was the distinction between
outward conformity and inner, authentic belief. That distinction was
based, in turn, on the conviction that freedom is a prerequisite of
moral conduct, that moral obligation presupposes an area of choice.
It was that conviction, after all, which had led to the ancient theory of
natural law being recast as a doctrine of natural rights.
And that is the rub. For the conviction that uncoerced belief provides
the true foundation for ‘legitimate’ authority was itself the product of
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The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
Christianity. It was the test of ‘internal acceptance’ that had gradually
made ‘enforced belief’ a contradiction in terms, encapsulating reflections
on the role of individual conscience by canon lawyers, theologians
and philosophers from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. And as we
have seen, their reflections rested on rejection of the assumption of
natural inequality which had permeated ancient thinking. That is
why presenting the process of secularization as a ‘rebirth’ of ancient
humanism can be so misleading. For it ignores the moral conviction
that led to the ancient theory of natural law being recast. It was that
moral conviction which led to ‘rights’ becoming fundamental to the
discourse of liberal secularism.
But an understanding of that connection was lost in the heat of
early modern battles against the church. That is why we have to
reconsider the view that the Renaissance marked a decisive break in
European history, separating a period of ignorance and superstition
(the ‘middle ages’) from one of freedom and progress.
The forms of ancient thought, feeling and expression that excited
Italian humanists had sprung from and reflected an altogether differ-
ent type of society: a society of citizens and slaves, of families rather
than souls. This difference was often ignored by the humanists, many
of whom were mostly interested in what we would call the ‘fine
arts’. But ignoring this difference prevented them from exploring the
deepest respects in which the ancient world differed from Christian
Europe. Philosophical argument about ‘foundational’ moral assump-
tions was not to their taste. Italian humanists drew on the ancient
world as a kind of quarry, without asking too much about its original
structure.
To be fair, their eclecticism enabled humanists to mix ancient and
‘modern’ features in ways that are often very striking. But they are
striking partly because they juxtapose elements drawn from utterly
different types of society, from mind-sets resting on the contrary
assumptions of natural inequality and moral equality. Yet the human-
ists were not immune to moral intuitions of their own society. Probably
unconsciously, Renaissance painters turned the idealized types found
in surviving ancient statuary into beautiful individuals. Take the treat-
ment of male nudity. Italian painters transformed what had been a
celebration of social superiority – of citizens’ muscular fitness to
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Dispensing with the Renaissance
domi nate their inferiors – into the graceful and touching figures we
find, for example, in Botticelli. Botticelli’s figures look as if they might
have a conscience!
So I am not suggesting that the Renaissance did not matter, that it
did not channel human thought, feeling and expression into new
forms. Nor am I suggesting that it has no place in understanding the
development of sculpture, painting and architecture. That would be
absurd. But what I am maintaining is that as an historiographical con-
cept the Renaissance has been grossly inflated. It has been used to
create a gap between early modern Europe and the preceding centuries –
to introduce a discontinuity which is misleading.
If the fundamental feature of modernity is an individuated model of
society – a model in which the individual rather than the family, clan
or caste is the basic social unit – then it is important to distinguish that
test from other criteria. Celebration of the Renaissance has confused
the emergence of what is better called the pursuit of ‘individuality’ – an
aesthetic notion – with the invention of the individual – a moral notion.
This invention was the product of what philosophers call ‘ontological’
argument, argument about how reality is understood. And that was
not the work of the humanists, though they too drew on its achieve-
ments. The humanists did introduce a new emphasis on cultivating the
self, on the refinement of taste and self-expression. This was an
emphasis that shaped what might be called the cult of individuality,
depicting the individual as the ‘victim’ of social pressures and heroism
as resistance to such pressures. Social institutions were presented as a
threat to the self.
This new sensibility contributed to developments in seventeenth-
and eighteenth- century moral philosophy and political theory which
are often ‘held against’ liberalism. They encouraged an ‘atomized’ pic-
ture of the world, separating the individual from a social context
and obscuring the normative developments which had led to the
emergence of liberalism. A kind of ‘physicalism’ did, it is true, invade
liberal thinking during these centuries. It was reinforced by develop-
ments in the physical sciences which placed the individual mind in
nature rather than culture, making the test of valid knowledge observ-
able regularities rather than social norms. 2 The philosophical tradition
we call utilitarianism turned this into an ‘atomized’ model of society,
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The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
a model in which individual wants or preferences are taken as given,
with little interest in the role of norms or the socializing process.
There is good reason for considering these later intellectual devel-
opments as a liberal heresy, because it deprives liberal secularism of
its profoundly moral roots, cutting it off from the tradition of dis-
course which had generated it. Yet liberalism rests on the moral
assumptions provided by Christianity. It preserves Christian ontology
without the metaphysics of salvation.
We have found that the ‘deep’ foundation for the individual as the
organizing social role – a status which broke the chains of family and
caste – was laid by lawyers, theologians and philosophers from the
twelfth to the fifteenth century. Their picture of reality gave individual
conscience and intentions, the moral life of the individual, a founda-
tional role. Let us recall just one example. Through innovations in
thirteenth- century canon law, corporations came to be understood as
associations of individuals, ceasing to have an identity radically inde-
pendent of and superior to that of their members. A freer spirit and
the sense that institutions could be reshaped owed more than a little
to the demolition of that older, reified meaning of corporation. This
was no atomized individualism. Self-reliance and the habit of associ-
ation were joined.
The view that the Renaissance and its aftermath marked the advent
of the modern world – the end of the ‘middle ages’ – is mistaken. By
the fifteenth century canon lawyers and philosophers had already
asserted that ‘experience’ is essentially the experience of individuals,
that a range of fundamental rights ought to protect individual agency,
that the final authority of any association is to be found in its mem-
bers, and that the use of reason when understanding processes in the
physical world differs radically from normative or a priori reasoning.
These are the stuff of modernity.
As we have seen, these elements were still ‘free- standing’ in the fif-
teenth century. They had not yet been fused together in a coherent and
militant programme. But even in the absence of such a programme,
these elements began to spread from the clerical elite into university
education and affect popular attitudes. In doing so, they sharpened
egalitarian moral intuitions that were to be turned against an authori-
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Dispensing with the Renaissance
tarian church. Paul’s notion of ‘Christian liberty’ had returned with a
vengeance.
The foundation of modern Europe lay in the long, difficult process
of converting a moral claim into a social status. It was pursuit of
belief in the equality of souls that made the conversion possible. A
commitment to individual liberty sprang from that. Combining the
two values gave rise to the principle which more than any other has
defined modern liberal thinking, the principle of ‘equal liberty’. Yet it
is far from clear that the Italian Renaissance did much to explore or
develop that principle.
Renaissance humanists did little to further the logical and ontologi-
cal enquiries which had enabled medieval thinkers to replace one
conception of society with another. Yet, by the fourteenth and the
fifteenth centuries, canon lawyers and philosophers had laid the foun-
dation for a more radical separation of the spiritual and temporal
spheres than hitherto imagined. They had laid the foundation for a
private, rights- based sphere, where freedom and conscience prevailed.
This would be a sphere which had implications for both church and
state. For it first established that authority in the church rested ultim-
ately in the congregation of the faithful represented by general
councils, while the new model it offered to secular society was a ‘sov-
ereign’ government caring for and responsive to individuals rather
than families or castes.
Understanding of the nature of ‘the state’ had already stimulated
re- thinking of traditional ‘co- proprietorship’ of church and state. In
the fourteenth century the philosopher and publicist Marsiglio of
Padua began to insist that as an institution the church must be subject
to the laws of the state. He argued that ‘law’ properly so called is
backed by visible sanctions in this world. He denied that moral pre-
cepts, however exalted, should be described as laws. While rulers of
the state ought to be guided by morality, they should not tolerate cler-
ical interference in their affairs. Papal ambitions had, in Marsiglio’s
view, extended and perverted the jurisdictions of the church, creating
unnecessary wars and civil discord. He therefore saw the legal auton-
omy of the state as essential, if it was to preserve the peaceful and
orderly association of individuals.3
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The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
By the fifteenth century, this new image of society as an association
of individuals was breaking through the surface of European life. It
was a blurred image, doubtless more blurred in some areas than in
others. It was more distinct in the commercial, urbanized areas, less
distinct in rural areas of southern Europe than in the north. But even
in ‘backward’ rural areas, the decline of serfdom and the growth of
market economies projected the image to some extent. Increased social
mobility – abetted by a scarcity of labour after the Black Death – eased
the way for intellectual changes ‘carried’ by this new image of society.
So did the centralizing of authority by national monarchs in France,
England and Spain. The envy felt by many Italian humanists, when
they compared this with the failure of attempts to unify Italy, is indir-
ect evidence of the impact of this new image of society.
But there is more direct evidence of the impact. In fourteenth- and
fifteenth- century Europe, fundamental changes can be seen in several
spheres: in attitudes towards the self, in attitudes towards the natural
world, and in attitudes towards government. Let us look briefly at
each.
First is the extraordinary emphasis on ‘innerness’ which suddenly
marked popular religious movements across Europe. Being guided by
an ‘inner light’ became the almost standard form of aspiration. It was
as if individuals, glimpsing a world in which differences of status and
social roles might no longer be assigned at birth, felt the need for a
more secure moral foundation – something that would not fail them.
For when personal identity cannot be exhausted by the roles an indi-
vidual ‘occupies’, where can that individual look for support?
Emphasis on the mystical union of God and the individual soul –
famously asserted by Meister Eckhart, for whom ‘the creature exists
only by and though God’ as creator – became a leitmotiv among the
German and the Dutch pietists, as well as among the followers of
Wycliffe in England and Huss in Prague. Religion understood merely
as ritual practice came under growing threat. The conviction that reli-
gion meant nothing when it did not transform the feelings and motives
of the individual was expressed memorably by Thomas à Kempis,
who belonged to a Dutch movement called the Brethren of the
Common Life and wrote the Imitation of Christ: ‘I desire to feel com-
punction rather than to know its definition …’
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Dispensing with the Renaissance
The emphasis on innerness, on something felt, contributed to a new
kind of humility and a revaluation of the role of the mind: ‘A humble
rustic who serves God is certainly better than a proud philosopher
who, neglecting himself, considers the movement of the heavens.’ The
revealing phrase here is ‘neglecting himself’.
The disciplining of the self was becoming the primary moral impera-
tive. Reason could not simply command feelings. That conviction – with
its roots in Paul and Augustine – stood in contrast to the ambitions of
theologians who had sought to capture Christian beliefs within the
structure of ancient rationalism. For the pietists, a personal relationship
with God was the fundamental experience open to every individual, the
true source of morality. It was the relationship which should inform all
others. ‘God is in all creatures … and yet he is above them.’ Transform-
ing feeling was more than the mind on its own could accomplish. It
would be a mistake to call this pietist response anti-intellectual, however.
For these popular movements laid great emphasis on self-discipline,
through education and reading the scriptures. What they pointed out,
though, were the limits of the mind in shaping moral action. Their
emphasis on a devoted life and on the role of grace was a warning
against the pride of the intellect. Work and daily dedication should be
the companions of study.4 Virtue then became a matter of practice.
A thinker like Jean Gerson, chancellor of the University of Paris in
1395, deemed individual moral agency – rather than the systems of
theologians over-impressed by the achievements of ancient philosophy –
to be the introduction to God. Gerson considered that the concept of
God elaborated by theologians such as Aquinas, seeking to emulate
Aristotle, had departed from the God proclaimed by Paul, the biblical
God who spoke through Abraham and the prophets, before taking on
human form in the Christ. For the biblical God was a God who trans-
formed motives and action. The experience of such a God was always
available to those with faith. And that experience of motives trans-
formed was just as real as experience of the physical world.
This remarkable upsurge of emphasis on ‘innerness’ led to a pre-
occupation with the will. Here the direction taken by popular opinion
parallels that taken by philosophical argument during the same
period. We have seen that the criticisms levelled at Aquinas by Duns
Scotus and Ockham amounted to a rejection of Thomism in the name
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The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
of God’s freedom. Aquinas’ conception of natural law seemed to
entail that God could not have chosen or acted other than the way he
did. For Aquinas, natural law consisted of rational principles that
governed God’s will as well as the human will. For Duns Scotus and
Ockham, however, that position both threatened divine omnipotence
and misunderstood role of reason. They saw God’s will as limited
only by his free nature. And it was God’s will, revealed in the Chris-
tian faith, that humans should be equal and free agents. Thus, freedom
became the bond between God and man. God, not any ‘necessary’
dictates of reason, created our world. Reason is a part of creation. But
reason by itself is not the creator.
Here we meet the second fundamental change, for this revised view
of the role of reason had other important consequences. It helped
to reshape understanding of the physical world. It created a sharper
distinction between an inner, moral life –‘wrestling’ with the will –
and the processes of the physical world. That emerges clearly in the
direction taken by thought in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
For these centuries witnessed the almost irresistible spread of Ock-
ham’s nominalist philosophy across Europe, sending down deep roots
in the universities, where it competed with ‘official’ Thomism. At
Paris, Oxford, Heidelberg, Prague and Cracow, nominalism became
ascendant. Those who defended more ‘realist’ philosophical positions –
the ‘ancient way’ rather than the ‘modern way’– even sought at times,
in desperation, to ban the teaching of nominalism.
Ockham’s emphasis on individual experience and observation as
the only legitimate basis of empirical or ‘probable’ knowledge had
distinguished such knowledge from deductive or ‘demonstrative’
truth, which did not provide factual knowledge of the world. This
separation of two forms of knowledge worked against metaphysical
speculation, in particular, ‘natural’ theology. For Ockham, the natural
world became instead something to be investigated, in a search for the
causes of things. The causes of external events could not, he held, be
discovered by a priori reasoning, which produced certainty only in the
sense that it drew the consequences of its own assumptions and defi-
nitions. This separation of contingent from formal truth created a
threshold for much freer thinking. It was a spur to curiosity about the
natural world of experience.
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Dispensing with the Renaissance
Followers of Ockham pursued this separation of two types of rea-
soning, and rejected ‘realist’ positions which clung to the belief that a
structure of the universe knowable by reason alone could be iden-
tified. We have already encountered Ockham’s attack on the misuse of
definitions, taking as premises terms such as ‘final cause’, which cor-
respond to nothing that is verifiable. Thus, Ockham’s insistence on
the difference between reasons and causes, the latter turning on
observable sequences of events, liberated enquiry about the natural
world by providing the conceptual basis for distinguishing ‘nature’
from ‘society’. This was a death blow to traditional teleological think-
ing, for it separated norms and the conditions of human action from
the requirements for explaining external, physical events.
So it was no accident that, by the fourteenth century, previous
understanding of the physical world had come under review in the
universities. A newly critical approach to Aristotle’s physics developed,
an approach which noticed anomalies in the theory by relying on
direct observation. The first response was to introduce additional
assumptions to account for the anomalies and ‘rescue’ Aristotelian
theory. Yet the multiplication of such assumptions in order to ‘save
appearances’ gradually raised doubts about the fundamental assump-
tion on which Aristotelian theory was based, that everything in the
universe tends to find a resting place, its purpose or ‘final cause’.
Ockham’s Razor – the principle that the best explanation is one
that does not multiply assumptions needlessly – took its toll of con-
fidence in Aristotle’s physical theory. Aristotle’s assumption that
everything has a rightful ‘place’ had sprung from the ancient natural
law tradition, with its underlying assumption of inequality. Thus,
Aristotle had distinguished ‘natural’ from ‘unnatural’ motion (for
example, throwing a stone upwards, when it ‘naturally’ falls). Ock-
ham rejected this distinction, suggesting instead something like the
idea of inertia. Stimulated by Ockham’s arguments, his followers
Nicholas Oresme, Pierre d’Ailly and Jean Buridan developed an
account of motion in terms of impetus: the energy given to an object
by its mover.
The idea that motion was as fundamental as rest in ‘nature’ was
emerging. By the fourteenth century, it had begun to subvert the
ancient model of the cosmos. Buridan, for example, applied the theory
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The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
of impetus to argue that it could explain the movement of heavenly
bodies in precisely the same way that it accounted for the movement
of bodies on earth: ‘There is no need to suppose that the heavenly
bodies are made of a special element (the quintessence or fifth elem-
ent) which can only move with a circular motion. Nor is it necessary
to postulate Intelligences of the spheres to account for the spheres’
movements.’5 Thus, Buridan abandoned the assumption that heavenly
bodies have a superior nature – the usual assumption of ancient
teleology – and that their role springs from a higher intelligence (‘the
music of the spheres’) than any available on earth. ‘Motion on earth
and motion in the heavens can be explained in the same way.’ It is as
if the moral intuitions behind social levelling on earth were being
applied to the celestial sphere. There was no need to postulate ‘aris-
tocracy’ in nature!
Oresme was even bolder than Buridan. He called into question
another basic ancient assumption – the assumption that while the
heavens move, the earth itself is stationary. ‘I conclude that one could
not show by any experience that the heaven was moved with a daily
motion and that the earth was not moved in this way.’6 Altogether,
fourteenth- century physical theories reveal how understanding of the
physical world began to profit from abandoning the assumption of
natural inequality.
Let us now look at a third series of changes revealing the impact of
the new image of society. This series was political rather than moral
or scientific. The question hanging over Europe by the fifteenth cen-
tury was this: how would it be organized as feudal institutions eroded?
Feudalism had not sent down the same roots everywhere. It was never
as strong in Italy or in southern France, as in the north of France or
Germany. The Italian city- states or republics, together with the cities
of Flanders and Catalonia, suggested a different basis for political
organization than the feudal north, while in England, still another
model was on offer, that of a royal power traditionally stronger than
the leading feudatories.
The outstanding political fact of fifteenth-century Europe was the
centralizing of authority and power by monarchs seeking to leave feu-
dal constraints behind and become ‘sovereigns’ properly so called.
Louis XI of France, Henry VII of England and Ferdinand and Isabella
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Dispensing with the Renaissance
in Spain all took remarkable steps in that direction. Why did they
have such success? How did they overcome the resistance of other
institutions? For they certainly met with resistance. In effect, there
were four institutions which might have provided a model for the
political organization of Europe: feudalism, the church, the boroughs
and monarchy.
However, after the frustration of the theocratic ambitions of Inno-
cent IV and Boniface VIII, neither the feudal nobility nor the cities
were able to shape the political organization of Europe. By the four-
teenth century, it was clear that feudal ‘law’ could not provide the
basis for a stable political system. Its incoherence and constant reli-
ance on force made that impossible. Yet at the same time the feudal
nobility was strong enough to prevent anything like the generalizing
of ‘republican’ civic institutions. That was a development improbable
in any case, for the burghers of the cities lacked wider political ambi-
tions. In the face of the feudal nobility, burghers exhibited a sense of
inferiority. Fierce as they were if it was a question of defending their
own boroughs, they had no vision of a republican organization for
society at large, though the Netherlands was perhaps an exception.
So there was a stand-off. Before the triumph of monarchy, however,
there was a last quasi- feudal attempt to organize Europe. It took the
form of bringing together the representatives of these different institu-
tions with a view to their cooperating, while retaining their original
character.7 Thus, awareness of centralizing pressures led to the cre-
ation of assemblies which sought to reflect and organize the diversity
of European institutions – the Estates- General in France, the English
Parliament, the Cortes of Spain and an Imperial Diet in Germany.
These assemblies were organized according to rank, with the nobility,
clergy and burghers each in their assigned place.
But these attempts at national organization – with the signal ex -
ception of England’s Parliament (which benefited from a stronger
crown) – failed. The assemblies were too heterogeneous. While the
feudal nobles were accustomed to exercising political will, neither the
clergy nor the representatives of the boroughs were used to direct pol-
itical power, and they had little taste for it, fearing new taxes. As a
result, these assemblies failed to become effective instruments of
government.
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The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
But these assemblies did not fail merely because of their diversity,
their clinging to traditional privileges. There was a deeper reason. It
was because the new idea of a ‘sovereign’ authority vested in mon-
archs projected a different image of society, an egalitarian image
which now had a popular resonance that it had previously lacked.
The appeal of royalty released and reinforced new aspirations. Popu-
lar attitudes had changed enough to deprive the traditional corporate
model of society of its legitimacy. That is why ‘equal subjection’ to a
sovereign was perceived not as loss but as gain. So we have to be care-
ful when speaking of the ‘triumph’ of royalty in the fifteenth century.
For, indirectly, it was also the triumph of moral intuitions generated
by the church.
The task of organizing Europe fell to monarchy because its way had
been prepared by the church. It was not merely that the royal ambition
to acquire a sovereign authority had been shaped by the papal revolu-
tion. At the deepest level – the moral and intellectual level – the church
had won the struggle for the future of Europe. The church had pro-
jected the image of society as an association of individuals, an image
which unleashed the centralizing process in Europe.
Of course, monarchs were not disinterested exponents of an egali-
tarian form of society. They rapidly came to understand how much
they stood to gain in power from the centralizing of legal authority.
For them, the prospect of subduing leading feudal magnates and con-
trolling the church within their realms was as important as moral
considerations generated by Christian beliefs – often far more import-
ant. Nonetheless, unintended consequences overtook the monarchs.
In the process of centralizing laws, manners and ideas – forging a sin-
gle society out of what had been separate, parochial societies – the
monarchs not only created states, but also the foundation for a ‘pub-
lic’ or ‘national’ opinion. The partial emergence of national opinions
in the fifteenth century provides further evidence of the impact of the
new image of society as an association of individuals.
How was this manifest? The prestige of royalty grew because royal
power became the symbol of social progress, the abolition of privil-
ege through ‘equal subjection’. The Third Estate in France or the
‘Commons’ in England were at times prepared to sacrifice even local
self- government in order to destroy feudal privilege. The creation of
347
Dispensing with the Renaissance
a ‘sovereign’ agency seemed far the most important objective. This
was the pattern that marked the growth of royal power, especially in
France. But across Europe it invested royalty with a kind of idealism.
Equal subjection to a sovereign was seen as developing at the expense
of subordinations based on ‘mere’ custom.
It would be a mistake therefore to see only the tyrannical potential
of the growth of sovereign authorities, that royal ‘absolutism’ which
came to the fore during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. For it
contained the seeds of individual liberty. By claiming a monopoly of
legal authority, sovereigns deprived many traditional attitudes and
practices of legal status. What royal commands did not positively
enjoin or forbid, defined – at least potentially – a sphere of choice and
personal freedom.
Of course, full awareness of the model of society entailed by the
claim of ‘sovereignty’ did not develop overnight. Even the late
sixteenth- century French theorist of sovereignty Jean Bodin wavered
over the nature of the unit of subordination entailed by the claim. Yet
the time of Thomas Hobbes, in the next century, the distinctive nature
of the claim to a sovereign authority was made clear, not least by
Hobbes’s referring to sovereigns as secular deities.
There is one final, formidable piece of evidence about ‘inventing the
individual’ available. It comes from what remains the most reliable
source about social change, language itself. If we look at the word
‘individual’ in historical dictionaries of the English or French lan-
guages, we will find that it first became current in the fifteenth century.
The word ‘state’, with its stipulation of a sovereign authority, became
current at about the same time. And that is no accident, for the mean-
ings of these two words depend upon each other. It was through the
creation of states that the individual was invented as the primary or
organizing social role.
It should not come as a surprise, therefore, that we often find the
motives and actions of Europeans by the fifteenth century easier to
understand – more familiar and more ‘modern’. The kind of means/
end rationality or thinking that we associate with market relations
was emerging clearly, even to the point of caricature in the calcula-
tions of Louis XI and Henry VII. That is because the beliefs and
institutions shaping action were changing dramatically.
348
The Birth Pangs of Modern Liberty
It would not be long before Cervantes was able to parody as illu-
sions the motives and patterns of behaviour belonging to a hierarchical
society that no longer existed, while Shakespeare could create human
characters by plumbing the depths below the social roles they hap-
pened to occupy. Christian egalitarianism had prepared this revolution
in the structure of society. Social positions could no longer be regarded
as ‘fated’ or inescapable.
This was the secular translation of the Christian idea of the ‘soul’.
And we are living with its consequences even now.
349
Epilogue: Christianity and Secularism
Like other cultures, Western culture is founded on shared beliefs. But,
in contrast to most others, Western beliefs privilege the idea of equal-
ity. And it is the privileging of equality – of a premiss that excludes
permanent inequalities of status and ascriptions of authoritative opin-
ion to any person or group – which underpins the secular state and
the idea of fundamental or ‘natural’ rights. Thus, the only birthright
recognized by the liberal tradition is individual freedom.
Christianity played a decisive part in this. Yet the idea that liberal-
ism and secularism have religious roots is by no means widely
understood. Evidently, the separation of church and state – the first
great objective of the liberal tradition – has itself drawn attention
away from these roots of secularism. But so too has a ‘civil war’ that
long raged in Europe, and may now be spreading to the United States.
What is this civil war? It is a war in which religious belief and ‘godless’
secularism are understood as irreconcilable opponents, an under-
standing that was long fed by memories of the burning of Protestant
‘martyrs’ in sixteenth-century England, by the legend of the Spanish
Inquisition and by a ‘holy alliance’ between churches (especially the
Roman Catholic Church) and socially conservative forces in reaction
to the French Revolution.
Those memories may have dimmed, but the perception of profound
conflict between secularism and religious belief has been reawakened
and taken a new form in Western societies recently. In Europe, mas-
sive immigration and the growth of large Muslim minorities have
widened the range of non-Christian beliefs dramatically. And such
beliefs have consequences. Quite apart from the acts of terrorism
which invoke – more or less dubiously – the name of Islam, Muslims
350
are frequently encouraged to look forward to replacing the laws of
the nation- state with shariah ‘law’. Islam seems to sit uneasily with
secularism.
It is hardly surprising, therefore, that questions about the relation-
ship between religious belief and secularism have re-entered public
debate. When referring to the Christian roots of Europe in a proposed
constitution for the European Union became an issue in 2001–2, there
were strong voices in support, for example from Poland. There were
also strong voices opposed, notably from France. Yet far the most wide-
spread reaction was one of embarrassment, an uneasy wish that the
question would go away. With the defeat of the proposed constitutional
treaty in referendums, the question has gone away. But the embarrass-
ment remains. And it is an important phenomenon, something which
merits closer examination. For when examined, it throws light on why
Europe does not project a more coherent identity onto the world today.
It throws light on what I have called Europe’s ‘civil war’.
So let us try to get at the source of this embarrassment. For it seems
to me that the widespread sense of discontinuity that Europeans at
least tacitly acknowledge when reconsidering their past – and even
more revealingly, their reluctance to embark on such a reconsideration –
weakens Europe’s voice in the conversation of mankind. But not only
that. It also helps to explain major differences between European and
American attitudes. By what route have we got to where we are today?
What is the relation of the secular state, liberal democracy and market
economics to the European past? In answering these questions, we
have become the victims of our own historiography – and not simply
at a professional, academic level.
What is characteristic about historical writing in recent centuries?
It is an inclination to minimize the moral and intellectual distance
between the modern world and the ancient world, while at the same
time maximizing the moral and intellectual distance between modern
Europe and the middle ages. That inclination first appeared, we have
seen, in the Italian Renaissance, with its admiration for antiquity and
hostility to the ‘scholasticism’ of the universities and the church. But it
was in the eighteenth century, especially among the French philosophes,
that this inclination developed into a passionate anti-clericalism,
which reshaped the understanding of European history.
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351
An overriding temptation for many eighteenth-century historians
was to present the ancient world as ‘secular’, and in that way provide
a point of contact with European states in which the role of the church
and of the clergy was contested and being redefined. In Protestant
countries this had long been under way, but by the eighteenth century
even Catholic countries were involved, as the expulsion of the Jesuits
from several of them reveals.
Understanding the ancient world as secular – with citizens ‘free’
from the oppression of priests and a privileged, dogmatic church –
became an important weapon in the arsenal of political argument. In
the same way, the conception of the medieval church as aspiring to, if
not always achieving, a theocratic regime in which thought was stifled
by ‘superstition’ and clerical self- interest provided another weapon.
Neither of these conceptions was baseless. Yet both were, I think,
more wrong than right. For each overlooked something fundamental,
something radically inconsistent with their account of the past. So let
us review what we have discovered.
Let us take the account of antiquity as ‘secular’ first. The trouble
with this account is that it looks in the wrong place for religion, apply-
ing inappropriate tests for its organization and its expression. As
Fustel de Coulanges demonstrated in The Ancient City, the religion of
the Greek and Roman pre- history did not speak to the individual con-
science. Rather, it spoke to and through the family. And it is to the
family that we have to look to find religion and priesthood. The
ancient family was itself a religious cult, with the father as its high
priest tending the family altar and its ‘sacred flame’, the flame that
made his ancestors visible. Ancient religion thus consisted in worship
of divine ancestors through the paterfamilias, a radical inequality of
roles within the family and a series of elaborate ritual requirements.
The family was, at least originally, a self- contained moral universe. It
did not seek or welcome any deep or ‘moral’ connection with humans
outside.
In time, this kind of hermetic family cult was altered by the emer-
gence of the polis or city- state. But it was altered only to the extent
that the bond of association constituting the city was itself a reli-
gious bond. The city was an association of families and tribes, each
defined by a shared worship of ancestors. Little wonder, then, that the
Christianity and Secularism
352
formation of a city required the emergence of a new cult or worship,
through discovery of a ‘hero’ as founder of the city. As the family had
its gods, and the tribe its gods, so the city had to become the domain
of gods, its ‘protecting deities’.
So instead of an antiquity free of religion, priesthood and
superstition – a ‘secular’ inspiration for modern Europe – we find on
closer examination that the family, tribe and city were each a kind of
church. Each had its own rites, a worship with very elaborate require-
ments. ‘Faith and purity of intention counted for very little, and the
religion consisted entirely in the minute practice of innumerable
rules …’ Because of that, the constant fear in each association was
that some detail of ritual requirement might be neglected and the god
of the association offended. Hence the need for frequent rites of puri-
fication and expiation. These became the duties of the civic magistrates
in both Greece and Rome.
Altogether, the most distinctive thing about Greek and Roman
antiquity is what might be called ‘moral enclosure’, in which the limits
of personal identity were established by the limits of physical associ-
ation and inherited, unequal social roles. This moral enclosure is
illustrated by the Greek term describing anyone who sought to live
outside such associations and such roles: such a person was called an
‘idiot’.
More than anything else, I think, Christianity changed the ground
of human identity. It was able to do that because of the way it com-
bined Jewish monotheism with an abstract universalism that had
roots in later Greek philosophy. By emphasizing the moral equality of
humans, quite apart from any social roles they might occupy, Chris-
tianity changed ‘the name of the game’. Social rules became secondary.
They followed and, in a crucial sense, had to be understood as subor-
dinate to a God- given human identity, something all humans share
equally. Thus, humans were to live in ‘two cities’ at the same time.
We can see this breaking out of moral enclosure everywhere in the
New Testament. In particular, we can glimpse the merger of Judaism
and Greek philosophy in St Paul’s conception of the Christ, a concep-
tion remarkable for its universalism. For Paul, the love of God revealed
in the Christ imposes opportunities and obligations on the individual
as such, that is, on conscience. The Christ thus becomes the medium of
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353
a new and transformed humanity. In one sense, Paul’s conception of
the Christ introduces the individual, by giving conscience a universal
dimension. Was Paul the greatest revolutionary in human history?
Through its emphasis on human equality, the New Testament
stands out against the primary thrust of the ancient world, with its
dominant assumption of ‘natural’ inequality. Indeed, the atmosphere
of the New Testament is one of exhilarating detachment from the
unthinking constraints of inherited social roles. Hence Paul’s frequent
references to ‘Christian liberty’. This was not simply an opposition to
the Jewish law. It was a fulfilment, made possible by the discovery of
a ground for existence antecedent to inherited social rules and roles.
This is the moral atmosphere revealed when Jesus restricts even the
claims of the family if the service of God requires it, something which
churches have since often toned down.
In contrast to some later Hellenic philosophy, the New Testament
assertion of a basic human equality ceased to be a speculative strip-
ping away of social conventions, an exercise which had at times served
chiefly to demonstrate the superiority of the philosopher to local preju-
dice. Instead, this stripping away revealed the need for a moral response
to the individual freedom implied by equal standing in the eyes of
God. Jesus’ insistence that ‘the kingdom of God is within you’ (as the
early church often proclaimed) was designed to invoke such a response,
to create an individual will. Thus, to earlier speculations about equal-
ity, the New Testament added the duty of reciprocity – the obligation
‘to love thy neighbour as thyself’.
That is why I argued in an earlier book, Democracy in Europe
(2000), that the Christian conception of God provided an ontological
foundation for the individual, first as a moral status, and then, cent-
uries later, as the primary social role. ‘The interiority of Christian
belief – its insistence that the quality of personal intentions is more
important than any fixed social rules – was a reflection of this. Rule
following – the Hebraic “law” – was downgraded in favour of action
governed by conscience. In that way, the Christian conception of God
provided the foundation for what became an unprecedented form of
human society.’ Christian moral beliefs emerge as the ultimate source
of the social revolution that has made the West what it is.
In Democracy in Europe, I suggested an analogy to understand
Christianity and Secularism
354
what Christian beliefs introduced into the world. It is an analogy with
an argument in Marxism – the distinction Marx drew between a ‘class
in itself’ and a ‘class for itself’. Marx meant that a class could exist
objectively – identified by income or occupation – without necessarily
having any consciousness of itself as a class. He illustrated this by
contrasting medieval peasants with the townspeople or burghers, the
‘bourgeoisie’, who became conscious of themselves as a class by strug-
gling against feudal privileges. So I then applied this distinction to the
role of Christianity.
Christianity took humanity as a species in itself and sought to convert
it into a species for itself. Thus, the defining characteristic of Christian-
ity was its universalism. It aimed to create a single human society, a
society composed, that is, of individuals rather than tribes, clans or
castes. The fundamental relationship between the individual and his or
her God provides the crucial test, in Christianity, of what really mat-
ters. It is, by definition, a test which applies to all equally. Hence the
deep individualism of Christianity was simply the reverse side of its
universalism. The Christian conception of God became the means of
creating the brotherhood of man, of bringing to self- consciousness the
human species, by leading each of its members to see him- or herself as
having, at least potentially, a relationship with the deepest reality – viz.,
God – that both required and justified the equal moral standing of all
humans.
This was the revolutionary promise of Christian beliefs.
It is hardly too much to claim that this framework of ideas provided
the original constitution of Europe. It is a framework that can be
glimpsed as early as Augustine’s famous work, the City of God. For
Augustine, following Paul, belief in the moral equality of men created
a role for conscience, and that set limits to the claims of any social
organization. This is the source of the dualism that has distinguished
Christian thinking about society and government, a preoccupation
with the different claims of the sacred and the secular spheres. It rests
on the conviction that we ought to recognize and respect the difference
between inner conviction and external conformity, a distinction which
would not have served any function or perhaps even been intelligible
in much of the ancient world.
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355
But if Christian beliefs provided the ontological foundation for the
individual as a moral status and primary social role, why did the latter
take more than a millennium to develop? We should not be surprised
by this fact. There were many other causes at work. The implications
of moral intuitions generated by Christianity had to be worked out
against prejudices and practices sometimes as old as the social div-
ision of labour. That, in turn, involved learning how to create and
protect a public role for conscience, first of all by forging a conceptual
framework that could be deployed to criticize existing social prac-
tices. It was something that took centuries. And it involved fierce
controversy, frequent back- tracking and frustration. It is that process
we have been examining.
We do not have to suppose that the process was always self-
conscious. Nonetheless, outstanding minds among the clergy clung to
one framework of ideas, even during what I have called the ‘schizo-
phrenic’ Carolingian period, when there was an unstable mixture of
ancient and Christian thought and practice. The framework emerges
in the voice of a leading Carolingian churchman, Agobard, the arch-
bishop of Lyons:
There is neither Gentile nor Jew, Scythian nor Aquitainian, nor Lom-
bard, nor Burgundian, nor Alaman, nor bond, nor free. All are one in
Christ … Can it be accepted that opposed to this unity which is the
work of God, there should be an obstacle in the diversity of laws in one
and the same country, in one and the same city, and in one and the same
house? It constantly happens that of five men walking or sitting side by
side, no two have the same terrestrial law, although at root – on the
eternal plane – they belong to Christ.
In this urgent voice from the early ninth century we can still hear the
moral heart of Christianity beating beneath the surface of social
conventions.
This brings us to another historical ‘moment’. For just as modern
historical writing has often underestimated the role of religion in the
ancient world, so it has failed to draw attention to a remarkable
development during the so-called ‘middle ages’. This was the moment
when the idea of natural rights emerged and began to provide a new
conceptual tool for criticizing established social beliefs and practices,
Christianity and Secularism
356
including, eventually, even the church as an institution. Historians of
social and political thought have usually located such a moment in
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This ‘early modern’ period is
the period when it is conventional to say that the doctrines of liberal-
ism and secularism first raised their heads, not least because of the
needs of nation- states struggling with bitter confessional conflicts
arising from the Reformation.
The conventional interpretation also relates the emergence of liber-
alism and secularism to a new scepticism bred by the interest in and
sympathy with antiquity. The increasingly sceptical turn taken by the
humanist movement at the end of the fifteenth century saw a writer
like Machiavelli draw on Roman sources when interpreting the events
of his own time, an interpretation that gave less attention to Christian
beliefs and more attention to the failures of the church as an institu-
tion. Borrowing the idea of an inexorable historical cycle drove out
worries about individual salvation. Corruption of the citizenry, their
loss of civic spirit, came to seem more important than the Christian
idea of virtue. The clergy, suspected of manipulating beliefs to their
own advantage, were often charged with ‘weakening’ the citizens’
valour.
So humanism became increasingly associated with anti-clericalism, at
about the same time as religious wars resulting from the Reformation
provided further motive for secular authorities to intervene, in order to
establish a framework that might contain the violence unleashed by con-
fessional differences. Taken together, these trends suggested that the
emergent secularism or proto-liberalism had little to do with the moral
intuitions generated by Christianity, but rather that their inspiration
should be located in antiquity and paganism. Suddenly, ‘superstition’
was associated more with the church than with paganism.
The trouble with this view is that it ignores the fact that, by the
fifteenth century, there was already operating in Europe a theory of
justice that did, indeed, have roots in ancient ‘pagan’ philosophy. But
it was a doctrine that had for several centuries been reshaped by
Christian moral intuitions – by, put most simply, the golden rule of
‘doing unto others what you would have them do unto you’, with its
strikingly egalitarian underpinnings. That doctrine was the doctrine
of natural law. Long before the fifteenth century it had been revived
Epilogue
357
and revised by canon lawyers in the universities of Bologna, Padua,
Paris and Oxford.
How was this doctrine revised? It was revised, as we have seen, by
being turned into a theory of natural rights, rights which belong to the
individual as such, rights which are in that sense pre- social and ought
to serve as a criterion of legitimate social organization. Drawing on
Roman law, and under the patronage of the papacy, canon lawyers
from the late eleventh century began to create a system of law for
Christians founded on the assumption of moral equality. This system
was to privilege the conception of what has been called ‘subjective
rights’, that is, rights inhering in the individual, starting with the claim
to freedom. That claim amounted to a rejection of the ancient assump-
tion of natural inequality.
Brian Tierney shrewdly observes that ‘the idea of subjective rights has
become central to our political discourse, but we still have no idea of
the origin and early development of the idea’. Tierney argues that
Gratian’s Decretum and its impact on the twelfth- and thirteenth-century
canonists is the correct point of departure, quoting the first words of
the Decretum: ‘The human race is ruled by two (means) namely by
natural law and by usages. Natural law is what is contained in the law
and the Gospel by which each is commanded to do to another what he
wants done to himself and forbidden to do to another what he does
not want done to himself.’ Tierney shows how canonists following
Gratian constantly moved between two senses of the word jus –
between jus understood as objective law (whether divine or human in
origin) and jus understood as individual subjective right:
A decisive shift of meaning and emphasis occurred in the twelfth cen-
tury. For some of the Stoics and for Cicero there was a force in man
through which he could discern jus naturale, the objective natural law
that pervaded the whole universe, but for the canonists jus naturale
itself could be defined as a subjective force or faculty or power or abil-
ity inherent in human persons.
Where the Stoics had construed natural law to refer to a cosmic order
of things, the canonists of the twelfth century construed it to mean
free will or power, an ‘area of licit choice’ for individuals justified by
the nature of human agency.
Christianity and Secularism
358
Thus, by the twelfth century a sense of jus was emerging that was
not far removed from the modern sense of a right. There is no need
for us here to go again into the complicated story of how the doctrine
of natural rights developed from Gratian to Ockham and beyond. For
our purposes, as Voltaire said about the miracle of St Denis (who,
after being decapitated, picked up his head and walked away), it is
‘only the first step that is difficult’.
Why have these origins of the theory of natural rights not been
appreciated sooner? The answer, I suspect, turns on the hostility
shown by fifteenth- and sixteenth-century humanists to what was
going on in the universities of their day. The blanket condemnation of
‘scholasticism’ (understood as an obsession with Aristotle and logic)
led to quite different forms of enquiry being bundled together and
confused. Theology, civil and canon law, logic and physical theory
suffered under the same term of opprobrium, which became a stock-
in- trade of eighteenth- century historical writing.
Yet we can now see that not only did an identification of anomalies
in Aristotelian physical theory in the universities pave the way for the
sixteenth- and seventeenth- century revolution in physics, but the ori-
gins of natural rights language which became central to modern
political discourse can also be traced back to innovations in canon
law during the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
The identity of the individual – of a status which creates a space for
the legitimate exercise of personal judgement and will – had broken
through the surface of social life by the fifteenth century. Equality was
no longer consigned to the arrangements of ‘another world’, to an
afterlife in which unjustifiable (that is, in the sight of God) inequalities
of status and treatment would disappear. The papal claim of sover-
eignty, embodied in a legal system founded on the assumption of
moral equality, had thus achieved more than the papacy either imag-
ined or intended. It had generated a new conception of society, a
conception which had, in turn, created unprecedented moral needs in
the population at large. That is the most striking thing about the fif-
teenth century. Such needs were seizing the popular mind. They took
the form of new claims in both the religious and secular spheres,
claims anticipating the Reformation.
What at least some of the conciliarists grasped was that the moral
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359
intuitions generated by Christianity were transforming the traditional
idea of ‘authority’. Embodied in the legal system created by canonists,
and inspiring secular rulers to create comparable systems based on
the claims to ‘sovereignty’, the introduction of an underlying equality
of status – the invention of the individual – was turning the source of
authority upside down. Increasingly it was to be found ‘below’, in
human agency and conscience, rather than ‘above’ in coercive eternal
ideas.
Why is all this important? It reveals how Christian moral intuitions
played a pivotal role in shaping the discourse that gave rise to modern
liberalism and secularism. Indeed, the pattern by which liberalism and
secularism developed from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century
resembles nothing so much as the stages through which canon law
developed from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. The sequence of
argument is quite extraordinarily similar. The canonists, so to speak,
‘got there first’.
The sequence began with insistence on equality of status, moved on
to the assertion of a range of basic human rights, and concluded with
the case for self- government. Thus, from Hobbes’s insistence on basic
human equality, in preparation for defining sovereignty in terms of
‘equal subjection’, through Locke’s defence of human freedom by
identifying a range of natural rights, to Rousseau’s making the case
for the sovereignty of the people and self- government, each of these
three steps in modern political thought had its counterpart in the evo-
lution of medieval canon law.
To be sure, there remains an important difference between the two
traditions of thought. The Pauline moral source is frequently asserted in
canon law, whereas developing liberal thought often conflated assump-
tions about God and nature. As the historian Carl Becker once remarked,
in The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers (1932)
the eighteenth century ‘denatured God and deified nature’. The founda-
tion for the claim to liberty became ‘human nature’ and personal
conscience. Yet the conception of human agency relied upon – and elab-
orated by the great philosopher Immanuel Kant at the end of the
eighteenth century – continued to have a markedly Christian impress.
What, then, has led to a ‘war’ between religion and secularism, a
struggle which can plausibly be called a ‘civil war’ because of the
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360
moral roots shared by the two sides? Why do Europeans feel happier
referring to the role of ancient Greece and Rome than to the role of
the church in the formation of their culture? The answer can be found
in the way secularism has come to be understood – and misunderstood –
in Europe.
Attitudes towards secularism were shaped by anti-clericalism in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The French Revolution, in par-
ticular, had a decisive effect on attitudes. It created two hostile camps.
On the one hand were followers of Voltaire, who sought to écraser
l’infâme, as they described the authoritarian and privileged church of
the ancien régime. On the other hand were those, such as Joseph de
Maistre, who saw the separating of church and state as nothing less
than an ‘insurrection’ against God, public denial of beliefs which had
shaped Europe.
Of course, the last two hundred years have overlaid the hostility
between the two camps. The religious camp has come, by and large,
to accept civil liberty and religious pluralism. The anti-clericals have –
with the exception of hardline Marxists and writers such as Richard
Dawkins – given up on the attempt to extirpate religious belief. But
the old antagonism still lurks under the surface. The visceral reaction
of the French left to the prospect of acknowledging the Christian
roots of Europe has its counterpart in much church rhetoric deploring
the growth of ‘Godless’ secularism. Even Benedict XVI, a most learned
pope, was not free of this habit. He called for an understanding
between religions in order to ‘combat’ secularism.
This is Europe’s undeclared ‘civil war’. And it is as tragic as it is
unnecessary. It is tragic because, by identifying secularism with
non-belief, with indifference and materialism, it deprives Europe of
moral authority, playing into the hands of those who are only too
anxious to portray Europe as decadent and without conviction. It is
unnecessary because it rests on a misunderstanding of the nature of
secularism. Properly understood, secularism can be seen as Europe’s
noblest achievement, the achievement which should be its primary
contribution to the creation of a world order, while different religious
beliefs continue to contend for followers. Secularism is Christianity’s
gift to the world, ideas and practices which have often been turned
against ‘excesses’ of the Christian church itself.
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361
What is the crux of secularism? It is that belief in an underlying or
moral equality of humans implies that there is a sphere in which each
should be free to make his or her own decisions, a sphere of con-
science and free action. That belief is summarized in the central value
of classical liberalism: the commitment to ‘equal liberty’. Is this indif-
ference or non-belief? Not at all. It rests on the firm belief that to be
human means being a rational and moral agent, a free chooser with
responsibility for one’s actions. It puts a premium on conscience
rather than the ‘blind’ following of rules. It joins rights with duties to
others.
This is also the central egalitarian moral insight of Christianity. It
stands out from St Paul’s contrast between ‘Christian liberty’ and
observance of the Jewish law. Enforced belief was, for Paul and many
early Christians, a contradiction in terms. Strikingly, in its first centu-
ries Christianity spread by persuasion, not by force of arms – a
contrast to the early spread of Islam.
When placed against this background, secularism does not mean
non- belief or indifference. It is not without moral content. Certainly
secularism is not a neutral or ‘value- free’ framework, as the language
of contemporary social scientists at times suggests. Rather, secularism
identifies the conditions in which authentic beliefs should be formed
and defended. It provides the gateway to beliefs properly so called,
making it possible to distinguish inner conviction from mere external
conformity.
Nor is this just a hypothetical understanding of secularism. This is
the way secularism has traditionally been understood in the United
States. It has been understood as a condition for authentic belief pre-
supposed by Christianity. In contrast to views formed by Europe’s
‘civil war’, secularism in the United States has been identified with
moral intuitions generated by Christianity.
Why has this not been the view in Europe? For centuries a privil-
eged, monolithic church which was almost inseparable from an
aristocratic society, confronted Europeans. So the church became
associated in the popular mind with social hierarchy and deference,
even at times with coercion, rather than with the moral equality and
role of conscience that provide, in fact, the foundation of its beliefs.
A kind of intellectual incoherence – especially noticeable in Catholic
Christianity and Secularism
362
Europe – was the consequence. Religiously minded people struggled
against the claims of civil liberty as threatening the church, while
those who defended liberty looked upon the church as their enemy.
Both sides failed to appreciate the extent to which promoting secular-
ism in Europe amounted to turning the moral intuitions generated by
Christianity against a privileged, coercive role for the church. By con-
trast, the United States has largely escaped from this ‘civil war’. The
absence of both a monolithic church and aristocracy in the United
States meant that Americans instinctively grasped the moral sym-
metry between secularism, with its prized civil liberty, and Christianity,
accepting that secularism identifies a necessary condition of authentic
belief. At times Muslim commentators themselves perceive that sym-
metry when they speak of ‘Christian secularism’.
What will happen to its ‘civil war’ now that Europe is faced with the
challenge of Islam? Will Europeans come to understand better the
moral logic that joins Christianity with civil liberty? It is important
that they do so if they are to counter the argument that European secu-
larism is a form of non-belief or indifference. Their self-understanding
is at stake. If Europeans understand ‘secularism’ in the terms favoured
by its critics – as mere consumerism, materialism and amorality – they
lose touch with their own moral intuitions. They forget why they value
freedom.
And what of the United States? There is no room for complacency.
The rapid growth of Christian fundamentalism – in part, no doubt, a
reaction to the threat of radical Islam – may now jeopardize the trad-
itional American understanding of secularism as the embodiment of
Christian moral intuitions. In the Southern and Western states espe-
cially, ‘ born- again’ Christians are coming to identify secularism as an
enemy rather than a companion. In struggling against abortion and
homosexuality, they risk losing touch with the most profound moral
insights of their faith. If good and evil are contrasted too simply, in a
Manichaean way, charity is the loser. The principle of ‘equal liberty’ is
put at risk.
It is a strange and disturbing moment in Western history. Europeans –
out of touch with the roots of their tradition – often seem to lack
conviction, while Americans may be succumbing to a dangerously
simplistic version of their faith. On neither side of the Atlantic is there
Epilogue
363
an adequate understanding of the relationship between liberal
secularism and Christianity.
Failure to understand that relationship makes it easier to underesti-
mate the moral content of liberal secularism. In the Western world
today, it contributes to two temptations, to what might be called two
‘liberal heresies’. The first is the temptation to reduce liberalism to the
endorsement of market economics, the satisfaction of current wants
or preferences without worrying much about the formation of those
wants or preferences. In doing so, it narrows the claims of justice. This
temptation reduces liberalism to a crude form of utilitarianism. The
second temptation is best described as ‘individualism’, the retreat into
a private sphere of family and friends at the expense of civic spirit and
political participation. This weakens the habit of association and
eventually endangers the self- reliance which the claims of citizenship
require. Both of these heresies focus on the second word of the core
liberal value – ‘equal liberty’ – at the expense of the first word. They
sacrifice the emphasis on reciprocity – on seeing ourselves in others
and others in ourselves – which we have seen to be fundamental to
inventing the individual and which gives liberalism its lasting moral
value.
If we in the West do not understand the moral depth of our own
tradition, how can we hope to shape the conversation of mankind?
Christianity and Secularism
365
Select Bibliography and Endnotes
I want first to acknowledge a number of works which have had the courage –
some might say audacity – to provide a large- scale account of the development
of Western ideas and institutions. F. Guizot’s History of Civilisation in Europe
(Harmondsworth, 1996); A. O. Lovejoy, The Great Chain of Being (Cam-
bridge, Mass., 1936); H. Maine, Ancient Law (many edns.); P. Brown, The Rise
of Western Christendom, 2nd edn. (Oxford, 2003); D. MacCulloch, A History
of Christianity (London, 2010); W. E. H. Lecky, History of European Morals,
2 vols. (London, 1869); R. W. and A. J. Carlyle, A History of Medieval Polit-
ical Theory in the West, 2 vols. (London, 1928); P. A. Rahe, Republics Ancient
and Modern (Chapel Hill, NC, 1994). Over the years, I have benefited from
all of them. However, my greatest debt is to the writings of Guizot and Brown.
Chapter 1. The Ancient Family
This chapter is crucially indebted to N. D. Fustel de Coulanges, The Ancient
City (New York, n.d.). Because his prose is so closely aligned with his ancient
sources, I have tried to preserve it as much as possible – even if at times that
means resorting to what is little more than paraphrase. For I am anxious to
retain his power of drawing the contemporary reader into another, utterly
remote world. Aspects of Fustel’s account have been criticized, not least by
Marxist historians such as M. I. Finley (The Ancient Economy, London,
1985) and G. E. M. de Sainte Croix (The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek
World, Ithaca, NY, 1981) who emphasize the motive force of property rather
than religious belief. More restrained correctives can be found in a recent
collection edited by O. Murray and S. Price, The Ancient City: From Homer
to Alexander (Oxford, 1990) and A. Momigliano’s article in S. Humphreys,
The Family, Women and Death: Comparative Studies (London,1983). Yet
even these can fall victim at times to a form of reductionism. In my view, none
of what has been added or corrected approaches the depth of Fustel’s account.
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The self-understanding of any society remains of the first importance when
studying it.
- Fustel, The Ancient City, p. 117.
- Murray and Price (eds.), The Ancient City, p. 268.
- Fustel, The Ancient City, p. 134.
- Murray and Price (eds.), The Ancient City, pp. 265–94.
- Fustel, The Ancient City, p. 42.
- Ibid., p. 25.
- Ibid., p. 61.
- Ibid., p. 63.
- Murray and Price (eds.), The Ancient City, pp. 295–322.
- Fustel, The Ancient City, p. 99.
- Ibid., p. 211.
- Ibid., p. 67.
- Quoted ibid., p. 81.
- Ibid., p. 87.
Chapter 2. The Ancient City
Much attention has been devoted to the difference between ancient and modern
conceptions of liberty since Benjamin Constant’s essay ‘On the Liberty of the
Ancients compared to that of the Moderns’ was published early in the nineteenth
century. Constant’s argument made a profound impression on other French think-
ers such as Alexis de Tocqueville and Fustel de Coulanges. But Constant’s influence
did not end with them. It has continued to inform philosophical works such as
Isaiah Berlin’s Two Concepts of Liberty and historical studies such as P. Rahe’s
Republics Ancient and Modern, 2 vols. (Chapel Hill, NC, 1994). Constant’s essay
can be found in B. Constant, Political Writings (Cambridge, 1988). See also J.-J.
Rousseau, ‘On the Arts and Sciences’, in The Social Contract and Discourses
(London, 1966); J. G. A. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment (Princeton, 1975). I
am unconvinced by the attempts of K. Popper, The Open Society and its
Enemies (London, 1966) and E. Havelock, The Liberal Temper of Greek Politics
(New York, 1957) to give a liberal interpretation of ancient Greek politics, while
M. I. Finley’s Democracy Ancient and Modern(London, 1985) relies on Marxist
distinctions which downplay the role of beliefs informing action in the polis.- O. Murray and S. Price (eds.), The Ancient City: From Homer to Alexander
(Oxford, 1990), p. 12.- N. D. Fustel de Coulanges, The Ancient City (New York, n. d.), p. 148.
- Quoted ibid., p. 152.
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4. Ibid., pp. 128–9.
5. Ibid., p. 194.
6. Ibid., p. 191.
7. Ibid., p. 198.
8. Ibid., pp. 135–6.
9. Ibid., p. 217.
10. Ibid., p. 261.
11. Ibid., p. 259.
12. Ibid., p. 206.
13. Ibid., p. 207.
Chapter 3. The Ancient Cosmos
The chief primary sources here are Herodotus, The Histories (Harmondsworth,
1994) and Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War (Harmondsworth,
1972); for Plato and Aristotle, convenient editions are Plato, The Republic, ed.
and trans. H. D. P. Lees (Harmondsworth, 1955), and Aristotle, The Nicomachean
Ethics, ed. and trans. R. Crisp (Cambridge, 2000), and The Politics, ed. and
trans. C. Lord (Chicago, 1984). For general background, I suggest E. Barker,
Plato and his Predecessors (Cambridge, 1925) and his Political Thought of Plato
and Aristotle (London, 1959); F. M. Cornford, Plato’s Theory of Knowledge
(London, 1935); E. R. Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational(Berkeley,
1973); A. H. M. Jones, The Greek City from Alexander to Justinian (Oxford,
1940); K. R. Popper, The Open Society and its Enemies (London, 1966); J.–J.
Rousseau, The Social Contract and Discourses (London, 1966); B. Snell, The
Discovery of the Mind: The Greek Origins of European Thought (Oxford,
1953); B. Williams, Shame and Necessity (Berkeley, Calif., 1993); P. Rahe,
Republics Ancient and Modern, 2 vols. (Chapel Hill, NC, 1994); and W. K. C.
Guthrie, The Sophists (Cambridge, 1971). A larger context is provided by W. E. H.
Lecky, History of European Morals, 2 vols. (London, 1869).
- Quoted in Rahe, Republics Ancient and Modern, vol. 1, p. 31.
- Quoted in W. H. C. Frend, The Early Church (London, 2003), p. 8.
- Williams, Shame and Necessity, p. 33.
- Quoted in Rahe, Republics Ancient and Modern, vol. 1, pp 37–8.
- Quoted in Lecky, History of European Morals, vol 1, p. 211, fn.
- Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, p. 131.
- Herodotus, The Histories, p. 450.
- See I. Ridpath (ed.), Oxford Dictionary of Astronomy (Oxford, 2003),
esp. p. 28.
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9. P. Brown, ‘The Risks of Being Christian’, Times Literary Supplement
(20 Dec. 2012).
10. Guthrie, The Sophists, passim.
Chapter 4. The World Turned
Upside Down: Paul
Quotations from Paul’s letters are from the Revised Standard Version of the
Bible. The studies of Paul are legion – from great theologians such as Rudolf
Bultmann to students of the relations between Judaism and Christianity such
as Albert Schweitzer and W. D. Davies. See especially R. Bultmann, ‘The The-
ology of Paul’, in Theology of the New Testament (London, 1952). Recent
works which I have found helpful include D. E. H. Whiteley, The Theology of
Saint Paul (Oxford, 1972), E. P. Sanders, Paul, the Law and the Jewish People
(London, 1985) as well as his brief Paul (Oxford, 1991), Geza Vermes, The
Religion of Jesus the Jew (1993) and M. D. Hooker and S. G. Wilson (eds.),
Paul and Paulinism (London, 1982). A. N. Wilson’s Paul: The Mind of the
Apostle (London, 1998) is especially sensitive to Paul’s personality and the
poetic potential of his letters. Though not primarily concerned with Paul’s
thought, A. Diehle’s The Theory of the Will in Classical Antiquity (Berkeley,
1982) provides a fascinating philosophical context for it. Even broader
background is provided by F. Millar, The Roman Near East, 331 bc–ad 337
(Cambridge, Mass., 1993) and by D. MacCulloch’s A History of Christianity
(London, 2010).
- Diehle, The Theory of the Will in Classical Antiquity, pp. 10–19.
- Quoted in Diehle, The Theory of the Will in Classical Antiquity, p. 1.
- Ibid., chapters 1 and 2.
- Ibid., pp. 1–2.
- 2 Corinthians 5: 16–17.
- Romans 8: 35–9.
- Galatians 2: 19–20.
- 1 Corinthians 3: 11.
- Galatians 3: 28.
- 1 Corinthians 13: 1–8.
- Galatians 3: 24–6.
- Romans 7: 15.
- 1 Corinthians 1: 23–4.
- 1 Corinthians 7: 31.
- Galatians 5: 13–14.
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Chapter 5. The Truth Within:
Moral Equality
A most useful volume of translations from early Christian thinkers (chiefly
Greek- speaking) is that of M. Wiles and M. Santer, Documents in Early
Christian Thought (Cambridge, 1975). The Gospel of Thomas, trans. S. Davies
(London, 2009) is another fascinating source. For studies of the Church
Fathers, I have consulted H. Chadwick, Early Christian Thought and the
Classical Tradition (Oxford, 1966); W. H. C. Frend, Rise of the Monophysite
Movement (Cambridge, 1972); R. M. Grant, A History of Early Christian
Literature (Chicago, 1966), The Letter and the Spirit (London, 1957) and
Gnosticism and Early Christianity (New York, 1959); M. Wiles, The Chris-
tian Fathers (London, 1966); A. von Harnack, History of Dogma and J. N. D.
Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines (London, 1968); and P. Brown, The Body
and Society (London, 1989). Among more general works, W. H. C. Frend’s
The Early Church (London, 2003) is especially sensitive to doctrinal issues,
while H. Chadwick, The Early Church (Harmondsworth, 1967) is also
helpful.
- Wiles and Santer, Documents in Early Christian Thought, p. 186.
- Ibid., p. 6.
- Ibid., p. 10.
- Ibid., p. 100.
- Ibid., p. 228.
- Quoted in Frend, The Early Church, p. 63.
- Wiles and Santer, Documents in Early Christian Thought, p. 174.
- Ibid., p. 11.
- Ibid., pp. 13–14.
- Ibid., pp. 14–15.
- Frend, The Early Church, chapter 5; see also Chadwick, The Early
Church, pp. 33–41.- Frend, The Early Church, pp. 55–57, 72–73; Chadwick, The Early
Church, pp. 38–40.- Gospel of Thomas, 22b.
- Wiles and Santer, Documents in Early Christian Thought, p. 229.
- Ibid., p. 230.
- Ibid., p, 229.
- Ibid., pp. 226–7.
- Quoted by Brown, The Body and Society, p. 83.
- Wiles and Santer, Documents in Early Christian Thought, p. 227.
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Chapter 6. Heroism REDefined
This period has been illuminated by the writings of Peter Brown. Brown’s
combination of imaginative sympathy and command of the sources puts him,
in my view, on a level with Fustel de Coulanges. They share a rare ability to
enter and animate the minds of the agents making history. Both move between
minds and institutions without being either naive or reductionist. Thus,
Brown’s Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity (Madison, 1992), The Rise
of Western Christendom (Oxford, 2003) and The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise
and Function in Early Christianity (Chicago, 1981) are essential reading. A
much earlier work which remains significant is W. Jaeger, Early Christianity
and Greek Paideia (Cambridge, Mass., 1962). See also R. Lane-Fox, Pagans
and Christians (New York, 1987). Marilyn Dunn, The Emergence of Monas-
ticism (Oxford, 2003) provides an excellent introduction to the remarkable
developments in Egypt, while some of the literature of early monasticism is
collected by W. Harmless in Desert Christians (Oxford, 2004).
- Quoted in W. H. C. Frend, The Early Church (London, 2003), p. 63.
- H. Chadwick, The Early Church (Harmondsworth, 1967), p. 46.
- Brown, Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity, p. 50.
- Ibid., p. 77.
- Ibid., p. 78.
- Ibid., p. 91.
- Quoted in Harmless, Desert Christians, p. 158.
- Quoted ibid., p. 19.
- Chadwick, The Early Church, p. 180.
- Brown, Power and Persuasion, p. 71.
- Quoted ibid., p. 72.
Chapter 7. A New Form of Association:
Monasticism
M. Dunn’s account in The Emergence of Monasticism (Oxford, 2003) should
be supplemented with P. Brown, The Body and Society (London, 1989)
and Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity (Madison, 1992) as well as
R. A. Markus’s fascinating study, The End of Ancient Christianity (Cambridge,
1990). Markus explores the complex reactions of Christians moving from
being a threatened minority to a privileged position within the Roman empire
after the conversion of Constantine. He reveals how monasticism came
371
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to absorb the cult of the martyr and stimulated Augustine’s thinking about
as ceticism and Christian vocation – thus looking both backward and
forward.
- W. H. C. Frend, The Early Church (London, 2003), p. 164.
- Quoted ibid., pp. 174–5.
- Brown, Power and Persuasion, p. 157.
- Quoted in Dunn, The Emergence of Monasticism, p. 15.
- Brown, The Body and Society, pp. 83–102.
- Quoted in Dunn, The Emergence of Monasticism, p. 27.
- Quoted ibid.
- Quoted ibid., p. 38.
- Ibid., p. 37.
- Quoted ibid., p. 39.
- Ibid., pp. 25–41.
Chapter 8. the Weakness of the Will:
Augustine
My preferred translation of Augustine’s Confessions is that by R. S. Pine-Coffin
(Harmondsworth, 1961), while there is a reliable edition of The City of God,
ed. R. W. Dyson (Cambridge, 1998). Once again Peter Brown’s writings are
central here. His original study, Augustine of Hippo (London, 1967), has
recently been expanded, while (unsurprisingly) Augustine also looms large in
his The Rise of Western Christendom, 2nd edition (Oxford, 2003). Other stud-
ies of Augustine worth consulting include E. Gilson, The Christian Philosophy
of Saint Augustine (London, 1961), G. Bonner, Saint Augustine of Hippo: Life
and Controversies (London, 1963), F. van der Meer, Augustine the Bishop
(London, 1962), R. W. Battenhouse (ed.), A Companion to the Study of Saint
Augustine (1955), and A. Momigliano (ed.), The Conflict between Paganism
and Christianity in the Fourth Century (Oxford, 1963). A larger backdrop is
provided by R. Pasman (ed.), The Cambridge History of Medieval Philosophy
(Cambridge, 2010). Guglielmo Verdirame drew my attention to the important
parallels between Augustine’s moral thinking and that of Kant.- Augustine, Confessions, p. 178; also Brown, Augustine of Hippo, p. 109.
- Quoted in Brown, Augustine of Hippo, p. 154.
- Quoted ibid., p. 155.
- Ibid., p. 156.
- Ibid., p. 168.
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6. Brown, Rise of Western Christendom, p. 88.
7. Quoted in Brown, Augustine of Hippo, p. 152.
8. Quoted ibid., p. 150.
9. Quoted ibid.
10. Quoted ibid.
11. Brown, Rise of Western Christendom, pp. 88–91.
12. Quoted in Brown, Augustine of Hippo, pp. 347–8.
13. Cambridge History of Medieval Philosophy, p. 414.
14. Quoted in P. Brown, Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity (Madison,
1992), p. 18.
15. Brown, Augustine of Hippo, pp. 324–7.
16. Ibid., p. 324.
Chapter 9. Shaping New Attitudes
and Habits
R. A. Markus, The End of Ancient Christianity (Cambridge, 1990), explores
Christian fears of over- assimilation to pagan Roman mores after Constan-
tine’s conversion – the ways in which the cult of martyrs and Christian
‘festivals’ were among the means used to keep the threat at bay. P. Garnsey,
The Idea of Slavery from Aristotle to Augustine (Cambridge, 1990), exam-
ines the variety of attitudes towards slavery and emphasizes that the absence
of a frontal confrontation was not the same as acquiescence in the institu-
tion. F. Guizot, History of Civilization in Europe (Harmondsworth, 1997)
and his Histoire de la civilisation en France, 3 vols. (Paris, 1840) still provide
the subtlest account of the attitudes and habits of patricians in post-Roman
Gaul who had embraced Christianity without abandoning classical culture
and a leisured lifestyle. See also P. Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom
(Oxford, 2003), and W. E. Klingshirn, Caesarius of Arles (Cambridge, 1994).
- Markus, The End of Ancient Christianity, pp. 87–135.
- W. H. C. Frend, The Early Church (London, 2003), p. 196.
- H. Chadwick, The Early Church (Harmondsworth, 1967), p. 60.
- Quoted in Garnsey, The Idea of Slavery from Aristotle to Augustine, p. 82.
- Quoted in Guizot, History of Civilization in Europe, p. 41.
- Guizot, Histoire de la civilisation en France, vol. 1, p. 101.
- Quoted ibid., p. 102.
- Ibid., p. 104.
- Ibid., p. 106.
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Chapter 10. Distinguishing Spiritual from
Temporal Power
François Guizot remains a remarkable guide to this period. His formidable
intelligence, his training in law as well as history, his familiarity with the
work of German historians of Roman law such as Savigny and his special
interest in the Visigoths give his discussion of the law codes of the post-invasion
Germanic kingdoms an enduring interest. It is a pity that there has been no
English edition of his Histoire de la civilisation en France, 3 vols. (Paris,
1840), since Hazlitt’s translation was published (London and New York,
1892). More recent and useful studies include P. D. King, Law and Society in
the Visigothic Kingdom (Cambridge, 1972); I. N. Wood, The Merovinigian
Kingdom 450–751 (London, 1994); and E. James, The Origins of France:
From Clovis to the Capetians (London, 1982).
- Guizot, Histoire de la civilisation en France, vol. 1, pp. 325–6.
- Quoted ibid., pp. 90–91.
- Quoted in P. Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom (Oxford, 2003),
p. 260.- Quoted ibid., p. 249.
- F. Guizot, History of Civilization in Europe (Harmondsworth, 1997), p. 42.
- Ibid.
- Brown, Rise of Western Christendom, p. 237.
- Guizot, Histoire de la civilisation en France, vol. 1, pp. 358–9.
- Ibid., p. 121.
- Brown, Rise of Western Christendom, p. 112.
- Ibid., p. 237.
- Guizot, Histoire de la civilisation en France, vol. 1, p. 310.
- Guizot, History of Civilization in Europe, p. 60.
- D. Ayers and A. S. T. Fisher, Records of Christianity (Oxford), vol.2, p. 17.
- Quoted in Brown, Rise of Western Christendom, p. 225.
- Ibid., p. 211.
- Ibid., p. 212.
Chapter 11. Barbarian Codes, Roman
Law and Christian Intuitions
Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks (Harmondsworth, 1974), is a fascin-
ating and often very amusing chronicle of a period when the diversity of
minds and manners can scarcely be exaggerated: it describes people of often
374
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credulous piety trying to live together with feuds, incest and unashamed
violence among the Germanic invaders. I. N. Wood provides a background to
Gregory’s account in The Merovingian Kingdom 450–751 (London, 1994); E.
James, The Origins of France: From Clovis to the Capetians (London, 1982)
provides a balanced, well-judged general account of this tumultuous period.
F. Guizot, History of Civilization in Europe (Harmondsworth, 1997), draws
attention to legal changes encouraged by the church in the Visigothic king-
dom, while P. Brown, in The Rise of Western Christendom (Oxford, 2003),
emphasizes what he calls the ‘Christianising’ of death – that is, the individual-
ist implications of the day of judgement awaiting every soul.
- Quoted in James, The Origins of France, p. 45.
- Ibid., p. 47.
- Quoted ibid., p. 86.
- Ibid., p. 96.
- Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom, pp. 263–4.
- Ibid.
- Guizot, History of Civilization in Europe, pp. 106–7.
- Ibid., p. 107.
- Quoted ibid., p. 107.
- Ibid., pp. 60–61.
Chapter 12. The Carolingian Compromise
Einhard’s contemporary Life of Charlemagne – with its echoes of the Lives of
the Caesars – is the obvious starting point. Beyond that there is an embarrass-
ment of choice: H. Fichtenau, The Carolingian Empire (Oxford, 1968); F.-L.
Ganshof, Frankish Institutions under Charlemagne (New York, 1968); J. L.
Nelson, The Frankish World, 750–900 (London, 1996); H. Pirenne, Mohammed
and Charlemagne (London, 1937); R. Collins, Charlemagne (London,
1998); J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Frankish Church (Oxford, 1983); and
W. Ullmann, The Carolingian Renaissance and the Idea of Kingship (Cam-
bridge, 1969). A useful collection of readings from the period, in E. Dutton
(ed.), Carolingian Civilization: A Reader (Peterborough, Ont., 1993), conveys
the atmosphere. And, as always, P. Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom
(Oxford, 2003), offers subtle insights into the ambitions, both moral and intel-
lectual, of Charlemagne and his clerical advisers. The influence of Gregory the
Great and his writings on Carolingian ambitions and rhetoric was consider-
able. For an examination of Gregory’s life and times, see J. Richards, Consul
of God (London, 1980).
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- Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom, p. 451.
- Quoted ibid., p. 454.
- Quoted in F. Donald Logan, History of the Church (London, 2013), p. 75.
- L. Olson, The Early Middle Ages (Basingstoke, 2007), p. 89.
- Quoted in E. James, The Origins of France: From Clovis to the Capetians
(London, 1982), p. 164.- Quoted in Dutton (ed.), Carolingian Civilization, p. 74.
- Quoted in James, The Origins of France, p. 199.
- Quoted in Dutton (ed.), Carolingian Civilization, p. 372.
- Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom, p. 212.
- Dutton (ed.), Carolingian Civilization, pp. 189–91.
- Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom, pp. 443–5.
- James, The Origins of France, p. 199.
Chapter 13. why Feudalism did not Recreate
Ancient Slavery
I have tried to avoid sinking into the bog of dispute about the meaning of ‘feu-
dal’ by contrasting different conditions of labour with ancient slavery. Readers
can pursue the origins of vassalage in F.-L. Ganshof’s Feudalism (London,
1964). Two important further studies are M. Bloch, Feudal Society (London,
1962), and G. Fourquin, Lordship and Feudalism in the Middle Ages (Lon-
don, 1976). A recent work by the economic historian G. Bois, The
Transformation of the Year 1000 (Manchester, 1992), reveals the difficulty of
generalizing about social change by a close study of landowning and status in
villages near Cluny. In The Origins of France: From Clovis to the Capetians
(London, 1982), E. James prefers to avoid using the term ‘feudalism’ altogether.- F. Guizot, Histoire de la civilisation en France, 3 vols. (Paris, 1840),
vol. 3, pp. 121–34.- M. Bloch, ‘How and Why Ancient Slavery Came to an End’, in his Slav-
ery and Serfdom in the Middle Ages, trans. W. R. Beer (Berkeley, 1975),
pp. 1–31.- Bois, Transformation of the Year 1000, pp. 14–17.
- E. Dutton (ed.), Carolingian Civilization (Peterborough, Ont., 1993),
p. 469.- James, The Origins of France, pp. 193–6.
- Quoted ibid., p. 201.
- Ibid., p. 74.
- P. Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom (Oxford, 2003), p. 441.
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9. Quoted in L. Olson, The Early Middle Ages (Basingstoke, 2007), p. 103.
10. Bois, Transformation of the Year 1000, pp. 164, 28–9.
11. James, The Origins of France, p. 200.
12. Quoted in Abbé Loupot, Hincmar: Sa vie, ses œuvres, son influence
(Reims, 1869), pp. 265–6.
13. Quoted in Guizot, Histoire de la civilisation en France, vol. 3, p. 143.
Chapter 14. Fostering the ‘Peace of God’
Studying the tenth century is fascinating and frustrating, for it is marked by
violence, ambiguity and innovation. However, whether it is a question of the
condition of labour, the emergence of a market economy or urban revival, the
importance of the tenth century is increasingly recognized. What I have tried
to bring out is its ‘moral’ importance – how the efforts of the Carolingian
clergy in the previous century to embed the church in the countryside and
internalize the Christian faith began to bear fruit, despite the fragmenting of
the empire. The important ‘Peace of God’ and ‘Truce of God’ movements are
discussed by E. James, The Origins of France: From Clovis to the Capetians
(London, 1982), and G. Bois, The Transformation of the Year 1000 (Manches-
ter, 1992). A particularly vivid account can be found in T. Holland, Millennium
(London, 2008). For the influence of Cluny, see N. Hunt (ed.), Cluniac Monas-
ticism in the Central Middle Ages (Basingstoke, 1971). Three more general
studies are F. D. Logan, A History of the Church in the Middle Ages (London,
2013); W. Blockmans and P. Hoppenbrouwers, Introduction to Medieval
Europe, 300–1550 (London, 2007); and M. Deanesly, A History of the Medi-
eval Church 590–1500 (London, 1990). A symptom of growing interest in the
tenth century is the semi-popular account by P. Collins, The Birth of the West
(New York, 2013).
- Quoted in R. W. Southern, Western Society and the Church in the Middle
Ages (Harmondsworth, 1970), p. 152.- Quoted in K. H. Digby, Ages of Faith (Cincinnati, 1841), vol. 1, p. 183.
- Quoted in James, The Origins of France, p. 204.
- Quoted in F. Guizot, Histoire de la civilisation en France, 3 vols. (Paris,
1840), vol. 3, p. 144.- James, The Origins of France., p. 78–81.
- Ibid., pp. 117–19, 205–6.
- Ibid., pp. 206–8.
- Deanesly, A History of the Medieval Church 590–1500, p. 98.
- James, The Origins of France, p. 207.
377
Select Bibliography and Endnotes
10. Ibid., p. 206.
11. Blockmans and Hoppenbrouwers, Introduction to Medieval Europe,
300–1550, p. 146.
12. James, The Origins of France, p. 208.
Chapter 15. The Papal Revolution:
A Constitution for Europe?
Two leading students of the ‘papal revolution’ are Brian Tierney and Harold
Berman. Indeed, it is Berman who promoted the description as part of his
larger argument about the formation of the Western legal tradition in Law
and Revolution, 2 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., 1983). Tierney has written a
magisterial study of the originality of canon lawyers from the twelfth to the
sixteenth century, The Idea of Natural Rights (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1997).
He has also edited a useful collection of primary sources about Gregory VII
and the struggle between the empire and the reformed papacy in The Crisis
of Church and State, 1050–1300 (Toronto, 1988). A detailed study of the
context of that struggle can be found in I. S. Robinson, The Papacy 1073–
1198 (Cambridge, 1990). For another look at Pope Gregory VII and his
reign, see J. Richards, Consul of God (London, 1980) and W. Ullmann, A
Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages (London, 1972). For a broader
study of the Cluniac movement, see N. Hunt (ed.), Cluniac Monasticism in
the Central Middle Ages (London 1971).
- E Prestage (ed.), Chivalry (London, 1928), p. 10.
- F. Guizot, History of Civilization in Europe (Harmondsworth, 1997),
p. 141.- Ibid., p. 41.
- E. James, The Origins of France: From Clovis to the Capetians (London,
1982), p. 207.- Tierney (ed.), The Crisis of Church and State, 1050–1300, p. 9.
- Quoted ibid., p. 10.
- R. W. Southern, Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages
(Harmondsworth, 1970), p. 98.- Quoted in Tierney (ed.), The Crisis of Church and State, 1050–1300,
p. 43.- Quoted ibid., p. 41.
- Quoted ibid., pp. 49–50.
- Ibid., pp. 61–2.
- Ibid., p. 57.
378
Select Bibliography and Endnotes
13. Quoted ibid., p. 68.
14. Quoted ibid., p. 70.
15. Quoted ibid., pp. 70–71.
16. Quoted ibid., p. 72.
17. Quoted ibid., p. 71.
Chapter 16. Natural Law and Natural Rights
Harold Berman and Brian Tierney continue to be crucial sources for under-
standing the construction of a legal system by the papacy. See Berman’s Law
and Revolution, 2 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., 1983), especially vol.1, pp. 85–119,
199–224; and Tierney’s The Crisis of Church and State, 1050–1300 (Toronto,
1988), especially pp. 45–53, 116–38, 150–58. See also R. Tuck, Natural Rights
Theories (Cambridge, 1979). A general account of the importance of Roman
law and its adaptation by canon lawyers can be found in P. Stein, Roman Law
in European History (Cambridge, 1999). For more detailed accounts see
P. Vinogradoff, Roman Law in Medieval Europe (Oxford, 1929), and J. Brund-
age, Medieval Canon Law (London, 1995). Also useful is I. Robinson (trans.
and ed.), Papal Reform in the Eleventh Century (Manchester, 2004). Some of
the implications for secular government and lordship in Europe are explored
by T. Bisson in The Crisis of the Twelfth Century (Princeton, 2009).
- Quoted in Tierney, The Crisis of Church and State, 1050–1300, pp.
78–9, 98.- Quoted ibid., p. 92.
- Ibid., p. 97.
- Quoted ibid., p. 15.
- Ibid., p. 138.
- R. W. Southern, Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages
(Harmondsworth, 1970), pp. 104–5.- Quoted in Tierney, The Crisis of Church and State, 1050–1300, p. 135.
- F. Copleston, A History of Philosophy (London, 1993–), vol. 3, p. 33.
Chapter 17. Centralization and the new
sense of justice
Centralization in the twelfth- and thirteenth-century Church, with the pap-
acy becoming the apex of a judicial and administrative structure spread
across Europe, is a fascinating story. It was, to some extent, an unintended
consequence of the declaration of papal sovereignty. In addition to the works
379
Select Bibliography and Endnotes
by Berman and Tierney cited in Chapter 15, Tierney’s Foundations of the
Conciliar Theory (Cambridge, 1955; repr. 1968) explores the intellectual
repercussions of that declaration, for the relations between popes on the one
hand, and cardinals, bishops and religious corporations on the other. Berman
emphasizes how canon lawyers modified the very idea of a corporation in his
Law and Revolution, 2 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., 1983). A different set of
repercussions on ideas of sin, crime, punishment, intentionality and personal
responsibility are explored by both Guizot and Berman. These intellectual
developments contributed to the emergence of philosophy from theology – as
the career and writings of Abelard reveal. See, inter alia, A. Kenny, Medieval
Philosophy (Oxford, 2005), pp. 44–8, 123–7, 260–63; F. Copleston, A His-
tory of Philosophy (London, 1993–), vol. 2, pp. 205–11; and A. de Libera, La
Philosophie médiévale (Paris, 1993).
- Berman, Law and Revolution, vol. 1, pp. 113–15.
- R. W. Southern, Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages
(Harmondsworth, 1970), pp. 107–9.- Ibid., p. 116.
- P. Stein, Roman Law in European History (Cambridge, 1999), passim.
- Quoted in Berman, Law and Revolution, vol. 1, p. 184.
- F. Guizot, History of Civilization in Europe (Harmondsworth, 1997),
p. 108.- Berman, Law and Revolution, vol. 1, pp. 185–6.
- Quoted ibid., pp. 186–9.
- B. Tierney, The Idea of Natural Rights (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1997),
p. 56.- Berman, Law and Revolution, vol.1, pp. 215–24; also Tierney, Founda-
tions of the Conciliar Theory, pp. 127–30, 222–3, 235–7.
Chapter 18. The Democratizing of Reason
One of the remarkable things about H. Berman’s Law and Revolution, 2 vols.
(Cambridge, Mass., 1983) is that he seeks to bridge the gaps between devel-
opments in theology, law (both canon and secular) and philosophy. That
ambition makes his work stimulating. B. Tierney’s The Idea of Natural Rights
(Grand Rapids, Mich., 1997) is ambitious in a different way – written with a
view to demonstrating how canon lawyers from the twelfth century onwards
laid the foundations for a rights-based theory of justice (‘human rights’), a the-
ory which had previously been assigned to the early modern period. Tierney
brings to our attention, in particular, the originality of the canonist Huguccio
380
Select Bibliography and Endnotes
and the development of what might be called an early form of ‘judicial
review’. The assimilation of rights to powers (jus to potestas) is central to
rights theory and indispensable for discussing the invention of the individual.
It avoids collapsing that story into discussions of the more diffuse terms ‘indi-
vidualism’ and ‘individuality’– something that plagues the accounts to be
found in C. Morris, The Discovery of the Individual, 1050–1200 (London,
1972) and A. MacFarlane, The Origins of English Individualism (Cambridge,
1979).
- Berman, Law and Revolution, vol. 1, p. 229.
- Ibid., p. 232.
- Quoted in B. Tierney, The Crisis of Church and State, 1050–1300
(Toronto, 1988), p. 135.- Berman, Law and Revolution, vol. 1, pp. 166–72.
- Ibid., p. 139.
- Ibid.
- Tierney, The Idea of Natural Rights, pp. 4–5.
- Quoted ibid., pp. 43–77.
- Quoted ibid., p. 62.
- Quoted ibid.
- Quoted ibid., pp. 63–4.
- Quoted ibid., p. 67.
- Ibid., p. 64.
- Quoted ibid., pp. 64–5.
- Quoted ibid., p. 231.
- Quoted ibid., p. 72.
- Quoted ibid., p. 74.
- Ibid.
- Tierney, The Crisis of Church and State, 1050–1300, p. 79.
- Quoted in Berman, Law and Revolution, vol. 1, p. 141
- Ibid.
Chapter 19. Steps Towards the Creation of
Nation- States
The process of creating the modern state took different forms in Sicily, France,
England and Spain. I have tried to identify what the rulers in these nations had
in common and what they owed to the example of the church. Influenced by
the papal revolution, their conception of right rule or ‘sovereignty’ came to
turn on legal supremacy over ‘individuals’ rather than the traditional model of
381
Select Bibliography and Endnotes
rule over families and ‘estates’ of the realm. For a subtle overview of that pro-
cess, see F. Guizot, The History of Civilization in Europe (Harmondsworth,
1997), where class conflict and ‘centralization’ inspired by a new (rights-based)
sense of justice are presented as the keys to the transformation of a corporate
society into a society based on equality before the law – an argument which
had a great impact on Alexis de Tocqueville, Karl Marx and J. S. Mill. See
also J. R. S. Strayer, The Medieval Origins of the Modern State (Princeton,
1970); H. Mitteis, The State in the Middle Ages (Amsterdam, 1975);
D. C. Douglas, The Norman Achievement 1050–1100 (Berkeley, 1969);
C. Petit-Dutaillis, The Feudal Monarchy in France and England: From the
Tenth to the Thirteenth Century (London, 1936); J. E. A. Jolliffe, The Consti-
tutional History of Medieval England (London, 1961); and F. D. Logan, A
History of the Church in the Middle Ages, 2 vols. (London, 2013).
- H. Berman, Law and Revolution, 2 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., 1983), vol. 1,
p. 404. See also Strayer, The Medieval Origins of the Modern State (esp.
chapter 1).- B. Tierney, The Crisis of Church and State, 1050– 1300 (Toronto, 1988),
p. 155.- P. Stein, Roman Law in European History (Cambridge, 1999), p. 73.
- Tierney, The Crisis of Church and State, 1050–1300, p. 118.
- Berman, Law and Revolution, vol. 1, p. 419.
- Stein, Roman Law in European History, p. 64.
- Ibid., pp. 65–6.
- R. W. Southern, Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages
(Harmondsworth, 1970), p. 81.- Stein, Roman Law in European History, p. 74.
Chapter 20. Urban Insurrections
The theme of F. Guizot’s History of Civilization in Europe (Harmondsworth,
- is the gradual collapse of the classes of an aristocratic society derived
from feudalism into a new intermediate social condition, ‘the middle class’.
The revival of urban life from the tenth century, with the struggle of boroughs
for enfranchisement across Europe, provided a foundation for this new, more
egalitarian form of society and a market economy. H. Berman, Law and
Revolution, 2 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., 1983), devotes a chapter in vol. 1
(pp. 357–403) to the development of ‘urban law’ and its distinctive features.
A worthy companion to these studies is D. Nicholas, The Growth of the Medi-
eval City (London, 1997). See also G. Duby (ed.), Histoire de la France
382
Select Bibliography and Endnotes
urbaine, vol. 2 (Paris, 1980); R. Hodges, Dark Age Economics: The Origins
of Towns and Trade 600–1000 (New York, 1982); D. Nicholas, Medieval
Flanders (London, 1992); and H. Pirenne, Medieval Cities: Their Origins and
the Revival of Trade (New York, 1956).
- Guizot, History of Civilization in Europe, p. 124.
- Berman, Law and Revolution, vol. 1, p. 395.
- Guizot, History of Civilization in Europe, p. 125.
- Ibid., p. 126.
- Ibid., p. 127.
- Berman, Law and Revolution, vol. 1, pp. 357–403.
- Ibid., pp. 389, 394–5.
- Ibid., p. 396.
- Guizot, History of Civilization in Europe, pp. 129–30.
Chapter 21. Popular Aspirations
and the Friars
N. Cohn’s The Pursuit of the Millennium (London, 1970) is a fascinating
book. Cohn balances a sensitivity to ideas with an interest in practices, and
so is able to portray the variety of popular ‘protest’ movements in medieval
Europe. Combining millenarianism with mysticism and, quite often, social
subversion, these movements – and the threat they represented – helped to
give rise to the more familiar movements of the friars, the Dominicans and
Franciscans. The debate about ‘apostolic’ poverty and property rights which
the Franciscans engendered led them into confrontation with the papacy. The
result was the emergence of a more socially radical stream of thought within
the church, which had important repercussions in the following centuries –
both in philosophy and in disputes about church government, preparing the
way for reformation. A brief introduction to the friars movement can be
found in R. W. Southern, Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages
(Harmondsworth, 1970), pp. 272–99. Consequences of that movement for
the development of the language of natural rights are analysed by B. Tierney
in The Idea of Natural Rights (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1997). For more
extended treatment of the movement, see M. D. Lambert, Franciscan Poverty:
The Doctrine of the Absolute Poverty of Christ and the Apostles in the Fran-
ciscan Order, 1210–1323 (London, 1961); J. Moorman, History of the
Franciscan Order (Oxford, 1968); and M. Villey, La Formation de la pensée
juridique moderne (Paris, 1975).
383
Select Bibliography and Endnotes
- Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium, pp. 37–9.
- Ibid., pp. 39–40.
- Ibid., pp. 47–8.
- Ibid., p. 45.
- Southern, Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages, p. 281.
- Tierney, The Idea of Natural Rights, pp. 94, 149.
- Ibid., p. 150.
- Ibid., p. 153.
- Ibid., pp. 154–5.
- Ibid., p. 147.
- Ibid.
Chapter 22. the Defence of
Egalitarian Moral intuitions
The recovery of many Aristotelian texts forms the background to this chap-
ter. Leading Franciscan thinkers such as Duns Scotus and William of Ockham
reacted to what they saw as a growing over- reliance on Aristotle, a trend
which seemed to threaten the morally distinctive features of Christianity. The
attempt by Aquinas to assimilate Aristotelianism and Christianity in his
Summa Theologica therefore became the object of their criticisms. For this
background and an exposition of Aquinas’s thought, see F. Copleston, A His-
tory of Philosophy (London, 1993–), vol. 2, or, more briefly, A. Kenny,
Medieval Philosophy (Oxford, 2005). For an exposition of the philosophies
of Duns Scotus and William of Ockham, see Copleston, A History of Philo-
sophy, vol. 3, and J. Marenbon, Later Medieval Philosophy (London, 1987).
The development of distinct ‘schools’ of thought in theology and philosophy
strikes me as a symptom of the emergence of universities across Europe. H.
Rashdall’s The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1936) can
hardly be bettered on that subject.- Quoted in Copleston, A History of Philosophy, vol. 2, p. 545.
- Ibid., pp. 545–6.
- Ibid., p. 546.
- B. Tierney, The Idea of Natural Rights (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1997), pp.
16–19, 29–32, 34–7.- Ibid., pp. 99–100.
- R. W. Southern, Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages
(Harmondsworth, 1970), pp. 277–9; also H. Berman, Law and Revolu-
tion, 2 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., 1983), vol. 1, pp. 120–31.
384
Select Bibliography and Endnotes
7. Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, pp. 87–267;
also, Copleston, A History of Philosophy, vol. 2, pp. 212–18.
8. Ibid., pp. 240–50, 423–34, 476–86.
9. R. Pasnau (ed.), The Cambridge History of Medieval Philosophy
(Cambridge, 2010), p. 415.
10. Copleston, A History of Philosophy, vol. 2, pp. 423–34.
11. P. Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom (Oxford, 2003), p. 88.
12. R. A. Markus, The End of Ancient Christianity (Cambridge, 1990), p. 77.
Chapter 23. God’s Freedom and Human
Freedom Joined: Ockham
Ockham’s adult life was divided between Oxford and ‘exile’ in Germany under
the emperor’s protection. It is hardly surprising that his later writings have a
more political and polemical character than his earlier writings on logic and
epistemology. P. Boehner (ed.), Selected Philosophical Writings (London, 1952),
draws on this earlier work. F. Copleston’s chapters on Ockham’s philosophy in
his History of Philosophy (London, 1993–), vol. 3, provides a careful commen-
tary on the full range of thought. A. S. McGrade’s The Political Thought of
William of Ockham (Cambridge, 1974) is impressive because it draws together
his moral philosophy and his political ideas – providing a nuanced account of
his understanding of the role of ‘right reason’. See also McGrade’s (trans. J.
Kilcullen) edition of Ockham’s A Letter to the Friars Minor and Other Writ-
ings (Cambridge, 1995). Yet it is B. Tierney’s The Idea of Natural Rights
(Grand Rapids, Mich., 1997) which makes the most of Ockham’s contribution
to the development of rights theory, through his formidable defence of the
Franciscan position on poverty. The story of Ockham and the nominalists’ con-
tribution to the emergence of modern physics is best told by A. C. Crombie,
From Augustine to Galileo (London, 1979), vol. 2: Science in the Middle Ages.
- Copleston, A History of Philosophy, vol. 2, pp. 259–62, 358–62.
- Ibid., pp. 90–91.
- Ibid., vol. 3, pp. 4–6.
- Ibid., pp. 88–95.
- Tierney, The Idea of Natural Rights, pp. 99–100.
- Quoted in Crombie, From Augustine to Galileo, vol. 2, p. 46; see also
Copleston, A History of Philosophy, vol. 3, pp. 71–6.- B. Williams, Shame and Necessity (Berkeley, 1993), passim.
- Quoted in F. Guizot, Histoire de la civilisation en France, 3 vols. (Paris,
1840), vol. 3, pp. 149–50.
385
Select Bibliography and Endnotes
9. Quoted in Copleston, A History of Philosophy, vol. 3, p. 101.
10. Quoted ibid.
11. Quoted ibid., pp. 113–14.
12. Tierney, The Idea of Natural Rights, p. 187; William of Ockham, ‘On the
Power of the Pope and Clergy’ in McGrade and Kilcullen (ed. and trans.),
A Letter to the Friars Minor and Other Writings, pp. 118–229.
13. Quoted in Crombie, From Augustine to Galileo, vol. 2, p. 45.
Chapter 24. struggling for Representative
Government in the Church
The variety and depth of canonist thinking emerges clearly from its contributions
to the conciliar movement – to the critique of papal absolutism and the explor-
ation of the requirements of a more representative government in the church.
Brian Tierney leads the way in insisting that there is much more to be discovered
in canonist writings – as the list of the leading canonists, most of whose names
are unfamiliar, at the end of his Foundations of the Conciliar Theory (Cam-
bridge, 1955; repr. 1968) suggests. Early in the twentieth century the brothers R. W.
and A. J. Carlyle’s A History of Medieval Political Theory in the West (London,
1928) also began to mine this rich deposit, as did J. N. Figgis, Churches in the
Modern State (London, 1913) and E. F. Jacob, Essays in the Conciliar Epoch
(Manchester, 1953). But the most striking thing about twentieth-century study of
the conciliar movement is how it was dominated by German scholars – itself
perhaps a symptom of the connection with the Reformation. Apart from Tier-
ney, F. W. Maitland’s introduction to Otto von Gierke’s Political Theories of the
Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1938) and W. Ullmann, Origins of the Great Schism
(London, 1948) are useful studies in English.
- Tierney, Foundations of the Conciliar Theory, p. 147.
- Ibid., pp. 23–46.
- Ibid., p. 49.
- Ibid., p. 50.
- Ibid., p. 117.
- B Tierney, The Idea of Natural Rights (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1997),
p. 110.- Tierney, Foundations of the Conciliar Theory, p. 126.
- Ibid., p. 126.
- F. Guizot, History of Civilization in Europe (Harmondsworth, 1997),
p. 192.- Ibid., p. 194.
386
Select Bibliography and Endnotes
Chapter 25. Dispensing with the Renaissance
While I have emphasized Burckhardt’s seminal work, other studies of the
Renaissance have become legion and reveal the expansion of the concept
beyond humanism, from art and cultural history to almost every aspect of
change from the fourteenth to the later sixteenth century. For an elegant, if
orthodox study of these centuries, see J. Hale’s Civilization of Europe in the
Renaissance (London, 1993), while Q. Skinner’s Foundations of Modern
Political Thought (Cambridge, 1979) provides a comprehensive, lucid exam-
ination of the development of political doctrines. Although the sixteenth
century is beyond the scope of this book, Thomas More’s Utopia and Erasmus’s
In Praise of Folly stand out as classic examples of humanist thinking and atti-
tudes, while Montaigne’s Essays reveal the scepticism aroused by religious
wars following the Reformation.
- J. Burckhardt, Civilisation of the Renaissance (London, 1944).
- L. Siedentop, ‘Two Liberal Traditions’, in A. Ryan (ed.), The Idea of Free-
dom (Oxford, 1979).- Marsilius of Padua, Defensor Pacis, trans. A. Gewirth (New York, 1991).
See also his Writings on the Empire: Defensor Minor and De Transla-
tione Imperii, ed. C. Nederman (Cambridge, 1993).- Thomas à Kempis, Imitation of Christ (Harmondsworth, 2005), passim.
- Quoted in F. Copleston, A History of Philosophy (London, 1993–), vol. 3,
p. 159.- Quoted ibid., p. 161.
- F. Guizot, History of Civilization in Europe (Harmondsworth, 1997), pp.
166–81.
387
Index
abbots, election of 161, 249
Abelard, Peter 232, 233,
250–51, 309
Sic et Non 242
Abingdon 184
Absolute, the 53, 55
abstraction 34, 43, 241
abstract individualism 74–5
abstract thinking 34–5, 36, 45,
60–61, 63
citizenship and the process of 31
and generalization 240–43
and philosophy 250–51
power of 63
Accursius (jurist) 263
Adalbert 189
Adam 73, 290–91
Adrian IV, Pope 226
agency, human (see also will)
and autonomy 313, 317
in Christian perspectives: and
canon law 258; divorced from
social roles 218; Franciscan
301, 314; and individual moral
agency 58, 61–2, 183, 341; and
the limits of deductive reason
71, 146; linked to divine
will and agency 61, 65, 68,
306–20; as medium for God’s
love 59; and moral equality
61–2; Ockham on rational
agency 314
emergence of sovereign
agency 258
‘final causes’ 35, 251, 300, 308,
310, 319, 343
and free will see free will
and natural law 245–6
privileging of individual over
corporate agency in Gospel of
Thomas 76
and reason: agency vs rationalism
53, 56; limits of deductive
reason 71, 146; and modern
associations 249–51; rational
agency 8, 14, 65, 311, 314;
reason’s anchoring in individual
agency 247, 249
rights needed to protect
individual agency 338
separated from from social
practices 258
as a unity of intellect and will
310 (see also will)
Agobard of Lyons 160, 181, 355
Ailly, Pierre d’ 343
Albert the Great 298
Alcuin of York 149, 155, 159, 161
388
index
Alexander III, Pope 226
Alexander V, Pope 329
Alexander the Great 40
Alexandria 47, 90
church of 68
Alfonso the Wise 263
All Souls, Feast of 188
altars
in the ancient city 22
family hearth and altar 10–11,
13, 14, 20, 116, 351
Ambrose, St 130, 134, 199, 302
amorality 44, 362
ancestor worship 7, 10–11, 14, 351
angels, cult of 144
Antony, St 84–5
Aquinas, Thomas see Thomas
Aquinas
Archidamus 38–9
Archytas of Tarentum 38
Arianism 90, 126, 132
Ariano, Assizes of 261–2
Aristarchus of Samos 42
aristocracy
aristocratic basis of
association 234
aristocratic bias in Platonic
thought 72–3
aristocratic model of society see
society: hierarchical/aristocratic
aristocratic values 83 (see also
paideia; piety)
aristocratic view of a
corporation 235
church’s dissolving of corporate
character of aristocratic society
81–4, 91–2, 121–2
and episcopal combining of
aristocratic and democratic
worlds 122–5
and kingship 29, 31
and the monasteries 179
move from aristocratic to
democratic government/
authority 28, 34, 218, 234,
296, 330
move from monarchic
to aristocratic polis
government 28
and the papacy 179, 195–6
period of ascendancy in Greek
and Italian cities 29
Roman empire and paideia 81–2,
83, 91
spread of Roman power as threat
to aristocratic order 52
Aristotle 8, 10, 25, 35, 42–3, 44–5,
51–2, 56, 118, 218, 250, 251,
311
and Aquinas 298, 299, 300,
302, 305, 306, 308, 310,
317–18, 341
and essences 300, 307–8
and final causes 35, 251, 300,
308, 310
integration of Aristotelian
philosophy with Christianity
298–305, 306–20
and Ockham’s Razor 310,
318–19, 343
physical theory 343, 358
and the universities 298
asceticism 84–7, 97 (see also
monasticism)
astrology 43, 240
Athanasius 85
Athens 16–17, 27–8, 34, 37,
38, 41, 45
archon 23
atomization, social 337–8
389
index
Attila the Hun 126–7
Augustine of Hippo, St 86, 88–9,
100–110, 134, 208, 244–5, 302
and Aquinas 302
City of God 88–9, 109–10,
199, 354
conception of the self 101–2,
108–9
Confessions 100, 101, 103–4, 105
conversion 100, 101
and essences 308
and the Franciscans 301–5
and grace 100–101, 102, 103–4,
105, 106, 108–9, 146, 303–4
and Gregory VII 206
and Neoplatonism 100, 101,
102–3
Ockham and the Augustinian
tradition 311, 317
Pauline influence 100, 101–2,
103, 104–5, 108, 302, 354
and Pelagius 106–9, 303
and perfectionism 101, 106,
107–8, 304
and slavery 119
and the will 101–2, 103–10, 146,
245, 302–4, 308
Aurillac 184
Avignon 307, 329
baptism 63, 71, 83, 154, 155, 173,
257, 284
barbarians 41, 118, 122, 126,
127, 138
Barontus 145
Basil of Caesarea, St 71–2, 95,
96–8
basilicas 89, 120, 121
Basle, Council of 330
Beauvais, charter of 272
Becker, Carl 359
Becket, Thomas 195, 209
beliefs, moral/religious (see also faith)
ancient family and religious belief
10–12 (see also religion:
domestic)
Christian see Christianity and the
church: beliefs; theology
enforced 287, 333, 336, 361
family associations and extension
of religious belief 14–15, 20,
21, 351–2
Jewish 53–5, 56 (see also
Judaism)
and laws 23–4, 53–5, 56 (see also
natural (moral) law)
liberalism/secularism seen as
non-belief 2, 360–62
and marriage 12
and patriotism 24–5
primary importance of 2
and property rights 12, 13,
16–17, 92
relationship with social
institutions 2
and secularism 1–2, 349–50, 361
(see also secularism: and
Christianity)
shaping of modern world through
changes in 3 (see also
Christianity and the church:
and society); arise of belief in
moral equality and the shaping
of society 76–7, 81–4, 88–93,
129, 152–6, 172–7, 179–91,
192–5, 234–5, 237–51, 268–75,
348, 353–5, 356–63 (see also
justice: and moral equality)
and women’s subordination 1,
12, 17, 116, 142
390
index
Benedict IX, Pope 226
Benedict XVI, Pope 360
Benedict of Aniane 149, 183–4
Benedict of Nursia, St 139
Benedictine Rule 97, 139–40,
183–4, 185–6, 282–3
benefices 156, 168, 322
monastic 227
Berman, Harold 4, 226, 232–3, 237
Bernard of Clairvaux, St 213, 227
Bernini, Gian Lorenzo 16
Béziers massacre 287
bishops and the episcopal office 81,
83, 93 (see also cardinals)
and ancient philosophy 135
and bishop’s court 248–9
and civic leadership 120–25,
126–8, 265, 269
Cluniac monks elected to
office 186
and the combining of the
aristocratic and democratic
worlds 122–5
delegated authority of 325
election of bishops 129–30,
179–80; lay investiture struggle
198, 202–5, 208–10, 217, 220
and Germanic invaders 126–8,
131–3, 136–7, 139, 200
and heredity 180
life of bishops as ‘lords’ 179, 269
and monasticism 97, 227
and the preservation of Roman
law 137–9
undermining of hereditary basis
of civic offices 127–8, 234
urban role 120–21, 122–3,
126–8
Black Death 312, 340
black magic 70
body of Christ 61, 62–3, 65, 302
Boethius, Anicius 250
Bologna university 297, 357
Bonagratio of Bergamo 290
Bonaventure, St 298
Boniface VIII, Pope 322, 328, 345
papal bull, Unam Sanctam 328
boroughs/burgs see under cities/
towns
Botticelli, Sandro 337
bourgeoisie 276–7, 282, 312
burghers 268, 269, 272, 277,
345, 354
Bourges, Pragmatic Sanction of 330
Brethren of the Common Life 340
Brittany 285
Brown, Peter 4, 81–2, 91–2, 108,
110, 135–6, 139–40, 145,
149, 304
Brunhild, Princess 143
Bulgarus (jurist) 263
Burckhardt, Jacob 334
bureaucracy 260
division of legislation, justice and
administration 260
papal 213, 227, 260
burghers 268, 269, 272, 277,
345, 354
Burgundians 136–7, 142, 172
Burgundy, church council in 186
Buridan, Jean 343–4
canon law see under church law
Capetian dynasty 169, 255–6
capitalism 7
cardinals 196, 198, 201, 316, 322,
328–9
care of souls
and Charlemagne 153, 158, 159,
162, 172
391
index
by the clergy 158, 193, 203–4,
209, 216, 220–21, 230;
demonstrations for 185
and Gregory the Great 139–40,
159, 203–4, 205
and oath-taking 153, 154–5, 296
by the papacy 203–4, 216
by rulers 153, 159, 162, 172,
174, 184, 205, 216, 293, 296
Carolingian empire 148–62,
167–9, 200
and Charlemagne see
Charlemagne
and Christianity: Carolingian
church 144, 149, 161; and
‘Christian law’ 159, 172, 200;
and moral equality 152–6,
157, 160, 172; and the papacy
148–9, 200
and lordship/dominium 151–2,
156, 162, 169, 170, 171–2,
188–9
public jurisdiction 167, 169
Castile 263
Catalonia 265, 344
Catharism 286, 287
causation
final causes 35, 251, 300, 308,
310, 319, 343
and Ockham 318–19, 320, 343
and reason 35, 70, 146, 251,
318–19, 320, 342–3
Celestine V 328
Celsus 70–71, 76, 80
centralization
centralized feudalism 254,
272, 344
centralized government/
administration 113, 162, 168,
174, 225–9, 252–3, 287, 330,
340, 344–5, 346; disintegration
after death of Charlemagne
174, 178, 183; in the papacy
252–3, 287, 330
centralized justice 168, 183, 192,
227, 229, 252; and legal
authority 346
in the church 252–3
and creation of European
assemblies 345–6
and emergence of national
opinion 346
of power 46, 52
and sovereignty/monarchy 229,
340, 344–5, 346
ceremonies see ritual and ceremony
Cervantes, Miguel de 348
Chalcedon, council of 90
Charlemagne 148–51, 152,
153–4, 165, 171, 172,
174, 181, 184
General Capitulary 156–7, 170,
172, 173
monastic reform under
161, 183
Charles the Bald 168, 178
Charles Martel 148
charters
borough 268, 272–4
university 297
children
novices and religious vocation 98
and paternal authority in the
ancient family 15
slaughtering in conquered ancient
cities 32
Chilperic, King 137, 143
China 1
chivalry 193–4
Christ see Jesus of Nazareth
392
index
Christianity and the church
apologetics and arguments
67–77
asceticism 84–7, 97 (see also
monasticism)
beliefs (see also faith; theology):
about fate of the individual soul
145, 190; about judgement
190, 206, 240, 292;
Christological see Christology;
of clergy propagated among
Germanic tribes 142; and the
destruction of the ancient
family 115–17; distinguishing
orthodoxy from heresy 90,
113, 126, 287; effects on
justice 230–32 (see also justice:
and moral equality); egalitarian
see moral equality: Christian
intuitions of; enforced 287,
333, 336, 361; and
inclusiveness 82, 83, 121,
142–3, 173 (see also moral
equality: Christian intuitions
of); internal acceptance of
336; and legislation 147–8;
and the limits of deductive
reason 71–3, 146; moral
intuitions arising from see moral
equality: Christian intuitions of;
Pauline 58–66; in purgatory
190, 240; sense that liberal
secular world is shaped by 3;
trinitarian 90; voluntarily
coming to the faith 155
body of Christ 61, 62–3,
65, 302
buildings see church buildings
Carolingian church 144;
renovatio 149, 161
and the Carolingian empire see
Carolingian empire: and
Christianity
centrality to Western cultural
origins 8
centralization in the church
252–3
Christian fundamentalism 362
church authority resting on
congregational representation
in councils 339
church councils see church
councils
church government and
administration: church as a
self-governing corporation
202, 234–5, 252, 265, 274; and
compromises with aristocratic
model 93; hierarchical court
system 252; and monastic
organization 93–9, 139–40,
160–61; and offices 81, 93
(see also bishops and
the episcopal office; deacon,
office of; presbyter, office of);
papal see papacy; principle of
consent 93, 129–31, 179–80,
201–2; struggle for
representative government
328–32
church law see church law
church property 178, 186, 252
(see also church buildings;
Franciscans: and property
rights)
and class 80–81, 82–4
clergy 93, 116, 355 (see also
bishops and the episcopal
office; cardinals; presbyter,
office of); anti-clericalism 9,
393
index
15, 77, 133, 230, 331, 335,
350, 356, 360; care of souls
158, 185, 193, 203–4, 209,
216, 220–21, 230; Carolingian
149, 355; charge of weakening
citizens’ valour 356; civic
function 120–25, 126–8, 265,
269; clerical marriage 180,
191, 260–61; and Cluniac
reform 186, 196; displacement
of moral authority from family
to 145; educational role
136–7; fostering sensibility
for well-being of Christian
people 192; and Germanic
tribes 126–8, 131–3, 136–7,
139, 142, 200; lay investiture
struggle 198, 202–5, 208–10,
217, 220; papal see papacy;
personal morality and
celebrating the sacraments
283; and the preservation of
Roman law 137–9, 147–8;
recruitment 191; renovatio
149; rural 144, 149, 171, 180,
182; secular trials of 179; and
the separation of spiritual and
temporal power 131–4; as
spokesmen of religion 128;
undermining of hereditary
basis of civic offices 127–8,
234; Visigothic 129, 143–4,
148, 166
and the countryside see rural
populations: and Christianity
cult of the saints 115, 132,
146–7, 191, 282
distinction between ‘city of
God’ and the organized
church 109
early church in 1st century:
conversion to Judaism issue
63–4; Jerusalem church 57, 67;
Jesus movement 57–66, 67;
Jewish opposition 67; Pauline
churches 63, 65, 67; Pauline
mission and doctrine 58–66
early church in 2nd–3rd centuries:
Alexandrian church 68;
apologetics and arguments
67–78; beginnings of asceticism
84–7; and change in public
discourse 82–3; and Gnosticism
73–4; and the joining
of Jewish and Greek thought
69–70; laying foundations
for new conception of society
76–7, 88, 89; martyrs
79–80, 95; penetration of
Roman state 81–4; as an
urban phenomenon 80
early church in 4th–5th centuries:
defining orthodoxy and
identifying heresy 90;
monasticism see monasticism;
and new conceptions of society
90–93
Eastern church 149, 175, 199
and education: alliance with
ancient learning 134–6; and
monasticism 98, 135–6
egalitarianism see moral equality:
Christian intuitions of
friars see Dominicans;
Franciscans
and Gnosticism 73–4
and human identity see identity:
and Christianity
incorporation of pagan practices
115, 144
394
index
Christianity and the church – cont.
and individualism/the individual:
Augustine and the struggles
of the self 100–110; and
Carolingian legislation 154;
Christian conception of God
as ontological foundation for
the individual 353–4; and
conversion 94; and equality see
moral equality: Christian
intuitions of; and the fate
of the individual soul 75, 143,
145, 157, 158, 160; and the
Franciscans 301–2;
implications of Pauline thought
60–63, 64, 65, 68, 75, 76; and
the incarnation of Christ 90;
individual moral agency 58,
61–2, 183, 341; individual
salvation 160, 189–90, 217,
356; and innerness see (below)
Christianity and the church:
and innerness; and Marcion
74–5; and martyrdom 80; in
monasticism 94, 98, 114–15
(see also conscience: and
monasticism); and people
excluded from citizenship
128; relationship between God
and the individual soul 144,
193, 311, 341; and rhetoric of
the Christian people 128–9,
152–6; and the separation
of nature and social order
304; and the universality
of the church 83
and innerness 71, 86, 89, 103,
105, 147, 159, 340–41, 353;
and conscience see conscience;
expressed in language of law
244; imagery of depth and
descent 67, 68–9; and logical
studies 251; and mystical
union 59–60, 340; publicly
sanctioned concern 153–4; the
truth within 67–78, 102–5
justice and the voice of the
church 181
and liberalism see liberalism: and
Christianity
and liberty see liberty
mendicants see Dominicans;
Franciscans
Merovingian church 143–7
messianic movements 285–6
monasticism see monasticism
and morality see moral equality:
Christian intuitions of;
morality: and Christianity
papacy see papacy
persecution 79–80, 94–5, 157
and philosophy see philosophy:
and Christianity/theology
pilgrimage 147, 191, 195, 215
and polytheism see polytheism
processions 121
and protection of the poor 192
and rational enquiry 8
Reformation 8, 335
and the Renaissance 335–6
Roman Catholic Church 349
and Rome: and bishops 120–21;
and Christian emperors 90;
coming to attention of the
authorities 67; and divine and
imperial majesty 91–2; and
invocation of ‘Christian humility’
92–3; and Pelagianism
107–8; penetration of
Roman state and
395
index
transformation of its
aristocratic society 81–4, 91–2,
121–2; persecution and the
martyr cult 79–80, 94–5; and
the preservation of Roman law
137–9, 147–8; prudence in
relation to Roman government
88, 118, 136; the Roman
people become the Christian
people 130–31
sacraments see sacraments
and secularism see secularism:
and Christianity
and sexual renunciation 85,
95, 116
and slaves see slaves/slavery: and
the church
and society: as an association
of individuals 129, 238, 239,
243, 250, 251, 269, 293, 311,
327, 346; and Augustine’s City
of God 88–9, 109–10, 354;
and the basilica 120, 121;
Christological impacts 91–2;
churches as places of refuge 270;
and the citizenship of heaven
97; dissolving corporate
character of aristocratic
society 81–4, 91–2, 121–2; and
equality see moral equality:
Christian intuitions of; and
feudalism 170–77, 180, 181,
195, 197, 252; and government
see government: and
Christianity; and humanitarian
changes 117; and the
incarnation of Christ 90;
internalizing of the Christian
faith 189; and justice 181,
209; laying foundations for
new conception of society
76–7, 81–4, 88–93, 120–25,
244, 327, 332, 359; and
love of the poor 82–3, 121;
monasticism and a new social
organization 93–9, 208; an
moral intuitions see moral
equality: Christian intuitions
of; natural rights and the
critique of society and the role
of the church 258, 292, 317,
355–6; and Origen 76–7;
Pelagius’s wish for a visible
irreproachable Christian
society 108; and property rights
181, 290–91, 293; and the
relation of Christianity and
secularism see secularism: and
Christianity; rhetoric of love of
the poor 82–3, 121; rhetoric of
the Christian people, and
rulership 128–9, 152–6; and
rural labour 171; and the sacred–
secular dualism 197–200,
209–10, 252, 267, 273, 322,
354 (see also secularism: and
Christianity); and slavery see
slaves/slavery: and the church;
social inclusiveness 82, 83,
121, 142–3, 173 (see also
moral equality: Christian
intuitions of); and urban
egalitarianism 268–75; and
weakened expectations of
second coming 88; and women
see women: and the church
and state government see
government: and Christianity
and superstition 146, 191, 356
theology see theology
396
index
Christianity and the church – cont.
universality of the church 83
in West Francia 178–88
and women see women: and
the church
Christology 90
impacts on government and
conceptions of society 91–2
incarnation see incarnation
Pauline teaching about Jesus as
the Christ 58–66, 352–3; and
‘being in Christ’ 58, 59, 60, 61,
63, 68, 71, 88, 355
church (community, institution,
government/administration and
beliefs) see Christianity and the
church
church–state relationship see
government: and Christianity
church buildings 189
basilicas 89, 120, 121
right of sanctuary in 270
church councils 90, 113, 132–3,
143, 144, 146, 174, 186–7,
198, 211, 226, 275, 287, 324,
328, 329–30
Basle 330
Chalcedon 90
church authority resting on
congregational representation
in 339
Clermont 194
Constance 329–30, 331
fourth Lateran Council 230, 233
in Gaul 127, 135
Merovingian 144
Narbonne 195
Nicaea 90
Orléans 179
Pisa 329
Reims 192
Toledo 138, 147
church government see under
Christianity and the church
church law
canon law/canonists 161, 179,
198, 210–19, 225, 226,
227–35, 238–50, 265, 321–4;
as basis for legal comparison
229–30; civil law interaction
253–64; and conscience 213,
231, 232, 243–4, 258; and
corporation law changes 234–5,
324–8, 338; Decretales 214;
and democratic idea of
authority 296; and equality
216–17, 229–31, 234–5,
243–4, 247, 259, 308–9,
323–4; and the foundation of
liberalism 244, 327, 332, 359;
and free will 239, 243–4,
246–7, 357; Gratian’s
Decretium 214, 216, 217,
242, 244; impact on other
forms of government 252–64,
276; and intentionality 230–
33; and a jus commune 230;
and justice 216–17, 218,
229–32, 238; and the
limits of papal authority
322–5; and natural rights
245, 288, 308–9, 313–14,
332, 357–9; and property
248; and Roman law
210–19, 234–5, 241, 259,
326–7, 357
‘Christian law’ in the Carolingian
empire 159, 172, 200
and church–state relations
198–9
397
index
development of a legal system
198, 204, 207, 211–15, 227,
234, 237, 242–5, 252, 259–60,
265, 321, 358–9
first claims of papal legal
supremacy 201, 225
against pagan practices 144
and Roman law 210–19
church leaders see bishops and
the episcopal office;
cardinals; Christianity and
the church: clergy; papacy;
presbyters
Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero) 38
cities/towns
the ancient city 20–32, 265, 352
(see also city-states); citizenship
18, 24–5, 27, 28–31; civic
piety 76, 79–80; claims and
demands of 22, 28, 31–2; class
conflict 26–7, 29; corporate,
sacramental character 21–2,
28; and exile 25; and family
piety 15–16, 18, 34, 79–80
(see also religion, domestic);
founding a new city 24,
352; gods 23, 24, 26, 27, 52,
83, 352; laws 23–4; luxury
as threat to civic virtue 37;
magistrates 23, 26, 127, 265,
352; and patriotism 24–5;
polis government 28; and
priesthood 23–4, 26, 51; and
religion 21–3, 26, 27–8;
sacrifice 21–2, 23; and slaves
18, 24, 28, 29, 32; theological
debate in 4th–5th-century cities
90–91; and the transformation
of the family 20–32; urbs
and civitas distinction 25–6;
view and treatment of enemies
31–2; and women 18, 28,
29, 32
and barbarians 41, 118, 126, 127
boroughs/burgs: charters 268,
272–4; councils 275;
enfranchisement of 254, 265,
268–77; growth and
development of 254, 267–8,
270–77; judiciary 275; and rise
of middle class/bourgeoisie
276–7, 282, 354; as self-
governing legal entities 272–3;
trade associations/guilds 269,
270, 273, 275
burghers 268, 269, 272, 277,
345, 354
as centres of pilgrimage 147
as centres of work 270
and the church’s penetration of
the Roman state 81–4
civic authority 127 (see also
magistrates)
civic function of clergy 120–25,
126–8, 265, 269
development as marketplaces 267
and feudalism 266–8; and
uprisings 262, 269–72
government see government:
urban
interdependence between
countryside and 266
Islamic 273
and the merger of urbs and civitas
141–2
and the rebirth of trade 270
and refugees from countryside/
feudal system 267, 281
shift of power from cities to
empires 45–6
398
index
cities/towns – cont.
urban autonomy 254–5
urban egalitarianism 268–77
urban insurrections 262, 265–77
urban law 272–3, 276
citizenship (see also civil society)
and the ancient city 18, 24–5,
27, 28–31
becoming a ‘citizen of the
world’ 46
and charters 272–4
and Christian view of authorities
76–7, 78
corruption of citizenry 37, 356
and the decline of the
city-state 40
and equality see equality; moral
equality
heavenly 97
and heroism 31, 33, 38
and honour 37–8
and liberty 19–20, 30
and the merger of urbs and civitas
141–2
as only life worth living 25,
44–5, 46
and patriotism 24–5
and the process of abstraction 31
quaisi-citizenship of coloni
166, 167
and rationality 33, 51
and Roman undermining of local
autonomy 52
and superiority 27, 28, 33–4, 40,
51; overturned by principle of
obedience 56
and warfare 38–9, 40
and worship 24, 27
city-states 19, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30,
351–2
corruption through the domestic
sphere 39, 40–41
decline of 40–41
and submission to Roman rule
55–6
threat of luxury to 38
civil society 2, 18, 293, 296 (see
also citizenship)
and Eastern monasteries
95–9, 136
and the emerging of a distinct
private sphere 181, 293, 313,
333–4, 339
civil war 39–40
Christianity in ‘civil war’ against
secularism 333, 349–63
clans 14, 20, 21
class
aristocratic see aristocracy
and Christianity 80–81, 82–4
conflict in the ancient city 26–7, 29
merchant 266–7, 270, 273,
275, 276
middle class/bourgeoisie 276–7,
282, 312, 354; burghers 268,
269, 272, 277, 345, 354
plebs/plebeians 27, 29, 31, 34
and rationality 35–6
warrior 36
Clement of Alexandria 68–9
Clement VII, Pope 329
clergy see Christianity and the
church: clergy
Clermont, Council of 194
Clovis 132
Cluniac reform movement 185–6,
188, 196, 197–8, 201, 208,
253, 283, 287
Cluny, abbey of 185–6, 188,
196, 198
399
index
coloni 166–73, 181–2
Columbanus 132
commerce 36, 38, 267, 271,
273, 312
compassion 97, 159, 304
Compostela, shrine of St James 191
Concerning True and False
Penance 231
Concordat of Worms 208–9
confession to God 104, 190
conscience
action governed by 353
and Augustine 100, 109, 354
and canon law 213, 231, 232,
243–4, 258
and Charlemagne/the
Carolingians 152, 155, 156,
158, 159, 165, 173
in Christian apologetics 77, 78
and civil society 2
and concern for fate of the soul
158, 192
and the contractual model or
rulership 249–50
creation and protection of public
role for 334, 355
and the criticism of social
practices 355
and the distinguishing of spiritual
from temporal power 133–4,
321
exclusion of 22
and the Franciscans 305
freedom of 62, 133–4; and
‘Christian liberty’ 63–4, 65–6,
98, 213, 244, 245, 292, 294–6,
314, 324, 339, 353, 361
and the Gospel of Thomas 76
and Gregory the Great 159
and liberal secularism 334, 361
and the limits of societal
claims 354
and monasticism 96, 98, 99,
115, 139
and moral agency 183
and oath-taking 156, 165,
173, 267
and Ockham 315
papal claims of authority over
matters of see papacy: moral
authority claims
and Pauline thought 61–3, 68,
152, 352–3
and reason 160
rights of 78, 133–4, 258, 306
and secularism 292, 334, 361
Tertullian on 78
universality of 173, 352–3
conscientious mistakes 315, 319
consent 78, 99, 139, 188, 235,
239, 323
government by 247, 306 (see also
democracy); principle of
consent in church government
93, 129–31, 179–80, 201–2
and marriage 233, 239
Constance, Council of 329–30, 331
Constant, Benjamin 334
Constantine the Great 78, 89, 117
Constantinople 90–91, 199
constitutionalism 197, 273–6, 327
conversion, religious
of Augustine 100, 101
and individualism 94
Jewish Christians advocating
conversion to 63–4
Saul of Tarsus’s conversion
experience 59, 60
voluntary 155
as work of grace 103
400
index
Corinth 37, 38
corporation law 234–5, 324–8, 338
cosmology 42–3, 344
courtly love 193
crusades 194, 287
Damian, Peter 196
David, King 55
Dawkins, Richard 360
deacons 81, 93
decadence 2, 38, 360
Decius, Emperor 79
Decretales 214, 215
Decretists 214, 244, 246–7, 248
Delphi, oracle of 21, 26
Demaratus 41
democracy
and Benedictine Rule 97
and consent see consent
democratic values 83
democratizing of reason 242–51
and election of abbots 161, 249
and election of bishops 129–30,
179–80
and equal rights 277
martyrdom as a democratic
model of heroism 80
and the middle class 277
move from aristocratic to
democratic government/
authority 28, 34, 218, 234,
296, 330
representative government see
representative government
spread of 7
demons 70, 85, 95, 143–4, 160
Descartes, René 107
determinism 240
Dhuoda 157–8
dialectics 242, 298
Diderot, Denis 107
divination 26, 43
and the oracle of Delphi 21, 26
divorce 117, 233
Docetism 90
dogma 8
Dominic 286, 289
Dominicans 286–7, 289, 291–2,
298–9, 310
dominium see lordship/dominium
Donation of Constantine 200
Donatism 90
dualism
and the Cathars 287
Christian dualism anchored in
worldly institutions 252
gnostic 74, 75
of inner conviction and external
conformity 61, 71, 89, 99, 247,
354, 361
Manichaean 100, 101, 287
and the millennium 282
and the papacy 208, 220, 252
sacred–secular 197–200, 209–10,
252, 267, 273, 322, 333–4, 354
Duns Scotus, John 293–5, 296,
298, 299, 314, 341–2
Eckhart, Meister 340
economic growth 2
education
under Charlemagne 149, 156
and Christianity: alliance with
ancient learning 134–6; and
monasticism 98, 135–6, 161
clergy as educated class 136–7
decline by seventh century 146
law schools 260, 263
universities see universities
Edward I of England 263
401
index
Egypt 84, 85, 87, 94, 97, 135
England 195, 196, 208, 226, 228,
254, 263, 273, 330, 340,
344–7, 349
Anglo-Norman crown 208, 254
Commons 346
feudalism 254, 272
Parliament 345
Enlightenment 8, 17, 107, 350–51
Eon/Eudes de l’Étoile 285
equality (see also inequality)
and the church see moral
equality: Christian intuitions of
equal liberty see liberty: equal
liberty
equal rights and democracy 277
equal subjection: to a central
government 91–2; to the
church 175, 207; to God 102,
175; to the papacy 216, 217,
219, 220, 238, 287, 321–2; to
a sovereign 219, 220, 238,
346–7, 359
legal foundation for 8
and liberalism see liberalism: and
equality
moral see moral equality
‘natural’ 8, 76, 91, 205
and reciprocity see moral
equality: and reciprocity
and the role of comparison
281–2
and secularism see secularism:
and equality
and the separation of the rights to
rule and to own 295–6, 327
of souls 62, 83, 88, 96, 116,
118–19, 122, 128, 134, 140,
143, 147, 157, 160, 173, 183,
213, 240, 257, 281, 339
sovereignty and egalitarian
society 220–21, 346
between spouses 117
spread amongst poor and
illiterate 281–92
of status, and the invention of the
individual 14, 217, 237–8,
242, 274, 332, 359
urban egalitarianism 268–77
essences, theory of 51, 70, 73, 300,
304, 307–8
Ockham’s rejection 307, 309,
310, 319–20
Essenes 84
eternal ideas see essences,
theory of
Etheria 117
Eucharist 83, 144–5
Eugenius III, Pope 227, 285
European Union 350
Eusebius of Caesaria 92
Eve 291
excommunication 173, 186, 203,
248, 307, 314
of rulers 174, 199, 202, 204
exile 25
faith
and freedom 69, 76
internalizing of the Christian
faith 189
and love 59, 64, 65
personal acts of 53, 59, 64
and reason: rationalism vs faith
53, 113–14; rationality
reshaped through faith
59–60; and synthesis of
Aristotle and Christianity
298–305, 306–20
vs ritual 70
402
index
family
ancestor worship 7, 10–11,
14, 351
ancient 9–17; aristocratic
model of society arising from
see society: hierarchical/
aristocratic; as a cult 7, 10–12,
13, 14, 351; destroyed by
Christian beliefs 115–17;
domestic institutions of Greece
and Rome 11–18; domestic
religion 10–17, 18, 351;
family church 14, 15–16, 19;
family gods 11, 13, 14; family
hearth 10–11, 13, 14, 20, 116,
351; identity and family
worship 10–12, 14; inequality
of roles 12, 17, 18; paternal
authority see paterfamilias and
paternal authority; priesthood
9, 11, 15, 115–16, 351;
sacrifices 10–11, 14
associations and extension of
religious belief 14–15, 20, 21,
351–2
claims of 7, 15
clans 14, 20, 21
extended patriarchal (gens)
14, 20
justice within the family 17
piety 15–16, 18, 34, 79–80
primogeniture 7, 16, 30
and property rights 13, 16–17,
30, 142 (see also
primogeniture)
society as an association of
families 14–15, 17
transformation with rise of the
ancient city 20–32
tribes 14, 20, 22, 351–2
fate 35, 51, 60, 66, 68, 189, 191,
244, 282, 311
Ferdinand II (the Catholic), king of
Spain 344–5
feudalism 162, 165–77, 181–2,
221, 254, 344–5
centralized 254, 272, 344
changes in conditions of labour
leading to feudalism 165–8
and the church 170–77, 180,
181, 195, 197, 252
feudal law 227, 229, 230–31,
264, 345
and lordship see lordship/
dominium
and monarchy: reducing kingship
254; throwing off constraints
of feudalism 265, 344–6
and the moral transaction
220–21
and slavery 166–73, 181–2
urban refugees from feudal
system 267, 281
and urban renewal 266–8
and urban uprisings 262, 269–72
final causes 35, 251, 300, 308, 310,
319, 343
fire, sacred 10–12, 20, 116
Flanders 195, 272, 284, 344
France 29, 187, 193, 196, 208, 254,
255, 262–3, 265, 272, 286,
312, 340, 344–7, 350
Capetian dynasty 169, 255–6
Estates-General 345
French Revolution 19, 349, 360
Gaul 127, 135, 166, 167
Third Estate 346
franchise, of boroughs 254, 265,
268–77
Francis of Assisi 286, 288–9, 301
403
index
Franciscans 286, 288–91, 292
and Augustine 301–5
and the integration of Aristotle
and theology 298–305,
306–20
nominalism 306–20 (see also
nominalism)
and property rights 290–91, 293,
307, 314, 316
and rationalism 299–305,
306–20
teaching on grace 300, 301, 312
and the will 294–5
Franks 132, 134, 136–7, 172, 255
Carolingian empire see
Carolingian empire
Merovingian dynasty see
Merovingian dynasty
Salic law 137–8, 142
and Visigoths 143
Frederick I Barbarossa, Emperor
210, 263
Frederick II, Emperor 210, 262, 322
free will 70, 77, 308
and Augustine 105–6
and the canonists 239, 243–4,
246–7, 357
and conscience 77 (see also
conscience)
and consent see consent
divine and human freedom joined
306–20
and divine foreknowledge 69
and Duns Scotus 294
and faith 69
and government 156–7
and natural law 243–7, 357
and oath-taking 156
and Ockham 307, 308–20
and Pelagius 106, 107–8, 303
as a prerequisite of moral
conduct 294
and providence 69–70
and responsibility 106, 233, 361
(see also responsibility, moral)
and salvation or judgement
190, 240
freedom see liberty
French Revolution 19, 349, 360
friars see Dominicans; Franciscans
Fust 3
Fustel de Coulanges, Numa Denis
4, 9–11, 12–13, 14, 15–17, 18,
20–21, 25–6, 28, 29–30, 351
Gaius (jurist) 217
Galen 56
Gaul 127, 135, 166, 167
Gelasius, Pope 199, 253
generalization 218, 240–43
German empire
Carolingian empire see
Carolingian empire
and the Diet of Mayence 330
Hohenstaufen dynasty 210
the papacy and church relations
with Western Europe and
196–207, 258–9, 322
Germanic tribes
Burgundians 136–7, 142, 172
and the clergy 126–8, 131–3,
136–7, 139, 142, 200
Franks see Franks
Goths see Goths
law see under law
and slavery 165, 166–7
Visigoths see Visigoths
Germany 184, 194, 196, 208, 210,
273, 330, 344
Imperial Diet 345
404
index
Gerson, Jean 241, 341
Glaber, Ralph 187, 189
globalization 7–8
Gnosticism 73–4
godparents 154
gods/God
acknowledgement of shared
gods 15
civic gods 23, 24, 26, 27, 52,
83, 352
family gods 11, 13, 14
fear of 27–8
Greek gods 14, 21, 27
law as divine command 53–5,
56, 71
monotheistic God: attributes of
God debates 306; biblical God
as transformer of motives and
action 341; divine and human
freedom joined 306–20; divine
freedom vs divine rationality
307; divine judgement 190,
206, 240, 292; equal
subjection to 102, 175;
fatherhood of God 60;
God with us see incarnation;
and human agency
65; individual relationship
with God 144, 193, 311, 341;
Jewish Yahweh 53–5, 56, 73,
74; as ontological foundation
for the individual 353–4;
Pauline teachings 59–61, 63–5;
‘Peace of God’ 179–91
(see also peace movement);
sovereignty of God 180–81,
183, 204, 205, 309, 311–12;
‘Truce of God’ 187, 195, 196;
union with God 59–60, 340;
will of God see will: divine
nature gods 21 (see also
polytheism)
rationalism and the divine 53,
55, 56
Roman gods 14, 21, 27
tribal gods 20
golden rule 216, 231, 238, 244,
247, 281, 317, 356
Gorze 184
Goths 142
Arian conversion 132
sacking of Rome 89, 108
Visigoths see Visigoths
government
administrative hierarchy 255
based on sovereignty
220–21, 339
and bureaucracy 260 (see also
bureaucracy)
and the ‘care of souls’ 153, 159,
162, 172, 174, 184, 205, 216,
293, 296
centralized 113, 162, 168, 174,
225–9, 252–3, 287, 330, 340,
344–5, 346
and Christianity: canon law’s
impact on other forms of
government 252–64; under
Charlemagne 149, 152–60;
and Christian emperors 90;
Christian penetration of
Roman state 81–4; Christian
prudence in relation to Roman
government 88, 118; Christian
view of authorities 76–7, 78;
Christological impacts
91–2; church government
see Christianity and the
church: church government and
administration; church law and
405
index
church–state relations
198–9; church subject to laws of
the state 339; church’s
independence from secular
government 268, 273; co-
proprietorship 339; and the
defence of political unity
175–6; distinguishing spiritual
from temporal power 126–40;
and divine and imperial majesty
91–2; and equal subjection to
central government 91–2;
equal subjection to the church
175, 207; excommunication
of rulers 174, 199, 202,
204; influence of efficiency
of papal government 260; and
invocation of ‘Christian
humility’ 92–3; lay investiture
struggle 198, 202–5, 208–10,
217, 220; monastically inspired
approach to government 160,
184–91, 234–5; and moral
intuitions of obligation 152–60;
the papacy and church relations
with German Empire/Western
Europe 196–207, 258–9,
322; papacy as agent of
government 209, 215, 216;
‘Peace of God’ and defence
of the ‘liberty’ of the church
179–91 (see also peace
movement); and rhetoric of the
Christian people 128–9,
152–6; secular emulation and
competition 254, 259–64;
separation of church and state
333–4, 349, 360; and the
transforming of idea of
‘authority’ 92–3, 96–7,
139–40, 152, 234–5, 256, 259,
293, 296, 325, 331, 359; and
urban egalitarianism 268–75;
and withdrawal of rights of
secular government over the
sacred 252
civic authority based on
birth 127
by consent see consent:
government by
contractual model 249–50
de-sacralizing of kingship and
220, 253, 256, 273
democratic see democracy
disintegration of centralized
government after death of
Charlemagne 174, 178, 183
distinction of authority and
administration 260
and equal subjection see equality:
equal subjection
by European assemblies
345–6
and flow of authority 92,
234–5, 359
and free will 156–7
and the growth of
‘burgs’/‘boroughs’ 254
imperium see imperium
inspectors (missi) 155, 169
kingship see kingship
law see law
lordship see lordship/dominium
magistrates see magistrates
of manors 255
moral limits to public power 77,
98, 151, 152–5, 180–82, 354
move from aristocratic to
democratic 28, 34, 218, 234,
296, 330 (see also democracy)
406
index
government – cont.
move from monarchic to
aristocratic polis
government 28
of natural order 35, 42–3, 51
and oath-taking see oath-taking
and paternal authority in the
ancient family see paterfamilias
and paternal authority
by philosophers 36, 43
polis 28
as protector of peace and
property rights 252
representative see representative
government
Roman curia and position of
curialis 127, 128–9, 130
as a rule over individuals 191
self-government 234–5, 359; of
boroughs 254, 272–3, 275; of
the church 202, 234–5, 252,
265, 274; loss of 40, 46, 47,
346; and monasticism 160,
186, 188–9, 234–5; in trade
associations 269 (see also
guilds)
and service 188, 206
‘sovereign’ government caring for
individuals 339
and the sovereignty of God
180–81, 183, 204, 205
and sovereignty of the state 197
of trade 255
urban: church influences 268–75;
and the growth of ‘burgs’/
‘boroughs’ 267–8; and
insurrection and
enfranchisement 265–77;
swearing the commune and the
earliest 267, 268
grace
and Augustine 100–101, 102,
103–4, 105, 106, 108–9, 146,
303–4
conversion as work of 103
Franciscan teaching on 300,
301, 312
in Pauline doctrine 58, 64, 67
pietist teaching on 341
and reason 103, 108, 312
and the will 100–101, 102,
103–5, 108–9, 300, 303–4
Gratian, Johannes 244, 245, 247
Decretum 214, 216, 217, 242,
244, 249, 298, 357
great chain of being 35–6, 42, 52,
53 (see also inequality:
‘natural’)
Greece, ancient
city life see cities/towns: the
ancient city; city-states
cosmology 42–3
distinction between public and
domestic spheres 18, 28–9, 31,
33, 38, 40–41
domestic institutions 11–18; and
the family cult 11–12, 13
gods 14, 21, 27
Greek language 56–7
Greek philosophy and early
Christian apologetics
69–72, 113
Hellenistic 46–7
invention and concept of ‘nature’
41–2
law 41
and patriotism 25
property rights 13
tyrants 31
view of society 17
407
index
Gregory I, the Great, Pope 132,
153, 158, 199
and Gregory VII 206
Pastoral Care 139–40, 159
Gregory VII, Pope (formerly
Hildebrand) 184, 196, 202–7,
208, 211, 217–18, 225, 226,
249, 274
Dictatus Papae 203–4
Gregory IX, Pope 288
Gregory of Nyssa 72–3, 90–91
and slaves 119–20
Gregory of Tours: History of the
Franks 137, 143
Grotius, Hugo 334
guilds 269, 270, 273, 275
Guizot, François 4, 29, 122–3, 124,
128–9, 130–31, 133, 138, 150,
166, 256, 277, 331
Hellenism 46–7, 61, 63
Henry II, King 195
Henry III, Emperor 196
Henry IV, Emperor 202, 203,
204, 249
Henry VII of England 344–5, 347
Henry, itinerant preacher 283–4
Hermanus of Metz 205
Herodotus 41
heroism
ascetic 84–7; monastic see
monasticism
cities founded by a hero 23, 352
and citizenship 31, 33, 38
and the cult of individuality 337
deified heroes 20, 79
and devotion to public weal 38
and fame 79
the heroic nude 31, 38
and martyrdom 79–80
Hilaire of Arles 123
Hildebrand of Sovana 196
as pope see Gregory VII, Pope
Hincmar, Archbishop of
Reims 170, 174–5,
180–81, 183
Hobbes, Thomas 107, 334,
347, 359
Holy Roman Empire see German
empire
Holy Spirit 63, 71, 84, 88
honour 37–8
Hostiensis (canonist) 326
Huguccio 246–7, 248
human agency see agency, human
human identity see identity
human nature 46, 61, 63, 90–91,
109, 308 (see also identity)
as foundation of claim to
liberty 359
and the incarnation of Christ 90
(see also Christology)
will see will
human rights 7, 8, 359
acting in good faith, and a system
of rights 315
and canon law 244, 245, 288
of conscience 78, 133–4, 258,
306 (see also conscience)
and conscientious mistakes
315, 319
and the discourse of liberal
secularism 336
emergence of private rights-based
sphere 333–4, 339
equal rights and democracy 277
and freedom 244, 313–14,
333–4, 359
language of rights 7,
290–92, 296
408
index
human rights – cont.
natural rights 247–9, 290–92,
293, 359; and canon law 245,
288, 308–9, 313–14, 332,
357–9; and the critique of
society and the role of the
church 258, 292, 355–6; and
infidels 257–8; and natural law
208–21, 244–6, 247–9, 313–14,
356–9; and Ockham 315–16,
317, 320; and the Renaissance
335; and secularism 258,
357–9
over property see property rights
of the poor 248–9
to protect individual agency 338
of sanctuary 270
humanism 334–40, 356, 358 (see
also Renaissance)
Humbert, Cardinal 196, 202–3
Hume, David 319
humility 60, 92–3, 159, 206, 286,
300, 301, 303, 311, 341
Huns 126–7
Huss, John 331, 340
Hussites 330, 331
identity
break-through in social life 358
and Christianity: Augustinian
conception of the self 101–2,
108–9; ‘Christian Europe’, the
papacy and personal identity as
‘Christian’ 193, 194, 195–207;
‘Christian’ solidarity and the
papacy 194–5; and the
crusades 194; implications of
Pauline doctrine for human
identity 58, 62, 65, 352–3
conquest and the loss of 40
European: ‘Christian Europe’ and
the papacy 193, 194, 195–207;
and the crusades 194; moral
identity 193; Western Europe
126
and exile 25
and human nature see human
nature
Jewish 53, 57
and moral enclosure 352
and patriotism 24–5
and the soul 219–20
tribal 53
and worship in the ancient family
10–12, 14
idolatry 70
imperium
Capetian 169
Carolingian 168, 172, 180
and the papacy 219–20, 225–6;
Gregory VII 206
Roman 53, 92, 142, 149, 151–2,
186, 199, 201, 204, 205, 211,
219, 254
impetus 343–4
In nomine 246
incarnation 68, 74, 90, 92, 102,
114, 247, 287, 301 (see also
Christology)
and egalitarianism 247
Franciscan view of 301
and human nature 90
and natural law 247
individualism/the individual
abstract individualism 74–5
and agency see agency, human
and Christianity see Christianity
and the church: and
individualism/the individual
and confession 190
409
index
and the creation of states 347
and the cult/pursuit of
individuality 337, 363
and equality see equality;
equality: of souls; moral
equality
experience as the realm of the
individual 314, 338
government as a rule over
individuals 191
and identity see identity
individual acts of will 94, 95
individual as basic unit of
subjection to legal order
184–5, 204, 219, 225,
259, 293
individual as primary social role
36, 83, 154, 165, 219, 237–8,
268, 301, 304, 338, 347, 353
individual conscience see
conscience
individual responsibility see
responsibility, moral
individualist basis for a rule of
law 259, 263–4
individuated model of society see
society: as an association of
individuals
and ‘innerness’: in Christianity see
Christianity and the church:
and innerness; in popular
religious movements 340–41
introduction of words ‘individual’
and ‘state’ into English and
French languages 347
invention of the individual as a
moral notion from ontological
argument 337
kingship and individual subjects
255 (see also oath-taking)
modern individual emancipation
and the secular spirit of
antiquity 9
moral life of the individual 338,
342 (see also conscience; will)
and oath-taking 153, 154–5, 173
and rights see human rights;
rights
and self-consciousness 63, 101,
105, 145, 158, 354
and self-discipline see
self-discipline
social order founded on
individual morality and
self-discipline 98–9, 205–7,
208, 341
souls see souls
‘sovereign’ government caring for
individuals 339
trends in Roman law 92
urban insurrection and
enfranchisement 265–77
and utilitarianism 337–8
and will see will
inequality
and the ancient domestic sphere
12, 17, 18, 33, 151, 173; and
primogeniture 7, 16, 30
cosmological 42–3
feudal see feudalism
and lordship see lordship/
dominium
‘natural’ 35–6, 42, 46, 51–2, 53,
60, 68, 74, 89, 102, 113, 129,
157, 189, 192, 239, 240, 276,
281, 295, 303, 304, 306, 310,
311, 318, 336, 343, 344, 353,
357; replaced by concept of
moral equality 60–61, 66, 102,
129, 157, 192, 205, 234,
410
index
inequality – cont.
238–9, 240–41, 336, 353,
357 (see also moral
equality); slaves ‘by nature’
52, 114, 118
radical social inequality 8
of social hierarchy see society:
hierarchical/aristocratic
subordination of women 1, 12,
17, 116, 142
Innocent II, Pope 226
Innocent III, Pope 209, 210, 215,
218, 227, 233, 240, 322, 324,
327
Innocent IV, Pope 209, 210,
214–15, 227, 257–9, 322, 324,
327, 345
Inquisition 288
intentionality
and the law see law: and
intentionality
will see will
Irenaeus of Lyons 68, 77
Irnerius 211
Isabella of Spain 344–5
Isaiah 56
Islam
Carolingian reconquest of Spain
from the Muslims 148
Charlemagne and Muslims 155
and the crusades 194, 287
defeat of Muslim invaders at
Poitiers 148
growth of large Muslim
minorities 349
Islamic cities 273
Islamic fundamentalism 1, 2
and secularism 1–2, 349–50
shariah law 350
threat of radical 362
Italy 26, 29, 138, 166, 195, 199,
210, 261–2, 265, 286, 289,
330, 344, 345 (see also Roman
empire; Rome, ancient)
Renaissance see Renaissance
Ivo of Chartres 212
James the Just, brother of
Jesus 57, 67
Jerome, St 117
Jerusalem 57
church 57, 67
Roman destruction of 67
Jesuits 351
Jesus of Nazareth 57–8
and Christian beliefs about nature
of the Christ see Christology
creation of an individual will in
response to 353
death of 58, 61, 63, 64
Francis and Christ 289–90
gnostic view of 73
in the Gospel of Thomas 75, 76
Pauline teachings about see under
Christology
resurrection of 58, 63, 64, 190
second coming 88
and the ‘trial of Satan’ 264
Jews
diaspora 53
Hellenized 57
Jewish identity 53, 57
Jewish religion see Judaism
opposition to Jesus
movement 67
John the Baptist 57
John the Evangelist 68–9, 109
John XXII, Pope 227, 291
John of Châlons 130
John of Paris 291–2
411
index
Judaism 53–5, 300–301
ascetic movements 84
combined with Hellenistic
philosophy 61, 352–3
and the diaspora 53
Jewish Christians advocating
conversion to 63–4
the law 53–5, 56, 71, 244–5; and
Christian freedom 63, 353
synagogues 53
Julian, Emperor 89
justice
within the ancient family 17
attitudes of a judge 231
birth of sense of social justice
176–7
and the bishop’s court 248–9
and centralization: centralized
justice 168, 183, 192, 227, 229,
252; of legal authority 346; and
a new sense of justice 225–36
Christian moral guarantees and
social justice 264
church as spokesman for 181;
papacy as court of final appeal
209, 215, 228, 258–9, 321;
papal judicial activism 227–8
and the church’s hierarchical
court system 252
as a condition for moral conduct
294, 296
and distinction between sin and
crime 232
divine judgement 190, 206,
240, 292
and Duns Scotus 294, 296
equivalence to law, in Greek
cities 41
judicial secular trials of
clerics 179
and jurisdiction: Carolingian
167, 169; Merovingian 167;
papal claims to universality
185, 209, 216, 256–9, 327; of
the Roman empire 167; royal
claims 261–2
jus commune 230
and kingship 256
law see law
and lordship 169 (see also
lordship/dominium)
and missi (government
inspectors) 169
and moral equality: and canon
law 216–17, 218, 229–32,
238; and a new sense of
justice 66, 161, 176–7, 205,
234, 238
and natural law 356–9
nominalist reconstruction of idea
of 313–19
and Ockham 296, 317
Plato and a just society 36
and property rights 182
and punishment 147–8, 154,
231–2, 233
as ‘right reason’ 294, 296,
314–15, 316, 317, 319
separation from freedom
294, 296
separation of claims from social
facts 258
souls/individuals as units of
subjection 184–5, 204, 219,
225, 259
urban judiciary 275–6
Justin Martyr 67–8
Justinian, Emperor 113, 120–21
Corpus Juris Civilis 171–2, 211;
Institutes 218
412
index
Kant, Immanuel 107
Kempis, Thomas à 340
kingship (see also sovereignty)
and the aristocracy 29, 31
and bureaucracy 260
and canonists 265
and the cause of justice 256
and centralization of authority
229, 340, 344–5
change to local lordship 169
creation of ‘sovereign’ agency
and growth of royal power
346–7
de-sacralizing of kingship 220,
253, 256, 273
equal subjection to monarchs
346, 347
and feudalism 254, 265, 344–6
French/Capetian 169, 254,
255–6, 262–3
and idealism 347
and individual subjects 255
jurisdiction/legal supremacy
claims 261–2
and lawyers 260, 263
and liberty 347
and nostalgia 254
and the organization of Europe
344–7
and papacy see papacy: and
kingship
philosopher-kings 36, 43
and priesthood 23
and royal councils 260, 263
and tyranny 31
and a unified legal system 254
knights 178, 186, 193–4
labour
ancient contempt for 36, 39
changes leading to feudalism
165–8
and coloni 166–73, 181–2
monasticism and the
rehabilitation of 95–6, 188
rural labour and the church 171
scarcity 312, 340
serfs see serfdom
slaves see slaves/slavery
and warfare 39
Languedoc 286, 287
Last Judgement 240
Lateran Council, fourth 230, 233
law
and the ancient city 23–4
Carolingian 154, 172; capitula
of Charlemagne 156–7, 170,
172, 173; ‘Christian law’ in the
Carolingian empire 159,
172, 200
centralization of legal authority
346 (see also justice: and
centralization)
and charters 272–4
church law see church law
church subject to laws of the
state 339
civil–canon law interaction
253–64
corporation law 234–5,
324–8, 338
customary 137, 142, 212, 216,
227, 229, 230–31, 234, 262,
263
developing a unified legal system
253–64
disagreements in Western Europe
about meaning of 253
and distinguishing spiritual from
temporal power 126–40
413
index
as divine command 53–5, 56, 71,
195
equivalence to justice, in Greek
cities 41
as expression of sovereign will
255, 311
feudal 227, 229, 230, 231, 264,
345
Franciscans and the distinction
between civil and canon law
289–90
of Germanic tribes 128, 137–9,
142–3; Ripuarian 138, 142;
Salic 137–8, 142; Visigothic
code 128, 138–9, 147–8, 154
imperium see imperium
individual as basic unit of
subjection to legal order
184–5, 204, 219, 225, 259, 293
individualist basis for a rule of
259, 263–4
and intentionality 147; influence
of canon law 230–33
Islamic replacement of nation-
state law with shariah ‘law’
350
Jewish conception of law as
Yahweh’s will 53–5, 56, 71,
244–5; and Christian freedom
63, 353
justice see justice
Justinian’s law code 171–2, 211,
218
legal autonomy of the state 339
legal entities of boroughs as
self-governing corporations
272–3
maxims of private law turned into
principles of public law 235,
259
moral/natural see natural (moral)
law
personal legislation 137–8
and rationality 45
and religious belief 23–4
Roman see Roman law
royal claims of legal supremacy
261–2
and sanctions 339
schools 260, 263
urban 272–3, 276
vernacular fusion of religion
and 264
lawyers 212, 243, 259, 260, 277,
325, 338
canonists see church law: canon
law/canonists
and kings 260, 263
popes as 227
Roman 211, 241 (see also
Roman law)
Le Puy, bishop of 186
Leo I, the Great, Pope 126–7
Leo IX, Pope 196, 226
Lérins monastery 135–6
Leuctra 28
liberalism
and Christianity (see also
secularism: and Christianity):
anti-clericalism 335, 350,
356, 360; birth in Christian
moral intuitions turned against
authoritarian church 292, 305,
316, 332, 333, 338–9;
Christian beliefs sensed to
have shaped liberal secular
world 3 (see also moral
equality: Christian intuitions
of); church resistance 333; and
the church’s appeal to secular
414
index
liberalism – cont.
rulers to enforce belief 333; in
‘civil war’ against secularism
333, 349–63; foundation in
canon law 244, 327, 332, 359;
and moral equality 244, 292,
336, 338, 339 (see also moral
equality: Christian intuitions
of); preserving Christian
ontology without metaphysics
of salvation 338; separation of
church and state and the
shaping of liberalism 333–4,
349, 360
development 334
and equality: equal liberty and
moral equality 244, 292, 339,
361 (see also liberty: equal
liberty; moral equality); of
status 237–8, 274, 332, 359
and the individual see
individualism/the individual
liberal secularism 3, 313,
316–17, 331, 333–8, 349–63
(see also secularism)
Marxist infiltration of liberal
thinking 2
and ‘physicalism’ 337–8
reduced to endorsement of
market economics 363
and the Renaissance 334–48
and retreat into
individualism 363
and rights see human rights;
rights
and secularism as non-belief 2,
360–62
liberty
and the borough and its
individual inhabitants 268–77
and citizenship 19–20, 30
civil liberty claims 306, 362
divine and human freedom joined
306–20
divine freedom vs divine
rationality 307
from dogma 8
equal liberty: in Christian
apologetics 77; civil and
political liberty and equal
rights 277; emergence from
Christian moral intuitions 244,
292, 339; and liberalism/
secularism 244, 292, 339, 361;
and moral equality 244; and
Ockham 311, 313–14, 342;
and the soul’s relationship to
God 311
and faith 69, 76
from feudal social hierarchies 8
free will see free will
freedom of conscience see
conscience: freedom of
human nature as foundation for
claim to 359
liberation of clients 30
and monastic obedience 98
moral freedom 245
and moral responsibility 65–6,
71
and Ockham 311, 313–14, 342
in Pauline conceptions: and
canon law 244; ‘christian
liberty’ 63–4, 65–6, 98, 213,
244, 245, 292, 294–6, 314,
324, 339, 353, 361; of dying
in Christ 61; of freedom of
conscience 62; of new creation
61, 65; of service 65–6; of
submission to God’s will 64–6;
415
index
of superseding the Jewish
law 63; of universal
freedom 60, 64
‘Peace of God’ and defence of the
‘liberty’ of the church 179–91
(see also peace movement)
and permissiveness 246, 247
and the private sphere 181,
333–4, 339
and public power 28
and rationality 245, 311; and
Franciscan nominalism 306–
20; and rational necessity 306,
307–11, 318
rejection of Thomism in name of
God’s freedom 306–20, 341–2
and rights 244, 313–14,
333–4, 359
self-liberation, gnostic 73
separation from justice 294, 296
and sovereignty 347
women’s freedom 75–6, 95
literacy 8, 34, 146, 161
localism 162, 266
Locke, John 334, 359
logic 34, 218–19, 229, 250–51
logos see reason/rationality
Lollards 330, 331
Lombard, Peter: The Book of
Sentences 233, 242
Lombards 148, 172, 199
London 273
lordship/dominium 151–2, 156,
162, 169, 170, 171–2, 188–9,
217, 257, 295, 296
and bishops 179, 269
and Ockham 295–6
rights of 151, 169, 295, 296
and the separation of the rights to
rule and to own 295–6, 327
Lothar, king of Lorraine 183
Louis III 175
Louis VII 255
Louis IX 262–3
Louis XI 344–5, 347
Louis le Hutin 312
Louis the Pious 171, 174, 181, 183
love 59, 60, 64, 65, 89
compassion 97, 159, 304
courtly 193
and faith 59, 64, 65
and monastic community 96–7
of the poor 82–3, 121
and service 65–6
Lucius II, Pope 228
luxury 37
Macedonians 39, 40, 45, 46
Machiavelli, Niccolò 335, 356
Magdeburg 273
magistrates 23, 26, 127, 265, 352
Maistre, Joseph de 360
Manegold of Lautenbach
212–13, 249
Manichaeism 100, 101, 287
Marcion 74–5
Marculf, formulas of 143
market economy 181–2, 340
liberalism’s reduction to
endorsement of market
economics 363
marriage
and church law 233
clerical 180, 191, 260–61
and consent 233, 239
of convenience 183
customs 7, 12
and religious belief 12
remarriage 117
as a sacrament 171, 183
416
index
Marsiglio of Padua 339
Martel, Charles 148
Martin V, Pope 330
Martin of Braga 143–4
Martin of Tours 134
Martinus (jurist) 263
martyrdom 79–80, 95
and cult of the saints 115, 132,
146–7
and pilgrimage 147, 195
Marx, Karl 170, 354
Marxism 1, 2, 354, 360
Mass see Eucharist
Matilda of Tuscany,
Countess 211
Mayence, Diet of 330
meals
ceremonial 20, 22, 23
sacred 23, 144
mendicants see Dominicans;
Franciscans
merchants 31, 33, 39, 266–7, 270,
275, 276
guilds 269, 270, 273, 275
Merovingian dynasty 142–8
and church 143–7
public jurisdiction 167
messianic movements 285–6
Mill, John Stuart 334
Mithras, Zoroastrian deity 52
modernity
birth of 8
and an individuated model of
society 337, 338
and reasoning processes 338
monarchy see kingship
monasticism
and the aristocracy 179
beginnings of Christian asceticism
84–7
Benedictine Rule 97, 139–40,
183–4, 185–6, 282–3
benefices 227
and bishops 97, 227
and civil society 95–9, 136
and conscience 96, 98, 99,
115, 139
divergence of Western and
Eastern 135–6
and education/learning 98,
135–6, 161
election of an abbot 161, 249
and individualism 94, 98,
114–15
and Jerome 117
liberty and monastic
obedience 98
as a model of human association
93–4, 95–9, 188–9
and moral equality 84–5, 96–9,
136, 139–40, 160–61, 175
novices 98
organization and government
93–9, 139–40, 160–61
and Pelagianism 107
prayer 84, 86, 96, 97, 98
prestige of monastic
vocations 160
reform: of Benedict of Aniane 149,
183–4; under Charlemagne
161, 183; Cluniac
185–6, 188, 196, 197–8,
201, 208, 253, 283, 287;
impact on the countryside
282–3; and political ambition
in the church 184
scriptural foundation 96–7
and sightseers 117
and work 95–6, 188
Monica of Hippo, St 100
417
index
monotheism 53, 115
and divine and imperial majesty
91–2
God of see gods/God:
monotheistic God
Montaigne, Michel de 335
Montfort, Simon de, 5th Earl of
Leicester 287
Montpellier university 297
moral equality
Christian intuitions of 1, 3, 76, 77,
80, 88, 89, 91–2, 99, 138, 148,
152–60, 176, 190, 192, 196,
206, 210, 216, 221, 231, 238,
241, 242, 265, 267, 281, 283–4,
288, 292, 321, 332; against an
authoritarian church, as birth or
liberalism 292, 305, 316, 332,
333, 338–9; and canon law
216–17, 229–31, 234–5, 243–4,
247, 259, 308–9, 323–4 (see also
church law: canon law); and
care of souls see care of souls;
and the Carolingian empire
152–6, 157, 160, 172; defence of
egalitarian moral intuitions
293–305; and divine judgement
206, 240; and equal liberty 244,
292, 339 (see also liberty: equal
liberty); and equal subjection to
central government 91–2; and
equal subjection to the papacy
216, 217; and equality of souls
62, 83, 88, 96, 116, 118–19,
122, 128, 134, 140, 143, 147,
157, 160, 173, 183, 213, 240,
257, 281, 339; and the
Franciscans 300–301, 305 (see
also Franciscans); as God-given
60, 296; and the golden rule
216, 231, 238, 244, 247, 281,
317, 356; and the Gospel of
Thomas 76; and government
152–60; and grace see grace;
and Gregory VII 205–7; and
imperial power 91–2; and
incarnation 247; and invocation
of ‘Christian humility’ 92–3,
300; and justice see justice: and
moral equality; and limitations
on the exercise of power 77, 98,
151, 152–5, 180–82; in modern
Western view of people 13–14;
and monasticism 84–5, 96–9,
136, 139–40, 160–61, 175; and
moral identity of Europe 193;
and New Testament stance 353;
and nominalism see nominalism;
and Pauline doctrine 60–62, 63,
64–5, 66; and populist
movements 82–3, 330–31; and
the power of bishops 180–81;
and rhetoric of the Christian
people 128–9, 152–6; and
secularization 336; and the
shaping of society 76–7, 81–4,
88–93, 129, 152–6, 172–7,
179–91, 192–5, 234–5, 237–51,
268–75, 348, 353–5, 356–63
(see also Christianity and the
church: and society; justice: and
moral equality); and social
justice 264; between spouses
117; transforming idea of
‘authority’ 92–3, 96–7, 139–40,
152, 234–5, 256, 259, 293, 296,
325, 331, 359; and the truth
within 67–78, 102–5; and
urban egalitarianism 268–75;
and Visigothic legislation 147–8
418
index
moral equality – cont.
equality of status and the
invention of the individual
14, 217, 237–8, 242, 274,
332, 359
and liberalism 336, 338; birth in
moral intuitions turned against
authoritarian church 292, 305,
316, 332, 333, 338–9
and oath-taking 153, 165, 170
and reciprocity 65, 76, 96–7,
216, 231, 238, 244, 258, 268,
273, 284, 294, 296, 309, 315,
317, 353, 363
and representative government
see representative government
and rights see human rights
substituted for natural inequality
60–61, 66, 102, 129, 157, 192,
205, 234, 238–9, 240–41, 336,
353, 357
translation of moral status into
social role/status 219, 238, 339
morality
amorality 44, 362
and Christianity: and individual
moral agency 58, 61–2, 183,
341; introduction of charity
into public policy 133; and
monastic withdrawal 84–5;
and moral authority 85, 145,
204, 210, 252 (see also papacy:
moral authority claims); and
moral equality see moral
equality: Christian intuitions
of; and moral obligation 62,
92, 106, 108, 152–60, 183,
248–9, 259, 293–4, 352; and
moral universality 63, 64,
84–5, 152, 170, 172–4, 175,
302, 303 (see also moral
equality: Christian intuitions
of); and Origen 76–7; and
self-respect 81
of clergy celebrating the
sacraments 283
enforced 315
feudalism and the moral
transaction 220–21
free will as a prerequisite of moral
conduct 294, 296
freedom and moral responsibility
65–6, 71 (see also
responsibility, moral)
golden rule 216, 231, 238, 244,
247, 281, 317, 356
invention of the individual as a
moral notion 337
justice as a condition for moral
conduct 294, 296
moral agency 58, 61–2, 183,
341; and autonomy
313, 317
moral beliefs see beliefs, moral/
religious; Christianity and the
church: beliefs
moral dangers from
polytheism 114
moral enclosure 352
moral equality see moral equality
moral experience 300
moral freedom 245; and natural
rights see human rights: natural
rights
moral identity of Europe 193
moral intuitions see moral
equality: Christian intuitions of
moral law see natural (moral) law
moral life of the individual 338,
342 (see also conscience; will)
419
index
moral limits to public power 77,
98, 151, 152–5, 180–82, 354
moral obligation/responsibility
see responsibility, moral
moral perfection see perfectionism
moral rules from an agency
‘beyond’ reason 53
moral transparency 76, 105, 239
(see also moral equality: and
reciprocity)
obedience to God’s will 53–5, 64
and the search for the Absolute
53, 55
and self-discipline 341
social order founded on
individual morality and
self-discipline 98–9, 205–7,
208, 341
subordination to morally upright
will 96
motion 343–4
‘music of the spheres’ 43, 51
mystery cults 52, 53, 94
Narbonne, Council of 195
nation-states 19, 24, 221, 276, 356
replacement of laws by shariah
‘law’ 350
steps towards creation of 252–64
national opinion 346
natural (moral) law 45, 95, 131,
180, 181, 183, 185, 213, 215,
243–4, 247, 300, 308, 318
and Aquinas 313, 318, 342
equated with bibilical revelation
215, 216
and free will 243–7, 357
and incarnation 247
and individual agency 245–6
and justice 356–9
and natural rights 208–21,
244–6, 247–9, 313–14, 356–9
and Ockham 313–14, 317
and the separation of moral
precepts from natural jus 247
nature
Aristotle’s teleological model of
300 (see also final causes)
causes see causation
and convention 44, 46
gods of 21
government of natural order by
logos 35, 42–3, 51
and the great chain of being
35–6, 42, 52, 53 (see also
inequality: ‘natural’)
as a Greek invention and concept
41–2
‘human’ nature see human nature
‘natural’ equality 8, 76, 91, 205
‘natural’ inequality see inequality:
‘natural’
natural rights see under human
rights
natural science 8
physical sciences and the placing
of the mind in 337
and social hierarchy 17, 33–4,
35–6, 42, 44, 46, 51–2 (see also
equality: ‘natural’; inequality:
‘natural’; society: hierarchical/
aristocratic); slaves ‘by nature’
52, 114, 118
necessary truth 309, 311, 319
Neoplatonism 43
and Augustine 100, 101, 102–3
Netherlands 284, 330, 345
Nicaea, council of 90
Nicholas I, Pope 183, 185
Nicholas II, Pope 217
420
index
Nitria, Mount 94
nobility see aristocracy
nominalism
and Franciscan concern with
rationalism and freedom 306–20
and moral equality 236, 309–18
nominalist vs realist debate 219,
229, 236, 342–3
and the papal revolution 251
spread across Europe and in
universities 342–3
Normans/Normandy 176, 193,
228, 261–2
Anglo-Norman crown 208, 254
novices, monastic 98
nudity 31, 38, 82, 336–7
oath-taking
of coloni 167
and conscience 156, 165, 173, 267
and free will 156
and individualism 153, 154–5, 173
and moral obligation 153, 259
and moral universalism 153, 165,
170, 173
and a ruler’s care of souls 153,
154–5, 296
swearing the commune 262,
267, 268
obedience
to God’s will 53–5, 64
liberty and monastic 98
Ockham and the grounds of
obedience to secular and
religious authorities 295–6
as precondition of knowledge 56
principle, overturning superiority
claims of citizen class 56
Ockham, William of 295–6, 298,
301, 307, 308–20, 324, 341–3
and Aquinas 307–8, 310–11,
341–2
and the Augustinian tradition
311, 317
and causation 314, 318–19,
320, 343
and equal liberty 311,
313–14, 342
excommunication 307, 314
and justice 296, 313–15, 317
and natural law 313–14, 317
and natural rights 315–16,
317, 320
Ockham’s Razor 71, 310,
318–19, 320, 343
rejection of essences 307, 309,
310, 319–20
and the will 307, 308, 309–10,
311, 314, 315, 317, 342
Odilo, abbot of Cluny 188
Odo of Dover 246
Onesimus 118
Oresme, Nicholas 343, 344
Origen 69–70, 76–7
Orléans, Council of 179
Osiris, Egyptian god 52
Otto I 178
Oxford university 297, 357
Pachomius 96, 97
Padua university 357
paganism 71, 80, 115, 137, 356
(see also polytheism)
incorporation of pagan
practices into the church
115, 144
and Julian 89
and Pelagianism 107
temples 21, 115
paideia 81–2, 83, 91, 93
421
index
Palestine 56, 117, 287
crusades and the Holy Land
194, 287
Jesus movement 57–8
Palladius: Lausiac History 94
papacy
and the aristocracy 179, 195–6
bureaucracy 213, 227, 260;
divisionalizing of legislation,
justice and administration 260
call for understanding between
religions to combat secularism
360
care of souls 203–4, 216
and the Carolingian empire 200;
and Charlemagne 148–9
centralization of administration in
252–3, 287, 330
and church relations with
German Empire/Western
Europe 196–207, 258–9, 322
and the Cluniacs 196, 201
corruption by secular powers 201
as court of final appeal 209, 215,
228, 258–9, 321
and the crusades 194, 287
dualism 208, 220, 252
efficiency of papal government 260
equal subjection to 216, 217,
219, 220, 238, 287, 321–2
first claims of legal supremacy in
the church 201, 225
fostering identity of ‘Christian
Europe’ 194–207; and the
crusades 194
Franciscan–papal argument poverty
debate over property rights
290–91, 293, 307, 314, 316
and imperium 206, 219–20,
225–6
and the Inquisition 288
judicial activism 227–8
and kingship 256, 258–9;
emulation and competition
254, 259–64; investiture
struggle 198, 202–5, 208–10,
217, 220
moral authority claims 204, 210;
and universal jurisdiction 185,
209, 216, 256–9, 327
papal bull, Unam Sanctam 328
papal correspondence 226–7
papal election procedure 201–2
papal sovereignty/plenitude of
power 185, 203–5, 210, 212,
215, 216, 217, 219, 220, 221,
226, 227, 232, 238, 240, 241,
257–8, 260, 264, 274, 275,
287–8, 293, 321–5, 358;
canonists and the limits of
322–5; and the ‘Donation of
Constantine’ 200
pope as ‘vicar of Christ’ 215–16
popes as lawyers 227
reform movement 201–7,
208–11, 226–9, 238, 253, 256,
287–8, 321–3; and canon law
161, 179, 198, 210–19, 225,
226, 227–35, 238–50, 321–4;
and the church as a self-
governing corporation 202,
234–5, 252, 265, 274; and the
de-sacralizing of kingship 220,
253, 256, 273; under Leo IX
196–7
and Roman law 210–17
and the struggle for representative
government in the church
328–32
Paris university 297, 357
422
index
paterfamilias and paternal authority
9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 17, 18, 26,
30, 51, 92, 107, 115–16, 142,
151, 173, 179, 183, 295, 351
weakening of authority 30, 92,
116, 117, 192, 217
patriotism 24–5, 36–7, 335
Paul, St 58–66, 67, 70
on Christ see under Christology
and christian liberty see liberty: in
Pauline conceptions
conversion experience 59, 60
and human authorities 76
identity implications of Pauline
thought 58, 62, 65, 352–3
influence on Augustine 100, 101–2,
103, 104–5, 108, 302, 354
latent individualism in Pauline
thought 60–63, 64, 65, 68,
75, 76
moral equality/universalism in
Pauline thought 60–62, 63,
64–5, 66, 352–3
and slavery: implications of
Pauline teaching 60, 62, 63;
and Onesimus 118
and the will 245, 294
as young Saul of Tarsus 56, 57, 59
pax romana 99
peace movement
developments stemming from:
chivalry 193–4; Christian
solidarity and the papacy 193,
194–5; courtly love 193; papal
reform 196
‘Peace of God’ and defence of the
‘liberty’ of the church 179–91
peasants
and the ‘Peace of God’
movement 187
serfs see serfdom
uprisings 176
Pelagius
and Augustine 106–9, 303
and perfectionism 106,
107–8, 303
Peloponnesian War 27, 45
penance 199, 231, 232
Concerning True and False
Penance 231
Pepin III 148
perfectionism 158, 286
and Augustine 101, 106,
107–8, 304
and Pelagius 106, 107–8, 303
persecution 79–80, 94–5, 157
Persians 45
Peter, St (Simon Peter) 57
Philimathius 124
Philip Augustus of France 262–3
Philip IV, the Fair 322, 328
Philip of Macedon 40
philosophy
and Christianity/theology:
Abelard and philosophical
argument 250–51; debates
about roles of philosophy
and theology 306; and divine
and human freedom joined
306–20; early alliance of
Christianity with philosophical
traditions 134; emergence of
philosophy from theology
250–51, 296; Greek philosophy
and early Christian apologetics
69–72, 113; rationalism and
the Franciscans 299–305,
306–20; synthesis of Aristotle
and Christianity 298–305,
306–20
423
index
and the difference between words
and things 250–51
emergence of philosophical
thinking 34
government by philosophers
36, 43
Greek philosophy recovered in
twelfth century 218
Hellenistic 61, 63
increasing self-awareness of
philosophers 56
merged with Judaism 61, 352–3
moral philosophy and an atomized
model of society 337–8
Neoplatonic see Neoplatonism
nominalism see nominalism
Platonic see Plato; Platonism
‘practical’ philosophers 85
and the process of abstraction
250–51
realist vs nominalist debate 219,
229, 236
and reason 35–6
Sophism 41, 43–4
Stoicism 46, 300, 303, 311, 357
Thomism see Thomas Aquinas
utilitarian 1, 337–8, 363
physical theory 343, 344, 358
piety
as an aristocratic value 83
civic 76, 79–80
and confession 104
family 15–16, 18, 34, 79–80
lay 189
pietist movements 330, 340, 341
Pilate, Pontius 88
pilgrimage 147, 191, 195, 215
Pisa, Council of 329
plague 312, 340
Plato 44–5, 51, 56
doctrine of forms 307–8 (see also
essences, theory of)
Laws 17
and philosopher-kings 36, 43
and the Renaissance 335
Republic 36
Platonism 53, 55, 72–4 (see also
Plato)
and Gnosticism 73–4
Neoplatonism see Neoplatonism
Platonic ideas 229, 236 (see also
essences, theory of)
plebs/plebeians 27, 29, 31, 34
Plotinus 101
Plutarch 24, 28
Poitiers, Battle of 148
polis see city-states
political theory, and an atomized
model of society 337–8
polytheism 14, 21, 52, 71, 115, 143
Christian rejection seen as
atheism 89
church’s struggle against 146; and
Ockham’s rejection of essences
307, 309, 310, 319–20
moral dangers of 114
taken into Christian practices 115
Prague 331, 340
prayer 15, 23, 77, 104
monastic 84, 86, 96, 97, 98
presbyters 81, 93
priesthood
in the ancient city 23–4, 26, 51
Christian priests see Christianity
and the church: clergy
and the clan 20
within the family 9, 11, 15,
115–16, 351
and kingship 23
and magistrates 23, 352
424
index
primogeniture 7, 16, 30
processions 121
proctorship 326–7
property rights
and canon law 248
church property 186, 252
and the claims of God 181
and the family 13, 16–17, 30,
142 (see also primogeniture)
Franciscan–papal poverty debate
290–91, 293, 307, 314, 316
and justice 182
and property as a social
institution 248
protecting role of government 252
and religious belief 12, 13,
16–17, 92
Protagoras 44
Protestant Reformation 8, 335
providence 69–70
Pseudo-Isidorian Forgeries 181
Ptolemy, Claudius 43
punishment 25, 82, 147–8, 153,
154, 231–2, 233
purgatory 190, 240
rationality see reason/rationality
realist vs nominalist debate 219,
229, 236, 342–3
reason/rationality
abandonment of 40
and Abelard’s account of
knowledge 250–51
and an Absolute beyond reason
53, 55
and agency see agency, human:
and reason
a priori reasoning/knowledge
146, 307, 309, 342
and Aquinas 299–300, 305
Aristotelian rationalism and
Christianity 298–305, 306–20
belief in unequal distribution
of 304
and ‘causes’ of external events
35, 70, 146, 251, 318–19, 320,
342–3
and Christian arguments of the
second century 68–77
and citizenship 33, 51 (see also
citizenship)
and conscience 160
deductive reasoning 36, 72, 104,
146, 309, 319, 342
democratizing of reason 242–51
dialectical reasoning 242, 298
and disagreement 39; university
disputations 298
and the divine 53, 55, 56
enduring power of rationalism 73
and faith see faith: and reason
and fate 35, 68
Franciscans and rationalism
299–305, 306–20
generalization 218, 240–43
and Gnosticism 73–4
government of natural order by
logos 35, 42–3, 51
government of social order and
actions by 35, 36, 51–2
and grace 103, 108, 312
and hierarchy 35–6, 39, 46, 52,
102, 244–5, 312–13;
assumptions 33–4, 35–6, 42–3,
44, 46, 51, 68, 114, 244–5,
312–13; and Augustine’s
reassessment of intellect 102,
244–5; and social superiority
35–6, 39, 46, 52, 102, 244–5,
311, 312–13
425
index
and humility 59–60, 300,
301, 303
inductive reasoning 309, 319
invention of the individual as a
product of ontological
argument 337
and law 45
and liberty see liberty: and
rationality
limits of deductive reason
71–3, 146
logic 34, 218–19, 229
and Ockham 307, 308–20, 342;
definition of rational agency
314; and Ockham’s razor 71,
310, 318–19, 320, 343
and philosophy 35–6
and the powers of abstraction
43, 241
and the public sphere 35
rational agency 14, 65, 311, 314
rational enquiry replacing
Christian belief 8
rational necessity 306,
307–11, 318
and the realm of pure ideas 114
reason understood as part of
creation 342
‘right reason’ 245, 300, 301, 309;
and justice 294, 296, 314–15,
316, 317, 319
scholastic method 243, 335,
350, 358
and submission to God’s will
64–6
and teleology 35, 44–5, 52, 311
(see also final causes)
and the threat of Roman
power 52
and the university 297–8
use for understanding physical
processes 338
and will 35–6, 53, 64, 108
reciprocity 65, 76, 96–7, 216, 231,
238, 244, 258, 268, 273, 284,
294, 296, 309, 315, 317, 353,
363
Reformation, Protestant 8, 335
Reims, Council of 192
relics 115, 132, 146–7, 191, 282
religion
and the ancient city 21–3, 26,
27–8
Christian see Christianity and the
church
church see Christianity and the
church
and the clan 20
domestic 10–17, 18, 351
faith see faith
gods see gods/God
and innerness 341; in
Christianity see Christianity
and the church: and innerness;
in popular religious movements
340–41; and the will 341–2
Jewish see Judaism
monotheistic 53 (see also
Christianity and the church;
Islam; Judaism)
Muslim see Islam
mystery cults 52, 53, 94
mystical 340
pagan see paganism
papal call for understanding
between religions to combat
secularism 360
polytheistic see polytheism
priesthood see Christianity and
the church: clergy; priesthood
426
index
religion – cont.
religious authority 116, 127, 252,
267 (see also Christianity and
the church: clergy; papacy;
priesthood; scriptures); of kings
23; of paterfamilias see
paterfamilias and paternal
authority
religious beliefs see beliefs, moral/
religious; Christianity and the
church: beliefs; theology
religious conversion see
conversion, religious
religious fundamentalism:
Christian 362; Islamic 1, 2
religious pluralism 360
religious radicalism in the
countryside 283–5, 288–92
sacred fire 10–12, 20, 116
sacred meals 23, 144
scriptures see scriptures
temples 21, 115
vernacular fusion of law and 264
and the weakening of local
identities 52
worship see worship
Renaissance 334–48, 350
and humanism 334–40,
356, 358
representative government
emergence of basis for 128–9
government by consent
247, 306
as only appropriate form for
a society based on moral
equality 332
struggle in the church for
328–32
responsibility, moral 65–6, 71, 77,
98, 106, 208, 233, 314, 361
moral obligation 62, 92, 106,
108, 152–60, 183, 248–9, 259,
293–4, 352
of rulers 159
rhetoric
emergence as a public discipline 34
of love of the poor 82–3, 121
rulership and and rhetoric of the
Christian people 128–9, 152–6
rights
and the discourse of liberal
secularism 336
of dominium 151, 169, 295, 296
emergence of private rights-based
sphere 333–4, 339
human/natural see human rights
property see property rights
to protect individual agency 338
Ripuarian law 138, 142
ritual and ceremony
and the ancient city 21, 22, 23
ceremonial meals 20, 22, 23
family 7, 10–11, 14, 351
marriage 12
sacramental see Christianity and
the church: sacraments
sacrifice see sacrifice
vs simple faith 70
Robespierre, Maximilien de 19
Roger II 261–2
Roman Catholic Church 349
Roman empire
and Christianity see Christianity
and the church: and Rome
conquest of Gaul 166
curia/curialis 127, 128–9, 130
Eastern empire 121, 136
and Germanic invaders 126–8,
131–3, 136–9 (see also
Germanic tribes)
427
index
Holy Roman Empire see German
empire
imperium see imperium:
Roman
individualist trends in Roman
law 92
law see Roman law
and paideia 81–2, 83, 91
pax romana 99
prohibition of sacrifice by later
Roman emperors 115
public jurisdiction 167
restored Western ‘Roman’ empire
under Charlemagne see
Carolingian empire
undermining of sustaining
piety 76
Western decline and fall 121,
130–31
Roman law
and canon law 210–19, 234–5,
241, 259, 326–7, 357
clergy and the preservation of
137–9, 147–8
and coloni 166
Corpus Juris Civilis of Justinian
171–2, 211, 218
and Frederick II 262
and the German invaders
137–9, 142–3, 147–8
humanitarian changes 117
individualist trends 92
and lordship/dominium 151
and the papacy 210–17
and paternal power 117
on proctorship 326–7
on property 16
Rome, ancient (see also Roman
empire)
aristocrats 81–2
army reorganization by
numbers 34
basilicas 89
and Christian emperors 90
Christian prudence in relation to
Roman government 88, 118
and the church see Christianity
and the church: and Rome
church of San Clemente 115
city life see cities/towns: the
ancient city
counsul 23
distinction between public and
domestic spheres 18, 33
domestic institutions 11–18; and
the family cult 11–12, 13
family piety 15–16
father of the family see
paterfamilias and paternal
authority
and Gibbon 9
gods 14, 21, 27
law see Roman law
plebs/plebeians 27, 29, 31, 34
property rights 13
sacking by Goths 89, 108
spread of Roman power as threat
to aristocratic order 52
view of society 17
Romulus 24, 26
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques 19, 28, 359
royal councils 260, 263
Rufinus (canonist) 245–6
rural populations
and Christianity 282–92; and
clergy 144, 149, 171, 180, 182,
281–2; monastic impact 282–3;
religious radicalism 283–5,
288–92
labour 171
428
index
rural populations – cont.
and market economies
181–2, 340
refugees from the countryside
267, 281
the rural poor 182, 282, 283
rural radicalism 281–2
Sabellianism 90
sacraments 120, 121, 154, 182
baptism 63, 71, 83, 154, 155,
173, 257, 284
Eucharist 83, 144–5
marriage 171, 183
and the personal morality of
celebrant priests 283
sacred fire 10–12, 20, 116
sacred meals 23, 144
sacrifice
and the ancient city 21–2, 23
and the family hearth 10–11, 14
of the Mass 144–5
prohibition by later Roman
emperors 115
purity and the church’s view of 68
saints, cult of the 115, 132, 146–7,
190–91, 282
Salic law 137–8, 142
San Clemente, Rome 115
sanctuary, right of 270
Satan, ‘trial of’ 264
Saul of Tarsus see Paul, St
Saxons 148, 155, 172
scepticism 41, 44, 335, 356
scholastics/scholasticism 243, 335,
350, 358
science
empirical/experimental 313, 318
natural 8
‘rational’ 313, 318
scriptures
appeals to 206, 215
Christian canon 135
Jewish 54
and Marcion 74
and natural law 215, 216
New Testament’s stance of
equality 353
scriptural foundation of monastic
life 96–7
secularism
and Christianity 3, 349–63 (see
also liberalism: and
Christianity); anti-clericalism
335, 350, 356, 360; Christian
moral guarantees and social
justice 264; and the church’s
appeal to force 332; church’s
independence from secular
government 268, 273; in ‘civil
war’ 333, 349–63; and
legitimate authority 335–6;
and moral equality 336, 352–5
(see also moral equality:
Christian intuitions of); and
moral intuitions turned against
the church 292, 305, 316, 332,
333, 338–9; and natural law
and rights 258, 356–9; papal
corruption by secular powers
201; and the sacred–secular
dualism 197–200, 209–10,
252, 267, 268, 273, 322,
333–4, 354; secularism as
Christianity’s gift to the world
360–61
and conscience 292, 334, 361
and constitutionalism 273–6
and the democratic idea of
authority 296
429
index
and equality: liberalism’s concept
of equal liberty 244, 292, 339,
361; of status 237–8, 274, 332,
359
and freedom 244, 292, 339, 361
as gateway to beliefs 361
and Islam 1–2, 349–50
liberal 3, 313, 316–17, 331,
333–8, 349–63 (see also
liberalism)
and liberalism as non-belief 2,
360–62
modern individual emancipation
and the secular spirit of
antiquity 9
and natural rights 258, 357–9
papal call for understanding
between religions to combat
360
and the Renaissance 334–48
secular translation of Christian
idea of the soul 348
in the United States 349, 361,
362–3
self-consciousness 63, 101, 105,
145, 158, 354
self-cultivation 337 (see also
Renaissance)
self-denial 51, 84, 304
self-discipline 139, 188, 208, 341
social order founded on
individual morality and 98–9,
205–7, 208, 341
self-government see under
government
self-mortification 85 (see also
asceticism)
self-respect 81, 176, 182, 193, 315
and work 95
Seneca (the Younger) 35, 55, 118
serfdom 30, 182, 221, 266,
270, 312
and the church 170–77
and the disappearance of slavery
165–8, 170, 176
service 65–6
sexuality
sexual renunciation, and
‘dedicated virgins’ 85, 95, 116
Shakespeare, William 348
Shenoute 97
Sicily 261–2
Sidonius Apollinaris 123–5,
129, 142
Siedentop, Larry: Democracy in
Europe 353–4
Sigismund, Emperor 329
Simeon the Stylite 85
simony 180, 203
slaves/slavery 117–20, 166–73
and the ancient city 18, 24, 28,
29; slaughtering of slaves in
conquered cities 32
and the Carolingian empire 154
and the church 81, 91, 117–20,
170–73; and Gregory of Nyssa
119–20; and Pauline doctrine
60, 62, 63
and coloni 166–73, 181–2
and feudalism 166–73, 181–2
and the Germanic tribes 165,
166–7
and the patriarchal family 20
and serfs 30, 165–8, 176
slaves ‘by nature’ 52, 114, 118
social mobility 340
society
and the ancient family 7–17
as an association of families
14–15, 17
430
index
society – cont.
as an association of individuals
7–8, 129, 238, 239–40, 243,
250, 251, 269, 293, 311–12,
327, 339–41, 346–8; and
emergence of national opinion
346; modernity’s individuated
model 337, 338
atomized model of 337–8
birth of sense of social justice
176–7
and the church see Christianity
and the church: and society
citizenship see citizenship
civil see civil society
class see class
criticism of social practices: and
conscience 355 (see also
conscience); and natural rights
258, 292, 317, 355–6
egalitarian, based on sovereignty
220–21, 346
emergence of ‘the people’ on the
public stage 189
and equality see equality;
inequality; moral equality
government see government
hierarchical/aristocratic 17, 33–4,
35–6, 41, 42, 44, 46, 51–2,
84, 102, 104, 118, 122, 151,
234 (see also aristocracy;
inequality: ‘natural’);
administrative hierarchy
255; and Augustine’s
reassessment of intellect 102,
244–5; and the birth of a sense
of social justice 176–7; and
reason see reason/rationality:
and hierarchy; threatened by
Roman power 52
individual as primary social role
36, 83, 154, 165, 219, 237–8,
268, 301, 304, 338, 347, 353
and intermediate associations
14, 327
law see law
liberation from feudal social
hierarchies 8
and mystical union in Christ
62–3, 302 (see also body of
Christ)
Plato and a just society 36
pluralism of European 253–6
‘proper’ place and role in 36
rationality and social superiority
35–6, 39, 46, 52, 102, 244–5,
311, 312–13
rural see rural populations
and shift of power from cities to
empires 45–6
slaves see slaves/slavery
social customs 7, 12
social evolution of Germanic
kingdoms 137–8
social institutions as threat to the
self 337
social order founded on
individual morality and
self-discipline 205–7, 208
social protest 176
urban see cities/towns
and voluntary association 94,
234, 235
women see women
Socrates 37–8, 44, 45
Solon 21
Sophists 41, 43–4
souls
care of see care of souls
equality of see equality: of souls
431
index
fate of the individual soul 75,
143, 145, 157, 158, 160, 240;
individual salvation 160,
189–90, 217, 356
and identity 219–20
immortal 190
individuals/souls as units of
subjection 184–5, 204, 219,
225, 259, 293
relationship between God and the
individual soul 144, 193, 311,
341
secular translation of Christian
idea of the soul 348
sovereignty of God over 180–81,
183, 204, 205
of those outside the Christian
faith 257
universality of will and conscience
in 173
Southern, Richard 226
sovereignty (see also kingship)
birth of idea of 219
and centralization 229, 340,
344–5, 346
creation of ‘sovereign’ agency and
growth of royal power 346–7
divine 180–81, 183, 204, 205,
309, 311–12
egalitarian society based on
220–21, 346
emergence of sovereign agency
258, 346–7
equal subjection to 219, 220,
238, 346–7, 359
and the investiture struggle 198,
202–5, 208–10, 217, 220
law as expression of sovereign
will 255, 311
and liberty 347
papal see papacy: papal
sovereignty/plenitude of
power
‘sovereign’ government caring for
individuals 339
Spain 148, 340, 345–6
Castile 263
Catalonia 265, 344
Cortes 345
Sparta 27, 28, 31–2, 37,
38–9, 41
Spinoza, Baruch 107
state
church–state relations see
government: and Christianity
government see government
the individual and the creation of
states 347
legal autonomy 339
separation of church from
333–4, 349, 360
sovereignty 197
Stoicism 46, 300, 303, 311, 357
superstition 8, 146, 191, 351, 356
swearing the commune 262, 267,
268
synagogues 53
Syria 84, 85, 87, 135
Tanchelm 284–5
taxation 169
tithing 173
teleology 35, 44–5, 52, 77, 311
Aristotle’s teleological model of
nature 300 (see also final
causes)
temples 21, 115
terrorism 1, 349
Tertullian 70, 77–8, 134
Theodosian, Emperor 120
432
index
Theodosian code see Roman law
Theodosius, Emperor 199
Theodulf, Bishop of Orléans
149, 172
theology (see also Christianity and
the church: beliefs)
Christology see Christology
and dialectical reasoning 242
distinguishing orthodoxy from
heresy 90, 113, 126, 287
divine attributes and relationships
with man see gods/God:
monotheistic God
and freedom see liberty
‘natural’ 298, 311, 313, 342 (see
also Thomas Aquinas)
Pauline see Paul, St
and philosophy see philosophy:
and Christianity/theology
soteriology: faith see faith; fate of
the soul see souls: fate of the
individual soul; grace see grace
Thomistic see Thomas Aquinas
and the will see will
Thomas, Gospel of 75–6
Thomas à Kempis 340
Thomas Aquinas 256, 298,
299–300, 302, 305, 306
assimilation of Aristotle 298,
299, 300, 302, 305, 306, 308,
310, 317–18, 341
and Augustine 302
and natural law 313, 318, 342
and Ockham 307–8, 310–11,
341–2
rejection of Thomism in name of
God’s freedom 306–20, 341–2
Summa Theologica 300, 306
Thucydides: History of the
Peloponnesian War 38
Tierney, Brian 4, 214, 245, 247,
248, 324–5, 326, 357
time 54
tithing 173
Tocqueville, Alexis de 29, 334
Toledo, Council of 138, 147
towns see cities/towns
‘trial of Satan’ 264
tribes 14, 20, 22, 351–2
‘Truce of God’ 187, 195, 196
tyrants, Greek 31
Unam Sanctam, papal bull 328
United States of America 349, 361,
362–3
universities 243, 297–8, 338–9,
350, 357
and law schools 263
and nominalism 342–3
and popes 214–15
Urban II, Pope 194, 196
Urban VI, Pope 328–9
utilitarianism 1, 337–8, 363
Valerian, Emperor 79
values
aristocratic 83 (see also paideia;
piety)
democratic 83
Virgil: Aeneid 16, 26
virtue 25, 37, 54, 118, 303,
311, 341
civic 24–5, 36–7; contrasted
with that of the
Christian 335
Visigoths 134, 136–7, 159
clergy 129, 143–4, 148, 166
and Franks 143
Visigothic code 128, 138–9,
147–8, 154
433
index
Voltaire 360
voluntarism 55
warfare 22, 38–9
and citizenship 38–9, 40
civil see civil war
and priesthood 23
Roman army reorganization by
numbers 34
warrior class 36
West Francia 178–88
will
and Augustine 101–2, 103–10,
146, 245, 302–4, 308
community as free association of
wills 61
conforming to an external will
53–5, 71
corruption of 104–5
divine 53–5; freedom through
submission to 64–6; linked to
human agency 61, 65, 68,
306–20; universalized and
internalized 245
‘final causes’ and intentionality
35, 251, 300, 308, 310, 319,
343
and the Franciscans 294–5
free see free will
and grace 100–101, 102, 103–5,
108–9, 300, 303–4
and Greek philosophers
35–6
individual acts of 94, 95
Jesus and the creation of an
individual will 353
legislation and intentionality
147; canon law 230–33
misuse of 71
morally upright 96, 146
and occupation with innerness
341–2
and Ockham 307, 308,
309–10, 311, 314, 315, 317,
342
and Pauline doctrine 245, 294
and Pelagianism 106,
107–8, 303
as a power of the soul 109
and reason 35–6, 53, 64, 108
redeeming 69
stripping of intentionality from
physical world 146
transformation of the will
105, 146
and understanding 56
universality of 173
voluntarism 55
weakness of 101–2,
104–5, 107
women
and the ancient city 18, 28, 29;
slaughtering in conquered
cities 32
and the church 81, 116–17, 183;
‘dedicated virgins’ 85, 95, 116;
and the Gospel of Thomas
75–6; and the ‘Peace of God’
187; status as wives and
mothers 233
freedom of 75–6, 95
and religious belief 12
subordination of 1, 12, 17,
116, 142
travellers 116, 117
work see labour
Worms, Concordat of 208–9
worship
ancestor 7, 10–11, 14, 351
and citizenship 24, 27
index
worship – cont.
in domestic religion 10–17,
18, 351
Emperor worship 79–80
gods worshipped see
gods/God
identity and family worship
10–12, 14
of images 149
and patriotism 25
and priesthood see priesthood
temples 21, 115
Wycliffe, John 330, 340
Xenophon: Hiero 33
Xerxes 41
Yahweh 53–5, 56 (see also gods/
God: monotheistic God)
and Gnosticism 73, 74