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the development of English law during the early eleventh century. Background: politics and society in early medieval England Understanding the origins of Wulfstan’s political thought requires some knowledge of the troubled history of later Anglo-Saxon England. His vision of a holy society cannot be separated from the social and intellectual upheavals that radically reshaped
Much of this chapter also appears in SD , fols. 43r–45r. 2 Classical political thought imagined close ties between different levels of sovereignty, paralleling the responsibilities of a ruler with those of a male head of household: Aristotle, Politics 1.1–2; Cicero, De officiis 1
GL , pp. 64–5. A foundational document for politics and political thought in the European Middle Ages, it was only in the fifteenth century recognised as a forgery (probably from the eighth century). 194 470 years, if counting from 330 to 800 (the year of Charlemagne's imperial coronation in Rome
Archbishop Wulfstan of York is among the most important legal and political thinkers of the early Middle Ages. A leading ecclesiastic, innovative legislator, and influential royal councilor, Wulfstan witnessed firsthand the violence and social unrest that culminated in the fall of the English monarchy before the invading armies of Cnut in 1016. This book introduces the range of Wulfstan's political writings and sheds light on the development of English law during the early eleventh century. In his homilies and legal tracts, Wulfstan offered a searing indictment of the moral failures that led to England’s collapse and formulated a vision of an ideal Christian community that would influence English political thought long after the Anglo-Saxon period had ended. More than just dry political theory, however, Wulfstan’s works are composed in the distinctive voice of someone who was both a confidante of kings and a preacher of apocalyptic fervour. No other source so vividly portrays the political life of eleventh-century England: what it was, and what one man believed it could be.
to each his due’. 3 [ 1.2 ] Aquinas was especially influential on medieval political thought, reconciling the teachings of Christ with Aristotelian logic to achieve a distinctive philosophy of law and the state. Mankind, he argued, could not apprehend the eternal law of God directly, but by applying reason (the divine spark which set man apart from and above the animals) he might deduce a body of
evasion. 6 M. Kowaleski, Local Markets and Regional Trade in Exeter , Cambridge, 1995, p. 96. 7 S. Reynolds, ‘Medieval urban history and the history of political thought’, Urban History Yearbook , 1982, pp. 14–23; S. H. Rigby, ‘Urban
The documents in this section consist of Wulfstan’s political tracts, those texts the archbishop composed either for public circulation or as private memoranda with the purpose of articulating or advocating for some aspect of his social vision.
). Latin text: Iohannis Wyclif De Civili Dominio , vol. 2., ed. J. Loserth (London: WS, 1900), pp. 5–7. At the beginning of this chapter, Wyclif explains that he is responding here to a Benedictine monk in Oxford who attacked his claim that temporal lords may remove property from churchmen who abuse it in some way. This principle played a defining role in Wyclif’s late political thought. Throughout the chapter, he addresses the monk as ‘my brother’. [In defending his position on sacerdotal exemption from taxation,] my
’s smattering of classical allusions a conscious effort to outline new modes of political thought, caution is advisable. The ‘Ciceronian’ allusion that opens the letter of dedication is not in fact Ciceronian at all, but drawn from a reference to Plato in Boethius’s Consolation of philosophy . 280 In an age when classical quotations could come from intermediary sources and not necessarily from direct
deal with effectively. 445 9 Kingship and bishops Hincmar’s works have often played a key role in discussions of Carolingian ‘political thought’. 446 Recent studies of such thought have tended to move away from purely abstract theories to look at intellectuals’ responses to particular political events; 447 we should remember that in De