The Political Thought of Thomas Aquinas

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THE POLITICAL THOUGHT OL THOMAS AQUINAS

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POETIC EXPERIENCE AN INTRODUCTION TO THOMIST AESTHETICS

MORALS AND MARRIAGE THE CATHOLIC BACKGROUND TO SEX

BARBARA CELARENT A DESCRIPTION OF SCHOLASTIC DIALECTIC

PHOENIX AND TURTLE THE UNITY OF KNOWING AND BEING

ST THOMAS AQUINAS PHILOSOPHICAL TEXTS

BRITAIN AT ARMS A SCRAPBOOK OF MILITARY HISTORY

BETWEEN COMMUNITY AND SOCIETY A PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY OF THfi STATE

ST THOMAS AQUINAS THEOLOGICAL TEXTS

UP THE GREEN RIVER A NOVEL

THE POLITICAL THOUGHT OF THOMAS AQUINAS

Thomas ^Gilby

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

Library of Congress Catalog Number 58-5539 THE

UNIVERSITY

OF

CHICAGO

PRESS,

CHICAGO

37

Longmans, Green & Co., Ltd., London W.i, England. The University of Toronto Press, Toronto 5, Canada Copyright in the International Copyright Union. Published 1958 Second Impression 1963 Printed in Great Britain

TO HARRY WALSTON

Attendendum est quod aliter sumunt politicum vel civile apud Philosophum et aliter apud Juristas. Commentary, V Ethics, lect. 12

vi

J*

CONTENTS

ABBREVIATIONS

viii xiv xiv

INTRODUCTION

XV

SYNOPSIS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PART ONE.

THE INFLUENCES AT WORK

Chapter I. THEOLOGIANS 1. The Bible as Mundane Guide 2. The Theology of Natural Law Chapter II. JURISTS 1. Canonists 2. Civilians Chapter III.

5

10 16 23

31 48

LANDED MEN AND WANDERERS

1. The Social Scene 2. The Order of Preachers Chapter IV. PHILOSOPHERS 1. The New Naturalism 2. Aristode from the Arabic and Greek PART TWO.

2

THE DEVELOPMENT IN ST THOMAS

55 55 66 73 75 78 90

Chapter 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

V. THE ADVANCE FROM THE THEOLOGIANS Law in Nature The Concept of Law Types of Law The Jus Gentium, Dominion a Natural Condition

111 124 136 142 146

Chapter 1. 2. 3. 4.

VI. A DRAFT FOR THE JURISTS Law-Making as Art The Limits to Legalism Legality and Politics Legal Supremacy

159 162 175 187 191

• •

Vll

107

yiii

THE POLITICAL THOUGHT OF THOMAS AQUINAS

Chapter VII. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Justice, within the Official Community Private and Public Individual and Social Justice Politics and Morals Personal and Common Good The Corporate Group State Personality A Note on Terminology

Chapter VIII. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

CITIZENSHIP AND ECCENTRICITY

THE RECEPTION OF ARISTOTLE

The Commentaries on the Ethics and Politics The Brief Neo-PIellenism Political Method The Polity Political Equity

CONCLUSION.

THE POLITICAL DISCOUP.SE

1. The Plistorical Effect 2. The Three Social Phases 3. Summary

203 208 214 219 227 237 251 256 261 265

267 271 279 284 299 312 313 316 328 333

INDEX

SYNOPSIS INTRODUCTION

Rise of the. European State from feudalism—Frederick II and the Regnum St Thomas’s background His four new principles: 1, Political authority based on nature, not convention; 2, Not derived from ecclesiastical authority; 3, Limited to the maintenance of external justice; 4, Exercised as art, not expansion of ethics— Political science subsumed in a wider philosophical and theological doctrine. —

—

PART ONE

THE INFLUENCES AT WORK Augustinian theology—Roman Law—Medieval culture—Aristotelean philosophy.

CONTENTS

IX

Chapter I. THEOLOGIANS St Isidore’s Etymologies—Greek and Latin Fathers—St Augustine -—Identification of Christian philosophy and theology—Influence of the social doctrines of the Stoics—Contrast of innocence and convention—Religious acceptance of State not founded on righteousness, 1. The Bible as Mundane Guide.—The world of allegory and twelfth-century humanism—John of Salisbury—Beginnings of natural philosophy and study of social institutions—Parisian Summists—Commentaries on the Sapiential Books—Vincent of Beauvais. 2. The Theology of Natural Law.—Natural right and the Greeks— and the Romans—Early Schoolmen—-Nature as opposed to artificial, rational, supernatural—Impression of Eternal Law on the human mind—Scientific classification of laws not yet achieved. Chapter II. JURISTS Medieval legal temper—Wariness of theologians about legal studies—Bologna—Recovery of Justinian’s Law—Government— The Gloss of Accursius. 1. Canonists.—Line of lawyer Popes—St Raymund of Pennafort—Internal and external forum—Mixture of law and theology— The Canonical Movement as a political cause—Aloofness of theologians and friars—John of Paris—Humane effect of Canonists— Contract and the free society—Representative government—Office and person—Paternal and political association. 2. Civilians.—The Four Doctors—Glossators—Post-Glossators— Legal Scholasticism—Italian and French schools—Paris and Orleans—The Equity Wing—Placentinus—The power of the Princeps—The right of the Populus. Chapter III. LANDED MEN AND WANDERERS 1. The Social Scene.—Growth of trade—Town life—Personification of official power—Professionalism—Custom and Statute— Law—Aristocratic reaction to monarchy—Pilgrims—Non-classical influences. 2.

The Order of Preachers.—Vagrants—Friars—Dominicans— Manichees—Spirituals.

X

THE POLITICAL THOUGHT OF THOMAS AQUINAS

Chapter IV.

PHILOSOPHERS

Neo-Platonic and Stoic sources of Christian philosophy. 1. The New Naturalism.—Growth of natural sciences—The humanism of Chartres—Gradual discovery of Aristotle—Logic— Natural and metaphysical philosophy—Moral and political philosophy—Hostility of traditional divines. 2. Aristotle from the Arabic and Greek.—Arabic and Jewish commentators—Avicenna—Averroes—Translation from the Greek by Robert Grosseteste and William of Moerbeke—Latin Averroism— The Double Truth theory—The two worlds—The two cities— Germs of secularism. PART TWO

THE DEVELOPMENT IN ST THOMAS Movement from Imperium to Polis—Decline in the political power of Emperor and Pope—The Nation-State—Teaching career of St Thomas—His position between Augustinianism and Averroism— The function of Reason—Values in the material wrorld—Humana civilitas—Pre-Thomist and Post-Thomist Dominicans. Chapter V.

THE ADVANCE FROM THE THEOLOGIANS

Contrast of Greek and Latin concepts of community—of authority—Moral requirements for the possession and exercise of power— Legal positivism. 1. Law in Nature.—The idea of law wider than that of ‘positive legality’—Basis of rationalism—Political law' independent of sin— New respect for material Nature—Interdependence of sciences— Morality and economics—Biological springs of lawr—Jus according to philosophers and lawyers—Justice a condition of all virtue. 2. The Concept of Law.—Gradual development of the definition— The Ordinance of Reason and the Lex Regia—The commonwealth and the ultimate common good—Sovereign authority and the people—Promulgation and the canonical insistence on scientia. 3. Types of Law.—Seven classes considered—Eternal Law— Natural Law, primary and secondary precepts—The Gospel Law— The Lex Fomitis—Positive Divine Law and the Mosaic Lawr— Positive Human Law.

CONTENTS

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