POLITICAL THEORIES I WRITTEN REPORT GROUP

VI

MAIN POINTS
SECTION VI – THE TWO REALMS: THE LAST PHASE

GENERAL OVERVIEW: Conflicts on the Separation of Church and State; Dispute over
Control of Secular
Matters (Whether the Pope or the State shall take hold); Struggle for
Supremacy

DANTE ALIGHIERI (De Monarchia/On World Government)

 He was an Italian (Florentine) poet. He produced the best literary work in the Italian
language (Divine Comedy/Commedia/Divina).
 He was born in 1265, Italy. He died in 1321, Italy.
 Two separate ends for man: Earthly (Emperor) and Eternal (Pope)
 The Pope and the Emperor are both guides to both ends. Independent from each other, they
have supremacy in their own dominion.
 The need for universal peace and the life of reason meant a universal ruler, the Emperor –
independent of both the Pope and the Church.
MARSILIGIO OF PADUA (Defensor Pacis/Defender of Peace)
 He was an Italian scholar, trained in Medicine, who practiced a variety of professions. He
was also an important 14th century political figure.
 He was born in 1275, Italy. He died in 1342, Germany.
 Secular rule is different from religion.
 Marsiligio on the State:
 Individuality and aggressiveness of man justifies the need to maintain peace and order
in the community.
 Civil society is dependent on all in contributing to the common good.
 Man’s religion and inner life is private; external acts are subject to control.
 A law crafted by the “Human Legislator” (the whole political community) and headed
by the “ruling section”, the executive, needs to obtain community approval through the
people or “its weightier part”. Both quality and quantity are taken into account.
 A prince is controlled by legislative power of which he is the servant.
 Marsiligio on the Church:
 Ultimate ecclesiastical authority should be “the whole body of the faithful including
both clerics and laymen.”
 The Pope’s role is a subordinate one.
 The General Council, elected by secular authority, is the governing body of the church
and has power over the Pope and has the ultimate decision over all spiritual questions.
 Arguments such as: people is the source of law; the ruler is agent; power vested in the
community; and state is omnipotent in temporal matters must not be viewed as modern

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democratic theory. Instead, it points the way to theories of secular liberalism,

representation, and constitutionalism.
THOMAS AQUINAS (Summa Theologica & On Kingship)
 He was an Italian Dominican friar, Philosopher, Catholic Priest, and Doctor of the Church.
He is an immensely influential philosopher, theologian, and jurist in the tradition of
scholasticism within which he is also known as the Doctor Angelicus and the Doctor
Communis.
 He was the kinsman of the Emperor, member of the Dominican order and friend of the
Pope.
 He was born in 1225, Italy. He died in March 7, 1274.
 Reconciliation of Greek Philosophy and Christianity was the great contribution Aquinas
did to Political Philosophy.
 Accepted two of Aristotle’s thesis:
 Man is a social animal and that the state was a natural phenomenon.
 Happiness as the end of man and the importance of the temporal world.
 Augustine and the Church Fathers held that governmental institutions were the results of
sin. Aquinas argued that though the element of sin exists, political organization is natural
to man and necessary for his proper development.
 All political authority came from God but political purposes such as the securing of justice
is something that government should fulfill.
 The principal end of man is supernatural; salvation of his soul and future eternal
blessedness.
 Future life is superior over earthly existence. The Church is concerned with the future life
and the directing guide of secular power.
 Four different types of law:
 Eternal Law – It governed the universe.
 Natural Law – It enabled those possessing reason to understand and conform to Eternal
Law.
 Human Law – It detailed variable rules in accordance with Natural Law.
 Divine Law – It is the ultimate will of God.
 Law is rational and binding.
 Extent of Power: Political authority is only binding if it conforms to natural law, divine
law, and the common good. If it did not conform, governmental power is tyrannical and
might be resisted. Excessive tyranny permits disobedience organized by public authority.
 Ecclesiastical power was emphasized but autonomy of the state is acknowledged.
IDEAS OF REPRESENTATION
 Divisions and struggles within each realm (Church and State)
 On the State:
 Laws were introduced such as the Roman law and had limited the ruler as governmental
power was derived from the community.

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 Secular rulers had to take account of subjects not bound by feudal ties, townsmen,
guilds and corporations.
 Consultations increased in secular states.
 On the Church:
 The Pope’s absolute monarchy was opposed by cardinals, bishops, and canon lawyers
who were bypassed.
 Church Councils: The General Council has authority immediately from Christ. This
meant that the Church is the monarch, not the Pope; and it had the authority to validly
interpret the truth [of the church].
Rulers, both secular and religious, had to take into account grievances of the people.

DETAILED SUMMARY:
Dante on World of Government
The Need for Unity and Peace
Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri commonly known by his pen name Dante Alighieri or
simply as Dante, was an Italian (Florentine) poet. He produced the best literary work in the Italian
language (Divine Comedy/Commedia/Divina). He was born in 1265, Italy. He died in 1321, Italy.
In his book De Monarchia he described that a temporal monarchy, or empire, is a single
government extending over all people in time that is over all things that are measured by time.
Dante raised the three questions regarding his works. First question is that whether it is necessary
for the wellbeing of the world; second whether the Roman people were right in taking it upon
themselves and third, whether its authority derives directly from God or from some other minister
or vicar of God.
It is irrational to believe that one society has a purpose and another society another and that
there is no single purpose common to all. Another is that an individual has a common purpose just
like in the Nichomachean Ethics which stated that just as nature fashions the thumb for one
purpose, the whole hand for another, the arm for yet another, and the entire man for another and it
creates for one purpose the individual, for another village, for another city, for another kingdom
and finally to the ultimate purpose, by means of His art, which is Nature, the eternal God brings
into being the human race in totality. It is said that there this venerable authority asserts that when
several things are ordained for one end, one of them must regulate or rule, and the others submit
to the regulation or rule. It is clear that to be in order there should be a leader and the lord must be
one and it is called Monarch, or Emperor. Further mankind is a whole with relations to certain
parts and it is a part with relation to a certain whole. Humanity correspond to humanity through
the principle of submission, or to its Prince, who is God.
But humanity is most when it is united together which seems impossible unless humanity
as a whole becomes a subject to one Prince, and consequently comes the most into accordance

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with that divine intention which is the good way, the best disposition of mankind. It is also clear
that between two Princes who is equal in power neither of them will submit unless there is a third
Prince with more ample jurisdiction, who may govern both. Justice is preeminent to only under a
Monarch; therefore the world may be disposed for the best. Man’s disposition of justice can be
stained by cupidity, even if justice is present, it may not appear in is full splendor. Because of the
this justice is most effective in the world when present in the most willing and powerful man which
is the Monarch; therefore justice subsisting in a sole Monarch is the most effective in the world. It
was rightly assumed, then that the Monarch alone is capable of supreme qualifications to rule.
Hence the Monarch is best able to direct others. Therefore it follows that for the best ordering of
the world, Monarchy is necessary.
The Autonomy of the State
If the Church have power to confer authority on the Roman Prince she would have it either
from God, or from herself or from some Emperor, or from unanimous consent of mankind, or at
least from the consent of the most influential. But it does not came from any of the said sources
because if it is from God, it would have been by divine or natural law. But this ecclesiastical right
came not by nature of law since nature imposes no law. Neither did this came from divine law; for
in the bosom of the two testaments, wherein is embodied every divine law also this power did not
came from the Church because you cannot give what you do not possess. Another is that it came
not from the unanimous consent of men or from the influential because people inhabiting Europe,
Asia, and Africa would deny it. Seeing that if the authority does not depend on the Vicar of God,
we conclude that it depends on God himself. In order to prove this we must find that the Emperor
or Monarch of the world must prove directly that they have an immediate relationship to the prince
of the universe which is God. Every nature is ordained for a certain end. Wherefore a twofold
directive agent was necessary to man, in accordance with twofold end: The Supreme Pontiff to
lead the human race to life eternal by means or revelation, and the Emperor to guide it to temporal
felicity by means of philosophic instruction, there is none higher than He, only God elects and
only God confirms. The Roman Prince shall not be subject in some degree to the Roman Pontiff,
for felicity that is mortal is ordered in a measure after felicity that is immortal.

Marsigilio of Padua (Defensor Pacis)

"The Validity of Law"
 the legislator is the people or the citizens, or the more weighty part of the society;
through the general assembly, they determine the civil sanctions of men
 the citizens, either makes law itself, directly or entrusts this task to some person or
persons who can or cannot be an absolute legislator, and by virtue of the authority of the
prime legislator
 the laws ought to receive the approval of the same prime legislator, for them to interpret,
or suspend such laws
 according to Aristotle, in his book, Politics VI, ch. 3, the citizen is any man who
participates in the civil community

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 the authorities to make or institute laws belongs only to the corporation of citizens, or to
its more weighty part
 the best law is that which is made for the common benefit of the citizens
 the approval, interpretation, and suspension of laws, and the other things belong to the
authority of the legislator alone
 the laws or statutes should be entrusted to prudent and expert men: either each of the
primary parts of the state
"Restraint of the ruler"
 the ruler is made accountable for such actions to someone who has authority to judge and
regulate him in accordance with the law
 the office of the ruler who is ought to be corrected shall be temporarily suspended,
particularly in relation to the person of persons who are to judge of his trangressions
"Unity and Order"
 the ruler must be a single human being and the ruler must be one
 "if there were more than one principate in a city or kingdom, and if these were not
reduced or subordinated under some one supreme principate, the judgment, command,
and execution of just and beneficial things would be defective"
 the unity of a city is the unity of order, not unity in a strict sense, but a plurality of
persons which is called one; they are ordained and governed
 a city or kingdom is not a unity either through any one form inherent in them, or through
any one thinh permeating them or containing them like a wall, but as they are all ordained
through their will.
Philosophy and Theology in Thomas' Thought
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
A. For Thomas philosophy is ancilla theologiae (handmaiden of theology). Aquinas was first and
foremost a theologian, though he was quite capable of distinguishing philosophy proper from
theology. He held that
(1) philosophy can prove by means of reason unaided by revelation some truths proposed by
Christian faith;
(2) it can clarify truths which cannot be proved;
and (3) it can defend the principles of Christian faith against their detractors.
True philosophy cannot conflict with Christian faith but it can fall short of it. For example,
the existence of God as efficient cause of the universe can be established by reason alone, the full
meaning of "God" can only come from faith. Aquinas is not the only, but he is the most important,
medieval thinker who tried to incorporate many of Aristotle's ideas into Christian philosophy.

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Aquinas describes law as "a certain rule and measure of acts whereby man is induced to
act or is restrained from acting." Because the rule and measure of human actions is reason, law has
an essential relation to reason; in the first place to divine reason; in the second place to human
reason, when it acts correctly, i.e., in accordance with the purpose or final cause implanted in it by
God.
Law is directed by its nature to the good, and especially to the universal or common good.
It is addressed not primarily to private persons but to the whole people meeting in common or to
persons who have charge of the community as a whole.
Kinds of Law
Aquinas recognizes four main kinds of law: the eternal, the natural, the human, and the
divine. The last three all depend on the first, but in different ways. Were we to arrange them in a
hierarchy, eternal would be at the top, then natural, then human. Divine law is not in conflict with
natural law, but it reaches human beings by a different route, revelation.
Eternal Law
Eternal law is identical to the mind of God as seen by God himself. It can be called law
because God stands to the universe which he creates as a ruler does to a community which he rules.
When God's reason is considered as it is understood by God Himself, i.e. in its unchanging, eternal
nature, it is eternal law.
Divine Law
Divine law is derived from eternal law as it appears historically to humans, especially
through revelation, i.e., when it appears to human beings as divine commands. Divine law is
divided into the Old Law and the New Law. The Old and New Law roughly corresponding to the
Old and New Testaments of the Bible. When he speaks of the Old Law, Thomas is thinking mainly
of the Ten Commandments. When he speaks of the New Law, the teachings of Jesus.
Old Law- (commands conduct externally) - reaches humans through their capacity for fear.
Law promised earthly rewards (social peace and its benefits)
New Law (commands internal conduct) - reaches humans by the example of divine love
and promises heavenly reward.
Human Law
Thomas' own definition of human law relies upon the concept of natural law. We can say
now that Thomas thinks of human laws as laws, devised by human reason adapted to particular
geographical, historical and social circumstances.
Law is directed to the common good, and human law is no exception. The promotion of
virtue is necessary for the common good, and human laws are instruments in the promotion of
virtue. Aristotle already pointed out that most people are kept from crime by fear of the law.
Thomas accepts this judgment, suggesting that by coercion even men who are evilly disposed may
be led in the direction of virtue.

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Even though laws are general, they are still adapted to the nature of the community, which
is not everywhere the same, and to the classes of individuals who make up the society. For
example, there may be one set of laws that govern the conduct of trade, another set of laws that
govern the control of parents over their children, another set of laws setting limits on the powers
of what passes for a police force.
Human law can be changed, and occasionally should be changed, but it should not be
lightly changed. The reason is that respect for the law is largely a matter of custom or habit, and
inessential change undermines this custom. The common good is not served by a more finely
tuned, theoretically better law, if people have less respect for law and follow it less faithfully.
Natural Law
The natural law is law with moral content, more general than human law. Natural law deals
with necessary rather than with variable things. In working out human laws, human practical
reason moves from the general principles implanted in natural law to the contingent commands of
human law.
Natural law is more perfect than human laws, because of the variable subject-matter of
human laws.
Natural law is less specific than human laws, but human laws are applications of natural law
and cannot deviate from what we might call the spirit of the natural law, as applied to the time and
place of the human law's promulgation. If a human law does deviate in this way, if it is not a proper
and rationally defensible application of the natural law, then it is a perversion of law, which is to
say, it is a law in name only.
On Kingship of St. Thomas Aquinas
 Ever type of government can go the just or the unjust way. A just government seeks the
common good of the multitude. An unjust government aims at the private good of the ruler.
 If an unjust government is carried on my one man alone, it is called a tyranny. If an unjust
government is carried on by several, it is called an oligarchy. If the bad government is
carried on by the multitude, it is called a democracy. In a democracy, plebeian people by
force of numbers oppress the rich. The good and “just” form of each of the above types are
respectively: a kingdom, an aristocracy, and a polity.
 Hence, the idea of a king implies that he is one man in chief, who seeks after the common
good of the multitude and not his own.
 The form of government that is most efficacious in keeping the unity of peace in the
multitude should be best. One man can more efficaciously bring about unity than sevr.
Therefore, the rule of one man is more useful than the rule of many.
 Moreover, whatever is in accord with nature is best, and every natural governance is
governance by one. For example, the body is governed by the heart. The soul is governed
by reason. There is only one king bee. There is One God, Maker and Ruler of all things.
Therefore, it is best for the human multitude to be governed by one.

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 The rule of one man is to be preferred, we must think of a scheme to prevent a kingship
from falling into tyranny.
 The man who is to rule must be raised in such a way that it is improbable for him to become
a tyrant. Once the king is established, the government must be so arranged that the
opportunity to tyrannize is removed. Finally, we must have a provisional plan for the
situation that the king strays into tyranny.
 When wise men say that the king should desire glory, what they intend to say is that it’s
better/ more tolerable for the king to seek glory than for him to desire money or pleasure,
because then he becomes a plunderer and abusive. A king should look to God for his reward
like a servant looks to his master for a reward.
 Good kings live in the praise of men, while the name of tyrants vanishes after their death,
except if they’re excessively wicked, then the people remember them to curse them.