CONCLUSION

O n l y the briefest o f notes is either appropriate or necessary b y w a y o f

conclusion to a b o o k o f this kind. Y e t there are questions w h i c h w i l l
naturally be asked and w h i c h it is necessary to consider e v e n i f they cannot
be c o m p l e t e l y or definitively answered. T h e r e are questions, already
touched o n in the Introduction, as to m e t h o d and approach — questions
w h i c h m a y perhaps be encapsulated in the question w h e t h e r these pages
h a v e reflected a n y significant c h a n g e or d e v e l o p m e n t in the histriography
o f the subject. It can perhaps b e claimed that there is e v i d e n c e o f such a shift,
b o t h in the range o f the evidence considered and in at least s o m e o f the
perspectives in w h i c h it has been analysed. O n e illustration o f b o t h points
m a y b e found in the thoroughness w i t h w h i c h ecclesiological concepts h a v e
been considered, w h e t h e r in the C a r o l i n g i a n and p o s t - C a r o l i n g i a n period
or in the c o n t e x t o f fifteenth-century conciliarism — the latter in particular a
case in w h i c h earlier historians w o u l d h a v e taken a m o r e n a r r o w l y
'political' v i e w o f the material. A g a i n — a n o t unrelated point—it is surely the
case that the e v i d e n c e o f canon l a w has taken a m u c h m o r e p r o m i n e n t place
here than w o u l d h a v e been the case e v e n in the early decades o f this century.
T h i s is n o t to say that the canonists w e r e neglected in earlier account:
C a r l y l e , for e x a m p l e , d r e w extensively o n canonistic sources, and d e v o t e d
the greater part o f his second v o l u m e to 'the political theory o f the canon
l a w ' f r o m the ninth to the thirteenth century. Y e t it w a s precisely in the
preface to that v o l u m e that C a r l y l e a c k n o w l e d g e d the disadvantage under
w h i c h he had laboured f r o m lack o f access to 'the mass o f unprinted
1
material, especially in the canon l a w o f the twelfth c e n t u r y . ' O v e r recent
decades, h o w e v e r , the w o r k o f such scholars as W a l t e r U l l m a n n , Stephan
K u t t n e r , and B r i a n T i e r n e y a m o n g m a n y others has transformed this
situation; and that transformation is o n e o f the changes reflected in the pages
o f this v o l u m e .
Similar points c o u l d be m a d e in respect o f the n o w i m m e n s e mass o f
scholarly w o r k o n m e d i e v a l p h i l o s o p h y , e v e n t h o u g h that w o r k has not, for
i. C a r l y l e 1 9 0 3 - 3 6 , v o l . 11, p. viii.

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 Conclusion

the m o s t part, concentrated primarily o n the political or e v e n the m o r a l

2
theory o f the scholastics. T h i s has clearly, for e x a m p l e , added n e w
dimensions to o u r understanding o f O c k h a m ' s political ideas, h o w e v e r
c o m p l e x the relationship b e t w e e n those ideas and O c k h a m ' s general
philosophical position m a y seem to remain. A g a i n , a tendency in the study
o f the m e d i e v a l period - as indeed o f other periods t o o - to m o v e f r o m
p r e d o m i n a n t l y political history to a history m o r e fully a w a r e o f
interconnected social, cultural and e c o n o m i c factors is one reason w h y the
political ideas e x a m i n e d a b o v e h a v e so often been s o u g h t in a broader
c o n t e x t o f ideas about c o m m u n i t i e s in general.
T h e r e is also, h o w e v e r , a legitimate question to be asked about the
c h r o n o l o g i c a l range o f the b o o k as w e l l as about the scope o f its subject-
matter. A line has been d r a w n in the m i d d l e o f the fifteenth century. C a n
this be defended? History does n o t a b o u n d in unmistakable final curtains
like that w h i c h descended u p o n the eastern e m p i r e o f B y z a n t i u m in 1453:
and in the w e s t there is n o mid-fifteenth-century event o f c o m p a r a b l e
decisiveness w h i c h m i g h t be seen as m a r k i n g an end or a b e g i n n i n g in any
aspect o f political thinking. If, for e x a m p l e , w e say - as w e m i g h t - that the
conciliar m o v e m e n t in the western C h u r c h ended w i t h the final dissolution,
in 1449, o f the C o u n c i l o f Basel—Lausanne and the T i t t l e S c h i s m ' it had
precipitated, the fact remains that conciliarist ideas (and e v e n in s o m e
measure policies based u p o n them) retained their i m p o r t a n c e and relevance
3
w e l l into the n e x t century and e v e n b e y o n d . It is n o d o u b t true that the last
major thinker considered in these pages is N i c h o l a s o f C u s a , w h o lived until
1464, but w h o s e creative thinking had all been d o n e t w o or three decades
earlier. A n d m a n y w o u l d agree that for the n e x t political thinker o f notable
originality w e h a v e to w a i t for M a c h i a v e l l i , w h o w a s n o t b o r n until five
years after N i c h o l a s ' death. O n the other hand, i f a n y t h i n g has e m e r g e d
from this survey it is surely that a c o m p r e h e n s i v e study o f political ideas
cannot restrict itself to the contributions o f 'great thinkers'; and our
notional d i v i d i n g - l i n e o f 1450 is spanned b y a diversity o f writers and
sources still essentially c o n c e r n e d w i t h the p r o b l e m s e x a m i n e d a b o v e and
analysing t h e m in the l a n g u a g e and w i t h the conceptual e q u i p m e n t o f
' m e d i e v a l ' society. It has n o t been possible, and it w o u l d h a v e been absurd to
attempt, to e x c l u d e such sources r i g i d l y f r o m consideration here: so that
Fortescue, for e x a m p l e , d u l y appears in the course o f C h a p t e r 16, since his

2. C f . The Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy, C a m b r i d g e U n i v e r s i t y Press, 1982, w h e r e

s o m e 130 pages out o f 850 or so are d e v o t e d to 'Ethics' and 'Polities'.
3. See O a k l e y 1 9 8 1 , w i t h c o m p r e h e n s i v e r e v i e w o f sources and s e c o n d a r y literature.

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 Conclusion 651

ideas, t h o u g h d e p l o y e d to meet specific situations in the 1460's, reflect and

illustrate patterns o f t h o u g h t b e l o n g i n g emphatically to the period w i t h
w h i c h Part V o f this v o l u m e is concerned.
It c o u l d n o d o u b t be argued indeed, that it is n o t the elasticity o f the 1450
limit that is o p e n to criticism but rather the attempt to operate w i t h i n such a
limit at all. Historians o f m e d i e v a l political t h o u g h t h a v e sometimes
interpreted their terms o f reference as e x t e n d i n g d o w n to the end o f the
sixteenth century ( C a r l y l e , d'Entreves) — or e v e n later. B r i a n T i e r n e y , for
one, has pointed to issues for debate and analysis w h i c h he sees as e x t e n d i n g
4
o v e r a period from the m i d - t w e l f t h to the mid-seventeenth c e n t u r y ; and,
t h o u g h doubtless less c o n v i n c i n g l y , J o h n L o c k e has been represented as
h a v i n g been, at the end o f the seventeenth century, largely content in his
political thinking w i t h 'the solutions o f St T h o m a s A q u i n a s ' .
M u s t w e c o n c l u d e then that there is n o m o r e to be said in justification of
ending this s u r v e y in the mid-fifteenth century than the s o m e w h a t l i m p
observation that, after all, a b o o k must end s o m e w h e r e ? T h e answer surely
is that s o m e t h i n g m o r e , and m o r e to the point, can in fact be said. It is of
course true that m a n y o f the m e d i e v a l themes and 'traditions' o f t h o u g h t
analysed a b o v e persist w i t h considerable vitality into the later fifteenth
century and b e y o n d . It is also true, h o w e v e r , that they survive increasingly
in a situation o f co-existence w i t h other, n e w e r (and n o d o u b t at the same
time older) w a y s o f thinking. T h e co-existence o f w h a t , for c o n v e n i e n c e
and b r e v i t y , w e m a y loosely designate as 'scholasticism' and ' h u m a n i s m '
w a s at times easier and m o r e peaceful than has sometimes been supposed.
Y e t there w a s a fundamental d i v e r g e n c e w h i c h inevitably led to hostility;
and just as the great institutions o f m e d i e v a l society — the papacy, the
empire, the 'feudal monarchies', the canon and civil l a w s — s u r v i v e d o n l y in
c h a n g e d forms, so m e d i e v a l political ideas s u r v i v e d to play a part in
c h a n g e d circumstances and w e r e themselves c h a n g e d in the process. T h e
n e w forces that w e r e at w o r k w e r e not, o f course, simply or absolutely n e w .
H u m a n i s m itself, after all, must be traced to beginnings at least as far back as
the mid-fourteenth century; and the great, the r e v o l u t i o n a r y changes in
religious and ecclesiastical life w h i c h w e r e to p r o v i d e , precisely, the c o n t e x t
into w h i c h m a n y m e d i e v a l ideas about society and authority w e r e to
survive, h a v e themselves been seen as the p r o d u c t o f an 'age o f r e f o r m '
5
e x t e n d i n g f r o m the mid-thirteenth to the mid-sixteenth c e n t u r y . W h e n all

4. Tierney 1982.
5. S. O z m e n t The Age of Reform 1250-1550: An Intellectual and Religious History of Late Medieval and
Reformation Europe, Y a l e U n i v e r s i t y Press, 1980.

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 652 Conclusion

this is said and a c k n o w l e d g e d , h o w e v e r , w h e n it is recognised that the ' n e w '

w a s not entirely n e w , w h i l e the ' o l d ' w a s not yet, or for m a n y decades, a
spent force, the sense o f change survives. It is neither mistaken n o r
misleading to suggest that s o m e w h e r e around the m i d d l e o f the fifteenth
century w e can detect e n o u g h o f a decisive shift in the patterns o f intellectual
life to justify the claim that the principal m o v e m e n t s o f ' m e d i e v a l political
t h o u g h t ' as it has been analysed in these pages w e r e d r a w i n g to a significant
close.

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