▪ Medieval period was unpolitical: Dunning. It is said that this period was un-political.

Neither
political theory nor any ideology developed in the middle Ages. Of course, various institutions
and organizations were set up. But all these centered around religious dogmas and beliefs.
▪ It is also called as Dark Age.
▪ Rather, it was live and fresh. It was full of events and numerous institutions grew. All these
moulded the nature of political thought.
▪ According to Gettel the political thought in the Middle Ages was “unhistorical, unscientific and
uncritical”. We have several times noted that the church controlled the ideas and wisdom of
this period with its uncritical, orthodox and theological outlook. Church fathers opposed
scientific analysis and rational outlook.
▪ The period in the history of Europe from the fall of the Roman empire to the second half of the
15th century is called the middle age.
▪ Much of Europe's political life in this area was not driven by a worrying objective or principal,
some ideas prevailed in those days, which were from the days of Roman tradition or emerged
from the teachings of Christianity or were born out of the conditions of feudalism, but they did not
have any special effect on political Institutions.
▪ Medieval Political Thought means the Political thought which originated in the medieval period.
Medieval period means roughly from 5th century AD to 15th century AD. In the medieval period
in Europe, two political thinkers were well known for their political philosophy. They were
Thomas Aquinas (also known as St. Thomas Aquinas) and Dante Alighieri.
▪ In the medieval period in Europe, Christianity influenced the society. It influenced political
thought also. There was no freedom of thinking.
▪ All thoughts and actions should be according to the teachings of the Church. Religion
influenced normal secular life.
▪ In fact, it was not the religion which influenced the thoughts of people. But, it was the
religious leaders who influenced people.
▪ They influenced the people for their own benefit, and for the benefit of the Church. They
influenced people to protect the position and wealth of the Church.
▪ In the name of God and religion, they influenced the general public. They said that the
Church will decide everything regarding their body as well as spirit.
▪ The Church wanted to influence all aspects of life of people. According to them everything
including arts, literature and Political Thought should be according to the Bible.
▪ But the Holy Bible is not about arts or literature or Political Thought. Then the Church leaders
said that they will guide the people according to the Bible. They interpreted the Bible to
increase their wealth and power and to influence people. They guided the people according
to their wishes, whims and fancies.
▪ Scholasticism and the study of Pre Christian values: Pre-Christian concepts like
Aristotelianism were studied by scholars. The clout of Papacy increased considerably.
▪ Competition of Church and the empire: During this period, the Christian Church increased
its influence in the society and it became something parallel to the Monarchy wielding
almost equal powers if not more. The church considered themselves as superior as the Pope
was considered as the representative of God on earth. He could use his power to
excommunicate the king also. On the other side, the King considered himself as the
representative of God on earth having power to rule.
▪ Source of Law: In the middle ages, the Law was something personal and habitual. It was
never national or territorial. Nobody knew the origin of law. Everybody accepted it as it is.
Nobody questioned it. They were considered permanent and eternal.
▪ Absence of the concept of sovereignty: There was no concept of Sovereignty in the middle
ages. People followed the moral order. Church authority and the authority of the king co
existed. Both these checked each other. There were no concept of a sovereign authority which
was supreme in internal or external matters.
▪ This was a major feature of mediaeval political thought according to Barkar "the glory of all
medical thought is its universality".
▪ Early Christian thought and Saint Augustine carried forward the idea of universalism, the
growth of the power of the church made it even more developed.
▪ The idea of Universal political Unity prevailed throughout the middle period and on this basis
The theory of Two Swords which mean that human society as a whole was one organization,
but that human life had two aspects physical and spiritual .
▪ In the middle ages, the church fathers put forward a theory that the human life consists of a
combination of spiritual and temporal aspects.
▪ The spiritual aspect should be looked after by the church. The king can look after only the
temporal or worldly aspects.
▪ Out of these two, the spiritual aspects are superior in nature.
▪ The principal idea behind this concept is the biblical verses “Render unto Caesar the things
that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s”. The church taught that the soul is
superior to the body.
▪ The doctrine of two swords characterized the medieval political thought.
▪ It was assumed by the medieval thinkers that it was the wish of God that power and
authority would be divided between Pope and emperor.
▪ This conception was based on an authoritative statement of Pope Gelasius I who once said
“The true and perfect king and priest was Christ Himself… But Christ knowing the
weakness of human nature and careful for the welfare of His people, separated the two
offices, giving to each its peculiar functions and duties. Thus the Christian emperor needs
the ecclesiastic for the attainment of eternal life and ecclesiastic depends upon the
government of the emperor in temporal things.”
▪ In the middle age the place of religion became so strong that the wider culture of Greece and Romans also
came to be seen as religious
▪ The monarchy was concentrated in the church. in this age religion started working like a magic the dual role
of the individual and the transcendental life came to the regarded as belonging to god as a result of which the
king was under the control of the church.
▪ The church in its support presented the doctrine of the two swords and the basis of constantine's donation. The
path was crippled by the establishment of religious authority.
▪ But in the third phase of The 13th century the situation changed and the state power got full support.
▪ the Pope remained an extremely important power in Europe until the 14th century.
▪ The church was the most dominating institution. All other institutions remained under its control. As a
result, independent thinking in the political arena could not flourish at all.
▪ In the medieval period politics, economics, religion all were mingled together. The decision of the church on
all issues of politics, economics and religion was final. Politics and economics came to be subordinated to
religion or ethics and ethics was theology. The church fathers were supposed to lead a spiritual and austere
life, but in practice they led a luxurious life.
▪ They received wealth from the public in the form of donations. Towards the end of the middle Ages the
churches were converted into great citadels of wealth. The feudal lords also had enough power to change the
direction of politics and economics.
▪ The emperor had to depend on them for money which they collected from the farmers and common people
in the form of tax or revenue. In order to strengthen their financial position and political power, the church
fathers frequently adopted various means which had no connection with ethics and religion.
▪ The principle of oneness was emphasized in the middle age
▪ the system of Monarchy in church and state was considered the best.
▪ Mediaeval philosophers thought that the universe should be a context of power.
▪ on the basis of this principle, while some individual entrusted the centralization of this
power in the hand of the Pope, other supported the centralization of State.
▪ Power but in practice, the tendency remained towards the monarchial government.
▪ Monarchy was considered as the best form of government.
▪ Divine origin of kingship was generally accepted. King was considered as the agent of God
on earth.
▪ A Monarch could be hereditary, elected or nominated by the grace of God.
▪ In the middle ages, the monarchy was not autocratic there were many restrictions on it.
▪ For example.
▪ The first Restriction was the oath to be made at the time of coronation.
▪ The second Restriction was the feudal system and
▪ the third restriction was that the king was bound to follow the rules followed in the form of customs.
▪ The medieval thinkers propagated at stentorian voice the divinity of kingship. King was the representative
of God on earth to rule men. His main function was to translate the spiritual aims of God into reality and
church was the guardian of those aims. Failure of the king to perform the divine duty would invite
excommunication.
▪ Church would adopt all steps to excommunicate the king from the Christian society. Divine right theory was
very popular in the middle Ages and it placed the monarchy at the mercy of the church.
▪ It converted many kings into autocrat rulers. The kings used divinity as an instrument for demanding
obedience from the people. But the divine right theory was made to co-exist with the social contract theory.
▪ Although the power of the king came forth from God, people’s power over how he would rule was also
accepted. People’s power was implied in the oath at his coronation. King’s function did not end in
implementing the spiritual aims of God; he must also fulfil the objectives of the people.
▪ The co-existence between the divine right theory and social contract theory was very popular in the Middle
Ages. Hearnshaw says, “The Old Testament speaks of David making a covenant with his people; Roman law
by the voice of Ulpian, ascribes the force of law to the will of the prince, because the people confers on him
all its sovereignty and power”
▪ The fundamental characteristics of the social order of the middle ages was Feudalism. It
affected all the people or classes.
▪ Feudal lords owned large tracts of land which they gave to the tenants for cultivation. The
terms and conditions were fixed by the Land lord according to his whims and fancies.
▪ Perhaps the only working class was the farmers and laborers. The brunt of economic
production fell solely on the shoulders of the workers. The other classes remained
exploitative in nature.
▪ The conflict between the church and the state; the relation of church to common people,
learned persons, feudal landlords and students of educational institutions provided
sufficient live materials for political thought.
▪ Moreover, in the middle Ages, feudalism became one of the dominant forces and this was
treated as part of political thought. So it cannot be said that the medieval period was barren
or dead.
▪ Most of the feudal lords were powerful and some possessed sovereign power. The conflict
between the church and the state motivated the feudal lords to capture power. Thus the
middle Ages were deprived of the facility of a well-organized state system.
▪ Theory of body and Soul medical religious thinkers consider the state to be the symbol of the
body and the church as the soul.
▪ The state as an external element while the church was presented as a controller church as
sole state as body both are one not separate .
▪ only their jurisdictions is different matters related to the soul are subject to the church and
those related to the body are subject to the state.
▪ Co existence of temporal and spiritual authorities: Both temporal and spiritual authorities co
existed. Emperor was a worldly agent and the Pope was considered as a spiritual agent. Both
of them co existed with certain level of competition as well as co-operation. Both were
considered as unavoidable for the society.
▪ Ruralization of society and lack of Central authority the Roman empire became
imperialist by the invasion of barbarians that is Germans and Europe was divided
into pieces.
▪ As a result the government passed into the hands of the local feudals.
▪ Due to the feudal system it became the absence of Central authority secondary
rural society and Civilization developed in Europe due to ruralisation, the outlook
( perspective) of the people narrowed. as a result, Political thought suffered.
▪ In the mediaeval period many thinkers supported the monarchy and propounded the
divine right of the king.
▪ Gradually there was a change of mind and they imagine and other people's power it was
expressed that the right to sit on the Throne is divine,
▪ but the king get the power from the society itself, therefore the King cannot transcend the
social boundaries.
▪ on the other hand the papal supporters also believed that the king and the monarchy was
divine as well as man made.
▪ community life dominated the middle period it was used by a variety of religious, social
and political groups.
▪ A person could fulfill his needs only by staying in the community.
▪ The main form of this group were Christian monasteries monastic orders, guilds
(economic categories) commune and cities.
▪ Due to the primacy of community life the rights of the individual remained neglected in
this period.
▪ The theory of Corporations developed due to the dominance of community life in the middle
period.
▪ The purpose of this theory was to stabilize the special importance of certain institutions
such as Church, Council of Church, University, Independence cities communes Etc.
▪ Its proponents say that the Institutions whose purpose is to develop a spiritual and worldly
life.
▪ They have been empowered to run their work properly in such a way that no outside power
gets the opportunity to interfere in their work. They can also do their work without any
political disputes.
▪ Elements of representative government were prevalent in mediaeval political thought
even the religion was affected by it.
▪ The Pope was the representative of the Christians. the clergy used to elected Pope and can
even remove him on the basis of corruption.
▪ The people who elected the emperor was like the representative of the common man,
▪ The promotion of the doctrine of representative help greatly in the intervening struggle
between the church and the king. This idea was supported by Nicholas, John of Paris and
Marsilio.