De potestate papae: Die päpstliche Amtskompetenz im Widerstreit der politischen Theorie von Thomas von Aquin bis Wilhelm von Ockham (review)

Abstract

De potentate papae: Die papstliche Amtskompetenz im Widerstreit der politiscben Theorie von Thomas von Aquin bis Wilhelm von Ockham. By Jurgen Miethke. [Spatmittelalter and Reformation, Neue Reihe, 16.] (Tibingen: Mohr Siebeck. 2000. Pp. x, 347. 158.00 DM.) The concept of papal authority in the thirteenth century was relatively undifferentiated between its secular and ecclesiastical aspects, for the king had sacred duties and the pope secular. It took the radical turn of the fourteenth century to clarify the ideological divide between them. Jurgen Miethke discusses this ideological divide in depth and how it was created. The effect of political theory in the formative phase of the lively debate concerning papal authority in the first half of the fourteenth century is his topic. Miethke analyzes the documents which are our source for the debates at the university and courts of the rulers, whereby the disciplines of theology, canon law, and the arts shaped the language and form of discourse. This is an excellent study of papal authority. It deals with complex issues that have frustrated many scholars. The author brings clarity to the complicated picture of politics in France and Germany, especially at the courts of Philip the Fair, Philip VI, and Louis the Bavarian, as well as focusing on the popes Boniface VIII and John XXII. The university as well as the mendicant orders plays a large and decisive role in this drama. The relationship between competing political forces and the use of political theory as a means to determine the course of action or to gain perspective on contemporary problems are drawn very clearly with the concept of papal authority and its extent within the world providing the impetus for the debates. The theoretical achievement of the participants lent themselves to the justification of constitutional relationships and thus could be the source for political action (cf. p. 203). The author sees a multitude of opinions or a fruitful discourse coming from all directions, which one might characterize as the nature of high scholasticism. This study begins with the use of Aristotelian theory by Thomas Aquinas in De regno ad regem Cypi and concludes with William of Ockham, who expresses the theologians' mistrust of the canoeists. As the author says, Ockham is only one of the many voices in the debates of the faculties. Nevertheless, the author sees a process of integration at work, which would eventually provide a rich source of material for the modern era, when political theory came into its own. The limits for this study are delineated quite clearly by the author, essentially from 1271 to 1350. Therefore, neither Torquemada nor Domenico de' Domenichi nor even Petrarch are mentioned in the body of the text. While Jean Gerson is relegated to the notes, Robert Bellarmine is quoted in reference to Augustine of Ancona, and Machiavelli mentioned only once. The author's tentativeness to go beyond his timeframe is alleviated only insofar as he points to the future although the gulf between Ockham and the era of Machiavelli and other modern thinkers remains. The only exceptions are references to early fifteenth-century clerics and the reform councils as well as to the success of certain texts into the sixteenth century (e.g., p. 179). Of the medieval scholastics, there is no mention of Remigio dei Girolami and only one of a figure on the academic periphery, Ubertino da Casale. Places and events are seen from the perspective of the intellectual elite or periti of the time; therefore Saint Jacques in Paris is only mentioned in passing. Besides the author's valuable narrative concerning theory and politics of the era, he presents the reader with a detailed description of the transmission of manuscripts with pertinent comments on recent research and editions. The abundant use of manuscripts is apparent in evaluating his topic. The relevant ones are listed in the appendix, pp. …