Liberty, Dominion, and the Two Swords: On the Origins of Western Political Theology (180-398)

Abstract

In Liberty, Dominion and the Two Swords historian Lester L. Field, Jr., places historical relations between church and state in a new context by examining the ancient origins of concepts that dominated medieval political discourse: liberty of the church, which became the battle cry of the reform papacy during the Investiture Contest of the late 11th and early 12th centuries; and the doctrine of the two swords, which distinguished the medieval church and monarchy as inviolable institutions. Modern historians have followed the majority of medieval thinkers in the belief that Pope Gelasius I (492-96) laid the groundwork for the medieval assertion of a free priesthood and - by later interpretation - a free monarchy. Yet Galasius himself drew on traditions deeply embedded in the earliest Latin Christian thought. These traditions, dating to the end of the second century, emerged at a time when Christianity was illegal and thus persecuted. In Part 1 Field demonstrates how the resulting theologies of martyrdom played a major role in shaping ancient Christian understandings of liberty. Part 2 deals with the notions of liberty, dominion and the swords during the Constantinian revolution of the fourth century, during which emperors enforced ecclesiastical decisions and recognised only one communion as the true church. In Part 3 Field examines the Age of Ambrose and discusses how Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, articulated episcopal rights and imperial duties while adapting older theologies of liberty, dominion and the swords. Field aims to fill a void in the study of several crucial concepts in western medieval political thought. Scholars of patristic theology, political theory, and church history should appreciate the contribution Liberty, Dominion and the Two Swords is able to make to patristic political thought, the study of ecclesiastical polity, and various other related subjects.