A History of Mediæval Political Theory in the West. Vol I. The Second Century to the Ninth

This edition of the first volume of The History of Medieval Political Theory briefly indicates the nature of the work that will be carried out in subsequent volumes. This volume contains the elements from which a more developed theory of the Middle Ages arose. Here is a continuation of work with political theorists of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, that is, by the time when, as it is believed, the specific features of modern political theory began to take shape. The subject under consideration is the history of theory, not of institutions. It is believed that in the Middle Ages, as in other times, these two things are closely connected with each other, that theory never goes too far from the actual conditions of social life; yet the two things are different, if not separate. The principles underlying the development of political institutions are sometimes the subject of careful reflection, sometimes are difficult to grasp; but in any case they are to be distinguished from any specific forms in which they may be embodied. In this book the writers have been compelled to examine the institutions of the Middle Ages, but they have done so only in order to bring out more clearly the nature of the theories that were actually in circulation among those who thought about the nature of political life.