The previous chapter attempted to trace the process by which the traditional study of the Ars Dictaminis gradually evolved in the course of the thirteenth century into a political ideology capable of defending the City Republics and their threatened liberties. This chapter will be concerned with the way in which, shortly after this time, the same ideological needs began to be met in a contrasting but no less influential style through the introduction into Italy of the themes and methods of scholastic political thought.

THE RECEPTION OF SCHOLASTICISM

The role of scholasticism in the development of Renaissance political theory has been much debated. Ullmann and others have recently argued that scholasticism ‘ushered in humanism’, and have even claimed to find a direct line of descent running from the political theories of Marsiglio to those of Machiavelli (Ullmann, 1972, p. 268; cf. also Wilks, 1963, p. 102). By now it will be evident, however, that this is to trace a misleadingly straightforward path, since it overlooks the crucial contribution made to the emergence of humanism by the earlier traditions of rhetorical instruction we have just examined. Nevertheless, the suggestion constitutes a valuable corrective to the usual belief – expressed for example by Hazeltine – that scholastic legal and moral philosophy made no contribution at all to ‘the great intellectual awakening’ associated with the humanists, since its practitioners remained entirely ‘aloof from the spirit and purpose of the Renaissance’ (Hazeltine, 1926, p. 739).