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A State Like Any Other? The Fourteenth-Century Papal Patrimony Through The Eyes of Roman Law Jurists
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 February 2016
Extract
In the fourteenth century, and notably under Cardinal Albornoz, the papal patrimony began its uneven development into a form of early modern state. As Paolo Prodi has pointed out, these early stages, although interrupted by retrogression caused by the Great Schism, served as the foundations for the construction of the state of the Renaissance papacy. In reality, the popes exercised sovereignty in a state whose origin and nature were essentially temporal: to this extent their regnum was no different from those of secular monarchs. There was, however, a problem impeding the perception of the true nature of the growth of papal state power: a certain ambiguity hung over the papal lands in that the papacy justified its rule both by hierocratic arguments and by reference to grants of jurisdiction from emperors and kings. The spiritual office of the popes could obscure the fact of the kind of state of which they were the sovereign. In the works of the fourteenth-century Commentators on the Roman law, however, there gradually emerged a clear recognition of the direction which the papacy was taking: that the Patrimony of St Peter was no more and no less than a state created by human institution.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Studies in Church History Subsidia , Volume 9: The Church and Sovereignty c.590-1918 , 1991 , pp. 245 - 260
- Copyright
- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1991
References
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28 See Maffei, La donazione, pp. 190,254.
29 Ad Proem, ad v. ‘Expedita’ (Pavia, 1495), foL 2v: ‘Istam questionem determinaverunt antiqui tangendo illam questionem de donadone facta ecclesie que potius fuit divinitatis quam humanitatis, et dixerunt quoad expropriaoonem territorii, dignitatis vel iurisdicdonis non valere nec possibile esse; commoda tamen et utile dominium concedi posse salva semper ab imperio recognidone ac fide. Quod enim impera tor seipsum mudlet, id est membra imperii a se amputrt, dicere esset species fatuitads… et ideo si donado Constandni non processisset a fide cattolica sicut processif sed a mero iure imperialis officii non potuisset caput imperii, id est Romam, a ceteris membris mutilan, quia capitis truncado non est pars quota sed tota.’
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31 Addillo ad Guilielmus Durantis, Speculum iuris, 2.2.3 (Frankfurt, 1592) p. 248: ‘Solurio. Contra imperatorem, qui pretendit ex instiamone divina iurisdictionem temporalem, non potest prescribi ab ecclesia: bene habet decimas ex institurione divina, sed temporalem iurisdictionem ex instiamone et providentia humana.’ For Baldus’s ideas concerning the divine source of imperial and papal jurisdiction see Canning, , Political Thought, pp. 24–32.Google Scholar
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34 Cons. 2.37 (Brescia, 1490), fol. IIV (= Cons. 4.40, Venice, 1575): ‘[Imperator] non habet ubique imperatoriam administrationem, nam divisum habet imperium cum apostolico, ita quod terre ecclesie Romane non subsunt imperatori immediate nec mediate.’
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37 Ad Cod. Const., ‘De novo Codice componendo’ ([Lyons, 1498]), fol. iv.
38 See Dig. 1.1.5 itself: ‘Ex hoc iure gentium introducta bella, discrete gentes, regna condita, dominia distincta…’ (Venice, 1497); and Baldus, , ad Dig. 1.1.5 ([Lyons], 1498)Google Scholar, fol. 7r. For the connection between ius gentium and reason see Baldus ad Dig. 1.1.1,4, ibid., fol. 5v.
39 Ad Cod. Const., ‘De novo Codice componendo’, ([Lyons, 1498]), fol. iv: ‘Constat enim quod secundum naturalem rarionem et secundum ius gentium provinde eliguht sibi regem, ut [Dig. 1.1.5]. Et ideo quod est a principio approbatum istud censetur de iure gentium. Sed per provincias et per civitates istud fuit semper approbatum et presritum iuramentum fidelitatis ipsi pape; ergo tales provinde et civitates subsunt domino pape de iure gentium secundum naturalem rarionem. Et istam partem teneo et confirmo, quia posito quod donatio non tenuisset ecclesia tamen prescripsisset non obstante [Cod. 4.21.20], quia subditus non pre-scribit ut ibi, sed ecclesia est par imperio.’
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