The concept of heresy is deeply rooted in Christian European culture. The palpable increase in incidences of heresy in the Middle Ages may be said to directly relate to the Christianity's attempts to define orthodoxy and establish conformity at its centre, resulting in the sometimes forceful elimination of Christian sects. In the transition from medieval to early modern times, however, the perception of heresy underwent a profound transformation, ultimately leading to its decriminalization and the emergence of a pluralistic religious outlook. The essays in this volume offer readers a unique insight into this little-understood cultural shift. Half of the chapters investigate the manner in which the church and its attendant civil authorities defined and proscribed heresy, whilst the other half focus on the means by which early modern writers sought to supersede such definition and proscription. The result of these investigations is a multifaceted historical account of the construction and serial reconstruction of one of the key categories of European theological, juristic and political thought. The contributors explore the role of nationalism and linguistic identity in constructions of heresy, its analogies with treason and madness, the role of class and status in the responses to heresy. In doing so they provide fascinating insights into the roots of the historicization of heresy and the role of this historicization in the emergence of religious pluralism.

A reprint of the Routledge edition of Medieval Political Theory, a Reader: The Quest for the Body Politic, 1100-1400. This anthology includes writings of both well-known theorists such as Thomas Aquinas and John of Salisbury as well as those lesser known, including Christine de Pisan and Marie de France, and will be of value to students of the history of political theory as well as those of medieval intellectual history.

This volume deals with the development of moral and political philosophy in the medieval West. Professor Nederman is concerned to trace the continuing influence of classical ideas, but emphasises that the very diversity and diffuseness of medieval thought shows that there is no single scheme that can account for the way these ideas were received, disseminated and reformulated by medieval ethical and political theorists.

John of Salisbury (c. 1115-1180) was the foremost political theorist of his age. He was trained in scholastic theology and philosophy at Paris, and his writings are invaluable for summarizing many of the metaphysical speculations of his time. The Policraticus is his main work, and is regarded as the first complete work of political theory to be written in the Latin Middle Ages. Cary Nederman's new edition and translation, currently the only version available in English, is primarily aimed at undergraduate students of the history of political thought and medieval history. His new translation shows how important this text is in understanding the mores, forms of conduct and beliefs of the most powerful and learned segments of twelfth century Western Europe.

This volume makes available for the first time in English the writings about the Holy Roman Empire by Marsiglio of Padua (c.1275-1342), one of the most influential and original political thinkers of the Latin Middle Ages. Included are two major texts. The Defensor minor is a restatement and defence of the doctrines of Marsiglio's best known work, the Defensor pacis. As such it adds to our understanding of his previous thought while giving new dimensions to his theory. De translatione imperii (On the Transfer of the Empire) is a form of appendix to the Defensor pacis, in which Marsiglio's general intellectual framework is applied to an historical assessment of the legitimacy of the exercise of imperial power by the German king outside the authorisation of the pope.

Toleration has become a keystone of liberal political philosophy, but with liberalism under attack today as inadequate for dealing with all the problems of a pluralistic world, other resources are needed. Cary Nederman directs our attention to the creative thinking about toleration that preceded the rise of liberalism and canvasses the diverse ideas proposed then within Christianity as a response to religious, cultural, national, and ethnic differences.

Of the great philosophers of pagan antiquity, Marcus Tullius Cicero is the only one whose ideas were continuously accessible to the Christian West following the collapse of the Roman Empire. Yet, in marked contrast with other ancient philosophers, Cicero has largely been written out of the historical narrative on early European political thought, and the reception of his ideas has barely been studied. The Bonds of Humanity corrects this glaring oversight, arguing that the influence of Cicero's ideas in medieval and early modern Europe was far more pervasive than previously believed. In this book, Cary J. Nederman presents a persuasive counternarrative to the widely accepted belief in the dominance of Aristotelian thought. Surveying the work of a diverse range of thinkers from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, including John of Salisbury, Brunetto Latini, Marsiglio of Padua, Christine de Pizan, and Bartolome de Las Casas, Nederman shows that these men and women inherited, deployed, and adapted key Ciceronian themes. He argues that the rise of scholastic Aristotelianism in the thirteenth century did not supplant but rather supplemented and bolstered Ciceronian ideas, and he identifies the character and limits of Ciceronianism that distinguish it from other schools of philosophy. Highly original and compelling, this paradigm-shifting book will be greeted enthusiastically by students and scholars of early European political thought and intellectual history, particularly those engaged in the conversation about the role played by ancient and early Christian ideas in shaping the theories of later times.

Of the great philosophers of pagan antiquity, Marcus Tullius Cicero is the only one whose ideas were continuously accessible to the Christian West following the collapse of the Roman Empire. Yet, in marked contrast with other ancient philosophers, Cicero has largely been written out of the historical narrative on early European political thought, and the reception of his ideas has barely been studied. The Bonds of Humanity corrects this glaring oversight, arguing that the influence of Cicero's ideas in medieval and early modern Europe was far more pervasive than previously believed. In this book, Cary J. Nederman presents a persuasive counternarrative to the widely accepted belief in the dominance of Aristotelian thought. Surveying the work of a diverse range of thinkers from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, including John of Salisbury, Brunetto Latini, Marsiglio of Padua, Christine de Pizan, and Bartolome de Las Casas, Nederman shows that these men and women inherited, deployed, and adapted key Ciceronian themes. He argues that the rise of scholastic Aristotelianism in the thirteenth century did not supplant but rather supplemented and bolstered Ciceronian ideas, and he identifies the character and limits of Ciceronianism that distinguish it from other schools of philosophy. Highly original and compelling, this paradigm-shifting book will be greeted enthusiastically by students and scholars of early European political thought and intellectual history, particularly those engaged in the conversation about the role played by ancient and early Christian ideas in shaping the theories of later times.

Machiavelli has been among the most commented upon, criticized and feared thinkers of the modern world. Infamous for his support of brutality and repression as valid political instruments, he is often portrayed as the pantomime villain of political theorists. In this whirlwind tour of Machiavelli's writings and eventful life, Nederman highlights the complexities in his thought, showing that he actually advocated democracy as much as dictatorship, debate as much as violence, depending upon prevailing political conditions.

A reprint of the Routledge edition of Medieval Political Theory, a Reader: The Quest for the Body Politic, 1100-1400. This anthology includes writings of both well-known theorists such as Thomas Aquinas and John of Salisbury as well as those lesser known, including Christine de Pisan and Marie de France, and will be of value to students of the history of political theory as well as those of medieval intellectual history.

John of Salisbury (c. 1115-1180) was the foremost political theorist of his age. He was trained in scholastic theology and philosophy at Paris, and his writings are invaluable for summarizing many of the metaphysical speculations of his time. The Policraticus is his main work, and is regarded as the first complete work of political theory to be written in the Latin Middle Ages. Cary Nederman's new edition and translation, currently the only version available in English, is primarily aimed at undergraduate students of the history of political thought and medieval history. His new translation shows how important this text is in understanding the mores, forms of conduct and beliefs of the most powerful and learned segments of twelfth century Western Europe.

The fruits of new research on the politics, society and culture of England in the fourteenth century. The essays collected here engage with many of the most important themes and subjects of the period. In addition to addressing matters of kingship and changing theories of power, they tackle questions concerning loyalty and rebellion at the centre of authority and on its margins; the role of law, both domestic and international; the nature of memory - legal, historical and fabricated; and the relationship between the Plantagenets and the rulers of those nations and territories over which England claimed dominion. In so doing, the collection offers important new insights into political and social developments at times of major turmoil, including Edward I's war with Scotland, the deposition of Edward II, and the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, while also exploring the mechanisms used to ensure peace and the smooth-running of a kingdom during a time of immense change. DAVID GREEN is Lecturer in British Studies and History, Harlaxton College; CHRIS GIVEN-WILSON is Professor of Late Medieval History, University of St Andrews. Contributors: James Bothwell, S.W. Dempsey, Matthew Hefferan, Samuel Lane, Cary J. Nederman, W. Mark Ormrod, Bridget Wells-Furby

In their efforts to uncover the principles of a robust conception of democracy, theorists of deliberative democracy place a premium on the role of political expression--public speech and reasoned debate--as the key to democratic processes. They also frequently hark back to historical antecedents (as in the Habermasian invocation of the "public sphere" of eighteenth-century bourgeois society and the Arendtian valorization of the classical Athenian polis) in their quest to establish that deliberative procedures are more than "merely theoretical" and instead have a practical application. But for all this emphasis on the discursive and historical dimensions of democracy, these theorists have generally neglected the rich resources available in the history of rhetorical theory and practice. It is the purpose of Talking Democracy to resurrect this history and show how attention to rhetoric can help lead to a better understanding of both the strengths and limitations of current theories of deliberative democracy.

Contributors, besides the editors, are Russell Bentley, Tsae Lan Lee Dow, Tom Murphy, Arlene Saxonhouse, Gary Shiffman, John Uhr, Nadia Urbinati, John von Heyking, and Douglas Walton.

"Beyond the Persecuting Society" constructs a history of toleration from the Middle Ages through the seventeenth century. There is a myth--easily shattered--that Western societies since the Enlightenment have been dedicated to the ideal of protecting the differences between individuals and groups, and another--too readily accepted--that before the rise of secularism in the modern period, intolerance and persecution held sway throughout Europe. In "Beyond the Persecuting Society" John Christian Laursen, Cary J. Nederman, and nine other scholars dismantle this second generalization. If intolerance and religious persecution have been at the root of some of the greatest suffering in human history, it is nevertheless the case that toleration was practiced and theorized in medieval and early modern Europe on a scale few have realized: Christians and Jews, the English, French, Germans, Dutch, Swiss, Italians, and Spanish had their proponents of and experiments with tolerance well before John Locke penned his famous Letter Concerning Toleration. Moving from Abelard to Aphra Behn, from the apology for the gentiles of the fourteenth-century Talmudic scholar, Menahem ben Solomon Ha-MeIiri, to the rejection of intolerance in the "New Israel" of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Beyond the Persecuting Society offers a detailed and decisive correction to a vision of the past as any less complex in its embrace and abhorrence of diversity than the present. In addition to the editors, contributors are Detlef Dering, Arlen Feldwick, Randolph C. Head, Marion Leathers Kuntz, Thomas F. Mayer, Constant J. Mews, Richard Popkin, Gary Remer, and H. Frank Way. ""Beyond the Persecuting Society" confronts the myth that there was no general conception or practice of religious toleration before the Enlightenment. . . . It is the great strength of this collection that the diversity and richness of the often tentative allowance for confessional pluralism can be documented at times when unity of faith was seen as no less necessary than unity of obedience."--"Albion" John Christian Laursen is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Riverside, and author of "The Politics of Skepticism in the Ancients, Montaigne, Hume and Kant." Cary J. Nederman is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Arizona and author of "Community and Consent: The Secular Political Theory of Marsiglio of Padua's "Defensor Pacis.""

Marcia Colish is one of the most influential scholars of the history of medieval and early-modern thought, the author of numerous books and scores of articles in the field, as well as a pioneering President of the Medieval Academy of America. This volume honours her accomplishments with papers by her many colleagues, friends and former students, who are themselves prominent scholars from across a range of disciplines. The chapters are diverse chronologically and topically, yet they are all stimulated by themes that Prof. Colish has explored during her long and distinguished career. They address the richness of European intellectual history between the twelfth and the sixteenth centuries, treating the multiple heritages of philosophy, theology, political theory, historiography, classical reception, and many other subjects to which her scholarship extends. The volume demonstrates the power of ideas in the development of European history generally, revealing that the careful study of the works of the 'mind' does indeed 'matter'.

Given the rise of globalization and coinciding increase in cultural clashes among diverse nations, it has become eminently clear to scholars of political thought that there exists a critical gap in the knowledge of non-Western philosophies and how Western thought has been influenced by them. This gap has led to a severely diminished capacity of both state and nonstate actors to communicate effectively on a global scale. The political theorists, area scholars, and intellectual historians gathered here by Takashi Shogimen and Cary J. Nederman examine the exchange of political ideas between Europe and Asia from the Middle Ages to the early twentieth century. They establish the need for comparative political thought, showing that in order to fully grasp the origins and achievements of the West, historians of political thought must incorporate Asian political discourse and ideas into their understanding. By engaging in comparative studies, this volume proves the necessity of a cross-disciplinary approach in guiding the study of the global history of political thought.

Civic virtues, public service, and personal sacrifice and responsibility have again become vital questions for Americans struggling with the moral and political problems of citizenship. In Cultivating Citizens Dwight Allman and Michael Beaty bring together some of America's leading social and political thinkers to address the question of civic vitality in contemporary American society. The resulting volume is a serious reflection on the history of civil society and a rich and rewarding conversation about the future American civic order.

Civic virtues, public service, and personal sacrifice and responsibility have again become vital questions for Americans struggling with the moral and political problems of citizenship. In Cultivating Citizens Dwight Allman and Michael Beaty bring together some of America's leading social and political thinkers to address the question of civic vitality in contemporary American society. The resulting volume is a serious reflection on the history of civil society and a rich and rewarding conversation about the future American civic order.

This book examines some of the salient historiographical and conceptual issues that animate current scholarly debates about the nature of the medieval contribution to modern Western political ideas. On the one hand, scholars who subscribe to the 'Baron thesis' concerning civic humanism have asserted that the break between medieval and modern modes of political thinking formed an unbridgeable chasm associated with the development of an entirely new framework at the dawn of the Florentine Renaissance. Others have challenged this hypothesis, replacing it with another extreme: an unbroken continuity in the intellectual terrain between the twelfth and the seventeenth centuries (or later). The present book seeks to qualify both of these positions. Cary J. Nederman argues for a more nuanced historiography of intellectual continuity and change that depends upon analyzing a host of contextual as well as philosophical factors to account for the emergence of the European tradition of political theory in the medieval and early modern periods. He finds that categories such as 'medieval' and 'modern' can and should be usefully deployed, yet always with the understanding that they are provisional and potentially fluid. The book opens with an introduction that lays out the main issues and sources of the debate, followed by five sets of interrelated chapters. The first section critically assesses some of the leading scholars who have contributed to the current understanding of the relationship between medieval and modern ideas. The central part of the book includes three sections that address salient themes that illuminate and illustrate continuity and change: Dissent and Power, Empire and Republic, and Political Economy. The volume closes with a few examples of the ways in which medieval political doctrines were absorbed into and transformed during the modern period up to the nineteenth century.

This volume makes available for the first time in English the writings about the Holy Roman Empire by Marsiglio of Padua, one of the most influential and original political thinkers of the Latin Middle Ages. The Defensor minor is a restatement and defense of Marsiglio's best known work, the Defensor pacis, and De translatione Imperii applies Marsiglio's general intellectual framework to the question of the exercise of imperial power.