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Originally published in 1957, this classic work has guided
generations of scholars through the arcane mysteries of medieval
political theology. Throughout history, the notion of two bodies
has permitted the post mortem continuity of monarch and monarchy,
as epitomized by the statement, "The king is dead. Long live the
king." In The King's Two Bodies, Ernst Kantorowicz traces the
historical problem posed by the "King's two bodies"--the body
natural and the body politic--back to the Middle Ages and
demonstrates, by placing the concept in its proper setting of
medieval thought and political theory, how the early-modern Western
monarchies gradually began to develop a "political theology." The
king's natural body has physical attributes, suffers, and dies,
naturally, as do all humans; but the king's other body, the
spiritual body, transcends the earthly and serves as a symbol of
his office as majesty with the divine right to rule. The notion of
the two bodies allowed for the continuity of monarchy even when the
monarch died, as summed up in the formulation "The king is dead.
Long live the king." Bringing together liturgical works, images,
and polemical material, The King's Two Bodies explores the long
Christian past behind this "political theology." It provides a
subtle history of how commonwealths developed symbolic means for
establishing their sovereignty and, with such means, began to
establish early forms of the nation-state. Kantorowicz fled Nazi
Germany in 1938, after refusing to sign a Nazi loyalty oath, and
settled in the United States. While teaching at the University of
California, Berkeley, he once again refused to sign an oath of
allegiance, this one designed to identify Communist Party
sympathizers. He was dismissed as a result of the controversy and
moved to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where he
remained for the rest of his life, and where he wrote The King's
Two Bodies. Featuring a new introduction, The King's Two Bodies is
a subtle history of how commonwealths developed symbolic means for
establishing their sovereignty and, with such means, began to
establish early forms of the nation-state.
Who can concentrate on thoughts of Scripture or philosophy and be
able to endure babies crying ... ? Will he put up with the constant
muddle and squalor which small children bring into the home? The
wealthy can do so ... but philosophers lead a very different life
... So, according to Peter Abelard, did his wife Heloise state in
characteristically stark terms the antithetical demands of family
and scholarship. Heloise was not alone in making this assumption.
Sources from Jerome onward never cease to remind us that the life
of the mind stands at odds with life in the family. For all that we
have moved in the past two generations beyond kings and battles,
fiefs and barons, motherhood has remained a blind spot for medieval
historians. Whatever the reasons, the result is that the
historiography of the medieval period is largely motherless. The
aim of this book is to insist that this picture is intolerably
one-dimensional, and to begin to change it. The volume is focussed
on the paradox of motherhood in the European Middle Ages: to be a
mother is at once to hold great power, and by the same token to be
acutely vulnerable. The essays look to analyse the powers and the
dangers of motherhood within the warp and weft of social history,
beginning with the premise that religious discourse or practice
served as a medium in which mothers (and others) could assess their
situation, defend claims, and make accusations. Within this frame,
three main themes emerge: survival, agency, and
institutionalization. The volume spans the length and breadth of
the Middle Ages, from late Roman North Africa through ninth-century
Byzantium to late medieval Somerset, drawing in a range of types of
historian, including textual scholars, literary critics, students
of religion and economic historians. The unity of the volume arises
from the very diversity of approaches within it, all addressed to
the central topic.
Who can concentrate on thoughts of Scripture or philosophy and be
able to endure babies crying ... ? Will he put up with the constant
muddle and squalor which small children bring into the home? The
wealthy can do so ... but philosophers lead a very different life
... So, according to Peter Abelard, did his wife Heloise state in
characteristically stark terms the antithetical demands of family
and scholarship. Heloise was not alone in making this assumption.
Sources from Jerome onward never cease to remind us that the life
of the mind stands at odds with life in the family. For all that we
have moved in the past two generations beyond kings and battles,
fiefs and barons, motherhood has remained a blind spot for medieval
historians. Whatever the reasons, the result is that the
historiography of the medieval period is largely motherless. The
aim of this book is to insist that this picture is intolerably
one-dimensional, and to begin to change it. The volume is focussed
on the paradox of motherhood in the European Middle Ages: to be a
mother is at once to hold great power, and by the same token to be
acutely vulnerable. The essays look to analyse the powers and the
dangers of motherhood within the warp and weft of social history,
beginning with the premise that religious discourse or practice
served as a medium in which mothers (and others) could assess their
situation, defend claims, and make accusations. Within this frame,
three main themes emerge: survival, agency, and
institutionalization. The volume spans the length and breadth of
the Middle Ages, from late Roman North Africa through ninth-century
Byzantium to late medieval Somerset, drawing in a range of types of
historian, including textual scholars, literary critics, students
of religion and economic historians. The unity of the volume arises
from the very diversity of approaches within it, all addressed to
the central topic.
Making Early Medieval Societies explores a fundamental question:
what held the small- and large-scale communities of the late Roman
and early medieval West together, at a time when the world seemed
to be falling apart? Historians and anthropologists have
traditionally asked parallel questions about the rise and fall of
empires and how societies create a sense of belonging and social
order in the absence of strong governmental institutions. This book
draws on classic and more recent anthropologists' work to consider
dispute settlement and conflict management during and after the end
of the Roman Empire. Contributions range across the internecine
rivalries of late Roman bishops, the marital disputes of warrior
kings, and the tension between religious leaders and the unruly
crowds in western Europe after the first millennium - all
considering the mechanisms through which conflict could be
harnessed as a force for social stability or an engine for social
change.
Making Early Medieval Societies explores a fundamental question:
what held the small- and large-scale communities of the late Roman
and early medieval West together, at a time when the world seemed
to be falling apart? Historians and anthropologists have
traditionally asked parallel questions about the rise and fall of
empires and how societies create a sense of belonging and social
order in the absence of strong governmental institutions. This book
draws on classic and more recent anthropologists' work to consider
dispute settlement and conflict management during and after the end
of the Roman Empire. Contributions range across the internecine
rivalries of late Roman bishops, the marital disputes of warrior
kings, and the tension between religious leaders and the unruly
crowds in western Europe after the first millennium - all
considering the mechanisms through which conflict could be
harnessed as a force for social stability or an engine for social
change.
When barbarians invaded the Roman Empire in the years around 400 AD, Christian monks hid in their cloisters - or so it is often assumed. Conrad Leyser shows is that monks in the early medieval West were, in fact, pioneers in the creation of a new language of moral authority. He describes the making of this tradition over two centuries from St Augustine to St Benedict and Gregory the Great.
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