Εξουσία και πολιτική εκκλησιολογία στη δυτικοευρωπαϊκή μεσαιωνική πολιτειολογική σκέψη

Abstract

This article aims to interpret the medieval conception of power in relation to the temporal, spiritual and ontological structures of human action. It starts from the assumption that the political and institutional doctrines of medieval papacy presuppose the elaboration of a principle of political ecclesiology which can be elucidated via the interpretation of various medieval texts and treatises. Beginning from a critical reconstruction of both the secular and the ecclesiastic horizon of medieval political reasoning, this study subjects to detailed examination the medieval ethical and normative constitutional model with its major aspects: the theory of government, the relations of po liticai and juridical arguments, the contribution of roman law and its applications to the domain of political organisation, the nature of religious authority and the problem of legitimacy. Predominant emphasis is given upon those ideas that prepared the emergence of the modem state and facilitated the formation of an alternative approach in terms of covenant, consent and utility. The demonstration of the historical pervasiveness of such ideas in high and later medieval thought, the consequent rejection of papal claims to universal validity and the affirmation of a voluntarist interaction of the political subjects, can be considered as the essential conditions for the entry into the secular entire world-view of the Renaissance