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Medieval Order and Disorder in
Voegelin's History of Political Ideas'
The Collected Works of Eric Voegelin, Volume 20, History of
Political Ideas: Volume II, The Middle Ages to Aquinas by Eric
Voegelin, ed. Peter von Sivers (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1997)
uring the 1940s Eric Voegelin was working on a history of
D political ideas. His original purpose was to provide a text for
general classroom use that would reflect the current state of scholarship in political science and in the related fields of philosophy,
religion, and history. As Voegelin worked through the source
materials, he realized that the scope of study needed to be dramatically expanded to include the civilizations of the ancient Near East,
Israelite religion, the Jewish and Christian apocalyptic traditions,
the classical philosophical tradition, the rise of ecumenic empires,
the emergence of the concept of a sacrum imperium as the basis of
medieval order, the disintegration of the empire into national units,
the secularization of philosophy and politics, the rise of the modern
state, and the totalitarian dream of innerworldly perfection. The new
data carried Voegelin's analysis well beyond the conventional perspectives and methods of political theory and political history and
expanded the project from one to nine long typescripts.'
Although he worked on this project for over a decade, Voegelin
decided to withhold it from publication. He did not reach this
unusual decision because he had given up on his plan for a comprehensive historical analysis, but because he became convinced that he
needed to reorient his theoretical and methodological approach. 2 In
*The Earhart Foundation generously provided a 1999 summer fellowship to support preparation of this essay.
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1952 Voegelin set out the principles of his new theoretical orientation in The New Science of Politics, and these principles were
developed further in his new multivolume project Order and
History, which began appearing in 1956. According to the publication program announced in the mid-1950s, Voegelin intended for
Order and History to offer the same broad geographical and
chronological scope covered by the history of political ideas. Indeed,
the first three volumes of Order and History closely parallel early
portions of the history of political ideas: analysis of ancient Near
Eastern civilizations, Israelite history, the rise of the Greek polis,
and the discovery of philosophy.' The fourth volume, which was
delayed for nearly twenty years as Voegelin continued to make
substantial theoretical and methodological revisions, carried the
historical analysis up to the age of ecumenic empires; but the brief
fifth volume broke with the chronological sequence to focus on
thematic issues spanning human history. 4
If the original, comprehensive program of Order and History
had been completed, the history of political ideas project would be
of only marginal interest or value. But the program of Order and
History was foreshortened, making the history of political ideas
extremely significant because it remains the only source for Voegelin's
sustained historical treatment of Western civilization from the fall of
the Roman Empire to the rise of modern nation-states. The volumes
covering the period from the sixth to the seventeenth centuries are
particularly valuable because they examine the formation of the
concept of the sacrum imperium, the disintegration of medieval
order, the immanentization of politics, and the secularization of
philosophy. Until recently, access to the history of political ideas has
been limited to the archives at Stanford University or to the few
libraries that have microform copies. Fortunately, the history of
political ideas is now being made more widely available through
publication as part of the University of Missouri Press's Collected
Works of Eric Voegelin. As a result, readers now have ready access
to Voegelin's detailed historical analysis of Western civilizational
order and disorder, and scholars can explore the theoretical and
methodological affinities and differences between Voegelin's work
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in the 1940s and his later work in Order and History.'
Some of the most important material made available by the
publication of The History of Political Ideas centers on the medieval
period, and this essay examines three key elements of Voegelin's
treatment. The first is the evolution of the concept of the sacrum
imperium as the organic symbol of spiritual and temporal order in
the period from the sixth to the ninth centuries. The second is the
disintegration of the sacrum imperium, the accompanying rise of
national units, and the growing tendency toward secularization and
immanentization in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries.
The third is the recovery of organic spiritual and temporal unity in
Aquinas's synthesis of Christian theology and classical political
philosophy.' The purpose of this examination of these dimensions of
Voegelin's analysis is to demonstrate that these medieval developments are crucial to understanding both the distinctive character of
Western civilization and the disorders that plague the modern age.
The Frankish Kingdom and the Sacrum Imperium
The concept of the sacrum imperium emerges out of pragmatic
events and theoretical developments surrounding the alliance between the pope, the Latin Church, and the new Frankish kingdom
during the sixth through the ninth centuries. Voegelin identifies
several developments over the 300-year period that constitute the
separate building blocks of the distinctive concept of spiritualtemporal order. Three are especially crucial for understanding
subsequent developments in Western political history. The first is
the role of the pope in legitimating the transfer of power from the
Merovingian to the Carolingian dynasties. The second is the pope's
role in establishing secular authority by anointing the ruler, a
ceremony that implies divine selection. The third is the pope's
creation of the title patricius Romanorum for the Frankish ruler.'
The Merovingian royal line had been founded by Clovis (c. 466511), the first of the Franks to establish a substantial unified
territory. In 496 Clovis converted; his kingdom, consequently,
became Christian; and Clovis and his forces acted as defenders of the
Roman faith. Clovis was succeeded by his sons, who were unable to
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hold the kingdom together against internal dissension and external
threat. In these circumstances, one of the families of the royal court,
the Carolingians, rose to prominence as effective administrative and
military leaders. While the Carolingian leadership addressed immediate, pressing problems, it posed a challenge to the Merovingians
and to Frankish principles of royal succession and peaceful transfer
of power. 8 To resolve the problem, the Franks appealed to the pope.
Pope Zacharias, utilizing principles established by Augustine, determined that the Carolingians were most able to provide peace and
justice and were, therefore, best able to serve as rulers. The
Merovingian ruler, Childeric, accepted the decision, and the royal
office was transferred to Pepin the Short in 751. The next crucial
development is found in the manner in which the pope conferred
the right to rule. The anointing of Pepin at St. Denis (754) and the
coronation of Charlemagne in 800 substantially alter the early
Christian community idea by making the king a charismatic, who
now joins priest, prophets, and martyrs in the mystical body of Christ
(corpus mysticum). Voegelin notes:
...the Pauline doctrine of the charismatic, of the gifts of grace
differentiating the functions of the members of the corpus
mysticum, has been enlarged.... The body of Christ has absorbed the ruling office into the field of the dynamis of Christ.
This office had been distinguished as the exousia and had been
excluded from the corpus mysticum; the ruler has become
charismatic. The new charismatic position of the Christian
ruler...is the starting point of the typology of the mirror of the
Christian prince. Charlemagne had already seen himself in the
image of the new David, anointed by the Lord, and had
accepted the mirror of St. Augustine as guidance. (63)
A third key element of the pope's legitimation of secular rule
involves the conferring of the title of patricius Romanorum to the
Frankish ruler. This title, Voegelin notes, is a new creation. The
imperial title patricius conveyed to its holder a subordinate rank in
the imperial structure. The complete title, patricius Romanorum,
conveyed the obligation to protect "Rome" as the new emerging
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center of administrative power of the pope. The granting of the title
patricius by the pope signals the effort to establish a new political
entity because under existing imperial law the pope had no authority
to bestow the title ofpatricius.
As the nature of imperial order is being defined, the role and
function of the papacy is being transformed. The pope's active role
in shaping the political order of the empire blurs Galasius's famous
separation of temporal and spiritual function and authority.' Moreover, Pepin's defense of Rome and his donation of the Italian
peninsula from Parma to Apulia to the Holy See transforms the
papacy into one of the largest principalities in the imperium and
makes the spiritual head of Christendom into a powerful, temporal
monarch. Evidence that the papacy could be tempted to exploit its
temporal power is found in the famous eighth-century forgery of the
Donation of Constantine. The purpose of the forgery was to legitimate the temporal possessions of the church, to give the pope a rank
superior to that of the emperor, and to equip him as a temporal
prince with the imperial paraphernalia of the Lateran Palace and
palatial Church of St. Peter, including a senate, patricians, and
councils an imperial hierarchy of officials.
This synopsis of critical events in the early history of the empire
helps establish the distinctive elements of medieval and spiritual
order, and, at the same time, exposes some inherent problems. By
as early as the ninth century, it is possible to speak of a Christian
theocratic state in the West with ordering principles distinctive from
those of both the Roman and the Byzantine Empires. This new
experience of order comes to be expressed in three interrelated
symbols: the sacrum imperium (holy empire), corpus mysticum
(body of Christ), and regni Christi (kingdom of Christ). The symbol
sacrum imperium conjoins the two forms of temporal order and
unification: the empire and the church. The noun imperium is
equivalent to the Greco-Roman notion of ecumene, an inclusive
order in which most peoples of the world are united, often by force,
under one terrestrial ruler. The adjective sacrum refers to the
spiritual wholeness of all Christian people united under one divine
ruler, God. This symbol is augmented by the corpus mysticum,
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which refers to the temporal community (ecclesia) composed of all
Christians. This later community is identical with the imperium, but
it is superior to it because it is held together by spiritual authority and
not by force. Moreover, while it is composed of imperfect human
beings and subject to error, it links the mundane to the transcendent
and orders existence toward the eternal. The corpus mysticum as a
temporal, imperfect body is, in turn, inferior to and subordinate to
the regni Christi or Christ's kingdom. This symbol refers to the
transcendent community of all people joined together by the love
0
and redemption of the divine savior.'
This triad of symbols expresses the ordering principles that
maintained a rough balance between the imperial and ecclesiastical
functions from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries. But, as noted
earlier, the events surrounding the creation of the Carolingian
empire also create overlapping roles and duties for the pope and the
monarch. The ruler is given charismatic authority and the duty to
defend the faith. From the outset the emperor was directly involved
in ecclesiastical affairs, such as presiding over important church
assemblies, and Otto I made lay investiture a common practice. At
the same time, the papacy was directly involved in the shaping of
political order. The pope installed the emperor, and he continued
to intervene in political affairs within the empire or between the
emperor and national kings. Moreover, the papacy also became
embroiled in power politics to protect its own territorial interests.
The tensions between imperial and ecclesiastical authority intensified in the eleventh and twelfth centuries and culminated in the
investiture struggle, which Voegelin describes as "the greatest
political debate of the Western world and the supreme test of its
political ability." (86 n. 8)
Investiture Controversy
Investiture was a medieval feudal ceremony in which an overlord
transferred a fief to his vassal. Under this feudal arrangement, the
lord provided protection and the vassal incurred a bond of obligation
(fidelitas) to the lord. Lay investiture extended the feudal practice to
the appointment of ecclesiastical officials. The ruler installed the
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bishop as a regional official of the church and also as a temporal
administrator with feudal obligations to the ruler. In the tenth
century the practice of lay investiture could be regarded as a
legitimate extension of the duties of pope and ruler. The pope
installed the emperor, who was obliged to the pope to protect the
church. The emperor installed ecclesiastical officials in his territories as an extension of the pope's authority. The practice was
common and widespread under Otto I, who became Holy Roman
Emperor in 962, but over the next two hundred years the practice
becomes increasingly problematic as simony, pluralism, and absenteeism plagued the church. Under the potent influence of the
Cluniac reforms, the church and the papacy attempted to remove
the church from lay influence and restore ecclesiastical autonomy."
In 1075 the Roman Synod under Gregory VII decided against lay
investiture and provided for excommunication for laymen. These
actions were clearly in accord with the principles of the sacrum
imperium and with canon law, which gave the pope control over
bishops.
Nevertheless, the effort at implementation was both controversial and problematic. The reform posed a practical problem because
the lay investiture made the bishops heads of temporal administrative bodies and also imposed on them a debt of feudal fidelity to the
lay ruler. These conflicts of principles and of precedent were
compounded on both sides by the ambitions and will to power of
both pope and lay ruler. As a consequence, extended debate
occurred in which the ordering principles ofsacrum imperium were
cited by each side of the controversy. Voegelin summarizes the
principal elements of each side's argument and then offers two
examples to demonstrate how theoretical and pragmatic issues
surrounding the controversy were transforming the nature of the
sacrum imperium.
The papal position may be summarized as follows: spiritual
authority is superior to temporal authority; the deposition of the
Merovingian ruler, Childeric, and the installation of the Carolingian,
Pepin, set the precedent for the pope's superior authority and for his
action in the secular, political realm; spiritual freedom of the church
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is of primary concern in the sacrum imperium, and therefore, the
church is justified in interfering in temporal matters in order to
preserve and protect the spiritual substance of the sacrum imperium; the emperor is a member of the corpus mysticum and is,
therefore, like all other members of the church subject to its
discipline; in the sacrum imperium the instance of last appeal must
fall to the pope as the representative of spiritual power. The
emperor's advocates presented the following argument: within the
sacrum imperium, royal power is ordained by God, as reflected in
the anointment ceremony; the spiritual authority of the pope over
kings is restricted to questions of orthodoxy and heresy; the persona
regalia had, within the principles of ninth-century doctrine, status
in the corpus mysticum; the unity of the sacrum imperium depended upon cooperation of the pope and ruler; spiritual power is,
therefore, not superior to temporal; both derive from God, and each
has power and authority within the sacrum imperium and the corpus
mysticum; by the customs of the imperium the emperor had the
protectorate over Rome; and influence in ecclesiastical appointments from the pope downward is his right and responsibility. (cf.
86, especially fn. 8)
While most of the arguments in the extended debate were
framed around these principles, the controversy also produced
arguments that reflect a fundamental alteration of the ordering
principles of the sacrum imperium. Voegelin finds two instances of
particular note. The first is found in arguments legitimating Pope
Gregory VII's authority over secular princes; the second is the York
Tracts, which take the opposite position and defend the autonomy
and superiority of the Christian king. 12 According to Voegelin, "it
was clear before the struggle with Henry IV began to what extremes
Gregory VII would go in dealing with recalcitrant princes." (87) One
tactic that is used repeatedly is to vilify or demonize the secular
office. In letters written to Hermann of Metz, Gregory states that
kingship originates in the pride of men, who, incited by the devil,
make themselves masters over their equals by iniquitous means.
Gregory repeats this charge as part of his justification for intervening
in the conflict between the kings of Germany and Hungary. The key
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issue in the dispute revolves around feudal loyalty on the one hand,
and the freedom of self-determination of a Christian principality.
Pope Gregory VII and his supporters argued that a national king who
attempts to extend lordship over another national king is behaving
tyrannically. This tyrannical act violates the sacrum imperium,
which is supposed to be a manifold of national principalities in which
the subject peoples enjoy free self-determination. To ensure against
the tyrannical impulse of national princes, it is necessary that
ultimate fidelity (fidelitas) be given to the pope, who is obligated to
preserve freedom against the secular princes' inherent impulse
toward domination. While this argument is consistent with the
general understanding of the relative authority of pope and ruler in
the sacrum imperium, it also reflects a substantial alteration. In this
view, the king is not portrayed as one chosen by God as a temporal
ruler. Instead, secular princes are portrayed as being driven by
i mperial impulses that threaten the political and personal liberty of
those united in the corpus mysticum. This inclination toward
tyranny, therefore, adds further justification for the spiritual authority of the pope and legitimates his intervention in secular affairs.
Voegelin notes that Gregory VII's position sparked widespread
debate. Part of the concern lay in the principles of the argument, part
in the recognition that the argument was a pretext for the pope's own
ambition and will to power.
Voegelin then turns to the York Tracts, which were written
during the English investiture struggle and argue that the pope and13
the Roman church, not the king, are the source of evil and disorder.
What is most remarkable is that the Tracts assert that royal function
is superior to the sacerdotal because the king reflects Christ's
eternal, divine nature, while the priest reflects his finite human
nature. Christ is king from eternity; he adopted the human priestly
form in order to redeem humanity from evil. This way of emphasizing the kingship of Christ necessarily compromises the priesthood
of Christ and undercuts papal and ecclesiastical authority. Moreover, this formulation negates the need and necessity of a special
priesthood of the church hierarchy and limits the function of the
Church of Rome to the early formative stage of Christian history.
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The authority of the Church of Rome and of the pope was necessary
at the formative stage because of the emergency conditions of the
time. The early church had been threatened with division and in
order to prevent schism, one bishop was given preeminence. That
role fell to the Roman bishop because of the imperial prestige of the
city. Now, however, the divisions that threatened to split the church
had passed, and the assertion of Roman preeminence had itself
become a source of division. While the role of the Roman church is
temporally limited, the office of king is an ongoing, essential part of
the final order reflected in the human realm. According to the York
Tracts, the king is not only granted secular authority; he is given the
charge to protect and defend the church. "He is the supreme
shepherd and ruler and defender and teacher of the holy Church, he
is the lord of his brethren and should be adored by all for he is set
over all as the supreme Lord." (quoted in 99) This formulation, then,
inverts the radical Christian characterization of the secular ruler as
demonic. The York Tracts make the Roman authority into a demonic
threat and transform the church into a realm of darkness.
If the York Tracts were nothing more than an extreme partisan
argument for the persona regalia, they could be dismissed as
inconsequential. Voegelin regards them as extremely valuable,
however, because he finds in them a clear, concise expression of a
strikingly new attitude toward Western Christian spiritual and
civilizational history. The York Tracts view the alliance between the
papacy and the emperor as a necessary first stage in the establishment of the Western Christian world, but then argue that the
historical context has changed in the intervening years, and the
formative institutions of the sacrum imperium have become outmoded and now stand as sources of disorder. Accompanying this
new attitude is the conviction that the restoration of order in the
present circumstances requires new ordering principles and new
institutional structures. In the twelfth century this new attitude
affects both political and ecclesiastical institutions. In the northern
regions where the York Tracts originate, there is a move toward
national kingdoms independent of imperial authority and national,
autonomous churches free from the oppressive weight of Roman
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authority. In the regions that were once part of the Holy Roman
Empire, there are increasing efforts to establish independent nation-states free from the domination of the emperor. Within the
ecclesiastical structures, some forms of monastic spiritualism envision a new spiritual order that supersedes the flawed institutions of
the sacrum imperium. Voegelin provides three examples that at
once reflect the sentiments of the twelfth century and point to
patterns that become increasingly important in the later middle ages
1
and the modern periods. 4 His first example is found in the writings
of John of Salisbury, who is often referred to as the first medieval
political theorist. Voegelin then moves to a consideration of monastic spirituality, especially the revolutionary vision of Joachim of
Flora. His third example is taken from the political strategies of
Emperor Frederick II.
John of Salisbury
John of Salisbury was an English scholar trained in the leading
schools of France, a member of the Roman Curia in Apulia, and a
supporter of Thomas Becket during Thomas's controversies with
King Henry II. John's the Policraticus, or Statesman (1159), is a
rather disorganized, at times contradictory, treatise on the king and
the court. The work is a combination of skeptical philosophical, and
cynical sociological observations and anecdotes, which portray the
faults and follies of the prince and his courtiers. Books Six to Ten,
which describe the character and duties of a prince, are sometimes
referred to as the first medieval treatise on political thought.
Voegelin's interest is in John's analysis of "man in the political state,"
which stands in stark contrast to the concept of order expressed in
the symbols of the sacrum imperium. John portrays the political
sphere as an intramundane realm dominated by appetite, pride, and
will. 15 "Man, ignorant of his status and of the obedience he owes to
God, aspires to a kind of fictitious liberty, vainly imagining that he
can live without fear and can do with impunity whatsoever pleases
him, and somehow be straightway like unto God." (quoted on 116)
The political man in John's view is driven by pride and he yearns for
tyrannical power, although only a few men can actually attain it. The
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point of John's analysis is not, however, to explain the tyrannical
i mpulses of princes. It is instead to justify the active resistance of
political man to the tyrannical impulses of princes. According to
John, the political man has the obligation to resist to the point of
executing the outlaw ruler. Such drastic action falls to the individual
because there is no representative organ of community resistance
yet established. For Voegelin John represents the threshold where
old concepts and principles are giving way under new pressures. In
the ordering principles of the sacrum imperium, the political body
or commonwealth was seen as an organic unit fashioned by God. The
prince was its head, the public officials the parts of its body, the
peasants its feet, and priests its soul. In John's view this divine
construction is gone. The political realm has become one of power
politics, and the individual is left on his own to defend against the
tyrannical impulses of princes.
Twelfth-Century Monasticism
According to Voegelin, the monastic, spiritual movements of the
twelfth century break with previous ones in two important ways. In
previous periods monastic spirituality served as a crucial element of
the Christianizing of Europe, and following the ninth century, the
Cluniac reforms were an integral part of the revitalization of the
papacy and the church. Monastic spirituality, therefore, served an
essential function in the sacrum imperium and in the corpus
mysticism." Some highly influential elements of the monastic
spirituality of the twelfth century, however, set their efforts in
juxtaposition to the prevailing disorder in the secular and ecclesiastical institutions of the sacrum imperium and believed that the new
spirituality would serve as the basis for a new temporal community.
Voegelin maintains that this conviction leads to a new formulation of
Christian spiritual and civilizational history in which the Roman
church is viewed as a flawed institution to be superseded by a new,
purer Christian community. The most notable example of this
historical re-interpretation is found in the writings of Joachim of Flor
(c. 1145-1202). 17 But as Voegelin points out, Joachim is not the first
or only visionary to conceive of the new phases of monastic spiritu-
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ality as advances beyond gospel Christianity and the sacrum imperium. These sentiments are expressed, for example, in the Summa
gloriae (1120) of Honorius of Autun and the Liber de una forma
credendi et multiformitate vivendi (1135) of Anselm of Havelburg.
In these writings, the post-Christ era is not simply a period of
waiting; it has a discernible structure of growth, decay, and revitalization that moves Christian history toward the new age in which the
imperfections of worldly existence are overcome and the
eschatological fulfillment of history is attained. As Voegelin remarks:
"Each age marks a progress in spiritual grace and in understanding
of the truth; and within the ages the spirit is ripening toward its
fulfillment, until the last age of the spirit is reached beyond this
world in the eternal presence of God." (128) This pattern of
innerworldly progress toward perfection stands in sharp contrast to
the Augustinian construction. In the Augustinian history, the appearance of Christ represents the peak of spiritual fulfillment. The
present, then, is a saeculum senescens, a period of waiting until the
divine fulfillment of history at the end of time. In Anselm's construction, however, the new monastic spirituality initiates a saeculum
renascens, a period of spiritual progress beyond what had been
achieved in the early church.
Joachim's famous construction of a three-phase progressive
history takes form within this context. For Voegelin, the key element
in Joachim's formulation is his development of a pattern of symmetry
in each of the three ages. This is the key component for Voegelin
because the completed course of the first phase furnishes the
pattern for understanding the pattern of the second, which is
nearing its completion, and this pattern in turn makes future events
predictable. Said somewhat differently, Joachim's history establishes the law governing the internal phases of each and, therefore,
the pattern governing the whole course of history. Joachim's analysis
of the internal structure of each phase prompts him to identify a
pattern of leadership within each age. The beginning of each age is
marked by a trinity of leaders: two precursors plus the actual leader.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with his 12 sons represent this pattern in
the first phase. The second phase is represented by Zachariah, John
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the Baptist, Christ and his spiritual sons. Joachim's speculation on
this pattern in the two previous ages leads him to envision a third
realm that was beginning to open which would follow a similar
pattern to the previous ones. (cf. 128ff)
It is particularly noteworthy that the spiritual breakthrough in
the third age is an event that occurs outside the history of the gospel.
Drawing upon the book of Revelation, Joachim envisions the age of
the four gospels, giving way to a fifth gospel. This fifth gospel is not
a written gospel, but emerges through the Spirit's actual transforming of the members of the order into the members of the realm
without mediation by sacramental channels of grace. The church,
therefore, is unnecessary in the final realm because the Spirit will
provide the charismatic gifts directly to the faithful without need of
priestly administration of the sacrament. These developments,
while they can be understood within the context of twelfth-century
spiritualism, nevertheless mark a dramatic departure from established Christian understanding. As already noted, this three-stage
construction presents the new age as dramatically superior to the
preceding period. Put more starkly, the spiritual breakthroughs
represented by Christ are surpassed because the Spirit manifests
itself directly into the new age. The present age, therefore, is
transformed from a period of waiting into a period of fulfillment.
Joachim's construction also presents a dramatically new idea of
humanity. The human limitations that had characterized the preceding age are overcome. In the new age, humanity has attained a level
of spiritual maturity that enables it to organize a perfect innerworldly
community and to liberate humanity from the imperfect social and
ecclesiastical organizations of the dying age. 18 For Voegelin, Joachim's
new spiritual man stands as a complement to the political individual
of John of Salisbury. John of Salisbury's political man was endowed
with the right to overthrow a king in order to preserve the public
order. Joachim's new spiritual man is presented as an autonomous,
free person, able to form a community of brotherly solidarity,
independent of the feudal, ecclesiastical, and temporal organizations of society.
Voegelin's discussion of twelfth-century spirituality includes a
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brief consideration of the Franciscan movement, or more precisely,
the Spiritual Franciscans, who held that Joachim's new age of the
Spirit had begun with St. Francis. Voegelin finds that the Franciscan
emphasis on withdrawing from an age of disorder to enter into a
higher level of spiritual community makes the possession of virtue an
attack on the world with its prevailing institutions, including the
secular and ecclesiastical authority. It also presents the simple but
spiritually mature man as the agent for renewal and advance of
Christian spirituality, and as an agent . of the new spirituality,
he
19
challenges the ecclesiastical and temporal hierarchy of order.
Emperor Frederick II
Frederick II (1194-1250) was a man of inordinate ability and
ambition who became emperor at a time when the concept of the
sacrum imperium was in obvious eclipse. For Voegelin, Frederick's
efforts to establish a new basis for his imperial authority and to
fashion a new identity in relation to the pope and powerful national
kings provide a case study of the transformation of medieval order
under the pressure of intramundane politics. Voegelin's analysis
focuses on three main topics: the emergence of new political units
that rival the empire; Frederick II's transformation of the empire
into a centralized, bureaucratic monarchy based upon new
intramundane understanding of political order; and Frederick's
reformulation of his imperial authority to make it independent of the
pope and the sacrum imperium.
By the eleventh century the rise of "fringe" political units around
the German imperial core had gained sufficient importance to
"inspire Gregory VII with the vision of a community of national
kingdoms, dependent on the semispiritual, semifeudal authority of
the papacy as a counterweight to the empire itself." (144) The events
that accelerated the rise of the "fringe" to political effectiveness on
a world scale were the Norman expansion of the tenth and eleventh
centuries, the foundation of the island kingdoms of Sicily and
England, and the expansion of the island powers to the continent
through marriage and inheritance. As these new entities were being
formed, the strength and authority of pope and emperor waxed and
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175
waned. The brief reign of Emperor Henry VI brought the dream of
an empire of the Western world close to reality. 20 The rule of Pope
Innocent III (1198-1216) brought the counterconstruction of a
papal domination of Europe to its highest point of fulfillment.
Voegelin observes that the opposing imperial constructions of pope
and emperor reflect both the continuing conflicts inherent in the
sacrum imperium and a new dimension of power politics precipitated by the emergence of Sicily as a great power center. "The
existence of a strong Sicily as a papal fief was an interest of the Holy
See from a purely power-and even geopolitical-point of view."
(147) Imperial interest in Sicily was accentuated by the German
emperor's need for a territory that could be rationally organized as
the center for his power. The ongoing struggle between the pope
and emperor for control of Sicily led to a war between the FrenchHohenstaufen and the English-Guelf alliances,which was decided
in favor of Frederick II and Philip II Augustus at the Battle of
Bouvines in 1214.
The consequences of the battle were momentus and influenced
the political structure to the present. For England, the battle was
followed by the grant of the Magna Carta in 1215; the first great step
toward English constitutional development was taken. For France
it saved the administrative, financial, and military reforms of Philip
II and established the kingdom of France as a European power of
the first rank; France embarked on its development toward the
continental administrative state par excellance. By his return to
Sicily as conqueror, Frederick II was enabled to lay the foundations
of the centralized bureaucratic monarchy. (1470
As a consequence of these developments, the concept of the
sacrum imperium as the dominant principle of order in the West was
supplanted by new intramundane forces: the appearance of statecraft, the appearance of the statesman, and the growth of national
consciousness. The appearance of statecraft is evident in the Norman
conquests, which swept away entrenched interests and cleared the
way for a rational reconstruction of financial and military administration. The appearance of the new statesman is found in masters of
power politics, who created the domestic governments in England,
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France, and Sicily. National consciousness is evident in the formation of both English and French national policies and in the Spanish
wars against the Muslims.
Within the context of these developments, the rule of Frederick
II offers the best example of the transformation of medieval order
through the pressure of power politics and intramundane order.
Voegelin centers his analysis around the Constitutions of Meiji
(1231), which is the final phase in Frederick II's reorganization of
Sicily. The first point to note is that the Constitutions were issued by
the Roman emperor, but their scope does not encompass the empire
as a whole; they contain the constitutional, administrative, criminal,
and procedural law for Sicily only. On the surface the emperor
retains the imperial role as lawgiver to the Christian ecumene.
Beneath this effort to claim an imperial dignity of the highest order,
however, is the obvious fact that the symbols do not serve an imperial
construction; they apply only to one province of the empire, not to
the whole. Not only are the boundaries of the sacrum imperium
shrinking, the principles of order are being transformed. The
Prooemium to the Constitutions offers a justification for the royal
function presented in traditional Christian symbols, but the implications are radically different. According to the Prooemium, the
necessity of governmental order originates in the human condition
after the Fall: After the completion of his creation, God set man, the
most perfect creature, over it, imposing on him only the observation
of one law. But man violates this law and is punished with the loss
of immortality. With the death of man, however, creation would
have lost its meaning, and in order not to destroy creation with the
first man, God made him fertile. The inclination to transgression was
inherited, however, and men fell out among themselves. God,
therefore, saw the need to provide rulers of the people in order to
preserve the order of human society. (152f.) Voegelin calls attention
to how the biblical story has been altered. First, the moral problem
of the Fall has disappeared and, with it, Christ's role in the
redemption of humanity.
The fall of the Prooemium is a legal offense receiving proper
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punishment, a punishment that continues to this day, as if there
had never been a Savior.... The substitution of the community
of mortal men for immortal man reforms the hierarchical
structure of the world; the creation reaches its climax in the
ruler who has to preserve the order of the people. The ordering
function of the ruler arises out of the necessitas rerum, the
necessity of the world; quarrelsome man needs a ruler, and the
ruler's actions restore the meaning of creation. (153)
The Prooemium's account of law and of communal order has no
connection to the facts of sacred history; it "advances a naturalistic
theory of government deriving the function of rulership from the
structure of intramundane human reality." Moreover, it violates the
principle of spiritual equality found in the corpus mysticum by
creating two types of humanity: the unruly general populace and the
king as a second Adam, responsible for the divinely ordained
governance of the world. (cf. 153)
When the Constitutions does address the problem of spiritual
unity within the temporal community, it is only in terms of the civil
disorder caused by the spread of heretical movements. The first
article deals with the persecution of heretics and Patarenes, particularly of the latter who spread, according to the wording of21 the article,
from Lombardy through Italy to Frederick's kingdom.
The protection of the faith was part of the war against the
communal resistance of the Patarene Lombard towns; the war
against heretics was part of the campaign against the popular
movement that endangered the authority of princes. The
formulas used in support of the antiheretical measures are
highly suggestive of later developments in the national state
period. The complaint that the Patarenes induced splits in the
"invisible unity of the faith" remind us of the "invisible sovereignty of the nation" in the French revolutionary constitutions.
And the further complaint that the Patarenes wantonly destroyed their own lives because they had to be burned by the
government when persisting in their heretical belief reminds
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us of the Hobbesian argument that he who disobeys the prince
and consequently is put to death has committed suicide, or of
the frequently repeated National Socialist thesis that a statesman who resists German might irresponsibly brings misery on
his people and himself. (155)
Voegelin notes that the articles concerning heretics are followed
by article 4, which prohibits discussion of the king's laws, decisions,
offices, and wisdom of appointments because such action partakes
of sacrilege. Criticism of government is thereby made tantamount to
heresy!
Frederick II also takes dramatic steps to separate his role from
the ordering principles of the disintegrating sacrum imperium. The
Prooemium claims that his imperial authority has its origins in the
realm of necessity following the Fall; it is not mediated by the pope
and does not depend upon the installation ceremonies. Moreover,
the encyclical of 1129 contrasts Frederick II's victorious entrance
into Jerusalem to previous unsuccessful attempts, emphasizing
Frederick II's divine selection, which places the emperor over all
other princes of the world as God's instrument. (cf. 158) In his Letter
to Jesi (1239), the emperor claims messianic status by praising his
birthplace as the new Bethlehem where the "divine mother" has
given birth to the child who shall rule over all people. (cf. 159) The
final glorification is reached in Piero della Vigna's Praise of the
Emperor. This document has the same world-immanent
eschatological thrust as Virgil's Fourth Eclogue. It praises Frederick
II as "true emperor" granted to the world by God, "who moderates
the world through his influence" and ushers in a new age of peace,
harmony, and prosperity.
Voegelin analyzes the political writings of John of Salisbury, the
revolutionary vision of Joachim of Flora, and the imperial ambitions
of Frederick II to demonstrate how intramundane forces transformed or eroded the secular and ecclesiastical institutions of the
sacrum imperium from within. He next turns to two external factors,
which are introduced into Europe in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries and accelerate the breakdown of medieval order. The two
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179
are the revival of Roman law in Bologna and the adoption of Arabic
Aristotelianism by the school of Paris.
The Revival of the Myth of Roman Law
The revival of Roman law in the West occurs at the beginning of the
twelfth century in Bologna. For Voegelin the most noteworthy
aspect of this revival is the fact that the Roman materials were not
treated as source documents for historical study. They were regarded as an absolute, ultimate standard by which political orders in
the West were measured. Voegelin explains that this reverential
attitude derives from four sources. 22 The first is the Ciceronian
conception of the law of Rome as a full and complete embodiment
of the cosmic nomos-logos. Of more direct significance for the
Lombard revival are the sentiments and practices associated with
the Justinian codification of Roman law. The De conceptione
digestorium was a key component in the emperor's efforts to restore
the former grandeur of the empire and to create and maintain divine
order in the world. In Justinian's Digest, legal order is conceived as
an integral part of the cosmic order, which causes the right disposition of things divine and human in the orbis terrarum. This
innerworldly order is, however, capable of confusion and restoration; and it is the emperor's function to expel inequity through
i mprovement of the order as a whole and in its parts. The amalgamation of the Byzantine ideas of divine legal order with the Ciceronian
exhaltation of Roman law leads to the creation of the Digest. as a
written system of rules governing innerworldly order that is considered beyond historical or commentatorial study. The Digest, Voegelin
observes:
stresses that all communities should follow the customs of
Rome, for Rome is the head of the orbis terrarum. The glory
of the old Rome, however, had passed; and `Rome' has to be
understood, therefore, as meaning the old Rome as well as the
Rome of the basileus. This double meaning of Rome as the
Roma vetus and Roma regia is the precondition for the
structure of the great legislation. The law of old Rome, thejus,
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receives its final, unalterable form in the collection of the
Digest; the new law, the lex, is collected in the code of imperial
constitutions and is open to additions. (166)
The third factor contributing to the hypostatization of Roman
law in the West was the tradition that it was a lex generalis, a common
law for all people. The net result of the amalgamation of these
traditions is that the codified Roman law was viewed by the Lombard
lawyers as a sacred text. (cf. 167)
Voegelin notes that the Lombard reverence for Roman law as a
sacred canon does not produce a rational theory of law, which can be
applied to the complicated political circumstances of the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries. In fact, it impedes rational theory and produces
a logical shell that can be made to support mutually contradictory
positions with regard to the basis of political order, the sovereignty
of national princes, the authority of the emperor, or the secular
authority of the pope.
In commenting, for instance, on Digest 1.3.32 the [Lombard
jurists] could either assert that custom overrides statutory law,
thus stressing the higher rank of popular custom over the
statute of the prince, or they could assert that custom no longer
overrides an imperial constitution since the emperor had
become the sole legislator. With regard to the lex regia, they
could either hold the opinion that ultimate power lay with the
people and that such power as the people had transferred
could be withdrawn, or that the transfer had given absolute
power to the prince irrevocably. (171)
Thus, Roman law could furnish the logical shell for an argument,
but it did not inform the decision. The decision was predetermined
by the immediate interests and long-term ambitions of the affected
parties. Voegelin provides two examples to illustrate.
The first example involves a gloss by Bartolus of Sassoferato on
the term populus Romanus in Digest 49.15.24. The purpose of
Bartolus's gloss is to expand the direct and indirect authority of the
emperor over the nations (gentes) by arguing that the authority of the
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181
emperor derives from the authority of the Roman law and extends
beyond the relatively small number of nations that were feudatories
of the German king. There are, first, the nations in direct obedience
of the Roman Empire, and they doubtless belong to the populus
Romanus; there are, second, the nations that did not obey the
Roman Empire in every respect but only in some, like the city-states
of Tuscany and Lombardy, who live by imperial law; there are, third,
those who neither are in obedience of the emperor nor live according to his law but do so by his privilege, like the Venetians; fourth,
we find the gentes who obey the emperor but claim their liberty by
virtue of a contractual relation within him, like the provinces given
to the Roman Church by the Donation of Constantine; there are,
finally, the kings and princes like those of France and England, who
claim independence but have to be considered cives Romani,
nevertheless, because they recognize the emperor is the universalis
dominus, so that their independence is actually due to privilege or
prescription. This reflection of Bartolus on the range of gentes to be
included in the populi Romani serves the purpose of expanding to
its widest limits the field of nations by whom, potentially, this living
law should be accepted. The combination of the Roman myth with
the innerworldly drive of the Lombard lawyers resulted in the
evocation of intramundane order, parallel with the intramundane
evocations of imperial dignity, of Christian conduct, and of the life
of the intellect. (cf. 1700
The second example that Voegelin offers is Innocent III's
Deliberatio Papae (1200). The Deliberatio deals with papal recognition of the three elected Roman kings: Frederick II, Philip of
Swabia, and Otto as emperor. The document consists of a prefatorical
statement of principles and the argument proper. The argument has
three parts, each dealing with one of the three kings. (cf. 174) The
intent of the Deliberatio is to knit together arguments that will
appear logical and rational and, thereby, make its conclusions
necessary and inevitable. The Scholastic apparatus of axiomatic
premises, of casuistic arguments for and against, becomes an
innerworldly shell of reasoning for the foregone conclusion. The
introduction, for example, defines it as a duty, incumbent on the
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Apostolic See, to treat with diligence and prudence the task of
providing for the imperial dignity.
This duty flows from the principle that the imperium pertains
to the papacy with regard to its origins as well as to its end. With
regard to its origin (principalites), the empire was transferred
by the papacy from the Greeks to the West for its better
defense. With regard to its end (finaliter), the emperor accepts
the final imposition of his dignity at the hands of the pope
through the coronation and the investiture of the imperium.
(1750
This formulation reduces the translatio imperii to a legal act of
the Curia, whose principle purpose was provision of a more effective
protector for the church, and implies the right of the papacy to
transfer and confer the imperium. Voegelin next highlights three
arguments in the deliberation proper. The first involves the pope's
objection to Frederick as emperor, because it would result in a
territorial encirclement by the king of Sicily. Voegelin states that the
basis of this objection is clearly a matter of power politics and has
nothing to do with the suitability of the king. In a second argument,
Innocent III expresses concern that the imperial dignity might
become hereditary if a series of emperors from the same family were
to be continued. The argument is again an instrumental shell serving
a predetermined end. Family relationships had been an important
consideration in the past, but the princes had demonstrated that
they were quite capable of interrupting family succession if circumstances warranted it. In a third argument, the pope decides against
the Hohenstaufen because, he maintains, the misdeeds of previous
generations has earned a curse from God, who punishes the sins of
the father to the third and fourth generation. Obviously, the decision
of the pope did not spring from deliberation. The threat of danger
motivated the decision. Nevertheless, the pope indulged in the
elaborate marshalling of arguments in Scholastic form to make his
calculated, pragmatic decision appear to rest upon clear, objective
principles that led to one logical decision.
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183
The Secularization of the Philosophy
Voegelin next turns attention to the influence of Arabic
Aristotelianism, which led the school of Paris to develop a form of
intramundane reasoning that asserted its independence from the
principles of faith. According to Voegelin, Arabic Aristotelianism
was a mixtum compositium of Aristotle and various strands of
Neoplatonism, which were, in turn, transformed by the Arabic
concept of the philosophy. The Arabic faylasef differentiated the
religious briefs of the common people from the intellectual elite's,
direct apprehension of the ordering principles of reality. This elite
knowledge is superior to the religious doctrine that was necessary for
the welfare of the common people. According to Voegelin, this new
philosophical attitude led the Paris school to attempt to establish
logical, inherently cogent principles for the analysis of nature,
politics, and ethics. Voegelin cites examples from the writings of
Siger de Brabant and Boethius of Dacia. Siger, for example, searches
for the laws of nature and wants "nothing of the miracles of God
when we discuss naturally about natural things." (188) Similarly,
Siger searches for intramundane principles of politics and ethics that
do not require otherworldly rewards or punishments to account for
good or bad conduct.
Peter von Sivers, the editor of this portion of Voegelin's text,
cautions that Voegelin's characterization of Arabic philosophy and
23
his interpretation of Siger are not supported by recent research.
Voegelin's analysis of the rise of intramundane reasoning in the
thirteenth century, nevertheless, remains essentially sound. The
theological and philosophical conflicts surrounding the school of
Paris reflect intellectual sentiments and tendencies that mark the
decisive departure from the principles of Christian theology, reflected, for example, in the writings of Augustine, and set the
foundation for an innerworldly system of reasoning. Beginning in
the thirteenth century the life of reason takes on an unprecedented
independence. The world of nature is open to rational inquiry.
Moreover, the same principles of intramundane reasoning could be
applied to society as well. Good and bad conduct can be defined by
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reference to the greatest good for the greatest number. Voegelin is
correct, therefore, in his assertion that the understanding of intellectual turmoil of the thirteenth century is fundamental to understanding the emphasis on intramundane reasoning in the Renaissance,
scientific revolution, and Enlightenment.
Of course, not all philosophy and theology of the thirteenth
century leads toward secularization and immanentization. Successful efforts are made to provide an organic, holistic philosophy of
human nature and society that is grounded in transcendent reality,
and for Voegelin, St. Thomas is the paradigmatic case.
St. Thomas and the New Christian Synthesis
Voegelin's analysis does not attempt to cover the full scope of
Aquinas's writings. He focuses his attention on key texts that offer
clear, concise alternatives to intramundane philosophy with regard
to three main subjects: the relation of reason to faith, the foundations
of Christian polity, and the nature and role of law.
For Voegelin, Thomas provides a counterpoint to intramundane
philosophy by demonstrating the compatibility of reason with revealed truth. Thomas argues that true philosophy is not directed
toward an intramundane examination of nature. The search for the
laws of nature, when followed to its logical conclusion, must lead to
a search for their origins. Both faith and philosophy, when they
consider the ultimate ends of the universe, are led to God, its first
cause and ultimate end. Philosophy and theology, then, are complementary components of the search for truth, which is manifest in
three forms: the creation, the incarnation of Christ, and work of the
human intellect in the philosopher's exposition of the first principles
of being. This Thomistic concept of truth, Voegelin observes, in no
way compromises the importance of the intellect. On the contrary,
it gives additional dignity. Through his intellect, man is closest to
God, and in the life of the intellect, he approaches closest to divinity.
Faith and reason, then, when properly understood, cannot be in
conflict and cannot produce contradictory results. As Voegelin puts
it, "it is impossible that God should be guilty of deceiving man by
leading him through his intellect to results conflicting with the
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185
revealed faith. It follows that the human intellect, though capable of
errors, will arrive at the same truth wherever it goes." (208) With
regard to philosophy then, it can be said that St. Thomas provided
an alternative to intramundane philosophy by reestablishing Aristotelian and Platonic philosophy in its proper mode. That is, philosophy is once again a search for the ordering principles of the world in
the transcendent ground of being. Or, as Voegelin puts it, "philosophy is transformed from an intramundane rival of the faith into a
legitimate expression of natural man. The life of the intellect is the
highest form of human existence because it orients the rational
creature toward its creator." (210)
Thomas's theory of politics, which is based upon his Christian
anthropology, re-introduces the spiritual dimension of communal
order. The community of man is grounded in a common bond of love
of God and in the orientation of existence toward eternity. Social and
political order, therefore, require both temporal and spiritual authority. The secular state cannot nurture the soul; the ministry of the
spiritual realm is the role and function of the priesthood. The civil
and the ecclesiastical offices are, therefore, both essential to communal or corporate life. Thomas's Christian anthropology, obviously,
stands in contrast to intramundane views of politics. Voegelin notes
that it also differs from classical political theory in key aspects.
Aristotle's man finds fulfillment in the polis and in thezoon politicos.
Thomas's Christian man is an animal politicum, but he is also a
spiritual being whose meaning and purpose lie beyond the body
politic. When Thomas considers the purpose of civil government, he
makes freedom or servitude the criterion for evaluating good or bad
government. If the members of the community cooperate freely in
the enterprise of common existence, the government is good,
whether it is a monarchy, aristocracy, or polity. If one or many are
free and conduct the government in their own interest by exploiting
others, the government is bad. While this criterion applies to the
various forms of government equally, Thomas, nevertheless, favors
monarchy, because it is the analog of the divine government of the
world. But Thomas does not advocate an unqualified monarchy. The
polity should have for its magistrate the king, the heads of the
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nobility, and the representatives of the people elected by general
suffrage. This constitutional monarchy provides protection against
the will to power and the impulse toward tyranny.
The final aspect of Thomas's theory that is treated by Voegelin
is his theory of law. The discussion of law occurs in part two of
Aquinas's Summa theologiae, which deals with humanity and the
goal of human life. The ultimate goal of life and of human action is
union with the divine. One of the means God has provided man for
attaining this goal is the law. Voegelin summarizes this briefly as
follows:
the world, including man, is the creation of God; it bears the
impress of the divine intellect; the meaning of created existence is movement back toward God. The rule that motivates
the action of man in his return to God is therefore, the ratio of
the creation in the intellect of God himself. This divine ratio is
called lex aeterna. Through the process of creation the lex
aeterna was impressed into the nature of man; the dictate of
reason living in man is called the lex naturalis. As man is
imperfect, he possesses the lex aeterna only in its general
principles; the adaptation and elaboration for the contingencies of human existence by man himself produces the lex
humana. If man were a natural being only, finding the fulfillment of his existence in earthly achievement, this instruction
would be sufficient. As he is oriented, however, toward the
spiritually transcendental beatitude, special revelations of divine law and the Old and New Testaments were necessary, and
these are called the lex divin g . The four laws, eternal, natural,
human, and divine then, are the topics of [Thomas's] theory of
law. (224)
For Voegelin, the strength of Aquinas's legal philosophy lies in
its stress on natural law. God endowed man, as a rational creature,
with the yearning for union with the divine and "the light of natural
reason by which we distinguish between good and bad is that
refraction of the divine light within us. "Aquinas, therefore, establishes the foundation of natural law upon the divine creation and the
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187
eternal law and thereby offers an alternative to reductive,
intramundane systems, which deny the spiritual center of human
existence.
For Voegelin, then, Thomas represents a profound Christian
response to the issues confronting his time. He integrates Christian
theology with the principles of classical philosophy to provide a
reconciliation of reason and revelation as complementary forms of
truth; and he establishes the principles for a new form of Christian
polity as the ordering principles of the sacrum imperium are
disintegrating and giving way to secularization.
Conclusion
This discussion, it is hoped, demonstrates some of the contributions
Voegelin's treatment of the Middle Ages makes to his study of
European order and disorder. The volume examined here develops
the principles of an organic, holistic, spiritual, and temporal order
that stands at the foundation of Western civilization and explores the
factors that contribute to the disintegration of the concept of a
sacrum imperium. Voegelin's analysis of these developments is a
substantial contribution because it provides a helpful corrective to
the tendency to dismiss the seventh through the fourteenth centuries as an uneventful, unproductive period with little significance to
the evolution of Western political ideas. But the significance of
Voegelin's analysis goes beyond coverage of neglected or overlooked
dimensions of historical or political analysis. Voegelin demonstrates
that one of the most potent forces shaping modern political ideologies-secularization-has its origins in the problematic nature of
the sacrum imperium and the intramundane movements of the early
medieval period. This analysis marks a striking departure from
standard interpretations, which trace the origins of secularization to
the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries. Voegelin's analysis sets the
context for these later developments and demonstrates that they are
not sui generis and that they do not occur en vacuo. The political
conditions and the intellectual ferment that lead to modern, secular,
progressivist ideologies begin 700 years before Voltaire, Condorcet,
Comte, and Marx.
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Readers should, therefore, find the medieval volumes and The
History of Political Ideas, as a whole, extremely valuable and highly
provocative. They will also likely find them challenging and even
daunting. The volumes in The History of Political Ideas are even
more compressed and dense than Order and History. Complicated
problems are treated in a few pages, which contain references to
extensive primary and secondary material that the reader must be
familiar with in order to understand and follow Voegelin's argument.
This difficulty is compounded for the reader of today by the fact that
Voegelin's argument is developed around or in response to scholarship from a half century ago. Nonetheless, these volumes offer a rich
resource for the study of the history of Western civilization, especially the medieval and early modern periods, and they unquestionably raise provocative questions and open productive lines of theoretical and historical inquiry.
Stephen A. McKnight
University of Florida
NOTES
1. The typescripts have been preserved as Eric Voegelin, History of Political Ideas. Typescript, 1939-50, 9 parts. (Boxes 56:5 to
60:12 Eric Voegelin Archive, Hoover Institution, Stanford, Calif.).
For a discussion of the evolution of the project, see the "General
Introduction to the Series" by Thomas A. Hollweck and Ellis Sandoz
in History of Political Ideas: Volume I, Hellenism, Rome and Early
Christianity (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1997), 1-48.
2. Voegelin discusses the reasons for setting aside the history of
ideas project in Autobiographical Reflections, Ellis Sandoz, ed.
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989), 80-83.
3. Eric Voegelin, The New Science of Politics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1952); Order and History: Volume I, Israel
and Revelation (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press,
1956); Order and History: Volume II, The World of the Polis (Baton
Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1957); and Order and
History: Volume III, Plato and Aristotle (Baton Rouge: Louisiana
Medieval Order and Disorder
189
State University Press, 1958). These volumes are now available as
part of The Collected Works of Eric Voegelin.
4. Eric Voegelin, Order and History: Volume IV, The Ecumenic
Age (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1976); and
Order and History: Volume V, In Search of Order, (Baton Rouge:
Louisiana State University Press, 1987). For an analysis of the
interruption of the original program of Order and History, see
Stephen A. McKnight, "The Evolution of Voegelin's Theory of
Politics and History, 1944-1975" in Eric Voegelin's Search for Order
in History, Expanded Edition, Stephen A. McKnight, ed. (Lanham,
Md.: University Press of America, 1987), 26-45. Also see the
symposium on Volume IV, The Ecumenic Age in The Political
Science Reviewer, xxvii (1998), 15-154.
5. The Collected Works of Eric Voegelin was a project begun by
Louisiana State University Press but is now under the auspices of the
University of Missouri Press. The history of political ideas is found
in Volumes 19-26; the five volumes of Order and History are now
published as Volumes 14-18. Each of the volumes of the history of
political ideas required substantial preparation in order to put
Voegelin's typescripts in publishable form. Volume II, which is
examined here, has been most ably edited by Peter von Sivers, who
offers a helpful introduction and provides augmented notes, which
give current references to primary and secondary sources cited by
Voegelin. He also provides editorial notes that bring current scholarship to bear on topics covered by Voegelin.
6. Voegelin's analysis of medieval order and disorder has four
main sections. The three discussed here are contained in Volume II
of the published version of the history of political ideas. The fourth
section, which examines the breakdown of the sacrum imperium
and the rise of National Kingdoms, has been published in Volume
III, The Later Middle Ages. Page references to Volume II will be
cited in the text.
7. The following discussion does not include Voegelin's perceptive analysis of the Germanic and Asiatic migration; the blending of
Germanic tribal myths with the Trojan myth; the growing conflict
between the Latin West, the papacy, and the Eastern emperor; or
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Gelasius's famous separation of spiritual and temporal power and
authority. See pp. 30-54.
8. As Voegelin notes in another context, "The Merovingian
house enjoyed the prestige of a sacred line and the succession was
uncontested. The only remedy against an undesirable king was
assassination, which, consequently, was amply practiced, sometimes to the degree that almost all members of the royal house of
mature age were killed." (48)
9. See Voegelin's discussion of Gelasius's separation of powers,
pp. 52-58.
10. Peter von Sivers offers a fuller discussion of this triad of
symbols in his "Editor 's Introduction," especially pp. 6-9.
11. Muslim and Magyar raids created disorder in Italy that
reduced the papacy to a feudal office under the control of the Roman
and Lombard nobility or the emperor. (cf. 81) Otto I eventually
stabilized the office but did so in part by reclaiming his right to
nominate the pope. Efforts to establish a self-sufficient electoral
procedure was begun by a series of Cluniac reforming popes,
particularly Leo IX (1049-1054) and Nicholas II (1058-1061). (cf.
82) The Cluniac order, which from the outset was exempt from both
temporal and episcopal authority, served as the model for a hierarchical spiritual organization independent of secular influence, with
ultimate authority concentrated in the papacy. (cf. 69) The monastic
reforms were integral to the recovery of spiritual vitality and
ecclesiastical authority. See "The Waves of Reform," pp. 68-80.
12. For brevity's sake, I have omitted Voegelin's treatment of
Cardinal Hubert's defense of papal superiority. See pp. 91ff.
13. See Peter von Silvers's useful note regarding the question of
authorship of the Tracts.
14. See Voegelin's discussion of "intramundane order" and the
transformation of the present age into a saeculum renascens in pp.
105-112.
15. See Voegelin's contrast to Augustine's differentiation of
amor Dei/amor sui and civitas Dei/civitas terrena, pp. 114-117. A
fuller discussion of Augustine is provided in volume one of The
History of Political Ideas, pp. 206-223.
Medieval Order and Disorder
191
16. See "The Waves of Monastic Reform," pp. 68-80.
17. Joachim's major works analyzed by Voegelin include
Concordia novi ac veteris testamenti, Expositio in apocalypsim,
Psalterium decem cordarum, and Tractatussuper quatuorEvangelia.
18. Voegelin makes brief references to the transformation of
Joachim's concepts of human nature and history into the
eighteenth- and nineteenth-century doctrines of progress and man's
self-divinization in anticipation of a full consideration in volumes
VII and VIII of The History of Political Ideas. He also explores the
transmutation in The New Science of Politics, especially Chapter 4;
and Science, Politics and Gnosticism, especially Part II, "Ersatz
Religion," section 4.
19. For Voegelin's discussion of St. Francis and the derailment
of Spiritual Franciscanism, see pp. 135-143.
20. In this brief period the empire included the Italian and
German territories, as well as Sicily. Richard Lionheart took England in fief from the emperor, and the marriage of the emperor's
brother to a Byzantine princess established claims to the Byzantine
Empire.
21. The Patarenes were a dualistic sect originating in northern
Italy in the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In the thirteenth
century, the term was applied indiscriminately to several heretical
sects. Voegelin offers a brief discussion of the origins of the
movement on pp. 84-85.
22. See pp. 160-168. Voegelin provides a fuller discussion of the
Ciceronian conception in the first volume of The History of Political
Ideas, in the section on "The Roman Theory of Law," pp. 197-205.
23. See note 14, p. 187, and note 30, p. 195, for von Sivers's
helpful clarification of Voegelin's interpretation in relation to current research.