John of Salisbury : Policraticus of the Frivolities of Courtiers and the Footprints of Philosophers

by John of Salisbury , Edited by Cary J. Nederman

• ISBN13: 9780521363990
• ISBN10: 0521363993
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1990-10-26
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

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 summarising 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 available version 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.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	xiii
Editor's Introduction	xv
Bibliographical note	xxvii
Principal events in the life of John of Salisbury	xxix
Prologue	3	(6)
BOOK I
What most harms the fortunate	9	(1)
In what consists devotion to unsuitable goals	10	(1)
The distribution of duties according to the political constitution of the ancients	10	(4)
BOOK III
Prologue	13	(1)
Of the universal and public welfare	14	(3)
That pride is the root of all evil and passionate desire a general leprosy which infects all	17	(1)
The flatterer, the today and the cajoler, than whom none is more pernicious	18	(1)
The multiplication of flatterers is beyond number and pushes out of distinguished houses those who are honourable	19	(3)
That the Romans are dedicated to vanity and what the ends of flatterers are	22	(3)
That it is only permitted to flatter him who it is permitted to slay; and that the tyrant is a public enemy	25	(3)
BOOK IV
Prologue	27	(1)
On the difference between the prince and the tyrant, and what the prince is	28	(2)
What law is; and that the prince, although he is an absolutely binding law unto him-self, still is the servant of law and equity, the bearer of the public persona, and sheds blood blamelessly	30	(2)
That the prince is a minister of priests and their inferior; and what it is for rulers to perform their ministry faithfully	32	(3)
That the authority of divine law consists in the prince being subject to the justice of law	35	(3)
That the prince must be chaste and shun avarice	38	(3)
That the ruler must have the law of God always before his mind and eyes, and he is to be proficient in letters, and he is to receive counsel from men of letters	41	(5)
That the fear of God should be taught, and humility should exist, and this humility should be protected so that the authority of the prince is not diminished; and that some precepts are flexible, others inflexible	46	(3)
Of the moderation of the prince's justice and mercy, which should be temperately mixed for the utility of the republic	49	(4)
What it is to stray to the right or to the left, which is forbidden to the prince	53	(1)
What utility princes may acquire from the cultivation of justice	54	(2)
What are the other rewards of princes	56	(5)
By what cause rulership and kingdoms are transferred	61	(4)
BOOK V
Prologue	65	(1)
Plutarch's letter instructing Trajan	65	(1)
According to Plutarch, what a republic is and what place is held in it by the soul of the members	66	(2)
What is principally directed by Plutarch's plan...	68	(1)
Of the prince, who is the head of the republic, and his election, and privileges, and the rewards of virtue and sin; and that blessed Job should be imitated; and of the virtues of blessed Job	69	(6)
What bad and good happens to subjects on account of the morals of princes; and that the examples of some stratagems strengthen this	75	(4)
Why Trajan seems to be preferable to all others	79	(2)
Of those who hold the place of the heart, and that the iniquitous are prevented from counselling the powerful, and of the fear of God, and wisdom, and philosophy	81	(4)
Of the flanks of the powerful, whose needs are to be satisfied and whose malice is to be restrained	85	(6)
Of the eyes, ears and tongue of the powerful, and of the duties of governing, and that judges ought to have a knowledge of right and equity, a good will and the power of execution, and that they should be bound by oath to the laws and should be distanced from the taint of presents	91	(4)
What pertains to the sacred calling of proconsuls, governors and ordinary justices, and to what extent it is permitted to reach out for gifts; and of Cicero, Bernard, Martin and Geoffrey of Chartres	95	(4)
Money is condemned in favour of wisdom; this is also approved by the examples of the ancient philosophers	99	(5)
BOOK VI
Prologue	103	(1)
That the hand of the republic is either armed or unarmed; and which one is unarmed, and regarding its duties	104	(5)
That military service requires selection, knowledge and practice	109	(3)
What ills arise from disregard by our countrymen for the selection of soldiers, and how Harold tamed the Welsh	112	(2)
What is the formula of the oath of the soldier, and that no one is permitted to serve in the army without it	114	(1)
The armed soldier is by necessity bound to religion, in just the way that the clergy is consecrated in obedience to God; and that just as the title of soldier is one of labour, so it is one of honour	115	(2)
That faith is owed to God in preference to any man whomsoever, and man is not served unless God is served	117	(1)
The examples of recent history, and how King Henry the Second quelled the disturbances and violence under King Stephen and pacified the island	118	(4)
Of the honour to be exhibited by soldiers, and of the modesty to be shown; and who are the transmitters of the military arts, and of certain of their general precepts	122	(3)
Who are the feet of the republic and regarding the care devoted to them	125	(2)
The republic is arranged according to its resemblance to nature, and its arrangement is derived from the bees	127	(2)
That without prudence and forethought no magistracy remains intact, nor does that republic flourish the head of which is impaired	129	(2)
The vices of the powerful are to be tolerated because with them rests the prospect of public safety, and because they are the dispensers of safety just as the stomach in the body of animals dispenses nourishment, and this is by the judgment of the Lord Adrian	131	(6)
Of the coherence of the head and the members of the republic; and that the prince is a sort of image of the deity, and of the crime of high treason and of that which is to be kept in fidelity	137	(2)
That vices are to be endured or removed and are distinguished from flagrant crimes; and certain general matters about the office of the prince; and a brief epilogue on how much reverence is to be displayed towards him	139	(3)
That the people are moulded by the merits of the prince and the government is moulded by the merits of the people, and every creature is subdued and serves man at God's pleasure	142	(6)
BOOK VII
Prologue	145	(3)
That the Academics are more modest than other philosophers whose rashness blinds them so that they are given to false beliefs	148	(2)
Of the errors of the Academics; and who among them it is permitted to imitate; and those matters which are doubtful to the wise man	150	(3)
That some things are demonstrated by the authority of the senses, others by reason, others by religion; and that faith in any doctrine is justified by some stable basis that need not be demonstrated; and that some things are known by the learned themselves, others by the uncultivated; and to what extent there is to be doubt; and that stubbornness most often impedes the examination of truth	153	(3)
That virtue is the unique path to being a philosopher and to advancing towards happiness; and of the three degrees of aspirants and of the three schools of philosophers	156	(4)
What it is to be a true philosopher; and the end towards which all writings are directed in their aim	160	(2)
Of ambition, and that passion accompanies foolishness; and what is the origin of tyranny; and of the diverse paths of the ambitious	162	(5)
Of hypocrites who endeavour to conceal the disgrace of ambition under the false pretext of religion	167	(8)
Of the love and acclaim of liberty; and of those ancestors who endured patiently free speaking of the mind; and of the difference between an offence and a taunt	175	(7)
BOOK VIII
Prologue	181	(1)
That some long to be modelled after beasts and insensate creatures; and how much humanity is to be afforded to slaves; and of the pleasures of three senses	182	(6)
Of the four rivers which spring for Epicureans from the fount of lustfulness and which create a deluge by which the world is nearly submerged; and of the opposite waters and the garments of Esau	188	(2)
In what way the tyrant differs from the prince; and of the tyranny of priests; and in what way a shepherd, a thief and an employee differ from one another	190	(11)
Tyrants are the ministers of God; and what a tyrant is; and of the moral characters of Gaius Caligula and his nephew Nero and each of their ends	201	(5)
That by the authority of the divine book it is lawful and glorious to kill public tyrants, so long as the murderer is not obligated to the tyrant by fealty nor otherwise lets justice or honour slip	206	(4)
All tyrants reach a miserable end; and that God exercises punishment against them if the human hand refrains, and this is evident from Julian the Apostate and many examples in sacred scripture	210	(3)
Of Gideon, the model for rulers, and Antiochus	213	(3)
The counsel of Brutus is to be used against those who not only fight but battle schismatically for the supreme pontificate; and that nothing is calm for tyrants	216	(9)
What is the most faithful path to be followed towards what the Epicureans desire and promise	225	(8)
Index	233