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Bartolus1 and the Development of European Political Ideas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Extract

There are two names which must be well known to anyone who has glanced at the margins of works on law and politics produced in Continental countries, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. With St. Augustine quoted by writers like Althusius more than anyone else, with Innocent IV the ‘dominus canonistarum,’ the master of the Decretalists, a man never to be ignored in the history of thought, there stand out the great twin luminaries of Perugia, Bartolus and Baldus, his pupil, friend, and adversary. They are pre-eminent among the forgotten. Grotius and Gentilis and Bodin not merely quote Bartolus, but are what they are largely because of him. Pages might be filled with the epithets of laudation from time to time applied to him. He is the mirror and lamp of the law, his name is not so much that of a man as the very spirit of jurisprudence. Some say that he is the sole authority superior to the Roman Rota, while in Spain if there is a defect of law, the opinion of Bartolus is treated as itself decisive.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1904

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References

page 148 note 1 Thomas de Simanca in Roccaberti, Bibliotheca Maxima Pontificalis.

page 149 note 1 See particularly Maitland, English Law and the Renaissance.

page 150 note 1 The documents, as also that conferring the doctorate, are printed at large in Lancellotti.

page 151 note 1 Note his derivation of the terms Guelph and Ghibelline.

‘Sicut Gebellus interpretatur locus fortitudinis, ita Gebellini interpretantur confidentes in fortitudine, scilicet tempore militum et annorum; et sicut Guelpha interpretatur “os loquens,” ita Guelphi interpretantur confidentes orationibus et in divinis.’ This is from the tractate De Guelphis et Ghibellinis which is really a treatise on civil factions and rebellion.

page 151 note 1 In domo patris mei mansiones multæ sunt.… Hoc est civilis sapientiæ mansiones multæ sunt, quidam enim ad legendum in civitatibus regiis assumuntur, quidam ad advocandum in curiis principium et regiis attrahuntur, alii ad consulendum in cameris assidue requiruntur, alii ad consilium principium assumuntur. Hi enim sunt quibus Respublica regenda committitur. Istæ sunt hujus sapientiæ mansiones, propter quas quilibet Jurista securus et gratiosus redditur (Bartholus, , Sermo in doctoratu domini Joannis a Saxoferrato, x. 223)Google Scholar.

page 152 note 1 Compare such books as Blackwood's Apologia pro Regibus, or, still more, the stilted pedantry of the polite oration in favour of Mary Stuart published in Teulet's Relations Diplomatiques, and see on the whole subject Creighton, The Early Renaissance in England.

page 152 note 2 Valla's treatise is a little letter on the subject published as an appendix to the Apologia, which he wrote to secure himself against the charge of heresy.

page 153 note 1 See especially the passage about Prudence. It is noteworthy, by the way, that he declares expert witnesses to be really judges rather than witnesses proper.

page 153 note 2 § 29, pp. 22–3.

page 154 note 1 vi. 53. I quote throughout from the Lyons edition of his works, 1547. This little touch brought harm to Bartolus. In consequence people said he must have been himself illegitimate.

page 156 note 1 This is the most important passage on the subject:

Duo sunt genera gentium principaliter, primo populus Romanus, secundo populi extranei. Circa primum quæro quis dicatur populus Romanus.… Diceres tu: cum modicæ gentes sint, quæ Romano Imperio obediant; ergo videtur, quod sit parvus populus Romanus. Respondeo, quædam sunt gentes, quæ Imperio Romano obediunt; et istæ sine dubio sunt de populo Romano. Quædam sunt quæ non obediunt Romano Imperio in totum, sed in aliquibus obediunt; ut quia vivunt secundum legem populi Romani, et Imperatorem Romanorum esse dominum omnium fatentur, ut sunt civitates Tusciae, Lombardisæ et similes; et isti etiam sunt de populo Romano. Nam cum populus Romanus in eis exerceat jurisdictionem in aliquo articulo totam jurisdictionem retinet.… Quidam sunt populi, qui nullo modo obediunt Principi nee istis legibus vivunt, et hoc dicunt se facere ex privilegio Imperatoris; et isti similiter sunt de populo Romano: ut faciunt Veneti. Nam cum illam libertatem ipsi habere se dicant ab Imperio Romano, et privilegio quodam modo precario tenent ab eo, et posset privilegium illud revocare, quando vellet; cum ei liceat mutare voluntatem suam. … Quidam sunt populi, qui non obediunt principi tamen asserunt se habere libertatem ab ipso ex contractu aliquo, ut provinciæ, quæ tenentur ab ecclesia Romana, quæ fuerunt donatæ ab Imperatore Constantino … adhuc dico istos de populo Romano esse. Nam ecclesia Romana exercet in illas terras jurisdictionem, quæ erat Imperii Romani, et istud fatentur; non ergo desinunt esse de populo Romano; sed administratio istarum provinciarum est alteri concessa.… Jurisdictio in clericos est concessa totaliter Papæ, desinunt ne propter hoc clerici esse cives Romani? Et idem dico de istis aliis Regibus et principibus, qui negant se esse subditos Regi Romanorum; ut Rex Francie, Anglie, et similes. Si enim fatentur ipsum esse dominum universalem; licet ab illo universali dominio se subtrahant ex privilegio, vel ex prescriptione, vel consimili, non desinunt esse cives Romani, propter ea quæ dicta sunt et secundum hoc quasi omnes gentes qui obediunt sanctæ Romanæ ecclesiæ sunt de populo Romano. Et forte si quis diceret dominum Imperatorem non esse dominum et monarcham totius orbis, esset hæreticus (De Captivis et Postliminio, vi. 237).

page 157 note 1 Primo fuit imperium Babylonis. Secundo fuit imperium Persarum et Medorum. Tertio fuit imperium Græcorum. Quarto fuit imperium Romanorum. Ultimo adveniente Christo istud Romanorum imperium inccepit esse Christi Imperium; et ideo apud Christi vicarium est uterque gladius, spirituals et temporalis. Christus enim est Lapis abscissus sine manibus cujus regnum non dissipabitur de quo prophetam Daniel.…Dico ergo quod ante Christum Imperium Romanum dependebat ab eo solo; et Imperator recte dicebatur, quod dominus mundi esset, et quod omnia sua sint. Post Christum vero Imperium est apud Christum et ejus vicarium et transfertur per Papam in principem secularem (Tractatus super ‘Ad reprimendum,’ x. 91). There is a passage in some sixteenth-century writer–I think François Hotman, but cannot give the reference–which asserts that Bartolus had no real belief in the Papal right, but plane ludit saying himself it was only because he was too near Rome to deny it.

page 158 note 1 It is to be observed that to Bartolus the Decretale is still known as merely a body of ‘extravagants.’

page 159 note 1 Represaliarum materia nee frequens, nee quotidiana erat tempore quo in statu debito Romanum vigebat Imperium, ad ipsum enim tanquam ad summum monarcham habebatur regressus, et ideo hanc materiam legum doctores et antiqui juris interpretes minime pertractaverunt. Postquam vero peccata nostra meruerunt quod Romanum Imperium prostratum jaceret per tempora multa, et Reges et principes ac etiam civitates maxime in Italia, saltem de facto in temporalibus dominum non agnoscerent, propter quod de injustitia ad superiorem non potest haberi regressus, cœperunt represaliæ frequentari et sic effecta est frequens et quotidiana materia (De Represaliis, x. 117).

page 160 note 1 Equiparatio jurisdictionis ad dominum: Si princeps concederet tibi universaliter unum territorium, videtur tibi concedere universaliter jurisdictionem; quia sicut ille qui concedit rem singularem dicitur dominium rei singularis concedere, ita ille qui concedit universale territorium, videtur concedere jurisdictionem, quæ est idem quod dominium alicujus rei particularis (i. 53).

page 161 note 1 Cf. C. Salvemini, La Teoria di Bartolo da Sassoferrato sulle Costituzioni politichi.

page 162 note 1 On the whole history of the treatment of tyranny cf. Lossen's valuable lecture.

page 163 note 1 Jean Petit's writing and the relevant discussion fill a whole folio volume of Dupin's edition of Gerson's works.

page 167 note 1 As a matter of fact, Mr. H. G. Wells in When the Sleeper Wakes does consider a very similar question.

page 168 note 1 The Lyons edition ends with a colophon with the device I ν⋯Өι σεαντ⋯ν while each volume begins with the lion among bees ‘de forte dulcedo’.