Excerpt from Medieval Political Ideas, Vol. 1 Medieval political thought has another kind of interest. It is common, and in a sense correct, to refer to the unity Of medieval civilization, but there is a sense in which one could as plausibly refer to its exceptional dichotomy. The medieval centuries were, roughly speaking, an age in which the conceptual frameworks used by the intellectuals were much more remote from the shape of contemporary institutions than is usually the case. Accordingly, a great part of medieval thought developed from its inherited intellectual chromosomes with compara tively little influence from its environment; and a great part Of what seem to us the Obviously salient characteristics of that environment were only gradually, painfully, and incompletely formulated into usable conceptual schemes. This is one reason, of course, why the field of medieval political theory is so baffling to the novice, who expects to find in any system of thought some kind of rationalization or, at any rate, some evident reflection Of contemporary life. But, if one starts by recognizing the fact of dichotomy, even a superficial acquaintance with medieval political thought can be a fascinating experience. It is a case study in the remarkable vitality Of ideas uprooted from the soil in which they had grown; it is a case study in the extreme difficulty which men find, without the help of a continuous and relevant intel lectual tradition, in defining the terms of their own daily life and work; it is a case study in the slow and devious ways in which the culture Of one civilization can meet and blend with the routine patterns of a civilization that is very different. For the process of assimilation did go on throughout the Middle Ages: concept and custom interacted and finally merged. Perhaps the process was completed, SO far as such a process is ever completed, in the sixteenth century. It seemed, then, worth while to ease the terms on which modern students can gain access to the world Of medieval political thought, through making a collection of translated passages, numerous enough to plot out the variety Of opinion, long enough to indicate the process Of thought as well as its conclusions. It also seemed desirable to orient the reader in this material through introductory essays which would trace the development Of thought, point out the interrelated influences that shaped it, and attempt to suggest its ultimate significance. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.