Potestas - Evolution of The Concept in The Middle Ages

Evolution of The Concept in The Middle Ages

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, most institutions of Roman public law fell into disuse, but much of Roman political theory remained. During the early Middle Ages the Christian world was ruled in theory by the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor. The former had the spiritual power, which was identified with auctoritas, while the latter had temporal power, identified with potestas. At first, the Pope crowned the Emperor and the Emperor appointed the Pope, so they were in a situation of balance, but after the Investiture Controversy the Pope was instead chosen by the College of Cardinals.

As the effective power of the Holy Roman Empire declined, kingdoms asserted their own independence. One way to do this was to claim that the king had, in his kingdom, the same power as the emperor in the empire, and so the king assumed the attributes of potestas.

Read more about this topic:  Potestas

Famous quotes containing the words evolution of the, evolution of, evolution, concept, middle and/or ages:

    Analyze theory-building how we will, we all must start in the middle. Our conceptual firsts are middle-sized, middle-distanced objects, and our introduction to them and to everything comes midway in the cultural evolution of the race.
    Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)

    Like Freud, Jung believes that the human mind contains archaic remnants, residues of the long history and evolution of mankind. In the unconscious, primordial “universally human images” lie dormant. Those primordial images are the most ancient, universal and “deep” thoughts of mankind. Since they embody feelings as much as thought, they are properly “thought feelings.” Where Freud postulates a mass psyche, Jung postulates a collective psyche.
    Patrick Mullahy (b. 1912)

    The more specific idea of evolution now reached is—a change from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity, accompanying the dissipation of motion and integration of matter.
    Herbert Spencer (1820–1903)

    The latest creed that has to be believed
    And entered in our childish catechism
    Is that the All’s a concept self-conceived,
    Which is no more than good old Pantheism.
    Robert Frost (1874–1963)

    Now like an insane man, you seek water in the middle of a stream.
    Propertius Sextus (c. 50–16 B.C.)

    Whether in the bringing of the flowers or the food
    She offers plenty, and is part of plenty,
    And whether I see her stooping, or leaning with the flowers,
    What she does is ages old, and she is not simply,
    No, but lovely in that way.
    Bernard Spencer (1909–1963)