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 middle ages, evolution of, evolution, concept, middle and/or ages:
“What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books.”
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
“The evolution of a highly destined society must be moral; it must run in the grooves of the celestial wheels.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“As a natural process, of the same character as the development of a tree from its seed, or of a fowl from its egg, evolution excludes creation and all other kinds of supernatural intervention.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“I was thinking what an interesting concept it is to eliminate the writer from the artistic process. If we can just get rid of these actors and directors, maybe we got something here.”
—Michael Tolkin, U.S. screenwriter, and Robert Altman. Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins)
“What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books.”
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
“As yesterday and the historical ages are past, as the work of today is present, so some flitting perspectives and demi-experiences of the life that is in nature are in time veritably future, or rather outside of time, perennial, young, divine, in the wind and rain which never die.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)