Work
The reason for Estor's aversion to the Roman Law is certainly his strong democratic inclination. In his early work Auserlesene kleine Schrifften there are several articles by himself and by other authors in which it is proven that the bondage of the peasants, which was in practise at his time, meant nothing more or less than slavery. One article deals with the fate and status of the slaves in ancient Rome and here parallels become evident.
One of his most impressive works is Freiheit der teutschen Kirchen, where he describes the constant struggle between the Roman-German emperors and the popes since the Pope Gregory VII. in the 11th century. In contrast to the popes the Roman-German emperors had no absolute power and the highest authority in the Holy Roman Empire was not the emperor, the Kaiser, but the Reichsversammlung (Imperial Assembly), especially its most prominent members, the "Kurfürsten" (Electors) whose task was to elect the Kaiser. So the constitution of the Holy Roman Empire was democratic in a wider sense in contrary to the ancient Roman Empire, which was autocratic and where the princeps or Imperator Augustus possessed absolute power. Estor illustrates this fact in "Neue kleine Schriften", Vol. 1 page 526 by describing the controversy about the Chapter 5 of the "Aurea Bulla", the constitution of the Holy Roman Empire. A large number of public law teachers of Estor's time, who were adherents of the Roman Law, thought that the authors of this constitution must have been insane, because this chapter deals with the case, when the Kaiser is discharged and is going to be accused of a crime. These romanists thought that the impeachment of an emperor had to be considered as a contradictio in adiecto, a contradiction in itself. But to Estor's point of view this chapter 5 was typical for the democratic character of the Holy Roman Empire and for the role of the Kaiser as the first Representative of the Reichsversammlung.
Very interesting is, what Estor says in "Freiheit der teutschen Kirchen" about Pope Gregory VII. Contrary to the legend, that this powerful pope stemmed from the noble family Aldobrandeschi, Estor claims, that he was the son of a blacksmith in Saona in the Italian county of Toscana and that his full name was Hildebrand Bonizi. Apparently he was completely different from his father, a small and tiny person. His father forced him in his youth to cut wood for the fire, which Hildebrand hated as hell. So he decided to become a prominent and powerful person. In the Germany of the 11th century he was called later "Pabst Hildebrand Höllenbrand" (Hildebrand Hellfire). Estors version of Hildebrands origin is much more probable than the legend mentioned above, because Estors arguments are based on a whole library, as is mentioned in the foreword of his "Freiheit ..".
Read more about this topic: Johann Georg Estor
Famous quotes containing the word work:
“I move my thin legs into your office
and we work over the cadaver of my soul.
We make a stage set out of my past
and stuff painted puppets into it.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“She remembered home as a place where there were always too many children, a cross man and work piling up around a sick woman.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“There is only one art, whose sole criterion is the power, the authenticity, the revelatory insight, the courage and suggestiveness with which it seeks its truth.... Thus, from the standpoint of the work and its worth it is irrelevant to which political ideas the artist as a citizen claims allegiance, which ideas he would like to serve with his work or whether he holds any such ideas at all.”
—Václav Havel (b. 1936)