The King's Two Bodies: A Study in Mediaeval Political TheologyIn 1957 Ernst Kantorowicz published a book that would be the guide for generations of scholars through the arcane mysteries of medieval political theology. In The King's Two Bodies, Kantorowicz traces the historical problem posed by the "King's two bodies"--the body politic and the body natural--back to the Middle Ages and demonstrates, by placing the concept in its proper setting of medieval thought and political theory, how the early-modern Western monarchies gradually began to develop a "political theology.' The king's natural body has physical attributes, suffers, and dies, naturally, as do all humans; but the king's other body, the spiritual body, transcends the earthly and serves as a symbol of his office as majesty with the divine right to rule. The notion of the two bodies allowed for the continuity of monarchy even when the monarch died, as summed up in the formulation "The king is dead. Long live the king." Bringing together liturgical works, images, and polemical material, The King's Two Bodies explores the long Christian past behind this "political theology." It provides a subtle history of how commonwealths developed symbolic means for establishing their sovereignty and, with such means, began to establish early forms of the nation-state. Kantorowicz fled Nazi Germany in 1938, after refusing to sign a Nazi loyalty oath, and settled in the United States. While teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, he once again refused to sign an oath of allegiance, this one designed to identify Communist Party sympathizers. He was dismissed as a result of the controversy and moved to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where he remained for the rest of his life, and where he wrote The King's Two Bodies. |
From inside the book
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... bodies directly affected court cases that came before Tudor judges . What did it matter in everyday life that jurists conceived of the prince with both a body natural and cor- ruptible , on the one hand , and a body politic and immortal ...
... body politic rendered by Blackstone in a chapter of his Com- mentaries which conveniently summarizes the ... body politic ; see below , Ch . 1 , n . 2 , for Plowden : " ... the Body politic is a Body that cannot be seen or handled ...
... politic capacity is invisible and immortal " ( cf. 12a ) . 6 Blackstone , Comm . , 1,270 . 7 Ibid . , 1 , c.18 , 469 ; Maitland , Sel.Ess . , 75 . 8 See Maitland's remarks in ... body politic- " void of Infancy and old 5 INTRODUCTION.
A Study in Mediaeval Political Theology Ernst Hartwig Kantorowicz. the King's body politic- " void of Infancy and old Age , and other natural Defects and Imbecilities " -has been modelled , can be gathered readily from Sir John ...
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The King's Two Bodies: A Study in Medieval Political Theology Ernst Kantorowicz Limited preview - 2016 |
The King's Two Bodies: A Study in Mediaeval Political Theology Ernst Hartwig Kantorowicz No preview available - 2016 |