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Pasnau, Robert
2009.
The Cambridge History of Medieval Philosophy.
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Kings, Peers, and Parliament: Virtue and Corulership in Walter Burley's Commentarius in VIII Libros Politicorum Aristotelis*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 July 2014
Extract
Although he was one of the most eminent philosophers of the early fourteenth century, Walter Burley has seldom attracted much attention for his contributions to political theory. To some extent, this neglect may be blamed on the unfortunate history of the dissemination of Burley's major political work, the Commentarius in VIII Libros Politicorum Aristotelis (composed between 1338 and 1343). While widely circulated during the later Middle Ages, a fact indicated by the large number of extant manuscripts, the Commentarius did not follow Burley's other commentaries on Aristotle's writings into print during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. To my knowledge, no satisfactory explanation has ever been adduced for this lacuna, but it has not been rectified to the present day; a printed edition of the Commentarius, based either on a single manuscript or a critical examination of all the manuscripts, has yet to appear. This absence of a printed version of the text is especially inexplicable in view of the rarity of commentaries on the Politics prior to the end of the fourteenth century.
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Footnotes
*
This essay was composed in honor of the retirement of Neal Wood as Professor of Political Science at York University. An earlier version was presented at the 1991 meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association in Kingston, Ontario and benefitted from the comments of Professors Bob Fenn and James Moore. Thanks are also due to the anonymous readers for Albion for their helpful suggestions.
References
1 For an outline of Burley's life and career as we know it, see Martin, Conor, “Walter Burley,” Oxford Studies Presented to Daniel Callus (Oxford, 1964), pp. 194–230Google Scholar. The best general examination of Burley's philosophical contributions is Juarez, Agustin Uña, Aristotles en siglio XIV: La Tecnica Comentaristica de Walter Burley al “Corpus Aristotelicum” (Madrid, 1978)Google Scholar.
2 Within the “classic” histories of Western political thought in the Middle Ages, Burley is unnamed, as documented by Thomson, S. Harrison, “Walter Burley's Commentary on the Politics of Aristotle,” Melanges Auguste Pelzer (Louvain, 1947), p. 562Google Scholar. Among more recent works of scholarship, a similar lack of attention is apparent. There is no mention of Burley in such survey, works as: Ullmann, Walter, Principles of Government and Politics in the Middle Ages (London, 1961)Google Scholar; Morrall, John B., Political Thought in Medieval Times (New York, 1962)Google Scholar; and, more recently, Monahan, Arthur P., Consent, Coercion and Limit: The Medieval Origins of Parliamentary Democracy (Kingston and Montréal, 1987)Google Scholar. In the massive Cambridge History of Medieval Political Thought, ed. Bums, J. H. (Cambridge, 1988)Google Scholar, Burley merits only a single brief mention (pp. 485–86).
3 This dating of the Commentarius is offered by Daly, Lowrie J., “The Conclusions of Walter Burley's Commentary on the Politics, Books I to IV,” Manuscripta 12 (1968): 80CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Burley also addresses some issues related to political theory in his own Expositio super decem libros Ethicorum Aristotelis (Venice, 1498)Google Scholar. Moreover, in the Commentarius Burley refers to a “tractatus de regno” (see below note 17), which Thomson, “Walter Burley's Commentary,” takes to refer to “some work he planned to write,” but that “it seems safe to assume…remained only a plan and a hope” (p. 577). This has been disputed, however, by Daly, Lowrie J., “Walter Burley and John Wyclif on Some Aspects of Kingship,” Melanges Eugénes Tisserant, 4 vols. (The Vatican, 1964), 4: 169 n17Google Scholar, who wonders “if Burley could simply have meant his ‘tractatus tertius’ of the third book of the Politics that he describes as a ‘tractatus specialiter de regno.’” While Daly's interpretation remains implausible—since the context for the reference is Burley's discussion of the king's calling of Parliament, which is never addressed in the commentary on Book Three—the real meaning of the citation will probably never be known short of the discovery of a “de regno” (or mirror of rulers) treatise that can be safely ascribed to Burley's hand.
4 A manuscript census was attempted by Thomson, , “Walter Burley's Commentary,” p. 564Google Scholar, which he admits is not complete (pp. 564–65 n30). It was supplemented by Maier, Anneliese, “Zu Walter Burley's Politik-Kommentar,” Recherches de Theologie ancienne et medievale 14 (1947): 332–36Google Scholar and by Genet, Jean-Philippe, “The Dissemination of Manuscripts Relating to English Political Thought in the Fourteenth Century,” in England and her Neighbours, ed. Jones, M. and Vale, M. (London, 1989), pp. 218–19, 232Google Scholar. There may be as many as 40 extant manuscripts of the Commentarius. In the present essay, I shall be citing (with corrections) from the version in MS. Balliol 95, ff. 161r–232r.
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15 For instance, Thomson, , “Walter Burley's Commentary,” p. 577Google Scholar terms them “a few interesting details.”
16 In the present essay, I shall follow the Greek edition of the Politics by Rackham, H. (Cambridge, Mass., 1932)Google Scholar; translations will be mine.
17 MS. Balliol 95, f. 182r: “Intelligendum quod in rectis principatibus aliis a regno principatur multitude) et hoc est plures et adhuc in regno multitudo constitut ex rege et proceribus et saepientibus regni quodammodo principatur. Itaque tantum vel magis principatur huiusmodi multitudo quam rex solus, et propter hoc rex convocat parliamentum pro arduis negociis expediendis. Ista magis patebunt in tractatu de regno.”
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20 Cited in Constitutional History of Medieval England, 1216–1399, ed. Wilkinson, B., 3 vols. (London, 1958), 3: 301Google Scholar. On this early meaning of parliamentum, see Sayles, , The King's Parliament of England, pp. 35–47Google Scholar.
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24 MS. Balliol 95, ff. 184r: “In optima enim politia quilibet propter talem principem superexcellentem alios in bono virtutis reputat se multum honoratum, ut quilibet diligit gradum suum et contentus est, et quilibet vult singularem honorem regit et videtur sibi quod in rege and cum rege conregnat, et proper intimam dileccionem civium ad regem est intima inter cives, et est regnum fortissimum sicut hodie patet de rege Anglorum, propter cuius excedentem virtutem est maxima concordia in populo anglicano, quia quilibet est contentus de gradu suo sub rege.”
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34 Aristotle, , Nicomachean Ethics, ed. Rackham, H. (Cambridge, Mass., 1926), 1155a33–1155b7Google Scholar; my translation.
35 MS. Balliol 95, f. 186r: “…multi possunt melius inquirere et iudicare quid agendum sit et quid non quam unus solus. Quod probatur probatione exemplari. Sicut inconveniens est dicere quod unus duobus oculis et duabus auribus magis et melius percipiat quam multi multis auribus et multis oculis, et sicut inconveniens est dicere quod unus melius operatur duabus manibus et pedibus quam multi multis manibus et multis pedibus, sic inconveniens est dicere quod unus melius iudicet per suam prudentiam quam multi. Et ideo videmus quod principes faciunt sibi multos oculos et multos pedes et manus, quia faciunt sibi multos comprincipantes….Faciunt autem principes illos qui sunt amici sui et amici principatus, quia si non essent amici utriusque sed alterius ut principatus non curarent de bono principis sed principatus, et si non diligerent principatum sed principem non curarent de bono principatus. Et quia comprincipantes debent esse amici, et amicos oportet esse similes et equates, medium est quod similes quod similes et equates secundum virtutem oportet principari….”
36 MS. Balliol 95, f. 186r: “Non est naturale unum semper secundum suam voluntatem principari aliquibus sibi similibus et equalibus secundum virtutem.”
37 MS. Balliol 95, f. 186r: “Intelligendum quod qui diligit principem secundum quod rulerps est diligit principatum, quia ratio principis sumitur ex ratione principatus sed non quod qui diligit principem secundum quod talis homo quod propter hoc diligit principatum.”
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51 For example, the Modus Tenendi Parliamentum and other documents in Parliamentary Texts of the Later Middle Ages, ed. Pronay, M. and Taylor, J. (Oxford, 1980)Google Scholar and Fleta, ed. Richardson, H. G. and Sayles, G. O., 2 vols. (London: Selden Society, 1955), 2: 109Google Scholar.
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53 Fortescue, De laudibus legibus Anglie, ch. 36: “…concessione vel sensu totius regni in parliamento.” Fortescue makes similar statements in chs. 18 and 53.
54 As I have pointed out in “State and Political Theory in France and England,” pp. 482–88 and “Bracton on Kingship First Visited: The Idea of Sovereignty and Bractonian Political Thought,” Political Science 40 (July 1988): 49–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The theoretical departures occasioned by the rise of the Tudor monarchy are the subject of a forthcoming monograph by Neal Wood, which I have been privileged to consult in typescript.
55 One thinks in this instance especially of William of Ockham, who makes only a single reference to Aristotle (and then to the Nicomachean Ethics) in his one treatise on English affairs, the An princeps. See Nederman, Cary J., “Royal Taxation and the English Church: The Origins of William of Ockham's An princeps,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 37 (July 1986): 387CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
56 Given Fortescue's interest in the Thomas/Peter commentary, it would be interesting to know whether he was also familiar with Burley's Commentarius. If so, this might help to explain why he was able to bring Aristotle to bear so readily on the conditions of political life in England.
57 Hanson, Donald W., From Kingdom to Commonwealth (Cambridge, Mass., 1970), pp. 12–13CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
58 Thomas Aquinas could equally well serve as an example, as has been demonstrated by Catto, Jeremy, “Ideas and Experience in the Political Thought of Aquinas,” Past and Present 71 (May 1976): 3–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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