Book Description

Between the fifth and twelfth centuries, when vast stretches of Europe were still uninhabited, a society grew up which had to learn the very rudiments of how to manipulate the ordering of public life. It was during and just after this period that many of the basic political concepts of today were formed. In this new study the author employs the latest medieval research -- much of it his own -- to trace the origins and development of political ideas in Western Europe -- ideas as familiar as sovereignty, parliament, citizenship, the rule of law and the state. He shows this development being forged out of the conflict between the descending and ascending theses of government, with their Roman and Germanic sources, and explains the dominance of ecclesiastical powers in medieval society.