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WRITING AUTHORITY IN LATE MEDIEVAL ... - Cornell University

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prince justifies tyranny in the same light: “Tan bien los malos príncipes como los buenos han el<br />

poderío de Dios…Onde podemos decir… que todos los príncipes tan bien los buenos como los<br />

malos son ministros de Dios e de la Iglesia, ca de la mano de la Iglesia tienen e toman el<br />

cuchillo” ‘The bad princes as well as the good have dominion from God…from which we can<br />

say…that all princes the good as well as the bad are ministers of God and of the Church, because<br />

from the hand of the Church they hold and take the sword.’ 282<br />

We might think that this type of “religious” support of the sovereign’s tyrannical actions<br />

would be counteracted if the monarch was not a morally aligned with the Church’s interest. Yet<br />

even the Church would suffer the apostasy of a king to prevent anarchy. For example,<br />

Augustinus Triumphus—a fervent supporter of Papal power over secular rulers—would defend<br />

infidel and apostate rulers’ right to their own land even if they rebelled against the Church<br />

thusly: “dominium unius super alterum inter beneficia naturalia computatur…talia beneficia<br />

naturae omnibus bonis et malis largiatur, quia solem suum oriri facit super bonos et malos, et<br />

pluit super iustos et iniustus.” ‘Amidst the natural goods is reckoned the dominium of one over<br />

another…it is bestowed to good and evil such goods of nature, because he makes his sun rise<br />

over the good and the evil, and it rains over the just and the unjust.’ 283 At worse, the Church’s<br />

position was that tyranny and apostasy were forms of divine punishment for the evils of the<br />

general populace as Juan Manuel writes in his Libro Infinido: “Et quando el pueblo yerra contra<br />

Dios et non le sirven como deven, dales Dios reys torticieros et crueles, et codiciosos et<br />

complidores de sus voluntades, et desordenados et destroydores del pueblo. Et tales reys como<br />

estos non son llamados reys, mas son llamados tirannos.” ‘And when the people errs against<br />

God, and does not serve him like they should, God gives them warped and cruel kings, and<br />

282 Garcia Castrojeriz 2.121-123.<br />

283 Qtd. in Michael Wilks, The Problem of Sovereignty in the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge <strong>University</strong> Press,<br />

1963) 415 note 1.<br />

170

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