WRITING AUTHORITY IN LATE MEDIEVAL ... - Cornell University
WRITING AUTHORITY IN LATE MEDIEVAL ... - Cornell University
WRITING AUTHORITY IN LATE MEDIEVAL ... - Cornell University
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‘speech’ could stand for the force of law. As a result, monopolizing the metaphoric value of the<br />
Christian “cultus” was no longer sufficient grounds to justify the territorial conquest of infidel<br />
territories. This is seen by the legal effects of Paulus Vladimiri’s complaint. It not only<br />
precipitated Pope Martin V to investigate the Teutonic Order, but it also set up a discourse which<br />
would lead to the condemnation and public burning of his opponent’s (Johan Falkenberg’s)<br />
arguments. Vladimiri’s arguments were able to counter the logic which made the Knights’<br />
invasion of Poland (and Clement and Alfonse’s claim over the Canaries) possible—a logic that<br />
stemmed back to the thirteenth century: Hostiensis’s belief that the coming of Christ had<br />
“translated” sovereignty away from the infidels. 65<br />
The first two of Vladimiri’s treatises against the Knights, the Tractatus de Potestate<br />
Papae et Imperatoris Respectu Infidelum and the Tractatus Opinio Hostiensis, argued that<br />
Hostiensis’s logic of authority allowed for the commission of crimes by Christians. 66 Not<br />
mincing terms, Vladimiri reasons that Hostiensis’s commentary is directly causing genocide:<br />
65 Belch 1.118-119.<br />
66 Ibid. 2.846.<br />
Opinio Hostiensis est, quod in adventu Christi omnis iurisdictio, principatus, honor et dominium<br />
translata fuerunt ab infidelibus ad fideles et quod hodie non est iurisdictio, nec aliqua potestas, vel<br />
dominium apud infideles, cum istorum, sicut dicit ista opinio, sunt funditus incapaces; et<br />
impugnandi sunt illi infideles, qui non recognoscunt Romanum imperium. Dicitque tale bellum<br />
contra infideles non recognoscentes Romanum imperium semper esse iustum et licitum quoad<br />
christianos…Unde etiam famosissimus in Italia ille utriusque iuris doctor, Petrus de<br />
Anchorano…hanc opinionem improbando, infert ex ea multas absurditates, scilicet, quod<br />
christiani possent sine peccato furari, subtrahere, rapere, occupare et invadere terras et bona<br />
infidelium, qui Ecclesiam Romanam, vel imperium, non recognoscunt, etiam si velint nobiscum<br />
pacifice vivere. Et sequitur, quod haec regula: Peccatum non dimittitur, etc. hic non haberet<br />
locum. Et sequitur, quod haec prohibitio divinae legis: non furtum facies, non occides, in quibus<br />
omnis rapina et omnis violentia prohibetur secundum beatum Augustinum, hic locum non haberet.<br />
Item etiam lex naturae, scilicet: Quod tibi non vis fieri, etc., et multae aliae prohibitiones<br />
christanos non ligarent.<br />
The opinion of Hostiensis is that in the advent of Christ, all the jurisdiction, command, honor, and<br />
lordship were translated from the infidels to the faithful and that today there is no jurisdiction, nor<br />
any other power, or lordship amongst the infidels, with [their own subjects]. As such, this opinion<br />
says, they are wholly without power. And the infidels, who do not recognize the Roman Empire,<br />
must be battled. He also says that such a war against the infidels, who do not recognize the Roman<br />
empire, is always just and licit amidst Christians…Whence even another most famous doctor of<br />
39