WRITING AUTHORITY IN LATE MEDIEVAL ... - Cornell University

‘faithful and unfaithful indistinctly.’ “Oves” works as an empty signifier—it stands in for the
collectivity of human experience and not for the distinguishing characteristics that can set one
group of humans apart from another.
Unlike Hostiensis, Vladimiri does not argue that law can be embodied in the actions of
one entity, but that coming from a universal idea, it radiates to all of creation without distinction
of their relationship to faith. In thinking of “pastoral care” as a specific type of relation owed to
the “fides” ‘faithful’ alone, the Church inevitably forsakes the care over a part of the Lord’s
flock, those “alias oves” ‘other sheep’ outside the fold of the Church. Consequently, that Jesus
tells Peter to care for his sheep does not imply a specific care for them. On the contrary, the idea
of a Christian cult is to be taken without any metaphoric connotations. God subjects “sub pedibus
eius” ‘under his feet’ all things regardless of their being—“oves, boves, etc” ‘sheep, cow, etc’—
and so keeps the same rules for everyone. Sovereignty comes in one voice from “Deo auctore”
‘God author’ and as such is a universal idea, a right given “indifferenter propter hominem,”
‘indifferently on account of men’ and without attention to their actions.
God’s absolute sovereignty means that neither a Christian nor an infidel ruler may have a
special claim to authority. Similarly, because both Christians and infidels represent a fixed idea,
being created “ad suam imaginem” ‘to his image,’ their particular relationship to God has no
bearing on the legitimacy of their authority. As Vladimiri states, “quia in rei veritate Domini est
terra et plenitude eius…sed ipse Deus haec omnia subiecit rationali creaturae, propter quam
omnia fecit” ‘because the truth of the matter is that the earth is of the Lord and of his
plenitude…but God himself subjected all things to rational creation, because he made all
things.’ 84 If there is authority on earth, it is because man, as a part of creation, resembles God’s
“imaginem” and not because a particular community of individuals properly can execute it. As
84 Ibid. 799.
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