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Law and Politics in the Middle Ages: An Introduction to

the Sources of Medieval Political Ideas
John W. Baldwin
Published online: 13 Jul 2010.

To cite this article: John W. Baldwin (1975) Law and Politics in the Middle Ages: An Introduction to the Sources of Medieval
Political Ideas, History: Reviews of New Books, 4:1, 5-5, DOI: 10.1080/03612759.1975.9945167

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 T o be sure, the Labour party leader-
ship, as Dr. Gupta points out, was some-
what slow t o abandon completely t h e
concept of imperial rule. The reason was
the persistence of a Fabian ideology of
“modernizing imperialism,” especially
with regard t o some of t h e areas of Africa.
By and large, such ideas were chimeras
which reflected the hierarchical view of
human races so characteristic of Sidney
Webb and other Fabians. But eventually
reformist social democracy concluded that
it neither needed nor could afford a n
imperial policy. Concern for full employ-
ment, high wages, social security, and
economic growth at home erased the
possibility of any positive colonial pro-
gram during the transition t o colonial
self-rule. By the mid-1 960s Labour had
come t o accept fully what was perhaps
the major element of its attitude toward
empire through the decades-an ideal of a
Labour Britain that gloried not in its im-
Downloaded by [York University Libraries] at 01:27 05 March 2015
perial power but in the attempt t o build
a compassionate society at home, toler-
ant of racial and religious minorities.
Ideals are rarely fully mirrored in reality,
but Gupta’s basic thesis is convincing. His
analysis is well worth the attention of
students of modern British history.
HENRY R. WINKLER
Rutgers University
Tilly, Charles, ed.
The Formation of National
States in Western Europe
(Studies in Political Development)
Princeton : Princeton University Press
711 pp.. cloth $22.50, paper $4.95
LC 14-2094 1
Publication Date: July 25, 1975
This is an important and worthwhile col-
lection of essays and a fine addition t o
the “Studies in Political Development”
series. The editor, Charles Tilly, a profes-
sor of history and sociology at the Univer-
sity of Michigan, has brought together es-
says by a distinguished international group
of historians, economists, political scien-
tists, and sociologists. Most of the previous
volumes in this series were the work of
political scientists and primarily concerned
themselves with “Third World” develop-
ment. This book illustrates that the history
of Western Europe has much t o offer those
who seek t o understand better the modern
world.
The essays are of generally high caliber
and concern themselves with the contri-
butions of war making, policing, taxation,
control of food supply, and recruitment
and training of officials to the creation of
major European states between 1500 and
1900. Most of the attention is paid to
England, France, and Brandenburg-Prussia.
In his concluding essay, Charles Tilly at-
tempts t o determine how well the Euro-
pean experience fits other models of polit-
ical change and existing theories of polit-
ical development.
October 1975
The major historical weakness of the
collection is that the authors rely almost
exclusively on secdndary materials. How-
ever, the essays, such as those of Samuel
Finer o n the military, Gabriel Ardant on
financial policy, David Bayley o n the police, thought in the Middle Aaes. Not onlv does
and Tilly on the food supply and public
order, are broadly synthetic in nature and royal propagandists, but he devotes at-
full of valuable insights. One of the most
admirable qualities of the essays is that
they are largely jargon-free with the excep- ernmental actions equally expressed govern-
tion of Stein Rokkan’s interesting “Para-
digm for Research o n Variations within
Europe.” Indeed a good deal of the writ-
ing is highly literate such as the fine essay
of Rudolf Braun on taxation and the
Wolfram Fischer-Peter Lundgreen essay on book will not make easy reading except
personnel.
Advanced scholars for whom the book
is written will be able t o quarrel with some where are only briefly summarized here.
of the methodology, evidence, and argu-
ments made in the book; they will not be
able t o deny the collection a place in the
literature on the subject.
JONATHAN W. ZOPHY
Carthage College
Ullmann, Walter
Law and Politics in the Middle Ages: An
Introduction to the Sources of Medieval
Political Ideas
(The Sources of History: Studies in the Uses of
Historical Evidence)
Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press
320 pp., $15.00, LC 74-19415
Publication Date: March 24, 1975
This is the tenth volume t o appear in the
series “The Sources of History: Studies
in the Uses of Historical Evidence,” ed-
ited by G . R. Elton, which is intended t o
introduce the student of history t o the
major sources of his discipline. The gener-
al editor would have been content if the
author of this volume had written a sur-
vey with critical commentary o n the writ-
ings on political theory which appeared in
the Middle Ages. In fact, the author does
provide this survey in his last two chapters
devoted t o literary sources and those
treatises inspired by Aristotle.
But the author, Walter Ullmann, Pro-
fessor of Medieval History at Cambridge
University, has conceived of his task in
much broader terms. Having written at
least ten major works and hundreds of
articles, he is one of t h e leading interpret-
ers of medieval political thought. To him
political ideals cannot be limited to the
theoreticians’ treatises but “are in reality
governmental principles conceived, elab-
orated, applied, and modified. . .by the
governments themselves.” Therefore, his
account of the historical sources is closely
integrated with the governmental prin-
ciples embodied in them and the govern-
mental institutions which produced them.
His introductory chapter opens with a
summary of his personal synthesis of me-
dieval political ideas which he has elabor-
ated in other works. He turns then to the
three major governmental institutions of
the Middle Ages (the empire, the church,
and t h e kingdoms) and devotes chapters 5
t o Roman law, canon law, and non-
Roman secular law. For him law was the
chief vehicle for expressing political
he survey the Romanistsy canonists, Hnd
tention t o imperial rescripts, paper de-
cretals, and royal charters t o show how gov-
mental principles. Sources, theory, and
action are integrated into a remarkable
personal synthesis.
Aimed at the “student and serious
reader of history,” Professor Ullmann’s
t o those well advanced in political theory.
Many of his major ideas well argued else-
But his footnotes are helpful in intro-
ducing the English-speaking reader t o the
current scholarly bibliography, partic-
ularly those works which have appeared in
German, and his commentary is laced with
indications of scholarly lacunae and sug-
gestions for further research. It is an in-
valuable aid t o the advanced student of
medieval political theory.
JOHN W. BALDWIN
The Johns Hopkins University
Garrett , Clarke
Respectable Folly: Millenarians and the
French Revolution in France a n d
England
Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press
237 pp., $10.00, LC 74-24318
Publication Date: July 14, 1975
During the period of the French Revolu-
tion, millenarianism ( t h e belief in the
imminence of Christ’s second coming and
of the last judgment) underwent a re-
vival. Partly because t h e revival involved
an assortment of “prophets” rather than
a mass movement, and partly because
the politics of the Revolution tend t o
dominate studies of the era, historians
have not explored this late 18th-century
event i n popular religion. Further,
scholars who are intrigued by millenar-
ians focus necessarily o n preceding cen-
turies: the 18th century supposedly
belongs to t h e “Enlightenment,” not t o
“religious fanatics.” Professor Garrett of
Dickinson College has written a carefully
researched, intelligent volume o n late
18th-century millenarianism, thus filling
an important historical lacuna.
Garrett’s most striking assertion is
that millenarianism in the late 18th cen-
tury was more conventional, even “re-
spectable,” than usually thought. He
carefully avoids the temptation to use
reductionist psychological interpretations
which call millenarians “fanatics acting
out Freudian fantasies.” As he traces the
careers of his three main “prophets”-
Suzette Labrousse, Catherine Thgot, and
Richard Brothers-and of their followers,
he argues that, although they were sub-