The Foundations of Modern Political Thought. by Quentin SkinnerReview by: Sarah Hanley MaddenThe Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 11, No. 4 (Winter, 1980), pp. 115-116Published by: The Sixteenth Century JournalStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2539993 .

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Book Reviews 115

The Foundations of Modern Political Thought. Quentin Skinner, 2 vols, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1978. Vol. 1, xxiv + 305 pp. $29.50. Vol. 2, vi + 405 pp. $29.50.

Quentin Skinner traces the rise of a modern concept of state from the 12th to the 16th cen- turies, adopting methodology allying text and context rather than linking classic texts in tandem; and this excellent scholarly work reveals the tenuous ties which bind political theory and practice. The ideal of "liberty" (political independence, republican self-government) emerging from Italian city republics was first stymied by the glossators' literal interpretation of merum imperium as residing in the emperor and then loosed by new definitions (Bartolus, Marsiglio) which favored the cities; there thus arose a new ideology in defense of liberty dually shaped by 12th-13th- century rhetorical theorists (emphasizing individual virtfi) and 13th-century scholastic theorists (concentrating on institutions). Florentine civic humanism, which arose in the 14th century not out of immediate political crises but from soil tended by rhetorical and scholastic theorists and tilled by Petrarchian humanists, revealed a historical bent also shared by the later philosophers, who rejected scholastic philosophy not on the heels of pedagogical quarrels but on methodological grounds negating its ahistorical character, and this stance influenced the rise of historical jurisprudence associated with Valla, Poliziano, Bud6, and Alciato. Theorists of the later 15th and early 16th centuries (Machiavelli, Guicciardini) wrote amidst the demise of repub- lics and the rise of princely rule and reflected changing political concerns: government existed not for maintenance of liberty but for security, virt72 resided not in active citizens but in rulers presiding over passive citizens. And critics of humanism undermined conventional wisdom, Machiavelli by insisting on the positive effects of political conflict and the incompatability be- tween pursuit of virtfi and requirements of the Christian faith, More by offering a system of uto- pian socialism which required the abolition of private property.

In the north the development of historical consciousness was exemplified by the French legal humanists of the 16th century (Bud6, Le Douaren, Doneau, Baudoin, Cujas), who encour- aged the study of comparative jurisprudence and customary law and tended to couch legal and political discussions in terms of historical precedent, as did later radical Huguenot theorists such as Hotman. The notions of constitutionalism and resistance, which grew apace amidst civil and religious wars in France, were grounded on legacies of two intellectual traditions. First, the "Sor- bonnists," Mair and Almain, after 1516 reshaped medieval conciliarism to formulate a radical political theory of popular sovereignty which included, theoretically, the right to depose a ruler. In addition the theologian Tudeschis took private law arguments from Canon law and adapted them to public affairs, justifying resistance to violence; and jurists like Zasius gave a constitu- tional rendition of Roman law which allowed exercise of the imperium by inferior magistrates and interpreted the lex regia as a delegation of authority. Second, Catholic writers, Dominicans (Vitoria, de Soto), then Jesuits (Bellarmine, de Molina, Mariana, Sudrez), revived the Thomist natural law theory of state based on a hierarchy of laws (eternal, divine, natural, positive). The Jesuits (Bellarmine, Sudrez) are credited with developing radically populist ideas, contract and resistance, but this contention is strained given the inherent contradictions in their theories con- doning coercive ecclesiastical authority and indirect papal power in affairs of state.

In treating resistance right in mnonarchomach treatises of the late 16th century, Skinner skillfully incorporates the latest scholarship into his analysis but falls short of satisfactory explana- tion for two reasons. First, he cites as a contribution to revolutionary ideology the Calvinist distinction between the office and person of a magistrate but does not discern within the monar- chomach pattern of political thought those ubiquitous romano-canonical medieval maxims

separating the "king's two bodies" which pervaded French political thought from the early 16th

century; and second, he does not emphasize enough the importance of the transfer of private law principles to the public sphere which issued not only from Canon law but mainly from the Corpus

Juris Civi1is. On the French side ideology separating the royal dignite from its series of in- cumbents preceded Calvinist works of the 1550's, maxims having been lifted handily from 15th-

century writers and expounded verbally in the first three Lit dejustice assemblies of 1527 and

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116 The Sixteenth CenturyJournal

1537, portrayed iconographically in royal entr6es, and enacted symbolically in royal funeral ceremonies, most clearly in 1547. Moreover, private law arguments taken from Roman law texts form the very heart of resistance right in the most radical of Huguenot theorists of the 1570's: the Vindiciae contra tyrannos based resistance on Roman law precepts of tutorship, and the Discours Politiques based resistance on the Roman law crime of plagium and specified not only an agency of deposition but also a procedure for indictment and trial of the monarch, setting forth not an anarchic theory of resistance but a constitutionally viable one.

Such criticism aside, however, this impressive two-volume study, written with clarity and grace, astute in the historical assessment of ideas and events, will form the nucleus of readings for all students of early modern political thought and will engender a series of provocative political problems for further research.

Sarah Hanley Madden University of Iowa

Heinrich Bullinger Bibliographie ed. Erland Herkenrath Band 2 Beschreibendes Verzeichnis der Literatur uiber Heinrich Bullinger Theologischer Verlag Zurich 1977

Reformation scholars are now indebted to the Zwingliverein and the Institut fur Reforma-

tionsgeschichte in Zurich for the second volume of the excellent Bullinger Bibliographie. This lists all published writings relating to the Zurich reformer, collected alphabetically under year of printing. With the help of the four indices it is possible to trace references to each of Bullinger's writings, to the major theological topics discussed and to all persons mentioned by the writers and

editors whose names are listed in the first index. These replace the typescript index to the first volume. The entries in volume two are numbered 1001 - 2006. The Bullinger Werke are superbly

produced in an edition of 770 with a grant from the schweizerisches Nationalfonds zur Forderung des wissenschaftlichen Forschung. The two volumes of bibliography will make the work of

postgraduate students easier, and save a lot of unprofitable repetition. The pattern of writings about Bullinger has changed radically since the first entries by

Leo Jud, Vadian Zwingli and Pellikan. Forty-one works were published during the antistes lifetime and are part of the formative theology of the Zurich state church. A further 146 writings precede Pestalozzi's still standard biography of 1858, and there were only 300 up to 1899. In con- trast there are 703 entries for the twentieth century to the beginning of 1976, with peaks for the quatercentenaries of Bullinger's birth in 1904, death in 1975 and the publication of the Confessio

Helvetica Posterior 1966- 8. This flood is more indicative of the expansion of higher education than a return to reformed religion, but it is laying the foundation for a more informed evaluation of the Zurich reformation, if anyone has the persistence to work through all the material avail- able. This is not quite as massive as at first appears, however, as the compendia published in 1967 and 1975 are listed as separate articles, but it is still a daunting task.

Perhaps the very quantity of material here will act as a reminder to historians that truth

may not lie in the minutiae of manuscript correction and forgotten letters and bills, but in the in- terrelation of men, movements and social, political and economic change. The great debate about the work of Bullinger will continue to be whether he was the successor of Zwingli in his doc- trine and church policy, as well as in his pulpit. It has often been an act of scholarly piety to claim that he was. The retreat of Swiss protestantism after 1531 and the failure of Zurich to resume

Zwingli's aggressive "evangelism" suggests that Bullinger's role in the reformed church was quite different. He was the diplomat and administrator. His works, and those of Gwalther which are

now being documented, throw light on the sixteenth century church which is interesting, if not

always exciting!

David Keep Rolle College

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