St Augustine and the City of God

St Augustine and the City of God

The development of republicanism is a long and interesting one. Back between 410 and 423AD St Augustine wrote The City of God. This is known as “the most authoritative statement of the superiority of ecclesiastical power over the secular.” This was most powerful thing the church had at the time against things that have no connection with religion. St Augustine stressed that the “true” Christian should not get caught up in the worries and problems of “this temporal life” . This attitude influenced many across Medieval Europe. It changed many people’s priorities and more importantly attitudes towards life. The City of God changed peoples “desire for earthly things ” to “the desire for the heavenly city ”. Immediate needs were dropped and the desire to get into heaven was seen as more important.

The book gave the church strong power over the people with its heavy influence. So much so that the church law was seen more powerful and having more implications if broken than any other law in the world (legal laws). The idea behind it was that God was the master which then became the foundation for a feudal structured society where each level of class owes either money or loyalty to the level above it. Augustine’s work became the template for European political and social thinking for the next 1000 years or so.

St. Thomas Aquinas

Aquinas came to the conclusion after discovering Aristotle’s writings that monarchy may be the best form of government, it shouldn’t have unlimited power over the state. This shows another step towards the democracy we have today. At this time, the main economies were agricultural and any surplus was fought over by the different factions of the time such as the church, the workers and the peasants. Soon this developed into trade and towns became larger which formed cities all centred on trade. Rural societies were neglected and cities were born where in the daily life of the person, like the ancient Greeks, consisted of involvement in economics and pride in their own city.

The Rise of the Italian City State

By the end of the 11th century, in retaliation to the papacy and Holy roman Emperor’s powers, the city states were now controlled by “consols”. By the end of the 12th century, these city states had “executive power” which meant they had the power to rule themselves, make their own decisions and carry their actions out. These city states included Florence and Pisa. These city states inspired many who thought monarchies are weak, but also lacked in democracy. The structure of these states was the head of the grand council ran everything, followed by a grand ruling council which consisted of up to 600 members and then the citizenry which consisted of male householders with taxable property. Those in power were usually male householders, which led to rival governments being formed causing some states to revert to a kingdom because of the chaos caused by the rival governments. A flaw in the city states is that democracy was virtually unknown in Italy. The aim of the city states was liberty because when civic spirit is strong, the individual can prosper.

Nicolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli believed that there was no God given power to set order in the world but instead politics to rule and shape the world. Machiavelli is seen as the first theorist of modern state politics. He saw that monarchy, aristocracy and democracy led to nothing but chaos in the past. He wanted to find the perfect balance between the powers of the state and the powers of the citizen. He introduced VirtÐ"Ñ" which is defined as “to do whatever may be necessary for the pursuit of civic glory”. Enforcing law promoted virtÐ"Ñ" in fact by making citizens put the interests of the state in front of their own. Society was now not about finding common ground but clashing viewpoints and defending opinions and interests. For a good law system, Machiavelli believed that the ways of Ancient Rome should be adopted and to input a system of nobility, monarchy and democracy. Liberty was vital to his beliefs and believed it would lead to wealth and power with a community. He believed that political participation is important for the individual and if the people do not rule themselves, they will be ruled by others. This is called protective republicanism.

Jean Jacques Rousseau

Rousseau was an admirer of Machiavelli’s works. From a city state, he disagreed with Machiavelli’s willing to seek a compromise between the prevailing power structures. He believed that people were happier before the times of civil government, times when they were equal and free to do whatever they