Empty Bottles of Gentilism: Kingship and the Divine in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (to 1050)

360 Pages·2010·1.97 MB·English

by  Francis Oakley

The Emergence
of Western Political
Thought in the
Latin Middle Ages
Empty Bottles
of Gentilism
Kingship and the Divine in Late
Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
(to 1050)
FRANCIS OAKLEY
Yale UNIVERSITY PRESS
New Haven and London
Published with assistance from the foundation established in memory of Calvin Chapin of the Class of
1788, Yale College.
Copyright © 2010 by Francis Oakley
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including
illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by
Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except
by reviewers for the public press), without written
permission from the publishers.
Designed by Sonia Shannon.
Set in Filosofia type by Integrated Publishing Solutions.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Oakley, Francis.
Empty bottles of gentilism : kingship and the divine in late antiquity and the
early Middle Ages (to 1050) / Francis Oakley.
p. cm. —(The emergence of Western political thought in the Latin Middle Ages; 1)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-300-15538-9 (cloth : alk.paper)
1. Kings and rulers—Europe—History—To 1500. 2. Church and state—
Europe—History—To 1500. 3. Middle Ages. I. Title.
JC375.O34 2010 321′.6—dc22 2009032624
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992 (Permanence of Paper).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To
Corpus Christi College
Oxford
If a man could well observe that which is delivered
in the histories, concerning the religious rites
of the Greeks and Romans, I doubt not but he might
find many … [of those] … old empty bottles
of Gentilism, which the doctors of the Roman Church,
either by negligence or ambition, have filled up again
with the new wine of Christianity, that will not fail in
time to break them.
THOMAS HOBBES, Leviathan, pt. 4, ch. 45
Contents
General Introduction
Acknowledgments
Prologue: Kingship and the Long Shadow of the Archaic Past
I Prolegomenon: The Cosmic Kingship in Mediterranean Antiquity
1. Historical Orientation:
Hellenic, Hellenistic, Hebraic, and Roman Antiquity
2. Ancient Affections:
The Archaic Pattern of Royal Sacrality and the Hellenistic Legacy
3. Abrahamic Departures:
The Hebraic and Christian Contribution
II The Long Twilight of the Sacral Kingship in Greek and Latin
Christendom (c. 300–c. 1050)
4. Historical Orientation:
The Heirs of Rome
5. Patristic Affirmation:
The Greek Fathers and the Eusebian Tradition in Christian Rome, Byzantium,
and Russia
6. Patristic Reservation:
The Latin Fathers from Tertullian to Augustine
7. The Early Medieval West (i):
Sacral Kingship in the Germanic Successor Kingdoms
8. The Early Medieval West (ii):
Fidelity, Consent, and the Emergence of “Feudal” Institutions
9. The Early Medieval West (iii):
The Clerical Order and the Rise of the Papal Monarchy
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index