The king's two bodies : a study in medieval political theology / Ernst Kantorowicz ; with a new introduction by Conrad Leyser.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kantorowicz, Ernst H. (Ernst Hartwig), 1895-1963, author.

Contributor:

Jordan, William Chester.

Leyser, Conrad.

Series:

Princeton classics.

Princeton Classics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Kings and rulers, Medieval.

Kings and rulers--Religious aspects.

Kings and rulers.

Great Britain--Kings and rulers.

Great Britain.

Church and state--History--Middle Ages, 500-1600.

Church and state.

Church and state--Europe.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (633 pages) ; illustrations, plates.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, 2016.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Originally published in 1957, this classic work has guided generations of scholars through the arcane mysteries of medieval political theology. Throughout history, the notion of two bodies has permitted the post mortem continuity of monarch and monarchy, as epitomized by the statement, "The king is dead. Long live the king." In The King's Two Bodies, Ernst Kantorowicz traces the historical problem posed by the "King's two bodies"--the body natural and the body politic--back to the Middle Ages and demonstrates, by placing the concept in its proper setting of medieval thought and political theory, how the early-modern Western monarchies gradually began to develop a "political theology.?The king's natural body has physical attributes, suffers, and dies, naturally, as do all humans; but the king's other body, the spiritual body, transcends the earthly and serves as a symbol of his office as majesty with the divine right to rule. The notion of the two bodies allowed for the continuity of monarchy even when the monarch died, as summed up in the formulation "The king is dead. Long live the king." Bringing together liturgical works, images, and polemical material, The King's Two Bodies explores the long Christian past behind this "political theology." It provides a subtle history of how commonwealths developed symbolic means for establishing their sovereignty and, with such means, began to establish early forms of the nation-state. Kantorowicz fled Nazi Germany in 1938, after refusing to sign a Nazi loyalty oath, and settled in the United States. While teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, he once again refused to sign an oath of allegiance, this one designed to identify Communist Party sympathizers. He was dismissed as a result of the controversy and moved to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where he remained for the rest of his life, and where he wrote The King's Two Bodies.Featuring a new introduction, The King's Two Bodies is a subtle history of how commonwealths developed symbolic means for establishing their sovereignty and, with such means, began to establish early forms of the nation-state.

Contents:

Preface (1997) / William Chester Jordan

Problem: Plowden's reports

Shakespeare: King Richard II

Christ-centered kingship The Norman anonymous The frontispiece of the Aachen Gospels The halo of perpetuity

Law-centered kingship From liturgy to legal science Frederick the Second Bracton

Polity-centered kingship: corpus mysticum Corpus Ecclesiae mysticum Corpus reipublicae mysticum Pro patria mori

On continuity and corporations Continuity Fictio Figura Veritatis

King never dies Dynastic continuity The crown as fiction Corona visibilis et invisibilis The fiscal crown Inalienability Crown and universitas The king and the crown The crown a minor Dignitas non moritur Phoenix Corporational symptoms in England Le Roy est mort ... Effigies Rex Instrumentum Dignitatis

Man-centered kingship: Dante

Epilogue.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

ISBN:

9781400880782

1400880785

OCLC:

946038875