Political Theology in Medieval and Early Modern Europe

Abstract

To talk about a 'mystical body' of the Church and a 'mystical person' of the State is, straight away, to ask about the interpenetration and, sometimes, osmosis of two opposing, but complementary, juridical formations: the Church and the State. In this essay, I will attempt a comparison of Carl Schmitt's and Ernst Kantorowicz's theories of sovereignty -perhaps more on the ecclesiastic sovereignty than that of the State. From the vast and prolific collection of works by the first author, I will focus mainly on two texts: The Visibility of the Church: a Scholastic Consideration 1 and Roman Catholicism and Political Form; 2 of the latter author, I have selected a core chapter -'Polity-Centered Kingship: Corpus Mysticum' -of that unequalled work titled The King's Two Bodies. 3 The point of connection which simultaneously brings together and distances the two authors in these texts is the manner in which each of them deals with what I would call, more or less provisionally, the political economy