Abstract
The form of international relations in mediaeval times varies considerably from that in ancient Greece and Rome. The political persons in the Middle Ages were not independent city-states like ancient Greece, nor one supreme political power like Rome, but a variety of political and religious entities, all competing with each other for something which approached absolute sovereignty. It was the Papacy, the Holy Roman Empire, and a conglomeration of more or less independent feudal kingdoms that eventually made up the intricate system of political units in the historical period that followed the disintegration of the Roman imperial structure.
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Notes
J. W. Thompson, Economic and Social History of the Middle Ages (New York: Century Co., 1928), p. 666.
For a distinction between public and private warfare in the Middle Ages, cf. G. Butler and S. Maccoby, The Development of International Laze; (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1928), pp. 4–6. Private war can possibly be defined as war between vassals of the same prince, or between vassals of different princes. Public war is more difficult to define. The question of what constitutes a public war is inextricably blended with the problem of sovereignty. The proper authority who may declare war is a most essential factor in the ascertainment of a public war. It was not until the passing of feudalism, and the emergence of the patrimonial state that the question of what made up a public war became settled. Aside from the observance of certain forms for commencing a war, the possession by each of the combatants of the suprema potestas inherent in a Commonwealth or Respublica, formed perhaps the most important condition precedent to a public war. The question of what constitutes public war is one which is closely related to the whole gamut of theological, legal, and political problems that characterized the middle ages. And it is especially interwoven with the question of sovereignty, its conception, birth, and maturation. (For a discussion of the theory of sovereignty during this period, cf.
C. E. Merriam, History of the Theory of Sovereignty Since Rousseau [New York: Columbia University Press, 1900], pp. 11–13).
Cf. D. C. Munro, “Speech of Pope Urfyan II”, American Historical Review, XI (1906), No. 2, 239.
O. J. Thatcher and F. H. McNeal, Source Book for Mediaeval History (New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1905), pp. 518–19.
T. A. Walker, A History of the Law of Nations (Cambridge: University Press, 1899), I, 115.
A. Luchaire, Manuel des Institutions Françaises (Paris: Hachette et cie., 1892), p. 230.
A. C. Krey, “International State of the Middle Ages”, American Historical Review, XXVIII (1923), 11.
Cf. G. Goyau, “L’Église Catholique et le Droit des Gens”, Hague. Académie du Droit International. Recueil des Cours (Paris: Hachette, 1926), VI (1925), 144.
C. H. Hayes, “Truce of God”, Encyclopaedia Brittannica (14th ed.; New York: Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., 1929), XXII, 506; Krey, “International State of the Middle Ages”, op. cit., pp. 3-4, 6-7; L. Le Fur, “La Théorie du Droit Naturel depuis le XVIIe Siècle et la Doctrine Moderne”, Hague. Académie du Droit International. Recueil des Cours (Paris: Hachette, 1928), XVIII (1927), 289; Luchaire, loc. cit.; Thompson, loc. cit.; Walker, op. cit., pp. 85-86.
Cf. Luchaire, op. cit., p. 231; Walker, loc. cit. In Germany, the practice was called the “Landfriede”, and it operated similarly to the “Quarantaine du Roi”, cf. H. Brunner, Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte (Leipzig: Von Duncker und Humboldt, 1892), II, 42 ff.
Cf. Otto Gierke, Political Theories of the Middle Ages, Trans, by F. W. Maitland (Cambridge: University Press, 1900).
Luigi Sturzo, The International Community and the Right of War (New York: Richard R. Smith, Inc., 1930), p. 170.
C. J. Cadoux, The Early Christian Attitude to War (London: The Swarthmore Press, Ltd., 1919), pp. 51 ff. Tertullian (155-222) held that Christians should not wage war. There is no record that they did from 50 to 170 A. D.
Cf. A. C. F. Beales, The History of Peace (New York: Dial. Press, 1931), p. 19.
A. J. Carlyle, A History of Mediaeval Political Theory in the West (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1903), I, 36, 44 ff.
T. E. Holland, Studies in International Law (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1898), pp. 40 ff.
C. L. Lange, Histoire de l’Internationalisme (Kristiana: H. Aschenhoug & Co., 1919), pp. 43–4.
E. Nys, Le Droit de la Guerre et les précurseurs de Grotius (Bruxelles et Leipzig: C. Muquardt, 1882), pp. 25 ff.
E. Nys, Les Origines du Droit International (Paris: A. Castaigne, 1894), p. 45.
Robert Regout, S. J., La Doctrine de la Guerre Juste de Saint Augustin à Nos Jours (Paris: A. Pedone, 1935).
Franziskus Stratman, The Church and War (New York: P. J. Kenedy and Sons, 1935), pp. 52 ff.
F. E. Tourscher, War and Peace in Saint Augustine’s De Civitate Dei (Washington: The Catholic Association for International Peace, 1934).
A. Vanderpol, La Doctrine Scolastique du Droit de Guerre (Paris: A. Pedone, 1925), pp. 50 ff.
H. Wehberg, The Outlawry of War (Washington: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1931), p. 2.
Yves de la Brière, “La Conception de la Paix et delà Guerre chez Saint Augustin”, Revue de Philosophie, Nouvelle Serie, Tome I (1930), 557–72.
Isidori Hispalensis Episcopi, Etymologiarum sive Originum, Edited by W. M. Lindsay (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1911), Lib. XVIII, cap. 1: “Iustum bellum est quod ex praedicto geritur de rebus repetitis aut propulsandorum hostium causa”.
T. E. Holland, Studies in International Law (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1898), p. 43.
W. S. Holdsworth, History of the English Law (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1922-31), V, 30.
Johannis de Lignano, De Bello, De Represalis, et De Duello, Edited by T. E. Holland, and English translation by J. L. Brierly (Oxford: Carnegie Institution, 1917).
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Ballis, W. (1937). The Middle Ages. In: The Legal Position of War: Changes in its Practice and Theory from Plato to Vattel. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-5948-9_3
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