Universal Monarchy

Nicholas Troester

Universal monarchy is a doctrine that had its origin in the Roman Empire, but its best-known form is in Dante Alighieri's De monarchia , completed some time after 1310. Dante's argument concerns the proper location for temporal authority. The logic of Book 1 of De monarchia , which takes up the question of whether there should be one temporal ruler over all, is derived from Aristotle by way of Aquinas. All human beings have ends, which must be coordinated for any social institution to work. The indispensable condition for human beings to work out their ends is peace, which means finally universal peace. Following Aristotle, he argues that each social ...

Users without subscription are not able to see the full content on this title. Please, subscribe or login to access all content on this website.