St Augustine and the City of God

St Augustine and the City of God

The development of republicanism is a long and interesting one. Back between 410 and 423AD St Augustine wrote The City of God. This is known as “the most authoritative statement of the superiority of ecclesiastical power over the secular.” This was most powerful thing the church had at the time against things that have no connection with religion. St Augustine stressed that the “true” Christian should not get caught up in the worries and problems of “this temporal life” . This attitude influenced many across Medieval Europe. It changed many people’s priorities and more importantly attitudes towards life. The City of God changed peoples “desire for earthly things ” to “the desire for the heavenly city ”. Immediate needs were dropped and the desire to get into heaven was seen as more important.

The book gave the church strong power over the people with its heavy influence. So much so that the church law was seen more powerful and having more implications if broken than any other law in the world (legal laws). The idea behind it was that God was the master which then became the foundation for a feudal structured society where each level of class owes either money or loyalty to the level above it. Augustine’s work became the template for European political and social thinking for the next 1000 years or so.

St. Thomas Aquinas

Aquinas came to the conclusion after discovering Aristotle’s writings that monarchy may be the best form of government, it shouldn’t have unlimited power over the state. This shows another step towards the democracy we have today. At this time, the main economies were agricultural and any surplus was fought over by the different factions of the time such as the church, the workers and the peasants. Soon this developed into trade and towns became larger which formed cities all centred on trade. Rural societies were neglected and cities were born where in the daily life of the person, like the ancient Greeks, consisted of involvement in economics and pride in their own city.

The Rise of the Italian City State

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