Political Meritocracy in Renaissance Italy : The Virtuous Republic of Francesco Patrizi of Siena (9780674293298) by Hankins James

Author:Hankins, James
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr

The burden of the rest of the chapter is to insist on the need for close cooperation between divine and human magistrates. In the most ancient times, Patrizi claims, religious and political power were closely allied, if not merged in one person. In an echo of Plato’s famous sententia aurea—that cities would not be blessed unless philosophers ruled, or rulers became philosophers—he writes:

In the beginning power over human affairs lay with pontiffs; and kings themselves, initiated into sacred matters, had care of both divine and the human things. They could not believe that anyone could rule well without experience of divine matters and commerce with a god. Therefore either priests themselves ruled or princes did nothing except on their command.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.