Dec 07, 2005 15:27
elections,
philosophy,
catholic church,
history,
church councils,
representation,
parliaments,
thomas aquinas,
written law,
papacy,
freedom,
western civilization,
european history,
politics,
charter law,
europe,
representative government,
rabban bar sawma
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Comments 33
This is very, very good stuff (and the Trekkie in me is tickled at the etymology of the Ferengi). The thing that struck me most was the idea of the charter in an influential role-- it's so often passed over by history books that you get the idea it developed on a much lower level of importance. You're right, as usual... and once again, this is brilliant stuff.
Also St. Thomas Aquinas was eaten up with brilliant like it was leprosy. It astounds me, the sheer number of world-shaping ideas he tapped into, developed and (centuries before anyone really understood them) simply stated.
I need to read more of his work.
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9.9
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*is curious*
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V. minor point: it may be a good idea to italicise the "thing", so it's less like a thing. Also check the tags here: eis ten polein
freedom and representative government were invented in the English-speaking countries at some time between 1640AD and 1783AD [...]The reader who came to this passage from the conventional textbook notion of European history would rub his/her eyes in disbelief.
Ehrm... I was always under strong impression that my textbooks were pretty standard and they - albeit in much less detail and without the careful discussion of charters (except for Magna Carta) - told the story: from the Germanic gathering, through the early medieval parliaments to the modern ones. With the absolutism thrown in as a break, 18-19th century :)
The first mighty flowering of European civilization, from the eleven to the thirteen hundreds, is a flowering of chartered institutions: charters establish universities, monasteries, mendicant orders, communes, guilds, companies, fiefs ( ... )
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Must say I didn't know the specific meaning of commune - maybe would be wortto emphasize the point a bit to clear it up for less educated :)
In short - I may look for sources for you afterwards - about the Chinese cities: they are born of course both ways; but I think we can safely say that predominantly they were adminitrative units, or at least the cities which count are/were administrative units. The establishing of a city was avery carefuly prescribed process and the cities are - especially in comparison to European "chaos" - remarkably uniform, square, with rectangular plan and the main objects (e.g. administrative centers or water tanks) always in the same places. The uniformity alone shows they were v. regulated and not "free". Another interesting feature is that the uniformity of plan had a really long history, say 1500 years at least, but actually for longer time the cities, whenever possible, were always built almost identical ( ... )
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