« AGUSTINISMO POLÍTICO » Y LOS ESPEJOS DE PRÍNCIPES

Abstract

The present paper analyzes the meaning of «political Augustinianism» and its incidence in the mirrors of princes ( speculae principum ) in the High Middle Ages. The work consists of three parts. The first part analyzes power as an unnatural category, the superiority of the Church over civil power, and the sacralization of power. The second part studies five important aspects of the specula principum : virtue, real exemplarity, moral curriculum, secular formation and the framework of the law. The last part is a study of John of Salisbury’s Policraticus (c. 1159), a prelude to Aristotelian social naturalism.