Aquinas’s Regimen Bene Commixtum and the Medieval Critique of Classical Republicanism

AQUINAS'S REGI1l!EN BENE COMMIXTUM AND THE MEDIEVAL CRITIQUE OF CLASSICAL REPUBLICANISM * ROUSSEAU FOR ONCE enters the mainstream of western republicanism in proclaiming the Roman Republic " the model for all free peoples." 1 The notion that the classical Roman mixed regime constituted the most outstanding historical example of the well-ordered polity pervaded republican thought from Polybius to the 18th century.2 Indeed, al- * Earlier versions of this paper were presented before the American Catholic Historical Association, April, 1980, ltlld the Missouri Conference on History, April, 1980. The authors thank Professors Theta Moehs and Everett Wheeler, for their cogent sugge3tions and comments. 1 J. J. Rousseau, " Dedication " to Th!f Second Discourse, in C. M. Sherover, translator, The Social Contract plus The Dedication from The Second Discourse and On Political Economy (New York: American Library, 1974), p. 243. Rousseau 's exalted praise of Rome in this context is striking since a goal of the "Dedication" is to flatter the citizens of Geneva. Yet, although he praises the republic of Geneva in the " Dedication," such praise does not approach the superlatives used in his assessment of Rome. 2 For a general overview of the scholarship on the theory of the mixed regime, see: Kurt Von Fritz, The Theory of the Mixed Constitution in Antiquity (New York: Columbia University Press, 1954); Zera Fink, The Classical Republicans (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1945); Malcolm Sharp, "The Classical American Doctrine of the Separation of Powers," University of Chicago Law Review, II (April, 1935), 385-436; Gilbert Chinard, " Polybius and the American Constitution," Journal of the History of Ideas, I (January, 1940) 38-58; Yung Chi Hoe, The Origins of Parliamentary Sovereignty (Shanghai: The Commercial Press, 1933); Otto Gierke, Political Theories of the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1900); Roy Lokken, "The Concept of Democracy in Colonial Political Thought," William and Mary Quarterly, 16 (October, 1959), 568-580; J. R. Pole, "Historians and the Problem of Early American Democracy," American Historical Review, 67 (April, 1962), 626-646; J. W. Allen, A History of Political Thought in the Sixteenth Century (New York: Dial Press, 1928); George Sabine, A History of Political Theory (New York: Holt, 1950), William Dunning, A History of Political Theories Ancient and Medieval (New York: Macmillan, 1930); Stanley Pargellis, "The Theory of Balanced Government," in Conyers Read, ed., The Constitution Reconsidered (New York: Columbia University 195 196 JOHN R. KAYSER AND RONALD J. LETTIERI though they deliberately sought to improve upon the Roman model, Italian Renaissance and Anglo-American political theorists still fused a veneration for the Roman regime to modern republican consciousness.3 In short, Rome stands as the eternal city for republicans as well as Christians. Given the stature of its proponents, as well as the central Press, 1938), pp. 33-46; Edward Corwin, Court Over Constitution (Princeton; Princeton University Press, 1938); W. B. Gwyn, The Meaning of the Separation of Powt:rs (New Orleans: Tulane University Press, 1965); Corinne Weston, English Constitutional Theory and the House of Lords, 1556-1832 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1965); M. J. C. Vile, Constitutionalism and the Separation of Powt:rs (Oxford: Clarendon University Press, 1967); Stanley N. Katz, "The Origins of American Constitutional Thought," in Perspectives in American History, 1967, Vol. III (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968), pp. 474-490; Paul Eidelberg, The Philosophy of the American Constitution (New York: The Free Press, 1968) and Discourse on Statesmanship (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1974); Gordon Wood, The Creation of the American Republic, 17761787 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1969); F. W. Walbank, Polybius (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972); Paul Conkin, SelfEvident Truths (Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1974); Henry Steele Commager, The Empire of Reason (New York: Anchor Books, 1977); J. G. A. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975); C. C. Huffman, 'Coriolanus' in Context (Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1972); Michael Mendie, " Mixed Government, The Estates, and the Bishops," unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Washington University, 1977; Martin Diamond, " The Separation of Powers and the Mixed Regime," Publius, VII (Summer, 1978), 85-43. • The severing of the classical Roman tradition from modern republican political thought was not accomplished until the mid-nineteenth century. Although thP English and...