Aquinas’s worldview and his applicability in the political writings of the XIV century

Resumo

In this paper we shall begin by analyzing Thomas Aquinas’
worldview, which was based in an architecture of the universe in which God
ruled supreme over it and in which, everything had been neatly established
by his might. Then, we shall see how this conception was used by different
political authors of the XIV century to defend different ideals of goodgovernment
and of the relationship between the church and royal power.
Hence, this paper aims at showing how they used his concepts of God as
a governor of the world as well as his idea of an eternal law in different
fashion, to defend either the papalist view or the anti-papalist one . In
order to do it we shall be looking at the works of John of Paris On Royal
and Papal Power and also, of Alvarez Pelayo, The State and the Weeping of
the Church. In addition, we shall see how both of them used the idea of
efficient cause presented, by Thomas Aquinas, as one of the main causes to
prove the existence of God, to defend their position. Thus, it will be shown
how the legacy of the heavenly doctor could be used in different ways by
XIV century thinkers and will be drawn attention to both the richness and
diversity of the world of political thought in the later Middle Ages.