The Book of the Body Politic

Review of Metaphysics, The, Sept, 1996 by Paul Clark

Christine, de Pisan. Edited and translated by Kate Langdon Forham. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. xli 110 pp. Cloth, $44.99; paper, $14.9--Cambridge continues its excellent series with a translation of this fifteenth-century French social writer. Attention has been focused on Christine de Pizan in recent years because of her status as one of the few medieval women scholars, and although she does not approach the brilliance of an Aquinas or John of Salisbury, nonetheless her work represents an important chapter in our understanding of traditional medieval social thought. It also has the advantage of being short and easily accessible for undergraduates.

The work is divided into advice for the ruling class, the knightly class, and the commoners. Modern thought is so devoted to equality and universal human rights that it is often difficult for us to understand the medieval concept of social justice entails that each person fulfill his or her proper role in society as ruler or subject, warrior or scholar, husband or wife. Christine paints an idyllic picture of the tranquillity and harmony which result from such an ordered society. She stays away from controversial subjects such as if and when it is justifiable to revolt against political leaders. Similarly, she admonishes princes to be protectors and guardians of the Church but steers clear of any specific solutions as to who will have the final say in a dispute between king and pope.

Her neglect of the most controversial subjects is disappointing in a sense, but it also helps to assure us that Christine represents a sort of common view of the educated fifteenth-century layman. The fact that it is more practical and less theoretical than the writings of her male predecessors means that she fleshes out some details that will perhaps not be found elsewhere. With regard to rulers she exhibits the medieval preference for limited monarchy, lavishing harsh criticism on rulers who practice cruelty and avarice. She admonishes rulers that taxes must be used only for "pure necessity," and projects that do not meet this test are not simply a burden on the people but are unjust (p. 20). She also criticizes, though quite mildly, a system in which nobles are often exempted from taxes while the poor are forced to pay.

The section on knighthood and nobility is a fascinating treatment of late medieval chivalric ideals. Christine deals with many of the same subjects which would be taken up a century later by Machiavelli. Christine's work is certainly a valuable prelude to Machiavelli as it shows how he took traditional themes and changed or adapted them to his own purpose. The discussion of chivalry also serves as an excellent counterpoint to modern concepts of military virtue which tend to fall into either militarism or pacificism. Christine avoids both these extremes presenting courage, honor, loyalty and discipline as gentlemanly virtues in the service of the common good.

The short section on the common people is concerned with what we would today call social issues. Christine is a proponent of what we might call the "Hong Kong model"--that is, she advocates that merchants be free to practice their trade while leaving political decisions to the prince. She cites the political upheavals of the maritime republics as the result of merchants getting involved in politics. While exhorting merchants, craftsmen, and laborers to charge fair and honest prices, she has a good sense of the importance of profit in business. Perhaps as a result of her middle class upbringing the book emphasizes the importance and dignity of commerce and labor. In particular she defends simple laborers whom "so many people despise and oppress" but who are "the most necessary . . . without whom the world would end in little time" (p. 107). She is certainly a proponent of the poor and oppressed but from within traditional Catholic social teaching, emphasizing justice as social harmony.