Not only is the body politic “more ample and large” than the body natural, but there dwell in the former certain truly mysterious forces which reduce, or even remove, the imperfections of the fragile human nature.ĩ-His Body politic, which is annexed to his Body natural, takes away the Imbecility of his Body natural, and draws the Body natural, which is the lesser, and all the Effects thereof to itself, which is the greater.ġ1-When the Body politic of the King of this Realm is conjoined to the Body natural, and one Body is made of them both, the Degree of the Body natural, and of the things possessed in that Capacity, is thereby altered, and the Effects thereof are changed by its Union with the other body, and don’t remain in their former Degree, but partake of the Effects of the Body politic. His Body politic is more ample and large than the Body natural. However, doubt cannot arise concerning the superiority of the body politic over the body natural. So that the Body natural, by this conjunction of the Body politic to it (which the Body politic contains the Office, Government, and Majesty royal), is magnified, and by the said Consolidation hath in it the Body politic.ĩ-The King’s Two Bodies thus form one unit indivisible, each being fully contained in the other. and the Body politic includes the Body natural, but the Body natural is the lesser, and with this the Body politic is consolidated.And he has not a Body natural distinct and divided by itself from the Office and Dignity Royal, but a Body natural and a Body politic together indivisible and these two Bodies are incorporated in one Person, and make one Body and not divers, that is the Body corporate in the Body natural, et e contra the Body natural in the Body corporate. But his Body politic is a Body that cannot be seen or handled, consisting of Policy and Government, and constituted for the Direction of the People, and the Management of the public weal, and this Body is utterly void of Infancy, and old Age, and other natural Defects and Imbecilities, which the Body natural is subject to, and for this Cause, what the King does in his Body politic cannot be invalidated or frustrated by any Disability in his natural Body.ĩ-Although (the king) has, or takes, the land in his natural Body, yet to this natural Body is conjoined his Body politic. His Body natural (if it be considered in itself) is a Body mortal, subject to all infirmities that come by Nature or Accident, to the Imbecility of Infancy or old Age, and to the like Defects that happen to the natural Bodies of other People.
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This classic described the figure of the European monarch as a unique product of religious and legal traditions that eventually produced the notion of a “king” as simultaneously a person and an embodiment of the community of the realm.ħ-The King has in him two Bodies, viz., a Body natural, and a Body politic.
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He taught at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where he published his masterpiece, The King’s Two Bodies, which explored medieval political theology and how theologians, historians and canonists in the Middle Ages understood the office and person of the king, as well as the idea of the kingdom, in corporeal and organological terms.
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Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1957.Įrnst Kantorowicz was a historian of medieval political and intellectual history. The King’s Two Bodies: A Study in Medieval Political TheologyĮxcerpts from: Kantorowicz, E., The King's Two Bodies: A Study in Medieval Political Theology.