Abstract

RUST, Leandro Duarte. Authority, desire and the alchemy of politics: language and power in the constitution of the Medieval Papacy (1060-1120). Varia hist. [online]. 2011, vol.27, n.45, pp. 161-187. ISSN 0104-8775.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0104-87752011000100008.

The theme of this paper is the political vision propagated between the decades of 1060 and 1120 by prominent churchmen engaged in the legitimacy and the exercise of the pontifical power. An examination of epistolae, chronicae and other written records of the period reveal that the so-called "papists" frequently performed a transfiguration of politics by involved it in the ancient webs of meaning conveyed from the ecclesiastical literate tradition. Aspect exemplified by the idea of "desire", which occurs in the historical sources very frequently when the historian turns his attention to investigate the basis of political power in the medieval civilization. It permeates the ideas of authority and legitimacy, the positions about the use of violence and the beliefs in the hierarchy of the powers. Therefore, this brief study aims at the intertwined relationship between the practice of power, political thought and language.

Keywords : Medieval politics; Ecclesiastical language; Papal authority.