Nature and the Origins of Power. An Examination of Selected Commentaries on the Sentences (Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries)

While collating texts that were relevat to the relationship bewteen God and potestas Petre Lombard inserted passages dealing with political power and the limits of obedience. Some commentators on the sentences used the opportunity to raise questions regarding power realtions before and after the Fall. In chronological order, this article compares various commentaries; for one group, coercive power is natural, for another group the origin of coercive power after the Fall cannot be explained on the sole basis of natural factors. M. van der Lugt is the editor of the volume