HISTORICAL AND LEGAL ANALYSIS OF THE JUST WAR IN THE DISCOURSE OF THE EARLY WESTERN EUROPEAN MIDDLE AGES
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.main##
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.sidebar##
Published:
Dec 30, 2024
Abstract
The purpose of this article is the conceptual systematization of the key features of the just war phenomenon in the political and legal discourse of the Western European Early Middle Ages. The author showed that during the early Middle Ages in the West, the development of the concept of just war took place gradually under the dominant influence of Christian orthodoxy, which largely eliminated early Christian concepts of pacifism and adapted ideas about the legality and justification of war as a form of violence limited by law and religion. It was found that the foundation of early medieval ideas about a just war was primarily an ethical assessment of violence. The Christian Church, based on the teachings of Augustine, took the initiative in determining the role of war in society and tried to regulate it or at least minimize its excesses, directing military actions in a more or less socially acceptable direction (the fight against non-believers, heretics, apostates, enemies of the church, etc.). In the course of the development of the early medieval political and legal discourse, certain signs of a just war were elaborated: 1) waging war by a Christian ruler in the name of protecting the state and faith: in a just war, preference is given to defensive (protective) goals; 2) waging war for the Christianization of neighboring (as a rule) barbarian peoples, their conversion to the bosom of Christian civilization; 3) a war that has a just cause (protection of land, rights, subjects, etc.); 4) a war, including an internal one, conducted under divine sanction (justice is usually on the side of the winner); 5) a war in which the participation of the clergy as combatants is excluded, while its interests, as well as the interests of the church, are protected in priority order; 6) the war is waged with the aim of establishing lasting peace, without the threat of complete destruction of the enemy, the escalation of violence is denied; 7) a war waged by a proper subject of law (as a rule, a state), which represents a state, against another state, which excludes internal wars as wars waged by improper subjects (denial of civil strife within the country).
How to Cite
Shiposha, A. (2024). HISTORICAL AND LEGAL ANALYSIS OF THE JUST WAR IN THE DISCOURSE OF THE EARLY WESTERN EUROPEAN MIDDLE AGES. Baltic Journal of Legal and Social Sciences, (4), 90-103. https://doi.org/10.30525/2592-8813-2024-4-10
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.details##
Keywords
just war, law, Early Middle Ages, Christianity, state
References
1. Bachrach B.S. (1993) Gildas, Vortigern and Constitutionality in Sub-Roman Britain. Brookfield, VT: Variorum, 320 p.
2. Bachrach B.S. (1972) Merovingian Military Organization 481-751. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 164 p.
3. Bachrach B.S. (1993) Armies and Politics in the Early Medieval West. Brookfield, VT: Variorum, 320 p.
4. Bainton R. (1960) Christian Attitudes Toward War and Peace. Nashville. 300 p.
5. Bartholomew D. (1999) Christianity and War in the Early Middle Ages: A Brief Survey. WWU Honors Program Senior Projects. https://cedar.wwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1165&context=wwu_honors (accessed 10 September 2024).
6. Biliak Yu. V. (2020) Suchasni kontseptsii doslidzhennia konfliktiv interesiv [Modern concepts of conflict of interest research]. Ekonomika ta derzhava. № 9. S. 80–85 [in Ukrainian].
7. Boda M. (2024) The Warfare Ideology of Ordeal: Another Form of Just WarThinking? Theory and Practice from the Early Middle Ages. Journal of Military Ethics. Vol. 23. No. 1. P. 53–66.
8. Bondar V. (November 30 – December 1, 2016) Filosofiia viiny [Philosophy of war]. Zbirnyk tez mizhnarodnoi naukovoi konferentsii molodykh uchenykh ta studentiv «Filosofski vymiry tekhniky», 30 lystopada – 1 hrudnia 2016 r. Ternopil: TNTU. S. 38. [in Ukrainian].
9. Canning J. (1996) A History of Medieval Political Thought 300–1450. London and New York: Routledge, 280 p.
10. Colyer D. Carolingian War and Violence and the Course of Medieval History. Houston State University. https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1258&context=mhr (accessed 10 September 2024).
11. Contamine P. (1985) War in the Middle Ages / Translated by Michael Jones. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 432 p.
12. Crouch J. (1994) Isidore of Seville and the Evolution of Kingship in Visigothic Spain. Mediterranean Studies. Vol. 4. P. 9–26.
13. Deane H.A. (1963) The Political and Social Ideas of St. Augustine. New York: Columbia University Press, 376 p.
14. Draper L.L.M., Penitential discipline and public wars in the Middle Ages. A medieval contribution to the development of humanitarian law. https://international-review.icrc.org/sites/default/files/S0020860400010354a.pdf (accessed 10 September 2024).
15. Duby G. (1980) The Chivalrous Society / translated by Cynthia Postan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 256 p.
16. Erdmann S. (1977) The Origin of the Idea of Crusade / trans. Marshall W. Baldwin and Walter Goffart. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 488 p.
17. Evans R. (2019) Doing justice to God in the early middle ages. https://eccleshistsoc.wordpress.com/2019/07/23/doing-justice-to-god-in-the-early-middle-ages/ (accessed 10 September 2024).
18. Flavius Vegetius Renatus. (1996) De re Militari III. In: Vegetius: Epitome of Military Science / trans. N. P. Milner. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 161 p.
19. Friend N. E. (2015) Holy Warriors and Bellicose Bishops: The Church and Warfare in Early Medieval Germany. Master's Theses. 4585. 196.
20. Gregory of Tours. History of the Franks: Books I-X. https://origin.web.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/gregory-hist.asp (accessed 10 September 2024).
21. Isidore of Seville (1966). History of the Kings of Goths. In: In Isidore of Seville's History of the Kings of the Goths, Vandals, and Suevis. Leiden: E.J. Brill, P. 3–33.
22. Isidore of Seville (2006). The Etymologies. Cambridge, CUP, 475 p. https://sfponline.org/Uploads/2002/st%20isidore%20in%20english.pdf (accessed 10 September 2024).
23. Isidore of Seville (2018). Sententiae. New York; Mahwah: NJ, The Newman Press, 264 p.
24. Johnson J. T. (1987) The Quest for Peace: Three Moral Traditions in Western Cultural History, Princeton. 328 p.
25. King P. D. (2007) The Barbarian Kingdoms. In: Burns J. H. (ed.). The Cambridge History of Medieval Political Thought c. 350 – c. 1450. Cambridge, CUP, P. 123–153.
26. Kokhanchuk R. (2003) Stanovlennia doktryny viiny v rannomu khrystyianstvi [Formation of the doctrine of war in early Christianity]. Ukrainske relihiieznavstvo. № 26. S. 20–30. [in Ukrainian].
27. Loschiavo L. (2019) Isidore of Seville. In: Philip L. Reynolds (ed.). Great Christian Jurists and Legal Collections in the First Millennium. CUP, 506 p.
28. Maduabuchi, O., Uke I. and Maduabuchi R. (2023) Epistemic Implications of St. Thomas Aquinas' Just War Theory on Global Peace. Open Journal of Philosophy. Vol. 13. P. 565–585.
29. Markus R. A. (1997) Gregory the Great and his World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 241 p.
30. Moesch S. (2020) Augustine and the Art of Ruling in the Carolingian Imperial Period. Political Discourse in Alcuin of York and Hincmar of Rheims Political Discourse in Alcuin of York and Hincmar of Rheims. London, UK: Routledge, 245 p.
31. Nelson J.L. (2013) Religion and Politics in the Reign of Charlemagne. In: Religion and Politics in the Middle Ages Germany and England by Comparison. Edited by: Ludger Körntgen and Dominik Waßenhoven. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, P. 17–30.
32. Nithard (2021). Istoriia u chotyrokh knyhakh. Semko Ya. S. Istoriia rannoho serednovichchia: dokumenty ta materialy: khrestomatiia [History in four books. Semko Y.S. History of the Early Middle Ages: Documents and Materials: A Textbook]/ Ya. S. Semko; DZ «Pivdennoukrainskyi natsionalnyi pedahohichnyi universytet imeni K. D. Ushynskoho». Odesa: Feniks, S. 211–228 [in Ukrainian].
33. Nithard (2022). Histories / edition, translation, and introduction by Marco Conti with a foreword by T. F. X. Noble. Peeters Publishers, 233 p.
34. Panafidin I.O. (2014) Evoliutsiia idei spravedlyvoi viiny v konteksti teorii vichnoho myru (sotsialno-filosofskyi analiz) [Evolution of the idea of a just war in the context of the theory of eternal peace (social-philosophical analysis)]: dys. … kand. filos. nauk: 09.00.03 – sotsialna filosofiia ta filosofiia istorii. Kryvorizkyi pedahohichnyi instytut DVNZ «Kryvorizkyi natsionalnyi universytet». Dnipropetrovsk, 200 s. [in Ukrainian].
35. Pylypenko V. P. (2024) Voienni zlochyny za Rymskym statutom Mizhnarodnoho kryminalnoho sudu: pytannia teorii ta praktyky [War crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: issues of theory and practice]: dys. .. d-ra yuryd. nauk: 12.00.11 – Mizhnarodne pravo. Mizhnarodnyi humanitarnyi universytet. Odesa, 465 s. [in Ukrainian].
36. Richards J. (1980) Consul of God: The Life and Times of Gregory the Great. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 320 p.
37. Riche P. (1959) The Carolingians: A Family who Forged Europe / Translated by M.I. Allen.Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993. 398 p.
38. Rufinus of Aquileia (2016): History of the Church / Translated by Philip R. Amidon, SJ. [Fathers of the Church, Volume 133.]. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, Pp. XIII, 509.
39. Russell F.H. (1975) The Just War in the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 332 p.
40. Russell J.C. (1994) The Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity: A Sociohistorical Approach to Religious Transformation. New York: Oxford University Press, 272 p.
41. Shevtsiv M. B. (2016) Istoryko-filosofska refleksiia viiny [Historical and philosophical reflection of the war]. Naukovyi visnyk Lvivskoho derzhavnoho universytetu vnutrishnikh sprav. № 2. S. 96–104. [in Ukrainian].
42. Stasiuk S. (2010) Formuvannia pravovykh zasad serednovichnoi viiny [Formation of legal foundations of medieval warfare]. Viche. № 20. https://veche.kiev.ua/journal/2244/ (accessed 10 September 2024) [in Ukrainian].
43. Sytnyk H.P. (2023) Filosofiia viiny ta myru: kurs lektsii [Philosophy of war and peace: a course of lectures]. Kyiv: TOV "SAK Ltd.", 118 s. [in Ukrainian].
44. Tolbert A. (2005) Merovingian and Carolingian Empires: An Analysis of Their Strengths and Weaknesses». Student Theses, Papers and Projects (History). 140. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/228821755.pdf (accessed 10 September 2024).
45. Ullmann W. (1970) A History of Political Thought: The Middle Ages. Baltimore: Maryland, Penguin Books, 253 p.
46. Vovk D. (2012) Vplyv khrystyianstva na pravo derzhav yevropeiskoi tsyvilizatsii: kontseptualni zasady osmyslennia [The influence of Christianity on the law of states of European civilization: conceptual foundations of understanding]. Visnyk Akademii pravovykh nauk Ukrainy: zb. nauk. pr. № 1. S. 25–34. [in Ukrainian].
47. Wallace Hadrill J.M. (1975) Early Medieval History. New York: Barnes and Noble, 247 p.
48. Wallach L. Alcuin and Charlemagne: Studies in Carolingian History and Literature. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 325 p.
49. Wood I. (1994) The Merovingian Kingdoms: 450–751. New York: Longman Group, 395 p. 50. Wynn P. (2014) Wars and Warriors in Gregory of Tours' Histories I-IV. https://deremilitari.org/2014/08/wars-and-warriors-in-gregory-of-tours-histories-i-iv/ (accessed 10 September 2024).
51. Zabzaliuk D. Ye. (2020) Khrestonosnyi rukh Serednovichchia: polityko-pravovyi vymir: monohrafiia [Crusader movement of the Middle Ages: political and legal dimension: monograph]/ Lvivskyi derzhavnyi universytet vnutrishnikh sprav. Lviv: SPOLOM, 428 s. [in Ukrainian].
52. Zinkevych T. S. (2019) Khrystyianska relihiia i tserkva yak chynnyk derzhavotvorennia v Kyivskii Rusi [Christian religion and the church as a factor of state formation in Kyivan Rus]: dys. … kand. istor. nauk : 07.00.01 ‒ istoriia Ukrainy. Skhidnoievropeiskyi natsionalnyi universytet imeni Lesi Ukrainky. Lutsk, 200 s. [in Ukrainian].
2. Bachrach B.S. (1972) Merovingian Military Organization 481-751. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 164 p.
3. Bachrach B.S. (1993) Armies and Politics in the Early Medieval West. Brookfield, VT: Variorum, 320 p.
4. Bainton R. (1960) Christian Attitudes Toward War and Peace. Nashville. 300 p.
5. Bartholomew D. (1999) Christianity and War in the Early Middle Ages: A Brief Survey. WWU Honors Program Senior Projects. https://cedar.wwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1165&context=wwu_honors (accessed 10 September 2024).
6. Biliak Yu. V. (2020) Suchasni kontseptsii doslidzhennia konfliktiv interesiv [Modern concepts of conflict of interest research]. Ekonomika ta derzhava. № 9. S. 80–85 [in Ukrainian].
7. Boda M. (2024) The Warfare Ideology of Ordeal: Another Form of Just WarThinking? Theory and Practice from the Early Middle Ages. Journal of Military Ethics. Vol. 23. No. 1. P. 53–66.
8. Bondar V. (November 30 – December 1, 2016) Filosofiia viiny [Philosophy of war]. Zbirnyk tez mizhnarodnoi naukovoi konferentsii molodykh uchenykh ta studentiv «Filosofski vymiry tekhniky», 30 lystopada – 1 hrudnia 2016 r. Ternopil: TNTU. S. 38. [in Ukrainian].
9. Canning J. (1996) A History of Medieval Political Thought 300–1450. London and New York: Routledge, 280 p.
10. Colyer D. Carolingian War and Violence and the Course of Medieval History. Houston State University. https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1258&context=mhr (accessed 10 September 2024).
11. Contamine P. (1985) War in the Middle Ages / Translated by Michael Jones. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 432 p.
12. Crouch J. (1994) Isidore of Seville and the Evolution of Kingship in Visigothic Spain. Mediterranean Studies. Vol. 4. P. 9–26.
13. Deane H.A. (1963) The Political and Social Ideas of St. Augustine. New York: Columbia University Press, 376 p.
14. Draper L.L.M., Penitential discipline and public wars in the Middle Ages. A medieval contribution to the development of humanitarian law. https://international-review.icrc.org/sites/default/files/S0020860400010354a.pdf (accessed 10 September 2024).
15. Duby G. (1980) The Chivalrous Society / translated by Cynthia Postan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 256 p.
16. Erdmann S. (1977) The Origin of the Idea of Crusade / trans. Marshall W. Baldwin and Walter Goffart. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 488 p.
17. Evans R. (2019) Doing justice to God in the early middle ages. https://eccleshistsoc.wordpress.com/2019/07/23/doing-justice-to-god-in-the-early-middle-ages/ (accessed 10 September 2024).
18. Flavius Vegetius Renatus. (1996) De re Militari III. In: Vegetius: Epitome of Military Science / trans. N. P. Milner. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 161 p.
19. Friend N. E. (2015) Holy Warriors and Bellicose Bishops: The Church and Warfare in Early Medieval Germany. Master's Theses. 4585. 196.
20. Gregory of Tours. History of the Franks: Books I-X. https://origin.web.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/gregory-hist.asp (accessed 10 September 2024).
21. Isidore of Seville (1966). History of the Kings of Goths. In: In Isidore of Seville's History of the Kings of the Goths, Vandals, and Suevis. Leiden: E.J. Brill, P. 3–33.
22. Isidore of Seville (2006). The Etymologies. Cambridge, CUP, 475 p. https://sfponline.org/Uploads/2002/st%20isidore%20in%20english.pdf (accessed 10 September 2024).
23. Isidore of Seville (2018). Sententiae. New York; Mahwah: NJ, The Newman Press, 264 p.
24. Johnson J. T. (1987) The Quest for Peace: Three Moral Traditions in Western Cultural History, Princeton. 328 p.
25. King P. D. (2007) The Barbarian Kingdoms. In: Burns J. H. (ed.). The Cambridge History of Medieval Political Thought c. 350 – c. 1450. Cambridge, CUP, P. 123–153.
26. Kokhanchuk R. (2003) Stanovlennia doktryny viiny v rannomu khrystyianstvi [Formation of the doctrine of war in early Christianity]. Ukrainske relihiieznavstvo. № 26. S. 20–30. [in Ukrainian].
27. Loschiavo L. (2019) Isidore of Seville. In: Philip L. Reynolds (ed.). Great Christian Jurists and Legal Collections in the First Millennium. CUP, 506 p.
28. Maduabuchi, O., Uke I. and Maduabuchi R. (2023) Epistemic Implications of St. Thomas Aquinas' Just War Theory on Global Peace. Open Journal of Philosophy. Vol. 13. P. 565–585.
29. Markus R. A. (1997) Gregory the Great and his World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 241 p.
30. Moesch S. (2020) Augustine and the Art of Ruling in the Carolingian Imperial Period. Political Discourse in Alcuin of York and Hincmar of Rheims Political Discourse in Alcuin of York and Hincmar of Rheims. London, UK: Routledge, 245 p.
31. Nelson J.L. (2013) Religion and Politics in the Reign of Charlemagne. In: Religion and Politics in the Middle Ages Germany and England by Comparison. Edited by: Ludger Körntgen and Dominik Waßenhoven. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, P. 17–30.
32. Nithard (2021). Istoriia u chotyrokh knyhakh. Semko Ya. S. Istoriia rannoho serednovichchia: dokumenty ta materialy: khrestomatiia [History in four books. Semko Y.S. History of the Early Middle Ages: Documents and Materials: A Textbook]/ Ya. S. Semko; DZ «Pivdennoukrainskyi natsionalnyi pedahohichnyi universytet imeni K. D. Ushynskoho». Odesa: Feniks, S. 211–228 [in Ukrainian].
33. Nithard (2022). Histories / edition, translation, and introduction by Marco Conti with a foreword by T. F. X. Noble. Peeters Publishers, 233 p.
34. Panafidin I.O. (2014) Evoliutsiia idei spravedlyvoi viiny v konteksti teorii vichnoho myru (sotsialno-filosofskyi analiz) [Evolution of the idea of a just war in the context of the theory of eternal peace (social-philosophical analysis)]: dys. … kand. filos. nauk: 09.00.03 – sotsialna filosofiia ta filosofiia istorii. Kryvorizkyi pedahohichnyi instytut DVNZ «Kryvorizkyi natsionalnyi universytet». Dnipropetrovsk, 200 s. [in Ukrainian].
35. Pylypenko V. P. (2024) Voienni zlochyny za Rymskym statutom Mizhnarodnoho kryminalnoho sudu: pytannia teorii ta praktyky [War crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: issues of theory and practice]: dys. .. d-ra yuryd. nauk: 12.00.11 – Mizhnarodne pravo. Mizhnarodnyi humanitarnyi universytet. Odesa, 465 s. [in Ukrainian].
36. Richards J. (1980) Consul of God: The Life and Times of Gregory the Great. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 320 p.
37. Riche P. (1959) The Carolingians: A Family who Forged Europe / Translated by M.I. Allen.Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993. 398 p.
38. Rufinus of Aquileia (2016): History of the Church / Translated by Philip R. Amidon, SJ. [Fathers of the Church, Volume 133.]. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, Pp. XIII, 509.
39. Russell F.H. (1975) The Just War in the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 332 p.
40. Russell J.C. (1994) The Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity: A Sociohistorical Approach to Religious Transformation. New York: Oxford University Press, 272 p.
41. Shevtsiv M. B. (2016) Istoryko-filosofska refleksiia viiny [Historical and philosophical reflection of the war]. Naukovyi visnyk Lvivskoho derzhavnoho universytetu vnutrishnikh sprav. № 2. S. 96–104. [in Ukrainian].
42. Stasiuk S. (2010) Formuvannia pravovykh zasad serednovichnoi viiny [Formation of legal foundations of medieval warfare]. Viche. № 20. https://veche.kiev.ua/journal/2244/ (accessed 10 September 2024) [in Ukrainian].
43. Sytnyk H.P. (2023) Filosofiia viiny ta myru: kurs lektsii [Philosophy of war and peace: a course of lectures]. Kyiv: TOV "SAK Ltd.", 118 s. [in Ukrainian].
44. Tolbert A. (2005) Merovingian and Carolingian Empires: An Analysis of Their Strengths and Weaknesses». Student Theses, Papers and Projects (History). 140. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/228821755.pdf (accessed 10 September 2024).
45. Ullmann W. (1970) A History of Political Thought: The Middle Ages. Baltimore: Maryland, Penguin Books, 253 p.
46. Vovk D. (2012) Vplyv khrystyianstva na pravo derzhav yevropeiskoi tsyvilizatsii: kontseptualni zasady osmyslennia [The influence of Christianity on the law of states of European civilization: conceptual foundations of understanding]. Visnyk Akademii pravovykh nauk Ukrainy: zb. nauk. pr. № 1. S. 25–34. [in Ukrainian].
47. Wallace Hadrill J.M. (1975) Early Medieval History. New York: Barnes and Noble, 247 p.
48. Wallach L. Alcuin and Charlemagne: Studies in Carolingian History and Literature. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 325 p.
49. Wood I. (1994) The Merovingian Kingdoms: 450–751. New York: Longman Group, 395 p. 50. Wynn P. (2014) Wars and Warriors in Gregory of Tours' Histories I-IV. https://deremilitari.org/2014/08/wars-and-warriors-in-gregory-of-tours-histories-i-iv/ (accessed 10 September 2024).
51. Zabzaliuk D. Ye. (2020) Khrestonosnyi rukh Serednovichchia: polityko-pravovyi vymir: monohrafiia [Crusader movement of the Middle Ages: political and legal dimension: monograph]/ Lvivskyi derzhavnyi universytet vnutrishnikh sprav. Lviv: SPOLOM, 428 s. [in Ukrainian].
52. Zinkevych T. S. (2019) Khrystyianska relihiia i tserkva yak chynnyk derzhavotvorennia v Kyivskii Rusi [Christian religion and the church as a factor of state formation in Kyivan Rus]: dys. … kand. istor. nauk : 07.00.01 ‒ istoriia Ukrainy. Skhidnoievropeiskyi natsionalnyi universytet imeni Lesi Ukrainky. Lutsk, 200 s. [in Ukrainian].