The Image of an Executioner: Princes and Decapitations in John of Salisbury's 'Policraticus'

1.A Medieval Humanist John of Salisbury's eclectic compendium of moral philosophy, personal reflection, court satire, and exegesis, the Policraticus, is a staple text in the history of European political thought.1 Completed in 1159, it is the first treatise of political theory since antiquity and a work praised for its balance, reasonableness, classicism, and moderation.2 John, after all, defends liberty and a commonwealth based on the rule of law, even justifying the assassination of a lawless ruler.3 And John's style is crisp and playful, with none of the turgidity so often associated with scholastic theologians. "8 In the words of political theorist Quentin Taylor, John is "the most readable of medieval authors . . . as a humanist he speaks in a language intelligible to modern readers . . . remarkably progressive" (emphasis original).9 At times, hearing John's acclaim, one cannot help imagining that the Englishman walked out of an Anthony Trollope novel-a stiff-upper-lipped vicar with a cup of tea in one hand and a Tory pamphlet in the other. Sir Richard Southern famously defined medieval humanism as the belief in human dignity, the dignity of nature, and an orderly universe accessible to reason.10 By that standard, John of Salisbury was a humanist. According to John, in a just commonwealth, only a small marginal group would hunt, for "the pagan political philosophers fashioned justice by requiring that each person be content with his own office, and so they shut hunters off from nobles and city-dwellers. 102 For medieval beheadings, Maribel Fierro,...