Sovereignty, Conciliarism, and the Cortes in Fifteenth-Century Castile

• In Event: Hispanic Sovereignties

Abstract

In the fifteenth century, representation in Western Europe tended towards the communal rather than the individual. One of the Catholic conciliarists arguing for communal representation was Juan of Segovia, who maintained that because the universal church has no temporal superior, its power rested within itself. Its ruler was greater than any individual or particular group in the community, but the whole community assembled together had greater authority than the ruler. Segovia explicitly linked his ecclesiastical philosophy to temporal government, arguing that the monarch was a “legal proxy for the whole community by promoting its corporate interests”, and represented the community “in the strict private-law sense of being entrusted with the care of its interests.” Opposing Segovia’s philosophy was Juan de Torquemada, who argued for papal and monarchical sovereignty. This paper will examine the debate between Segovia and Torquemada and its implications for communal sovereignty and representation in the Castilian Cortes.

Author

• Darcy Kern, Southern Connecticut State University