Quod Omnes Tangit: Constitutional Principle or Malleable Authority?

• In Event: Lawyers, Guns, & Money: Consent, Patriotism, & Money in Medieval Political Thought

Abstract

The maxim Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus approbari debet (often abbreviated Qot), or some variant thereof, was commonly employed in medieval political and legal writings. Normally translated into English as “what touches all must be approved by all,” it has ordinarily been understood by scholars to express a nascent justification of democracy or popular sovereignty, or at any rate a principle underlying some system of representative government that served to limit the power of rulers. The phrase was originally derived from Roman private law, but as public and private law became more closely intertwined over the course of the Latin Middle Ages, its meaning and significance was transformed. In contrast to those historians of law and political thought who maintain that it always implied a populist conception of the source of supreme power (whether in ecclesiastical or secular realms), this paper asserts that Qot constituted a sort of rhetorical flourish, a cipher, that could be and was manipulated to suit a vast array of legal and political arguments. Ultimately, it will become evident that no single doctrine may be ascribed to Qot, but rather that it was made to serve many purposes according to the needs of the author in question.

Author

• Cary J. Nederman, Texas A&M University