[...]... plenitude of power in Milan with the aim of understanding how the legal world, as well as the Visconti and the Sforza themselves, interpreted their authority and status As the rulers of Milan attempted to make good a claim to plenitude of power, legal opinion as to what that phrase meant changed Jurists of the period of the early Visconti were willing to grant far greater scope to plenitude of power than... yet another illustration of the inevitable problems surrounding plenitude of power: because its purpose was to facilitate the disregard for laws and rights, the use of absolute power was bound to provoke controversy The Visconti and the Sforza themselves continually felt the need to examine the basis of their plenitude of power, so providing further clues to the elusive nature of the rule of the signori... denied to the rulers of Milan This circumstance led the Sforza temporarily to return to the principle of communal authority as the basis of their rule The claim to plenitude of power was at the centre of these developments: decrees and other acts issued by virtue of that prerogative had to reflect the changing basis of the regime The present study looks at the foundations, the role, and the force of plenitude. .. sunt immutabilia’ Introduction 3 but to be seen misusing plenitude of power risked the accusation of injustice and therefore of illegitimacy There was a fine line between plenitude of power and tyranny, and it was in the hands of lawyers to judge whether the limits had been overstepped The attempts by medieval jurists to referee the clash between the powers of rulers and the rights of subjects have attracted... exposition of the concept, Innocent III saw the divine commission given to Peter as the central basis of plenitude of power The key biblical passages, according to him, were those where Peter is singled out to be given the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and where he is commanded, ‘Feed my sheep.’⁶ There were two particular strands to Innocent III’s understanding of plenitude of power that were to be of interest... first, the connection between fullness of power and the pope’s role as chief judicial of cer of the Church; and second, the identification of plenitude of power with absolute authority above the law.⁷ The importance of plenitude of power in the first of these functions, the administration of justice, had grown up over the years From the fifth century, popes enjoyed jurisdiction over disputes involving the. .. from the idea that the emperor was legibus solutus for their analysis of papal powers: at the beginning of the thirteenth century the Roman law maxim ‘what the emperor decrees has the force of law’ (Inst 1, 2, 6) was being used in support of papal powers.²⁵ Canon and civil law came together in Hostiensis, who, in discussions of papal plenitude of power, invariably cited the classic passages in the Digest... ‘‘whatever the prince decrees has the force of law’’.’⁵⁵ He noted the particular association between plenitude of power and the majesty of the emperor: The emperor has total plenitude of power in every land in the empire,’ adding, in him all power shines; for the providence of God has seen that no one and nothing would better protect the well-being of the republic than Caesar.’⁵⁶ But like other lawyers,... endeavoured to distance themselves and the regime from plenitude of power, blaming its misuse on unscrupulous petitioners The most outstanding legal minds working in the duchy in the early sixteenth century were determined to discredit absolute power altogether, arguing that the liberties of small communities had been bought and sold in an outrageous manner under the guise of plenitude of power The reaction came... property and other rights This work relies on two main kinds of source First there are legal commentaries and consilia (mainly of lawyers whose careers brought them in touch with Milan) , showing how the parameters of absolute power changed over the period Consilia, in particular, demonstrate the effectiveness of plenitude of power In Milan consilia were a mandatory and binding aspect of court proceedings.⁶ . of plenitude of power in Milan with the aim of understanding how the legal world, as well as the Visconti and the Sforza themselves, interpreted their authority and status. As the rulers of Milan. of Milan, 1287–1535 xiii Introduction 1 Chapter 1. Plenitude of Power: Absolutism in the Middle Ages 8 The Beginnings of Plenitude of Power 8 The Century of Absolutism 11 Baldo degli Ubaldi and. absolute power in order for their acts to be accepted as legitimate. The difficulty was that in appropriating plenitude of power, the Visconti were embracing the law and language of the pope and the