ABSTRACT
THE IMPACT OF Aristotle’s theories of government and of his ethical principles upon the thirteenth century entailed a rather radical re-orientation in the realm of thought:1 the one-sided speculative, monolithic thesis of government and law was to find a perfect complement. It would be hard to point to any historical phenomenon of a doctrinal order which was to effect such far-reaching changes as Aristotle did. But this effect could not have been achieved if the ground had not been prepared for it. However convincing, however ‘right’, however ‘true’ a theory is, it cannot become influential unless the soil is ready for its acceptance. What anti-hierocrats had lacked, what the associations and group formations only dimly conceived, what was only vaguely in the mind of the one or the other jurist, Aristotle was to provide.
