ABSTRACT
The principal sources of political ideas were three: Greek and Roman political thought, particularly the works of Aristotle and Plato, Cicero and Seneca; roman law, as set out in the great sixth-century compilation, commissioned by the Emperor Justinian, the Corpus Iuris Civilis, and as interpreted by the jurists who expounded that seminal collection of texts; and, finally, the principal monuments of the Christian tradition, that is, the Bible, canon law and the writings of the Fathers of the Church, especially St Augustine. The Reformation marked a watershed in political ideas, particularly with regard to the crucial matter of resistance to government. Roman law was of crucial significance for the theory and practice of government, before and after 1500, in the first place because in many European countries it was the foundation of secular law, and it also had a notable influence upon the development of canon law, the law of the Catholic Church.
