and my material on the subject. I decided to publish my paper
separately and dedicate it to Max Radin (then a temporary mem-
ber of the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton) on his 70th
birthday, in the Spring of 1950. Personal affairs such as the ex-
asperating struggle against the Regents of the University of Cali-
fornia as well as other duties prevented me from laying my gift
into the hands of my friend. Max Radin died on June 22, 1950,
and the study, destined to elicit his criticisms, his comments, and
his broad laughter, serves now to honor his memory.

In its present, final form, this study has considerably outgrown
the original plan, which was merely to point out a number of
mediaeval antecedents or parallels to the legal tenet of the King's
Two Bodies. It has gradually turned, as the subtitle suggests, into
a "Study in Mediaeval Political Theology," which had not at all
been the original intention. Such as it now stands, this study may
be taken among other things as an attempt to understand and, if
possible, demonstrate how, by what means and methods, certain
axioms of a political theology which mutatis mutandis was to re-
main valid until the twentieth century, began to be developed
during the later Middle Ages. It would go much too far, however,
to assume that the author felt tempted to investigate the emer-
gence of some of the idols of modern political religions merely on
account of the horrifying experience of our own time in which
whole nations, the largest and the smallest, fell prey to the weirdest
dogmas and in which political theologisms became genuine obses-
sions defying in many cases the rudiments of human and political
reason. Admittedly, the author was not unaware of the later aber-
rations; in fact, he became the more conscious of certain ideologi-
cal gossamers the more he expanded and deepened his knowledge
of the early development. It seems necessary, however, to stress the
fact that considerations of that kind belonged to afterthoughts,
resulting from the present investigation and not causing it or de-
termining its course. The fascination emanating as usual from the
historical material itself prevailed over any desire of practical or
moral application and, needless to say, preceded any afterthought.
This study deals with certain cyphers of the sovereign state and its
perpetuity (Crown, Dignity, Patria, and others) exclusively from

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