Individual, Territory and Intention: Citizenship in the Medieval Legal Debate

The prevalent meaning of the word civis (citizen), during the 12th century, was closer to the semantic area of duties than of rights. The ecclesiastical debates developed from the end of the 11th century within the Gregorian Reform exercised a great influence on the lay political thought – especially the importance given to the payment of the tithe as sign of belonging of the worshipper to the Christian community. Only during the 14th century, medieval lawyers did emancipate themselves from the Roman land perspective of the late antique sources, perceived as unsuitable to contain the relations of power and the forms of profit of the late medieval world. Summary: 1. Citizenship as a Duty and not a Privilege (12th Century) - 2. Pay to Belong (I): the Urban Ideology (12th Century) - 3. Construction of the Walls and the Emergence of a Civic Identity (end of the 12th- 13th Century) - 4. Pay to Belong (II): the Ecclesiastical Debates and the Introduction of a Territorial Perspective (end of the 11th-12thCentury) - 5. Graduation of Citizenship (1260/1280) - 6. Useless Citizens (end of the 13th Century) - 7. Citizens Owners (12th/13th Century) - 8. Things or Individuals as Source of Rights and Duties? A Case in Lombardy (14th Century) - 9. The Failure of a Territorial Framework (end of the 13th-14thCentury) - 10. The Intention of Citizenship (14th Century)