Aegidius Romanus, De Renunciatione Pape

This is the first critical edition of the late 13th-century tract on papal abdication which Giles of Rome wrote at the height of the controversy between Boniface VIII and the Colonna cardinals, James and Peter. Besides the critical Latin edition, the accompanying summary of the tract's major arguments is the only comprehensive, in-depth analysis of this work that is available. The richness of this work, the citation of major authors of Western thought, above all Aristotle, Saint Augustine and canon law in creating the constitutional space within which the pope could operate as a free and sovereign individual, has much to offer any serious student of political and constitutional history. Concludes with a twenty-page summary in English.