Establishing Power And Law 241
that the moment of “metre e posar la terra en bon estament” had been reached,
and he convened parliament to this end.
The institution had taken form under the name Corts generals, or parlia-
ment, in Aragon in 1274 and in Catalonia in 1283, and it was obvious that the
sovereign of Aragon was inspired by these examples.30 Sardinia of the giudicati
could also have had a taste for a royal council with the Crown of Logu, but it
certainly knew nothing like an “assembly of states.” After all, in order to launch
a “pattista” system with the periodic summoning of social classes, who were
invited to “offer” financial “auxilium” to the king on a strictly voluntary basis
in order to obtain in return “gracious” approval (equally voluntary) for gen-
eral, local, or group interests, it was necessary to have wealthy and organized
citizens, who, in the Sardinia of the giudicati, did not even exist in embryonic
form.
In 1355, Sardinia had not yet been completely enfeoffed and many villages
were still under royal administration, but Peter IV also invited them send rep-
resentatives to parliament. To the representatives of the clergy, the aristocra-
cy, and the royal territories was added yet another entity: the ex-giudicato of
Cagliari, which the Aragonese sovereign called on to participate only in issues
related to their territory. This local expression, not based on ethnicity or na-
tion, was not even organized, because its constituents participated in “nomine
proprio” (in name only); it constituted what some historians call “the arm of
Sardinia,” though it did not necessarily represent a fourth division of parlia-
mentary representation.
With parliamentary “pattismo” and without any doubts about the divine
source of his power, the king of Aragon realized the need for consensus among
social strata for better governance of the people and public affairs. Equally in-
spired by the canonical biblical doctrine of the monarch as terrestrial reflec-
tion of divine justice, as well as the evangelical theme of Christ the Savior, in
his opening speech to parliament Peter IV proclaimed, “Io son constituit rey
per nostre senyor [...] Io son lo senyor qui fas misericordia, iuhí e iustícia en la
terra [...] No son vingut per iutgar lo mon, més per salvarlo.”31 In light of this
30 On the long process of the formation of the “assemblee di stati” in Iberian kingdoms, see
Antonio Marongiu, I parlamenti sardi. Studio storico istituzionale e comparativo (Milan,
1979); José Luis Martin, Las Cortes medievales (Madrid, 1989); and Les Corts a Catalunya.
Actes del Congrès d’Historia Institucional (Barcelona, 1991).
31 “I have been made king by our Lord [...] I am the merciful master that sets rules and
justice on earth [...] I did not come here to judge the world but to save it”; Meloni, Il
Parlamento, pp. 272–273. On the relationship between royalty and justice, see Ernst
Hartwig Kantorowicz, The King’s Two Bodies. A Study in Medieval Political Theology