Abstract

The three books „De concordantia catholica“ are deeply rooted in christian neoplatonism. But how Cusanus interpretated the political implications of the salvation in church and world showed a flexibility of thought unknown before: For him the conflict between Pope and Council, between emperor and pope has to be evaluated as a parallellism of the powers in church and world. On first sight the mandate of rule is constitutional based and orientated on Aristotle’s Politics. Due to its true origins, consequently, it refers in fact to the autoritarian tradition of platonism and legitimated the absolutism in (catholic) church. The argument was instrumentalized by the arising territorial states in early modern times.