The agents and the king effectively became the rulers of the people
represented by the former. Struggles between the king and the representatives
led to an elimination of either the representatives (royal absolutism) or the
king (parliamentary absolutism) and to the assumption of plenitudo potestatis
by the victorious party. The notion of ‘plena potestas’ still had presupposed
that the representative could act only within the limits of his mandate.
‘Plenitudo potestatis’ went beyond that restriction. It meant that the rulers
could act (legislate) as they pleased concerning any matter that was not effectively put out of bounds by constitutional law or widely shared religious