Marsilius of Padua

Marsilius of Padua (Italian Marsilio or Marsiglio da Padova; born Marsilio dei Mainardini or Marsilio Mainardini, c. 1275 – c. 1342) was an Italian scholar, trained in medicine, who practiced a variety of professions. He was also an important 14th century political figure. His political treatise Defensor pacis, an attempt to refute papalist claims to a "plentitude of power" in affairs of both church and state, is seen by some authorities as the most revolutionary political treatise written in the later Middle Ages. It is one of the first examples of a reasoned defense of caesaropapism in Western Europe.

Marsilius was born in Padua, an important Italian city, circa 1275-1280. He probably studied medicine at the University of Padua and later went to the University of Paris, where he became a devoted admirer of Aristotle, whom he called 'the divine philosopher." He served as rector of the University of Paris in 1313.

Marsilius wrote Defensor pacis in 1324. This treatise was written in the context of a power struggle between Pope John XXII and Louis of Bavaria (or Ludwig of Bavaria), the elected candidate for Holy Roman Emperor. Louis' policies in the Italian peninsula, where the Empire had important territories, threatened papal territorial sovereignty. In 1323 Louis had sent an army to Italy to protect Milan against the powerful Kingdom of Naples. Naples, along with France, was a strong ally of John XXII. John excommunicated Louis and demanded that he relinquish his claim to the imperial crown. Louis responded to John XXII with fresh provocations.

In Defensor pacis, Marsilius sought to demonstrate, by arguments from reason (in Dictio I of the text) and by argument from authority (in Dictio II) the independence of the Holy Roman Empire from the Papacy and the emptiness of the prerogatives alleged to have been usurped by the Roman pontiffs. A number of Marsilius's views were declared to be heretical by Pope John XXII in 1327.

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