Marsile, a Dutch philosopher and theologian, was born at Inghen, in the diocese of Utrecht. He was can- on and treasurer of the Church of Saint-Andrew, at Co- logne, and when Rupert, the duke of Bavaria, founded the academj^ of Heidelberg in 1386, he called jMarsUe to a professorship of philosophy. He died there Aug. 20, 1394. Tritenhemius attributes to him a Dicdectic, and some comments on Aristotle and on Peter Lombard. Fabricius adds that his commentaries on the four books of the Sentences were published in Strasburg in 1501, folio. A volume published at La Haye (1497, fol.) con- tains the first two books of the Sentences, with the criti- cism of D'Inghen. — Fabricius, Bibl. med. et inf. Latin. : Diet, des Sciences philos. ; B. Haureau, De la Philos. sco- last. ii, 483 ; Hoefer, Nou v. Biog. Generale, vol. xxxiii, s. v.
Marsilius, Ficinus. See Ficinus.
Marsilius of Padua, an eminent opponent of the papacy, was born towards the close of the 13th century, and was probably a native of Italy. He first attracted notice at the University of Orleans, in France, and later at that of Paris, where he studied jurisprudence, and also paid some attention to philosophy, medicine, and theology, and in 1312 became rector. It was not, how- ever, until 1324 that lie became particularly noted. In that year he composed his principal work. Defensor 2)a- cis s. de re imj)eratoria et pontifcia. In this work, writ- ten in the interest of the emperor Louis lY, tlie Bava- rian, and against tlie papacy, he describes the papacy of his time as the most dangerous foe to peace and pros- perity, supportmg his assertion by a reference to events
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then current, e. g. the quarrel of Boniface VIII with Philip the Fair of France, the arrogance of Clement V towards the emperor Henry VII, and the treatment ac- corded hy pope John XXII, then reigning, to Louis the Bavarian. In order to prevent such scandals for the future, he declares that the axe must be laid at the root of the evil; and he then proceeds to consider, 1, the na- ture, origin, and end of the state, with constant refer- ence to peace and quietness as the highest good of social life; 2, the relation between Church and State, opposing to the exaggerated pretensions of the Curia a doctrine of the Church which he grounds on reason, tradition, Scripture, history, and ecclesiastical law. The leading thoughts are these : (1) The official duties and authority of every priest are confined to the ministration of the Word and sacraments. His power is spiritual and mor- al; the civQ power alone may employ force, and the priest, even if he be bishop or pope, is subject to the civil power. (2) All priests, whatever their name, are equal in spiritual rank and authority ; there was no dis- tinction in the apostoUc Church between bishops and presbyters; and the I^. T. sho-\vs that there was no pri- macy of Peter, but that the apostles were all equal. In externals and non-essentials there may be distinctions between priests, and gradations of office, so far as cir- cumstances require, but as a merely human arrange- ment. (3) There is only one divinely-appointed Head of the Church — Christ himself. (4) The highest au- thority on earth in ecclesiastical matters does not inhere in a single priest or bishop, not even in the bishop of Kome, but in a general council, composed as well of in- telligent laymen, who are versed in the Scriptures, as of priests. Christ has promised to be with his Chiu-ch unto the end of the world, and a general council is the prop- er exponent and organ of the Church. The pope has not even authority to convene a council, since the case is possible that he should be guilty of conduct which it- self would require the attention of a general council. This authority, therefore, belongs to the sovereign, as supreme lawgiver. (5) The Scriptures, including what must be necessarily inferred from their teaching, alone deserve an unconditional assent. The principles thus submitted b}' Marsilius found a practical application in 1338, when the heiress of the Tyrol souglit a divorce from her husband, John of Bohemia, in order to marry a son of the emperor; a step which was sanctioned by Louis IV (in 13i2), regardless of the fact that the parties were within the degrees of consanguinity in which marriage was prohibited by the Church, public opinion everywhere censuring the emperor's action. Both Marsilius and the learned Franciscan, William Oc- cam, came forward in the emperors defence, in a work bearing the title in each case, Tractatus de jurisdiclione Imperatoris in caiisis matrimoHialibus. They are com- plementary to each other, Marsilius treating especially of the dissolution of the former marriage, and Occam of the dispensation on accoimt of consanguinity. Marsil- ius here also advanced the principle, that the ministers and teachers of the Word are to decide on the sufficien- cy of any reason for divorce under the divine law, but that the sovereign legislator must decide, on grounds of human law, whether such sufficient reason exists in any given case. Because of his work Bpfenso?- pads, Marsilius was placed under the ban in 1327. His death is generally assigned to 1328, but Louis IV speaks of him as living, in a letter addressed to pope Benedict, in 133(5, and tlicre is no reason to doubt the genuineness of his work on marriage, which appeared in 1342. He must therefore have lived until after that date. In his life he ajtpears as one of the most determined opposers of the unhmited pretensions of the papacy ; and in his views of the headsliip of the Church as centring in Christ, and of the Scriptures jis furnishing the sole rule of faith and practice for the Church, we recognise him as a forerunner of the Keformation. His works were published in Goldast's Momirchia s. Bom. imp. (Frankf. 1668). See Schrockh, Kirchengesch. xxxi, 79 sq. ; Ne-