§ 8. THE PAPAL OFFICE ASSAILED. 71
§ 8. The Papal Office Assailed.
To the pontificate of John XXII. belongs a second^roup of literary assailants of the_ papacj. Going beyond Dante and John of Paris, Ihey attacked the pope^s spiritual func;tions. Their assaults were called forth by the conflict with Lewis the Bavarian and the controversy with the Franciscan Spirituals. Lewis' court became a veritable nest of antipapal agitation and the headquarters of pamphleteering. Marsiglius of Eadua was_tjie_ cleverest and boldest of these writers, Ockam — a Schoolman rather than a practical thinker — the most copiQus. Michael of Cesena ^ and Bonagratia also made contributions to this literature.
Ockam sets forth his views in two works, The Dialo£fue and t\\Q Eight Questions. The former is ponderous in thought and a monster in size.^ It is difficult, if at times possible, to detect the author's views in the mass of cumbersome disputation. These views seem to be as follows : The papac.y is jipt an institution which is essential to the being of the Churi^h. Conditions arise to make it necessary to establish national churches.^ The pope is not infallible. Even a legitimate pope may hold to heresy. So it was with Peter, who was judaizing, and had to be rebuked by Paul, Liberius, who was an Arian, and Leo, who was arraigned for false doctrine by Hilary of Poictiers. Sylvester II. made a compact with the devil. One or the other^. Nicolas III. or John XXII., was a heretic, for the one contradicted the other. A^general councU may err just as popes have erred. So did the second Council of Lyons and the Council of Vienne, which condemned the true Minorites. The pope may he4)j'onoiijiced_a_he^retic by a council or, if a council fails in its duty, the cardinals
1 Kiezler, p. 247 sq. Three of these writings are in Goldast's Monarchia II., 1236 sqq. Riezler's work, Die literarischen Widersacher der Pclpste is the best treatment of the subject of this chapter.
2 TTie Dialogue, which is printed in Goldast, is called by Riezler an almost unreadable monster, ei7i kaum ubersehhares Monstrum.
3 Qiiod non est necesse, ut srib Christo sit unus rector totins ecclesice sed sufficit quod sint plures diversas regentes provincias. Quoted by Haller, p. 80.
72 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
may pronounce the decision. In case the cardinals fail, the right to do so belongs to the temporal prince. Christ di^ not commit the faith to the pope and the hierarchy, but to the Church, and somewhere witliin the Church the truth is always held and preserved. Temporal ppwer did not origi-^ oally belong to ths-pop^ This is proved by Constantine's donation, for what Constantine gave, he gave for the first time. Supreme power^in temporal an(i spiritual things ianot in_a single hand. The emperor has full power by virtue of his election, and does not depend for it upon unction or coronation by the pope or any earthly confirmation of any kind.
More distinct and advanced were the utterances of J^laxsiglius of Padiia. His writings abound in incisive thrusts against the prevailing ecclesiasticalsystem, and lay down the principles of a new order. Injbhejpreparation of his chief work^jthe Defence of the FaJth, — Defensor :paj^is, — he had the help of John of Janduy.^ Eoth writers were clerics, but neither of them monks. Borii_about 1270 in Padua, Marsiglius devoted himself to the study of mediciiia» and in 1312 was rector of tlie University of Paris. In 1325 or.l3,2i3he betook himself to the court of Lewis the Bavarian. The reasons are left to surmisal. He acted as the emperor's physician. In 1328 he accompanied the emperor to Rom£, and showed full sympathy with the measures taken to establish the emperor's authority. He joined in the ceremonies of the emperor's coronation, the deposition of John XXII. and the elevation of the anti-pope, Peter of Corbara. The pope had already denounced Marsiglius and John of Jandun ^ as '*^6ons of perdition, the sons of Belial, those pestiferous individuals, beasts from the abyss," and summoned the Romans to make them prisoners. Marsiglius was made
1 Muller, 1 . 368, upon the basis of a note in a MS. copy in Vienna, places its composition before June 24, 1.324 ; Riezler between 1324-1326. John of Jandun's name is associated with tlie composition of the book in the papal bulls. However, the first person singular, ego, is used throughout. According to Innocent VI., Marsiglius was nuich inliuenced by Ockam, then the leading teacher in France. This is inherently probable from their personal association in Paris and at the emperor's court and the community of many of their views. See Haller, p. 78. John of Jandun died probably 1328. See Riezler, p. 56. 2 See the bull of Oct. 23, 1327, Mirbt, Quellen, p. 152.