§ 8. THE PAPAL OFFICE ASSAILED. 73
XJcar of Rome by the emperor, and remained true to the principles stated in his tract, even when the emperor became a suppliant to the Avignon court. Lewis even went so far as to express to John XXII. his readiness to withdraw his protection from Marsiglius and the leaders of the Spirituals. Later, when his position was more hopeful, he changed his attitude and gave them his protection at Munich. But again, in his letter submitting himself to Clement VI., 1343, the emperor denied holding the errors charged against Marsiglius and John, and declared his object in retaining them at his court had been to lead them back to the Church. The Paduan died before 1343.1 ^
The personal fortunes of Marsiglius are of small historical concern compared with his book, which he dedicated to the emperor. The volume, which was written in two months,^ was as audacious as any of the earlier writings of Luther. JFor originality and boldness of statement the Middle Ages has notTiing superior to offer. To it may be compared in modern times Janus' attack on the doctrine of papal infallibility at the time of the Vatican Council. ^ Its Scriptural radicalism was in itself a literary sensation.
In condemning the work, John XXII., 132|^j3ronounced as contrary " to apostoIic^ truth and all law " its statements that Christ paid the stater to the Roman government as a matter
1 In that year Clement spoke of Marsiglius as dead, Riezler, p. 122. "With Ockam, Marsiglius defended the marriage of Lewis' son to Margaret of Maultasch, in spite of the parties being within the bounds of consanguinity forbidden by the Church. His defence is found in Goldast, II. 1383-1391. For Ockam's tract, see Riezler, p. 254.
2 Riezler, p. 36. It contains 150 folio pages in Goldast. Riezler, 193 sq., gives a list of MS. copies. Several French translations appeared. Gregory XI. in 1376 complained of one of them. An Italian translation of 1363 is found in a MS. at Florence, Engl. Hist. liev., 1905, p. 302. The work was translated into English under the title The Defence of Peace translated out of Latin into English by Wyllyam Marshall, London, R. Wyer, 1535.
^ Hergenrother-Kirsch, II. 755, says : Unerhort in der christlichen Welt waren die kuhnen Behanptungen die sie zu Gunsten ihres Beschutzers aufstelUen. Pastor, I. 85, says that Marsiglius' theory of the omnipotence of the state cut at the root of all individual and Church liberty and surpassed in boldness, novelty, and keenness all the attacks which the position claimed by the Church in the world had been called upon to resist up to that time.
74 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
of obligation, that Christ did not appoint a vicar, that an emperor has the right to depose a pope, and that the orders of the hierarchy are not of primitive origin. Marsiglius had not spared epithets in dealing with John, whom he called " the great dragon, the old serpent." Clement VI. found no less than 240 lieretical clauses in the book, and declared that he had never read a worse heretic than Marsiglius. The4)apal_condemnations were reproduced by the University of Paris, which singled out for reprobation the statements that Peter is not the head of the Church, that the pope may be de^^josed, and that he has no right to inflict punishments witliout the emperor's consent. ^_
The Defensor pads was a manifesto against the sj)iritual as well as the temporal assumptions of the p;4)ucy and against th^ whole hierarchical organization of the Chur_i;h. Its title is shrewdly chosen in view of the strifes between cities and states going on at the time the book was written, and due, as it claimed, to papal ambition and interference. The peace of the Christian world would never be established so long as the pope's false claims were accepted. The main positions are the f ollowinor : 2 —
The state, which was developed out of the family, exists that men may live well and peaceably. Tlie people themselve^ are the source of authority, and confer the right to exercise it upon the ruler whom they select. The functions of the priesthood are spiritual and educational. Clerics are called upon "to teach and to warn. In all matters of civil misdemeanor they are responsible to the civil officer as other men are. They should follow their Master by self-denial. As St. Bernard said, the pope needs no wealth or outward display to be a true successor of Peter.
The function of binding and loosing is a declarative, not a judicial, function. To God alone^ belongs the power ta_fot
1 Chartul. Univ. Paris., II. 301.
2 Mirbt : QueUpii, pp. 150-152, presents a convenient summary of Part III. of the Dpfensor. In this part a resume is given by the autlior of the preceding portion of the work. Marsiglius ([uotes Aristotle and other classic writers, Augustine and other Fathers, Hugo of St. Victor and other Schoolmen, but he ignores Thomas Aquinas, and never even mentions his name.