As Cary J. Nederman writes in the foreword to this new edition, "Marsilius continues to speak to many of the salient issues of modern political life, expressing his doctrines in a language that has resonance and relevance. Whether in addressing the role of citizenship as a buffer between individual and community, or in explicating the foundations of religious toleration, the _Defensor pacis_ (and Marsilius' other writings) affords a distinctive theoretical perspective that rivals that of any of the great (...) thinkers of the Western political tradition.". (shrink)

Gewirth, A. Marsilius of Padua and medieval political philosophy. Marsilius, of Padua. Defensor pacis.

Marsilius of Padua's political thought continues to be the subject of much debate and scholarship. Recent work has called into question the tendency of much Marsilian scholarship to over-rely on Discourse I of Defensor pacis as the primary source of the Paduan's political principles at the expense of the longer Discourse II. In spite of this observation, most Marsilian scholarship continues to demonstrate a propensity toward ignoring the final and third Discourse of Defensor pacis. Scholarship has largely forgotten (...) the third Discourse of Marsilius' main work, usually dismissing it as a mere conclusion of the entire tome or barely even considering it. Closer analysis suggests that the final Discourse is an important aspect of Marsilius' political thought and agenda, serving to illustrate and relate a number of the Paduan's political principles as well as demonstrating that Marsilius' works are theoretically consistent. (shrink)

Este trabajo tiene por objeto investigar desde un punto vista histórico filosófico las consecuencias políticas de la separación entre la razón y la fe en el pensamiento de Marsilio de Padua. En él se explora la crisis que produce la aceptación irrestricta de la metafísica de Aristóteles, autor a partir del cual Marsilio realiza su análisis de la civitas, y algunas de sus consecuencias inmediatas en la filosofía política y el orden jurídico social de su tiempo: el uso de (...) la razón pura como instrumento exclusivo de análisis social, la separación de la ley humana de la ley eterna, y la búsqueda y consecución del bien común inmanente por sobre el trascendente, antecedentes que conforman el inicio del llamado liberalismo político. A modo de conclusión, se intentará demostrar que algunos de los postulados básicos que caracterizan el pensamiento liberal político moderno se encuentran virtualmente precontenidos en el pensamiento de este filósofo medieval. This work aims to investigate from a historic and philosophical point of view, the political consequences of the break up between faith and reason in Marsilius of Padua’s thought. It’s explored the crisis generated by the unrestricted acceptance of Aristotle’s metaphysics, from whom Marsilius raises his analysis of the civitas, and some of the immediate consequences in the political philosophy and the legal social order of his time: the use of pure reason as an exclusive instrument of social analysis, the separation of the human law from the eternal law, and the research and attainment of the immanent common good over the transcendent one, a background that builds the so called political liberalism. As a way to conclude, we’ll try to demonstrate that some of the basic premises that distinguish the modern liberal thought are virtually pre-held in Marsilius of Padua’s philosophy. (shrink)

The Defender of the Peace of Marsilius of Padua is a massively influential text in the history of western political thought. Marsilius offers a detailed analysis and explanation of human political communities, before going on to attack what he sees as the obstacles to peaceful human coexistence - principally the contemporary papacy. Annabel Brett's authoritative rendition of the Defensor Pacis was the first new translation in English for fifty years, and a major contribution to the series of (...) Cambridge Texts: all of the usual series features are provided, included chronology, notes for further reading, and up-to-date annotation aimed at the student reader encountering this classic of medieval thought for the first time. This edition of The Defender of the Peace is a scholarly and a pedagogic event of great importance, of interest to historians, political theorists, theologians and philosophers at all levels from second-year undergraduate upwards. (shrink)

This article shows that a forgotten source of Marsilius’ scientia of law-making in the Defensor Pacis is the Lucidator, the main astrological work of Peter of Abano. A compared analysis of these two works demonstrates that the theories of experientia and scientia that Marsilius considers necessary to make laws in the first dictio of the Defensor Pacis entirely draw on Peter of Abano’s views on the epistemological status of ‘the science of the stars’. It is shown that the (...) purpose of Marsilius’ reinstatement of Peter of Abano’s theory of scientia is to build a science of law-making that does not need natural law and is based on experience and certain demonstrations. (shrink)

This book focuses on the reception of classical political ideas in the political thought of the fourteenth-century Italian writer Marsilius of Padua. Vasileios Syros provides a novel cross-cultural perspective on Marsilius’s theory and breaks fresh ground by exploring linkages between his ideas and the medieval Muslim, Jewish, and Byzantine traditions. Syros investigates Marsilius’s application of medical metaphors in his discussion of the causes of civil strife and the desirable political organization. He also demonstrates how Marsilius’s (...) demarcation between ethics and politics and his use of examples from Greek mythology foreshadow early modern political debates (involving such prominent political authors as Niccolò Machiavelli and Paolo Sarpi) about the political dimension of religion, church-state relations, and the emergence and decline of the state. (shrink)

Containing the latest scholarship by an international group of scholars, this book provides an essential guide both to the life and works of Marsilius of Padua as well as to the leading interpretive debates surrounding one of the greatest thinkers of the Latin Middle Ages.

Even if political theorists rarely read him, Italian political thinker, Marsilius of Padua, presents one of the most radical theories of the multitude prior to Machiavelli and Spinoza. This article reconstructs Marsilius of Padua's political theory of the multitude in his Defender of Peace and pays special attention to two main sources from which Marsilius frames his theory: Aristotle and Ibn Rushd. Compared to Aristotle, Marsilius advances a more epistemic view of the multitude as (...) a lawmaker. Marsilius’ ideas on the multitude also depend on Ibn Rushd's theory of collective knowledge and, to a certain extent, on his position on natural law. (shrink)

In Defensor Pacis Marsilius of Padua grounds the legitimacy of the kingdom, or the state, on the peace that rule provides the citizens. Looking at Aristotle’s claim that the civitas strives to be like an animal in which all parts in the right proportion for the sake of health, Marsilius argues that ‘the parts of the kingdom or state will be well disposed for the sake of peace [tranquilitas].’ Marsilius goes on to define peace as the (...) agreeable ‘belonging together’ of all members of the kingdom or the state. In this way, Marsilius moves away from a theological ground of the legitimacy of the state towards one that is entirely secular. However, the ground is an unstable one in that it acknowledges the fact that the ‘members’ of the body politic are characterised by difference. As such, the ground of legitimate authority will be characterised as much by force as by peace or by the relation of force to peace. (shrink)

This article, drawing on Marsilius of Padua's Defensor Pacis, discusses Marsilius's theory of dominium, situating that theory within the context of the debate with Pope John XXII and William of Ockham. The author also reintroduces the long unsettled question of the extent of Marsilius's legal knowledge and training. The article closes by calling for a more sustained investigation of Marsilius's knowledge of Roman law, and of his relation to the poverty controversy and especially Ockham.

Medieval Sovereignty examines the idea of sovereignty in the Middle Ages and asks if it can be considered a fundamental element of medieval constitutional order.

Contemporary philosophers sometimes present the complex relationships that can exist between permission, precept and prohibition within a given structure of law in a language of symbolic logic or in illustrative diagrams. Other modern scholars have pointed out that early formulations of the basic ideas they employ can be found in writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including Leibnitz and Bentham and, especially, the German jurist Gottfried Achenwall. This article shows that the same structure of ideas was included centuries earlier (...) in the work of Marsilius of Padua, and that his argument too can be presented as a modern 'deontic hexagon'. It concludes with a discussion of how Marsilius' engagement with the contemporary dispute over Franciscan poverty helped to shape his teaching in this area. (shrink)

The most famous medieval controversy over the power and the temporal dominion took place between the papacy and the empire. One of the greatest advocates of the imperial domination was Marsilius of Padua, the author of an original work that demonstrated the advantage of acknowledging the emperor’s superiority over the Pope’s. The Defensor pacis, written between 1319 and 1324, was devoted to the dispute on such sovereignty issues as proving that the Pope should be subordinate to the Emperor, (...) and not vice versa. The Defensor pacis takes issue with numerous arguments and views uttered by the papal camp and uses the appropriate quotations from the Bible and Aristotle to show their weakness and inconsistency. The work comprises three parts. The first part is a description of the ideal system, i.e., an elective monarchy, with the specified role of a ruler and a clear indication of the sovereignty of the people. The second and third parts present a challenge to the arguments of the papal camp and analyze the general situation of the Church, suggesting the necessary reforms. Thus, the whole work becomes a compendium of knowledge on appropriate governance. (shrink)

Marsílio de Pádua (1280-1343) foi um pensador da Idade Média que escreveu duas obras de filosofia política que influenciaram a modernidade. Este estudo analisa o termo valencior pars, da obra Defensor Pacis. Marsílio parece definir essa parte preponderante como sendo a representação do conjunto dos cidadãos que não tem uma natureza débil. Isso sugere que a valencior pars é tanto qualitativamente superior quanto uma maioria numérica dos cidadãos. O apelo a uma mistura de considerações quantitativas e qualitativas era familiar no (...) contexto das eleições medievais da Igreja, que geralmente apoiava a parte maior e mais razoável (maior et saniors pars) das instituições eleitorais. Marsílio sugere que a valencior pars pode ser identificada com o costume honrado do governo, entretanto, parece que a mesma corresponde a qualquer parte da coletividade cuja decisão eleitoral é decisiva. Nesse sentido, o filósofo paduano está de acordo com a análise original de Aristóteles. Marsilius of Padua (1280-1343) was a philosopher of the Middle Ages who wrote two books of political philosophy that have influenced modernity. This study analyzes the term valencior pars in the Defensor Pacis. Marsilius appears to define this preponderant part of the population as representing that part of the citizenry who do not have a debilitated nature. This suggests that the valencior pars is a much a qualitatively superior as a numerically greater part of the citizenry. The appeal to a mixture of quantitative and qualitative considerations was familiar in the context of the medieval church, which habitually supported the greater and more reasonable part (maior et sanior pars) of electoral institutions. Marsilius also suggests, however, that the valencior pars can be identified with this honored custom of government. It seems then, that the valencior pars is whatever part of the citizenry whose electoral decision is decisive. In this, Marsilius is at one with Aristotle's original analysis. (shrink)

This article discusses hitherto unexplored aspects of Quentin Skinner's work on the history of political thought by offering a critical appraisal of the medieval section of Skinner's Foundations of Modern Political Thought. The article investigates and critically assesses Skinner's study of the medieval 'classics' with a specific focus on his interpretation of the fourteenth-century political thinker Marsilius of Padua. In particular, the paper demonstrates that Skinner's analysis of Marsilius' political ideas is at odds with his own methodology. (...) It also contends that Skinner's emphasis on the intellectual- linguistic context as a starting point for the interpretation of major political writers of the past downplays the normative value of Marsilius' political theory and is, in the end, a narrow interpretation of the overall scope of Marsilius' Defensor pacis. (shrink)

In ‘The Republic’, Plato famously reduced practical authority to theoretical authority, arguing that a just society must be governed by philosophers. This idea of the philosopher-king flourished in the medieval specula principum. The medieval papacy was grounded on a similar blend of practical and theoretical authority. The Pope was credited with the capacity to decide on the truth of beliefs because he was elected to office. In their fight against the omnicompetence of the Pope, Marsilius of Padua and (...) William of Ockham were aware that in order to contain the power of the papal office, they had to find a way of legitimately distinguishing between theoretical and practical authority. Consequently, both of them severed the traditional link between political theory and virtue ethics, considering the virtue and the wisdom of the ruler as accidental to the legitimacy of government. In contrast to this demotion of theoretical authority in the state, both Marsilius and William argued that experts should play a bigger role in the church. The definition of true belief and heresy should not, according to them, lie in the hands of an elected official (i. e. the Pope), but rather in the hands of theological experts. This article aims to show that the critique of the papal monarchy gave rise to a new understanding of the distinction between theoretical and practical authority. (shrink)

The question of power occupied an even more central role in Marsilius' political thought than previously thought. Behind the appearances of consent in his thought lay, at a deeper level, the idea of power. The core concept of coercive power was located within the field of meaning of plenitudo potestatis through which Marsilius' new theory of the nature of power was strained and projected onto the papacy. But the modern debate about whether Marsilius was a legal positivist (...) has been wrongly posed. His stress on the necessity of a clear power structure had a biological basis. Comparison with jurists reveals the strengths and weaknesses of his treatment of power. (shrink)

In this essay I focus on the form of government defended by Marsilius of Padua in the first Discourse of Defensor pacis (1324). The interpretation of his overall account depends heavily on our understanding of the “major and valentior part” of the citizenry upon which all legislative and elective powers are bestowed. I argue that there is sufficient textual evidence to believe that the above term refers not to some small elite group but to the totality of citizens (...) or the overwhelming majority of them. I also argue that his imaginary polity meets all the necessary conditions that any political regime should meet in order for it to be characterised as an essentially democratic one. Thus, Marsilius deserves a more prominent position in the history of democratic ideas. (shrink)

This study is the first comprehensive treatment of the way Marsilius of Padua (1270/1290 1342), a seminal political thinker of the Late Middle Ages, elaborated on Aristotle s political thought in articulating his political theory.

The Defensor pacis offers the possibility of solving the contradiction between formal law and material law. Marsilius of Padua proposes a reconciliation between harmonisation of law as formal positive rule and law as a material norm. If that antinomy admits conciliation, the Defensor pacis can be said to reconcile successfully two heterogeneous grounds of law, which in this case contradict each other only in appearance.