Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/515

 1922 MARSIGLIO OF PADUA 507 Mainardini, canon of Padua, was not the same person as Marsiglio the rector of the university of Paris, on the ground that the executors of the Bull belonged to the clergy of Italy, and were not in Paris at that time. But besides the suggestion of Valois that it was only reasonable for the executors of the Bull to be living near Padua, we have the complaint of John XXII that Marsiglio of Padua and John of Jandun were ' acceptorum * beneficiorum immemores et ingrati ', and as they were for their presumptuous heresies to be deprived ' omnibus beneficiis ecclesiasticis ', the objection of Denifle seems to be of little value. The period from 1318 to 1327, important but shadowy, falls roughly into three parts : the completion of the Defensor Pads, the flight of the two authors to Lewis, and their excommunication by John XXII. It is indeed mysterious how these two friends, once loyal canons of the church, should afterwards find them- selves excommunicated in Germany. One may well ask what had happened to induce them to change their views, to write a treatise, and to barter their posts of safety for a career of danger and uncertainty. How long Marsiglio remained in Padua after 1318 in the enjoyment of his promised benefice, is unknown. If he acted as a parish priest, it was possibly the first-hand know- ledge of the inner workings of the church that convinced him, as it did Rabelais, of its need for reform. On the other hand, it may have been his visit to Avignon 2 about this time that drove him, as a similar visit to Rome caused Luther, to despise the corruption of the papal court. At any rate he returned to Paris and practised as a physician. The length of time devoted to the composition of the Defensor Pads has been, according to Valois, 3 incorrectly estimated at two months, through a misunderstanding of the evidence of Francis of Venice, 4 the two months in question referring to the time it took the Parisians to discover the names of the authors after their flight. To judge by the care and erudition bestowed upon it, the book must have taken several years to write, especially as Marsiglio did not devote his whole time to it, while John of Jandun was busy as a canon of Senlis and as the author of a separate work of his own. The date assigned by Scardeone 5 to the completion of the treatise, the year 1324, has been 1 Bull of 9 April 1327, in Martene, Thesaurus, ii. 696. 1 Def. Pac. ii, ch. 24 ' Qui vero vidi et affui, videre videor, quam Dan. 2. Nabu- chodonosor terribilem statuam in somnio recitatur vidisse.' Lorenz, p. 348, thinks he did visit Avignon. 3 p~. 569. He quotes Def. Pac. i, ch. 1 ' Sequentium sententiarum summas post tempua diligentis et intentae perscrutationis scripturae mandavi.' menses quod dicti Massilius et lohannes tantum compilaverunt dictum libellum.' 6 p. 150.
 * Baluze, p. 280 ' de quibus audivit dici post recessum dicti Massilii per duos