Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/518

 510 MARS1GLIO OF PADUA October The mention of their heretical preaching so early 1 as 1318 is questionable, but the two authors may have visited Peter in Mainz before 1320. If there had been communications between Marsiglio and Peter of Aspelt we have an answer to the question of Valois, 2 as to what certainty the two heretics had of a good reception at the court of Lewis. It is unlikely that there were two visits to Nuremberg, for there would have been no need of sponsors on the second visit, had they gained an introduction to Lewis on the first. While Marsiglio was preaching against the pope in Bavaria at the end of 1326, Lewis was preparing to march on Rome to obtain the imperial crown by force of arms. Unlike his prede- cessor Henry VII he had no pacific intentions. His victory over his rival Frederic of Austria in the battle of Miihldorf, 1322, and his reconciliation three years later, gave him a united Germany which he could leave with impunity. The Spiritual Franciscans had been condemned in 1322 on the question of evangelical poverty, the Ghibellines of Italy were annoyed at the entrance of John of Calabria into Florence : their united loyalty gave him at once a pretext and an encouragement for the undertaking. Apart from selfish motives, it was his duty to depose this heretical pope, the disturber of the peace of his realm. After accepting early in January the invitation 3 of the Ghibelline chiefs assembled in Trent, Lewis marched on Milan, where on 30 May 1327 he was crowned with the iron crown of Lombardy by two deposed bishops, Aycardus the archbishop absenting himself from the city. It would appear that Marsiglio preached here, 4 as he had done in Trent. The initial success of the expedition drew from Mussato about this time a letter 5 of congratulation to Marsiglio : Venisti patriae forsan succurrere terrae Post varies casus et tot discrimina rerum. Mussato says he has heard that Marsiglio is chief adviser to the king, of whom he prophesies Hie Patronus erit vere certissimus, hie est Unus, qui nobis cunctando restituit rem. But Mussato did not live to see how completely he had misapplied 1 Spicilegium, p. 75. It does not say that they went to Lewis, but simply ' exierunt '. By 1318 they certainly could not have been ' Bavari contubernio sociati ', nor were they ' moventes et excitantes '. It would seem that the continuator of William of Nangis was confusing two separate occasions. 2 p. 589. The continuator of William of Nangis makes Lewis ask them, p. 85 ' Quis movit vos venire de terra pacis et gloriae ad hanc terram bellicosam ? ' 3 John Villani, in Muratori, xiii. 601 seqq. 4 Raynaldus, Annales Eccles. v. 533. 5 Graevius, no. xvi.