Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/521

 922 MARS1GLIO OF PADUA 513 Pisas veniret ' ; for the emperor did reach Pisa on 21 September. 1 Valois, therefore, leaves us with an alternative for the date and place of the death : at Todi some time during May, or at Montalto between 10-15 September. But this alternative is impossible. If the first is correct, Villani was entirely mistaken ; if the second is correct, Michael of Cesena was entirely mistaken. We must combine the half-truths. When Michael (let us suppose) asked after John of Jandun, he was informed by the arriving Ghibellines that John had been made bishop of Ferrara and that he had died at Todi. Michael probably made the same assumption as Riezler, that John died on his way to his bishopric, and in his words ' antequam Pisas venirem ' he was expressing a sincere belief. As to the place Todi, Michael had no doubts (' manifeste mortuus '), and was in a better position to know the truth from eyewitnesses than Villani. On the other hand, Villani, who care- fully mentions with dates the towns through which the emperor passed, missed the mark only by a few miles in distance and a few days in time. The rumour was correct in so far as it related the death of one of the worst heretics in the world in the company of the emperor during the second retreat from Rome. John of Jandun died at Todi 2 on or slightly before 31 August 1328. There still remain two assertions of Scardeone that require consideration. His theory, 3 approved by several later writers, 4 that Marsiglio was a Franciscan, doubtless arose from the fact that nearly all the intellectual supporters of the emperor belonged to that order. But the Bull of 1318, granting a benefice without at the same time expressing permission to break the minorite vow, raises a suspicion which Wadding 5 in his annals of the order only increases by his confession of failure to find, either in the annals or elsewhere, evidence for the membership of Marsiglio. On the other hand, John XXII in September 1331, after discussing several Franciscans by name, 6 mentions Marsiglio by himself. Again, the letter 7 of Lewis to Benedict XII in 1336 leaves the same impression. After begging pardon for various Franciscans by name, among whom Marsiglio is not mentioned, Lewis proceeds to apologize separately for Marsiglio of Padua and John of Jandun; but when the virtues of these two heretics seem to correspond with those already ascribed to the Franciscans, Lewis adds the 1 John Villani, in Muratori, xiii. 664. 2 Villani, loc. cit., says of Lewis, ' e partissi da Todi a di 31 d'Agosto col suo Anti- papa, e con tutta sua corte e gente '. 3 p. 149. 4 Le Roux, p. 6 ; Renan, p. 260 ; Papadopolus, p. 154 ; but Labanca, Marsilio da Padova, in the Nuova Antologia, 5th ser., xli. 209, contrasts Marsiglio the priest with Luther the friar. s vii. 85. 8 Martene, Thesaurus, ii. 803 : Bull addressed to John, king of Bohemia. 7 Riezler, Vat. Akt. no. 1841. VOL. XXXVII. NO. CXLVIII. L!