Page:Illustrations of the history of medieval thought and learning.djvu/256

238 any human judicature. Marsiglio has arrived at the fully matured principle of religious toleration, which modern writers are apt to vaunt as their own peculiar discovery.

It may be objected to Marsiglio's entire view of the spiritualty, that he seems to leave out of account the existing constitution of the church, that he seems to forget that custom had classified the priesthood in ascending orders of dignity and authority, each with its proper province of power and jurisdiction. But in truth, he maintains, this arrangement is destitute of any scriptural warrant. In the New Testament bishop and priest are convertible designations of the same persons; and the popedom, however convenient as symbolising the unity of the church, is none the less a later development of which the historical growth is clearly traceable. Saint Peter had no superiority over the other apostles; but even supposing he had, it is hazardous to say that he communicated it to his successors in the Roman see, since we cannot say for certain that he himself ever visited, far less was bishop of, Rome at all. The preëminence of the bishop of Rome proceeds in fact not from saint Peter's institution but from the connexion of the see with the capital of the Roman empire. The supreme power in the church is the church itself, that is, a general council, formed of the clergy and laity alike, and convoked not by any pretended spiritual authority but by the source of all legislation and jurisdiction, the civil state. Thus constituted a general council may not only decide ecclesiastical questions but even proceed to excommunicate the temporal ruler and place his land under an interdict,