Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/527

 I The Popes and the Councils 49 1 II. MARSIGLIO OF PADUA AND HIS " DEFENDER OF PEACE " The earliest uncompromising attack upon the tempo- ral power of the pope and the clergy is that of Marsiglio of Padua. Marsiglio was born in 1270 at Padua and probably took the ordinary course of study in the uni- versity there. He then led a wandering life until he became rector of the University of Paris in 1312. The struggle which had begun between Louis of Bavaria, an aspirant for the imperial crown, and his opponent, Pope John XXII (1316-1334), aroused Marsiglio's interest in the great problem of the relations between the civil and ecclesiastical powers. In 1324 he planned out, with a co-worker, the Defender of Peace (Defensor Pads), which has quite properly been called " the greatest and most original political treatise of the Middle Ages." In 1328 he accompanied Louis of Bavaria to Italy and became the papal vicar of an antipope whom the emperor had set up in place of his enemy, John XXII. Louis, however, utterly failed to establish himself in Italy. We know nothing about Marsiglio's later life. He probably died not long after 1 336. His book is far more important than the little that we know of his career. Only peace can furnish the necessary conditions for 206. Brief progress, for peace is the mother of all the higher arts. The summary of evils of discord and strife have nearly all been described f?Suia's by Aristotle ; but one great and important cause of trouble Defender of naturally escaped him, a potent, hidden influence which interferes with the welfare not only of the empire but of all the governments of Europe. [Marsiglio cleverly refrains from revealing this modern cause of discord until he has described the proper nature and organization of the state.]