The idea of ecclesiastical power in the Defensor Pacis of Marsilio de Padua

Abstract

This study aims at presenting the idea of ecclesiastic power that can be extracted from the work of Marsilio of Padua “The Defender of the Peace” (Defensor Pacis), which was written in the first half of the XVI century, and was used as part of the arguments proposed by the emperor Luis de Baviera in his defense of the temporary power. The idea of ecclesiastic power that Marsilio of Padua considers, forms part of the medieval political thinking of the XIII and XIV centuries, and this is the result of the convergence of the classic thinking, on the basis of the Policy of Aristoteles, together with other elements characteristic of the Late Middle Ages, as it is in the nascent nationalism and the crisis of the ecclesiastic power. This original idea, which has a basis on the classic thinking, it starts to grow apart from it, generating a new thought, which will not be classic or medieval, but it will be an inspiration of the modern thought.