Abstract
IIn the fourteenth century, the last severe and fundamental conflict between empire and papacy took place. This conflict was initiated and carried out by the papal party soon using legal procedures. To this, the imperial party responded at first also by legal means but then notably through symbolic political acts of considerable significance and expressiveness and later on, in 1338, by the establishment of imperial laws and mandates.1 Pope John XXII attacked the Roman-German Empire in two respects. John XXII, residing in Avignon, claimed supreme rule over northern Italy for the papacy, which belonged—as “imperial Italy”—to the empire of the Roman-German king and emperor. Furthermore, the pope intended to play an institutional role in the constitutional order of the Roman-German Empire by claiming the right to finally approve or reject the German ruler who already had been elected king of the Romans by the prince-electors. This, the pope and papalist authors argued, was due to the church’s supreme authority over temporal rulers and in political matters, in general, and the pope’s role in elevating the Roman-German king to imperial office through his coronation in Rome, in particular.
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Notes
For the following, see Hilary Seton Offler, “Empire and Papacy: The Last Struggle,” in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th series, 6 (1956): 21–47;
Jürgen Miethke, Politiktheorie im Mittelalter: Von Thomas von Aquin bis Wilhelm von Ockham (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008), 204–21;
Bernd Schneidmüller, “Ludwig IV. Imperiale Herrschaft und reichsfürstlicher Konsens,” Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung 40 (2013): 369–92;
and, Frank Godthardt, “Marsilius von Padua als politische Herausforderung für Johannes XXII,” in Papst Johannes XXII. Konzepte und Verfahren seines Pontifikats. Freiburger Colloquium 2012, ed. Hans-Joachim Schmidt and Martin Rohde, Scrinium Friburgense 32 (Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2014), 75–116.
This is my thesis in Frank Godthardt, Marsilius von Padua und der Romzug Ludwigs des Bayern. Politische Theorie und politisches Handeln (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011).
Pope Clement VI said on April 10, 1343 in the consistory about Ludwig: “Fuit etiam condempnatus de fautoria hereticorum. Ipse enim Marsilium de Padua et Johannem de Janduno heresiarchas et de heresi condempnatos sustinuit et secum tenuit usque ad mortem eorum; et audemus dicere quod vix nunquam legimus peiorem hereticum illo Marsilio. Unde de mandato Benedicti predessoris nostri de quodam eius libello plus quam ducentos et quadraginta articulos hereticales extraximus” (Hilary Seton Offler, “A Political Collatio of Pope Clement VI, O.S.B.,” Revue Bénédictine 65 (1955): 126–44 at 136, 11. 174–80).
Thesaurus Novus Anecdotorum, ed. Edmond Martène and Ursin Durand, vol. 2: Urbani papae IV. epistolae LXIV, Clementis papae IV. epistolae DCCXI,Joannis XII. processus varii in Ludovicum Bavarum & ejus asseclas, Innocentii VI. registrum epistolarum anno MCCCLXI, aliaque plura de schismate pontificum Avenionensum monumenta (1717; reprint Farnborough: Gregg, 1968), 704–16.
Charles Duplessis d’Argentré, Collectio judiciorum de novis erroribus, vol. 1: 1100–1542 (1728; reprint Brussels: Culture et Civilisation, 1963), 304a–311b.
Heinrich Denzinger, Enchiridion symbolorum definitionum et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum. Kompendium der Glaubensbekenntnisse und kirchlichen Lehrentscheidungen, verbessert, erweitert, ins Deutsche übertragen und unter Mitarbeit von Helmut Hoping herausgegeben von Peter Hünermann, 43rd edition (Freiburg i. Br et alibi: Herder, 2010), no. 941–5, 370f.
Richard Scholz, Unbekannte kirchenpolitische Streitschriften aus der Zeit Ludwigs des Bayern (1327–1354): Analysen und Texte, 2 vols. (Rome: Regenberg, 1911–14).
Thomas Turley, “The Impact of Marsilius: Papalist Responses to the Defensor pacis,” in The World of Marsilius of Padua, ed. by Gerson Moreno-Riaño (Turnhout: Brepols, 2006), 47–64.
Joseph Koch, “Philosophische und theologische Irrtumslisten von 1270–1329. Ein Beitrag zur Entwicklung der theologischen Zensuren,” Bibliothèque Thomiste 14 (1930): 305–29, esp. 325 with note 2.
Turley, “Impact of Marsilius,” 48–50. Guiu Terreni, Confutatio errorum quorundam magistrorum, ed. Alexander Fidora, Almudena Blasco, and Celia López Alcalde (Barcelona: Obrador edéndum, 2014).
Guillelmi de Villana Cremonensis O.S.A. Tractatus cuius titulus Reprobatio errorum, ed. Darach Mac Fhionnbhairr (Rome: Augustinianum, 1977), 3 11. 9–15, “Primo dicunt, quod omnia temporalia Ecclesiae subsunt imperatori, et quod potest ea accipere ut sua, quod est falsum et haereticum dicere. Et hoc probant per blasphemiam in Christum dicentes, quod in evangelio beati Matthaei continetur, quod Christus solvit tributum Caesari, quando Christus vel Petrus ad mandatum Christi accepit in ore piscis staterem et dedit illis, qui petebant didragma. Et dicunt, quod hoc fecit necessitate coactus, non condescensive et liberalitate suae pietatis.” A stater equals four drachma.
Rinaldi, Annales ecclesiastici, vol. 24, ed. Theiner (1872), ad annum 1327, the beginnngs of § 29 (323a), § 30 (323b), § 31 (324b), 5 32 (326a), and § 33 (327b).
Defensor pacis, ed. Richard Scholz (Hanover: Hahn, 1932–3), 603–11, III, 2 [hereafter DP].
See the interesting observations about the third discourse by Gerson Moreno-Riaño, “Marsilius of Padua’s Forgotten Discourse,” History of Political Thought 29 (2008): 441–59.
Very clearly this was recently analyzed in George Garnett, Marsilius of Padua and the “Truth of History” (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).
These have come down to us and is well documented in the case of Salzburg, see the letters of the archbishop and the other bishops of the archdiocese to Pope John XXII confirming the publication, MGH Constitutiones vol. 6, 1 (1914–27), 282–4 no. 378–80 (all of beginning of 1328). See also Pope John’s mandate to the diocese of Sion (January 23, 1328), Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Reg. Vat., 288va-b, Ep. 1643,
with a synopsis in Sigmund Riezler, Vatikanische Akten zur deutschen Geschichte in der Zeit Ludwigs des Bayern (1891; reprint Aalen: Scientia, 1973), 364, no. 967; the confirmation of the bishop of Passau (September 6, 1328), MGH Constitutiones, vol. 6, 1 (1914–27), 402 no. 489; and several confirmations of single churches of the diocese of Spoleto (21 and 25 September 1328),
in Jean XXII, Lettres communes analysée d’après les registres dits d’Avignon et du Vatican, ed. Guillaume Mollat, vol. 8 (Paris: Albert Fontemoing, 1920–4), 380 no. 46277–46280. To how many and which dioceses the Curia sent a copy of Licet iuxtra doctrinam is still a desideratum.
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© 2014 Karen Bollermann, Thomas M. Izbicki, and Cary J. Nederman
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Godthardt, F. (2014). The Papal Condemnation of Marsilius of Padua’s Defensor Pacis: Its Preparation and Political Use. In: Bollermann, K., Izbicki, T.M., Nederman, C.J. (eds) Religion, Power, and Resistance from the Eleventh to the Sixteenth Centuries. The New Middle Ages. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137431059_7
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