Marsilius of Padua (Marsilio dei Mainardini)
c. 1275–1342 · Scholasticism · Little-known
Marsilius finished the Defensor Pacis in 1324 and argued there that all coercive authority in a city comes from the whole body of citizens: they alone make the law, they elect the ruler, and they may correct him or depose him. He left the clergy and the pope no power to compel anyone at all, in spiritual matters as much as worldly ones, and named the papal claim to supreme power as the source of the discord that destroys cities.
Signature
The position Marsilius is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Order
- leans Horizontal
- Authority
- Consent of the Governed
Positions on the 4 axes the sources answer
- Natural Processes
- leans Purposeful (75 on a 0–100 scale from Mechanistic to Purposeful)
- Society
- leans Collectivism (25 on a 0–100 scale from Collectivism to Individualism)
- Order
- leans Horizontal (75 on a 0–100 scale from Vertical to Horizontal)
- Opposition
- leans Concurrence (75 on a 0–100 scale from Sublation to Concurrence)
16 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Marsilius refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Trinitarian Monotheism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Government
- Representative Democracy
What is your ideal form of government? - Highest Good
- Peace
What is the highest good? - Authority
- Consent of the Governed
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Death
- Judgement
What happens at death? - Human Nature
- Political Animal
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- Nation
What is your primary bond and loyalty?