danger without or sedition within, those who amass
wealth, and those who execute the office" of religion and
administer justice, one, that of the priesthood (which,
Marsiglio admits, has not been universally considered
necessary to the existence of the state), presents special
difficulties. For whereas 8 the peculiar province of the
clergy is to instruct the people according to the teaching
of the Gospel with a view to their eternal welfare,
for which purpose it is well that they should arm
themselves with all possible knowledge, as well in the
departments of thought as of action, tthey have so
far abandoned this exclusively spiritual function as to
usurp all manner of temporal claims over secular as
well as spiritual persons, and in particular over the
Roman emperor : and these pretensions of the papacy,
Marsiglio holds, are the chief causes of discord in the
world. Accordingly in his second book our author ad
dressed himself to the examination of the real nature
of the spiritual office, and of its relation to the civil
state.
The name church Marsiglio would recall to its first and apostolical, its truest and most proper signification, as comprehending the entire body of Christian men : all, he says, are alike churchmen, viri ecdesiastici, be they laymen or clerks. It is intolerable that its prerogatives should be usurped by the sacerdotal order. Excommuni cation, for instance, cannot rightly be decreed by any single priest or any council of priests : they should doubtless be consulted as experts with reference to the charges alleged, but the actual decision belongs to the congregation in which the offender lives, or to its superior, or to a general council.[1] While moreover
- ↑ I have translated the last two alternatives as they stand in Mar- siglio s text, although they have rather the appearance of being sav ing clauses not very naturally con nected with the argument. Its superior, which Dr. Riezler, p. 211, renders by reprasentant, would seem to be the emperor; exilium generale in Goldast is a mere misprint for concilium. The passage occurs in Goldast 2. 207 and belongs to the seventh chapter of book ii, which in the edition has been accidentally united with chapter 6.
