Defensor Pacis

Timeline

1. 1321–1324University of Paris · ParisMarsilius completed Defensor Pacis in the environment of the University of Paris. Several manuscripts record the completion date as June 24, 1324. Drawing on Aristotelian politics and the legislative experience of Italian city-states, the work argues that the primary cause of law is the citizen body or its weightier part.
2. 1326–1327Between Avignon and Munich · Western EuropeAfter the work circulated, John XXII excommunicated Marsilius and John of Jandun in 1327. The two joined Louis IV of Bavaria, transforming the book from a university treatise into a political weapon in the imperial-papal conflict.
3. 1327–1328Rome · RomeMarsilius accompanied Louis IV as an adviser during his advance into Italy. In 1328 Louis was crowned in Rome and set up the antipope Nicholas V, drawing his argumentative resources from Defensor Pacis's denial of papal fullness of power and its emphasis on civic/imperial legislative authority.
4. 1340Imperial court at Munich · MunichIn his later years at Munich, Marsilius wrote the shorter Defensor minor. His arguments that the people are the legislator and that councils outrank the pope were repeatedly cited in the 15th-century conciliar movement and in modern theories of sovereignty, keeping the 1324 text continually present in the history of European political thought.