Defendre la paix de la cite: Marsile de Padoue et le probleme du consentement politique au XIVe siecle

Abstract

The article analyses the issue of political consent in Marsilius of Padua's treaty Defensor Pacis, in the context of his perspective on the relationship between state and church. Researchers have always shown significant interested in the political writings of Marsilius. This contribution is less interested in evaluating the different interpretative theories on his writings, its aim being to investigate the main concepts of Marsilius' political vocabulary inherited from Aristotle much too often used with very different meanings. His ideas about consent cannot be understood unless Marsilius's attitude towards the law is not clarified, as one can see in chapter XII of the first part of the treaty Defensor Pacis. In order to refer to consent, he uses here an expression equivalent to the Roman law maxim "quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari et approbari debet". The analyses of the first dictio of Defensor Pacis is also revealing for two cases of false consent: in cases when consent does not serve the virtue, and in cases when hereditary regimes prevail over regimes based on elections in the name of an alleged consent of the citizens. The issue of consent -important in the case of sacerdotal power, the main topic of the second part of the treaty- needs to be closely connected to the concept of popular will. This does not make of Marsilius a "legal positivist", but merely a "peace keeper". The latter can be maintained only by consented political forms, according to Marsilius.