“Constitutum Constantini” and “Romgedanke”. The Donation of Constantine in the Thought of Three Main Advocates of the Imperial Right of Rome: Dante, Marsilius of Padua and William of Ockham (2nd part)

Abstract

In this second part of the work, dedicated to Marsilius of Padua, the following points are analysed: the first part, solely focusing on the text of the Defensor Pacis, tries to determine the value that for Marsilius assumed the political domination of the Imperium Romanum over the world. The second part –always in the Defensor Pacis– tries to establish if this domination then reigned in the peninsula or if there was some other cause at the origin of the Roman power. The third part, extending the analysis to the Defensor menor, seeks to clarify the origin of the legitimacy that Marsilius attributes to the imperium romanum by showing that the name of Rome and its imperial political figure –whose place was barely sketched out within the Marsilius’ political system in the DP– find in the DM the place and the dimension that are proper to them. Fourthly, finally, it takes into consideration the value that for Marsilius assumes the ideal of Rome (i.e. the Romgedanke) in the three treaties, and confronts it with the role that, in the face of this same ideal, the Donatio Constantini plays in his thought. Here the differences between Dante and Marsile emerge. They emerge not only through their respective political doctrines, but also in their conceptions of History. The romanticism of Marsilius is utterly devoid of a providential character and is transformed into a secular romanticism, while the donation will appear as further proof that the hegemonic claims of the Papacy have their exclusive foundation in a historical act which always depends on the facticity of the human will. Romgedanke and Donation Constantini, two apparently contradictory and antithetical figures, are thus found in Marsilius without a clash or fracture (as was the case in the Florentine). Marsilius succeeds in reconciling the two figures by means of an intelligent interpretation of the Constantinian act. [This paper is the second of the three parts of the whole article. To see the first one: vol. 3 (1982). To see the last one: vol. 6 (1985)]