Note 424 — Chapter VI · GERMANY. (continued 2)

Carl Müller, Der Kampf Ludwigs des Baiern mit der römischen Curie, Tubingen, 1879, I. 234 sqq. When that bold thinker, Marsiglio of Padua, endeavored, for the benefit of his patron, the Emperor Louis, to introduce into Germany the principles of the Roman jurisprudence which had enabled the French monarchs to triumph over their feudatories and to become independent of the Church, he handled the subject of the persecution of heresy in a manner which has led some writers to regard him as an advocate of toleration. This is an error. It is true that he denies all Scriptural or apostolical authority for the temporal punishment of infractions of the divine law, and asserts that Christ alone is the judge thereof, and his punishments are reserved for the next world, but this is only to serve as a premise to his conclusion that the persecution of heresy is a matter of human law, to be ordained and enforced by the secular ruler. Though the heretic, he argues, sins against the divine law, he is punished for transgressing a human law; the priest has nothing to do with it, except as an expert to determine the commission of the crime, and has no claim upon the consequent confiscations (Defensor. Pacis P. II. c. ix., x.; P. III. c. ii. Conclus. 3, 30). All this is simply part of his general scheme to exclude the Church from control in secular affairs. Louis was never in a position to give these theories practical effect; they had no influence either on the current of opinion or on the course of events, and are only interesting as an episode in the development of political thought.