Marsilius of Padua: The Defender of the Peace

Of the conclusions to be drawn, we shall set down as the first:

1

That in order to gain eternal beatitude, it is necessary to believe only in the truth of divine or canonic Scripture, what follows from it with any kind of necessity, and the interpretation of it that has been made by a common council of the faithful, if this is put to an individual in due fashion. The certainty of this was given in and can be taken from chapter 19 of the second discourse, sections 2–5.

2

That only a general council of the faithful or its prevailing multitude or part should determine the senses of divine law where there is doubt over the definition, especially those matters which are called the articles of the Christian faith, and anything else that must be believed of necessity of salvation; and that no other partial collective body or individual person, of whatever condition they may be, has the authority for the determination just mentioned. The certainty of this is given in chapter 20 of the second discourse, sections 4–13.

3

That no one is commanded in evangelical scripture to be compelled to observe the commands of divine law by temporal penalty or punishment: chapter 9 of the second discourse, sections 3–10.

4

That for eternal salvation it is necessary to keep only the commands of the evangelical law or those that follow from them of necessity, and those things which it is appropriate to do or to omit according to right reason; and not all the commands of the old law: chapter 9 of the second discourse, section 10 to the end.

5

That no mortal can give a dispensation from things that are commanded or prohibited by God or in the evangelical law; and that only a general council or the faithful human legislator can prohibit things that are permitted, binding people to fault or penalty for the status of this present world or of that to come, and no other partial college or individual person whatever their condition: chapter 12 of the first discourse; chapter 9 of the second, section 1, and 21 of the second, section 8.