Sienaert, Edgar. Les lais de Marie de France: du conte merveilleux
à la nouvelle psychologique. Paris: Champion, 1978.
Matilda T. Bruckner
MARIE D’OIGNIES (1177–1213)
Mystic and one of the founding mothers of the béguine
movement. Testimonies of her life were recorded by
Jacques de Vitry (ca. 1215) and Thomas de Cantimpré
(ca. 1230/31).
Born in Nijvel (Brabant), Marie was married at the
age of fourteen but did not consummate her marriage.
Together with her spouse, she practiced the vita apostolica
and cared for the sick. At the age of thirty, she retired to
a cell at the Augustinian monastery of Aiseau-sur-Sambre
and gained in stature as a spiritual healer and holy woman.
According to her pupil Jacques de Vitry, Marie’s spirituality
was characterized by eucharistic devotion and christo-
centrism. She lived a life of strict asceticism, abstained
from sleep and food, and frequently experienced visions,
ecstasies, and trances. Her death was an example of a saintly
ars moriendi, surrounded by miracles; most noteworthy
perhaps is her feat of three days of incessant chanting and
scriptural exegesis performed during ecstasy. Jacques de
Vitry stressed Marie’s allegiance to the church by structur-
ing her vita in two parts: Part 1 records the outline of her
life’s journey towards holiness and aspects of saintliness;
Part 2 describes her interior life according to the seven
gifts of the Holy Spirit. As with other texts of this genre,
it is diffi cult to distinguish between Marie d’Oignies as a
prototype (exemplum) and her individuality and original
contributions to medieval spirituality.
See also Jacques de Vitry
Further Reading
Jacques de Vitry. The Life of Marie d’Oignies, trans. Margot H.
King. Saskatoon: Peregrina, 1986.
Thomas de Cantimpré. Supplement to the Life of Marie
d’Oignies, trans. Hugh Feiss. Saskatoon: Peregrina, 1987.
Kowalczewski, J. “Thirteenth Century Asceticism: Marie
d’Oignies and Liutgard of Aywières as Active and Passive
Ascetics.” Vox benedictina 3 (1986): 20–50.
——. The Life of “Marie d’Oignies.” In Medieval Women’s
Visionary Literature, ed. Elizabeth Petroff. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1986, pp. 179–84.
Ulrike Wiethaus
MARSILIO OF PADUA
(c. 1275 or 1280–1342 or 1343)
Marsilio of Padua (Marsiglio, Marsilius de Mainardino)
was an antipapal political theorist. He was the son of the
notary of the University of Padua and studied Aristote-
lian philosophy there; later, he taught this philosophy
at Paris, where he was rector in 1313 and eventually
studied theology. His obscure career took many turns:
he also was a priest, a physician, and a diplomat. In
1319, he went on an embassy for the Ghibelline lead-
ers Matreo Visconti and Cangrande della Scala. Among
Marsilio’s associates were the astrologer Peter of Abano;
the humanist Albertino Mussato; the Averroist John of
Jandun; and, in later years, William of Ockham.
In 1324, in Paris, Marsilio completed his masterwork,
Defensor pads (The Defender of Peace), which circu-
lated anonymously until his authorship was discovered
in 1326. Expecting to be condemned as a heretic for his
antipapal opinions, he took refuge at the court of the
pope’s archenemy Lewis of Bavaria, whom he served for
the rest of his life. Lewis was guided by Marsilio’s theo-
ries when he went to Rome in 1327 and was crowned
emperor in the name of the people. Likewise, Lewis
claimed that the Roman church should be administered
by the emperor, and, accordingly, he appointed Marsilio
as his administrator, with the title of imperial vicar for
spiritual affairs in Rome. The emperor could not main-
tain himself for long in Italy, however, and by 1330 he
was back in Bavaria. In 1342, Marsilio was still with
Lewis, serving as his physician and counselor. At this
time Marsilio wrote Defensor minor, in which his earlier
work was summarized and extended to prove that the
emperor had jurisdiction over questions of marriage.
Marsilio’s central concern was the political power of
the papacy, which he, like Dante, saw as the principal
cause of civil strife in Italy. To restore peace, Dante
sought to revive the Roman empire; Marsilio was
more realistic. He insisted that the state should control
the church, but he devised a generalized theory of the
state that could fi t not only the empire but also national
monarchies and even city-states. Thus, his proposals, far
from threatening civil governments, offered them control
over their several churches. Defensor pacis is accord-
ingly divided into two principal parts: the fi rst discourse
(dictio) argues that political power belongs exclusively
to the secular state; the second counters the papacy’s
claims to independent political status and makes the
state the administrator of organized religion.
Marsilio’s concept of the state is closely modeled on
Aristotle’s Politics. The state is a natural phenomenon,
arising from man’s nature as a political animal. Gov-
ernment exists so that all men may lead the “suffi cient
life,” i.e., “live and live well.” The form of government
is not set by nature, however; instead, a community is
formed by the mutual agreement of its members to live
together under laws to which they have consented. Thus,
for Marsilio, the foundation of all government is the “hu-
man legislator,” i.e., the people of the community who
make the laws. Marsilio is not a democrat; he realizes
that not everyone is fi t to participate in legislation, and
he restricts the legislator humanus to the “prevailing
part” (valentior pars) of the citizens, who are better orMARIE DE FRANCE