Marsilius of Padua and Moses Maimonides on the Political Utility of Religion

Vasileios SYROS University of Chicago

DID THE PHYSICIAN FROM PADUA MEET THE RABBI FROM CORDOBA? MARSILIUS OF PADUA AND MOSES MAIMONIDES ON THE POLITICAL UTILITY OF RELIGION

RÉSUMÉ

Cet article représente une contribution à l’étude de la réception du Guide des égarés de Moïse Maimonide dans l’Europe du Moyen Age tardif, et a pour but de souligner les affinités entre les idées de Maïmonide et de Marsile de Padoue concernant la fonction politique de la religion. Aussi bien Marsile que Maïmonide identifient dans la recherche des moyens visant à satisfaire les besoins fondamentaux de la vie humaine la cause principale de la formation des associations politiques. Ils pensent également qu’en raison de la diversité de ses membres, toute communauté politique souffre de conflits, et a ainsi besoin de lois et d’une autorité en mesure de les faire respecter, afin de contrôler les actions de ses membres. Sur la base de ces considé- rations, Marsile et Maïmonide conçoivent la religion comme un agent réglementant les rapports entre les membres de la société. En affirmant la dimension politique de la religion, Marsile aussi bien que Maïmonide s’appuient sur des exemples emprun- tés à des traditions païennes (les Sabéens dans le Guide, Hésiode, Pythagore et d’autres philosophes antiques dans le Défenseur de la paix), lesquels sont les points de départ d’une analyse des causes rationnelles de l’existence de la religion et des mythes. Les discussions de Marsile et Maïmonide sur les religions païennes sont partie intégrante de leurs raisonnements sur l’importance politique de la religion et des mythes comme moyens de garantir la durabilité de la vie sociale.

SUMMARY

This paper is intended as a contribution to the study of the fortune of Moses Mai- monides’ Guide of the Perplexed in late medieval Europe and offers a comparative study of Maimonides’ and Marsilius of Padua’s views on the political function of religion. I argue that both Marsilius and Maimonides identify the need to secure the means conducive to human life as the prime cause of the creation of human associations. Due to the diversity of their members, human communities suffer from strife and dissension and thus need laws and an authority to enforce them and exercise control on human conduct. On the basis of these considerations, both thinkers advance the notion of religion as the factor regulating the relations of the members of society. In asserting the political dimension of religious belief and practices,

Revue des études juives, 170 (1-2), janvier-juin 2011, pp. 51-71. doi: 10.2143/REJ.170.1.2126640

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Marsilius and Maimonides rely on examples drawn from pagan traditions (the Sabi- ans in the Guide of the Perplexed and Hesiod, Pythagoras, and other ancient philosophers in the Defensor pacis) to illustrate the rational causes for the existence of religion and myths. Marsilius’ and Maimonides’ discussions of pagan religions are an integral aspect of their reasoning for the political importance of religion as a means to guarantee the durability of an orderly political community.

An intricate question related to Marsilius of Padua’s (1270/1290–ca. 1342) political thought concerns its potential ties to the medieval Islamic philosophical tradition, especially Averroes’ (Ibn Rushd, 1126–1198) philosophy. Given that Marsilius seldom cites any thinkers other than Aristotle, Augustine, Cicero, Sallust, and Seneca, there remains a genuine need to cast further light on the way Marsilius draws on non-Christian sources.1 As is well known, Averroes’ works enjoyed a broad reception in thirteenth-century Paris and had an important influence on such major medieval thinkers as Albert the Great (Albertus Magnus, ca. 1200–1280) and Thomas Aquinas (1224/25–1274). Marsilius studied medicine in Paris and served as rector of the University of Paris from December 1312 to March 1313, and taught medicine as a Master of Arts in the French capital until 1326.2 It is possible that Marsilius was exposed to Averroes’ ideas through various channels during his stay in Paris. Past research assumed that Averroes’ philosophy was particularly influential on Peter of Abano (ca. 1250–1316), a seminal natural and medical philosopher who taught in Paris and from 1307 in Padua.3 Most likely Marsilius studied under Peter in Padua before moving

1. A special note of appreciation is due to Bernardo Bayona, Tony Black, Zeev Harvey, Roberto Lambertini, Jürgen Miethke, Cary Nederman, Jean-Pierre Rothschild, and Bernard Septimus for earlier discussions and valuable comments. I am also grateful to the Yad Hanadiv/Beracha Foundation for awarding me a Visiting Fellowship in Jewish Studies that enabled me to pursue my research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem during the academic year 2006/2007. See MARSILIUS OF PADUA, The Defender of the Peace, ed. and trans. Annabel BRETT (Cam- bridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), lii–lv; Charles W. PREVITÉ-ORTON, “The Authors Cited in the Defensor pacis,” in Essays in History Presented to Reginald Lane Poole, ed. Henry W. C. DAVIS (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1927), 405–20. 2. For further details on Marsilius’ life, see Vasileios SYROS, Die Rezeption der aristotelischen politischen Philosophie bei Marsilius von Padua: Eine Untersuchung zur ersten Diktion des Defensor pacis (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2007), 17–27; Jürgen MIETHKE, De potestate papae. Die päpstliche Amtskompetenz im Widerstreit der politischen Theorie von Thomas von Aquin bis Wilhelm von Ockham (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000), 204–47; and Carlo PINCIN, Marsilio (Turin: Giapichelli, 1967), 21–54. 3. On Peter of Abano’s life and works, see Eugenia PASCHETTO, Pietro d’Abano, medico e ﬁlosofo (Florence: Nuovedizioni E. Vallecchi, 1984); Luigi OLIVIERI, Pietro d’Abano e il pensiero neolatino. Filosoﬁa, scienza e ricerca dell’Aristotele greco tra i secoli XIII e XIV (Padua: Antenore, 1988); Nancy G. SIRAISI, “Pietro d’Abano e Taddeo Alderotti, Two Mod-

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to Paris4 and maintained contact with him over time; this is supported by the fact that in 1315 he was present as a witness in Peter’s will.5 As is the case with other medieval thinkers who belonged to the Parisian university milieu, Peter was well grounded in Averroes’ natural philosophy and medical thought. The assumption, however, that he was the founder of a distinct “Averroist” trend at the University of Padua has proved problematic.6 What is more important is Marsilius’ personal connection to John of Jandun (d. 1328), Master of Arts at the Collège de Navarre and a leading commentator on Aristotle and Averroes, with whom Marsilius fled in 1326 to the court of Louis IV of Bavaria (1287–1347). John was long considered the fountainhead of the Parisian “Averroists” and the co-author of Marsil- ius’ opus magnum, the Defensor pacis (Defender of Peace, 1324).7 Yet a number of studies have pointed to striking differences between Marsilius’ and John of Jandun’s political ideas and adduced compelling evidence against the co-authorship of the Defensor pacis by Marsilius and Jandun,8 as well as, more broadly, the existence of “Political Averroism” as a movement that sought to propagate Averroes’ political ideas in the medieval West.9

els of Medical Culture,” Medioevo 11 (1985): 139–62 – repr. in EADEM, Medicine in the Italian Universities, 1250–1600 (Leiden: Brill, 2001), 79–99. 4. MIETHKE, De potestate, 209; and PINCIN, Marsilio, 23–24. 5. Tiziana PESENTI, “Per la tradizione del testamento di Pietro d’Abano,” in Atti del convegno internazionale su Marsilio da Padova [= Medioevo 5–6 (1979/80)], 533–42. 6. See, e.g., the following studies by Bruno NARDI: “Dante e Pietro d’Abano,” in IDEM, Saggi di filosofia dantesca (Florence: La Nuova Italia 1967), 41–65; “La teoria dell’anima e la generazione delle forme secondo Pietro d’Abano” and “Intorno alle dottrine filosofiche di Pietro d’Abano,” in IDEM, Saggi sull’aristotelismo padovano dal secolo XIV al XVI (Florence: Sansoni 1958), 1–17 and 19–74, respectively. 7. The thesis about the co-authorship of the Defensor pacis was advanced by Noël VALOIS, “Jean de Jandun et Marsile de Padoue auteurs du Defensor pacis,” Histoire littéraire de France 33 (1906): 528–623. 8. Alan GEWIRTH, “John of Jandun and the Defensor pacis,” Speculum 23 (1948): 267–72; Ludwig SCHMUGGE, Johannes von Jandun (1285/89–1328). Untersuchungen zur Biographie und Sozialtheorie eines lateinischen Averroisten (Stuttgart: Hiersemann 1966), 95–119; and Carlo DOLCINI, “Marsilio da Padova e Giovanni di Jandun,” in Storia della chiesa vol. 9: La crisi del Trecento e il papato avignonese, 1274–1378, ed. Diego QUAGLIONI (Cinisello Bal- samo: San Paolo, 1994), 435–46. On John of Jandun’s philosophy, see Jean-Baptiste Brenet, Transferts du sujet: la noétique d’Averroès selon Jean de Jandun (Paris: Vrin, 2003); IDEM, “Perfection de la philosophie ou philosophe parfait? Jean de Jandun, lecteur d’Averroès,” Recherches de théologie et philosophie médiévales 68 (2001): 310–48; Roberto LAMBERTINI, “Felicitas’ politica und ‘speculatio.’ Die Idee der Philosophie in ihrem Verhältnis zur Politik nach Johannes Jandun,” in Was ist Philosophie im Mittelalter? ed. Jan A. AERTSEN and Andreas SPEER (Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 1998), 984–90; SCHMUGGE, Johannes von Jandun (1285/89–1328); Stuart MacClintock, Perversity and Error: Studies on the “Aver- roist” John of Jandun (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1956). 9. See, for instance, Bernardo BAYONA AZNAR, “La incongruencia de la denominación ‘averroísmo político,’” in Maimónides y el pensamiento medieval, ed. José Luis CANTÓN

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The first sustained effort to assess the influence of Islamic political thought on the Defensor pacis was undertaken by Jeannine Quillet.10 Quillet drew on Shlomo Pines’ assumption that Marsilius was influenced not by Averroes but, rather, by Al-Farabi’s (d. 950) lost Commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics, which had been translated into Hebrew in 1321 by Samuel ben Judah.11 Quillet’s suggestions concerning a number of similarities between Marsilius and Al-Farabi are indeed intriguing. However, Quillet overlooked the fact that Al-Farabi’s political treatises and Averroes’ Commentary on Plato’s Republic were not translated into Latin during the Middle Ages,12 which meant that medieval thinkers had access solely to Averroes’ commentaries on the Ethics and the Rhetoric as the main sources of his political ideas.13 More recently, Antony Black set forth a number of arguments demon- strating possible Muslim influences on Marsilius. (a) Black notes that Averroes’ Commentary on Plato’s Republic was extant in Samuel ben Judah’s Hebrew translation, which was com- pleted in or near the southern French town of Beaucaire in 1321. Black ponders the possibility that Marsilius might have been in Avi-

ALONSO (Córdoba: Universidad de Córdoba, Servicio de Publicaciones, 2007), 329–40; Gre- gorio PIAIA, “‘Averroïsme politique’: Anatomie d’un mythe historiographique,” in Orien- talische Kultur und europäisches Mittelalter, ed. Albert ZIMMERMANN and Ingrid CRAEMER- RUEGENBERG (Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 1985), 288–300; and IDEM, “L’averroismo politico e Marsilio da Padova,” in Saggi e ricerche su Aristotele, Marsilio da Padova, M. Eckhart, Rosmini, Spaventa, Marty, Tilgher, Omodeo, metaﬁsica, fenomenologia ed estetica, ed. Carlo GIACON (Padua: Antenore, 1971), 33–54. 10. Jeannine QUILLET, “L’aristotélisme de Marsile de Padoue et ses rapports avec l’averroisme,” in Atti del convegno internazionale su Marsilio da Padova, 81–142; and EADEM, La philosophie politique de Marsile de Padoue (Paris: Vrin, 1970), 61–64. 11. Shlomo PINES, “La philosophie dans l’économie du genre humain selon Averroès: une réponse à al-Farabi?” in Multiple Averroès, ed. Jean JOLIVET (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1978), 189–207; and IDEM, “The Limitations of Human Knowledge according to Al-Farabi, Ibn Bajja, and Maimonides,” in Studies in Medieval Jewish History and Literature, ed. Isadore TWERSKY (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979), 1: 82–109 – repr. in IDEM, Col- lected Works, vol. 4: Studies in the History of Jewish Thought, ed. Warren Zev HARVEY and Moshe IDEL (Jerusalem: Magnes Press 1997), 404–31, esp. 404–05. 12. Abraham MELAMED, The Philosopher-King in Medieval and Jewish Political Thought (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2003), 242–43. 13. See, in general, Péter MOLNÁR, “Une étape négligée de la réception d’Aristote en Occident: Averroès, le Liber Nicomachie et la science politique,” in Averroès et l’averroïsme: (XIIe–XVe siècle); un itinéraire historique du Haut Atlas à Paris et à Padoue, ed. André BAZZANA et al. (Lyon: Presses Universitaires de Lyon, 2005), 265–73; Roberto LAMBERTINI, “Zur Frage der Rolle des Averroes in der praktischen Philosophie des Spätmittelalters: Vorbe- merkung zur Rezeption seines Ethikkommentars,” in Averroes (1126–1198) oder der Triumph des Rationalismus, ed. Raif Georges KHOURY (Heidelberg: Winter, 2002), 243–53; and Chris- toph KUMMERER, Der Fürst als Gesetzgeber in den lateinischen Übersetzungen von Averroes (Ebelsbach: Gremer, 1989).

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gnon, a town close to Beaucaire, in 1316–18 and might have had access to Samuel ben Judah’s translation.14 However, there is no evidence whatsoever that Marsilius used that translation, and, moreover, it would be far-fetched to surmise that Marsilius had any knowledge of Hebrew, Provencal, or a derivative. (b) Black’s argument that “Marsilius was something of a dissident and would have thus been more likely than most to have conversed with Jews”15 is equally problematic: it would have been more natural for a “dissident” thinker to interact with individuals cherishing similar concerns and ideas in Paris, a major center of education that attracted a large number of people from different cultural and religious back- grounds than to search for “Jewish” interlocutors in Southern France. (c) Black reckons that Marsilius’ notion of strife as a characteristic of every human association that necessitates government echoes Muslim theories that employed a similar formula in order to justify the origins of human authority.16 As will be shown later, this idea was common currency in medieval Islamic political thought, but it is also found in the Latin translation of Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed. (d) In addition, Black identifies Marsilius as the only medieval European thinker to set forth the view that people are equipped with diverse capacities and skills and that the division of labor is an essential prerequisite for the existence of a human association composed of distinct functional groups that make their appearance prior to the state.17 Once again, this view is not unique to Al-Farabi and Aver- roes. Maimonides expresses similar opinions with regard to the necessity of the political community and holds that conflicts and discord arise from the very diversity of the aptitudes and the interests of the members of human associations. (e) Finally, Black suggests that the Marsilian notion of legislator humanus is slightly reminiscent of Al-Farabi and Averroes,18 but he overlooks the differences between Marsilius’ idea that the legislator humanus is the entire body of the citizens or its “weightier part” (pars valencior) and al-Farabi’s and Averroes’s notion of the legislator as epitomizing the functions of the ruler, the philosopher, and the imam.

14. Antony BLACK, The West and Islam: Religion and Political Thought in World History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 166. 15. BLACK, The West and Islam, 166. 16. BLACK, The West and Islam, 52. 17. BLACK, The West and Islam, 52–53. 18. BLACK, The West and Islam, 54.

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One of the questions thus far largely neglected by scholarly research on Marsilius’ sources concerns the links of his political theory to medieval Jewish philosophy, in particular Moses Maimonides’ (1135–1204) œuvre.19 In 1242–44, after the burning of the Talmud in Paris, there appeared a Latin translation of the first sections of part II of Maimonides’ Guide of the Per- plexed (Moreh nevukhim) and an almost complete one under the title Dux neutrorum based on Harizi Hebrew translation.20 It may be presumed that during his stay in Paris Marsilius was familiar with contemporary discussions on Maimonides’ work and had access to one of the copies of the Latin translation of the Guide which had been available as early as in the mid-thirteenth century.21 It is also significant to note in this connection that Peter of Abano’s Conciliator differentiarum philosophorum et praecipue medicorum (ca. 1310) and Lucidator dubitabilibium astronomie contain a number of references both to the Dux neutrorum and Maimonides’ medical writings, which enjoyed a wide reception at the Universities of Montpellier, Bologna, and Padua.22

19. On Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed as a possible source of the Defender of Peace, see SYROS, Die Rezeption der aristotelischen politischen Philosophie bei Marsilius von Padua, 107–14. According to Leo Strauss, Marsilius conjoins Maimonides’ notion that the human law aims at the perfection of the human body with Thomas Aquinas’ views on the suprarational status of the divine law to articulate the idea that the only law properly so called is the human law which is concerned with the well-being of the human body. See Leo STRAUSS, s.v. “Mar- silius of Padua,” History of Political Philosophy, ed. Leo STRAUSS and Joseph CROPSEY (Chi- cago, IL and London: University of Chicago Press, 3rd ed. 1987), 276–95, 293–94. On Strauss’ interpretation of Marsilius’ political thought, see Maurizio MERLO, “La catástrofe de la felici- dad. Marsilio de Padua en la lección de Leo Strauss,” (trans. from the Italian Pedro Medina Reinón) Res publica 8 (2001): 71–92. For further discussion of the afﬁnities between Marsilius’ and Maimonides’ ideas on divine law appears in Maurizio MERLO, Marsilio da Padova. Il pensiero della politica come grammatica del mutamento (Milan: Angeli, 2003), 22–23. 20. On the reception of the Guide of the Perplexed in the medieval West, see notably Görge K. HASSELHOFF, Dicit Rabbi Moyses: Studien zum Bild von Moses Maimonides im lateinischen Westen vom 13. bis 15. Jahrhundert (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2004; 2nd extended ed., 2005), 88–93, 122–27. 21. According to HASSELHOFF, Dicit Rabbi Moyses, 122–29, the two oldest manuscripts of the Dux Neutrorum were extant at the University of Paris. Hasselhoff points to the existence of another two manuscripts (Vatican and Todi) possibly dating back to the thirteenth century. There are also references to two manuscripts of the same period that belonged to theologians in Paris. Two manuscripts (Munich and Graz) are dated back to end of the fourteenth century, whereas three manuscripts (Saint Omer, Cambridge, and Oxford) were produced before the mid-fourteenth century. 22. HASSELHOFF, Dicit Rabbi Moyses, 54, 291, and 294–95. On Maimonides as a source of Peter’s Lucidator, see Il “Lucidator dubitabilium astronomiae” di Pietro d’Abano: opere scientiﬁche inedite, ed. and transl. Graziella FEDERICI VESCOVINI (Padua: Programma e 1+1 Ed., 1988), 96, 167, 197–99, 202, 204, 209, 238, 275, 344, and 400. The reception of Mai- monides’ medical works in the medieval West is surveyed in Lola FERRE, “Dissemination of Maimonides’ Medical Writings in the Middle Ages,” in Traditions of Maimonideanism, ed.

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This paper points to parallels between Maimonides’ and Marsilius’ notions of the political function of religion and is intended as a contribution to a more detailed investigation of the fortune of the Guide of the Perplexed in late medieval Europe. I will argue that both Marsilius and Maimonides identify the need for securing all the means conducive to human life as the chief cause for the genesis of human associations (point A). Due to the diversity of their members, human communities are susceptible to strife and discord and need rules and an authority able to enforce them and to exercise control over human acts. On the basis of these considerations, both Marsil- ius and Maimonides perceive religion to be a factor regulating the relations of the members of the political community (point B).23 Admittedly, many of these ideas are not entirely novel and occur in a number of medieval political works. The emphasis on the need to satisfy human needs as the primary motive behind the formation of human associations is a recurrent topic in medieval Islamic political writing. As early as in the ninth century, Al-Jahiz (d. 869) stresses that human cooperation is a prerequisite for human survival. Al-Amiri (d. 992) put forwards the view that human assemblages arise out of natural necessity and function as a means for leading a virtuous life, gods or beasts being the sole exceptions.24 Al-Farabi states the idea that man is destined by nature to live in a society, since he cannot obtain the necessities of life without mutual cooperation.25 Averroes identifies societies aiming to provide for the basic necessities of life through agriculture, hunting, or robbery as the most primitive form of

Carlos FRAENKEL (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2009), 17–31; Görge K. HASSELHOFF, “The Translations and the Reception of the Medical Doctor Maimonides in the Christian Medicine of the 14th and 15th Century,” in The Trias of Maimonides/Die Trias des Maimonides: Jewish, Arabic, and Ancient Culture of Knowledge/Jüdische, arabische und antike Wissenskultur, ed. Georges TAMER (Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 2005), 395–410. 23. Maimonides uses the term shari‘ah, i.e., (religious) law (and not necessarily “religion”). Likewise, Marsilius conceives of religion (lex) as embodying a set of rules concerning human conduct. 24. See, with further references, Patricia CRONE, Medieval Islamic Political Thought (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004), 260–61; Fauzi M. NAJJAR, “Siyasa in Islamic Political Philosophy,” in Islamic Theology and Philosophy, ed. Michael M. MARMURA (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1984), 92–110; Shlomo PINES, “The Societies Providing for the Bare Necessities of Life according to Ibn Khaldun and to the Philosophers,” Studia Islamica 34 (1971): 125–38 – repr. in IDEM, Collected Works, vol. 3: Studies in the History of Arabic Philosophy, ed. Sarah STROUMSA (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1996), 217–30; and Franz ROSENTHAL, “State and Religion According to Abu l-Hasan al- ‘Amiri,” Islamic Quarterly 3 (1956): 42–52. 25. Al-Farabi on the Perfect State: Abu Na≥r al-Farabi’s Mabadi’ ara’ ahl al-madina al-fadila, ed. and Eng. transl. Richard WALZER (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985), 229. See also Al-Farabi, The Political Writings:“Selected Aphorisms” and Other Texts, transl. Charles E. BUTTERWORTH (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2001), 23–26, 46.

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social life.26 Ibn Taymiyyah (1263–1328), Marsilius’ contemporary in Damascus, holds the view that solidarity and mutual help among humans are indispensable for satisfying their needs.27 In addition, a number of Mus- lim political thinkers depicted humans as being animated by strong desires and passions, declared strife to be a feature of all forms of social organiza- tion, and advocated the existence of a ruler and restraints and checks on human conduct.28 However, it is the articulation of these ideas within the framework of the discussion of the political utility of religion by both Marsilius and Maimo- nides that provides clues that help us discern some intriguing affinities between these two authors. Specifically, I will demonstrate that both Mar- silius and Maimonides illustrate the political value of religion by invoking examples from pagan traditions (the Sabians in the Guide of the Perplexed and Hesiod, Pythagoras, and other ancient philosophers in the Defensor pacis), which serve them as starting points for tracing the rational causes for the existence of religion and myths. In this regard, Marsilius’ and Maimon- ides’ accounts of pagan religions are an integral part of the argumentative strategy they employ to illustrate the political importance of religion and myths as means for guaranteeing the existence and durability of a well- ordered political community (point C).

In analyzing the causes for the creation of the political community, Marsilius cites Aristotle’s dictum that all men are by nature driven to communal living.29

26. Averroes’ Commentary on Plato’s Republic, ed. and Eng. transl. Erwin I. J. ROSENTHAL (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1956), 217–18 and 113–14. 27. Victor E. MAKARI, Ibn Taymiyyah’s Ethics: The Social Factor (Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1983), 123; and Henri LAOUST, Essai sur les doctrines sociales et politiques de Taki-d- Din AÌmad b. Taimiya, canoniste Ìanbalite né à Îarran en 661/1262, mort à Damas en 728/1328 (Cairo: Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, 1939), 259. 28. Crone, Medieval Islamic Political Thought, 261–62; 341–43; Black, The West and Islam, 52, 62. 29. “Est enim, ut diximus, cuius gracia civitas instituta est et necessitas omnium que sunt et fiunt per hominum communicacionem in ea. Hoc ergo statuamus tamquam demonstrandorum omnium principium naturaliter habitum, creditum et ab omnibus sponte concessum: omnes scilicet homines non orbatos aut aliter impeditos naturaliter sufficientem vitam appetere, huic quoque nociva refugere et declinare. quod eciam nec solum de homine *confessum est*, verum de omni animalium genere secundum Tullium 1o De Officiis, capitulo 3o, ubi sic inquit: Prin- cipio generi animancium omni a natura tributum est, ut se, corpus vitamque tueatur, declinetque ea que nocitura videantur, omnia que necessaria sunt ad vivendum, acquirat et paret.” (Defen- sor pacis, I.iv.2). References to the Defensor pacis are to the edition Marsilius von Padua,

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Although Marsilius claims to follow Aristotle,30 his description of the emergence of the political community rests rather on a combination of Aristotle’s account and Stoic ideas mediated through Cicero’s De officiis (I.iv.11): men strive by nature to preserve themselves, to secure what is necessary for living, and to avoid anything that might harm them. In Marsilius’ phrasing, man is by nature composed of contrary elements, whose contrary actions and passions result in the constant destruction of his substance. Moreover, he is born naked and unprotected from the influence of the surrounding air and other elements and thus needs various arts in order to avoid the above-mentioned harms. Since these arts can be exercised only by a multitude of persons, men had to assem- ble in order to engage in mutual collaboration and satisfy their needs and.31 A number of individuals with diverse talents and skills are for Marsilius a necessary precondition for satisfying the elementary human needs. The political community suffers from disputes and quarrels, which, if not regulated, could occasion its destruction. Hence, its maintenance depends on the existence of a norm of justice, i.e., the law, and its guardian, the ruler or the governing part, whose duty is to restrain any individuals who endanger domestic tranquility.32 The notion of the inner balance of the political community, which harks back to the ancient idea of moderation, is of central significance in Marsilius’ exposition of the parts of the political community and the function of the governing and the sacerdotal parts as agencies for maintaining internal stability and averting excesses in the conduct of the members of society.33

Defensor pacis, ed. Richard SCHOLZ (Hanover: Hahn, 1932/33) (henceforth cited as Defensor pacis). Citations will be to discourse, chapter, and paragraph. I have also consulted the following English translations: Marsilius of Padua, The Defender of Peace vol. 2: The Defensor pacis, transl. Alan GEWIRTH (New York: Columbia University Press, 1956; repr. 2001); Marsilius of Padua, The Defender of the Peace, ed. and transl. BRETT. Compare Aristotle, Politics 1253a2ff. 30. Defensor pacis, I.iv.1. 31. “Quod quamvis experiencia sensata doceat, eius tamen causam quam diximus, inducere volumus distincte magis, dicentes, quod quia homo nascitur compositus ex contrariis elementis, propter quorum contrarias acciones et passiones quasi continue corrumpitur aliquid ex sua substancia; rursumque quoniam nudus nascitur et inermis, ab excessu continentis aeris et aliorum elementorum passibilis et corruptibilis, quemadmodum dictum est in sciencia nat- urarum, indiguit artibus diversorum generum et specierum ad declinandum nocumenta pre- dicta. Quequoniam exerceri non possunt, nisi a multa hominum pluralitate, nec haberi, nisi per ipsorum invicem communicacionem, oportuit homines simul congregari ad commodum ex hiis assequendum et incommodum fugiendum.” (Defensor pacis, I.iv.3). 32. “Verum quia inter homines sic congregatos eveniunt contenciones et rixe, que per normam iusticie non regulate causarent pugnas et hominum separacionem et sic demum civitatis corrupcionem, oportuit in hac communicacione statuere iustorum regulam et custodem sive factorem.” (Defensor pacis, I.iv.4). 33. The reception of Aristotle’s doctrine of mesótjv in medieval philosophy merits a closer study. See Cary J. NEDERMAN, “The Aristotelian Doctrine of the Mean and John of Salisbury’s

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It is essential to note here that Marsilius draws a distinction between two categories of human acts: the first class includes those acts which are the effect of natural causes apart from human knowledge, such as those acts which result from the contrariety of the elements composing the human body, through their intermixture, e.g., the acts of the nutritive faculty.34 To the second category are included those human acts and passions which orig- inate from the cognitive and appetitive faculties. Marsilius divides this second group into two categories: a) transient acts (actus transeuntes35 or actus civiles or politici36), which are performed by the organs and members of the human body for the benefit or harm of someone other than the doer;37 and b) immanent acts (actus immanentes or monastici38 or spirituales),39 such as human thoughts and desires, which do not cross over into a person other than the doer.40 The main task of the governing part (pars principans) as the instrument of the legislator humanus, the supreme instance and sole source of legisla- tive and governmental authority inside the political community, is to moder- ate and to correct the excesses of the transient acts and to reduce them to equality or due proportion.41 Immanent acts, by contrast, cannot be regulated them by means of civil legislation. Such acts, Marsilius explains, cannot be proved to be present or absent in someone. But they cannot be concealed from God, whom philosophers feigned to be the maker of such laws and the guarantor of their observance, under the threat of punishment for evildoers and with the promise of eternal reward for doers of good. Marsilius deduces from this that the function of the sacerdotal part is to exercise control on the immanent acts of the citizens.42 According to Marsilius, men did not think about the sacerdotal part of the political community in the same way they thought about the other parts of the political community, since the reasons for its existence could not be proved through demonstration, nor were they self-evident. Nevertheless, all peoples agreed on the importance of worshipping God and on the benefits

Concept of Liberty,” Vivarium 24 (1986): 128–41 – repr. in IDEM, Medieval Aristotelianism and Its Limits: Classical Traditions in Moral and Political Philosophy, 12th–15th Centuries (Aldershot: Variorum, 1997), no. VIII. 34. Defensor pacis, I.v.4–6. See also ibid., II.xxii.4. 35. Defensor pacis, I.v.4; I.v.7. 36. Defensor pacis, I.v.4; I.x.2. See further ibid., I.x.1. 37. Defensor pacis, I.v.7. 38. Defensor pacis, I.v.11. 39. Defensor pacis, II.ii.4. 40. Defensor pacis, I.ix.11; II.viii.3. 41. Defensor pacis, I.v.7. 42. Defensor pacis, I.v.11.

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deriving from it, since most religions promise that in the future world God will distribute rewards to those who perform good deeds in this one and will mete out punishments for those who misbehave.43 A substantial part of Marsilius’ discussion of the political dimension of religion revolves around the ancient philosophers (e.g., Hesiod and Pythag- oras) who propagated myths and doctrines in order to elicit the obedience of the masses in order to ensure domestic tranquility.44 Most importantly, Marsilius envisions the creation of the first political communities as the product of the collective will of the first patresfamilias: prudent and able men endowed with rhetorical abilities summoned the heads of the first households and induced the majority of them to band together in a political community and to introduce laws not by resorting to coercive power but by employing rhetoric and exhortation.45 In contrast, Marsilius ascribes the emergence of religion to the individual activity of the ancient philosophers and the founders of religious laws. Marsilius points out that the first philosophers—such as Hesiod, Pythag- oras, and several other ancients— argued that the establishment of religions for the status of the present world occurred for another purpose, namely the need to guarantee the goodness of both private and civil human acts. In propagating their teachings, some of the founders of religions used myths to instill in men reverence for and fear of God and the desire to cultivate virtues and avoid vices. For instance, although they did not believe in human

43. “Superest autem nobis de sacerdotalis partis necessitate dicere, de qua non omnes homines sic senserunt concorditer, ut de necessitate reliquarum parcium civitatis. Et causa huius fuit, quoniam ipsius vera et prima necessitas non potuit comprehendi per demonstra- cionem, nec fuit res manifesta per se. Convenerunt tamen omnes gentes in hoc, quod ipsum conveniens sit instituere propter Dei cultum et honoracionem et consequens inde commodum pro statu presentis seculi vel venturi. Plurime enim legum sive sectarum bonorum premium et malorum operatoribus supplicium in futuro seculo promittunt, distribuenda per Deum.” (Defensor pacis, I.v.10). 44. Defensor pacis, I.v.11. A comparative examination of Marsilius’ and Machiavelli’s views on the societal aspects of religious belief appears in Bernardo BAYONA AZNAR, “Mar- silio de Padua y Maquiavelo: una lectura comparada,” Foro interno 7 (2007): 11–34. General surveys of medieval and early modern ideas on the political aspects of religion include Ronald BEINER, Civil Religion: a Dialogue in the History of Political Philosophy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011); and Mark SILK, “Numa Pompilius and the Idea of Civil Religion in the West,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 72 (2004): 863–96. 45. Defensor pacis, II.xxii.15. On Marsilius’ ideas on the role of oratory in the genesis of social life, see Cary J. NEDERMAN, “The Union of Wisdom and Eloquence before the Renais- sance: The Ciceronian Orator in Medieval Political Thought,” Journal of Medieval History 18 (1992): 75–95; IDEM, “Nature, Sin and the Origins of Society: The Ciceronian Tradition in Medieval Political Thought,” Journal of the History of Ideas 49 (1988): 3–26 – both repr. in IDEM, Medieval Aristotelianism and its Limits, nos. XII and XI, respectively.

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resurrection and life after death, they strove to persuade others that it exists and that pleasures and pain in the next life depend on human deeds in the present one.46 A similar idea can be found in Averroes’ Tahafut al-Tahafut (The Incoherence of the Incoherence), where he refutes al-Ghazali’s (1058– 1111) view that the philosophers deny the doctrine of bodily resurrection. The gist of Averroes’ argument is that the idea of resurrection appeared in various religions much earlier than the emergence of philosophical teachings about resurrection. The philosophers, Averroes notes, perceived the significance of this doctrine for safeguarding the order among men, which is indispensable for human existence and conducive to ultimate happiness.47 The first philosophers also spoke of virtuous men in this world who were placed in the heavenly firmament and of certain stars and constellations named after them. They declared that the souls of men who had acted wrongly entered the bodies of various brutes according to the grade of human vices, mentioned various sorts of torments for evildoers (such as eternal thirst and hunger, as in the case of Tantalus), and pictured the infer- nal regions as deep and dark.48 Out of fear, men refrained from wrongdoing and were driven to perform virtuous deeds. They were thus well-disposed in themselves and toward others, and many disputes and injuries ceased in communities.49 Marsilius, in enumerating the various meanings of the term “law,” remarks that in its third sense “law” denotes a set of admonitions for vol- untary human acts. Aristotle, Marsilius adds, designated religions as “laws,” the Mosaic law was partly called a law, the Evangelic law is called in its entirety law, and all religions, such as Islam and Zoroastrianism, are called “laws in whole or in part.”50 Marsilius’ “naturalistic” understanding of religion is predicated on the vision of religion as a lex operating with practices

46. Defensor pacis, I.v.11. 47. Averroes’ Tahafut al-tahafut (The Incoherence of the Incoherence), Eng. transl. Simon VAN DEN BERGH (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1954), 1: 359–60. For further discussion, see Richard C. TAYLOR, “Averroes: God and the Noble Lie,” in Laudemus viros gloriosos, ed. Rollen E. HOUSER (Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press, 2007), 38–59, 50–51. 48. Defensor pacis, I.v.11. 49. Defensor pacis, I.v.11. 50. “Tercio vero modo sumitur lex pro regula continente monita humanorum actuum imperatorum, secundum quod ordinantur ad gloriam vel penam in seculo venturo; secundum quam signiﬁcacionem lex Mosaica dicta est lex quantum ad aliquam sui partem; sic quoque lex evangelica secundum se totam lex dicitur. Unde apostolus ad Hebreos de hiis ait: Trans- lato enim sacerdocio, necesse est ut legis translacio ﬁat. Sic eciam de disciplina evangelica lex dicitur Iacobi 1o:: Qui autem prospexerit in legem perfectam libertatis, et in ea perman- serit etc., hic beatus in facto suo erit. Hac eciam legis accepcione dicuntur leges omnes secte, ut que Machometi aut Persarum, secundum se totas aut aliquas sui partes, licet ex hiis Mosa- ica et evangelica, Christiana scilicet, sole contineant veritatem.” (Defensor pacis, I.x.3).

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and regulations according to natural law. Peter of Abano, for example, posits a causal nexus between the movement of celestial bodies and the course of natural events and ascribes the appearance of major historic figures, including “founders of religions,” e.g., Moses, Alexander the Great, Jesus, and Mohammed, to the great conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter.51 These ideas go back to the works of the ninth-century Arab astronomer Abu Ma‘shar (Albumazar, d. 886), who described three kinds conjunctions of the two superior planets, Saturn and Jupiter: the greatest that occurs in the spring tropical sign every 960 solar years and causes the emergence of new religions; the middle that takes place every 240 solar years and leads to political changes, such as change of dynasty; and the minor, which occurs every 20 years and results in revolutions and similar events.52 Marsilius’ aim is not to challenge the status of Christianity as the only true religion. He makes it clear that all religions that are outside the Mosaic Law and the Christian faith were founded on erroneous views about God and are the product of the human mind, false prophets and teachers of errors who did not have correct opinions about God and the afterlife. Yet, he writes that he resorted to a detailed presentation of the societal function of pagan religions in order to illustrate the difference from the true priesthood and, at the same time, the necessity of the existence of the sacerdotal part.53

II.

Before proceeding to a detailed discussion of Maimonides’ views on religion, it will be helpful to take a closer look at his Treatise on Logic (Maqala fi Sina‘at al-Man†iq), in which he discusses the purpose of political science.54 In chapter XIV of this work, he divides the history of mankind into two stages: in the first phase, the pagan nations of antiquity were governed in

51. PETER OF ABANO, Conciliator controversiarum, quae inter philosophos et medicos versantur, facsimile, ed. Ezio RIONDATO and Luigi OLIVIERI (Venice 1565; repr. Padua: Ant- enore, 1985), fols. 13v–14r. See also John M. HEADLEY, Tommaso Campanella and the Trans- formation of the World (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997), 185–86; and Fried- rich VON BEZOLD, “Astrologische Geschichtskonstruktion im Mittelalter,” Deutsche Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft 8 (1892): 29–72 – repr in. IDEM, Aus Mittelalter und Renaissance: Kulturgeschichtliche Studien (Munich and Berlin: R. Oldenbourg, 1918), 165–95. 52. Abu Ma‘sar on Historical Astrology, The Book of Religions and Dynasties (On the Great Conjunctions), ed. and transl. Keiji YAMAMOTO and Charles BURNETT (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 1: 10–13 and 106–11; 2: 8–10 and 70–73. 53. Defensor pacis, I.v.13 and 14. See further ibid, I.x.3. 54. On this work, see Herbert A. DAVIDSON, Moses Maimonides: The Man and His Works (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 312–22.

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accordance with rules and laws, i.e., nomoi,55 which were laid down by sages; whereas in the second phase, people are ruled in conformity with divine commandments. The sages of the ancient pagan nations established governance and laid down rules according to the level of perfection of the people, and the kings exercised their power according to these rules. As is the case with the religion of the Sabians, Maimonides points out that philosophers have written many books about these things, some of which have been translated into Arabic, but many and most probably the bulk of them are not extant in Arabic translation.56 Maimonides’ Treatise on Logic was translated into Latin only in the six- teenth century, and Marsilius had no access to it.57 For another source of Maimonides’ ideas on the political relevance of religion, it is crucial to turn to a closer analysis of chapter forty-one of the second part of the Latin translation of the Guide of the Perplexed.58 Following Aristotle’s view of humans as being political by nature, Maimonides there affirms that humans,

55. On Maimonides’ notion of nomos, see Sarah STROUMSA, “Prophecy versus Civil Reli- gion in Medieval Jewish Philosophy: The Cases of Judah Halevi and Maimonides,” in Trib- ute to Michael: Studies in Jewish and Muslim Thought Presented to Michael Schwarz, ed. Sara KLEIN-BRASLAVY (Ramat Aviv: Tel Aviv University, The Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities, The Chaim Rosenberg School of Jewish Studies, 2009) [English section], 79–102, 96–102; Zeev HARVEY, “Political Philosophy and Halakhah in Maimonides,” Iyyun 29 (1980): 198–212 [in Hebrew]; and Joel L. KRAEMER, “Civil and Religious Law in Mai- monides,” Te‘udah 4 (1986): 185–202 [in Hebrew]. 56. MAIMONIDES, Treatise on Logic: The Original Arabic and Three Hebrew Translations; crit. ed. and Eng. transl. Israel EFROS (New York: American Academy for Jewish Research, 1938), 64; Maïmonide, Traité de logique. Trad. de l’arabe, avec une introd. et des notes par Rémi BRAGUE (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1996), 101–02. See also Joel L. KRAEMER, “Nat- uralism and Universalism in Maimonides’ Political and Religious Thought,” in Me’ah She‘arim (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2001), 47–81; Lawrence V. BERMAN, “A Reexamination of Maimonides’ ‘Statement on Political Science,’” Journal of the American Oriental Society 89 (1969): 106–11; and Leo STRAUSS, “Maimonides’ Statement on Political Science,” Pro- ceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 22 (1953): 115–30. Maimonides’ views about the ancient philosophers are discussed in Menachem LORBERBAUM, “Medieval Jewish Political Thought,” in The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Jewish Philosophy, ed. Daniel H. FRANK and Oliver LEAMAN (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 176– 200, 177. 57. Görge K. HASSELHOFF, “Die Drucke einzelner lateinischer Übersetzungen von Werken des Maimonides im 16. Jahrhundert als Beitrag zur Entstehung der modernen Hebraistik: Agostino Giustiniani und Sebastian Münster,” in Gottes Sprache in der philologischen Werk- statt: Hebraistik vom 15. bis 19. Jahrhundert, ed. Giuseppe VELTRI and Gerold NECKER (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2004), 169–88. 58. References to the Dux neutrorum are made to the following edition: Dux dubitantium. Rabbi Mossei Aegyptii Dux seu director dubitantium aut perplexorum, ed. A. JUSTINIANUS (Paris 1520; repr. Frankfurt a. M.: Minerva, 1964) (henceforth cited as Dux dubitantium). I have relied on the following translation of the Guide of the Perplexed with occasional amendments: Moses Maimonides, The Guide of the Perplexed, transl. Shlomo PINES (Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, 1963) (henceforth cited as The Guide of the Perplexed).

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in contrast to animals, are characterized by great diversity and are driven to form associations due to the need for mutual cooperation and assistance. Maimonides stands on common ground with Marsilius in holding that the purpose of the political community is to provide men with the means conducive to their existence. Moreover, Maimonides comes remarkably close to Marsilius in considering that the natural diversity of the members of human society generates internecine tension, strife, and instability. Accord- ingly, he advocates the existence of a ruler whose principal task is to gauge the acts of the members of society and to prescribe actions and moral habits that all of them must always practice in the same way, so that the natural diversity between the members of the political community is mitigated and concealed.59

Marsilius of Padua, Defensor pacis Moses Maimonides, Dux neutrotum “[…] indiguit artibus diversorum generum et “Ostensum est iam in fine demonstrationis specierum ad declinandum nocumenta pre- quod natura hominis trahitur post consuetudi- dicta. Que quoniam exerceri non possunt, nisi nem civitatis: quia natura ipsius inducit eum ut a multa hominum pluralitate, nec haberi nisi conveniat cum aliis hominibus propter neces- per ipsorum invicem communicacionem, opor- sitates suas. Non est autem homo sicut et cae- tuit homines simul congregari ad commodum tera animalia quorum coniunctio non est prop- ex hiis assequendum et incommodum fugien- ter necessitates suas. Propter compositionem dum.” (I.iv.3) vero quae fuit in hac specie ultimo composita: “Verum quia inter homines sic congregatos sicut scis, fuit magna diversitas inter eius sin- eveniunt contenciones et rixe, que per normam gularia, adeo quod non invenies duos homines iusticie non regulate causarent pugnas et homi- omnino consentientes in moribus. Sed nec num separacionem et sic demum civitatis cor- invenies formas eorum manifestas sibi conve- rupcionem, oportuit in hac communicacione nientes. Huius autem rei causa est diversitas statuere iustorum regulam et custodem sive conmixtionis. Idcirco variantur accidentia que factorem.” (I.iv.4) sequuntur formam: quoniam quaelibet forma naturalis habet propria se comitantia praeter accidentia quae materiam comitantur. Non invenietur autem ista diversitas magna que est in hominibus in aliqua specie animalium irra- tionalium: sed diversitas quae est in singulari-

59. Dux dubitantium, part II, ch. 41, fol. 66r-v; The Guide of the Perplexed, 381–82. See also the discussions by Howard T. KREISEL, Maimonides’ Political Thought: Studies in Ethics, Law, and the Human Ideal (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1999), 189–223; Abraham MELAMED, “Maimonides on the Political Nature of Man: Needs and Responsibilities,” in MinÌah Le- Sarah: MeÌqarim be-Filosoﬁyah Yehudit ve-Qabbalah (= Sarah Heller Wilensky Jubilee Vol- ume), ed. Devora DIMANT et al. (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1994), 292–333 [in Hebrew]; and IDEM, “Aristotle’s Politics in Medieval and Renaissance Jewish Political Thought,” in Well Begun is Only Half Done: Tracing Aristotle’s Political Ideas in Medieval Arabic, Syriac, Byzantine, and Jewish Sources, ed. Vasileios SYROS (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medi- eval & Renaissance Studies, 2010), 147–88, 152–55.

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bus cuiuscunque alterius speciei animalium est vicina sibi, praeterquam in specie hominum: adeo quod invenies duos homines differentes in moribus, sicut si essent duarum specierum: ita et fortitudo unius inducet ipsum ad tollendum filium proprium in hora iracundiae suae. Alius vero timebit occidere aliquem serpentem et debilitatur anima eius in hoc. Hoc idem contingit in pluribus accidentium. Quia vero stat in natura hominis de necessitate necessaria coniunctio, non fuit possibile ullo modo ut perficiant hominum coniunctio et convenientia nisi per rectorem qui concordet et ordinet opera eorum, et suppleat defectus, et diminuat excessus, et imponat leges operibus et moribus, ut ea omnes operent semper per eandem viam: donec occultet diveras magna naturalis sub dispositione ordinata: et tunc varietates omnium erunt ordinatae.” (Part II, ch. 41, fol. 66r; emphasis mine)

For Maimonides, commandments serve three goals: a) to communicate a correct opinion or put an end to an erroneous opinion; b) to teach morals; and c) to regulate social conduct, contribute to establishing proper relations between the members of the community and avert injustice.60 At this point a brief account of Maimonides’ classification of commandments into two categories is in order. The first category concerns the relations between man and his fellow man, whereas the second group concerns the relations between man and God.61 Notwithstanding the differences in terminology between Maimonides’ account of commandments and Marsilius’ typology of human acts, Maimonides’ discussion of the commandments contained in the first category reveals intriguing resemblances to the Marsilian concept of justice. Both Marsilius and Maimonides subscribe to a notion of justice which is reminiscent of Aristotle’s concept of corrective (commutative) justice, whose aim is, according to Aristotle, to restore equality in the transac- tions between men by rectifying the inequality or wrong according to arith- metical proportion.62 In a similar vein, Maimonides mentions that the punishment meted out to anyone who has done wrong consists of his receiv-

60. Dux dubitantium, part III, ch. 32, fol. 92r–v; The Guide of the Perplexed, 524. 61. Dux dubitantium, part III, ch. 36, fol. 94r–v; The Guide of the Perplexed, 538. 62. Defensor pacis, I.iv.4; I.v.7; I.xv.7; I.xvi.8; II.viii.7; II.ix.13; II.xii.12; II.xxvi.19. For further discussion, see Syros, Die Rezeption der aristotelischen politischen Philosophie bei Marsilius von Padua, 108ff. See also Marsilius of Padua, Defensor pacis, transl. GEWIRTH, lxxxiv; Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1131a1ff.

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ing precisely the same treatment he has given to somebody else. Thus, he urges that there be judges in every town as well as a ruler who is feared and held in awe, employs all kinds of deterrents, and enhances the authority of the judges.63 Maimonides notes that by studying the doctrines and worship of the Sabi- ans he gained insights into the reasons for the existence of divine commandments.64 An extensive account of the identity of the Sabians lies beyond the focus of the present article.65 In the context of the Guide of the Perplexed, the term is used as a generic designation for all adherents of pagan religions. Maimonides points to the existence of contemporary groups who live in the remote corners of the earth, like the savage Turks in the extreme north and the Indians in the extreme south, as the descendants of the Sabians who once filled the earth.66 He also mentions that the Sabians believed in the eternity of the universe and worshipped seven stars and the sun as the chief deity which governed the world. His account is based on the Nabatean Agriculture (al-FilaÌa al-naba†iyya), which was translated into Arabic by Ibn WaÌshiyah (ninth century) and is the major source of information about the religion of the Sabians, although only a very small portion of it is available in an Arabic translation when compared to the part that has not been translated and no longer survives.67 As mentioned earlier, Marsilius offers a description of pagan religions before the advent of Christianity in order to demonstrate the political necessity of religion. Maimonides employs a similar strategy in his treatment of the political function of divine commandments by presenting the religion of the Sabians as an example of the pagan religions that existed before the

63. Dux dubitantium, part III, ch. 42, fol. 99v; The Guide of the Perplexed, 558, 562. 64. Dux dubitantium, part III, ch. 30, fol. 91r; The Guide of the Perplexed, 518. 65. On the Sabians, see, for example, Jonathan ELUKIN, “Maimonides and the Rise and Fall of the Sabians: Explaining Mosaic Laws and the Limits of Scholarship,” Journal of the History of Ideas 63 (2004): 619–37; Sarah STROUMSA, Maimonides in His World: Portrait of a Mediterranean Thinker (Princeton, N.J. and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2009), 84–105; EADEM, “Sabéens de Harran et Sabéens de Maïmonide,” and Paul B. FENTON, “Maï- monide et ‘L’agriculture nabatéenne,” both in Maïmonide. Philosophe et savant (1138–1204), ed. Tony LÉVY and Roshdi RASHED (Leuven: Peeters, 2004), 335–52 and 303–33, respectively. 66. Dux dubitantium, part III, ch. 30, fol. 90v; The Guide of the Perplexed, 515. 67. Ibn Wahsiyya’s Kitab al-ﬁlaha al-nabatiyya, a work in Arabic which was written in the tenth century and deals with the religious practices of the Sabians. For more information, see La Guida dei perplessi di Mosé Maimonide, ed. Mauro ZONTA (Turin: Unione Tipograf- ico-Editrice Torinese, 2003), 48; and Sarah STROUMSA, “Entre Harran et al-Maghreb: la théo- rie maïmonidienne de l’histoire des religions et ses sources arabes,” in Judíos y musulmanes en al-Andalus y el-Magreb. Contactos intelectuales, ed. Maribel FIERRO (Madrid: Casa de Velázquez, 2002), 153–64.

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Torah and anatomizing the practices whereby religion served as a source of political efficacy: the Sabians held that the earth would become populated and the soil fertilized through the worship of the stars. The most wise and pious among them taught the people that agriculture would become perfect only if they worshipped the stars and the sun and refrained from provoking them by disobeying them; otherwise their cities would wither and eventually become empty.68 Farmers were praised, because they engaged in the cultiva- tion of the land according to the desire of the stars. Further, the Sabians respected cattle because of their use in agriculture and prohibited their slaughter.69 Their priests instructed the people who met in the temples that, as a result of certain religious acts, rain would come down, the trees of the field would yield their fruit, and the land would become fertile and populated. Similarly, ancient sages and prophets commanded the people to play certain instruments before the images during religious festivals, in order to please the deities and receive their reward, such as long life, exemption from great body deformities, protection from illness, and abundant crop.70 Like Marsilius, Maimonides writes that the sages of the Sabians did not necessarily believe in the myths they propagated. However, they told their fellow men that a certain plague would befall those who did not perform the acts by which faith is supported and confirmed forever and that plague may befall a person, who will then direct his attention to the performance of that act, and adopt idolatry. Capitalizing on the fact that people fear most the loss of their children and property, they spread the tale that if anyone did not pass his son and daughter through the fire, his children would die. As a result, people performed this act, out of pity and apprehension for their children and because of the trifling character of the act and its ease.71

Marsilius of Padua, Defensor pacis Moses Maimonides, Dux neutrorum “At extra causas posicionis legum, que absque “Et dicam quod plurium peccatorum causas et demonstracione creduntur, attenderunt philo- rationes fecit me scire quod scivi de consuetu- sophantes convenienter valde aliam et pro dinibus gentium qui dicuntur Zabii et de opi- huius seculi statu quasi necessariam causam nionibus et de operibus et servitiis ipsorum tradicionis legum divinarum sive sectarum, ex sicut audies cum exposuero rationes illas prae- quibus fuit Esiodus, Pythagoras et aliorum ceptorum de quibus ascendit in cor quod et antiquorum quamplures. Hec autem fuit boni- non habent rationem, et faciam etiam men- tas humanorum actuum monasticorum et civi- tionem tibi de libris ex quibus intelliges quod

68. Dux dubitantium, part III, ch. 31, fol. 92r; The Guide of the Perplexed, 522. 69. Dux dubitantium, part III, ch. 31, fol. 92r; The Guide of the Perplexed, 522. 70. Dux dubitantium, part III, ch. 31, fol. 92r; The Guide of the Perplexed, 523. 71. Dux dubitantium, part III, ch. 38, fol. 96v; The Guide of the Perplexed, 545–46.

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lium, a quibus quies seu tranquillitas communi- ego cognovi de sententiis Zabiorum, et etiam tatum et demum sufficiens vita presentis seculi de opinionibus eorum donec scies vere sine quasi tota dependet. Nam licet philosophorum dubio quod ego dicam in rationibus praecepto- aliqui, talium legum sive sectarum adinven- rum talium.” (Part III, ch. 30, fol. 92r) tores, non senserint aut crediderint hominum “Cum intellexeris opiniones istas debiles anti- resurreccionem et illam vitam que vocatur quas apparebit tibi quia et notum fuit homini- eterna, ipsam tamen esse finxerunt et persuase- bus in diebus antiquis, hoc fuit quod propter runt, et in ipsa delectaciones et tristicias, secun- servitium stellarum multiplicarentur habita- dum qualitates humanorum operum in hac vita tores in terra: et fructus et sapientes eorum. Et mortali, ut ex hoc inducerent hominibus Dei qui propinquiores erant inter eos idolis praedi- reverenciam et timorem, desiderium fugiendi cabant hominibus et docebant eos: quia cultus vicia et colendi virtutes. Sunt enim actus qui- terrae in quo est permanentia esse hominorum, dam, quos legislator humana lege regulare non non potest perfici iuxta voluntatem Deorum: potest, ut qui alicui non possunt probari adesse nisi serviant Soli et stellis quod si offenderint vel abesse, quos tamen non potest latere Deum, eas diminuentur fructus et terrae sient deser- quem finxerunt ipsi talium legum latorem et tae.” (Part III, ch. 31, fol. 92r) preceptorem observacionis ipsarum, sub eterne pene vel premii comminacione vel promissione bonorum aut malorum operatoribus.[…] Unde pax eciam seu tranquillitas civitatum et vita hominum sufficiens pro statu presentis seculi difficile minus servabatur, quod exposicione talium legum sive sectarum sapientes illi fina- liter intendebant.” (I.v.11) “Verum quia gentiles et omnium relique leges aut secte, que sunt aut fuerunt extra catholicam fidem christianam, aut que ante ipsam fuit Mosaicam legem, vel que ante hanc fuit sanc- torum patrum credulitatem, et generaliter extra tradicionem eorum, que in sacro canone, vocata Biblia, continentur, non recte senserunt de Deo, ut quia humanum ingenium secuti sunt aut falsos prophetas vel doctores errorum, ideoque nec de futura vita ipsiusque felicitate vel miseria, nec de vero sacerdocio propterea instituto recte senserunt. Locuti tamen sumus in ipsorum ritibus, ut eorum a vero sacerdocio, Christianorum scilicet, differencia et sacerdotalis partis necessitas in comunitatibus mani- festius appareret.” (I.v.14; emphasis mine)

III.

The preceding comparative study of Marsilius’ and Maimonides’ political ideas centered on the following points of similarity between these two thinkers: they both set forth the idea that human associations grow out of man’s

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need to obtain the means that are necessary for his self-preservation and a sufficient life. The political community suffers from internecine strife due to the diversity of its members. As a result, the viability of any sort of human association is contingent upon the existence of laws as well as of a ruler or government entrusted with the application of justice and keeps the acts of the members of human society in check and wards off excesses. Religion as a factor of domestic stability is concerned with the morality of human acts and balance in the relations among the members of society. Lastly, both Marsilius and Maimonides invoke examples from the pagan past in order to explicate the political dimension of religious belief and of the divine precepts and explore the ways in which pagan religions were used as a means of cementing the unity of the political community and averting dissension and discord. In assessing the affinities between Marsilius and Maimonides it is instruc- tive to examine them against the medical background that each possessed. Both Marsilius and Maimonides were professional physicians, which may partially account for their application of the doctrine of the mean to the discussion of human acts and the function of the ruler/government in guard- ing against excesses in the conduct of the members of the political community. This idea goes back to Aristotle, who looked upon virtue as mesótjv, i.e., the mean between two extremes and the hallmark of a virtuous life.72 The roots of this concept stretch back to Aristotle’s natural philosophy, according to which the mean is the cardinal feature of a well-formed and symmetrically grown living organism. The ideal political community, as outlined by Marsilius, resembles a well-formed living organism, whose parts and organs are created proportionally and cooperate harmoniously for the sake of the common welfare. The governing part operates as the counterpart of the heart and receives a certain virtue or form universal in causality with the active power or authority to set up and differentiate the other parts of the political community, i.e., the law, from the soul of the entire body of the citizens or its “weightier part” (pars valencior). A legitimate ruler exercis- ing authority according to the laws must command the just and honorable and must prohibit their contraries. Just as the function of the heart in the living organism never ceases, so must the ruler coordinate the various seg- ments of the body politic and ensure social harmony and justice.73 The notion of the mean occupied a prominent place in medieval Jewish and Islamic philosophical literature. Avicenna (Ibn Sina, 980– 1037), for example, assigns the lawgiver the task of promulgating laws regarding mor-

72. Nicomachean Ethics 1104a11ff., 1119b22ff. 73. Defensor pacis, I.xv.

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als and customs conducive to justice, which consists in the mean.74 Maimo- nides posits moral decay as a sickness of the soul and the result of the lack of mean.75 Shem-Tov ben Joseph ibn Falaquera (1225–ca. 1290), in his Book of the Seeker, sets forth a definition of moral virtue as a mean between two vices, excess and deficiency.76 In Falaquera’s view, the virtuous man is one who epitomizes ten portions of every noble quality, acts according to the mean, and avoids excesses.77 Marsilius diverges from Aristotle and the aforementioned thinkers by being indifferent to the moral implications of the organic analogy. Yet, in spite of this crucial difference between Marsilius and Maimonides, it is important to note that the doctrine of the mean is one of the key premises of their accounts of the role of the ruler/government and their respective notions of justice, which, as mentioned previously, are based on Aristotle’s definition of corrective justice. A comparative study of Marsilius’ and Maimonides’ views on the political implications of religious belief can yield fruitful results about, e.g., the influence of their medical background on their political ideas, and can help us discern further affinities between the two. It is hoped that the findings of the this paper will provide an incentive for a more detailed investigation of this topic and of the transmission of Maimonides’ political thought in medieval and Renaissance Europe, a question that has thus far not been given due scholarly attention.

Vasileios SYROS [email protected]

74. AVICENNA, The Metaphysics of the Healing. A parallel English-Arabic text translated, introduced, and annotated by Michael E. MARMURA (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2005), 377. 75. Eight Chapters, chs. 3–4; and Hilkhot De‘ot, chs. 1–2. Compare Guide of the Per- plexed, II. 39. For further discussion, see Marvin FOX, “The Doctrine of the Mean in Aristo- tle and Maimonides: A Comparative Study,” in Studies in Jewish Religious and Intellectual History: Presented to Alexander Altmann on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday, ed. Siegfried STEIN and Raphael LOEWE (London/Tuscaloosa: Institute of Jewish Studies/Univer- sity of Alabama Press, 1979), 93–120 – repr. in IDEM, Interpreting Maimonides: Studies in Methodology, Metaphysics, and Moral Philosophy (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1990), 93–123; and Herbert A. DAVIDSON, “The Middle Way in Maimonides’ Ethics,” Pro- ceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 54 (1987): 31–72; David SHATZ, “Maimonides’ Moral Theory” and Haim KREISEL, “Maimonides’ Political Philosophy,” both in The Cambridge Companion to Maimonides, ed. Kenneth SEESKIN (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 167–92 (esp. 171–83) and 193–220 (esp. 194, 199), respectively. 76. SHEM TOB BEN JOSEPH IBN FALAQUERA, The Book of the Seeker (Sefer Ha-Mebaqqesh), ed. and trans. M. HERSCHEL LEVINE (New York: Yeshiva University Press, 1976), 60–61. 77. Ibid, 54–55.

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