MARSI

marsi, an ancient people of italy, whose chief centre was marruvium, on the eastern shore of lake fucinus. they are first mentioned as members of a confederacy with the vestini, paeligni and marrucini (liv. viii. 29, cf. viii. 6, and polyb. ii. 24, 12). they joined the samnites in 308 b.c. (liv. ix. 41), and on their submission became allies of rome in 304 b.c. (liv. ix. 45). after a short-lived revolt two years later, for which they were punished by loss of territory (liv. x. 3), they were readmitted to the roman alliance and remained faithful down to the social war, their contingent (e.g. liv. xliv. 46) being always regarded as the flower of the italian forces (e.g. hor. _od._ ii. 20, 18). in this war, which, owing to the prominence of the marsian rebels is often known as the marsic war, they fought bravely against odds under their leader q. pompaedius silo, and, though they were frequently defeated, the result of the war was the enfranchisement of the allies (see rome: _history_, "the republic"). the marsi were a hardy mountain people, famed for their simple habits and indomitable courage. it was said that the romans had never triumphed over them or without them (appian). they were also renowned for their magicians, who had strange remedies for various diseases. the latin colony of alba fucens near the north-west corner of the lake was founded in the adjoining aequian territory in 303, so that from the beginning of the 3rd century the marsians were in touch with a latin-speaking community, to say nothing of the latin colony of carsioli (298 b.c.) farther west. the earliest pure latin inscriptions of the district seem to be _c.i.l._ ix. 3827 and 3848 from the neighbourhood of supinum; its character generally is of the gracchan period, though it might be somewhat earlier. mommsen (_unteritalische dialekten_, p. 345) pointed out that in the social war all the coins of pompaedius silo have the latin legend "italia," while the other leaders in all but one case used oscan. the chief record of the dialect or patois we owe to the goddess angitia, whose chief temple and grove stood at the south-west corner of lake fucinus, near the inlet to the _emissarius_ of claudius (restored by prince torlonia), and the modern village of luco. she (or they, for the name is in the plural in the latin inscription next cited) was widely worshipped in the central highlands (sulmo, _c.i.l._ ix. 3074, furfo vestinorum, ibid. 3515) as a goddess of healing, especially skilled to cure serpent bites by charms and the herbs of the marsian woods. her worshippers naturally practised the same arts--as their descendants do (see a. de nino's charming collection of _usi e costumi abruzzesi_), their country being in rome counted the home of witchcraft; see hor. _sal._ 1, 9, 29, _epod._ 17, 28, &c. the earliest local inscriptions date from about 300 to 150 b.c. and include the interesting and difficult bronze of lake fucinus, which seems to record a votive offering to angitia, if _a(n)ctia_, as is probable, was the local form of her name. their language differs very slightly from roman latin of that date; for apparently contracted forms like _fougno_ instead of _fucino_ may really only be a matter of spelling. in final syllables the diphthongs _ai_, _ei_, _oi_, all appear as _e_. on the other hand, the older form of the name of the tribe (dat. plur. _martses_ = lat. _martiis_) shows its derivation and exhibits the assibilation of _-tio-_ into _-tso-_ proper to many oscan dialects (see osca lingua) but strange to classical latin. see r. s. conway, _the italic dialects_, pp. 290 seq. (from which some portions of this article are taken by permission of the syndics of the camb. univ. press); on the fucino-bronze, ib. p. 294. (r. s. c.) marsigli [latinized marsilius], luigi ferdinando, count (1658-1730), italian soldier and scientific writer, was born at bologna on the 10th of july 1658. after a course of scientific studies in his native city he travelled through turkey collecting data on the military organization of that empire, as well as on its natural history. on his return he entered the service of the emperor leopold (1682) and fought with distinction against the turks, by whom he was wounded and captured in an action on the river raab, and sold to a pasha whom he accompanied to the siege of vienna. his release was purchased in 1684, and he afterwards took part in the war of the spanish succession. in 1703 he was appointed second in command under count arco in the defence of alt-breisach. the fortress surrendered to the duke of burgundy, and both arco and marsigli were court martialled; the former was condemned to death and the latter cashiered, although acquitted of blame by public opinion. having thus been forced to give up soldiering, he devoted the rest of his life to scientific investigations, in the pursuit of which he made many journeys through europe, spending a considerable time at marseilles to study the nature of the sea. in 1712 he presented his collections to his native city, where they formed the nucleus of the bologna institute of science and art. he died at bologna on the 1st of november 1730. marsigli was a fellow of the london royal society and a member of the paris academy of science. bibliography.--a list of his works, over twenty in number, is given in niceron's _memoirs_; his _breve ristretto del saggio fisico intorno alla storia del mare_ was published at venice in 1711, and again at amsterdam (in french) in 1725; the _stato militare dell' impero ottomano_ was published at amsterdam and the hague in italian and french (1732), the _osservazioni intorno al bosforo tracio_ in rome (1681) and the _danubius pannonico-mysicus_, a large work in six volumes containing much valuable historic and scientific information on the danubian countries, at the hague (1725). see fontenelle, "eloge" in the _mem. de l'acad. des sciences_ (paris, 1730); quincy, _memoires sur la vie de m. le comte marsigli_ (zurich, 1741), and fantuzzi's biography of marsigli (bologna, 1770). marsilius of padua [marsiglio mainardino] (1270-1342), italian medieval scholar, was born at padua, and at first studied medicine in his own country. after practising various professions, among others that of a soldier, he went to paris about 1311. the reputation which he had gained in the physical sciences soon caused him to be raised to the position of rector of the university (for the first term of the year 1313). while still practising medicine he entered into relations with another master of paris, the philosopher john of jandun, who collaborated with him in the composition of the famous _defensor pacis_ (1324), one of the most extraordinary political and religious works which appeared during the 14th century. a violent struggle had just broken out between pope john xxii. and louis of bavaria, king of the romans, and the latter, on being excommunicated and called upon to give up the empire, only replied to the pope's threats with fresh provocations. marsilius of padua and john of jandun, though they had both reason to be grateful for the benefits of john xxii., chose this moment to demonstrate, by plausible arguments, the supremacy of the empire, its independence of the holy see, and the emptiness of the prerogatives "usurped" by the sovereign pontiffs--a demonstration naturally calculated to give them a claim on the gratitude of the german sovereign. the _defensor pacis_, as its name implies, is a work intended to restore peace, as the most indispensable benefit of human society. the author of the law is the people, i.e. the whole body, or at least the most important part (_valentior_) of the citizens; the people should themselves elect, or at least appoint, the head of the government, who, lest he should be tempted to put himself above the scope of the laws, should have at his disposal only a limited armed force. this chief is responsible to the people for his breaches of the law, and in serious cases they can condemn him to death. the real cause of the trouble which prevails among men is the papacy, a "fictitious" power, the development of which is the result of a series of usurpations. marsilius denies, not only to the pope, but to the bishops and clergy, any coercive jurisdiction or any right to pronounce on their own authority excommunications and interdicts, or in any way to impose the observation of the divine law. he is not opposed to penalties against heretics, but he would have them pronounced only by civil tribunals. desiring to see the clergy practise a holy poverty, he proposes the suppression of tithes and the seizure by the secular power of the greater part of the property of the church. the clergy, thus deprived of its wealth, privileges and jurisdiction, is further to be deprived of independence, for the civil power is to have the right of appointing to benefices, &c. the supreme authority in the church is to be the council, but a council summoned by the emperor. the pope, no longer possessing any more power than other bishops (though marsilius recognizes that the supremacy of the church of rome goes back to the earliest times of christianity), is to content himself with a pre-eminence mainly of an honorary kind, without claiming to interpret the holy scriptures, define dogmas or distribute benefices; moreover, he is to be elected by the christian people, or by the delegates of the people, i.e. the princes, or by the council, and these are also to have the power to punish, suspend or depose him. such is this famous work, full of obscurities, redundancies and contradictions, in which the thread of the argument is sometimes lost in a labyrinth of reasonings and citations, both sacred and profane, but which nevertheless expresses, both in religion and politics, such audacious and novel ideas that it has been possible to trace in it, as it were, a rough sketch of the doctrines developed during the periods of the reformation and of the french revolution. the theory was purely democratic, but was all ready to be transformed, by means of a series of fictions and implications, into an imperialist doctrine; and in like manner it contained a visionary plan of reformation which ended, not in the separation of the church from the state, but in the subjection of the church to the state. to overthrow the ecclesiastical hierarchy, to deprive the clergy of all their privileges, to reduce the pope to the rank of a kind of president of a christian republic, which governs itself, or rather submits to the government of caesar--such is the dream formed in 1324 by two masters of the university of paris. when in 1326 louis of bavaria saw the arrival in nuremberg of the two authors of the book dedicated to him, startled by the boldness of their political and religious theories, he was at first inclined to treat them as heretics. he soon changed his mind, however, and, admitting them to the circle of his intimates, loaded them with favours. having become one of the chief inspirers of the imperial policy, marsilius accompanied louis of bavaria to italy, where he preached or circulated written attacks against the pope, especially at milan, and where he came within the sight of the realization of his wildest utopias. to see a king of the romans crowned emperor at rome, not by the pope, but by those who claimed to be the delegates of the people (jan. 17, 1328), to see john xxii. deposed by the head of the empire (april 18), and a mendicant friar, pietro de corbara, raised by an imperial decree to the throne of st peter (as nicholas v.) after a sham of a popular election (may 12), all this was merely the application of principles laid down in the _defensor pacis_. the two authors of this book played a most active part in the roman revolution. marsilius, appointed imperial vicar, abused his power to persecute the clergy who had remained faithful to john xxii. in recompense for his services, he seems to have been appointed archbishop of milan, while his collaborator, john of jandun, obtained from louis of bavaria the bishopric of ferrara. marsilius of padua also composed a treatise _de translatione imperii romani_, which is merely a rearrangement of a work of landolfo colonna, _de jurisdictione imperatoris in causa matrimoniali_, intended to prove the exclusive jurisdiction of the emperor in matrimonial affairs, or rather, to justify the intervention of louis of bavaria, who, in the interests of his policy, had just annulled the marriage of the son of the king of bohemia and the countess of tirol. but, above all, in an unpublished work preserved at oxford, the _defensor minor_, marsilius completed and elaborated in a curious manner certain points in the doctrine laid down in the _defensor pacis_. in it he deals with ecclesiastical jurisdiction, penances, indulgences, crusades and pilgrimages, vows, excommunication, the pope and the council, marriage and divorce. here his democratic theory still more clearly leads up to a proclamation of the imperial omnipotence. marsilius of padua does not seem to have lived long after 1342. but the scandal provoked by his _defensor pacis_, condemned by the court of avignon in 1326, lasted much longer. benedict xii. and clement vi. censured it in turn; louis of bavaria disowned it. translated into french, then into italian (14th century) and into english (16th century), it was known by wycliffe and luther, and was not without an influence on the reform movement. see j. sullivan, _american historical review_, vol. ii. (1896-1897), and _english historical review_ for april 1905; _histoire litteraire de la france_ (1906), xxxiii. 528-623; sigmund riezler, _die literarischen widersacher der papste zur zeit ludwig des baiers_ (leipzig, 1874). there are numerous manuscripts of the _defensor pacis_ extant. we will here mention only one edition, that given by goldast, in 1614, in vol. i. of his _monarchia sacri imperii_; an unpublished last chapter was published by karl muller, in 1883, in the _gottingische gelehrte anzeigen_, pp. 923-925. count lutzow in _the life and times of master john hus_ (london and new york, 1909), pp. 5-9, gives a good abstract of the defensor pacis and the relations of marsilius to other precursors of the reformation. (n. v.)