To elevate oneself at the papal court of Avignon in the fourteenth century, one typically began by securing a sponsor and integrating into the household of a prestigious curial officer. In the case of our protagonist, Dondinus of Pavia, OP, he joined the household of Luca Fieschi, Cardinal Deacon of Sancta Maria in Via Lata, as chaplain, thereby gaining the necessary support to reside in the new capital city of Christianity. However, his role may not have fully satisfied his ambitions. Around the early 1320s (after a lengthy discussion, Nold concludes that he cannot offer a firm date), Dondinus took a significant step forward by attempting to garner the attention of Pope John XXII (1316-1334). He did this by dedicating a dialogue to the Pope, which aimed at justifying the extensive powers of the Pope, both spiritual and temporal. It is this Dyalogus de potentia summi pontificis (A Dialogue on the Power of the Supreme Pontiff) that Parick Nold offers here in a smooth Latin to English edition and translation, including notes on the manuscript’s limited history and circulation.
The work offers face-to-face original and translation, a dense introductory apparatus locating the work and its historiography, a bibliography, an index of quotations and allusions, and closes with a general index. A glimpse at the dialogue’s table of contents offers an outline of Dondinus’s conceptualization of why medieval popes ruled supreme over emperors. Chapter 1, “that powers first came from God;” Chapter 8, “That lordship is divided into spiritual and temporal power, symbolized by the two columns in the porch of the temple, and that the spiritual surpasses the temporal in four pre-eminences;” Chapter 10 “That the supreme pontiff possesses each power fully, and in first place the spiritual one. The first argument is taken from the commission of Christ;” Chapter 14, “That the supreme pontiff possesses full power in temporal things. This he proves by eight arguments. The first is taken from the commission given to Peter by Christ;” Chapter 23, “That the temporal power of the supreme pontiff is made manifest from the translation of empire, and from the deposition of multiple emperors and of kings, as well as from the temporal governing of kingdoms—through these things, it is concluded that he has possession of both swords;” and so on until the last chapter 38 drives the point home.
As Nold keeps repeating, there is nothing much original in Dondinus’s dissertation. He happily plundered Ptolemy of Lucca, Alessandro da Sant’Elpidio, and many others. But his edge resided in the fact that he was popularizing—maybe for lay readers—works that usually focused on the edification of the ruling elite both ecclesiastical and secular.
A point worth emphasizing, though, is the chasm separating our modern understanding of plagiarism and medievals’ understanding. Where today we see deception and cheating, medievals saw reverence, respect, and glorification. A modern reader cannot criticize Dondinus for his lack of originality and gross spoliation of others’ works. The edition demonstrates quite convincingly how a medieval “intellectual” would have to operate to produce a work that he would consider fitting for a pope to read—even through the pope never did read it, so it seems. This last point suggests that there was indeed a limit to what John XXII could ingest to defend his cause.
Still, the question remains as to why we should read this obscure work, which had limited circulation and success. As Nold argues, we do so to enter the mind of curial thinking in the early fourteenth century—and, I would add, when the papacy was just establishing itself in the new capital city of Christianity and had not developed yet fully into the administrative juggernaut it would eventually become. This was a papacy at a moment of juncture after the recent attacks of the king of France against Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303) and the struggles between John XXII and the Holy Roman Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria. John XXII argued for the old papal privilege to make the emperor by recognizing first his kingship; John attempted to regain ascendance over Italy and resented Ludwig’s alliance with the Visconti of Milan; John rejected the protection Ludwig offered the Spiritual Franciscans who refused the Church control of property. In the end Ludwig rejected the pope and deposed John while crowning himself Holy Roman Emperor in Rome. While authors like Marsilius of Padua and William of Ockham defended Ludwig’s prerogatives and authority, the pope could count on his defense by author like Dondinus.
Nold offers in his long introduction the most details one could find on an obscure author, circumventing the lack of specific information concerning his author with a thorough examination of his contemporaries, which Dondinus may or may not have encountered. Nold leaves no stone unturned, and researchers interested in the early fourteenth century and the temporal/secular rivalry will find an abundance of information in his text and footnotes. Dondinus’s patron, Cardinal Fieschi, is covered in minute detail, from his library to his social network, as is anyone who had direct or indirect access to him. Dondinus’s inspirations, Ptolemy of Lucca to Alexander of Sant'Elpidio, and I could add, anyone who lived at the time, and the cities where these protagonists resided—from Pavia, Dondinus’s hometown, to Milan, and Genoa—are also discussed extensively.
Identifying who inspired Dondinus is a valid and necessary endeavor, but the introduction sometimes reaches so deep into the weeds that a reader wonders why these details were included. It is understood that the lack of information needs to be filled with what the historian can reconstruct but sometimes this distracts from the main narrative.
Readers interested in the history of early papal Avignon, its main “characters,” struggles, and successes will find ample matter of discussion in this volume, giving voice to a defense of the pope’s immense power in temporal and spiritual matters.