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The article draws attention to two particularly significant examples of the problematic relationship between religious authority and secular power, which has characterized the history of the West: Marsilius of Padua (died before 10 April 1343) and Paolo Sarpi (1552-1623). Both are supporters of the secular state and it is not excluded that the Sarpi was aware of the doctrines contained in the Defensor pacis. In any case, Marsilius’ position is much more radical than that sustained by the Republic of Venice in the dispute of the Interdict (1606), also due to the strictly ‘scientific’ approach (in the Aristotelian sense) that characterizes the first part of the Defensor pacis. The conflict between State and Church has traditionally been seen as an obstacle to the affirmation of the modern State, but today, in the post-modern, it can also be interpreted as a double guarantee: against the pretensions of theocracy, of course, but also against the temptations of totalitarianism.
