The aim of this article is to investigate the problem of the religious legislator in Marsilus of Padua’s political thought. Focusing on examples that are drawn from both Christian and non-Christian religions (Muhammad, the philosophers, the Council), it is shown that Marsilius’ perspective on the religious legislator reflects an instrumental interpretation of the social and political functions of religion as a public cult. Marsilius’ presentation of the religious legislators overturns Augustine’s theory of the two mystical cities and draws on ideas of “civil religion” that are similar to those of John of Jandun and have their roots in Greek and Jewish-Islamic thought.
