This book has shown that the long fourteenth century was the most creative and original in the history of medieval political thought. In confronting the realities of power, thinkers were forced to reinterpret their inherited intellectual authorities to cope with the demands of new political crises and fundamental changes in society. Their main contribution was indeed to the elaboration of notions of power and legitimate authority, a contribution of great variety and diversity, and one which was of fundamental importance in the history of political thought.

The major characteristic of these writers was that they were interpreting inherited intellectual authorities to try and answer problems which had emerged in their own times. Knowledge of historical context is crucial for understanding their works: the conflict between Pope Boniface VIII's universalist claims and the French king's pretensions to territorial sovereignty; the parlous state of Italy at the time of Dante; the claims of the papacy, in the context of papal–imperial conflict and Italian politics, during Marsilius of Padua's lifetime; the poverty dispute which came to a head in the conflict between the papacy and the Franciscans; the problem of applying Roman and canon law to the sheer variety of political forms in fourteenth-century Europe; and the crisis of the Great Schism as a stimulus to political ideas.