<P>As Cary J. Nederman writes in the foreword to this new edition, "Marsilius continues to speak to many of the salient issues of modern political life, expressing his doctrines in a language that has resonance and relevance. Whether in addressing the role of citizenship as a buffer between individual and community, or in explicating the foundations of religious toleration, the <i>Defensor pacis</i> (and Marsilius' other writings) affords a distinctive theoretical perspective that rivals that of any of the great thinkers of the Western political tradition."</P>