In the political treatise Defensor Pacis, Marsiglio of Padua argues that the state, the most comprehensive and unifying human community, is superior to the church. The state derives its authority from the people who have the right to censure and depose their rulers. The church, in turn, derives its authority from the state. Marsiglio further argues that the papacy is a purely human convention. As an advocate of conciliarism he maintained that supreme authority in the church belongs to a general council composed of both priests and lay members of the church. The Defensor Pacis anticipates themes of the Protestant Reformation and western democracy.