The Purely Penal Law Theory in the Spanish Theologians from Vitoria to Suarez

There are those who, while professing grand and noble sentiments, nevertheless in reality live always as if they cared nothing for the needs of society. Many in various places make light of social laws and precepts, and do not hesitate to resort to various frauds and deceptions in avoiding just taxes or other debts due to societyaLet everyone consider it his sacred obligation to count social necessities among the primary duties of modern man, and to pay heed to them, for the more unified the world becomes, the more plainly do the offices of men extend beyond particular groups and spread by degrees to the whole world. (Concilium Vaticanum II, Constitutio Pastoralis de Ecclesia in Mundo huis Temporis, Gaudium et Spes). These words of the Council will find an echo in the Christian conscience, and should persuade the theologian, while aware that they are not directed against any accepted moral teaching, at least to examine again the theory that has been in such wide currency for the last four hundred years. What this thesis proposes to do is, by returning to the period in which the theory received its more or less final formulation in 16 th century Spain, to achieve a deeper understanding both of the circumstances that gave rise to it, and of the way in which it developed from a definite theory of law.