On the Duty to Keep Faith with Heretics

This work offers an extraordinary perspective on the early modern debates about toleration and the binding force of agreements between people of different Christian faiths. Drawing on principles of contract law developed by jurists and theologians from the School of Salamanca, the Jesuit controversialist Martinus Becanus (1563-1624) argues in favor of the duty to honor promises beyond confessional boundaries. Although hostile to religious freedom as a matter of principle, he acknowledges th...