Acceso usuarios
José Francisco Meirinhos
Alvarus Pelagius’ Speculum regum (completed in Tavira in 1344) and Diogo Lopes Rebelo’s De republica gubernanda per regem (published in Paris in 1495) are “mirrors for princes”, dedicated to monarchs of whom, in light of the common good envisaged by their governance, a virtuous line of action was expected. Both texts echo St. Augustine’s discussion, in book XIX of De civitate Dei (written in Hippo between c. 413 and 426), of peace as the end to which any and the whole human community aspires. The preservation of peace, as a means for the king to accomplish the common good, even if doing so involved waging war, obeys precise conditions of justice differently identified by the authors. In this study, we examine the positions of Alvarus Pelagius (section 1) and Diogo Lopes Rebelo (section 2) on the relations between power and peace in what concerns the right to wage war, during war, and after war. In both cases, the references to peace and war are sparse, but they allow us to identify positions that, despite the common political tradition, manifest significant divergences.
