Alexander Marey

In his first relection on the ecclesiatical power, delivered in 1532, Vitoria posed the set of problems of the origin, essence, and juridical foundations of ecclesiastical authority. In the introduction to his text, he defined the notion of a church as an assembly of faithful Christians, or, and this is extremely important, as a Christian Commonwealth. The first part of the relection was dedicated to the definition of the essence of the ecclesiastical authority. According to Dominican Theologist, the Church, besides possessing civil power, has another type of authority which is concentrated and located in the Church keys. These keys, passed by Jesus Christ to his apostles, have the exceptional force of giving the complete absolution of sins, and to open the doors of Heaven’s Reign. The next questions of the I DPE were dedicated to the juridical origins of ecclesiastical power and to its limits in respect to civil authority. As well, Vitoria described some of the peculiarities of the Church’s jurisdiction

This lecture of Fr. de Vitoria is dedicated to the problems of genesis, essence and forms of the civil power. He analysed consequently the necessity of the civil power and its causality examining them in the context of four causes elaborated by Aristotle and developed by the medieval Aristotelians. Vitoria described and explained the ultimate supremacy of a monarchy over the other forms of government, considered the legislative function of the civil power. According to him the secular law could oblige a man not only in foro externo, but also in foro interno, that proves the divine nature of the political power. The appearance of a power is caused by the nature of human society and, consequently, by the nature of a human himself. Following the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, Vitoria declared the social and political nature of a human being that calls him to live in the society. In turn, such society, in order to become the Commonwealth, needs a power. The Commonwealth can create the King, but can not give him the power and transfers to him the authority. Thereby the King stands over any of his citizens and, at the same time, over all Commonwealth, being responsible for his acts only before God

This is an introductory article to the translation of Fr. Vitoria’s lecture “On Civil Power”, consisting of some biographical notes about Vitoria, as well as several of his lectures and considerations of his political theory. Although Vitoria did not give any clear definition of civil power in the text of this Relectio, he marked its three principal causes, according to Aristotelian methodology. The appearance of power is a result of the nature of human society and, consequently, by the nature of the human himself. Following the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle, Vitoria declared the social and political nature of a human being that calls him to live in society. In turn, in order to develop into the perfect community, such a society needs some vis directiva, i.e., the power. Only this power can stimulate the birth of a Commonwealth, although not belonging to the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth, in turn, can create the King but can not give him the power but transfers authority to the king. Therefore, the King stands over all of his citizens and the entire Commonwealth while being responsible for his actions only before God

The introductory part of the article is dedicated to the analysis of the external structure of the lecture on the ecclesiastical power. Are describing the date of the lecture, its place among others relectiones of Vitoria, the lists of the authorities and adversaries of the Dominican Theologist. In the principal part of the article are analyzing the crucial pillars of the theory of Church Power elaborated by Francisco de Vitoria. The theory of power formulated by this thinker had represented a new stage in the development of European Political Thought of Modernity. First of all, Vitoria denies the identity of the concepts of potestas and potentia and declares that the potestas consists from potentia, some preeminence and the auctoritas. Thus, the auctoritas became to be considered as a principal part of the potestas or, at times, its complete synonyms. The next crucial point marked in the article is the idea of the separation of Church and State. Vitoria considered the Church as an autonomous system, which had the same rights and privileges as the State. At the same time, when the State enters in the political collapse, is the Church who should take the power and lead the State to its normal position. The State, in its turn, can rule the clergy in the causes concerning the civil administration, because the king “is the king not only for laymen but also for a clergy”

The article observes concepts of “Law”, “Custom”, “Usage”, and “Fuero” in the “Siete Partidas” of Alphonse X the Wise, a king of the Castile-Leon Kingdom from 1252 to 1284. In the first part, the author gives an overview of the legislative situation in the Castile-Leon Kingdom just before the reign of Alphonse X. He stresses that the king would justify the tremendous territorial gains made by his father, Fernando III, and Alphonse himself. Thus, the composition of one of the largest law codes in Europe was a part of his costly and full project. The second part of the article contains some explanations about the concept of “custom” in the Alphonsine legislation. The author analyses procedures of apparition of the custom, its being, and cancellation. The author gives particular place in his theory to the Roman Law, or, more precisely, to the Ius commune. Finally, the third part of the article contains translation into Russian of two first chapters of Partidas.

Using various sources, including the narrative, normative and documental ones, the author describes the process of genesis of the concept of “misdemeanor” in the Castilian language. In the reign of Alphonse the Sage this word was used by court lawyers for signifying any crime without making difference. On the basis of information discerned from the bilingual texts the author shows that originally the yerro was an ethic concept and only starting with the Alphonse’s linguistic reform it had gradually acquired religious and juridical connotations.

This article refers to conception of legitimacy of politic power in medieval Castile and later, in early modern Spanish Empire, reflected in the “Siete Partidas” of Alphonse the Sage, king of Castile and Leon and in its gloss composed by Gr. Lopez – court lawyer and counsellor of the king Carlos I. Jurists of the 13th century construing the well-known legal maxim “Rex est imperator in regno suo” insisted on the supremacy of royal power not only in relation to imperial but also to papal power. Thereby a king, according to jurists of Alphonse the Wise, was represented as supreme sovereign of his kingdom either in secular and spiritual affairs. In the 16th century the court lawyer of a Spanish emperor, Gregorio Lopez, emphasized the supremacy of imperial power in the secular affairs and papal – in the spiritual. Yet he marked the possibility for the emperor to be deposed by the Roman people, who gave him his power and, by means of the renovated social contract, could recall it.