Italian Communes Research Articles

James A. Palmer. The Virtues of Economy: Governance, Power, and Piety in Late Medieval Rome.

The world of fourteenth-century Rome is little known. In part, this is due to a dearth of evidence, but, as James A. Palmer emphasizes in his introduction to The Virtues of Economy: Governance, Power, and Piety in Late Medieval Rome, historians’ choices and priorities have also contributed to the lacuna. Historians of religion, politics, and culture have focused on papal Rome and used the papacy’s Avignon sojourn as a reason to ignore the city in its absence. Social historians have prioritized other Italian communes that are seen as less exceptional. Palmer argues that Rome’s exceptionality has been overemphasized and that in many ways it was a typical fourteenth-century Italian commune. He introduces a wide array of characters—barons, merchants, prostitutes, widows, guildsmen—and shows how they interwove spiritual and temporal concerns in their daily lives and in their plans for death. One of the many strengths of Palmer’s book is that he refuses to simplify these characters or to pigeonhole them into static roles. Similarly, his Rome resists easy categorization. It is not papal or baronial, religious or commercial, a city of natives or a city of immigrants; it is simultaneously all these cities and more.

Tortury w świetle bulli Ad extirpanda (1252) papieża Innocentego IV

In this paper, the author discusses the content of the bull Ad Extirpanda of 1252 and seeks an answer to the question why Pope Innocent IV allowed in it for secular and ecclesiastical authorities to use torture in trials against heretics. This applied to both the accused and the witnesses. Sinibaldo Fieschi, the valued Romanist, was active during the medieval renewal of Roman law. Undoubtedly, this and many other factors, such as the development of the Inquisition, influenced the Pope's decision. The very issue of torture in the bull was treated quite marginally, and the document was more concerned with inquisitorial proceedings. This paper is dominated by the historical and legal method, but the author also reaches for the dogmatic and legal or comparative methods. Before discussing in detail the content of the bull and the reasons for its announcement, the paper focuses on the figure and teaching of Innocent IV, who, between 1213 and 1225, studied law in Bologna. The bull of 1252 was addressed to the leaders of all Italian communes, i.e. to the podests, rectors, councils of Lombardy, Romagna, and the Marchia Tervisina. Torture was a means of obtaining a confession, which was very important in the catalogue of various sources of evidence, such as oaths sworn by the parties, witnesses, God's judgments, or documents. In light of Constitution 25 of the bull in question torture should not lead to the loss of body members or life itself. It purpose was to get heretics to recant their errors and accuse other heretics known to them. The inquisitorial procedure itself strengthened the power of the Pope and the bishops. It was more rational than trial by ordeal.

Nascita dei Comuni e memoria di Roma: un legame da riscoprire

Abstract The historiography on the Italian Communes has investigated the motives behind the new city governments. Jean-Claude Maire Vigueur and Chris Wickham have stressed different rationales in the actions of the communal elites. However, we should avoid underestimating the cultural power of a model still very much present in the Middle Ages: imperial Rome. In the crisis linked to the struggle for investiture, city elites were inspired by the Roman institutional model, albeit following different ‚models‘ (classical, Byzantine, Carolingian and Saxon). The communal world interpreted this legacy with the contribution of the Roman Church. In this context, the use of spolia as an instrument of legitimization, stressed by Arnold Esch, should be re-evaluated. The interpretation in a Roman key of institutions, laws, political and artistic languages presupposed a sound cultural education on the part of the people of the commune, based on the classical tradition and, politically, on Roman law and institutions. These concepts were visually expressed in the new artistic style – later called the ‚Romanesque‘ due to the obvious desire to reinterpret classical models. Finally, the equestrian group of Oldrado da Tresseno (1233) on the facade of the Palazzo della Ragione in Milan, the only known example of this type of municipal political representation in the first half of the 13th century, allows us to assess the power of the Roman model in legitimising municipal policies.

Nur mit Papier, Feder und Wachs

Summary Only with Paper, Pen and Wax. The Lawyers of Emperor Henry VII in Italy between Legal Practice and Political Advice This article examines the role of the learned jurists and judges at the “Italian court” of Emperor Henry VII (1308 – 1313) as legal practitioners and political advisors on the basis of a contemporary text, the so-called “Consilium” written by the court judge Milanzo. This text, written in the spring of 1313, shows Milanzo in dialogue with the emperor and his closest circle of advisors. Milanzo not only answers to open legal questions, but also presents the emperor with his own plan for an important political and military project: to integrate the city of Venice into the Empire “only with paper, pen and wax”. This plan was apparently convincing, for Milanzo was subsequently entrusted with its implementation. The political engagement that is evident from Milanzo’s text can possibly be explained biographically: many of the jurists who can be traced to Henry’s court held leading positions in the Italian communes and signories, at the papal curia or at episcopal courts and universities. This prosopographical explanation for the often-stated influence of the learned jurists on Henry VII’s politics, is concretised in this article on the basis of selected biographies.

Wokół roku 1420. Początki szkolnictwa renesansowego we Włoszech

Paul F. Grendler suggested the year of 1420 as a symbolic date marking the dawn of Renaissance humanist teaching in the Latin education system. In 1420, the commune of Verona employed Guarino Guarini da Verona (1374–1460) to teach on the basis of Cicero’s letters and speeches. The anniversary has posed an opportunity to challenge a stereotype of two epochs: the Middle Ages and Renaissance, perpetuated in contemporary narration. I have presented my own image of these epochs, synthetic and simplified, yet based on historical facts. The synthetic approach to the similarities and differences between the Middle Ages and Renaissance, suggested here, is coherent with the changes which took place at the dawn of Italian Renaissance education (presented in the second part of the article). I have found out that this development was possible owing to personal contacts among humanists and their familiarity with inspiring texts. I have also discovered that before 1420, before Renaissance humanist education was introduced to public city schools, it had left its mark on self-education, informal relations, private city schools and urban home schooling. Only then did studia humanitatis became attractive to Italian communes and started to employ teachers knowledgeable about the new curriculum. The differences between the Renaissance and medieval education models in Italian public city schools include primarily the means at hand (i.e. the curriculum, the obligatory reading and partly the teaching organisation). They did not pertain to the major goals set by the then teachers (i.e. providing children and adolescents with knowledge and skills that they found useful in adult life, coupled with moral teaching and developing their habits). In my opinion, the Renaissance education model is continuation of the medieval model rather than its opposition because these two models complement each other harmoniously.

Urbane prilike u centralnim i južnim delovima Srbije u doba kralja Milutina

The era of the reign of the King of Milutin represents an important turning point in the history of the medieval Serbia. It cannot be said he was the initiator of either economic or urban development, but it can be noticed in his era there was a considerable step in this direction. The King Milutin himself showed an enviable energy thanks to it he enlarged his state and introduced numerous changes. By annexation of the areas in the south, the part of Serbian state became a territory which inherited the urban culture being inherited from the antique and renewed during the Byzantine rule. By the adoption on Byzantine patterns of behaviour, the urban culture was being adopted as well. The second important step toward the process of urbanization was the opening of mines and appearance of market places in their vicinity. In the era of the King Milutin in documents for the first time appears seven mining market places: Rudnik, Trepča, Rogozno, Gračanica (Janjevo), Novo Brdo, Lipnik and Trešnjica.Their characteristic was that they represented centres in which in initial period lived Saxons, but by the time local inhabitants will have been moved, which will be dealing with mining industry, craft, commerce and services provision. As the Saxon's community was restricted and without additional influx, by the time it will have been had assimilated into the Serbian one for those settlements as well. Close to Saxons, at least as per religion, were merchants coming from the Coast, and which were called by domestic population Latins. The King Milutin had issued several charts and letters to citizens of Dubrovnik by which he confirmed privileges and security to them. In that sense, it is important the chart issued in 1302 in Vrhlab. Besides the citizens of Dubrovnik, citizens of other coast towns dwelled in mining market places including some Italian communes due to which they represented multicultural milieu. In the era of the King Milutin these settlements were in their infancy, and the lack of sources did not allow their significant consideration. Nevertheless, those settlements represent a solid fundament and initiator for further urban development which will follow in subsequent decades.

A War of Words Among Women: An Anonymous Bolognese Poem from 1282

Abstract Not only do the city registers of medieval Bologna, the Memoriali Bolognesi, contain legal and economic transactions, but they also transmit poetry of the age. Across the decades, the scribes introduced poems between the transactions; over some one hundred such poems have been preserved, many of them unica. Thus, the registers offer a glimpse into the popular entertainments of the times, providing valuable information about the culture of thirteenth-century Italy. One such poem is the ballata “Oi bona gente, oditi et endenditi” (“Oh, good people, hear and understand”), an insulting dialogue between two women. Intended to provoke laughter, the poem traffics in traditional misogynistic stereotypes. Its two antagonists accuse one another of drunkenness, gluttony, but mostly sexual impropriety such as cuckolding their husbands and attempting to pimp one another out to the parish priest. Through analysis of the poem, the anxieties provoked by the socio-economic changes of the Italian communes come into focus. The society was in flux, and the ballata employs the traditional insults of women to address the concerns that it raised.

The Lex Mercatoria Maritima

Abstract This essay demonstrates how maritime qirad, as conducted in the Muslim world prior to the emergence of the Italian communes, influenced the lex mercatoria maritima. It contends that the medieval Latin accomendatio (commenda) likely owes its inception to the qirad/mudaraba institution, already prevalent in pre-Islamic Arabia, contrary to the commonly believed theory that it is rooted to the Byzantine chreokoinonia, comprised by article III:17 of the Nomos Rhodion Nautikos. On the eve of the European Commercial Revolution, through trade between the Christian north and the Islamic south, qirad practices and techniques were further developed from the pre-Islamic period and incorporated into Islamic legal digests, as well as transformed by non-Muslim merchants' guilds and societies. Legal principles and practices governing maritime qirad appear to have been uniform and universally accepted by jurists across the Islamic Mediterranean and beyond, as evinced by the early tenth-century CE treatise Kitab Akriyat al-Sufun, as well as earlier jurisprudential queries.

Geç Orta Çağ’da Fransisken ve Dominiken Mimarisi

Dilenci tarikatlar, Geç Orta Çağ İtalya ve Fransa’sında ticaret ve kentlerin canlanması, manastır cemaatlerinde reform ve kutsallık anlayışının değişmesi sonucu ortaya çıktı. Bu çalışmanın amacı Fransisken ve Dominikenler’in özgün mimari anlayışlarını ve bunun İtalyan komünleri ile Gotik mimari üzerindeki etkilerini incelemektir. Dilenci tarikatlar, Sistersiyan yönetmeliği ile Sistersiyan mimarisini benimsediler. Üst örtüsü ahşap kirişli nef sistemini çapraz tonozlu, düz biten koro yeri ile ana altarın yanında şapellerle tamamladılar. 13. yüzyılın sonundan itibaren diğer kiliseler de bu yapı tipini benimseyince dilenci tarikatlar Gotik mimarinin Batı’da homojen bir görünüm sunmasını sağladı. İtalya’daki tüccar ve bankerler mezar şapellerinin hamiliğini üstlendiklerinde komünün katedraline rakip kült mekanlar oluştu. Cemaat rahipleri tepki olarak kendi kiliselerinde de uygun gömü alanları yarattılar. Anıtsal dilenci kiliseleri, içinde bulundukları kentsel mekanı da dönüştürdü. Biraderler kiliselerin çevresindeki arazileri çeşitli ihtiyaçlarını gidermek için satın aldılar. Bu kiliselere açılan sokaklar genişletilip meydanlar inşa edildi. Fransisken ve Dominiken vaizler buralara kürsüler koyup vaaz vererek geleneksel Hristiyan ritüel mekanlarını değiştirdiler.

Between Courtoom and Castello: A Tuscan Dispute’s Social and Procedural Profile

The role of institutions and judicial procedure in conflict resolution is a significant theme in recent scholarship on the later medieval Italian communes. It is usually difficult, however, to trace these themes in their broader social context, especially in rural communities. This article demonstrates judicial procedure’s role in a conflict between the notary Andrea and the magnate Bartolomeo in the parish of Latera during the 1340s. Its evidentiary basis consists of civic tribunals’ procedural registers, notarial cartularies, and legislation. The article excavates the relationship between institutional procedures, social networks, and local conflict on the eve of the Black Death.

Rural People and Public Justice in Fourteenth-Century Tuscany

Accounts of public justice in the Italian communes emphasize mediation of urban conflicts, overlooking interactions between rural communities and civic tribunals. Foregrounding the countryside reveals how nonelites responded to public courts and procedures such as anonymous denunciation and ex officio inquisition. This article argues that a Florentine court's outcomes resulted from the intersection of institutional structures, local power relations, and rural inhabitants’ in-court behavior. It uses procedural records in conjunction with notarial cartularies and public documentation to explicate the local dynamics shaping testimony. Claiming ignorance was rural peoples’ tactical response to elite malefactors' enmeshment with the commune as rural proxies.

Medieval and Renaissance Rome: Mending the divide

AbstractHistorians of late medieval and renaissance Italy have long seen the fourteenth century as a dramatic period of upheaval and transformation. Yet despite the fact that Rome has long fascinated scholars, the city's fourteenth‐century history is often given short shrift. Only the dazzling figure of Cola di Rienzo consistently draws scholarly attention, resulting in his somewhat exaggerated role in Roman political history. With important exceptions, Anglophone scholars primarily interested in the Italian Renaissance have traditionally begun their histories in the mid‐fifteenth century with the result that fourteenth‐century Rome is largely passed over. The Avignon Papacy, 1309–1377, is seen as a period of abandonment and ruin. The situation is different among scholars, mostly Continental, whose study of fourteenth‐century Rome's social and economic history has been appearing over the last few decades. This historiography, which has largely operated discretely from the Anglophone tradition, has conclusively demonstrated that late medieval Rome must be considered alongside Italy's city communes. This has transformative implications for Roman historiography. Recent work on Rome's earlier medieval history, as well as on the history and character of the Italian communes, suggests that now more than ever there is much to be gained by bringing these discrete strands of scholarship on late medieval Rome to bear on one another.

Comparative analysis of sources for early Italian communes and Pskov 14th-15th centuries

Comparative analysis of sources for early Italian communes and Pskov 14th-15th centuries

The Charms of Women and Priests: Sex, Magic, Gender and Public Order in Late Medieval Italy

How did judicial authorities in late medieval Italy understand the relationship between gender, sexuality, social status, magic and public order, especially when magic was used to facilitate the crime of adultery? What might this reveal about the intersection of gender, magic and public order in a place and time so fraught with political and social tensions? This study qualitatively compares four love‐magic trials from fourteenth‐century Lucca and suggests that the anxieties underpinning these trials were both particular to late medieval Italian communes and projected onto two populations, women and priests, whose unchecked sexuality posed the greatest threat to civic order. Historians examining gender in medieval European magic trials have often treated judicial officials’ anxieties as portents of the ‘witch craze’ of early modern Europe. Historians of medieval Lucca have tended to treat the political and gender histories of the city as largely separate. This article suggests that the courts’ increasing regulation of gender and sexuality in late medieval Lucca reflected larger ecclesiastical and communal concerns about the dissolution of civic order. In a world of civic power that increasingly belonged to secular men, the unchecked sexuality of women and clergy represented a dual threat to the stability of the family and, by extension, the city. This article argues that secular and ecclesiastical judicial officials feared not magic itself, but the ability of magic to invert power relations between men and women and between clergy and laity, destroying public order.

Sleepwalking into a New World: The Emergence of Italian City Communes in the Twelfth Century by Chris Wickham

Reviewed by: Sleepwalking into a New World: The Emergence of Italian City Communes in the Twelfth Centuryby Chris Wickham Michele Campopiano Sleepwalking into a New World: The Emergence of Italian City Communes in the Twelfth Century. By Chris Wickham. [ Lawrence Stone Lectures.] (Princeton: Princeton University Press. 2015. Pp. xii, 305. ISBN 978-0-691-14828-1.) Based on Chris Wickham’s May 2013 Lawrence Stone Lectures, this volume is a study of how the commune—as a new and fundamentally autonomous form of government focused on annually changed consuls—came into existence in northern and central Italy in the twelfth century. This form of government seemed radically innovative to outsiders. One difficult issue confronted by Wickham is the definition of a commune, particularly because of the extreme variety of cases in central and northern Italy. Wickham defines an ideal type based on the following elements: a conscious urban collectivity, a regularly rotating set of magistracies, and a de facto autonomy of action for the city and its magistrates. Wickham’s approach to this theme is path-breaking in a number of ways. He specifically considers whether the development of this new form of government had programmatic and conscious aspects; as he writes, “what did they thinkthey were doing?” (p. 6, emphasis in original). Wickham has a deep knowledge of the previous literature in the [End Page 596]topic and an awareness of how this is linked to debates with broad ideological implications, such as the origins of Renaissance and of Republican forms of government and values (e.g., Quentin Skinner’s The Foundations of Modern Political Thought[New York, 1978]). It is worth noting that the three cases he chooses are Milan, Pisa, and Rome. Whereas the first two cities are usually taken into account in the general narratives of the history of the Italian communes, the inclusion of Rome in the comparison is rather innovative. Rome also represents a clear case in which the new form of administration was developed as conscious opposition to previous forms of political hegemony in the city. Wickham’s work connects in particular to two important contributions to the origins of communes: Hagen Keller’s Adelsherrschaft und städtische Gesellschaft in Oberitalien, 9. bis 12. Jahrhundert(Tübingen, 1979), and Jean-Claude Maire Vigueur’s Cavaliers et citoyens(Paris, 2003). These two volumes have been crucial to the discussion of the nature of the ruling elites of the early communes. Based in particular on the evidence of Milan, Keller had argued that this elite was divided into defined strata ( ordines) led by the military aristocracy (pp. 11–12). Vigueur subsequently argued that the political core of the commune was the collectivity of mounted knights of every city, which extended beyond a small group of feudo-vassallic aristocrats (p. 13). Wickham refers instead to three levels of elites: a richer and usually more signorial first level, a second level that was prosperous but did not own castles, and a third level of “medium elite” with fewer properties (p. 191). This second level was more clearly associated with the consuls, the main magistracy of the communes, which would have also formed the core of Vigueur’s militia. Wickham links the development of the early commune to the vacuum of power created by the decline of the public role of the Kingdom of Italy, in particular of the tradition of placitathat was connected to it (p. 28). A similar vacuum can be found also in Rome, with the decline of Roman bureaucracy and public government (pp. 122–25). This argument connects thematically to previous works by Wickham, including his Early Medieval Italy: Central Power and Local Society, 400–1000(London, 1980), in which he stressed the public function of the Kingdom of Italy. This tradition was discontinued, but it also represented a model for later polities. The early assemblies of citizens that marked the early commune period were also, to a certain extent, a form of defensive reaction against the crisis of the kingdom (p. 195). Other factors contributed to the creation of political cohesion in different areas, such as the presence of common land to manage, or the necessity of creating a common...

Sleepwalking into a new world: the emergence of Italian city communes in the twelfth century

Sleepwalking into a new world: the emergence of Italian city communes in the twelfth century

Interpretation of Historical Facts in Modern Italian Literature by the Example of Umberto Eco’s Novel “Baudolino”

The article is devoted to interpretation of historical facts in Umberto Eco's novel " Baudolino ". The subject of interpretation in the novel is medieval history, in particular, the reign of the emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Eco uses the typical for the historical novel method, which is the combination of facts from chronicles and fictional elements; the events are shown by the eyes of an invented character Baudolino. Emphasizing the connection between history and modernity, Eco proposes to revise the stereotypes associated with the mentioned historical period. The portraits of historical figures are borrowed from the chronicles, however in the novel they get more emotional in the perception of the protagonist, typical cliches are replaced by individuality. The opposition of italian communes to the government of Frederick also becomes a part of Baudolino's personal history. The interpretation of many events is based on legendary sources, including local tales of the italian city Alessandria, the legends of Grail and of Prester John. The legendary material fills in the gaps in medieval history. Many events (in particular, the participation of Barbarossa in the Third Crusade) correspond to the chronicles in the descriptive part, however they acquire a fictional motivation. The mystery of the emperor's death is solved in a detective key. The novel presents various doctrines elaborated in the imperial office of Frederick, their authorship is attributed to Baudolino. In the novel «Baudolino» Umberto Eco not only interprets creatively certain facts of the past, but he also practices the postmodern concept of history, according to which the past is unknowable as objective and ultimate truth and therefore it exists only in the form of a narrative. The past and the present have no fundamental difference, the history is always interpreted from the perspective of the present.

Disciplina della parola, educazione del cittadino. Analisi del Liber de doctrina dicendi et tacendi di Albertano da Brescia

Between the 12th and the 13th century the institutional evolution that took place in the Italian Communes determines a change into the communicative practices. This phenomen was accompanied by a new consideration of speech. This paper examines the Liber de doctrina dicendi et tacendi, written by Albertanus of Brescia in 1245. According to this author, in order to guarantee common good and civil harmony, the power of language to affect both society and individuals requires rules and regulations that lead people to an ethical use of the speech.

Writing and the Administration of Medieval Towns: Medieval Urban Literacy I ed. by Marco Mostert and Anna Adamska (review)

Reviewed by: Writing and the Administration of Medieval Towns: Medieval Urban Literacy I ed. by Marco Mostert and Anna Adamska Nicholas Brodie Mostert, Marco and Anna Adamska, eds, Writing and the Administration of Medieval Towns: Medieval Urban Literacy I (Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy, 27), Turnhout, Brepols, 2014; hardback; pp. xvi, 366; 26 b/w illustrations; R.R.P. €90.00; ISBN 9782503549590. This volume addresses ‘institutional’ or ‘civic’ literacy through a collection of ‘articles discussing the production, uses, and preservation of records for the purposes of municipal administration’ (p. 4). Several areas of contribution to scholarship stand out. Firstly, the very particularity of the contributions goes some way to helping the reader spot what is geographically or chronologically particular, and what is more commonly European. Secondly, this volume puts a wide range of research on European archives, towns, and literacy into English. Thirdly, the researchers present many methodological propositions that will have broader application beyond their own particular studies. Finally, there is an excellent and consistent focus on the surviving written word: its production, use, destruction, storage, survival, and how it has been and can be studied. Some urban exemplars open the collection. Inger Larsson examines the shift from runic to Latin script in Swedish towns, highlighting early literacy. Geertrui Van Synghel explores the relationship between town and region in ’s-Hertogenbosch, suggesting that rural–urban dynamic influenced the production and keeping of records. Hannes Obermair suggests the Alpine towns were in a unique ‘creole’ cultural border zone worthy of further study. José López-Villalba’s insightful study of Castilian urban chanceries would make a good reference paper for scholars contemplating medieval and early modern town archives. Jeroen Benders examined the north-eastern Low Countries, introducing the archival prospects and particularities of the region. Katalin Szende situates medieval Hungarian towns within wider Western European historiographical concerns, providing a welcome focus on the materiality of written sources. Agnieszka Bartoszewicz surveys record-makers and record making in small Polish towns in connection with universities and legal culture. Part II of the volume focuses on urban archives as ‘places of power, memory, and secrets’. Here, a variety of case studies explore a range of issues that will generally be of interest beyond their particular settings. Andreas Litschel explores oral forms of communication in a period of documentary proliferation, arguing that archival developments stem from systemic and procedural modes, rather than necessarily being a demonstration of increasing urban governance and control. Hannes Lowagie looks at political [End Page 199] motivations behind the copying, circulation, and preservation of particular documents in Ghent. It nicely complements the preceding paper, similarly drawing attention to the processes of archive formation that do not conform to teleological narratives of the rise of government. Sarah Rees Jones charts civic literacy in England, and argues that a greater comparative approach is needed for future studies. Michael Jucker focuses on urban secrecy, linking surviving archival collections to their political context. Christoph Weber illustrates how secrecy and confidentiality were normal elements of urban business in Italian Communes. Bastian Walter examines cedulae inclusae in the Burgundian Wars in terms of manipulation of events, shared policies, and the fostering of trust and reciprocity. In Part III, the focus shifts to the litterati. Branka Grbavac examines the professional formation of notaries in Dalmatia, draws interesting conclusions about the shifting composition in notaries’ backgrounds, and highlights regional links with north-central Italy. Ágnes Flóra focuses on the notaries of Transylvania, arguing that there is evidence of continuity in practices through the medieval and early modern periods, and points out how the notary was an important local official with duties and responsibilities that extended significantly beyond the role of a clerk. Marco Mostert then concludes the volume with a welcome discussion of schools and education. Nicholas Brodie The University of Tasmania Copyright © 2014 Nicholas Brodie

Debito, restituzione e fiscalità dalla città agli imperi. Teologi e tasse nella prima età moderna

This paper addresses the relationship between theology, debt, taxes and evasion between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, above all by comparing the idea of sevitus to that of citizenship. In the world of Italian and European communes, theological reflection faced the question of the legitimacy of gains derived from forced loans to subsidize the public debt. In the monachical context, the scholastic tradition gradually legitimized the regular and direct tax levy by the sovereign over his subjects. In the early modern period the growht of the tax burden and the public debt pushed some theologians to question the legitimacy of the charges and to cast doubt on claims that tax laws were binding on the consciences of the faithful, as the moral lexicon linked to the city or to the idea of a contract between the monarchy and the body social was fading. In Spain, theological discussion concerning taxes had a unique character because the bull of Cruzada granted to the sovereigns the alms paid by the faithful to fulfill the precept of restitution of the turpia lucra, including evaded taxes.