Alfonso de Castro

Alfonso de Castro, OFM (* 1495 in Zamora, † 1558 in Brussels), also known as Alphonsus a Castro, was a Franciscan theologian and jurist. It belongs to the group of theologians jurists of the Spanish Late Scholasticism or the School of Salamanca.

Life

Alfonso de Castro joined with 15 years in the Franciscan and acquired the reputation of a good preacher. After studying theology and philosophy at the University of Alcalá, he became a professor at the University of Salamanca, where he was the "renaissance of theology " well-founded alongside Luis Carvajal and Francisco de Vitoria. In 1532 he joined in Bruges against the Lutheran doctrine. He pursued the same goal with his work as a consultant Charles V and Philip. II. , He became an advocate of the Spanish- imperial interests and the Catholic faith against the Lutherans Through its commitment to the Council of Trent 1545-47 and 1551-52. Philip II, the Castro had 1553/54 accompanied to England for the wedding, the end of 1557 made ​​him Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela, but Castro did not occur at this office. In his last years, Castro served as preacher in Antwerp.

Works

In his work, Castro devoted primarily to the criminal defense of the "true faith." Here Castro benefited the independence of his approach. The criminal received by him considerable systematic impulses so that he as the founder of the criminal law in Spanish literature - applies - padre y del Derecho Penal fundador. Outside Spain, Castro has hitherto almost unknown.

His first work, adversos omnes haereses libri XIV ( Paris 1534 Antwerp 1556 ), represents an alphabetical encyclopedia of heresy, in which more than 400 species are enumerated. The work became the basis of Häresieverfolgung and even translated into French in 1712. 1537 and 1540 published two books Castro Sermones.

Dedicated By 1547, published in Salamanca, Charles V 's De iusta hereticorum punitione libri III Castro was so well known that he was called the " scourge of heretics " ( azote de herejes ) ​​. With theological and legal principles it is determined the fair midway between Pharisaic condemnation and cowardly toleration of heresy, the kind of return to the true faith, the penalty to the tenacity and the socio- religious reasons for heresy.

With the equality of magic and heresy Castro employs in his short commentary on maleficarum Malleus ( Hammer of Witches ), De impia sortilegarum, Maleficarum, & Lamiarum haeresi, earumque punitione Opvscvlvm (Lyon 1568). According to Castro, the magic is to punish heresy and like this with a fiery death. Core of the allegation is of a pact with the demon that is contrary to the Catholic faith by the magician the demon and not Christ worships and offers him power over his will. Castro stands but on the moderate point of Canon Law ( Canon episcopi ), as it were of many theologians and jurists in the 16th century. The devil is then not a physical being, but only a spirit. According pact with the devil, and Teufelscoitus coven exist only in the imagination, but not in reality.

As Castro's criminal justice major work may eventually publish the 1550 in Salamanca De potestate legis poenalis libri duo (reprint Madrid 1961) apply, in which he extensively deals with the concept of criminal law, with the nature and purpose of the punishment and the relationships between crime and punishment. Castro developed is not only the criminal prohibition of analogy and the principle of restrictive interpretation, but pointed in his own radicalism of the concept of punishment ( poena ) entirely on the guilt penalty and equips him for the first time with a moral censure. This moral theology colored penalty term came about Martin de Diego de Covarrubias y Azpilcueta and Leyva canon law and from there to secular criminal law.

After Castro's death, the collected works were published in Paris in 1565 in four volumes.