Abstract:

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494) offers a proposal for preserving religious peace in his well-known book Oratio elegantissima (1486). The intellectual, whose work is recognized as the manifesto of Italian humanism, opens his Novecento Tesi with the intention of demonstrating that Christianity is the peaceful meeting point of all existing cultural, theological, philosophical and, especially, religious traditions. Innocent VIII hindered his project of religious peace, but Fernán Peréz de Oliva (1492–1533) and Juan Luis Vives (1493–1540) took it upon themselves to introduce it and spread it in the Hispanic-speaking lands. It was the Valencian philosopher, in voluntary exile in Antwerp, who wrote a treatise entitled De concordia et discordia in 1529, inviting us to reflect on the devastating consequences of belligerent activity. He shares with Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466–1536) the rejection of the concept of “just war” (bellum iustium) and of every possible manifestation of militarism. For the Spanish humanist, politics can fulfil its most noble functions, only in favour of the achievement of peaceful international coexistence. Therefore, we present a comparison between the principles of religious peace of Pico and the concept of political peace in Vives, in order to shed light on two philosophical perspectives converging in the defense of universal peace.

Author: Manuel López Forjas , Veronica Tartabini