Divine Law and Canon Law in Francisco Suárez’s "De legibus" (1612): Back to the Juridical Foundations of the Counter-Reformation

Abstract

This article looks at the topic of ‘divine law in ecclesiastical law’ from the point of view of the so-called ‘legalistic tradition in canon law.’ This tradition is often linked to developments in canon law in the 16th and 17th centuries. For reasons of space and feasibility, this article focuses on the discussion of ‘the new divine law’ (lex divina nova) in Francisco Suárez’s De legibus ac Deo legislatore (1612). The first part of the article clarifies Suárez’s conception of divine law, before going on and analysing the doctor eximius’s view of the relationship between divine law and canon law. In the third and final part of the article, Suárez’s treatment of the new divine law is placed against the backdrop of the post-Tridentine and counter-reformist attack on Protestants, more precisely against their anti-legal reinterpretation of the Gospel.