Abstract

The essays joined in this volume investigate the role of the religious reform movements since the 16th century in the transformation of the Western legal tradition, focussing on a particular topic: how Jurisprudence had to deal with the reference to conscience, virulent for all confessional positions. Research on the teachings of Lutheran, Calvinist, and Roman Catholic theologians and jurists from the 16th up to the early 18th century, most often examined separately, is brought together in a comparative perspective. The essays comprise studies on legal concepts of conscience and on their implementation in the teachings in Public Law and in Canon or Ecclesiastical Law from the perspectives of theology, law, and philosophy.