San Agustín en el gran debate sobre los pobres: 1545-1599 (de Domingo de Soto y Juan de Robles hasta Pérez de Herrera y Mateo Alemán)

• Main Author: Michel Cavillac
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Presses universitaires du Mirail 2013-07-01
• Series: Criticón
• Subjects: Agustín San; Alemán Mateo; limosna; pobres; reforma; Robles fray Juan de
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/criticon/301

This contribution analyses some references to the Augustine’s doctrine about alms that appear in the Declaración en la causa de los pobres by fray Domingo de Soto and, especially, in the Remedio de los verdaderos pobres by fray Juan de Robles, treatises written in 1545 in order to criticise or justify the poor relief new policy established in Castile by the Tavera Law (1540-1544). Our conclusion is that a vast majority of quotations from St. Augustine mobilised as part of this controversy locates the Bishop of Hippo on the side of the Moderns concerned —as Robles against Soto— about balancing mercy and justice. Alluded between 1579 and 1598 by Canon Giginta and Dr. Pérez de Herrera, these references were obviously familiar to the reader of Primera parte de Guzmán de Alfarache (1599). So, it is shown how Alemán took adventage of the Augustinian echoes of Robles’ discourse to challenge implicitly several “exemplary” anecdotes or moralities relating to charity and its role in the economy of salvation.