The power of truth: politics and religion in the political thought of the seventeenth century

Abstract

In this paper, I propose an interpretation of the works of Pedro Ribadeneyra, Baltasar Alamos de Barrientos, Pedro Barbosa Homen, Diego Saavedra Fajardo, Baltasar Gracian and José Alfonso Lancina. In the first part I argue that Ribadeneyra and Alamos are the two poles between which the Spanish political thought moves. Both defend the monarchical system and understand that politics is spiritually subordinated to religion. However, they differ because Ribadeneyra proposes an orthodox re-articulation of politics to moral and religious obligations, while Álamos clearly assumes political realism and gives full autonomy to the reason of state. In the second and the third part I intend to demonstrate that Barbosa, Saavedra and Gracian take as their starting point ideas similar to that of Ribadeneyra, but they propose a progressive autonomy and secularization of politics. In that vein, Lancina finally separates politics from morality, but without abandoning the spiritual subordination to God. In the last part, I analyze the opinions of the authors on the links between the State and the Church. Based on this question, I conclude that the Spanish political thought is a way to reflect and strengthen the Habsburg monarchy.