Per una rilettura del Silete theologi in munere alieno (De iure belli libri tres, I.XII) di Alberico Gentili

“Silete theologi in munere alieno” (De iure belli, I.XII) and “Sileant theologi: nec alienam temnant temere disciplinam” (De nuptiis I.V), are two well-known expressions used by Alberico Gentili between the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th. The author investigates the premises by studying the thought of the regius professor of civil law at Oxford about the relationship between law, theology and religion as well as the roles and competences of the theologian and the jurist respectively. Many of the Gentili’s works on these issues appeared between 1585 and 1593: De legationibus libri tres (1585), De iure belli Commentatio prima (1588), Commentatio ad legem III. Codicis de professoribus et medicis (1593). In addition, an epistolary controversy between Gentili and the puritan theologian John Rainolds over this topic occurred in the years 1593-1594. The correspondence, recently edited, heralds the final Gentili’s position, which will be completely expressed in the De iure belli (1598) and Book I of Disputationum de nuptiis libri VII (1601).