“For being ignorants and won't know what they doing”: The Iberian Peace School and the debate on (in)vencible ignorance at the universities of Coimbra and Évora (16th and 17th century)

Abstract

The article analyzes the debate on the Thomist concept of (in)vincible ignorance among the authors of the Iberian Peace School, with emphasis on professors who worked at the Universities of Coimbra and Évora throughout the second half of the 16th century and the first years of the 17th century. A topic that has long been debated within the scope of Christian theological thought, the possibility of
ignorance about sin exempting the sinner from guilt resurfaced in the context of the relationship between Western Europe and the people of the New World, when
it became essential to examine the degree of responsibility or not of the indigenous person given their total lack of knowledge of the Christian faith, as well as assessing whether the presumed innocence of the indigenous people,
arising from an “invincible ignorance” of God, would be capable of excusing them from the “sins” committed. In this way, treatises by authors who, although not
dealing directly with the topic, contributed to the affirmation of the principle that, on the one hand, ignorance, when invincible, totally excuses sin, will be analyzed, but, on the other, when intentional or easily refutable, does not exempt the subject from guilt.