The Historical Recovery of Sebastian Castellio in the 20th Century

around the concepts of Tolerance and Freedom of Conscience

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to study the concepts of religious tolerance and freedom of conscience that emerged in the sixteenth century, particularly in the Treatise on Heretics, by the humanist Sebastian Castellio. The first part explores Castellio’s political-intellectual presence in the Calvinist Reformed context. Later, I elaborate a disquisition on the particular features that the notions of tolerance and freedom of conscience acquire in Castellio’s thought. I will show that the metaphysical foundation of these proposals lies in the belief in a natural law engraved in the human heart, which is perceived through natural reason. This will serve us to observe how the humanist’s ideas are linked to a certain modern enlightened morality. Finally, it will be appreciated that in the last decades of the Nineteenth Century began a process of assimilation and reception of Castellio as a central intellectual in the argumentation for the secular state, pacifism and the abolition of totalitarian ideologies.