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The right of the poor to free movement — Domingo de Soto

1545 AD · Transmission: Silenced
LawLegalHispanic

In 1544 the Crown of Castile approves an Instruction severely restricting begging outside one's place of origin. Domingo de Soto publishes on January 30, 1545 his Deliberación en la causa de los pobres, a treatise opposing that legislation, defending the poor's right to beg freely and move across municipal and kingdom borders in search of relief. The treatise generated an almost immediate reply from the Benedictine Juan de Robles, favoring a more restrictive system, giving rise to one of the most documented moral-legal debates of 16th-century Spain on the limits of civil power to regulate the lives of the most vulnerable.

InstitutionUniversity of Salamanca
Historical regionCrown of Castile
Primary sourceDomingo de Soto, Deliberación en la causa de los pobres (Salamanca, January 30, 1545)
Secondary sourceSantolaria Sierra, F. (2003); Soto, D. de (2006), ed. Martínez Casado, A.
Original languageCastilian
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