Juan de Mariana: biography of this Jesuit and intellectual of the Golden Age

Among the many personalities that represent the heyday of Spain in the 16th century, Juan de Mariana is one of them.

We will go through the most important moments in the life of this author through a biography of Juan de Mariana, in order to be aware of the importance of his legacy and the height of his critical thinking, which even caused him problems with the ecclesiastical establishment, as we will see later.

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Brief biography of Juan de Mariana

Juan de Mariana was born in the Toledo town of Talavera de la Reina, in the year 1536. Since his own birth, he had a certain stigma, since his father, Juan Martínez de Mariana, was a religious position, known as dean. Therefore, his relationship with Bernardina Rodríguez was not decent under the morality of that time.

Early years and youth

After spending his entire childhood in Talavera de la Reina and receiving his education in that municipality, he reached the age necessary to continue his higher education. He decided, for this, to go to Alcalá de Henares, in whose university

he was able to train in arts and theology.

This was the turning point in his life, as this place allowed him to fully immerse himself in the humanist environment that reigned there. Not only that, but the same day that he registered for university studies, Juan de Mariana also became a member of the Society of Jesus, that is, a Jesuit. One of his most famous companions was Luis de Molina, who would become another of the personalities of the time.

Both were under the orders of Francisco de Borja, who would later be sanctified by the Church. His formation in this religious order caused Juan de Mariana to move, first to Simancas, in Valladolid, and later to Rome, where he completed his instruction. In fact, for years to come, he himself would be a professor at this Jesuit college.

After his stay in Rome, he continued moving to other Italian towns, such as Loreto and Palermo., where he transmitted the teachings of the Society of Jesus. When the year 1569 arrived, Juan de Mariana undertook a new journey, this time to the French capital, Paris, to obtain the degree of doctor of theology.

In Paris he lived for five years teaching at the Sorbonne University. But he also witnessed dramatic events, such as the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew, an episode of the French Wars of Religion, in which he murdered a multitude of faithful Huguenots. In 1574, Juan de Mariana left the prestigious Parisian institution to return to Spain.

I return to spain

Back to his native land, Juan de Mariana resumed teaching, in this case in one of the Jesuit schools, located precisely in Toledo. It was from this time that he wrote some of his main works. The renown that his training and experience had brought him earned him the Church to entrust him with important tasks, such as monitoring religious texts to make a judgment about the appropriateness or otherwise of the texts themselves.

These tasks were delicate, as they required a thorough study in order to reach a valid conclusion, and for this, an extensive knowledge of theology was needed, precisely like the ones that Juan de Mariana he had. He supervised, for example, the Antwerp Royal or Polyglot Bible, or the Manual for the Administration of the Sacraments.

He was also entrusted with other tasks, such as the creation of the "Expurgatory Index", or rewriting works that already existed, such as the "Acts of the diocesan councils of Toledo", in the year 1582. But Juan de Mariana was also interested in publishing his own creations. One of his great projects was nothing less than a collection in thirty volumes on the history of Spain..

These books were published in Latin as Hispaniae de rebus Hispaniae Libri XXX, and later in Spanish, as "General History of Spain". Actually, he did not cover history until his own time, since it closed with the death of Ferdinand II of Aragon, the Catholic. The reason was nothing less than not dealing with more recent issues, whose point of view would have been controversial for certain sectors.

Conflicts with the Church and power

Throughout his career, Juan de Mariana had several disagreements with the civil authorities. Among them, two were especially serious. Let's get to know them in depth.

One of them had its origin in the publication of a work entitled De rege et regis institutione (Of the king and the royal institution). Said book was mandated by García Loaysa, tutor of none other than King Felipe III of Spain.

The French authorities, however, were not satisfied with the publication of this volume, as Henry IV of France had been assassinated, and They considered that among the ideas that Juan de Mariana's book emanated, a certain legitimacy could be sensed to that regicide, or rather, tyrannicide. The decision of the French parliament was to burn all copies of the work.

Juan de Mariana had written this book with the intention of criticizing Machiavellianism. The Jesuit, in this work, he describes how a king should act and makes it clear that, before morality and before the State itself, he should be considered like any other citizen, so he would have the same obligations as any other person.

He talks about prudence as the maximum rule that every king should follow. He even dares to talk about taxes and how the monarch must ensure that they are not excessive so that the workers can continue producing without having obstacles from the State to it. In short, he would be anticipating some of the principles that economic liberalism would later pick up.

What Juan de Mariana intended with this work was warn about the risks that an excess of power of the leaders of the State had, as well as the possibility that a king ends up becoming a tyrant, which is why the book was banned in France, as we have already mentioned above.

We have said that there were two most important conflicts that Juan de Mariana experienced with the powers as a result of his works. The second of them was generated as a result of the publication of the volume De monetae mutatione, belonging to a larger collection, entitled tractatus septem. One of the topics covered in the book in question is inflation.

And more specifically, the fact that caused a serious problem for Juan de Mariana, were the descriptions that he made about certain strategies carried out by some leaders to modify the value of the currency, with the objective of being able to face certain State expenses, but having inflation as an immediate consequence, that is, the loss of value of the currency.

King Felipe III considered that in that volume he was making a veiled allusion to some Spanish ministers, for which he ordered that he be arrested and imprisoned.. Juan de Mariana was imprisoned for almost a year and a half for this matter.

Although these were the two major conflicts the author faced because of his writing, they were not the only ones. His own religious order, the Society of Jesus, was also the subject of one of his books, Discourse on the Things of the Company. As a result of this volume, the high command of the Jesuits fell out with Juan de Mariana.

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Last years

Installed in Toledo since his return to Spain, although with a visit to Madrid because of his stay in prison ordered by Felipe III in the year 1607, Juan de Mariana spent the rest of his life in that province Castilian.

He lived to be 87 years old, continuing to publish new works even when he was already so old.. The last volume he wrote was "Escolios al Antiguo y Nuevo Testamento".

Finally, Juan de Mariana died in the year 1624, in the same province where he was born.

Juan de Mariana Institute

Juan de Mariana's ideas are still valid today. So much so that, in 2005, a think tank named after him was founded, the Juan de Mariana Institute. This institution advocates completely liberal economic policies, such as those that could be glimpsed in some of the works of this author, several centuries ago.

Economists of recognized prestige have collaborated with the Juan de Mariana Institute, such as Jesús Huerta de Soto or Juan Ramón Rallo, great exponents of economic liberalism in Spain.

Bibliographic references:

• DeMariana, J. (1880). Of the king and of the royal institution. The Select.
• By the way, J.I.G. (1999). The monetary economy of Father Juan de Mariana.
• DeSoto, J.H. (2013). Juan de Mariana and the Spanish scholastics. Dendra Medical. Humanities Magazine.
• Merle, A. (2014). Juan de Mariana's De rege (1599) and the question of tyrannicide: a breaking speech? Carper.