This distinction was crucial for the history of early modern monarchies: the conflict between state and church ceased to be concerned with physical persons and was no longer a contest for the consciences of subjects. The king has jurisdiction over the body, the pope over the conscience. Bellarmine presents one of the clearest and most coherent definitions of the nature and aim of temporal authority and its relationship to spiritual authority. He participated in several of the political debates that agitated early modern Europe, such as the controversy over the Oath of Allegiance in England.
Robert Bellarmine was one of the most original and influential political theorists of his time.
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