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22 Am. J. Legal Hist. 309 (1978)
The Remonstrance of the Irish Princes and the Canon Law Tradition of the Just War

handle is hein.journals/amhist22 and id is 317 raw text is: The Remonstrance of the Irish Princes and the Canon Law Tradition of the Just War* by JAMES MULDOON** The great sixteenth century debate about the rights of infidels that the expansion of European society overseas had generated among intellectuals, lawyers and humanitarians was the culmination of a lengthy process of development.1 The intellectual roots of the debate reached back to the twelfth century. The framework within which the Spanish participants in the debate, men like Francis Vitoria and Bartholomew de Las Casas, functioned when considering the plight of the inhabitants of the Americas had been created by the canon lawyers of the thirteenth century. These medieval lawyers had been interested in the problem of relations between medieval Christendom and the peoples who lived along its borders. A fourteenth century compiler of papal documents concerning Christian contacts with the non-Christian world described the contents of his compilation as letters concerning the affairs of the Tartars, the lands of outre-mer, of infidels, and of schismatics.''2 If one added to this the phrase of heretics and Jews as well, one would have a complete list of the various kinds of people who existed outside the bounds of Christian society. To be extra ecclesiam it was not necessary to live outside the territorial bounds of Christendom.3 Heretics, schismatics, Jews, and Moslems dwelling in Europe were as much outside the Church * An earlier version of this paper was delivered at the Eleventh Conference on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University, May, 1976. ** Associate Professor History, Rutgers University, Camden. 1. The most recent survey of the literature concerning this development is James Muldoon, The Contribution of the Medieval Canon Lawyers to the formation of International Law: A Bibliographical Survey, Traditio 28 (1972) 483-97. See also, Kenneth J. Pennington, Jr., Bartholome de Las Casas and the Tradition of Medieval Law, Church History 39 (1970) 149-61. 2. Vatican Register 62, fol.l*r. This register and its significance are dis- cussed in J. Gay, Clhment VI et les aflaires d'Orient (Paris, 1904) 8-9. 3. Concerning the notions of Christendom and of Europe, see Denys Hay, Europe, the Emergence of an Idea, 2nd ed. (Edinburgh, 1968).

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