Francisco de Vitoria as a Precursor of Dignitatis Humanae’s Teaching on Religious Liberty

Scholarship on the history of Dignitatis Humanae has largely overlooked the relationship between the declaration’s teaching on religious liberty and the thought of Francisco de Vitoria. The article fills this lacuna in scholarly literature, arguing that Vitoria’s writings articulate a right to religious liberty that anticipates Dignitatis Humanae’s teaching. Specifically, both Vitoria and the Vatican II document derive a right to religious liberty from man’s natural law obligation to seek religious truth. Though they differ as to the practical scope of this right, the structure of their arguments for the existence of a right to religious freedom is identical. This fact establishes Vitoria as a precursor to Dignitatis Humanae and therefore suggests that the declaration has important antecedents in the scholastic philosophical and theological tradition.