Lutheran Theology and Contract Law in Early Modern Germany (ca. 1520-1720)

Christian contract law and the morality of the market

“…In similar fashion, Protestant theologians such as Osiander borrowed extensively from the Catholic theologians in their treatment of contractual issues in works on moral theology. 30 In a chapter of his Theology by Cases (1680), Osiander elaborated upon the notion of promise, emphasizing the need for promises to be accepted in order to become binding. He extensively borrowed from theologians such as Sylvester Mazzolini da Prierio (1456-1523), a Dominican theologian and author of one of the most important manuals for confessors in the Catholic tradition.…”

Philip Melanchthon’s Moral Philosophy between Scholasticism and Lutheranism

“…4 Until not too long ago it would have been true to say that not much had been written on this aspect of Melanchthon's thought, and that the main studies were still those by Kahlert (1953;1956;1957) and Bauer (1958). But this situation has now changed, especially due to the work of Paolo Astorri (2019a;2019b;2019c), who depicts Luther and Melanchthon as the two pillars of a Lutheran doctrine of contract law. See, in addition, Keen 1990, 271-274;Witte 2002, 135-136;Schmoeckel 2018. to this tradition were Jean Gerson's De contractibus, 1 and Biel's Tractatus de potestate et utilitate monetarum.…”