HUMANISM AND POLITICS. FOR THE PURPOSE OF ARIAS MONTANO AND HIS RELATIONS WITH PORTUGAL

In spite of the quiet kept by historical sources, the Spanish humanist Benito Arias Montano played a fundamental part in the annexation of Portugal to Philip II's empire. However, it was not a diplomatic mission but an intervention neatly humanistic which he materialized through the production of two documents. The objective of this study to analyse the second one of these documents, where an appropriate quotation to Saint Isidore of Seville emphasizes not only Montano's theological erudition but, above all, his capability for applying the Humanism to the historical, political panorama of this period.