This volume investigates the paradigm changes which occurred in ethics during the early modern era (1350-1600). While many general claims have been made regarding the nature of moral philosophy in the period of transition from medieval to modern thought, the rich variety of extant texts has seldom been studied and discussed in detail. The present collection attempts to do this. It provides new research on ethics in the context of Late Scholasticism, Neo-Scholasticism, Renaissance Humanism and the Reformation. It traces the fate of Aristotelianism and of Stoicism, explores specific topics such as probabilism and casuistry, and highlights the connections between Protestant theology and early modern ethics. The book also examines how the origins of human rights, as well as different views of moral agency, the will and the emotions, came into focus on the eve of modernity.

Target audience: students of medieval, Renaissance and Reformation history; students of the history of philosophy, ethics and theology; those interested in humanism, human rights and the history of law.

Scholastics and Neo-Scholastics.- Sources and Authorities for Moral Philosophy in the Italian Renaissance: Thomas Aquinas and Jean Buridan on Aristotle's Ethics.- Action, Will and Law in Late Scholasticism.- Michael Baius (1513-89) and the Debate on 'Pure Nature': Grace and Moral Agency in Sixteenth-Century Scholasticism.- On the Anatomy of Probabilism.- Casuistry and the Early Modern Paradigm Shift in the Notion of Charity.- Theories of Human Rights and Dominion.- Poverty and Power: Franciscans in Later Medieval Political Thought.- The Franciscan Background of Early Modern Rights Discussion: Rights of Property and Subsistence.- Justification through Being: Conrad Summenhart on Natural Rights.- Ethics in Luther's Theology: The Three Orders.- The Reason of Acting: Melanchthon's Concept of Practical Philosophy and the Question of the Unity and Consistency of His Philosophy.- Natural Philosophy and Ethics in Melanchthon.- Ethics in Early Calvinism.- Aristotelianism and Anti-Stoicism in Juan Luis Vives's Conception of the Emotions.- The Humanist as Moral Philosopher: Marc-Antoine Muret's 1585 Edition of Seneca.