Abstract
<p>In the fifth book of his legal-theological summa ›De legibus ac Deo legislatore‹ from 1612, Francisco Suárez develops the basis for a theory of punishment. In doing so, the Conimbricensian theologian, philosopher and jurist succeeds in defining and justifying punishment in its legal-theoretical essence and its legal-practical function by deriving the »poena« as a necessary moment of every theory of law. The complex relationship between punishment and sin is also precisely defined. Book V of ›De legibus‹, presented here for the first time in German translation, documents the innovative conceptions of a philosophy and theology of punishment that was to influence the early modern development of political theory in reception and criticism up to the 18th century.</p>