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Francisco de Vitoria

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Francisco de Vitoria
O.P.
Francisco de Vitoria
Born c. 1483, Burgos or Vitoria
Died 12 August 1546, Salamanca
Religious family Order of Preachers
Chair Prima professor of theology, University of Salamanca
Major works Relectiones on the Indians, civil power, the right of war, and related questions
Ecclesial status Priest of the Order of Preachers; not canonized

Francisco de Vitoria was a Spanish Dominican theologian whose Salamanca relectiones renewed scholastic teaching from the Summa theologiae and shaped Catholic reflection on civil power, the law of nations, just war, and the rights of Indigenous peoples. His arguments are theological-juridical reasoning, not themselves definitions of the Magisterium.[1]

Theological status: Theological synthesis

Overview

Francisco de Vitoria OP (c. 1483 – 12 August 1546), also known as Francisco de Victoria, was a Spanish Catholic philosopher, theologian, and jurist[2] of Renaissance Spain. He is the founder of the tradition in philosophy known as the School of Salamanca, which laid the groundwork for early free-market economics and individual rights, influencing the development of libertarian thought. Vitoria's work on natural law and the freedom of exchange contributed to later Austrian School economists' emphasis on the moral basis for voluntary commerce.[3] Although less known than others of his kind, he has been considered one of the most influential humanists of the Renaissance.[4]

Noted especially for his concept of just war and international law, his defense of individual property rights and the notion of liberty in trade were pivotal in shaping ideas about non-intervention and economic freedom. He has in the past been described by scholars as the "father of international law",[5] along with Alberico Gentili and Hugo Grotius. American jurist Arthur Nussbaum noted Vitoria's influence on international law as it pertained to the right to trade overseas. Later this was interpreted as "freedom of commerce".[6] His emphasis on voluntary exchange and opposition to monopolistic practices foreshadowed later free market economics.[7]

From Paris to the Salamanca chair

Vitoria studied in the Dominican Order and at Paris before taking the principal chair of theology at Salamanca. He made the Summa theologiae the ordinary text of the faculty, a curricular decision that helped define Salamanca Thomism. His classroom lectures circulated in student reports; the famous relectiones are solemn public lectures on questions pressed by Spanish expansion, civil authority, and the Church's mission.[8]

Because the texts survive through a complex reportation, critical editions matter. A sentence in a printed relectio may be Vitoria, a student's compression, or a later editor. That textual caution is part of honesty, not a device for dismissing the school's substance.

Indigenous peoples, dominion, and preaching

Vitoria affirmed that unbelief does not erase natural dominion, political community, or property. Indigenous nations were true polities. Neither the emperor nor the pope possessed a simple lordship of the globe that would make conquest lawful by itself. These theses, argued from Thomist natural law, remain among the most important Catholic resistances to easy justifications of empire.

He also discussed possible titles: the right to travel and trade, the right to preach the Gospel, and cases of tyranny or violation of natural law that might, in his analysis, permit intervention. Those titles are historically conditioned and morally disputed. A Catholic reading neither erases them to produce a modern saint of decolonization nor uses them to bless whatever armies later did. Each title must be weighed against the Gospel, the facts of conquest, and later magisterial teaching on the dignity of peoples.[9]

Just war and the law of nations

The relectio on the right of war gathers authority, cause, and conduct into a Thomist framework: war is not self-justifying; public authority, just cause, and right intention are required; innocents are not lawful targets of slaughter. The ius gentium appears as a law among nations grounded in reason and common custom, not as a mere pact of the strong.

This teaching helped later international law. The genealogy does not make Vitoria a secular founder who happened to wear a habit, nor does it make modern legal institutions acts of the Magisterium. It makes him a Catholic theologian whose tools proved capable of public questions that medieval Europe had not faced in the same form.[10]

Catholic reception

The Church has not canonized Vitoria. His defense of Indigenous rationality and rights is a major Catholic intellectual achievement. His proposals must still be assessed within the colonial structures they addressed. Later popes and the social Magisterium developed related principles of the person, peoples, and peace in their own acts, which outrank a sixteenth-century lecture.[11]

Salamanca Thomism begins in a public way with this friar. To study him is to see Thomism leave the commentary and enter the questions of dominion, war, and mission. To study him honestly is to keep the habit, the Summa, the reportation, and the empire in the same frame without letting any one of them silence the others.

Life

Vitoria was born c. 1483[12] probably in Burgos[13] and was raised in Burgos, the son of Pedro de Vitoria, of Alava, and Catalina de Compludo, both of noble families.[14] According to modern scholarship, he had Jewish ancestry on his maternal side (the Compludos), being related to famous converts like Paul of Burgos and Alfonso de Cartagena.[15] He became a Dominican in 1504, and was educated at the College Saint-Jacques in Paris, where he was influenced by the work of Desiderius Erasmus. He went on to teach theology from 1516 (under the influences of Pierre Crockaert and Thomas Cajetan). In 1522 he returned to Spain to teach theology at the college of Saint Gregory at Valladolid, where many young Dominicans were being trained for missionary work in the New World. In 1524, he was elected to the chair of theology at the University of Salamanca, where he was instrumental in promoting Thomism (the philosophy and theology of St. Thomas Aquinas). Francisco de Vitoria died on 12 August 1546[16] in Salamanca.

Positions on the status of Indigenous Americans

A noted scholar, he was publicly consulted by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain. He worked to limit the type of power the Spanish Empire imposed on the Native Peoples. He said, "The upshot of all the preceding is this, then, that the aborigines undoubtedly had true dominion in both public and private matters, just like Christians, and that neither their princes nor private persons could be despoiled of their property on the ground of their not being true owners."[17] Vitoria denied that the native peoples could be understood as slaves by nature in Aristotelian terms.[18] He adopted from Aquinas the Roman law concept of ius gentium ("the law of nations"). His defense of American Indians was based on a Scholastic understanding of the intrinsic dignity of man, a dignity he found being violated by Spain's policies in the New World.

In three lectures (relectiones) held between 1537 and 1539 Vitoria concluded that the Indians were rightful owners of their property and that their chiefs validly exercised jurisdiction over their tribes. This had already been the position of Palacios Rubios. Neither the pope nor Charles V had a rightful claim over Indian lives or property. No violent action could be taken against them, nor could their lands or property be seized, unless the Indians had caused harm or injury to the Spanish by violating the latter's lawful rights.[19] In one of his lectures, "On the evangelization of unbelievers", Vitoria establishes that firstly, Indians, "should not be forcibly converted; but a second conclusion is that they may be forcibly restrained from hindering the missionaries of the faith, and from insulting Christ and Christians."[20]

Throughout his lecture, "On the evangelization of unbelievers", Francisco de Vitoria employed the concept of what was considered Spanish Christian Universalism. Spanish Christian Universalism was the belief that all matters, arguments, and events were connected in the world, and Vitoria "visualized a universal society in the world into which any number of independent states might fit and foster relationships."[21]

Francisco de Vitoria argued that forcible conversion of the Indians would, "cause great provocation and unrest among the heathen." Secondly, "instead of the benevolent and proper affection required for belief, forcible conversion would generate immense hate in them, and that in turn would give rise to pretense and hypocrisy."[22]

Vitoria defended the Indians against other forms of harm which were being proposed, such as indirectly coercing the Indians into Christianity, "by taxes and levies by which they may be encouraged to become converts to the faith." He argued, "but as for tributes which cannot also be demanded of the faithful, I assert that they cannot be demanded of unbelievers with the intention of making them convert. Unbelievers cannot be deprived of their goods on the grounds of their unbelief, any more than other Christians, because they possess true right of ownership over their own property."[23]

A supporter of the just war theory, in De iure belli Francisco pointed out that the underlying predicate conditions for a "just war" were "wholly lacking in the Indies".[24] The only area where he saw justification for Spanish intervention in native affairs was to protect victims seized for human sacrifice, and because of the inherent human dignity of the victims themselves—whose rights were being violated and thus in need of defense.[24]

Thomas E. Woods goes on to describe how some wished to argue that the natives lacked reason, but the evidence was against this because the natives had obvious customs, laws, and a form of government.[25]

The Spaniards were in the practice of invoking in their American conquests the so-called "Requerimiento", a document read to the Indians before the commencement of any hostilities. The "Requerimiento", declared the universal authority of the Pope, and the authority the Spanish monarchs had received from the Pope over this part of the New World for the purpose of colonizing and evangelizing it. The Indians had to accept the sovereignty of the Spanish monarchs or be compelled to submit by force. Vitoria denied the legitimacy of this document.[14]

Vitoria follows the arguments against Spanish rule of South-American territories by arguments that justify the Spanish practices, which are grounded in natural law. He asserts the right of the Spaniards to travel freely, and to trade, which includes searching for, mining, and exporting the abundant natural resources they find in South America. Unlawful resistance infringing upon the Spaniard's rights of travel, trade and exploitation, or infringing upon the Pope's right to spread Christianity, can be used to justify a "just war" of the Spaniards against the indigenous inhabitants, ending in Spanish rule over the territories in question.[26]

Vitoria's works are known only from his lecture notes, as he published nothing in his lifetime. Nevertheless, his influence, such as that on the Dutch legal philosopher Hugo Grotius, was significant.[27] Relectiones Theologicae was published posthumously several times (Lyon, 1557; Salamanca, 1565; Ingolstadt, 1580; Lyon, 1586 & 1587; Venice, 1626; Venice, 1640; Cologne & Frankfurt, 1696; and Madrid, 1765).[28][29]

Francisco de Vitoria's writings have been interpreted by various scholars to support contrary policies.[30] Antony Anghie and others argue that Vitoria's humanitarianism legitimized conquest.[31]

Francisco de Vitoria presented strict interpretation of baptism of desire:

When we postulate invincible ignorance on the subject of baptism or of the Christian faith, it does not follow that a person can be saved without baptism or the Christian faith. For the aborigines to whom no preaching of the faith or Christian religion has come will be damned for mortal sins or for idolatry, but not for the sin of unbelief. As St. Thomas says, however, if they do what in them lies, accompanied by a good life according to the law of nature, it is consistent with God's providence that he will illuminate them regarding the name of Christ.[5]

Works

Notes of his lectures from 1527 to 1540 were copied by students and published under the following titles:

  • De potestate civili, 1528
  • De Homicidio, 1530
  • De matrimonio, 1531
  • De potestate ecclesiae I and II, 1532
  • De Indis, 1532
  • De Jure belli Hispanorum in barbaros, 1532
  • De potestate papae et concilii, 1534
  • Relectiones Theologicae, 1557
  • Summa sacramentorum Ecclesiae, 1561
  • De Indis et De Jure Belli (1917 translation of a large part of the Relectiones Theologicae)

Critical translations

  • Francisco de Vitoria: Political Writings, translated by Jeremy Lawrance, ed. Jeremy Lawrance and Anthony Pagden, Cambridge University Press, 1991.
  • Francisco de Vitoria: Relection on Homicide & Commentary on Summa theologiae IIa-IIae Q. 64 (Thomas Aquinas), translated with an Introduction and Notes by John P. Doyle, Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1997.

References

  1. Back to citation Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), Francisco de Vitoria — Public-domain biography of Vitoria's Salamanca chair, relectiones, and teaching on the law of nations and just war.
  2. Back to citation Anghie, Antony (2007-04-26). Imperialism, Sovereignty and the Making of International Law. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-70272-0.
  3. Back to citation Grice-Hutchinson, Marjorie (1952). The School of Salamanca: Readings in Spanish Monetary Theory, 1544-1605 (PDF). Mises Institute.
  4. Back to citation Frayle Delgado, Luis (2004). Pensamiento humanista de Francisco de Vitoria. San Esteban. p. 28-29. ISBN 9788482601458.
  5. Back to citation occurrence 5.0 Back to citation occurrence 5.1 Scott, James Brown; Vitoria, Francisco de (2000). The Spanish Origin of International Law: Francisco de Vitoria and His Law of Nations. The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN 978-1-58477-110-4.
  6. Back to citation Arthur Nussbaum (1947). A concise history of the law of nations. New York: Macmillan Co. p. 82.
  7. Back to citation Grice-Hutchinson, Marjorie (1952). The School of Salamanca: Readings in Spanish Monetary Theory, 1544-1605 (PDF). Mises Institute.
  8. Back to citation John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor — Encyclical on the moral law, the object of the human act, and the continuing service of Thomist moral theology to Catholic teaching.
  9. Back to citation Leo XIII, Aeterni Patris — Encyclical restoring Christian philosophy in the school of Saint Thomas Aquinas for the Church's teaching, seminaries, and defense of the faith.
  10. Back to citation John Paul II, Fides et Ratio — Encyclical on faith and reason, Aquinas as a model of Christian philosophy, and legitimate philosophical plurality under the Magisterium.
  11. Back to citation Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), Thomism — Public-domain historical account of Thomist principles, commentators, schools, and the Leonine restoration.
  12. Back to citation Alves, Andre Azevedo; Moreira, Jose (2013-03-14). The Salamanca School. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 978-1-62356-185-7.
  13. Back to citation Vitoria, Francisco de (1991-10-31). Vitoria: Political Writings. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-316-58344-9.
  14. Back to citation occurrence 14.0 Back to citation occurrence 14.1 Hernandez O.P., Ramon. "The Internationalization of Francisco de Vitoria and Domingo de Soto", translated by Jay J. Aragones, Fordham International Law Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 4, 1991
  15. Back to citation Carlos G. Noreña, Studies in Spanish Renaissance Thought, Springer Science & Business Media (2012), p. 37
  16. Back to citation Schroeder, Henry Joseph. "Francis of Vittoria." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 10 Sept. 2014
  17. Back to citation Francisco de Vitoria, “The Law of War,” in War and Christian Ethics, ed. Author F. Holmes (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1975), 118-119.
  18. Back to citation "Francisco de Vitoria", Columbia University
  19. Back to citation Pagden, Anthony (1991). Vitoria: Political Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought). UK: Cambridge University Press. p. xvi. ISBN 0-521-36714-X.
  20. Back to citation Francisco de Vitoria, “On the Evangelization of Unbelievers,” 1534-35, in Colonial Latin America: A Documentary History. Denver: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002, 70.
  21. Back to citation Kenneth Mills et al., Colonial Latin America: A Documentary History. Denver: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002, 67.
  22. Back to citation Kenneth Mills et al., Colonial Latin America: A Documentary History. Denver: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002, 71.
  23. Back to citation Kenneth Mills et al., Colonial Latin America: A Documentary History. Denver: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002, 75-76.
  24. Back to citation occurrence 24.0 Back to citation occurrence 24.1 Salas Jr., Victor M., "Francisco de Vitoria on the Ius Gentium and the American Indios", Ave Maria Law Review, 2012 Archived 2014-09-11 at the Wayback Machine
  25. Back to citation Woods, Thomas E. (Jr.) (2005). How The Catholic Church Built Western Civilization. Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing. ISBN 0-89526-038-7.
  26. Back to citation Bentancor, Orlando (2014). "Francisco de Vitoria, Carl Schmitt, and Originary Technicity". Política Común. 5 (20200129). doi:10.3998/pc.12322227.0005.002. hdl:2027/spo.12322227.0005.002. ISSN 2007-5227.
  27. Back to citation Borschberg, Peter (2011). Hugo Grotius, the Portuguese and Free Trade in the East Indies. Singapore and Leiden: NUS Press and KITLV Press. ISBN 978-9971-69-467-8.
  28. Back to citation Ernest Nys, introduction to Francisco de Vitoria, De Indis et Ivre Belli, English translation of a substantial portion of Relectiones XII Theologicae, available online.
  29. Back to citation Coujou, Jean-Paul, & Zorroza, María Idoya. Bibliografía Vitoriana. Pamplona: Publicaciones Universidad de Navarra, 2014.
  30. Back to citation Francisco Castilla Urbano, El pensamiento de Francisco de Vitoria. Filosofía, política e indio Americano (Barcelona, Anthropos, 1992) note 5, 317-323]
  31. Back to citation Koskenniemi, Martti (December 2009). "Colonization of the 'Indies' – the Origin of International Law?" (PDF). University of Helsinki. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 16, 2017. Retrieved September 10, 2014.

Bibliography

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