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School of Salamanca

The School of Salamanca was an influential intellectual movement comprising Dominican and Jesuit theologians, jurists, and philosophers centered at Spain's University of Salamanca during the 16th and 17th centuries, who revived and expanded late scholasticism to address theological, legal, and economic questions arising from European expansion, the Protestant Reformation, and emerging global trade.^[1]^[2] Emerging under the leadership of Francisco de Vitoria, a Dominican professor who held the first chair in theology there from 1526, the school applied Thomistic natural law—grounded in reason's apprehension of divine order—to defend the inherent dignity and property rights of non-Christian peoples in the Americas against unjust seizure or enslavement, thereby laying foundational principles for international law and human rights.^[1]^[3] Key figures such as Domingo de Soto, Luis de Molina, and Francisco Suárez advanced doctrines of ius gentium (law of nations), just war criteria limiting conquest, and moral constraints on political authority, rejecting absolute papal or monarchical power over conscience or legitimate self-rule.^[1]^[4] In economics, Salamancan thinkers pioneered insights into market dynamics, articulating a subjective theory of value where prices emerge from voluntary exchanges reflecting scarcity, utility, and consent rather than arbitrary fiat or production costs alone; they justified moderate interest on loans as compensation for opportunity costs and risks, countering medieval usury bans, and critiqued inflationary policies from New World silver inflows via an early quantity theory of money.^[1]^[3] These contributions, disseminated through lectures, commentaries on Aquinas, and treatises like Vitoria's Relectiones on the Indies, influenced subsequent developments in liberal thought, though their full recognition waned amid Counter-Reformation centralization and Enlightenment shifts, with modern rediscovery highlighting their role in bridging medieval tradition and classical liberalism.^[1]^[2] While debates persisted—such as between Dominican emphasis on divine grace and Jesuit probabilistic ethics—the school's commitment to rational inquiry over dogmatic absolutism marked a defining characteristic, fostering rigorous causal analysis of human action under natural and positive law.^[1]

Definition and Scope

Origins and Characteristics of the Intellectual Movement

The School of Salamanca originated at the University of Salamanca in Spain during the early 16th century, emerging as a response to theological, legal, and ethical challenges posed by European expansion into the Americas and the Protestant Reformation.^[1] The movement is commonly traced to the arrival of Francisco de Vitoria, a Dominican friar born around 1483, who began teaching theology there in 1524 and chaired the department until his death in 1546.^[5]^[1] Vitoria, influenced by his studies in Paris and the Thomistic revival, supplemented traditional curricula with lectures on contemporary issues, such as the rights of indigenous peoples, thereby laying the foundational framework for the school's intellectual output.^[1] This intellectual movement comprised primarily Catholic theologians and jurists affiliated with Spanish universities, particularly Salamanca, who operated within the late Scholastic tradition while innovating beyond medieval precedents.^[1] Key characteristics included a rigorous application of Aristotelian-Thomistic methods to practical problems, emphasizing natural law derived from reason and divine order, and a willingness to adapt or depart from authorities like Thomas Aquinas when empirical or logical demands required.^[1] The school's thinkers prioritized causal analysis in ethics and jurisprudence, addressing topics such as just war doctrine, the morality of trade and usury, and the foundations of political authority, often through public disputations known as relectiones.^[1] Unlike earlier Scholasticism, the School of Salamanca integrated elements of humanism, such as philological precision in scriptural exegesis, while maintaining a commitment to metaphysical realism and the unity of faith and reason.^[1] Its members, including Domingo de Soto and later figures like Luis de Molina, advanced proto-modern concepts like subjective theories of value in economics and the ius gentium as a basis for international relations, influencing subsequent developments in rights theory without fully anticipating secular liberalism.^[1]^[5] The movement's peak activity spanned the 16th and early 17th centuries, declining after approximately 1625 amid broader shifts in European intellectual currents.^[1]

Relation to Scholasticism and Thomism

The School of Salamanca emerged as a prominent manifestation of late Scholasticism, also known as second Scholasticism, which extended the medieval intellectual tradition into the 16th and early 17th centuries amid Renaissance humanism and the Protestant Reformation.^[2]^[1] This phase revived rigorous dialectical methods rooted in Aristotle and patristic sources, applying them to novel challenges like colonial expansion and monetary policy, while synthesizing Scholastic rigor with philological advances from humanism.^[6] Scholars such as Francisco de Vitoria emphasized the unity of faith and reason, critiquing overly nominalist or voluntarist tendencies in prior late medieval thought, thereby restoring a balanced metaphysical realism central to earlier Scholasticism.^[7] At its core, the movement exhibited deep fidelity to Thomism, the doctrinal framework systematized by Thomas Aquinas in works like the Summa Theologica, which integrated Aristotelian philosophy with Christian revelation to affirm natural law as participatory in eternal law.^[8] Dominant Dominican figures, including Vitoria (c. 1483–1546) and Domingo de Soto (1494–1560), explicitly grounded their teachings in Aquinas, with Vitoria holding the prima chair of theology at Salamanca from 1526 and delivering commentaries on the Summa that addressed the legitimacy of Spanish conquests through Thomistic just war criteria.^[9] Soto, succeeding Vitoria in the visperas chair from 1532 to 1549, extended this by defending usury prohibitions and market pricing via Thomistic principles of commutative justice and the common good, arguing that voluntary exchanges reflect objective value rather than mere subjective appetite.^[8]^[10] This Thomistic orientation influenced ecclesiastical decisions, as Salamancan arguments at the Council of Trent (1545–1563) upheld Aquinas's views on justification and sacraments against Protestant challenges, reinforcing the school's role in countering Reformation divergences from Scholastic orthodoxy.^[9] Yet, not all members adhered strictly to Thomism; Jesuits like Luis de Molina (1535–1600) introduced middle knowledge (scientia media) in grace debates, diverging from Aquinas's predestination while remaining within a broadly Scholastic paradigm that prioritized reason's role in theology.^[1] Such variations highlighted the school's dynamic engagement with intra-Scholastic disputes, including those between Thomists and Scotists, but preserved a commitment to objective moral norms derivable from human nature, contra emerging empiricist skepticism.^[11] Overall, the School of Salamanca reinvigorated Scholasticism by adapting Thomistic natural law to empirical realities of global trade and evangelization, laying groundwork for later developments in rights theory without supplanting Aquinas's emphasis on teleology and divine causality.^[12]^[7]

Historical Context and Development

Emergence in 16th-Century Spain

The School of Salamanca originated in the early 16th century at the University of Salamanca, a leading center of Thomistic theology established in 1218 but flourishing amid Spain's Renaissance-era transformations. Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Dominican friar who studied in Paris and absorbed the revival of Aquinas's thought, began lecturing as chair of theology in Salamanca in 1524, shifting focus from Peter Lombard's Sentences to Aquinas's Summa Theologica.^[1] ^[13] His approach integrated Aristotelian philosophy with Christian doctrine to address pressing issues, drawing students and collaborators who formed the core of this intellectual movement.^[1] This emergence responded to Spain's encounter with the New World after Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage, raising ethical questions about indigenous rights, just war, and imperial authority. Vitoria's 1532 relectio De Indis argued that American natives held dominion over their lands under natural law and rejected papal grants of universal sovereignty to Spain absent just cause, such as defense against harm or evangelization with consent.^[14] ^[1] These lectures, circulated in manuscript and later published, challenged prevailing views on conquest and established principles of ius gentium (law of nations), influencing debates at Valladolid and beyond.^[13] Early adherents, including Domingo de Soto (1494–1560), extended Vitoria's framework in works like Soto's De iustitia et iure (1553), applying scholastic methods to economics, property, and political resistance.^[1] The school's distinctiveness lay in its causal reasoning from first principles—human nature, divine law, and empirical observation of markets and societies—contrasting with nominalist voluntarism and anticipating modern liberal thought, though rooted in Catholic orthodoxy. By mid-century, Salamanca's enrollment exceeded 6,500, amplifying the diffusion of these ideas through theological and juridical chairs.^[15] ^[3]

Institutional Role of the University of Salamanca

The University of Salamanca, established by royal charter in 1218 and granted papal recognition in 1255, functioned as the epicenter of the School of Salamanca during the 16th century, hosting its leading theologians and jurists within the Faculty of Theology.^[1] This institution provided the structured academic environment, including endowed chairs and regular disputations, that enabled the synthesis of Thomistic scholasticism with contemporary issues arising from Spain's global expansion and the Protestant Reformation.^[1] The Dominican Order's influence, particularly through the adjacent San Esteban convent which controlled key theology chairs by the 14th century, reinforced a rigorous commitment to Aristotelian-Thomistic methods, fostering an intellectual movement that prioritized empirical observation and logical deduction in moral and legal reasoning.^[1] Francisco de Vitoria, regarded as the school's founder, assumed the prima cathedra of theology in 1526 and held it until his death in 1546, delivering influential relectiones—post-lecture elaborations—on topics such as the legitimacy of Spanish dominion in the New World, which drew students from across Europe and initiated the core debates of the school.^[1] His successor, Domingo de Soto, occupied the second chair of theology from 1532 before advancing to the prima cathedra, extending these inquiries into natural rights and just war theory through his participation in imperial councils like the Junta of Valladolid in 1550–1551.^[1] Other prominent figures, including Martín de Azpilcueta, who lectured on economics and monetary policy, further embedded the school's innovations in the university's curriculum, linking theological principles to practical governance and trade.^[3] The university's institutional framework, characterized by public disputations and the awarding of degrees under papal licentia ubique docendi, amplified the school's output, allowing professors to influence both ecclesiastical and royal policy without direct state interference.^[1] This autonomy, bolstered by royal endowments and the construction of dedicated facilities like Vitoria's school building begun in 1524, positioned Salamanca as a counterpoint to emerging Protestant universities, preserving and advancing Catholic intellectual traditions amid doctrinal challenges.^[1] By the mid-16th century, the influx of international scholars and the dissemination of lecture notes via print solidified the university's role in propagating ideas that anticipated modern concepts in international law and political economy.^[3]

Expansion and Decline in the 17th Century

The School of Salamanca experienced a phase of expansion in the early 17th century through the works of Jesuit theologians who built upon its foundational principles, particularly in moral theology and jurisprudence. Francisco Suárez (1548–1617), though primarily associated with the University of Coimbra, drew heavily from Salamancan thinkers and extended their influence with treatises such as De legibus ac Deo legislatore (1612), which elaborated on natural law and sovereignty, achieving wide readership across Europe.^[7] Similarly, Leonardus Lessius (1554–1623) advanced economic analyses in De iustitia et iure (1605), with nearly 40 editions printed, disseminating ideas on subjective value and just pricing to regions beyond Spain, including the Low Countries. These contributions maintained the School's relevance amid ongoing debates on usury, exchange rates, and international commerce, reflecting Spain's global empire. Influence spread to Hispanic America, where local scholars adapted Salamancan doctrines to colonial governance and indigenous rights, forming extensions of the intellectual tradition.^[7] Pedro de Valencia's 1605 discussions on commodity pricing, emphasizing public welfare against hoarding, exemplified persistent engagement with practical economic ethics. However, by mid-century, the movement's peak activity waned after 1604, coinciding with the deaths of leading figures and the absorption of its innovations into broader European thought, such as by Hugo Grotius.^[7] Decline accelerated due to Spain's imperial overextension and economic strains, including persistent inflation from American silver inflows and military defeats, which diminished resources for intellectual centers like Salamanca.^[16] The University of Salamanca saw reduced student enrollment during the century, signaling institutional fatigue.^[17] Internal theological disputes, notably the De Auxiliis controversy (1598–1607) between Dominicans and Jesuits over divine grace, fragmented scholastic unity without resolution, as Pope Paul V suspended judgment in 1607.^[1] By the late 17th century, rising rationalism and empiricism in Northern Europe overshadowed scholastic methods, while Spain's relative stagnation limited innovation, leading to the tradition's effective end by 1753.^[7]

Theological Contributions

Moral Theology and Natural Law

The moral theology of the School of Salamanca integrated Thomistic principles with rigorous analysis of human acts, positing natural law as the rational participation of created intellect in God's eternal law, thereby providing a universal foundation for ethical norms accessible through reason.^[1] Thinkers like Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546) and Domingo de Soto (1494–1560) emphasized that moral theology guides individuals toward salvation by aligning free actions with divine order, distinguishing it from mere speculative theology through its practical orientation toward virtue and vice.^[18] This framework held that primary precepts of natural law—such as the pursuit of good and avoidance of evil—are self-evident and immutable, while secondary applications allow for prudential judgment in contingent matters.^[19] Vitoria's Relectiones Theologicae (1538–1539), particularly on justice and rights, applied natural law to intercultural relations, arguing that rational beings inherently possess dominium or lordship over their persons and goods, derived from natural reason rather than positive enactment.^[20] He contended that violations of these rights, such as unjust seizure of indigenous property, contravene natural law's dictate against harming others, establishing moral limits on civil authority independent of ecclesiastical jurisdiction.^[21] Soto, in De Iustitia et Iure (1556), extended this by classifying justice as both a virtue and a right-based obligation, wherein natural law obliges restitution for harms and underpins commutative justice in exchanges, rejecting arbitrary impositions by rulers.^[18] Francisco Suárez (1548–1617), in De Legibus ac Deo Legislatore (1612), synthesized these views into a comprehensive typology of law, asserting natural law's immutability stems from its divine origin yet its precepts are promulgated through human reason, not requiring explicit revelation for moral obligation.^[19] He differentiated eternal law as God's intellect, natural law as its rational imprint on creatures, and human law as valid only insofar as it conforms to the former, thereby critiquing tyrannical edicts as non-laws lacking moral force. Luis de Molina (1535–1600), through De Iustitia et Iure (1593–1609), incorporated divine foreknowledge via middle knowledge into moral deliberation, maintaining that human liberty under natural law enables consensual acts like contracts, which bind morally when equitable and free from coercion.^[22] These contributions advanced moral theology by clarifying how natural law mediates between divine will and human agency, fostering a casuistic approach to ethical dilemmas without relativism.^[1]

The De Auxiliis Controversy

The De Auxiliis controversy emerged in the late 16th century as a dispute over the compatibility of divine grace, human free will, and predestination, pitting Jesuit theologians against Dominicans within the Catholic tradition following the Council of Trent.^[23] Jesuit Luis de Molina's 1588 publication, Concordia liberi arbitrii cum gratiae donis, introduced the concept of divine scientia media—middle knowledge—positing that God possesses hypothetical knowledge of how free creatures would act under any circumstances, thereby permitting divine foreknowledge without necessitating determinism.^[24] ^[25] This framework aimed to safeguard human liberty against perceived deterministic implications in stricter interpretations of divine causality.^[26] Opposition arose primarily from Dominican theologians, including Domingo Báñez, who held the prima cathedra of theology at the University of Salamanca and defended a Thomist account of efficacious grace.^[1] Báñez argued for praemotio physica (physical premotion), whereby God intrinsically moves the human will to act freely through grace that efficaciously inclines it toward the good without violating liberty.^[27] ^[28] The debate intensified at Salamanca in 1582, prior to the Concordia's full impact, and escalated after its Lisbon printing was halted on December 22, 1588, by order of the Inquisition censor amid accusations of innovation bordering on Pelagianism from the Dominican side.^[23] ^[29] Salamanca theologians, predominantly Thomist Dominicans like Pedro de Ledesma, actively engaged, contributing to consultations requested by Inquisitor General Gaspar de Quiroga in 1594 from the university alongside Alcalá and others.^[30] ^[29] The controversy reached Rome under Pope Clement VIII, who convened the Congregatio de Auxiliis from 1598 to 1606 to adjudicate between the orders, involving detailed examinations of Molina's and Báñez's positions.^[31] Despite exhaustive debates, no definitive resolution favored one side; on August 28, 1607, Pope Paul V dissolved the congregation, affirming neither doctrine as heretical, permitting both to be taught, and prohibiting mutual condemnations to preserve ecclesiastical unity.^[23] ^[32] This outcome reflected the complexity of reconciling divine sovereignty with human agency, influencing subsequent Scholastic theology while underscoring divisions within the School of Salamanca, where Thomist rigor at the university contrasted with Jesuit innovations.^[1]^[2]

Theodicy and the Problem of Evil

Francisco Suárez, a prominent Jesuit theologian associated with the School of Salamanca, developed a privationist account of evil in his Disputationes Metaphysicae (1597), particularly in Disputations X and XI, which treat transcendental goodness and badness. Following Aquinas, Suárez posited that evil lacks positive ontological status and exists solely as the privation of a due perfection in a substance capable of it, such that moral evil constitutes the absence of rectitude in rational wills, while physical evil arises from the deficiency of order in natural agents.^[33] This framework resolves the apparent contradiction between divine omnipotence and the permission of evil by attributing evil's "cause" not to God's efficient causation—which produces only good—but to the defective secondary causation of creatures, thereby safeguarding God's absolute goodness and causality as the source of all being.^[34] Suárez further integrated this with the doctrine of transcendentals, arguing that goodness is convertible with being (ens et bonum convertuntur), while evil, as non-being in a mode, opposes goodness without constituting a real contrary or genus.^[35] Unlike purely Augustinian formulations emphasizing evil's utter nothingness, Suárez's analysis incorporates Aristotelian-Thomistic distinctions between metaphysical, moral, and penal evils, contending that God permits evils for greater goods, such as manifesting justice, mercy, or the heroism of the virtuous, without implying divine authorship of defect. This privationism thus underpins a theodicy wherein the world's mixture of good and evil reflects the limitations of finite creation rather than any divine flaw. Luis de Molina complemented this metaphysical approach with his innovative doctrine of scientia media (middle knowledge), outlined in Concordia liberi arbitrii cum gratiae donis (1588), which posits that God possesses prevolitional knowledge of all counterfactuals of creaturely freedom—what free agents would do under any circumstances.^[36] Molina's framework addresses the problem of moral evil by enabling God to select, from infinite possible worlds, the one maximizing free cooperation with grace and minimizing sin, while respecting libertarian freedom as essential to genuine moral agency and beatitude. This anticipates defenses against the logical incompatibility of divine attributes with evil, as God foreknows but does not determine sinful choices, attributing evil to creaturely defection rather than providence; natural evils, in turn, may serve pedagogical or retributive purposes within divine economy, though Molina prioritized free will's role in theodicy. The De Auxiliis debates (1598–1607), pitting Molinists against Dominicans, underscored these tensions, affirming that efficacious grace strengthens but does not coerce the will, preserving human responsibility for evil.^[37]

Jurisprudential Innovations

Foundations of Natural Law in Human Rights

The School of Salamanca theologians grounded human rights in natural law, positing that certain rights derive from human nature itself, discernible through reason and independent of positive law or revelation. Drawing from Thomas Aquinas's synthesis of Aristotelian philosophy and Christian theology, thinkers like Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546) and Domingo de Soto (1494–1560) argued that natural law imposes universal moral obligations and confers inherent rights on all persons, including non-Europeans. This framework rejected Aristotelian notions of natural slavery, asserting that all rational beings possess dominion over their persons and property as a matter of ius naturale.^[1] Vitoria, in his 1532 relectiones De Indis and De Iure Belli, applied natural law to the Spanish conquest of the Americas, contending that indigenous peoples held legitimate political authority and property rights under natural law, provided they adhered to its basic precepts such as prohibiting idolatry or human sacrifice only if these violated universal norms. He maintained that the Indians were true owners of their lands and could not be dispossessed without just cause, emphasizing subjective rights to self-preservation, liberty, and governance. This marked an early articulation of universal human rights, extending protections against arbitrary domination to pagans, as natural law's dictates—rooted in the eternal law of God—bind all humanity equally.^[14]^[3] De Soto, in his 1556 treatise De Iustitia et Iure, further refined these ideas by distinguishing perfect from imperfect rights and elaborating on dominium as a natural faculty encompassing both personal liberty and proprietary control. He viewed human rights as correlative to natural law duties, such that violations like enslavement or unjust seizure infringe on the ius gentium derived from natural sociability. Soto's analysis supported the inviolability of contracts and property as extensions of natural dominion, influencing later conceptions of inherent rights against tyrannical authority.^[38]^[18] These foundations anticipated modern human rights by prioritizing rational human nature over cultural or religious differences, though limited by the era's theological presuppositions that allowed intervention for grave natural law breaches, such as tyrannical rule or idolatry endangering innocents. Unlike later secular formulations, Salamanca's natural law rights were teleologically oriented toward the common good and divine order, yet they established precedents for protections against conquest and exploitation that echoed in Enlightenment thought and international law.^[39]^[40]

Sovereignty, Political Authority, and Resistance to Tyranny

Scholars of the School of Salamanca grounded political sovereignty in the natural law and the consent of the community, positing that ultimate authority resides with the people rather than deriving solely from divine right or monarchical prerogative. Francisco Suárez, in his De legibus ac Deo legislatore (1612), articulated that political power originates from the multitude, which forms a polity through pactum societatis, a social compact establishing civil society, followed by pactum gubernationis, delegating governance to rulers for the common good.^[41] This framework emphasized that sovereignty is not absolute in the ruler but conditional on serving the community's welfare, reflecting a democratic undercurrent where the people retain the capacity to alter or revoke authority if it deviates from natural ends.^[42] Francisco de Vitoria contributed to this by invoking the medieval principle populus maior principe, affirming that the people hold superior authority over the prince, particularly in matters of the common good. In his lectures on political power, Vitoria described the state as an organic entity ordered toward collective flourishing, with rulers accountable to natural law limits; excessive overreach could justify communal resistance to preserve societal order.^[43] Domingo de Soto, in De iustitia et iure (1553), similarly viewed civil authority as derived from the people's natural right to self-governance, warning that tyrannical rule—defined as governance for private gain rather than public benefit—forfeits legitimacy, permitting defensive measures against severe abuses.^[44] Resistance to tyranny formed a core element of their doctrine, balancing obedience with the right to self-defense. Suárez explicitly endorsed the community's duty to oppose rulers who systematically violate natural law, such as through unjust taxation or persecution, allowing deposition or even tyrannicide under strict conditions like failed lesser remedies and broad consensus to avoid anarchy.^[1] Soto qualified this by advising tolerance of moderate tyranny to prevent greater disorder, but permitting armed resistance or appeal to superior authorities when oppression becomes intolerable, prioritizing the common good over unqualified submission.^[45] These principles, rooted in Thomistic natural law, anticipated later theories of limited government and justified critiques of absolutism, influencing early modern constitutional thought while cautioning against precipitate rebellion.^[46]

Ius Gentium and International Law

Francisco de Vitoria, a foundational thinker of the School of Salamanca, articulated the concept of ius gentium—the law of nations—as a body of positive norms derived from natural reason and observed universally among peoples, distinct yet rooted in natural law. In his Relectiones Theologicae, particularly De Indis delivered in 1538–1539, Vitoria applied ius gentium to regulate interactions between European powers and newly discovered peoples, asserting that indigenous inhabitants of the Americas possessed full dominion over their lands and goods under natural law, barring papal or Spanish claims to universal sovereignty absent just cause.^[1]^[20] He defined ius gentium as encompassing rights to travel, trade, and preach the Gospel peacefully, but prohibited conquest for mere propagation of faith or under false pretenses of tutelage, thereby establishing criteria for legitimate international intercourse.^[47] Vitoria's framework separated ius gentium from immutable natural law, viewing the former as secondary precepts agreed upon by custom and consensus among nations, applicable to property division and warfare—domains where natural law alone provided no specific directive. This distinction enabled the School to address practical relations between sovereign communities, influencing later jurists by positing that violations of ius gentium, such as enslavement without cause or denial of trade, constituted injustices redressable through defensive war.^[1] Contemporaries like Domingo de Soto extended these ideas, emphasizing ius gentium's role in prohibiting tyrannical dominion over free peoples and affirming the equality of non-Christian nations in legal standing.^[9] Francisco Suárez, building on Vitoria in De Legibus ac Deo Legislatore (1612), refined ius gentium as a positive international law formed by the tacit consent of free peoples, independent of divine positive law yet harmonious with natural law's universal dictates. Suárez argued that this law bound sovereign states in matters like alliances, embassies, and treaties, providing a consensual basis for order among independent republics without a superior authority. His contributions clarified ius gentium's customary nature, distinguishing it from Roman ius gentium by emphasizing mutual agreement, thus laying groundwork for modern treatises on international obligations and the society's of nations.^[48] The School's integration of Thomistic natural law with ius gentium thus pioneered a secularized yet morally grounded system for global justice, predating Grotius by emphasizing reciprocal rights and duties in an era of expansion.^[49]

Just War Doctrine and Criteria

Theologians of the School of Salamanca refined the just war doctrine inherited from Thomas Aquinas, applying it to the ethical challenges of European expansion and inter-state conflicts in the 16th century. Francisco de Vitoria, in his 1539 relection De iure belli, articulated core criteria for jus ad bellum, requiring war to be declared by legitimate public authority, such as a sovereign prince or commonwealth acting on behalf of the common good.^[1] Just cause was limited to remedying injuries, including self-defense against aggression, recovery of possessions or rights, or punishing violations of natural law, explicitly excluding differences in religion as grounds for war.^[1] ^[50] Right intention necessitated that the belligerent seek peace and justice rather than private gain, vengeance, or conquest, with war pursued only as a last resort after exhausting diplomatic alternatives and reasonable prospects of success.^[1] Proportionality demanded that the expected benefits outweigh the harms inflicted, ensuring the response matched the gravity of the offense without excess.^[1] Domingo de Soto, in his De iustitia et iure (1556), reinforced these by stressing that even sovereigns must weigh moral necessity, allowing subjects no right to refuse participation in a duly declared just war but prohibiting private wars.^[1] For jus in bello, Vitoria and Soto emphasized discrimination between combatants and non-combatants, forbidding intentional attacks on innocents, including women, children, and neutral parties, even if foreseeably harmed as collateral.^[1] Proportionality in conduct required moderation in force, prohibiting torture, rape, or wanton destruction, with victors obliged to restore unjustly seized goods and treat captives humanely.^[1] Enslavement of enemies captured in just wars was conditionally acceptable under ius gentium, but not for export or against those who surrendered peacefully, and never as a blanket justification for aggression.^[1] In the context of Spanish encounters with indigenous peoples, Vitoria argued that conquest required specific violations of ius gentium, such as denying safe passage to preachers after papal invitation, obstructing free trade, or allying with hostile powers, but rejected evangelization alone as a casus belli.^[1] ^[38] Soto concurred, permitting defensive war only if rulers impeded missionary access, but not if the populace rejected Christianity voluntarily, prioritizing natural rights over forced conversion.^[38] These principles influenced later international law by grounding war's legitimacy in universal human reason rather than papal dominion or cultural superiority.^[1]

Rights in the Age of Discovery: Commerce, Preaching, and Conquest

Francisco de Vitoria, in his 1539 lecture Relectio de Indis, established foundational principles for Spanish interactions with indigenous peoples in the Americas, asserting that native inhabitants possessed valid dominion over their lands and goods under natural law, as they were rational beings capable of self-governance.^[1] He rejected papal donation or mere discovery as titles for conquest, emphasizing instead that Spaniards held rights to travel, trade, and reside peacefully among the Indians, provided these were exercised without coercion.^[51] Vitoria argued that denying these natural rights—such as prohibiting free commerce or the preaching of the Gospel—could justify defensive war, but conquest for gold, forced conversion, or alleged inferiority was illicit.^[20] Domingo de Soto, building on Vitoria in his 1556 treatise De Iustitia et Iure, reinforced that indigenous sovereignty remained intact unless forfeited through violations of natural law, such as tyrannical rule or practices like human sacrifice that harmed innocents.^[18] Soto contended that commerce must proceed on terms of equality and consent, prohibiting monopolies or exploitative exchanges that undermined mutual benefit, and viewed trade as an extension of ius gentium obligatory among all peoples.^[1] For preaching, he upheld the right to evangelize as a communication of truth, but insisted on voluntariness, barring force except to protect missionaries from harm or to avenge attacks on converts.^[52] These doctrines influenced the 1550–1551 Valladolid debate, where Bartolomé de las Casas invoked Salamancan natural rights to oppose systematic conquest and enslavement, arguing Indians were not natural slaves and merited protection under just war criteria.^[40] Conquest required legitimate cause, such as repelling aggression or punishing grave offenses against natural law—like cannibalism or idolatry endangering the innocent—but demanded proportionality and aimed at restitution rather than domination.^[53] The School's emphasis on empirical observation of Indian societies, rather than presumptions of barbarism, curtailed arbitrary subjugation, promoting treaties and alliances over unilateral imposition.^[50]

Contractual Obligations and Property Rights

Scholars of the School of Salamanca derived private property rights from natural law, positing that while original dominion over creation resides in common humanity, individual appropriation through reason, labor, and need establishes legitimate private dominium.^[1] This framework, building on Thomistic principles, held that private ownership incentivizes productive activity and prevents disputes over resources, thereby promoting social order and human flourishing.^[1] Domingo de Soto, in his 1556 work De iustitia et iure, emphasized subjective rights within natural law, arguing that property entitlements protect personal agency and moral responsibility against communal overreach.^[18] Francisco de Vitoria reinforced these principles in his 1539 relectiones, defending indigenous Americans' full property rights over lands and goods, asserting that such dominium required voluntary consent for transfer and rejecting conquest without just cause or contract.^[54] Soto extended this to affirm the poor's natural right to access necessities from surplus property in extreme need, though without undermining the owner's title absent theft or violence.^[18] These thinkers viewed property not as absolute in isolation but as interdependent with commutative justice, where violations demanded restitution to restore equilibrium. Regarding contractual obligations, the Salamancans developed a consent-based theory rooted in natural law and Roman jurisprudence, requiring mutual agreement, capacity, and object for binding pacts.^[55] Luis de Molina, in his comprehensive 1593–1609 De iustitia et iure, analyzed contracts as transfers of dominion (translatio dominii), insisting on free consent and equivalence in value to avoid injustice, with enforceability enforced through moral and civil sanctions.^[56] Molina and contemporaries like Soto justified promise enforceability via the duty of fidelity (fides), where unilateral withdrawal breached natural equity, obligating compensation.^[57] This approach integrated Aristotelian ethics with positive law, positing contracts as voluntary instruments for just exchange, provided they align with the common good and exclude fraud or duress.^[55] Vitoria applied similar logic to international commerce, upholding free trade rights under ius gentium only through consensual agreements, barring coercive impositions.^[58] By linking obligations to rational self-interest and divine order, the School laid groundwork for modern contract theory, prioritizing individual autonomy within moral bounds over state or communal fiat.^[57]

Economic Thought

Antecedents in Medieval Scholasticism

The economic thought of the School of Salamanca emerged from the medieval scholastic tradition, which systematically addressed property, exchange, and money within a framework of natural law and Christian ethics. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274), in his Summa Theologica (II-II, q. 66–78), established foundational principles by affirming private property as a rational extension of human stewardship over creation, justified by practical needs for administration, tranquility, and incentivizing care, while subordinating ownership to the universal destination of goods for the common good.^[1]^[59] Aquinas distinguished commutative justice in bilateral exchanges from distributive justice, influencing later discussions on fair dealings.^[60] Central to medieval antecedents was the doctrine of the justum pretium, or just price, articulated by Aquinas as the value commonly accepted in voluntary market transactions among informed buyers and sellers, approximating equality without deceit and often aligning with production costs plus reasonable compensation for labor and risk.^[61] This objective-subjective hybrid—rooted in Aristotelian commensuratio but tempered by communal estimation—rejected fixed prices by authorities unless market failures like monopoly prevailed, prefiguring Salamanca's emphasis on consent and estimation.^[62] Fourteenth-century scholastics advanced subjectivity further; Peter Olivi (c. 1248–1298) introduced utility-based valuation in his Tractatus de contractibus (c. 1295), arguing prices reflect estimatio arising from consent and need, critiquing rigid cost-based or usury prohibitions as harmful to commerce.^[63] On usury, Aquinas prohibited interest on loans of fungible goods (mutuum) as unnatural and contrary to charity, viewing money as barren, though he permitted compensation for damnum emergens (actual loss, e.g., opportunity cost) or lucrum cessans (foregone profit), concepts expanded by later thinkers like John Buridan (c. 1300–1361) and Nicole Oresme (c. 1320–1382).^[59] Oresme's De Moneta (c. 1360) analyzed currency debasement as fraudulent dilution of value, anticipating quantity theory elements by linking money supply to price levels, grounded in empirical observation of medieval inflation episodes.^[10] Voluntarist strains from Duns Scotus (c. 1266–1308) and William of Ockham (c. 1287–1347) emphasized free will in economic acts, shifting focus from intrinsic essences to individual consent, which facilitated Salamanca's innovations in subjective value and contractual liberty.^[64] These medieval foundations—integrating theology, canon law, and Roman jurisprudence—provided Salamanca theologians with tools to address 16th-century realities like New World trade, rejecting nominalist skepticism for realist metaphysics while evolving scholastic ethics toward dynamic market principles.^[1]^[65]

Subjective Value, Prices, and Market Dynamics

Domingo de Soto, in his De iustitia et iure (1553–1556), articulated that the just price of a good emerges from its common estimation in voluntary market exchanges, rather than from production costs or intrinsic worth, stating that "something is worth what it can be sold for, excluding violence, special privilege, or fraud."^[66] This marked a departure from earlier medieval scholastic views tying value primarily to labor or objective measures, emphasizing instead the subjective appraisals of buyers and sellers in open markets.^[67] Luis de Molina advanced this framework in his De iustitia et iure (1593–1609), positing a subjective theory of value where the worth of goods derives from their utility to individuals, varying by personal circumstances, scarcity, and demand.^[68] Molina explained that prices fluctuate based on the interplay of supply abundance or shortage and the intensity of buyers' needs, with higher scarcity or urgency elevating value through competitive bidding among willing exchangers.^[67] He illustrated this with examples like water's low market price despite vital utility in plentiful supply, contrasting it with gems' high value due to rarity and perceived desirability, prefiguring marginal utility concepts by considering incremental satisfaction in exchanges.^[68] Scholastics like Diego de Covarrubias y Leyva reinforced these ideas, arguing that value stems from subjective usefulness rather than objective labor input, with market prices reflecting aggregated individual valuations free from coercion.^[68] In market dynamics, they described prices as equilibrating mechanisms: excess supply depresses prices until demand absorbs it, while shortages spur rises until new supply enters or substitutes appear, all coordinated by entrepreneurs disseminating information on scarcities and opportunities.^[66] This process, they contended, aligns with natural law by respecting free consent and mutual benefit, rendering the prevailing market price the ethical benchmark absent monopoly or deceit.^[67] Their analysis extended to dynamic adjustments over time, noting that imperfect knowledge causes temporary disequilibria—such as regional famines inflating local prices until arbitrageurs transport goods—but competitive markets self-correct toward uniformity, barring barriers to trade.^[67] Martín de Azpilcueta complemented this by applying similar logic to money's value, which varies with its quantity relative to goods, influencing exchange rates and purchasing power in line with supply-demand forces.^[69] These insights collectively established prices as emergent outcomes of subjective preferences and resource constraints, foundational to later economic thought on voluntary coordination.^[70]

Monetary Theory and Inflation

Scholars of the School of Salamanca formulated early explanations of inflation as resulting from expansions in the money supply, predating modern quantity theory formulations. In 1556, Martín de Azpilcueta published Comentario resolutorio de cambios, where he analyzed rising prices in Spain relative to France, attributing the difference to Spain's greater circulation of gold and silver imported from the New World. He argued that "where there is more money, all other things cost more, provided the other circumstances are equal," establishing a direct causal link between monetary abundance and diminished purchasing power.^[71]^[3] Azpilcueta's analysis responded to the Price Revolution, during which European prices approximately quadrupled between 1500 and 1600, with annual inflation rates around 1-1.5%, largely driven by the influx of American precious metals that increased Spain's money supply severalfold. He emphasized that this monetary expansion eroded the value of money without corresponding rises in goods' scarcity, inverting the traditional view that inflation stemmed solely from commodity shortages or greed.^[3]^[72] Other Salamancans reinforced and extended these insights. Domingo de Soto, in De iustitia et iure (1553-1556), described money's value as fluctuating with its quantity in circulation, akin to market prices for other goods. Luis de Molina, in his 1593-1609 treatise De iustitia et iure, elaborated that excessive money issuance by authorities could debase currency, advocating for stable monetary policies to preserve economic order. Tomás de Mercado, in Suma de tratos y contratos (1571), similarly connected New World specie inflows to price surges, warning of inflationary pressures on trade and contracts.^[1]^[73] These contributions highlighted money's role as a measure of value subject to supply dynamics, influencing later economists like Jean Bodin who cited Azpilcueta explicitly. The Salamancans' reasoning derived from empirical observation of Spain's bullion imports—estimated at over 180 tons of gold and 16,000 tons of silver from 1500 to 1650—and first-principles analysis of exchange rates and purchasing power, rejecting moralistic explanations for systemic price changes.^[71]^[72]

Usury, Interest, and Capital Allocation

The School of Salamanca addressed the medieval ecclesiastical ban on usury, defined as any charge for the use of fungible goods like money in sterile loans (mutuum), rooted in interpretations of biblical precepts such as Luke 6:35. While upholding the intrinsic immorality of pure usury—where money is lent for consumption without productive intent—the Salamancans introduced nuanced justifications for interest-like payments, including compensation for damnum emergens (actual losses incurred by the lender), lucrum cessans (forgone profits from alternative investments), and the risk of non-repayment. These distinctions arose amid Spain's 16th-century commercial expansion, where influxes of New World silver and growing trade necessitated practical resolutions to rigid prohibitions that hindered credit flows.^[74]^[75] Domingo de Soto, in De iustitia et iure (first edition 1553, expanded 1568), critiqued the evasion of usury laws through complex exchange contracts while permitting interest to cover opportunity costs and hazards, arguing that such charges aligned with the just price (pretium iustum) when reflecting market conditions rather than exploitation. He viewed biblical anti-usury texts as evangelical counsels rather than strict justice mandates, emphasizing social equity but allowing annuities and risk premiums to prevent capital hoarding.^[74]^[76] Luis de Molina, in his comprehensive De iustitia et iure (1593–1609), extended these arguments by contending that the natural law prohibition on usury applied less stringently in dynamic economies, where moderate interest compensated for money's scarcity, time preference, and the lender's entrepreneurial forbearance from immediate use. Molina treated money not merely as a medium but as a productive asset whose delayed return warranted remuneration, influencing Jesuit contemporaries like Leonardus Lessius in broadening licit contracts.^[77]^[75]^[74] Martín de Azpilcueta, known as Doctor Navarrus, condemned usury outright in moral writings but analyzed exchange operations where spatial and temporal value differences implied legitimate differentials, prefiguring recognitions of time's role in valuation without fully endorsing interest as such. Collectively, these contributions shifted discourse from outright bans toward interest as a market signal, promoting efficient capital allocation by incentivizing lenders to fund ventures with returns exceeding risks, thus directing resources from idle holdings to trade, industry, and innovation rather than state monopolies or consumption.^[78]^[3]

Key Figures

Francisco de Vitoria and Early Leadership

Francisco de Vitoria (1483–1546), a Dominican friar born in Burgos, Spain, entered the Order of Preachers around 1504 and pursued advanced studies at the University of Paris, immersing himself in Thomistic theology.^[5]^[79] Returning to Spain, he was appointed primarius professor of theology at the University of Salamanca in 1526, succeeding the chair previously held by figures like Anthony of Zamora.^[1]^[3] There, Vitoria revitalized Scholastic inquiry by emphasizing the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas, countering nominalist influences and attracting students through his methodical lectures on moral and political theology.^[1]^[5] Vitoria's leadership established the School of Salamanca as a hub for intellectual rigor, with his relectiones—post-lecture reflections delivered annually—addressing pressing issues like the Spanish conquest of the Americas. In works such as De Indis (1532) and De Iure Belli (1539), preserved through student notes since Vitoria avoided personal publication, he articulated principles of natural law, ius gentium, and just war, arguing against unchecked dominion over indigenous peoples absent papal grant or defensive necessity.^[20]^[1] These lectures, numbering around fifteen with thirteen extant, drew on empirical reports from the Indies and first-principles reasoning from Aquinas, fostering debates that extended to economics and rights.^[20] Under Vitoria's influence, a cadre of disciples emerged, including Domingo de Soto, Melchor Cano, and Martin de Azpilcueta, who occupied key chairs at Salamanca and perpetuated his Thomist framework while innovating on topics like contract theory and monetary policy.^[80]^[1] Vitoria's reluctance to engage directly in policy—declining invitations to court—ensured the school's independence, prioritizing academic disputation over political expediency, though his ideas indirectly shaped imperial critiques.^[5] By his death on August 12, 1546, Vitoria had solidified Salamanca's preeminence in late medieval and early modern thought, transitioning leadership to Soto while embedding causal analysis of human action rooted in natural reason.^[5]^[81]

Domingo de Soto and Legal Extensions

Domingo de Soto (1494–1560), a Spanish Dominican friar and theologian, emerged as a pivotal figure in the School of Salamanca following Francisco de Vitoria's death in 1546, succeeding him as the university's prime chair of theology. Born in Segovia to modest circumstances, Soto studied philosophy and theology at the Universities of Alcalá and Paris, entering the Dominican order around 1515 before securing a philosophy chair at Salamanca in 1520 and a theology chair in 1532. He served as theological advisor to Emperor Charles V and participated in the Council of Trent (1545–1563), where his expertise in moral theology informed ecclesiastical reforms.^[82]^[76]^[18] Soto's major contribution to legal thought, De iustitia et iure (Salamanca, 1553–1556), comprised ten books that systematically extended Thomistic natural law principles to contemporary legal challenges, including property, contracts, restitution, and interstate relations. Drawing on Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, Soto defined justice as the virtue habituating individuals to render each their due, with ius (right) serving as its objective correlative, thereby bridging moral philosophy and positive law. This treatise instructed rulers on executing justice amid the economic upheavals of the Age of Discovery, emphasizing commutative justice in voluntary exchanges and distributive justice in public authority.^[83]^[84]^[85] In extending Vitoria's relectiones on the rights of indigenous peoples, Soto affirmed the natural dominion and private property rights of American natives, arguing that Spanish conquest required a just title such as defensive war or failure of rational governance, not mere papal donation or cultural inferiority. He posited that ius gentium—the law of nations—governed interactions among sovereign communities, permitting trade, alliances, and defensive violence but prohibiting enslavement without cause, such as captivity in a lawful war; this framework anticipated modern international law by recognizing non-Christian polities' legal personality under natural law. Soto further refined contractual obligations, holding that valid agreements rested on mutual consent and common estimation of value, invalidating fraud or coercion while allowing moderate interest (usura exceptions) for loans involving risk or opportunity cost, thus accommodating capital allocation without violating prohibitions on sterile gain.^[38]^[86]^[87]

Luis de Molina and Theological-Economic Synthesis

Luis de Molina (1535–1600), a Spanish Jesuit theologian born in Cuenca and educated at the Universities of Salamanca and Coimbra, contributed significantly to the School of Salamanca by integrating moral theology with economic reasoning in his comprehensive treatise De iustitia et iure, published in six volumes between 1593 and 1609.^[88] This work framed economic transactions as expressions of justice, a cardinal virtue rooted in natural law and divine order, allowing for the moral evaluation of emerging commercial practices amid the influx of New World silver and expanding trade.^[89] Molina's approach synthesized theological principles—drawing from Thomistic virtue ethics—with practical market observations, such as consultations with merchants in Coimbra, to address real-world complexities without condemning profit-seeking per se.^[90] Central to Molina's theological-economic framework was the subjective theory of value, where the just price arises from the subjective appraisals of transacting parties, influenced by a good's utility, scarcity, and abundance rather than objective production costs or labor input.^[91] He argued that prices fluctuate dynamically due to variations in supply and demand, with abundance lowering value and scarcity raising it, and emphasized that common market estimations, free from fraud or monopoly, establish fairness.^[56] This view aligned economic liberty with human free will, paralleling Molina's broader Molinist theology of scientia media (middle knowledge), which reconciles divine providence with individual agency, thereby permitting voluntary exchanges as morally licit under God's natural order. Molina further synthesized theology and economics by justifying interest on loans, distinguishing it from illicit usury through concepts like lucrum cessans (foregone profit from alternative investments) and damnum emergens (potential loss or risk borne by the lender).^[22] He deemed rates up to 12 percent reasonable in 16th-century contexts, enabling professional moneylending as a virtuous occupation when tied to opportunity costs and hazards, thus adapting scholastic prohibitions on sterile hoarding to support capital allocation in a growing economy.^[88] This rationale preserved theological commitments to commutative justice—ensuring equivalence in exchanges—while recognizing causal economic realities, such as inflation from monetary expansion, which he linked to rising prices via quantity effects.^[3] Through this synthesis, Molina elevated economics from mere prudential advice to a domain of moral theology, insisting that all contracts and property rights derive legitimacy from their conformity to divine and natural law, yet allowing flexibility for human ingenuity in commerce.^[77] His framework critiqued artificial price manipulations like collusion but endorsed competition as providentially ordered, fostering a balanced view that economic prosperity serves communal good when governed by virtue.^[56] This integration influenced later scholastic thought, providing a foundation for reconciling faith with market dynamics without secularizing either.^[10]

Other Prominent Members

Martín de Azpilcueta (1491–1586), a Navarrese theologian and canonist who taught at the University of Salamanca, advanced monetary theory by articulating an early version of the quantity theory of money in his 1556 treatise Comentario resolutorio de usuras. He explained rising prices in Spain as resulting from the influx of precious metals from the Americas, which increased the money supply and thus elevated commodity values, independent of changes in production.^[1] Azpilcueta also contributed to discussions on usury, defending moderate interest rates based on the time value of money and opportunity costs, influencing later scholastic views on capital.^[92] Diego de Covarrubias y Leiva (1512–1577), bishop of Segovia and professor of canon law at Salamanca, extended property rights theory by asserting that individuals not only possess a right to private ownership but also the freedom to set prices according to market conditions of supply and demand rather than production costs alone. In his Variarum resolutionum, he argued that just prices emerge from voluntary exchanges reflecting scarcity and buyers' willingness, prefiguring subjective value theory.^[10] Covarrubias served as a royal advisor, applying these principles to fiscal policy amid Spain's economic challenges.^[93] Juan de Mariana (1536–1624), a Jesuit historian and theologian associated with the school's later phase, critiqued monetary debasement in De rege et regis institutione (1599), arguing that altering coinage standards harms savers and distorts trade, akin to theft by the sovereign. He advocated limited government intervention in markets and justified resistance to tyrannical rulers who violate natural law, influencing constitutional thought.^[94] Mariana's works bridged theology and political economy, emphasizing individual rights against arbitrary power.^[3] Francisco Suárez (1548–1617), though primarily linked to Coimbra and Alcalá, engaged with Salamancan ideas as a Jesuit systematizing natural law in De legibus ac Deo legislatore (1612), distinguishing ius gentium as positive law derived from custom among nations, applicable to international relations and commerce. His metaphysical and ethical frameworks reinforced the school's emphasis on free will and rational order in human affairs.^[1] Suárez's influence extended the school's doctrines beyond Spain, shaping Jesuit theology and early modern jurisprudence.^[41]

Controversies and Internal Debates

Disputes Over Grace and Free Will

The disputes over grace and free will in the School of Salamanca reflected deeper tensions between Thomistic emphases on divine efficacy and emerging views prioritizing human liberty, particularly amid challenges from Protestant reformers who questioned Catholic doctrines of salvation. Dominicans such as Domingo de Soto, in his De natura et gratia (1547-1550), defended a strict interpretation of efficacious grace aligned with Thomas Aquinas, arguing that divine motion infallibly directs the human will toward good without coercing it, ensuring predestination's compatibility with moral responsibility.^[1] This position held that grace operates intrinsically on the will, rendering consent certain yet free, a view Soto elaborated to counter perceived Pelagian excesses while preserving Augustinian insights on human fallenness.^[2] Luis de Molina, a Jesuit whose work intersected with Salamancan theology despite his order's affiliation, challenged this in his Concordia liberi arbitrii cum gratiae donis (1588), introducing the concept of scientia media or middle knowledge. Molina posited that God possesses counterfactual knowledge of what free creatures would do in any possible circumstance, enabling divine providence to actualize a world where grace suffices for salvation without necessitating the will's response, thus safeguarding libertarian free will against deterministic interpretations of grace.^[1] This innovation aimed to reconcile foreknowledge, predestination, and human freedom by placing free choice as chronologically prior to grace's application, though logically subsequent to God's decree.^[24] These positions ignited the De Auxiliis controversy, with early sparks at the University of Salamanca in 1582 during debates between Dominican theologian Domingo Báñez, who held the primada cátedra de teología, and Jesuit Prudencio de Montemayor over grace's irresistibility.^[23] Báñez critiqued Molina's framework as undermining grace's sufficiency, insisting on physical premotion—a divine act that predetermines the will's assent—while Molina's defenders, including later figures like Pedro de Ledesma (a Salamancan Dominican), navigated accusations of semi-Pelagianism.^[95] The conflict escalated post-1588, drawing in Pope Clement VIII's commissions (1598-1607), which examined texts from both sides but ultimately declined to condemn either, permitting Thomist and Molinist views to coexist within Catholic orthodoxy.^[96] This unresolved tension highlighted the School's internal diversity, as Dominican rigor met Jesuit innovations, influencing subsequent theology without doctrinal rupture.^[1]

Positions on Slavery and Coercion

The theologians of the School of Salamanca, drawing on Thomistic natural law, rejected Aristotle's concept of natural slavery—the idea that certain individuals are inherently suited for enslavement due to intellectual inferiority—and instead regarded slavery as a conventional, penal institution arising only from captivity in a just war.^[97] This position emphasized that all humans possess natural rights to liberty and dominion, limiting enslavement to punishment for grave offenses or defensive necessities, rather than innate status or conquest without cause.^[98] Domingo de Soto, in his De iustitia et iure (1556), explicitly denied natural slavery, affirming it as a civil construct that does not negate the slave's fundamental human dignity or rights against arbitrary abuse.^[1] Francisco de Vitoria advanced this framework in his relectiones De Indis et civitate terrena (1532), arguing that indigenous peoples of the Americas were not natural slaves and retained full ownership over their bodies, lands, and goods; enslavement was justifiable solely if they were captured lawfully during a defensive just war, such as resistance to evangelization after repeated peaceful overtures.^[99] He critiqued coercive domination by Spanish settlers, insisting that any war must meet strict criteria of proportionality and necessity, thereby curbing imperial pretexts for mass enslavement.^[81] Luis de Molina, in De iustitia et iure (1593–1609), extended these principles to the African slave trade, acknowledging slavery's legitimacy under just titles like voluntary sale or penal captivity but condemning prevalent deceptions, kidnappings, and coercive raids as violations of natural rights, though he stopped short of rejecting the institution outright if owners acted in good faith.^[100] Regarding coercion, Salamancan thinkers opposed forced labor or servitude absent consent or judicial penalty, viewing it as incompatible with free will and divine law; for instance, Soto rejected vagabondry-based enslavement, targeting only criminal itinerancy as warranting coercive restraint, while Molina stressed that slaves retained moral agency and rights to resist unjust commands. These views informed debates against figures like Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, who invoked natural slavery to justify subjugating "barbarians," but the school's dominant stance prioritized empirical assessment of cultural practices over presumed inferiority, fostering protections like requirements for humane treatment and manumission opportunities.^[101] Internal diversity existed, with some tolerating African enslavement if sourced from intertribal wars deemed just, yet the emphasis on verifiable justice and human equality laid groundwork for later critiques of colonial excesses.^[102]

Critiques of Imperial Excesses and Native Rights

Francisco de Vitoria, in his 1539 lecture Relectio de Indis, articulated foundational arguments against the unjust conquest and domination of indigenous peoples in the Americas, asserting that native inhabitants possessed true dominion over their lands and goods by natural right, irrespective of their non-Christian beliefs.^[1] Vitoria rejected the Spanish Requerimiento of 1513, which demanded submission to the Spanish crown and Catholic Church under threat of enslavement and war, deeming it invalid as a basis for imperial claims since it violated principles of natural law and the ius gentium, or law of nations, applicable to all rational beings.^[40] He maintained that force could not be used solely to propagate Christianity or seize territories, limiting just causes for intervention to specific violations such as denying safe passage to foreigners, obstructing trade, or allying with enemies, but emphasized that even then, proportionality and restitution were required, prohibiting indiscriminate enslavement or despoliation.^[50] ^[20] Vitoria's framework extended to prohibiting the enslavement of Indians absent a just title, such as capture in a defensive war against aggressors, and he argued that indigenous societies, possessing reason, language, and political structures, warranted recognition as sovereign entities with rights to self-governance and property.^[12] This critique challenged the Aristotelian notion of natural slavery invoked by proponents like Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, who in 1550 defended conquest by classifying many natives as slaves by nature due to perceived barbarism, a position Vitoria countered by insisting on empirical assessment of indigenous rationality and moral capacity rather than presumption.^[1] Domingo de Soto built upon Vitoria's principles in works like De Iustitia et Iure (1553–1556), affirming the Indians' rights to personal freedom, private property, territorial integrity, and political autonomy as inherent under natural law, and condemning imperial practices that disregarded these without due process or just cause.^[9] Soto participated in the 1550–1551 Valladolid debate, supporting restrictions on encomienda systems that devolved into forced labor resembling slavery, and advocated for protections ensuring natives received fair wages and retained sovereignty unless forfeited through grave offenses like persistent human sacrifice or tyranny warranting humanitarian intervention.^[18] ^[97] Luis de Molina, in De Iustitia et Iure (1593–1609), addressed conquest legitimacy by requiring adherence to just war doctrine, rejecting blanket enslavement of natives and critiquing private traders who ignored whether captives were justly enslaved, while permitting limited coercion only for defensive purposes or to end severe injustices like cannibalism, but insisting on restitution and non-arbitrary application.^[22] Molina's synthesis emphasized subjective rights and free will, cautioning against imperial overreach that treated indigenous peoples as inherently inferior, though he allowed for tutelage under Spanish authority if natives lacked effective governance, provided it respected their dominium.^[103] ^[104] Collectively, these critiques from the School of Salamanca curbed some excesses by influencing royal decrees like the New Laws of 1542, which aimed to abolish native slavery and reform encomiendas, though enforcement remained inconsistent amid colonial interests; their insistence on universal natural rights and limits on sovereign power prefigured modern international law principles, prioritizing evidence of harm over ideological pretexts for domination.^[102]^[105]

Legacy and Influence

Impact on Enlightenment Thinkers and Liberal Traditions

The School of Salamanca's articulation of natural rights, subjective dominion, and limitations on political authority prefigured key elements of Enlightenment political philosophy, particularly in the domains of international law and individual liberty. Francisco de Vitoria's relectiones on the rights of American Indians and just war principles, emphasizing the equality of all peoples under natural law and prohibiting conquest without cause, directly shaped Hugo Grotius's framework in De Jure Belli ac Pacis (1625), where Grotius adapted Vitoria's ius gentium to secularize and systematize rules governing interstate relations and human rights.^[106] This transmission positioned Grotius as a bridge from Thomistic scholasticism to Enlightenment rationalism, influencing subsequent thinkers like Samuel Pufendorf, who critiqued absolutism by invoking Salamancan distinctions between divine and human law.^[10] Luis de Molina's treatise De Iustitia et Iure (1593) advanced a theory of subjective rights (ius proprium), positing that individuals possess inherent dominion over their labor and goods, which the state could not arbitrarily infringe—a concept that resonated in John Locke's Two Treatises of Government (1689), where property arises from mixing labor with unowned resources and serves as a bulwark against tyrannical rule.^[107] Molina's emphasis on voluntary exchange and consent in economic and social contracts paralleled Lockean ideas of government legitimacy deriving from the governed, countering divine-right monarchy with rational limits on sovereignty derived from natural law.^[56] Domingo de Soto's extensions of these principles to critique usury and monopolies further anticipated Enlightenment critiques of mercantilism, fostering a tradition of market liberty grounded in moral philosophy rather than state fiat.^[1] In liberal traditions, the Salamancans' defense of personal conscience against coercion—evident in their debates on religious tolerance and imperial overreach—influenced the broader shift toward constitutionalism and individual protections in thinkers like John Adams and the American Founders, who echoed Juan de Mariana's arguments for resistance to unjust rulers as articulated in De Rege et Regis Institutione (1599).^[108] This legacy manifested in classical liberalism's core tenets of limited government, rule of law, and natural equality, with the school's iusnaturalist methodology providing a causal foundation for rejecting absolutism: human reason, informed by divine order, inherently bounds political power to prevent arbitrary dominion.^[3] Despite suppression during the Counter-Reformation, these ideas persisted through Protestant appropriations, underscoring the school's role in seeding secular liberal thought without reliance on post hoc rationalism alone.^[109]

Rediscovery in 20th-Century Economic Theory

The rediscovery of the School of Salamanca's economic contributions began in the mid-20th century through scholarly examinations of their monetary theories, particularly their analyses of inflation caused by inflows of precious metals from the Americas. In 1952, Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson published The School of Salamanca: Readings in Spanish Monetary Theory, 1500-1650, which highlighted how thinkers like Martín de Azpilcueta and Domingo de Soto explained rising prices as resulting from increased money supply rather than greed or moral decay, anticipating the quantity theory of money.^[110] This work drew attention to their empirical observations, such as Azpilcueta's 1556 Comentario resolutorio de usura linking New World gold imports to a 100% price increase in Spain over a century.^[10] Austrian School economists in the latter half of the century further elevated the Salamancans' status by identifying parallels with subjective value theory and free-market principles. Murray Rothbard, in his 1974 essay "New Light on the Origins of the Austrian School," argued that the late Scholastics, including Luis de Molina and Leonardus Lessius, developed a proto-Austrian framework by positing that value derives from individual utility and scarcity rather than intrinsic worth or labor, as Molina articulated in his 1593 De iustitia et iure.^[111] Rothbard emphasized their rejection of just price as a fixed ethical norm in favor of market-driven prices reflecting supply, demand, and consent, influencing his own critiques of interventionism.^[112] Friedrich Hayek similarly acknowledged their prescience in a 1979 letter, praising Rothbard's essay and noting the Salamancans' insights into monetary expansion's distortive effects, though he critiqued some theological overlays.^[3] In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Spanish economist Jesús Huerta de Soto extended this revival by integrating Salamanca's ideas into modern Austrian analyses of banking and business cycles. His 1996 article "New Light on the Prehistory of the Theory of Banking and the School of Salamanca" traced fractional-reserve banking critiques to Tomás de Mercado's 1571 Summa de tratos y contratos, arguing that Salamancan prohibitions on demand deposit commingling prefigured endogenous money theories.^[113] Huerta de Soto's 2006 book Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles credits the school with originating dynamic economic cycle explanations via credit expansion, influencing contemporary libertarian monetary reforms.^[94] These efforts countered earlier dismissals of Scholastic economics as static or Aristotelian, demonstrating through textual exegesis their causal emphasis on human action and time preference in interest rates.^[114]

Modern Reassessments in Law, Economics, and Theology

In the field of economics, the School of Salamanca gained renewed attention in the late 20th century through the work of Austrian School economists, who identified precursors to subjective value theory and monetary analysis in the writings of figures like Martín de Azpilcueta and Domingo de Soto. Murray Rothbard, in his historical surveys, credited de Soto's 1553 treatise De iustitia et iure with the first full application of supply-and-demand principles to foreign exchange rates, arguing that the school's critique of monetary debasement anticipated modern understandings of inflation's distortive effects on prices.^[111] Jesús Huerta de Soto further elaborated this in his 2000 monograph The School of Salamanca: A Pioneer of Economic Liberalism, portraying the group's rejection of usury bans for productive loans and emphasis on entrepreneurial risk as foundational to liberal economic thought, though he noted their framework remained embedded in natural law rather than pure praxeology.^[94] Critics, however, contend that such linkages overstate continuity, as the Salamancans' "just price" derived from communal estimation and moral theology, not the marginal utility central to later Austrian marginalism, rendering proto-Austrian claims interpretive rather than literal.^[115] Reassessments in law highlight the school's contributions to international norms, particularly through Francisco de Vitoria's 1532 relectures on the rights of American indigenous peoples, which established principles of ius gentium prohibiting conquest absent just cause and affirming native dominion over property. Contemporary scholars, such as those examining post-colonial legal history, credit these arguments with laying groundwork for modern human rights doctrines, including protections against tyranny and the universal applicability of natural law beyond confessional boundaries.^[116] A 2025 analysis underscores Vitoria and Domingo de Soto's role in birthing ius gentium as a secularized framework for state sovereignty and intervention limits, influencing 20th-century treaties like the UN Charter's emphasis on self-determination, though their Eurocentric assumptions about "barbarism" have drawn scrutiny for limiting universality.^[117] Recent global scholarship, including Rafael Domingo's 2022 essay, reframes the school as a node in transnational knowledge production, where legal innovations responded to imperial encounters, fostering debates on coercion and consent that echo in international criminal law.^[118] Theological reassessments focus on the school's internal controversies, especially Luis de Molina's 1588 Concordia and its middle knowledge (scientia media) resolution to divine grace and human free will, which posited God's counterfactual awareness of creaturely choices without predetermining them. Modern analytic philosophers of religion have revived Molinism to address compatibilism challenges, with proponents arguing it preserves libertarian freedom against deterministic grace models, influencing evangelical and Catholic soteriological discussions since the 1970s.^[119] In Catholic contexts, the school's emphasis on efficacious grace informed 20th-century magisterial documents like Pius XII's 1950 Humani Generis, which cautiously endorsed Molinist elements amid Thomistic dominance, though detractors from free grace perspectives critique it for implying conditional salvation tied to foreseen merits.^[120] Broader reevaluations, as in Thomas Duve's 2021 study, situate these debates within the school's response to Reformation-era pluralism, revealing causal mechanisms in theological method—such as probabilistic reasoning in grace—that prefigured decision theory in contemporary moral theology.^[121]

References

[1]
School of Salamanca - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Mar 22, 2019 · The Salamancan theologians and their successors not only discussed and modified Thomist natural law but also referred to other sources with ...Natural Law, Political Theory... · Economic Theory · The Influence of the School of...
[2]
The School of Salamanca (Chapter 11) - The Cambridge History of ...
It could be defined as a theological movement of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries made up of a group of professors of the faculty of theology of ...
[3]
Studying in the School of Salamanca | Acton Institute
Sep 8, 2025 · The School of Salamanca was innovative not only in its work defining human rights, morality of law, and justice. Its exceptional analysis of ...
[4]
https://brill.com/display/book/9789004449749/BP000001.xml?language=en
[5]
In the Liberal Tradition: Francisco de Vitoria | Acton Institute
Dec 28, 2022 · He was the founder of what became known as the “School of Salamanca,” based at the University of Salamanca (founded in 1218), where he chaired ...
[6]
https://brill.com/display/book/9789004449749/BP000001.xml
[7]
The School of Salamanca: Origins of Political Economy and ...
Dec 1, 2022 · ... Scholastic school (the scholastic tradition going back to the University of Paris founded around 1200), was an original synthesis of Thomism ...
[8]
The Salamanca School | Aquinas's Summa Theologiae and ...
Dec 14, 2023 · ... Soto continues to echo the approach of other Salamancan Thomists like Vitoria and Cano. To this end, Soto focuses his attention on Aquinas ...
[9]
[PDF] The Internationalization of Francisco de Vitoria and Domingo de Soto
The prestige of the Salamanca School and the strength of their arguments at Trent ensured the success of the Thomist doc- trine of the intrinsic justification ...
[10]
None
Summary of each segment:
[11]
About « The School of Salamanca - Notre Dame Sites
The School of Salamanca, spanning the early sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, was an important intellectual tradition in the Latin West housed at the city's ...
[12]
Natural rights revisited during Salamanca University's 800th ...
Nov 30, 2017 · Salamanca represented the New Evangelization of its time. At the center of the Good News were the natural rights of man due to all peoples.
[13]
THE SCHOOL OF SALAMANCA AND THE EMERGENCE OF ...
Dec 10, 2017 · the School of Salamanca was a bridge between mediaeval and modern thought, a veritable cradle of Modernity. Unlike Protestant reformists, its ...<|separator|>
[14]
De Indis - Teaching American History
De Indis. by Francisco de Vitoria. 1532. Share.Missing: date | Show results with:date
[15]
Brief History of the University of Salamanca - Alumni - USAL
According to one of the earliest documents preserved in the University dating back to 1243, the University of Salamanca was founded in 1218 by King Alfonso ...
[16]
Economy as Empire: Dutch Disease and the Decline of Imperial Spain
Jul 9, 2019 · But a series of factors combined to exert severe pressure on the empire and ultimately led to its decline beginning in the 1640s. While ...
[17]
The University of Salamanca | donQuijote
May 27, 2013 · In the seventeenth century, the number of students decreased. Today, more than 30,000 students study in Salamanca every year. This therefore ...
[18]
Domingo de Soto (Chapter 7) - Great Christian Jurists in Spanish ...
Apr 24, 2018 · This chapter seeks to highlight the Christian orientation and basis for Soto's thoughts about law, rights, political authority, international law, just war.
[19]
https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004283930/B9789004283930-s012.pdf
[20]
Francisco de Vitoria, Relectiones (1538-1539)
Jul 3, 2015 · Vitoria argues that the natural law, which solves the problem of jurisdiction, is based on a state of nature “permissible from the beginning of ...
[21]
The Natural Law Basis of Francisco de Vitoria's Political and ...
Aug 5, 2025 · In this view, his use of the omist doctrine of natural law and justice lays the founda- tion for his works on politics, society and ...
[22]
Luís de Molina, De Iustitia et Iure (1593–1609) - Conimbricenses.org
In the first treatise, Molina discusses various conceptions of justice and law, the relationship of natural law to positive law, compares the subdivisions of ...
[23]
A Sketch of the Controversy de auxiliis - ScienceDirect.com
Apr 11, 2020 · The controversy de auxiliis occurred in the immediate wake of the Council of Trent (1545–63) and its protagonists probed questions about grace ...
[24]
De Auxiliis Controversy - Conimbricenses.org
The De Auxiliis controversy is a theological debate which arose in Spain and Portugal because of the Concordia, a book published in Lisbon in 1588.
[25]
CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Luis de Molina - New Advent
Molina's chief contribution to the science of theology is the "Concordia", on which he spent thirty years of the most assiduous labour.
[26]
[PDF] De Auxiliis Controversy - Conimbricenses.org - PhilArchive
Sep 20, 2022 · The De Auxiliis controversy is a theological debate which arose in Spain and Portugal because of the Concordia, a book published in Lisbon ...
[27]
God's Grace and His Fiery Friar - Dominicana Journal
Apr 19, 2022 · Βáñez is best known for his leading role in the De auxiliis controversy concerning the grace of God. All Catholics agreed (and still agree) ...
[28]
[PDF] the efficacy of grace according to domingo bañez
The Spanish Dominican theologian Domingo Bañez, in the controversy with the Jesuit theologian Luis de Molina, developed his own theology of effica- cious grace.
[29]
Congregatio de Auxiliis - Encyclopedia.com
On July 21, 1594, Quiroga requested the Universities of Salamanca, Alcalá and Siguenza, as well as 13 bishops and eight doctors of theology, for their opinions ...Missing: details | Show results with:details<|separator|>
[30]
A Thomistic Account of Human Free Will and Divine Providence
Apr 18, 2022 · Pedro de Ledesma is one of the Dominican theologians of the School of Salamanca involved in the De Auxiliis controversy.
[31]
CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Congregatio de Auxiliis - New Advent
A commission established by Pope Clement VIII to settle the theological controversy regarding grace which arose between the Dominicans and the Jesuits.
[32]
Dictionary : CONGREGATIO DE AUXILIIS | Catholic Culture
After nine years of ineffective discussion Pope Paul V in 1607 dissolved the commission and reserved the decision to the Holy See. A decision has never been ...
[33]
The Metaphysics of Good and Evil According to Suarez - jstor
This volume contains the first translation into English of the two metaphysical disputations that Francisco Suárez (1548-1617) devoted to good and evil, ...
[34]
Suarez on God and Sin - University of Notre Dame
In addition, some positive entities that are 'evil for another' are moral evils, that is, entities that are bad for a free nature precisely insofar as it is ...
[35]
The Metaphysics of Good and Evil According to Suárez ... - PhilPapers
The Metaphysics of Good and Evil According to Suárez. Metaphysical Disputations X and XI and Selected Passages from Disputation XXIII and other Works.
[36]
Luis de Molina
MOLINA, LUIS DE. A leading figure in sixteenth-century Iberian scholasticism, Molina was one of the most controversial thinkers in the history of Catholic ...
[37]
Free Will and Luis de Molina, SJ - Jesuits.org
De Molina argued that God achieves his will not by forcing or predestining anyone to do or be anything. Rather he simply arranges events so that his creatures ...
[38]
https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1325&context=ilj
[39]
Foundations of Human Rights: The Work of Francisco de Vitoria, OP
Abstract. Robert Araujo reflects on the role of the Natural Law in both the American experience of Catholicism and in the global experience of human rights.
[40]
[PDF] Charter of rights of the Indians according to the School of Salamanca
While Francisco de Vitoria proclaimed the fundamental rights of the Indians, even in relation to Spaniards when the latter acted unjustly, he also justified ...
[41]
Francisco Suárez - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Jul 21, 2014 · Francisco Suárez (1548–1617) [1] was a highly influential philosopher and theologian of the Second Scholastic (or “Early Modern Scholasticism”).<|separator|>
[42]
francisco suârez and the principatus politicus - jstor
Suârez's political works will show a democratic theory of sovereignty, vigor ... ends of political power.76 Political power being purely natural, it should not be.
[43]
[PDF] Vitoria, the common good and the limits of political power
Vitoria, like later members of the Salamanca School, held what can be described as an organic view of political society, with the common good as its overriding ...
[44]
On the Subject of Civil Authority, and On Resistance of Tyranny
May 24, 2015 · a) When the tyranny is not excessive, it is more advantageous to tolerate the tyrant for a time than to oppose him and thereby become victimized ...
[45]
The Duties and Rights of Subjects toward the Civil Power - The Josias
Jun 1, 2015 · In this sense, the nature of the tyrant is described by Tully, in De amicitia, cap. ... Against excessive tyranny, DEFENSIVE resistance is able to ...
[46]
[DOC] The Origins of Francisco Suarez's Doctrines on Popular Sovereignty ...
This paper will focus on his theories of popular sovereignty and resistance that were so implicitly influential during the early modern period and into the ...
[47]
[PDF] ARTICLE: FRANCISCO DE VITORIA ON THE IUS GENTIUM AND
The first work, De Indis, develops an account of personal rights based on natural law that, by means of the law of nations, could be extended even to the ...
[48]
https://brill.com/downloadpdf/book/edcoll/9789047413400/B9789047413400_s011.pdf
[49]
[PDF] PART I Ius Gentium and the Origins of International Law
Among the leading exponents of this School of Salamanca was the Dominican friar Francisco de Vitoria (1483–1546). ... 1.1 The School of Salamanca and the ...
[50]
Francisco de Vitoria's Defense of Indigenous Peoples' Rights
Oct 16, 2024 · Francisco de Vitoria, a Dominican friar of Basque origin and professor at the University of Salamanca, had spent long periods bedridden. His ...
[51]
DE INDIS ET DE IVRE BELLI BEING PARTS OF RELECTIONES
Franciscus de Victoria receives his surname from Vitoria, the chief town of Alava, where he was born -- in 1480 according to some writers, but in the first ...
[52]
EMPIRE AND INTERNATIONAL LAW: THE REAL SPANISH ...
In 1553/1556, Soto published his massive tract De iustitia et iure, where he repeated the argument that he had already made in the 1535 lecture that the ...Missing: indigenous | Show results with:indigenous
[53]
EMPIRE AND THE RIGHT TO PREACH THE GOSPEL IN THE ...
May 8, 2018 · The sixteenth-century theologians of the School of Salamanca are well known for their sophisticated reflections on the Spanish conquest of the New World.
[54]
Conquest by Contract: Property Rights and the Commercial Logic of ...
Jun 1, 2022 · This article charts the historic tension between indigenous property rights and the expansion of commercial interests.
[55]
Contract Law in the Aristotelian Tradition (Chapter 6) - The Theory of ...
Philosophers and jurists built the first systematic theory of contract law. It was a synthesis of Aristotelian philosophy and Roman law.<|separator|>
[56]
https://brill.com/downloadpdf/book/edcoll/9789004262188/B9789004262188_009.pdf
[57]
The School of Salamanca: A Common Law? (Chapter 11)
... School of Salamanca gave to contract law, restitution theory, and property law, as well as to criminal law, constitutional theory, and political thought.Missing: contractual obligations
[58]
Francisco de Vitoria on the Right to Free Trade and Justice
Apr 23, 2021 · Property is the necessary complement for the exercise of individual freedom. We find echoes of Vitoria's teachings on private property as a ...<|separator|>
[59]
Scholastic Economics - jstor
Thomas Aquinas (1226-1274) had given a place to economics in his universal ... ing to, or influenced by, the school of Salamanca: Molina, Lessius and Lugo.
[60]
The Concept of the Just Price: Theory and Economic Policy - jstor
with the subject-the just price was linked to the medieval concept of a social hierarchy and corresponded to a reasonable charge which would enable the ...
[61]
[PDF] Justice and just price in Francisco de Vitoria's Commentary on ...
Nov 20, 2021 · Theologica. The identification of the just price with that of common estimation occurs under a sufficient concurrence of sellers and buyers.
[62]
https://www.uclm.es/es/departamentos/daef/-/media/Files/A05-Investigacion-departamentos/daef/documentos_trabajo/2010-2-DT-DAEF.ashx
[63]
[PDF] “The Birth of Price Theory in Peter Olivi's Treatise on Contracts ...
Feb 11, 2025 · Peter. Olivi created price theory in 1295 to show that their concepts of 'just price' and 'usury' were misconceived and harmful for the 'common ...
[64]
[PDF] Economic thought in scholasticism
Apr 25, 2023 · These passages elaborate on the comments on Aristotle provided by Thomas Aquinas's master, Albert the Great, showing once again the influence of ...
[65]
What Is a Just Price? - Econlib
May 4, 2020 · According to thinkers in the School of Salamanca, economic value no longer resides within the object. Instead, value comes from the people ...
[66]
The School of Salamanca: the birth of human rights and the market ...
The School of Salamanca was the first current of economic, moral and legal thought to debate the moral problems arising from the innovative commercial system ...
[67]
[PDF] The School of Salamanca - Mises Institute
work in the field of natural law. Their contribution to the Law of Nations is of particular interest to their audiences, since it has fallen to the theologians ...
[68]
The School of Salamanca - The Libertarian Catholic
The School of Salamanca reformulated the concept of natural law: law originating in nature itself, with all that exists in the natural order sharing in this law ...
[69]
The scholastic perspective on the time value of money and the ...
Aug 7, 2025 · We present a new interpretation of Martín de Azpilcueta's theory, demonstrating that while he cannot be considered the sole originator of the ...
[70]
Spanish Free-Market Pioneers - Law & Liberty
Dec 5, 2016 · Hayek mentioned some of the authors of the School of Salamanca in several of his works, including Luis de Molina (1535-1601), Juan de Lugo (1583 ...<|separator|>
[71]
A brief history of inflation as a monetary phenomenon
May 10, 2016 · Its origins can be traced back to the writings of the philosophers Martín de Azpilcueta and Tomás de Mercado from the Salamanca School, and ...
[72]
Monetary Faith | Philip Pilkington - Inference Review
At roughly the same time, the School of Salamanca, led by Martín de Azpilcueta, formulated a consistent theory of the relationship between prices and money, ...
[73]
H-Net Reviews
Azpilcueta also offered an individualized perspective on money's value with regard to its buying power, distinct from its actual or ascribed value.
[74]
Usury – EH.net - Economic History Association
Domingo de Soto, concerned about social justice, suggested that Luke 6:35 was not a precept, since it has no relation to the justice of lending at interest.
[75]
https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004296961/BP000027.xml
[76]
HET: Domingo de Soto - The History of Economic Thought Website
Domingo de Soto was a professor of theology at the University of Salamanca from 1532, contemporaneously with Francisco de Vitoria (whom he first met in Paris).Missing: theodicy | Show results with:theodicy
[77]
[PDF] Luis de Molina's De Iustitia et Iure: Justice as Virtue in an Economic ...
Based on his reflection upon the new economic circumstances of his era, Molina recognized that the natural-law prohibition of usury did not apply in as many ...
[78]
Martín de Azpilcueta: The Spanish Scholastic on Usury and...
Aug 27, 2020 · However, this discovery is a curious one given how the same man, Azpilcueta, condemned usury in general during his whole life. If Azpilcueta did ...
[79]
Books printed in Spain - 1565: Francisco de Vitoria
Francisco de Vitoria (1483-1546) entered the Dominican Order at the convent of St. Paul in Burgos. He was sent by his superiors to Paris, where he studied and ...
[80]
Who was Francisco de Vitoria? - UFV
He founded the famous School of Salamanca, to which influential jurists and theologians of the stature of Melchor Cano, Domingo Báñez, Domingo de Soto and ...
[81]
Francisco de Vitoria: A "Voice Crying in the Wilderness" Needing to ...
Mar 16, 2023 · He was a canon lawyer, theologian, philosopher, renowned lecturer, and above all, brave defender of the rights of the indigenous people of the Americas.<|separator|>
[82]
Soto, Domingo de | Encyclopedia.com
He defended the doctrines of original sin, predestination, justification, merit, and others against the attacks of the Protestant theologians. He also wrote the ...Missing: theodicy | Show results with:theodicy
[83]
De iustitia et iure - Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
May 5, 2021 · In 1553, the Salmantine master Domingo de Soto's treatise De iustitia et iure launched a specialised genre of theological literature mainly dedicated to ...Missing: indigenous commerce conquest<|separator|>
[84]
The Essence of Law according to Domingo de Soto | Revista Espíritu
Abstract: The scholastic treatise De iustitia et iure of Domingo de Soto is one of the most important milestones in the history of juridical philosophy.
[85]
[DOC] https://lirias.kuleuven.be/retrieve/242872
In his De iustitia et iure, Soto dealt with a variety of moral and legal issues through the combined use of Aristotelian-Thomistic virtue ethics and the ...
[86]
(PDF) Domingo de Soto: De iustitia et iure - Academia.edu
84 - 24 - De iustitia et iure (On Justice and Law) 1553-1554 Domingo DE SOTO ... Natural law and right reason were equally important sources of authority for Soto ...Missing: conquest | Show results with:conquest
[87]
Domingo de Soto on the two powers - The Josias
May 13, 2021 · One of the foremost Thomist philosophers and theologians of his time, he occupied a chair of theology at the famous University of Salamanca from ...
[88]
Luis de Molina (Chapter 10) - Great Christian Jurists in Spanish ...
Apr 24, 2018 · Luis de Molina (1535–1600) was one of the most creative thinkers of the sixteenth century. Both his economic theory and his doctrine of middle knowledge were ...
[89]
https://brill.com/display/title/19890
[90]
Review: Luis De Molina's De Iustitia et Iure: Justice as Virtue in an ...
Jun 11, 2013 · He presents Molinas economic theory as derived not simply from reading Aquinas but from walking to the docks of Coimbra and talking to the ...
[91]
[PDF] NEW VIRTUE ECONOMICS
Dec 24, 2024 · Some decades later, Luis de Molina's De iustitia et iure (1593)18 also advanced ... their integration of theology and economics as overly abstract ...
[92]
Martín de Azpilcueta: The Spanish Scholastic on Usury and Time ...
Aug 6, 2025 · PDF | Martín de Azpilcueta and his fellow Spanish Scholastics writing and teaching at the University of Salamanca during Spain's Golden Age ...
[93]
Diego de Covarrubias y Leyva (Chapter 9) - Great Christian Jurists ...
Apr 24, 2018 · He intended a career that included application of the law. In 1527, young Covarrubias matriculated in the law faculty at Salamanca, giving ...Missing: Leiva | Show results with:Leiva
[94]
Juan de Mariana and the Spanish Scholastics - Jesús Huerta de Soto
Most of them were scholastics teaching morals and theology at the University of Salamanca, a wonderful Spanish medieval city located 150 miles to the north-west ...
[95]
Pedro de Ledesma and the De Auxiliis Controversy - PhilArchive
Apr 18, 2022 · Pedro de Ledesma is one of the Dominican theologians of the School of Salamanca involved in the De Auxiliis controversy.
[96]
Congregatio de Auxiliis | Catholic Answers Encyclopedia
In 1588 the Spanish Jesuit Luis de Molina published at Lisbon his “Concordia liberi arbitrii cum gratis donis”, in which he explained efficacious grace on the ...
[97]
The Salamanca School on Slavery: From Naturalism to Culture and ...
This article examines the reflections on slavery by a group of 16th-century scholastics considered members or followers of the so-called School of Salamanca.
[98]
The Salamanca School on Slavery: From Naturalism to Culture and ...
Jan 30, 2020 · This article examines the reflections on slavery by a group of 16th-century scholastics considered members or followers of the so-called School of Salamanca.Missing: positions | Show results with:positions
[99]
[PDF] NATURAL SLAVERY IN THE THOUGHT OF AQUINAS AND VITORIA
He often compares slaves to animals, for instance. See Pol 1252a 33, 1254b 16–25. 22 John B. Killoran, “Aquinas and Vitoria: Two Perspectives on Slavery, ...
[100]
On Slavery and the Slave Trade - CUAPress
In doing so, he carefully describes the deception, coercion, and general ... While Molina does not condemn slavery as a legal institution, the deeply ...
[101]
https://brill.com/display/book/9789004421882/BP000023.xml
[102]
Esclavos Indios and the School of Salamanca after the New Laws of ...
In 1542, with the promulgation of the New Laws, Spanish authorities made a greater effort to eliminate indigenous slavery in America.
[103]
[PDF] The Cultural Otherness of the Indians as a Just Cause of the ...
The proponents of the first and second views differed on the question of the methods of carrying out the Spanish conquest of the Americas, but not on the belief ...
[104]
https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004262188/B9789004262188_001.pdf
[105]
Scholasticism | The Rights of War and Peace - Oxford Academic
This chapter deals with the scholastic theories about war. It looks at Juan Luis de Molina, and traces the roots of his ideas among the jurists and theologians ...<|separator|>
[106]
https://brill.com/view/journals/grot/41/1/article-p137_137.xml
[107]
The Spanish tradition of freedom in the sixteenth and seventeenth ...
Oct 19, 2018 · Here I will briefly explain Mariana's influence on Locke and Adams, based on documentary evidence cited and included in the doctoral thesis and ...Missing: impact | Show results with:impact
[108]
The Spanish Enlightenment and the Founding Fathers
Dec 15, 2018 · The Spanish Enlightenment, especially the School of Salamanca, influenced the Founding Fathers with ideas like equality, limited government, ...
[109]
Adam Smith, Classical Liberalism, and the Legacy of Hispanic ...
Jan 27, 2021 · However, private property, necessary to fulfill human needs, requires legal protection consistent with the natural order of things. The ...
[110]
[PDF] Economic Science and Economic Thought of the School of ...
Jun 10, 2020 · The «discovery» of economic thought of the School of Salamanca took place precisely through its monetary theory. In Grice-Hutchinson (1952) ...Missing: rediscovery | Show results with:rediscovery
[111]
Rothbard on the Prehistory of the Austrian School
The Scholastic philosophers were seen as remarkable and prescient economists, developing a system very close to the Austrian and subjective-utility approach.
[112]
The School of Salamanca - Mises Institute
Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson's remarkable classic, The School of Salamanca, posed an extraordinary challenge when it first appeared in 1952. ... Decline Accept.
[113]
New Light on the Prehistory of the Theory of Banking ... - EconPapers
Jul 14, 2025 · New Light on the Prehistory of the Theory of Banking and the School of Salamanca. Jesus Huerta de Soto. The Review of Austrian Economics, 1996 ...
[114]
[PDF] New Light on the Prehistory of the Theory of Banking and the School
*Jesus Huerta de Soto is professor titular de economia politica, Universidad ... members of the School of Salamanca, specifically those of Tomas de. Mercado ...<|separator|>
[115]
(PDF) Was the School of Salamanca Proto-Austrian? - Academia.edu
Rothbard's interpretation of the School of Salamanca as proto-Austrian is fundamentally flawed. The Salamancans' contributions cannot be measured against ...
[116]
The School of Salamanca: Intellectual Roots of International Law
May 18, 2015 · The course explores the beginnings of international rights and law rooted in the work of sixteenth century University of Salamanca professor Francisco de ...
[117]
The School of Salamanca – the forgotten nascence of modern ...
Jan 14, 2025 · The founder of this school was Francisco de Vitoria (1483–1546), a Catholic moral theologian and teacher of natural law. Another important ...
[118]
Rethinking the School of Salamanca by Rafael Domingo :: SSRN
Apr 15, 2022 · In this short essay, I refer to four recently published works that show the global scope of interest in Spanish Scholasticism in general and the School of ...
[119]
Evaluating Molinism: An Introduction to Luis de Molina, Middle ...
Jul 20, 2010 · What's most interesting about this subject is that Molina's Catholic views on free will and grace have been far more influential in Protestant ...Missing: School Salamanca modern reassessments
[120]
A Free Grace Response To Molinism - GraceLife Ministries
The purpose of this paper is to briefly discuss Molinism, examine Keathley's theological position, and offer a response from a free grace perspective.Missing: Salamanca reassessments
[121]
The School of Salamanca: A Case of Global Knowledge Production
Aug 11, 2025 · PDF | On Feb 19, 2021, Thomas Duve published The School of Salamanca: A Case of Global Knowledge Production | Find, read and cite all the ...