It was the January 1539. Francisco de Vitoria, a Dominican friar of Basque origin and professor at the University of Salamanca, had spent long periods bedridden. His health was fragile, and he could barely walk. Disciples and students greatly admired him, and they would carry him to the university. The master resided behind the imposing, richly decorated Plateresque façade of the Convent of San Esteban. The temple, a jewel of ornamental art, was a rich fusion of Gothic and Renaissance elements, mirroring Vitoria's own thought. Inside, the professor had walked for over a decade through the Renaissance cloister and the majestic church with its star-shaped vault, contemplating the issues of his time. San Esteban was a place of great beauty and symbolism, with a historical atmosphere reflecting the intellectual and religious splendor of the era. There, the students met their professor and carried him in a chair to the podium of the aula magna, where he would give his lecture. It was a short distance, around 1,300 feet, and they arrived in under 10 minutes.
In the classroom, a vibrant intellectual atmosphere prevailed. The ideas of Renaissance humanism intertwined with the political and social concerns of the century, such as the consequences of the conquest and colonization of the Americas and the expansion of powerful European states. This interest, combined with his Thomist and humanist education at the University of Paris, drove Vitoria to develop his lectures with a practical theological approach, motivated by a sincere concern for justice and human well-being.
Vitoria was known among his students at Salamanca for his direct, simple, and clear style, in contrast to the convoluted Scholastic method that predominated in university teaching at the time.
He taught his theology classes early in the morning, and they lasted approximately an hour and a half. But in addition to the regular lessons he taught daily, professors at the University of Salamanca annually offered an extraordinary two-hour lecture known as a "relectio," a general review of the course at the end of the semester. These master lectures were important academic events as they were addressed to the entire university —that is, all the students and professors. Their purpose was to recap and deepen the central theme of the course.
It was bitterly cold, but the sun was shining, and the campus buzzed with anticipation. From his chair, the master began to deliver the brilliant lecture that would alter the course of the history of law.
Following a rationalist, logical and scientific approach, characteristic of the Scholastic style, Vitoria addressed the university faculty with rigorous clarity, in an enormously pedagogical and accessible tone. He chose a topic of pressing relevance: the rights of indigenous peoples to the lands of America.
Through his "Relectio De Indis," Vitoria defended the rights of indigenous peoples against the abuses of European colonizers, arguing that, like all human beings, they were rational beings with natural rights, including political sovereignty and property titles over their lands. He rejected most of the ideas or assumptions used to justify the conquest of the Americas and the subjugation of indigenous peoples to the imperial power. Specifically, Vitoria refuted the seven "illegitimate" principles on which the supposed rights of the conquerors to occupy the lands and seize the wealth of America were based. Students and professors listened firsthand as Vitoria put forth arguments showing that the emperor was not the lord of the whole earth and that the Pope did not have full jurisdiction in temporal matters over the whole earth; Vitoria dismantled, one argument after another, the claim that the Castilians in particular and Europeans in general had any "right of discovery" and that the opposition of the indigenous people to receiving the Christian faith was no excuse to strip them of their right to freedom. Vitoria refuted the supposed vices attributed to the indigenous people and denied that there was any "voluntary submission" of those free peoples to the conquerors. In an ascending tone, Vitoria concluded by stating that God had not granted the Castilians the right to possess the new lands. He rejected the right of conquest and dominion by Castile and, in general, by European powers over the lands of the Americas.
At this point, the classroom was in complete silence, trying to absorb ideas that were new to the world.
After examining and refuting the titles that claimed to justify this and other conquests, he established a series of fundamental principles on justice, freedom and equality.
He affirmed that the sovereignty over American territories belongs to their inhabitants, the indigenous peoples of America, and that they, not the Europeans, were the legitimate owners of their lands, both in public and private matters. And he added that, in light of the law of nations (ius gentium), all the peoples of the world are free and equal, regardless of whether they are great or small, strong or weak, Christian or infidel: all have the right to self-determination and to be treated equally. The underlying principle was that no external power had the right to claim sovereignty over a territory already inhabited and governed by another people. Even if Indigenous people did not accept Christianity, "this does not render it lawful to make war on them and despoil them of their possessions," he emphasized. Through this principle, Vitoria was the first to give voice to the political principle of international equity and rejected any form of domination, slavery or subjugation based on religion, culture or power.
The conclusion was unequivocal: all empires are illicit and unjust in light of the law of nations. With a single statement, Vitoria rejected the legitimacy of the Castilian empire from his chair in Salamanca, at the height of imperial power. "The Indian aborigines are not barred from the exercise of true dominion," he assured, which means that no nation has the right to expand its dominion over other nations through force or conquest.
One of Vitoria's most radical principles was his assertion that there are no chosen races. The idea that some nations were superior to others because of race or creed was rejected through irrefutable theological arguments. All peoples, Vitoria concluded, have the same dignity and the same rights. This principle was a direct blow to xenophobic and discriminatory ideologies and to the prejudices that justified colonial domination, slavery and the subjugation of indigenous peoples. For this reason, Vitoria also rejected the notion of "holy crusades" or religious wars justified by the expansion of faith. "Difference of religion is not a cause of just war," he concluded, meaning that faith shall not be imposed by force, and war cannot be used as a means to spread religion.
With these principles, Francisco de Vitoria finished his "Relectio De Indis" and laid the foundations of modern international law, proposing a new way of conceiving relations between nations and the rights of peoples. By rejecting the right of conquest, imperial expansion, racial superiority, the emperor's hegemony, and the Pope's temporal authority, Vitoria advocated before his students and fellow colleagues for a world based on equality, where relations between nations and states would be governed by the principles of justice and freedom.
The sun was high when Vitoria finished his lecture. Such words had never been heard in the universities of the old continent. That day, Salamanca became the center of the world. Vitoria let students and professors draw their own conclusions about solidarity among peoples and an international community where nations had mutual obligations and duties.
The students carried their elderly master back on his chair to the Convent of San Esteban and left him seated in the cloister, discussing these and many other ideas. Vitoria died a few years later and did not leave his lectures in writing. Once again, it was his students who, using the notes they had taken in his classes, edited and published them in two volumes in 1557 to preserve that legacy and ensure that his thought continued to influence contemporary theology, philosophy, and law.
Nearly five centuries have passed since that friar declared that there had been no discovery and that the Native Americans were the sole and true owners of America. And yet, we still celebrate Columbus Day, which endorses the doctrine of discovery and its inherent theses. The professor deserved better students.
