The School of Salamanca
Painting by MartÃn de Cervera, 1614: Theology Lesson at the University of Salamanca; University Library of Salamanca.
The School of Salamanca was a movement of thinkers from this university who, in the 16th century and following the work of Francisco de Vitoria, exerted a decisive influence on the territories of the Hispanic monarchy and the rest of the Western world.
The School of Salamanca provided the Spanish Empire with intellectual support, drawing on diverse fields such as theology, philosophy, economics, astronomy, ethics, and morality.
Its members shared a humanist worldview, centred on the dignity of the individual, regardless of race or social class. They established that all men possess natural rights, a principle that led to the birth of human rights and international law, exemplified by the Laws of the Indies. These laws were responsible, among other things, for one of the greatest characteristics and achievements of the Spanish Empire: mestizaje (racial and cultural blending).
They developed the first economic laws, introducing advanced ideas on business ethics. Their mathematicians and astronomers laid the foundations for our modern Gregorian calendar.
The main figures of this remarkable period in the history of thought included:
Francisco de Vitoria (Dominican): Leader of this humanist school of thought and father of international law.
Francisco Suárez (Jesuit): Theologian, philosopher, and jurist.
MartÃn de Azpilicueta (Augustinian): One of the founders of modern economics and monetary theory.
Domingo de Soto (Dominican): Physicist, mathematician, theologian, and philosopher— a true humanist.
Luis de Alcalá (Franciscan): One of the most important economists of his time.
Diego de Covarrubias: Jurist, theologian, historian, philologist, and economist.
Fray Luis de León: Theologian, poet, and astronomer.
Juan de Mariana (Jesuit): Theologian and historian.
The Valladolid Debate
The Valladolid Debate took place at the College of San Gregorio in Valladolid between 1550 and 1551.
For the first and only time in human history, a conquest and its accompanying explorations were halted by the most powerful man on Earth at the time, Emperor Charles V, until a council of theologians could determine whether it was legally and morally justified. It was a tense and intense debate between Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, who defended the traditional Aristotelian theory of the superiority of conquerors over the conquered, and Bartolomé de las Casas, a staunch advocate for the rights of the indigenous peoples.
Alongside Fray Bartolomé, several disciples of Francisco de Vitoria, such as Domingo de Soto and Melchor Cano, also participated in the debate.
The aim of the Valladolid council was to establish a theological and legal framework for governing the affairs of the Indies moving forward. While no definitive resolution was reached, the debate marked a significant step forward for indigenous rights. It helped curb abuses, led to the creation of the Protector of the Indians (a kind of “guardian of the people” in the 16th century), and laid the foundations for future reforms, which later materialised in the various Laws of the Indies enacted by the Spanish Crown
Portico of the College of San Gregorio in Valladolid. 19th-century Romantic engraving.
The Laws of the Indies
The Laws of the Indies were a series of regulations issued by the Spanish Crown at different stages to govern and administer its overseas territories.
These laws included advanced provisions regarding the organisation of government in the various kingdoms of the Indies, the rights and duties of their inhabitants, as well as matters related to the economy, justice, urban planning, and evangelisation. They represented an unparalleled legal achievement in history, establishing a framework aimed at protecting indigenous peoples based on law and Christian principles.
Key milestones in this legal history include:
1493: First royal decree in Barcelona. After Columbus’s return, he is ordered to release the indigenous people he brought with him and to treat the natives well in the future.
1494: Following the Treaty of Tordesillas, Spain expressly prohibits the transport of African slaves by Spanish subjects.
1504: Codicil of Isabella I of Castile. She orders that the indigenous people be well treated and reaffirms the ban on enslaving them.
1512: The Laws of Burgos, commissioned by Ferdinand the Catholic to a council of theologians and jurists in response to reports of mistreatment of indigenous people by some Spaniards.
1542: New Laws for the Good Treatment and Preservation of the Indians, promulgated by Charles V in Barcelona.
1573: Ordinances on Discoveries, New Settlements, and Pacification of the Indies, drafted by order of Philip II at the Casa del Bosque or Palace of ValsaÃn (Segovia).
1680: Compilation of the Laws of the Kingdoms of the Indies, issued by Charles II.
Engraving extracted from the book “Práctica y formulario de la Real ChancillerÃa de Valladolid”, by Manuel Fernández de Ayala.
Unfortunately, many did not obey the laws (just as today, many corrupt leaders do not follow the law). Many Spaniards mistreated and enslaved the indigenous peoples, and, of course, they brought African slaves to the Indies, primarily to Cuba and Hispaniola. Alexander Von Humboldt, who extensively traveled through the Americas, noted that in the regions of the United States he visited, the slave population reached 70%. In Cuba, where the largest number of slaves were, the percentage was 20%, while in the interior of New Spain it was just 0.2%.
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico, circa 1531.
The Virgin of Guadalupe is a sacred icon that plays a fundamental role in the culture, national identity, and religiosity of Mexico. However, her devotion has transcended both centuries and national borders, becoming a revered figure throughout Latin America. She also serves as a symbol of Hispanic culture and religiosity, reflected in the Virgin of Guadalupe in Cáceres, Spain.
Her cult dates back to 1531. According to the Nican Mopohua codex, written in Nahuatl (and so significant that it is referred to as “the Bible of the Americas”), the Virgin appeared to the indigenous man Juan Diego on the Tepeyac Hill, now part of Mexico City. Juan Diego heard a voice and saw a maiden standing, her garments shining like the sun, who identified herself as the Virgin Mary. Her image miraculously imprinted itself on Juan Diego’s cloak. She asked him to go to the bishop’s palace in Mexico City and request the construction of a temple in her honour.
The temple was built, and it remains there to this day, with millions of faithful making pilgrimages every year in search of hope, protection, comfort, or to give thanks for favours received.
Our Lady of Guadalupe became the symbol of evangelisation and the spiritual conquest of the Indies, merging pre-Columbian beliefs with the new religion brought by the Castilians: Catholicism. She is, therefore, a true bridge between cultures, representing the fusion and brotherhood of the indigenous and Spanish peoples. She symbolises the miracle of mestizaje, a phenomenon that, among all the European colonising nations, only occurred in the lands where Spain arrived.
The mixed-race
According to the RAE (Royal Spanish Academy), mestizaje is “the blending of cultures that gives rise to a new one.”
Although from the beginning of the Conquest, the Crown promoted legal interracial unions, it cannot be forgotten, nor questioned, that terrible acts were committed by the conquerors. However, the presence of the Church did its best to prevent these acts, in order to carry out Queen Isabella I of Castile’s dream: that the indigenous people would not be harmed in their persons or property, that their souls would be won for the Catholic faith, and that they would marry Spaniards.
Spanish Dominicans encouraged Pope Paul III to issue the Sublimis Deus bull in 1537, which clarified the obvious: that the indigenous people were human beings with souls and reason, entitled to freedom, property, and the right to embrace the Catholic faith, and that they should be preached to peacefully.
By then, hundreds of thousands had died in the encomiendas or from diseases brought by the Spaniards. However, hundreds of thousands survived and intermarried with those who arrived in the Indies in successive waves. Thus, from the mix of mostly Spaniards and indigenous peoples, but also Africans and Asians, a new society was born.
Mestizaje was not only racial, but also cultural, gastronomical, technological, musical, and artistic in every sense. This was something that, under no circumstances, occurred in the territories conquered by England, France, the Netherlands, or even Portugal, and remains a distinctive and defining feature of Hispanic society to this day.
Casta painting, Museum of America, Madrid, Spain.
The Inquisition in the Indies
Auto de Fe in San Bartolomé Otzolotepec, National Museum of Art, Mexico.
… Inquisition… such a terrible name. It sends shivers down our spines just thinking about the atrocities it committed… Really? Or is it another myth we’ve been made to believe? As we will see, the Holy Office in the Americas was even milder than in the Iberian Peninsula, where it was also not as brutal as we’ve been led to believe.
The vast distance between Castile and the Indies created a sense of impunity, leading to a troubling relaxation of morals. The lives of many Spaniards there were scandalous, with cases of polygamy, idolatry, and practices leaning towards heresy. To address such deviations, both colonial and ecclesiastical authorities requested the establishment of the Inquisition. This is why the Inquisition came to the Indies—not to “torment the indigenous people and force them to convert or be tortured and burned at the stake.” In fact, it had no jurisdiction over the indigenous people, who were considered novices in the faith, which effectively excluded heresy from their cases.
What the secular arm was indeed responsible for was carrying out Autos de Fe (Acts of Faith), during which many pre-Hispanic codices were burned, as they were considered “books of sorcery.”
Three tribunals were established: in Mexico, Lima, and Cartagena, and no one was safe, not even the highest-ranking colonial officials. There are hundreds of records of trials against them, such as the 1569 trial against the governor of Tucumán, Francisco de Aguirre.
The Inquisition in the Americas was abolished by the Constitution of Cádiz in 1812.
Figures of the Inquisition in the Indies between 1540 and 1700.
The Baroque
Painting, sculpture, architecture, writing, furniture, music… From the Philippines to Mexico. From the humble missions of the southern US to the immense splendour of the Andean cathedrals, if there is one artistic style that characterises the Hispanic world, it is the Baroque.
Hundreds of builders, carpenters, engineers, painters… risked their lives in the Carrera de Indias to express their art in the Americas and convey it to its inhabitants.
The Spanish Crown saw itself as the heir to the Roman Empire and took on the biblical task of establishing a universal and Catholic empire. Influenced by the thinkers of the School of Salamanca, it devoted endless men and resources to filling the heavens with the souls of the Americans. In this endeavour, the beauty conveyed by Baroque art played a crucial role as one of the means of reaching God. Beauty as a manifestation of God. Beauty driven by the regime of Christianity, in which, unlike other kingdoms of the time, all subjects of the King of Spain, regardless of race, were considered children of God, with dignity and rights. A theological thought that harmonised the world, where churches remain the earthly manifestation of the Celestial Jerusalem. Sacred spaces where the eyes never tire of looking and the senses are overwhelmed. A microcosm where the music emanating from the organs makes the soul ask:
- If what surrounds me is the earthly world, what will the world of the afterlife be like?
Temple of Santo Domingo, Puebla, Mexico.
The twisted Solomonic columns, the vivid colours, the endless impossible shapes filling every square inch of the temple, with gilded altars and the choirs filling the space with harmonious voices, leave the faithful in no doubt, not for a moment, that God exists, that a new kingdom, not of this world, awaits those who are good children of God and therefore faithful subjects of the Crown… And once again, mestizaje, as the art and craft of the indigenous peoples endure to this day in the jewels of colonial Baroque art that we can now enjoy in Hispanic countries.
Sor Jerónima de la Fuente Yáñez
Sor Jerónima by Diego Velázquez. Padro Museo, Madrid
As in the entire American adventure, the silenced role of women was essential in all fields of life. This was also true in evangelisation.
Sor Jerónima was a Franciscan nun from the convent of Santa Isabel in Toledo who, in 1620, at the age of 65 – the age when most of us think about retirement – embarked on what seemed like an impossible journey. She set sail from Seville to New Spain and then to the Philippines to establish a new convent in Asia. If the Carrera de Indias and later the Manila Galleon were two incredibly difficult, perilous routes for anyone, no matter how physically and mentally strong they were, undertaking such a journey at her age was a “harder still” almost impossible task. Yet, she succeeded after overcoming countless obstacles, and her foundation endures to this day – the Convent of Santa Clara de la Concepción in Manila, the first female convent in Asia, where she became its first abbess.
Her life is an irreplaceable testament to tenacity, sacrifice, ingenuity, strength, and the tremendous determination that becomes unstoppable when one is convinced that God is by their side.
The expansion of Catholicism thanks to the Spanish monarchy.
According to data from the Catholic Church through the FIDES agency as of December 31, 2021, 17.4% of the world’s population, or 1.376 billion people, were Catholic.
Of these, 50.6% (515.5 million) live in the Americas. Additionally, 83.6 million Catholics live in the Philippines, representing an 8.2% increase.
Thus, 58.8% of the world’s Catholics, or 809 million people, owe part of their faith to the vision of Queen Isabel I of Castile, who sought to fill Heaven with the souls of people living on the other side of the world.
Had it not been for the spiritual conquest of the Indies, Catholicism would be a far less significant religion than it is today.
Extracted from the exhibition Imagining La Florida.
