{ "id": "vitoria-relectio-de-indis-1557", "type": "entity", "name": "Francisco de Vitoria, relectio De Indis insulanis (Lyon, 1557)", "summary": "A Salamanca professor took the question nobody at court wanted reopened — by what right the Indians had come under Spanish rule — and answered it in two halves. The first demolished every title then in use: unbelief takes away no man's property, the emperor is not lord of the world, the pope had no power to give those provinces away. The second supplied new titles, one of which licensed the conquest it had just delegitimised. Both halves are printed here from the sheets of 1557.", "locale": "en", "tags": [ "international-law", "human-rights", "salamanca", "colonial-law", "books", "philosophy", "americas", "spanish-empire" ], "relations": [ { "rel": "related", "target": "school-of-salamanca" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "bartolome-de-las-casas" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "new-laws-of-1542" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "montesinos-sermon-1511" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "veracruz-speculum-coniugiorum" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "palafox-virtudes-del-indio" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "torquemada-monarquia-indiana-1723" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "cordova-arte-y-vocabulario-zapoteca-1578" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "guerra-defensiva-de-chile" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "indigenous-custom-as-law-in-the-indies" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "patronato-real-de-las-indias" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "bulas-de-paulo-iii-de-1537" } ], "questions": [ "What is Francisco de Vitoria's relectio De Indis?", "Did Vitoria say the Spanish conquest of the Americas was unjust?", "What arguments did Vitoria reject as titles to the Indies?", "What titles did Vitoria accept for Spanish rule in the Americas?", "Why is the relectio De Indis called a founding text of international law?" ], "claims": [ { "id": "c1", "text": "The text read here is the first printed edition, issued at Lyon by Jacobus Boyerius in 1557 with a decennial royal privilege, as part of \"Relectiones Theologicae XII in duos Tomos divisae\" by Francisco de Vitoria, described on the title page as \"in Salmanticensi Academia quondam primarij Professoris\" — formerly prime professor in the academy of Salamanca, a phrase that places the printing after his teaching and not during it. A relectio is a lecture, and nothing in the sheets opened for this object states when it was delivered or from what copy it was set, so every wording quoted below is attributed to the 1557 printing and not to the lecture hall.", "sources": [ "vitoria-relectiones-theologicae-lyon-1557" ], "confidence": 0.85 }, { "id": "c2", "text": "The relectio on the Indians is not a single piece. The verso of the title page lists the contents of the first tome as De potestate ecclesiae prior and posterior, De potestate civili, De potestate concilii, \"De Indis prior\", \"De Indis posterior, siue de iure belli\", and De matrimonio. The running head over the pages read for this object is DE INDIS INSVLANIS.", "sources": [ "vitoria-relectiones-theologicae-lyon-1557" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c3", "text": "The enquiry is announced in three parts: by what right the barbarians came under the rule of the Spaniards; what the princes of Spain may do towards them in temporal and civil matters; and what they or the church may do towards them in spiritual matters.", "sources": [ "vitoria-relectiones-theologicae-lyon-1557" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c4", "text": "The first objection printed is that the whole disputation is useless and idle, because neither the princes of Spain nor those set over their councils are bound to examine and re-open rights and titles already deliberated and decreed, above all in what princes hold in good faith and in peaceful possession, and because, as Aristotle is cited saying, if a man consults for ever the matter goes on to infinity and princes and their counsellors could never be secure and certain in their conscience.", "sources": [ "vitoria-relectiones-theologicae-lyon-1557" ], "confidence": 0.85 }, { "id": "c5", "text": "The answer to that objection is the ground on which theologians claimed a right to rule on the Indies at all. In a doubtful matter, the printed text holds, \"in re dubia arbitrium illorum est lex\" — the judgement of those whom the church has set to teach is law; a man who in a doubtful case acts on his own judgement against what the learned have determined sins even if the act were in itself lawful, because he acts against the conscience he is bound to have; and as a judge in a contentious forum must judge according to what is alleged and proved, so in the forum of conscience each must judge not from his own sense but by probable reason or the authority of the wiser, otherwise the judgement is rash and he exposes himself to the danger of error.", "sources": [ "vitoria-relectiones-theologicae-lyon-1557" ], "confidence": 0.85 }, { "id": "c6", "text": "The first substantive conclusion is that unbelief is no bar to ownership. The proposition printed is \"Infidelitas non est impedimentum, quominus aliquis sit uerus dominus\", ascribed to Thomas Aquinas, with the reasoning that faith takes away neither natural nor human right, that dominions are held by natural or human right, and that therefore dominions are not taken away by defect of faith. The contrary is called \"ita manifestus error\" and heretical, and the text draws the consequence that neither Saracens nor Jews may be despoiled on that ground.", "sources": [ "vitoria-relectiones-theologicae-lyon-1557" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c7", "text": "The summary printed at the head of the relectio states the results as numbered propositions. Among them: that the barbarian Indians, before the Spaniards came to them, were true owners both publicly and privately; that the emperor is not lord of the whole world; that even granting he were lord of the world he could not on that ground occupy the provinces of the barbarians, set up new lords, depose the old, or take tribute; that the pope is not civil or temporal lord of the whole world, speaking properly of dominion and civil power; that the pope has no temporal power over the barbarian Indians nor over other unbelievers; and that if the barbarians refuse to recognise any dominion of the pope, war may not on that ground be made on them nor their goods seized.", "sources": [ "vitoria-relectiones-theologicae-lyon-1557" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c8", "text": "The rejection of the emperor's title is argued from the record rather than asserted: that before the coming of Christ no emperor and lord of the world is read of; that Nebuchadnezzar did not receive empire specially from God but in the manner other princes do; that no one was lord of the whole world by divine right, since the Jewish people were free of every foreigner and forbidden by law to have an alien lord; and that where the Roman empire is said to have been granted by God for the justice of the Romans and their love of country, this is not to be understood of an empire held as Saul and David held their kingdom from God, but of a providence working through other right, such as just war.", "sources": [ "vitoria-relectiones-theologicae-lyon-1557" ], "confidence": 0.85 }, { "id": "c9", "text": "The papal donation is dismissed in the same manner, and the conclusion is printed flat: \"Ex quo patet, quod nec iste titulus est idoneus contra barbaros, uel quia papa dederit prouincias illas tanquam dominus absolute\" — it is plain that this title is not fit against the barbarians, whether because the pope gave those provinces as absolute lord or on any other footing. The supporting argument invokes Innocent IV, Thomas Aquinas and Cajetan for the position that unbelievers cannot be compelled by war to recognise such dominion nor be stripped of their goods on that title, and calls the contrary reasoning \"omnino sophisticum\".", "sources": [ "vitoria-relectiones-theologicae-lyon-1557" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c10", "text": "The first half closes by naming what its own findings would cost: having gone through the titles, the text says that it can understand nothing else than what has been said, \"unde si non essent alii tituli quam isti, profecto male consultum esset saluti principum\" — if there were no other titles than these, it would truly have gone badly for the salvation of the princes, or rather of those whose business it is to direct such matters, since princes follow the counsel of others because they cannot examine these things themselves.", "sources": [ "vitoria-relectiones-theologicae-lyon-1557" ], "confidence": 0.85 }, { "id": "c11", "text": "The second half then supplies the titles that would serve, under the heading \"DE TITVLIS, QVIBVS barbari potuerint uenire in ditionem Hispanorum\". Its printed summary begins with natural society and communication: that the Spaniards have a right of travelling to the provinces of the Indians and dwelling there, provided they do no harm, and may not be prevented by them; that they may trade among the barbarians without loss to their own country, importing goods the Indians lack and carrying out gold and silver or other things they have in plenty, and that the princes of the Indians cannot stop their subjects trading with the Spaniards; and that the barbarians may not forbid the Spaniards a share in what is held in common among them by citizen and guest alike.", "sources": [ "vitoria-relectiones-theologicae-lyon-1557" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c12", "text": "The same summary carries the clauses by which those rights become a licence for war, and they are on the page with the rest. Item seven asks what may be done if the Spaniards, having tried everything with the utmost moderation, cannot obtain security among the island barbarians except by occupying their cities and subjecting them. Item eight asks when and in what case they may rage against the barbarians as against treacherous enemies, prosecute all the rights of war against them, despoil them, reduce them to captivity, and depose their former lords and set up new ones.", "sources": [ "vitoria-relectiones-theologicae-lyon-1557" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c13", "text": "The title drawn from religion is stated with both edges. The summary holds that Christians have a right of preaching and announcing the Gospel in the provinces of the barbarians, and — item eleven — that the barbarians are not to be warred down nor deprived of their goods if they permit the Spaniards freely and without impediment to preach the Gospel, whether they receive the faith or not. But the body of the relectio then concedes that if the business of religion cannot be procured otherwise, it is lawful for the Spaniards to occupy their lands and provinces, to create new lords and depose the old, and to prosecute the rights of war.", "sources": [ "vitoria-relectiones-theologicae-lyon-1557" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c14", "text": "That concession is immediately hedged in the printed text, and the hedges are part of the document: that the measure and reason be always kept so that nothing go further than is needed; that more be remitted of one's own right than seized of what is lawful; that everything be directed rather to the advantage of the barbarians than to the Spaniards' own gain; and, quoting Paul at 1 Corinthians 6, \"Omnia mihi licet sed non omnia expediunt\", that it may happen that through such wars, slaughter and plunder the conversion of the barbarians is hindered rather than sought and propagated, so that above all it must be taken care that no stumbling block be placed before the Gospel, and if one is placed, this manner of evangelising must be given up and another sought.", "sources": [ "vitoria-relectiones-theologicae-lyon-1557" ], "confidence": 0.85 }, { "id": "c15", "text": "What this object does not establish should be said. The pages opened for it do not record the date on which the relectio was delivered, whether the author was alive when it was printed, what copy the printer worked from, the reaction of the crown, or whether any of its conclusions changed a law; those questions are left to sources not reachable for this entry. The relectio De Indis posterior, on the law of war, is listed in this tome but was not opened.", "sources": [ "vitoria-relectiones-theologicae-lyon-1557" ], "confidence": 0.9 } ], "takeaways": [], "faqs": [], "evidence_tier": "primary", "evidence": { "level": "industry_observation", "source_types": [ "paper" ] }, "moat_flag": false, "winning_edge": "In English this relectio arrives pre-digested and usually halved. One tradition quotes the first part — unbelief is no bar to dominion, the emperor is not lord of the world, the papal donation is void — and stops, producing a Vitoria who condemned the conquest. The other quotes the right of communication and stops, producing a Vitoria who invented the pretext for every later empire. This object prints the two halves in the order the 1557 sheets print them, from the pages, including the sentence in which the text admits that if there were no titles but the ones it has just destroyed it would have gone badly for the princes' salvation, and the numbered summary in which \"they may not be warred on if they let the Gospel be preached\" and \"when they may be treated as treacherous enemies, despoiled and reduced to captivity\" stand as consecutive items. It also prints the procedural claim that made the enquiry possible at all — that in a doubtful matter the judgement of the learned is law and a prince acting against it sins — which is the part of the document that actually explains why an expanding monarchy tolerated the question.", "confidence": 0.85, "last_verified": "2026-08-10", "canonical_url": "https://hispanic-legacy.com/k/vitoria-relectio-de-indis-1557", "api_url": "https://hispanic-legacy.com/api/k/vitoria-relectio-de-indis-1557.json", "jsonld": { "@context": "https://schema.org", "name": "Francisco de Vitoria, relectio De Indis insulanis (Lyon, 1557)", "description": "A Salamanca professor took the question nobody at court wanted reopened — by what right the Indians had come under Spanish rule — and answered it in two halves. The first demolished every title then in use: unbelief takes away no man's property, the emperor is not lord of the world, the pope had no power to give those provinces away. The second supplied new titles, one of which licensed the conquest it had just delegitimised. Both halves are printed here from the sheets of 1557.", "url": "https://hispanic-legacy.com/k/vitoria-relectio-de-indis-1557", "license": "https://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-4.0.html", "dateModified": "2026-08-10", "citation": [ { "@type": "CreativeWork", "name": "Reverendi Patris F. Francisci de Victoria, ordinis Praedicatorum, sacrae Theologiae in Salmanticensi Academia quondam primarij Professoris, Relectiones Theologicae XII in duos Tomos divisae. Tomus primus — relectio De Indis insulanis", "url": "https://books.google.com/books?id=qiGezVP4D2MC&pg=PA284" } ], "@type": "Article", "headline": "Francisco de Vitoria, relectio De Indis insulanis (Lyon, 1557)" } }