De Vitoria Research Articles

Dominium in the Indies. Juan López de Palacios Rubios’ Libellus de insulis oceanis quas vulgus indias appelat (1512–1516)

The conquista of the Americas confronted Spanish jurists educated in the legal concepts of the European medieval tradition with a different reality, pushing them to develop modern legal concepts on the basis of the European ius commune tradition. Traditionally, the School of Salamanca, theologians and jurists centred around the Dominican Francisco de Vitoria are credited with this intellectual renovation of moral and legal thought. However, the role earlier authors played in the process is still insufficiently researched. The Castilian crown jurist Juan Lopez de Palacios Rubios is one of the most interesting authors of the early phase in the conquest of the Americas. His treatise about the Spanish dominion in the Americas is a central text that shows how at the beginning of the 16th century the knowledge and the experiences of the European past were applied to the American present and, in the process, were shaped into modern ideas.

Matías De Paz and the Introduction of Thomism in the Asuntos De Indias: A Conceptual Revolution

Most of the writings dedicated to assessing the contribution of the Spanish Second Scholasticism to the controversial issue of infidels’ dominion began their analyses with the well-known Francisco de Vitoria’s Relectiones (1532). This article offers a reconstruction of the history of the theological and juridical debates on this key issue on the Iberian Peninsula since the late 13th century. Special attention is paid to friar Matias de Paz, who was asked to offer his advice on the early patterns of rule and domination imposed on the Native Americans at the Junta de Burgos (1512), introduced to the discussions about asuntos de Indias the Thomist conceptual framework later employed by Vitoria, Soto, Suarez and many other prominent members of the so-called School of Salamanca. The article shows that it was, in fact, De Paz who first considered the Amerindians infidels affected by an »invincible ignorance«, and he tried to curb some of the many abuses committed against them by applying the distinctions between different types of dominium and principatus.

Offering hospitality to strangers: Hugo Grotius’s draft regulations for the Jews

In 1615, the States of Holland and West-Vriesland commissioned Hugo Grotius to draft a set of legal regulations for the Jews in their province. This article analyzes Grotius’s draft, entitled Remonstrance. It examines how Grotius understood and justified the rights of Jews and to what extent his approach was novel. More particularly, it shows how Grotius developed the concept of a natural duty to offer hospitality to strangers to advocate admission and toleration of Jews. He borrowed this concept from the sixteenth-century jurist and theologian Francisco de Vitoria, who had used it to justify the Spanish colonization of the Americas. While Vitoria had suggested that the Indians had violated their natural duty to offer hospitality to strangers by refusing to admit the Spanish merchants to their lands, Grotius argued that the provinces of Holland and West-Vriesland had a natural duty to offer hospitality to the Jews who had been expelled from their communities for religious reasons. Unlike Vitoria, Grotius recognized the natural duty to offer hospitality to strangers as the natural foundation of the right to asylum, which applied irrespective of religion. This enabled him to argue that these Jews, as religious exiles, had to be admitted to the provinces of Holland and West-Vriesland, and granted particular rights, including the freedom of (private) worship.

Human Sacrifice: Religious Act or Vicious Desire? Testing the Limits of Tolerance with Vitoria and Las Casas

Abstract Tolerance is often considered a modern social development. However, a robust, if distinctly unmodern, concept of tolerance can be found in the work of Thomas Aquinas. The object of tolerance is a perceived evil which is endured for the sake of averting a greater evil. The paper explores how the concept of tolerance which Bartolomé de las Casas and Francisco de Vitoria inherited from Thomas Aquinas was deployed and stretched in response to the Amerindian cult of human sacrifice. Both Spanish Dominicans concur in regarding human sacrifice as an evil act, but they base their judgment on different principles. Las Casas interprets human sacrifice as a question of religion. Vitoria considers it a question of temperance. The result is that Las Casas counsels toleration of the practice, whereas Vitoria justifies military intervention on behalf of the innocent.

Just wars of accumulation: the Salamanca School, race and colonial capitalism

This paper explores the links between international law, race and colonial capitalism through the Spanish and Portuguese Conquests of the Americas. Turning to the early modern philosophers of the School of Salamanca, Bohrer argues that economic theories of emergent capitalism are deeply intertwined with the racial theories of colonial conquest. Moreover, through a close reading of these texts, and in particular of the texts of Francisco de Vitoria, this paper argues that the conceptions of international trade, commerce and travel at the heart of liberal notions of international law are themselves suffused with the logics of racism, colonisation, and capitalist accumulation.

Могут ли демоны творить чудеса?

During the Renaissance, the concept of magic was of particular interest to science; moreover, magic was considered an important part of it. From among the numerous works devoted to this subject, the author of this article proposes to analyze the sixth question of “The Lecture on the Magical Art” by the Spanish theologian Francisco de Vitoria. In the sixth question, Vitoria reflects on whether magicians can force demons according to their will or not. In the argumentation of his answer professor refers to the authoritative sources — treatises of Thomas Aquinas, Augustine, and Aristotle — and confirms his theses with examples from the plots of both Old and New Testaments. The purpose of this article is to consider in some detail one aspect of the sixth question of the translated lecture: namely, a question of the demon’s ability to act independently or by somebody else. For this purpose, the author considers it necessary to turn to the theory of action and cognitive theory of Thomas Aquinas, both of which are reflected in the philosophy of de Vitoria. Moreover, the theologian also suggests looking at the problem of the possibility of implementing an action through Aristotle’s concept of potential and implemented. As a result, the sixth question of the lecture is an interesting synthesis of the ancient and medieval philosophy adapted to the problem, which was under discussion in the 16th century.

La soberanía en Vitoria en el contexto del nacimiento del Estado moderno: algunas consideraciones sobre el De potestate civili de Vitoria

El artículo estudia algunas de las ideas políticas fundamentales presentes en el origen del Estado moderno, y especialmente la noción de soberanía política, que, inspirada tanto en la maiestas del Derecho romano imperial como en la interpretación averroísta de la idea aristotélica de comunidad perfecta, es recibida por Francisco de Vitoria en el De potestate civili. Vitoria caracteriza la soberanía con las notas de supremacía en la actividad interna del Estado e independencia en relación con los demás Estados.

Exploring Academic Performance: Looking beyond Numerical Grades

Academic performance has always been associated to the evaluation tests results, which are those corresponding to student's IQ, and leaving aside other personal characteristics. Among such characteristics, the importance of emotional intelligence is worth highlighting (management, facilitation, understanding and perception), dimensions associated to personality traits (emotional impulsiveness, respect for others, sociability, negotiating skills, openness to experience, self-confidence) and, of course, the meaning of life, since the creation of meaning is related to each person's individual development, in hand with other processes such as identity, relationships and life goals. The objective of this project is to study the role of these dimensions in the learning process and development of students, which may predict future performance. To do so, we have conducted an observational study with 217 psychology students at the Francisco de Vitoria University, which identifies the importance of each characteristic relative to academic performance. The results show that the aforementioned theoretical models are isolated, making it necessary to include other variables, such as the meaning of life and emotional intelligence to explain academic performance.

Francisco de Vitoria y la raíz del derecho penal

The penal enlightenment was forged as the culmination of a process of bankruptcy paradigms. This is much due to the forward positions that were built before its claims, especially those of natural law rationalists who were based on legal thought of the modern age. In this context, the criminal ideas of Francisco de Vitoria gain considerable importance for understanding the matrix of the criminal law of these days, because they are linked to the enlightenment. Such ideas break the paradigm of the middle ages and replaced in theocentrism by anthropocentrism in the criminal field.

Enseñar y aprender habilidades de comunicación clínica en la Facultad de Medicina. La experiencia de la Francisco de Vitoria (Madrid)

Clinical communication has been accepted as an important content of medical curricula and recognized as an essential competence by accreditation bodies and international medical education organizations. “Clinical Communication” skills training requires the student to practice with “standardized patients” under direct supervision and observation and receive specific and personalized feedback. This task requires a small group teaching, through an experiential learning, given by medical teachers specialized in this subject, in an integrated way with other clinical skills, that is, not through aisolate interventions, but throughout the curriculum. We describes the general, managerial, educational features and main educational results of an integrated “Clinical Communication Skills Curriculum” for medical students, implemented at the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria school of medicine during the last six years. Some useful and practical messages for improving teaching and learning these skills in universitary medical education in Spain are extracted.

VISÕES DA CONQUISTA E LEGITIMIDADE DA GUERRA: MAQUIAVEL E FRANCISCO DE VITÓRIA

O artigo apresenta uma reflexão sobre a legitimidade das guerras de conquista a partir de dois clássicos do pensamento jurídico e político do século XVI: Francisco de Vitória, da Escolástica Espanhola, e Nicolau Maquiavel, italiano do Humanismo Renascentista. Valendo-se da metodologia dialética, pergunta-se sobre as diferentes visões das guerras de conquista. Para tanto, em primeiro lugar, apresenta a vida e obra dos autores estudados. Em seguida, aborda as relações internacionais na Idade Média e a formação do Estado Moderno. Posteriormente, trata de relacionar o Humanismo Renascentista e a Escolástica Espanhola. Ao final, retoma o pensamento dos autores e suas escolas para concluir que o pensador do século XVI é o homem que procura legitimar as guerras de conquista, seja com base na ordem natural ou remontando à ordem divina.

Parables of Coercion: Conversion and Knowledge at the End of Islamic Spain by Seth Kimmel

Reviewed by: Parables of Coercion: Conversion and Knowledge at the End of Islamic Spain by Seth Kimmel Elizabeth R. Wright Seth Kimmel, Parables of Coercion: Conversion and Knowledge at the End of Islamic Spain. U of Chicago P, 2015. 239 pp. Combining analytical perspectives of intellectual history and comparative literature, Seth Kimmel casts new light on the pastoral strategies and scholarly practices that theologians, church leaders, and crown officials mobilized to remove the "danger" of heresy they associated with New Christians. While the book heeds issues related to conversos and Amerindians, the foremost attention centers on the scholarly and pastoral debates that focused on peninsular Spain's native Hispano-Muslim minority (Moriscos) required to convert to Christianity from circa 1502. As Kimmel states up front, his aim is not to provide another social history of religious minorities in early modern Spain, though his chapters and notes attest to an appropriate engagement with recent and classic studies in this field. Parables of Coercion offers a wide-ranging exploration of how the struggle to eliminate Islam and its traces from Iberia mobilized intellectuals within the Spanish Monarchy to reconceive the boundaries and scholarly practices of such disciplines as history writing, canon law, and theology. Analysis in the six chapters thus delves into the textual practices of prelates, preachers, inquisitors, theologians, classicists, Hebraists, and court councilors as well as recent converts seeking some modus vivendi within the Spanish Monarchy. Chapter 1, "Legible Conversions," examines how Augustinian notions of coercion became the dominant paradigm for ritual efficacy and its enforcement after a brief interlude in the late 1490s where advocates of voluntary conversions and gradual assimilation set policy. Suggesting new lines of inquiry in realms of study mapped out by scholars as formidable as Julio Caro Baroja, Bernard Vincent, and Mercedes García Arenal, Kimmel ponders a seeming paradox: the very inquisitors who focused scrutiny on Moriscos alleged to be practicing taquīyya (dissimulation) practiced their own concealment, using lies to root out suspected heretics (29–30). Chapter 2 ("Glossing Faith") considers the implications of the crown policy of coercion in the context of Spain's global imperial expansion. Assaying how the debates about and struggle for Morisco assimilation shaped academic debates about the nature of language, the discussion here shows how Francisco de Vitoria and other Salamanca theologians "glossed" or theorized the Catholic faith to speak to an increasingly global evangelization project. Along the way, the chapter proposes a fresh examination of the Valladolid debate of 1552 between Las Casas and Sepúlveda, concentrating on an elucidation of the clash of interpretive methods. In closing this section, Kimmel examines the longer-range intellectual implication of the mid-sixteenth century turn to the study and grammaticalization of Amerindian languages with the goal of New Christian assimilation: in separating the heresy of the nonbelievers' sacred texts and traditions from the linguistic forms of expression within them, priests and friars practiced a nascent comparative philology. [End Page 533] Inevitably, these comparative analyses of languages in the New World refracted back to peninsular Spain, with its fraught traditions of Arabic and Hebrew study. The anxieties tied to the study of Semitic languages anchor Chapter 3 ("Polyglot forms"), a tour-de-force of interdisciplinary research and textual analysis. Indeed, this section would be an excellent choice for the busy reader with time for just one chapter or to model scholarly inquiry in a graduate seminar. Here, Kimmel's point of departure is the examination of how the need for improved communications within Spain's global empire nourished new modes of study of Semitic philology. While Hebrew itself was not the language of an unassimilated rural population—in contrast to Arabic in Granada and Valencia—Kimmel reveals how the two Semitic languages intertwined in libraries and scriptoria. The chapter thus charts the contradictory forces that informed the study of Arabic. Although the risk of inquisitorial scrutiny acted as a brake limiting the depth of study, the most skilled humanists came to understand that Arabic was a powerful tool for Christian exegesis. The result was a "thriving economy of distinctly inexpert Arabic" (83). Yet Kimmel pays special attention to a notable exception to the amateur Arabism: Benito Arias Montano. A...

Creating Justice in an Emerging World The Natural Law Basis of Francisco de Vitoria’s Political and International Thought

This article outlines Francisco de Vitoria’s conception of natural law and natural right in an effort to amend a number of interpretations in the academic literature on his political and international thought that misapprehend Vitoria’s iusnaturalism. In this view, his use of the Thomist doctrine of natural law and justice lays the founda­tion for his works on politics, society and international relations since the doctrine itself espouses equality and justice both within the domestic realm and between discrete communities. In an implicit appeal to the link between ethics and politics, his doctrine of natural law, moreover, fulfills a critical and constitutional role by designating justice and the common good as a pattern of order to which power and authority must conform in order to be legitimate.

The Manila Synod of 1582: The Draft of Its Handbook for Confessors by Paul Arvisu Dumol

Reviewed by: The Manila Synod of 1582: The Draft of Its Handbook for Confessors by Paul Arvisu Dumol Msgr. Sabino A. Vengco Jr. Paul Arvisu Dumol, Trans. The Manila Synod of 1582: The Draft of Its Handbook for Confessors Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2014. 162 pages. Paul Arvisu Dumol's publication of his translation of the two drafts of what was purportedly to be a handbook for the use of confessors in late–sixteenth-century Philippines is a remarkable work that will benefit not only historians and theologians but also ultimately and hopefully the public that is interested to gain a deeper understanding of the development of the Filipino people under Spanish rule and care. The two manuscripts, the Suma de Una Junta kept in the Dominican archives in Manila and the Junta y Congregación found in the Jesuit archives in Rome, both give a summary, varying in length and style, of the 1582 Synod of Manila's acta or synodal acts and decrees pertaining to matters of justice and compiled explicitly in accordance with the synod's own purpose for the guidance of confessors in solving moral cases and abuses in the Philippines. It was to guard against the laxity of Spanish officials tasked with the welfare and evangelization of the natives, and against pusillanimity on the part of church people tasked with the care of souls, through the special pedagogical and compelling power of the confessional. The documents of the full proceedings of the synod were burned in the fire that gutted Manila in 1583, and even the drafts here translated are incomplete. The manuscripts represent only the first part of the intended confessors' handbook. Although written differently in terms of style they both reflect the orientation, scope, sequence, and thoroughness of what must have been the synod's actual treatment of the pressing subject on justice and the rights of the natives during the particularly difficult early years of the colonization of the islands when colonial policy from the crown was just emerging by bits and pieces. The subsistence economy of the country then did not make it easy for the colonists who expected to make a fortune and have a good life in the islands. The diocesan Synod of Manila in 1582 was convened soon after the arrival of Domingo de Salazar, OP, the first bishop of the entire archipelago. The synod was the assembly of the bishop and his advisers, composed of both religious and diocesan clergy, along with competent laymen who were invited as resource persons on the rights and duties of everyone in the colony and the abuses thereof. The synod was clearly the platform for Salazar's [End Page 399] crusading stand for the rights of the indios in the vein of his colleagues in spirit Francisco de Vitoria, OP, in Salamanca, Bartolome de las Casas, OP, in the West Indies, and Juan de Zumárraga, OFM, in Mexico. It was from Mexico whence Salazar was plucked by the King of Spain to be the first bishop of the farthest royal colony in Asia. According to Fr. John Schumacher, SJ, in an article reprinted by Paul Dumol as an introduction to his translation, the lengthier Junta y Congregación could have been from the pen of Fr. Alonso Sánchez, SJ, a main figure in the synod who submitted it in his narrative style as a report to the Jesuit superior general in Rome, while the Suma de Una Junta, composed more like a list of prescriptions, could have been written by Fr. Cristóbal de Salvatierra, OP, synod secretary and companion of Bishop Salazar. The initial violent reactions from Spanish officials against the synod's strict dispositions could have prevented the completion of the synod's handbook for confessors, overtaken by Salazar's 1591 departure for Spain to plead personally before the king his case for the natives and against Spanish abuses. There he passed away three years later. But even if the intended confessor's handbook was never completed, it certainly kept the discussions alive concerning the moral principles that should accompany the Christianization of the islands, animated debates both in the church hierarchy where opposition...

A Stage for the Revolution: Muharram and the Paradigm of Karbala in the context of Khomeini's Struggle with the Shah

29 Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Vol. XL, No.2, WINTER 2017 A Stage for the Revolution: Muharram and the Paradigm of Karbala in the context of Khomeini’s Struggle with the Shah Javier Gil Guerrero* Introduction An important part of Iran’s Islamic revolution was the role that religious rituals and Persian folklore played in the social upheaval. Khomeini successfully conjured the spirits of the past in order to bring change to the present. This paper describes how Khomeini made use of (and reinterpreted) the slaughter at Karbala (680) in order to mobilize the population. Throughout this process Khomeini not only helped to revive old traditions, but he also reactivated old concepts like “martyrdom” while instilling new meaning to them.1 The objective of this paper is to put the Khomeini’s use of Muharram (the commemoration of Hussein’s death at Karbala) in perspective and examine the nuances that he added to the story and the rituals that had emanated from it. ThroughtheuseofMuharram,Khomeini“presentedtherevolutionarymovement against the regime as a morality play […] where heroes and villains could be easily identified.”2 The study locates Khomeini’s refashioning of Karbala within the context of the Iranian revolution and the Pahlavi state, including the struggle for the ideological orientation of Shia Islam, the attempts to monopolize the Karbala commemorations by the Iranian authorities and the repeated use of those ceremonies for political motivations. The contention of this study is that through his approach to the story of *Javier Gil Guerrero is a professor of Middle Eastern History at the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria. He has recently published a book on the Iranian revolution, The Carter Administration & the Fall of Iran’s Pahlavi Dynasty (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) as well as several papers on Iran and the Persian Gulf in the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies and the Instituto Español de Estudios Estratégicos. He regularly writes on Islam in the Spanish press. 1 Elisabeth Jane Yarbakhsha, “Green martyrdom and the Iranian state,” Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, Volume 28, Issue 1, 2014. 2 Jahangir Amuzegar, The Dynamics of the Iranian Revolution: The Pahlavi’s Triumph and Tragedy (New York: State University of New York Press, 1991), 31. 30 Hussein, Khomeini transformed the traditional image of the Imam from a passive and abused victim of injustice to a revolutionary martyr who fought to death against tyranny and oppression. Hussein became the prototype of a permanent revolutionary in a particular “Liberation Theology” of Islam.3 Khomeini’s innovative portrayal of Hussein reinterpreted one of the cultural pillars of Shia Islam in order to advance an “activist” approach to religion instead of the “quietist” one. The Karbala commemorations were thus dressed to fit a message of confrontation against the Shah in which the revolution was the only possible way for Shiites irrespective of its chances of success. The core of this paper is the description of Khomeini’s use of Muharram during his two clashes with the regime of the Shah in 1963 and 1978. The account is preceded by a brief overview of the historical events that inspired the mourning rituals of Muharram and their significance in Iranian culture and history. The aim is to contextualize the shifting interpretation of the ceremonies in the 1960s and 1970s through the particular beliefs and customs of Persian folklore and Shia Islam. Hussein, Karbala and Muharram The commemorations of Muharram revolve around the tragic end of Imam Hussein’s life in the year 680. Grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and son of the first Shia imam (and fourth Sunni Caliph), Ali. The slaughter of Hussein and the division concerning Prophet Muhammad’s rightful heirs constitutes the epicentre of the divisions between Shia and Sunni Muslims. The Shiites believe that the Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law Ali had been designated leader of the Muslim community by the Prophet himself on his deathbed. It was a designation of divine inspiration, not a personal choice:Ali had been named heir to Muhammad’s leadership by God. The Sunnis, on the other hand, ignoredAli’s claim (accusing him of falsifying the story) and proceeded to accept the ruling of the elders of Medina...

Voluntarismo e intelectualismo en Francisco de Vitoria

This article provides a comprehensive study of the works of Francisco de Vitoria in order to indicate the intermediate position of the author between voluntarism and intellectualism, as well as, highlight the originality of his thought. Especially, the importance of Vitoria in the conceptualization of subjective Right and, consequentially, in the genesis of what would later be known as Human Rights.

Cosplay e cosplayers: quando a cultura pop é levada a sério

Resumo: Cena Cosplay: comunicação, consumo, memória nas culturas juvenis, organizado por Monica Rebecca Ferrari Nunes, apresenta os resultados de pesquisa com financiamento do CNPq levado a termo por investigadores que a autora coordena no grupo vinculado ao Programa de Pós-Graduação em Comunicação e Práticas de Consumo da ESPM, - SP. Dividido em sete partes, além da apresentação, o livro trabalha em mão dupla: as memórias das narrativas que despertaram o interesse para a prática cosplay e seu "inverso", isto é, as estratégias pelas quais a cena cosplay garante sua memória nas culturas juvenis. Iuri Lotman, Paul Zumthor, Marshall McLuhan, Monica Rebecca Ferrari Nunes, Roger Silverstone, Mircea Eliade, entre outros, dão sustentação teórica às conclusões dos dez autores dos capítulos que frequentaram, entre 2012 e início de 2014, os eventos dos animês em São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro e Vitória.

Classification, community and sovereignty: Beyond the individualistic foundation of animals’ rights

The debate about how to keep juridical relations with the barbarians in the political philosophy of Plato and Aristotle and, later, the post scholastic debate about Native Americans during the 16th century might become an inspiration for understanding that the main relation with animals is both an epistemological and a political option. Human beings classify the other living beings in order to keep a relation with them. It is possible to classify animals as members of social groups, even similar to states. An ius animalium which classifies animals as members of organized political societies might open the doors to a better relation with animals, even in case of conflict, surpassing the individualistic foundation of animal rights. Keywords: zoophilosophy, juridical relations with animals, ius animalium , animal rights, Francisco de Vitoria.

The Fall of the Fall in Early Modern Political Theory

In this essay I offer a contribution to a political genealogy of secularization through the fading of the Fall in early modern political theory. I begin by giving a brief overview of the importance of the Fall in pre-modern Christian political thought. I then examine the fate of the Fall in early modern thought, briefly discussing Niccolò Machiavelli and Francisco de Vitoria, but concentrating on the English tradition most influential on our context, namely Thomas Hobbes, Robert Filmer, and John Locke. I show how and why the Fall is replaced by the “state of nature” as pre-historical justification of political power. I conclude with some comments on what is lost when Western society no longer uses the Fall to mark the difference between the way things are and the way things are meant to be.

(Re)pensar el Derecho y la noción del sujeto indio(a) desde una mirada descolonial

En el presente trabajo se hace un recorrido por los postulados teológicos del fraile dominico Francisco de Vitoria, considerado padre del Derecho internacional, quien formula las bases juríducas de la empresa colonialista Europea y de lo que -en adelante- sería el derecho modermo. El objetivo es reconocer los elementos constitutuvos del orden legal que da sustente a la concepción que sobre las poblaciones amerindias se construye a partir del siglo XVI, y encuentran un continum en las concepciones del derecho moderno.