History UsefulNotes / SchoolOfSalamanca

* '''Francisco de Vitoria''' (1483-1546): the founder and greatest exponent of the School of Salamanca, as well as the best candidate to be called the father of international law, economy and modern ''ius gentium''. Vitoria wrote extensively about natural law and freedom of circulation of ideas, goods and commerce, and was also a staunch defender of the indigenous, whom he considered the righteous owners of their lands and as such full-fledged vassals that should not be submitted by force (a role vital for the creation of the 1542 Laws of the Indies, which regulated those rights). Somewhat to the chagrin of King UsefulNotes/CharlesV, who nonetheless had him as his advisor, Vitoria also established the limits and nature of the concept of just war, partially refuting the idea of MightMakesRight, and preceded Hugo Grotius and Alberico Gentili in a lot of ideas about international community. Due to his contributions, the modern United Nations named the council hall of the Palace of Nations after him.

The debates took place in Valladolid in 1550, in a great event that included personalities like Domingo de Soto, Melchor Cano and Bartolomé de Carranza (not Vitoria himself, as he died some years before). On one side of the debate, Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda defended the classical, Aristotelian WhiteMansBurden, arguing that the natives' paganism, cannibalism and HumanSacrifice were calling for the Christians to civilize them by any means necessary. On the other side, Bartolomé de las Casas countered by claiming that the natives were not more brutal than the ancient western men, used Vitoria's arguments about how Christians had no legitimate right over other peoples, and argued that evangelization of natives should be peaceful, never by force. Have in mind this was ''not'' a debate about racism, though, as by this point of history, nobody in the Iberian Peninsula considered people of color to be anything other than people, and interracial marriage was common in the empire since the first day. What was in the stake was whether waging war of conquest was a rightful way to save the souls of the indigenous, and although there was no official result, De las Casas emerged as the spiritual victor and the answer ended up being a surprising no.

The transcendence of the gathering was unexpected for what we are accustomed to read about evil empires. Incredibly, the Spanish monarchs took the result to heart and stopped gratuitous military expansion, with the next King UsefulNotes/PhilipII officially forbidding new conquests in 1573, allowing only for defensive warfare, pacification of politically unstable territories, and peaceful evangelizing. While one could cynically say that this was not a great concession after the Hispanic Monarchy had already assimilated the richest indigenous empires of America, not to mention [[LoopholeAbuse how exploitable the whole allowed terms were]], they also followed with the creation the ''Protectoría de los Indios'', an entire department dedicated to prevent abuses in the overseas territories, as well as a regularized system of inspection named ''visita''. It also elevated De las Casas as the main exponent of this stance, becoming a figure famous for his zeal and dedication (albeit controversial by his exaggerations and outright lies, which would later backfire against Spain by giving a ton of fuel to the Black Legend) to the defense of their subjects.

* The 1992 French film ''La Controverse de Valladolid'' recreates the eponymous debate, although, perhaps unsurprisingly, it portrays it as a debate oriented to discover whether those pesky indigenous were human beings or just soulless animals.

* '''Melchor Cano''' (1509-1560): a member with a combative resume, Cano participated in both the Council of Trent and the Valladolid Debate, later became a professor in the thoroughly Erasmist Alcalá despite being himself a Thomist (RivalDojos, basically), and became infamous for being the main and bitter rival of Bartolomé de Carranza, an influential theologian who was bizarrely accused of Luteranism by the Inquisition (Cano had apparently nothing to do with this, although he did jump in the bandwagon against him). A sworn enemy of dogmatism, he advised King UsefulNotes/PhilipII to screw Pope Paul IV and seek political independence from him, which earned Cano the perpetual enmity of Rome and the delightful nickname of "[[TheAntichrist The Son of Perdition]]". He also postulated criterions of believability in historiography.

* '''Tomás de Mercado''' (1523-1575): the biography of this one remains pretty obscure, and it's doubted whether he was born in México or only passed most of his youth there, but in any case, he was an enormously influential economist of his day. He was connected to the business circuit of Seville, in which, like Azpilcueta, he wrote texts about the quantitative theory of money and the ethics related to trade. He also made contributions in the just price theory and Aristotelian logic, for which he translated directly texts from the original Greek to Spanish, and was also an outspoken critic of the Atlantic slave trade, although he worked under Roman-like nuances that might not be very transferable to modern mindsets (for instance, he saw nothing inherently wrong in slavery itself, he only complained that slaves were not being treated humanely and that the sell was destabilizing African kingdoms).

This 1550-1551 affair, celebrated in the mentioned city with the involvement of many members of the School of Salamanca, was basically the first moral debate in European history to discuss the rights and treatment of indigenous people. It remains one of their most known and relevant instances, and a turning point not only in the treatment of the natives of the Spanish Empire, but also in the history of international law.

The Spanish conquest of America had been kickstarted under the 1493 Papal bulls of UsefulNotes/PopeAlexanderVI, which authorized them to conquer new lands with the obligation to evangelize the natives, but monarchs [[UsefulNotes/TheCatholicMonarchs Isabella I and Ferdinand II]] modulated this by banning native enslavement and demanding that the indigenous would be justly treated. By the influence of Friar Antonio de Montesinos, a defender of the indigenous, they further mandated the 1512 Laws of Burgos, which tried to balance the rights of the conquerors and the conquered through the ''encomienda'' system. However, over the years, more clergymen warned that the difficulty to enforce those laws and the system's own [[LoopholeAbuse loopholes]] were allowing abuses to continue, which coincided with a series of debates in Salamanca, headed by Francisco de Vitoria, about what did exactly those rights entail. Influenced now by Creator/BartolomeDeLasCasas, the most outspoken and spectacular of the next batch of defenders, King UsefulNotes/CharlesV consulted Vitoria and his colleagues and wrote the 1542 New Laws, abolishing the previous legislation, but this only caused ''encomenderos'' to literally revolt against the crown. Sick and tired of the topic, Charles called Salamanca again and demanded a council to solve it once for all.

The debate took place in Valladolid in 1550, in a great event that included personalities like Domingo de Soto, Melchor Cano and Bartolomé de Carranza (not Vitoria himself, as he died some years before). On one side of the debate, Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda defended the classical, Aristotelian WhiteMansBurden, arguing that the natives' paganism, cannibalism and HumanSacrifice were calling for the Christians to civilize them by any means necessary. On the other side, Bartolomé de las Casas countered by claiming that the natives were not more brutal than the ancient western men, used Vitoria's arguments about how Christians had no legitimate right over other peoples, and argued that evangelization of natives should be peaceful, never by force. Have in mind this was ''not'' a debate about racism, though, as by this point of history, nobody in the Iberian Peninsula considered people of color to be anything other than people, and interracial marriage was common in the empire since the first day. What was in the stake was whether waging war of conquest was a rightful way to save the souls of the indigenous, and although there was no official result, De las Casas emerged as the spiritual victor and the answer ended up being a surprising no.

The transcendence of the gathering was unexpected for what we are accustomed to read about evil empires. Incredibly, the Spanish monarchs took the result to heart and stopped gratuitous military expansion, with the next King Philip II officially forbidding new conquests in 1573, allowing only for defensive warfare, pacification of politically unstable territories, and peaceful evangelizing. While one could cynically say that this was not a great concession after the Hispanic Monarchy had already assimilated the richest indigenous empires of America, not to mention [[LoopholeAbuse how exploitable the whole pacification thing was]], they also followed with the creation the ''Protectoría de los Indios'', an entire department dedicated to prevent abuses in the overseas territories, as well as a regularized system of inspection named ''visita''. It also elevated De las Casas as the main exponent of this stance, becoming a figure famous for his zeal and dedication (albeit controversial by his exaggerations and outright lies, which would later backfire against Spain by giving a ton of fuel to the Black Legend) to the defense of their subjects.

The Spanish conquest of America had been kickstarted under the 1493 Papal bulls of UsefulNotes/PopeAlexanderVI, which authorized them to conquer new lands with the obligation to evangelize the natives, but monarchs [[UsefulNotes/TheCatholicMonarchs Isabella I and Ferdinand II]] modulated this by banning native enslavement and demanding that the indigenous would be justly treated. By the influence of Friar Antonio de Montesinos, a defender of the indigenous, they further mandated the 1512 Laws of Burgos, which tried to balance the rights of the conquerors and the conquered through the ''encomienda'' system. However, over the years, more clergymen warned that the difficulty to enforce those laws and the system's own [[LoopholeAbuse loopholes]] were allowing abuses to continue, which coincided with a series of debates in Salamanca, headed by Francisco de Vitoria, about what did exactly those rights entail. Influenced now by UsefulNotes/BartolomeDeLasCasas, the most outspoken and spectacular of the next batch of defenders, King UsefulNotes/CharlesV consulted Vitoria and his colleagues and wrote the 1542 New Laws, abolishing the previous legislation, but this only caused ''encomenderos'' to literally revolt against the crown. Sick and tired of the topic, Charles called Salamanca again and demanded a council to solve it once for all.

Among other fields, the school's postulates about the value of money are basically the bread and butter of what UsefulNotes/AdamSmith and the Austrian school would be doing centuries later, while UsefulNotes/GalileoGalilei, UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton and Gottfried Leibniz themselves would also find on Salamanca the origin of their own scientific researches. Philosophers like Descartes, Schopenhauer and Heidegger were also inspired by members of the school and their own currents of thought. The very calendar we use today, the Gregorian Calendar, was partially achieved through Salmantine brainpower. Even Marianne, the AnthropomorphicPersonification of the French Republic, is believed to ha been named after one of those guys from Salamanca.

* '''Melchor Cano''' (1509-1560): a member with a combative resume, Cano participated in both the Council of Trent and the Valladolid Debate, later became a professor in the thoroughly Erasmist Alcalá despite being himself a Thomist (RivalDojos, basically), and became infamous for being the main and bitter rival of Bartolomé de Carranza, an influential theologian who was bizarrely accused of Luteranism by the Inquisition (Cano had apparently nothing to do with this, although he did jump in the bandwagon against him). A sworn enemy of dogmatism, he advised King Philip II to screw Pope Paul IV and seek political independence from him, which earned Cano the perpetual enmity of Rome and the delightful nickname of "[[TheAntichrist The Son of Perdition]]". He also postulated criterions of believability in historiography.

The Spanish conquest of America had been kickstarted under the 1493 Papal bulls, which authorized them to conquer new lands with the obligation to evangelize the natives, but monarchs [[UsefulNotes/TheCatholicMonarchs Isabella I and Ferdinand II]] modulated this by banning native enslavement and demanding that the indigenous would be justly treated. By the influence of Friar Antonio de Montesinos, a defender of the indigenous, they further mandated the 1512 Laws of Burgos, which tried to balance the rights of the conquerors and the conquered through the ''encomienda'' system. However, over the years, more clergymen warned that the difficulty to enforce those laws and the system's own [[LoopholeAbuse loopholes]] were allowing abuses to continue, which coincided with a series of debates in Salamanca, headed by Francisco de Vitoria, about what did exactly those rights entail. Influenced now by UsefulNotes/BartolomeDeLasCasas, the most outspoken and spectacular of the next batch of defenders, King UsefulNotes/CharlesV consulted Vitoria and his colleagues and wrote the 1542 New Laws, abolishing the previous legislation, but this only caused ''encomenderos'' to literally revolt against the crown. Sick and tired of the topic, Charles called Salamanca again and demanded a council to solve it once for all.

The transcendence of the gathering was unexpected for what we are accustomed to read about evil empires. Incredibly, the Spanish monarchs took the result to heart and stopped gratuitous military expansion, with the next King Philip II officially forbidding new conquests in 1573, allowing only for defensive warfare, pacification of politically unstable territories, and peaceful evangelizing. While one could cynically say that this was not a great concession after the Hispanic Monarchy had already assimilated the richest indigenous empires of America, not to mention [[LoopholeAbuse how exploitable the whole pacification thing was]], they also followed with the creation the ''Protectoría de los Indios'', an entire department dedicated to prevent abuses in the overseas territories, as well as a regularized system of inspection named ''visita''. It also elevated De las Casas as the main exponent of this stance, becoming a figure famous for his zeal and dedication (albeit controversial by his exaggerations and outright lies, which would later backfire against Spain in the form of the Black Legend) to the defense of their subjects.

* '''Francisco de Vitoria''' (1483-1546): the founder and greatest exponent of the School of Salamanca, as well as the best candidate to be called the father of international law, economy and modern ''ius gentium''. Vitoria wrote extensively about natural law and freedom of circulation of ideas, goods and commerce, and was also a staunch defender of the indigenous, whom he considered the righteous owners of their lands and as such full-fledged vassals that should not be submitted by force (a role vital for the creation of the 1542 Laws of the Indies, which regulated those rights). Somewhat to the chagrin of King Charles V, who nonetheless had him as his advisor, Vitoria also established the limits and nature of the concept of just war, partially refuting the idea of MightMakesRight, and preceded Hugo Grotius and Alberico Gentili in a lot of ideas about international community. Due to his contributions, the modern United Nations named the council hall of the Palace of Nations after him.

The Spanish conquest of America had been kickstarted under the 1493 Papal bulls, which authorized them to conquer new lands with the obligation to evangelize the natives, but monarchs Isabella I and Ferdinand II modulated this by banning native enslavement and demanding that the indigenous would be justly treated. By the influence of Friar Antonio de Montesinos, a defender of the indigenous, they further mandated the 1512 Laws of Burgos, which tried to balance the rights of the conquerors and the conquered through the ''encomienda'' system. However, over the years, more clergymen warned that the difficulty to enforce those laws and the system's own [[LoopholeAbuse loopholes]] were allowing abuses to continue, which coincided with a series of debates in Salamanca, headed by Francisco de Vitoria, about what did exactly those rights entail. Influenced now by UsefulNotes/BartolomeDeLasCasas, the most outspoken and spectacular of the next batch of defenders, King Charles V consulted Vitoria and his colleagues and wrote the 1542 New Laws, abolishing the previous legislation, but this only caused ''encomenderos'' to literally revolt against the crown. Sick and tired of the topic, Charles called Salamanca again and demanded a council to solve it once for all.

Among other fields, the school's postulates about the value of money are basically the bread and butter of what UsefulNotes/AdamSmith and the Austrian school would be doing centuries later, while UsefulNotes/GalileoGalilei, UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton and Gottfried Leibniz themselves would also find on Salamanca the origin of their own scientific researches. Philosophers like Descartes, Schopenhauer and Heidegger were also inspired by members of the school and their own currents of thought. Marianne, the AnthropomorphicPersonification of the French Republic, was named after one of those guys from Salamanca. Even the very calendar we use today, the Gregorian Calendar, was partially achieved through Salmantine brainpower.

* '''Martín de Azpilcueta''' (1492-1586): nicknamed the "Doctor Navarrus" due to his Navarran billing, he obtained his degree in canon law in the University of Toulouse, after which he had to re-graduate in Salamanca because [[WorthlessForeignDegree degrees weren't internationally equivalent at the time]]; he didn't have to do the same in Coimbra, thought, because by then he was a massively influential scholar in economy, ethics and moral theology. Aside from pioneering in the modern quantity theory and the time value of money (it has been proposed Adam Smith was almost certainly inspired by him), he spoke about the necessary separation between kings and popes, and preached against xenophobic nationalism, abuse of the indigenous, and judicial torture, especially while acting as a consultant for the Spanish Inquisition.

* '''Melchor Cano''' (1509-1560): a member with a combative resume, Cano participated in both the Council of Trent and the Valladolid Debate, later became a professor in the thoroughly Erasmist Alcalá despite being himself a Thomist (RivalDojos, basically), and became infamous for being the main and bitter rival of Bartolomé de Carranza, an influential theologian who was bizarrely accused of Luteranism by the Inquisition (Cano had apparently nothing to do with this, although he did jump in the bandwagon against him). A sworn enemy of dogmatism, he advised King Philip II to screw Pope Paul IV and seek political independence from him, which gained Cano the perpetual enmity of Rome and the delightful nickname of "[[TheAntichrist The Son of Perdition]]". He also postulated criterions of believability in historiography.

* '''Juan de Mariana''' (1536-1624): a historian, philosopher, considered one of the greatest of the school. He is famous for having written a monumental 30-volume history of Spain, as well as treatises on politics against Creator/NiccoloMachiavelli, although his politic ideas were quite varied, and some of them landed him in prison. His surname gave origin to Marianne, the personification of the French Republic.

This school might be considered the greatest branch of thought you have never heard about, especially due to the persistent impression, often repeated in pop culture, that the 15-19th century Spain was an intellectual wasteland where merely claiming that the Earth was round could get you burned in the stake as a warlock by the [[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus rarely expected]] UsefulNotes/SpanishInquisition. In reality, far from falling behind the rest of UsefulNotes/{{Europe}} during the Renaissance, Spain produced its own vibrant variation of the intellectual revolution that was taking place in the continent, not only affecting its own course through history, but also directly shaping the thought of many to follow. The influence of the School of Salamanca on the topics of law, philosophy, physics, medicine, economy and astronomy is just as great as its mainstream obscurity, and the list of its overlooked accomplishments reads almost like an AlternateHistory.

Not any less important, the School of Salamanca was also a vital part of the history of international relations, as well as the modern debate about colonialism and human rights, which was codified for the first time in the Valladolid Debate. In a massive strike of irony given the [[EvilColonialist popular reputation]] of the Spanish Empire, this point would be a true historical oddity in which an empire stopped its machinery and actually pondered about the moral validity and consequences of its conquests, and ultimately acted with all of its power in an attempt to curb their worst excesses.

* '''Francisco López de Villalbos''' (1473-1549): a ''converso'', he always had to put up with envious people accusing him of using weird Jewish magic to achieve his goals. In reality, he was an accomplished physician, physicist, humanist, translator, writer and philosopher. Especially known for his research about syphillis, he would be the first of several great medics based in Salamanca, like Cosme de Medina (who might have created the first anatomical theatre, even before the University of Padua made their own) and Juan Tomás Porcell (an apprentice of the previous, pioneer of anatomical pathology).

The Spanish conquest of America had been kickstarted under the 1493 Papal bulls, which authorized to conquer new lands with the obligation to evangelize the natives, but monarchs Isabella I and Ferdinand II modulated this by banning native enslavement and demanding the indigenous would be justly treated. By the influence of Friar Antonio de Montesinos, a defender of the indigenous, they mandated the 1512 Laws of Burgos, which tried to balance the rights of the conquerors and the conquered through the ''encomienda'' system. However, over the years, more clergymen warned that the difficulty to enforce those laws and the system's loopholes were allowing abuses to continue, which coincided with a series of debates in Salamanca, headed by Francisco de Vitoria, about what did exactly those rights entail. Influenced now by UsefulNotes/BartolomeDeLasCasas, the most outspoken and spectacular of the next defenders, King Charles V consulted Vitoria and his colleagues and wrote the 1542 New Laws, abolishing the previous legislation, but this only caused ''encomenderos'' to literally revolt against the crown. Sick and tired of the topic, Charles called Salamanca again and demanded a council to solve it once for all.

The debate took place in Valladolid in 1550, in a great event that included personalities like Domingo de Soto, Melchor Cano and Bartolomé de Carranza (not Vitoria himself, as he died some years before). On one side of the debate, Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda defended the classical, Aristotelian WhiteMansBurden, arguing that the natives' paganism, cannibalism and HumanSacrifice were calling for the Christians to civilize them by any means necessary. On the other side, Bartolomé de las Casas countered by claiming that the natives were not more brutal than the ancient western men, used Vitoria's arguments about how Christians had no legitimate right over other peoples, and argued that evangelization of natives should be peaceful, never by force. Have in mind this was ''not'' a debate about racism, though, as by this point of history, nobody in the Iberian Peninsula considered people of color to be anything other than people, and intermarrying was already common in the empire. What was in the stake was whether waging war of conquest was a rightful way to save the souls of the indigenous, and although there was no official result, De las Casas emerged as the spiritual victor and the answer ended up being a surprising no.

The transcendence of the gathering was unexpected for what we are accustomed to read about evil empires. Incredibly, the Spanish monarchs took the result to heart and stopped gratuitous military expansion, with the next King Philip II officially forbidding new conquests in 1573, allowing only for defensive warfare, pacification of politically unstable territories, and peaceful evangelizing. While one could cynically say that this was not a great concession after the Hispanic Monarchy had already assimilated the richest indigenous empires of America, not to mention [[LoopholeAbuse how exploitable the whole pacification thing was]], they also followed with the creation the ''Protectoría de los Indios'', an entire department dedicated to prevent abuses in the overseas territories, as well as a regularized system of inspection named ''visita''. It also elevated De las Casas as the main exponent of this stance, becoming a figure famous for his zeal and dedication (albeit controversial by his exaggerations and lies, which would later backfire against Spain in the form of the Black Legend) to the defense of their subjects.

This school might be considered the greatest branch of thought you have never heard about, especially due to the persistent impression, often repeated in pop culture, that the 15-19th century Spain was an intellectual wasteland where merely claiming that the Earth was round could get you burned in the stake as a warlock by the [[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus rarely expected]] UsefulNotes/SpanishInquisition. In reality, far from falling behind the rest of Europe during the Renaissance, Spain produced its own vibrant variation of the intellectual revolution that was taking place in the continent, not only affecting its own course through History, but also directly shaping the thought of many to follow. The influence of the School of Salamanca on the topics of law, philosophy, physics, medicine, economy and astronomy is just as great as its mainstream obscurity, and the list of its overlooked accomplishments reads almost like an AlternateHistory.

* The documentary ''Film/SpainTheFirstGlobalization'' mentions the school and the Valladolid debate, as well as its consequences.

The School of Salamanca was a school of diverse intellectual areas created in the Spain of UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance, based mostly on the University of Salamanca and to a lesser degree in the universities of Alcalá and the Portuguese Coimbra. A prolongation of the medieval scholasticism of Creator/ThomasAquinas, it could be essentially considered the main body of law, philosophy and science of the Spanish Empire, with an influence that lasted almost as much as the empire itself and got directly involved with all of its politics, only being displaced and succeeded by the Spanish Universalist School in the 18th century.

The School of Salamanca was a school of diverse intellectual areas created in the Spain of UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance, based mostly on the University of Salamanca and to a lesser degree in the universities of Alcalá and the Portuguese Coimbra. A prolongation of the medieval scholasticism of Creator/ThomasAquinas, it could be essentially considered the main body of law, philosophy and science of the Spanish Empire, with an influence that lasted almost as much as the empire itself and got directly involved with its politics, until being succeeded by the Spanish Universalist School in the 18th century.

This school might be considered the greatest branch of thought you had never heard about, especially due to the persistent impression, often repeated in pop culture, that the 15-19th century Spain was an intellectual wasteland where merely claiming that the Earth was round could get you burned in the stake as a witch by the [[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus rarely expected]] UsefulNotes/SpanishInquisition. In reality, far from falling behind the rest of Europe during the Renaissance, Spain produced its own vibrant variation of the intellectual revolution that was taking place, not only affecting its own course through History, but also directly shaping the thought of many to follow. The influence of the School of Salamanca on the topics of law, philosophy, physics, medicine, economy and astronomy is just as great as its obscurity, and the list of its overlooked accomplishments reads almost like an AlternateHistory.

Among other fields, the school's postulates about the value of money are basically the bread and butter of what UsefulNotes/AdamSmith and the Austrian school would be doing centuries later, while UsefulNotes/GalileoGalilei, UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton and Gottfried Leibniz themselves would also find on Salamanca the origin of their own scientific researches. Philosophers like Descartes, Schopenhauer and Heidegger were also inspired by members of the school and their own currents of thought. Marianne, the AnthropomorphicPersonification of the French Republic, was named after one of those guys. Even the very calendar we use today, the Gregorian Calendar, was partially achieved through Salmantine brainpower.

* '''Luis de Alcalá''' (1490-1549): a Franciscan, rather than a Dominican like most of his colleagues, Alcalá was one of the most notable economists of his time. He deepened the work of his mentor Juan de Medina and developed long tracts about concepts like loan, prices, value of money and economic growth.
* '''Martín de Azpilcueta''' (1492-1586): nicknamed the "Doctor Navarrus" due to his Navarran billing, he obtained his degree in canon law in the University of Toulouse, after which he had to re-graduate in Salamanca because [[WorthlessForeignDegree degrees weren't internationally equivalent at the time]]; he didn't have to do the same at the University of Coimbra, thought, because by then he was a massively influential scholar in economy, ethics and moral theology. Aside from pioneering in the modern quantity theory and the time value of money (it has been proposed Adam Smith was almost certainly inspired by him), he spoke about the necessary separation between kings and popes, and preached against xenophobic nationalism, abuse of the indigenous, and judicial torture, especially while acting as a consultant for the Spanish Inquisition. He was offered many high jobs throughout his life, but rejected them all.

* '''Domingo Báñez''' (1528-1604): a successful theologian and Thomist scholar, who was the director and confessor of Saint Teresa of Jesus, as well as an enemy of Friar Luis de León who was among his accusers. Ironically, he was not free from flirting with the Inquisition himself, as he participated in an argument about free will that turned out dangerous, and later De León himself accused him of being a Luteran due to his ideas about predetermination. Báñez was also part of the committee of the Gregorian Calendar reform.
* '''Luis de Molina''' (1535-1600): another enemy to Báñez, Luis de Molina was a strong proponent for free will in theology, trying to reconcile Augustinian ideas about divine will and the Renaissance love for freedom in a current later named ''Molinism''. His ideas turned out inflammatory to both Catholics and Protestants, to the point Pope Clement VIII had to intervene and organize a debate that, to nobody's surprise, ultimately solved nothing. It's much more notable, however, his political contribution that the power doesn't really belong to the king, but that the latter is just an intermediary for the people; essentially, a predecessor of the 18th and 19th century thought. Like many others in this list, he also investigated about economy, developing the topics of contract law and price inflation put by Azpilcueta.

* '''Gabriel Vásquez''' (1549-1604): Suárez's main enemy. An immensely cultured scholar, Vásquez defended a philosophy that mixed Augustinian and Thomist ideas. Although his own school of thought was short-lived, he is considered a massively influence on Christian theologian, who was called the "Light of Theology" by Pope Benedict XIV and is still cited nowadays.

* '''Francisco López de Villalbos''' (1473-1549): a ''converso'', he always had to put up with envious people accusing him of using weird Jewish magic to achieve his goals. In reality, he was an accomplished physician, physicist, humanist, translator, writer and philosopher. Especially known for his research about syphillis, would be the first of several great medics based in Salamanca, like Cosme de Medina (might have created the first anatomical theatre, even before the University of Padua made their own) and Juan Tomás Porcell (an apprentice of the previous, pioneer of anatomical pathology).
* '''Fernán Pérez de Oliva''' (1494-1531): engineer, humanist and philosopher. He had parallel careers as a writer, being especially prolific at translating Greek and Roman theatre works to Spanish, and as a scientist, being a strong proponent of technological advances on the idea that Man's divinity was found in science. He also preceded William Gilbert in researching magnetism, to a point in which he actually proposed that magnets might be used some day to communicate through long distances a la UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla.

The Spanish conquest of America had been kickstarted under the 1493 Papal bulls, which authorized to conquer new lands with the obligation to evangelize the natives, but monarchs Isabella I and Ferdinand II modulated this by banning native enslavement and demanding the indigenous would be justly treated. By the influence of Friar Antonio de Montesinos, a defender of the indigenous, they mandated the 1512 Laws of Burgos, which tried to balance the rights of conquerors and conquered through the ''encomienda'' system. However, over the years, more clergymen warned that the difficulty to enforce those laws and the system's loopholes were allowing abuses to continue, which coincided with a series of debates in Salamanca, headed by Francisco de Vitoria, about what did exactly those rights entail. Influenced now by UsefulNotes/BartolomeDeLasCasas, the most outspoken and spectacular of the next defenders, King Charles V consulted Vitoria and his colleagues and wrote the 1542 New Laws, abolishing the previous legislation, but this only caused ''encomenderos'' to literally revolt against the crown. Sick and tired of the topic, Charles called Salamanca again and demanded a council to solve it once for all.

The Spanish conquest of America had been kickstarted under the 1493 Papal bulls, which authorized to conquer new lands with the obligation to evangelize the natives, but monarchs Isabella I and Ferdinand II modulated this by banning native enslavement and demanding the indigenous would be justly treated. By the influence of Friar Antonio de Montesinos, a defender of the indigenous, they mandated the 1512 Laws of Burgos, which tried to balance the rights of conquerors and conquered through the ''encomienda'' system. However, over the years, more clergymen warned that the difficulty to enforce those laws and the system's loopholes were allowing abuses to continue, which coincided with a series of debates in Salamanca, headed by Francisco de Vitoria, about what did exactly those rights entail. Influenced now by Bartolomé de las Casas, the most outspoken and spectacular of the next defenders, King Charles V consulted Vitoria and his colleagues and wrote the 1542 New Laws, abolishing the previous legislation, but this only caused ''encomenderos'' to literally revolt against the crown. Sick and tired of the topic, Charles called Salamanca again and demanded a council to solve it once for all.

The debate took place in Valladolid in 1550, in a great event that included personalities like Domingo de Soto, Melchor Cano and Bartolomé de Carranza (not Vitoria himself, as he had sadly died some years earlier). On one side of the debate, Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda defended the classical, Aristotelian WhiteMansBurden, arguing that the natives' paganism, cannibalism and HumanSacrifice were calling for the Christians to civilize them by any means necessary. On the other side, Bartolomé de las Casas countered by claiming that the natives were not more brutal than the ancient western men, used Vitoria's arguments about how Christians had no legitimate right over other peoples, and argued that evangelization of natives should be peaceful, never by force. Have in mind this was ''not'' a debate about racism, though, as by this point of history, nobody in the Iberian Peninsula considered people of color to be anything other than people, and intermarrying was already common in the empire. What was in the stake was whether waging war of conquest was a rightful way to save the souls of the indigenous, and although there was no official result, De las Casas emerged as the spiritual victor and the answer ended up being a surprising no.

* '''Pedro Ciruelo''' (1470-1548): the original master of Salamanca, Ciruelo was an accomplished mathematician and theologian with a tenure in the Sorbonne of Paris. Upon his return to Spain, he became famous as a professor of Thomist philosophy, teaching some of the names mentioned below, and was eventually chosen by the Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros to be a founding member of another college, the University of Alcalá. The latter would turn out one of the main medical investigation centers of the time, soon churning out [[TheMedic pioneer physicians]] like Francisco Díaz (considered the father of modern urology) and Francisco Vallés de Covarrubia (the creator of anatomical pathology). He sometimes not cited as a member of the school, being rather seen as a predecessor.

* '''Gómez Pereira''' (1500-1558): obscure and even more ignored by History than the rest of the school, Gómez Pereira studied philosophy and medicine in Salamanca, although he didn't become a teacher, instead gaining fame as a merchant, engineer and doctor. He did a couple inventions of windmills that were never taken up, but more famously predated Descartes by 80 years by stating an equivalent to "I think, therefore I am" (in his case, "I know that I know something; all that knows is; therefore, I am"), to the point Descartes was literally accused of plagiarism by a later commentator, Pierre Daniel Huet, who also accused Descartes of plagiarizing yet another Spaniard, Francisco Sánchez the Skeptic, in his Cartesian doubt.

The Spanish conquest of America had been kickstarted under the 1493 Papal bulls, which authorized to conquer new lands with the obligation to evangelize the natives, but monarchs Isabella I and Ferdinand II modulated this by banning native enslavement and demanding the indigenous would be justly treated. By the influence of Friar Antonio de Montesinos, a defender of the indigenous, they mandated the 1512 Laws of Burgos, which tried to balance the rights of conquerors and conquered through the ''encomienda'' system. However, over the years, more clergymen warned that the difficulty to enforce those laws and the system's loopholes were allowing abuses to continue, which coincided with a series of debates in Salamanca, headed by Francisco de Vitoria, about what did exactly those rights entail. Influenced now by Bartolomé de las Casas, the most outspoken and spectacular of the next defenders, King Charles V consulted Vitoria and his colleagues and wrote the 1542 New Laws, abolishing the previous legislation, but this only caused ''encomenderos'' to literally revolt against the crown. Sick and tired of the topic, Charles called Salamanca and demanded a council to solve it once for all.

The debate took place in Valladolid in 1550, in a great event that included personalities like Domingo de Soto, Melchor Cano and Bartolomé de Carranza (not Vitoria himself, as he had sadly died some years earlier). On one side of the debate, Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda defended the classical, Aristotelian WhiteMansBurden, arguing that the natives' paganism, cannibalism and HumanSacrifice were calling for the Christians to civilize them by any means necessary. On the other side, Bartolomé de las Casas countered by claiming that the natives were not more brutal than the ancient western men, used Vitoria's arguments about how Christians had no legitimate right over other peoples, and argued that evangelization of the savages should be peaceful, never by force. Have in mind this was ''not'' a debate about racism, though, as by this point of history, nobody in the Iberian Peninsula considered people of color to be anything other than people, and intermarrying was already common in the empire. What was in the stake was whether waging war of conquest was a rightful way to save the souls of the indigenous, and although there was no official result, De las Casas emerged as the spiritual victor and the answer ended up being a surprising no.

The transcendence of the gathering was unexpected for what we are accustomed to read about evil empires. Incredibly, the Spanish monarchs took the result to heart and stopped gratuitous military expansion, with the next King Philip II officially forbidding new conquests in 1573, allowing only for defensive warfare, pacifying of politically unstable territories, and peaceful evangelizing. While one could cynically say that this was not a great concession after the Hispanic Monarchy had already assimilated the richest indigenous empires of America, not to mention [[LoopholeAbuse how exploitable the whole pacifying thing was]], they also followed with the creation the ''Protectoría de los Indios'', an entire department dedicated to prevent abuses in the overseas territories, as well as a regularized system of inspection named ''visita''. It also elevated De las Casas as the main exponent of this stance, becoming a figure famous for his zeal and dedication (albeit controversial by his exaggerations and lies, which would later backfire against Spain in the form of the Black Legend) to the defense of their subjects.

[[caption-width-right:270:Francisco de Vitoria, founder of the school.]]

This school might be considered the greatest branch of thought you had never heard about, especially due to the persistent impression, often repeated in pop culture, that the 15-19th century Spain was an intellectual wasteland where merely claiming that the Earth was round could get you burned in the stake as a witch by the [[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus rarely expected]] UsefulNotes/SpanishInquisition. In reality, far from falling behind the rest of Europe during the Renaissance, Spain produced its own vibrant variation of the intellectual revolution that was taking place, not only affecting its own course through History, but also directly shaping the thought of many to follow. The influence of the School of Salamanca on the topics of law, philosophy, physics, medicine, economy and astronomy is just as great as its obscurity, and listing its overlooked accomplishments reads almost like an AlternateHistory.

* '''Pedro Ciruelo''' (1470-1548): the original master of Salamanca, Ciruelo was an accomplished mathematician and theologian with a tenure in the Sorbonne of Paris. Upon his return to Spain, he became famous as a professor of Thomist philosophy, teaching some of the names mentioned below, and was eventually chosen by the Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros to be a founding member of another college, the University of Alcalá. The latter would turn out one of the main medical investigation centers of the time, soon churning out pioneer physicians like Francisco Díaz (considered the father of modern urology) and Francisco Vallés de Covarrubia (the creator of anatomical pathology). He sometimes not cited as a member of the school, being rather seen as a predecessor.
* '''Francisco de Vitoria''' (1483-1546): the founder and greatest exponent of the School of Salamanca, as well as the best candidate to be called the father of international law, economy and modern ''ius gentium''. Vitoria wrote extensively about natural law and freedom of circulation of ideas, goods and commerce, and was also a staunch defender of the indigenous, whom he considered the righteous owners of their lands and as such proper vassals that should not be submitted by force (a role vital for the creation of the 1542 Laws of the Indies, which regulated those rights). Somewhat to the chagrin of King Charles V, who nonetheless had him as his advisor, Vitoria also established the limits and nature of the concept of just war, partially refuting the idea of MightMakesRight, and preceded Hugo Grotius and Alberico Gentili in a lot of ideas about international community. Due to his contributions, the modern ONU named the council hall of the Palace of Nations after him.

* '''Martín de Azpilcueta''' (1492-1586): nicknamed the "Doctor Navarrus" due to his Navarran billing, he obtained his degree in canon law in the University of Toulouse, after which he had to re-graduate in Salamanca because degrees weren't internationally equivalent at the time; he didn't have to do the same at the University of Coimbra, thought, because by then he was a massively influential scholar in economy, ethics and moral theology. Aside from pioneering in the modern quantity theory and the time value of money (it has been proposed Adam Smith was almost certainly inspired by him), he spoke about the necessary separation between kings and popes, and preached against xenophobic nationalism, abuse of the indigenous, and judicial torture, especially while acting as a consultant for the Spanish Inquisition. He was offered many high jobs throughout his life, but rejected them all.
* '''Domingo de Soto''' (1494-1560): another big man in campus, Domingo de Soto was a theologian, lawman, economist and physicist with quite a resume. Apprentice to the prestigious polymath Juan de Celaya, De Soto substituted his colleague Francisco de Vitoria in the Council of Trent as the Spanish imperial representative, participated in the Valladolid Debate, and later became the confessor of King Charles V himself. He worked extensively on economy, teaching about just price, natural law and counter-usury, although his work in mechanical physics is perhaps more relevant: he was the first to state that a body in free fall accelerates uniformly, forming the base for both UsefulNotes/GalileoGalilei and UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton.
* '''Gómez Pereira''' (1500-1558): obscure and ignored by History, Gómez Pereira studied philosophy and medicine in Salamanca, although he didn't become a teacher, instead gaining fame as a merchant, engineer and doctor. He did a couple inventions of windmills that were never taken up, but more famously predated Descartes by 80 years by stating an equivalent to "I think, therefore I am" (in his case, "I know that I know something; all that knows is; therefore, I am"), to the point Descartes was literally accused of plagiarism by a later commentator, Pierre Daniel Huet, who also accused Descartes of plagiarizing yet another Spaniard, Francisco Sánchez the Skeptic, in his Cartesian doubt.
* '''Alonso de la Vera Cruz''' (1507-1584): a keen disciple to Francisco de Vitoria, Alonso de la Vera Cruz was the main exponent of the School of Salamanca in the overseas territories of the Spanish Empire. He traveled to New Spain (modern México) by invitation of the locals and stayed there for the rest of his life as a missionary, professor of philosophy and administrator; he founded the first library in America and was a founding member of a couple of the first universities (the Colegio de San Pablo de México and the modern Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo). He worked in a re-conceptualization of Aristotle and a huge recompilation of a physics, math, biology, meteorology, botany.
* '''Melchor Cano''' (1509-1560): a member with a combative resume, Cano participated in both the Council of Trent and the Valladolid debate, later became a professor in the thoroughly Erasmist Alcalá despite being himself a Thomist (RivalDojos, basically), and became infamous for being the main and bitter rival of Bartolomé de Carranza, an influential theologian who was bizarrely accused of Luteranism by the Inquisition (Cano had apparently nothing to do with this, although he did jump in the bandwagon against him). A sworn enemy of dogmatism, he advised King Philip II to screw Pope Paul IV and seek political independence from him, which gained Cano the perpetual enmity of Rome and the delightful nickname of "The Son of Perdition". He also postulated criterions of believability in historiography.

* '''Jerónimo Muñoz''' (1520-1591): although he was also a geographer, mathematician, engineer and scholar of Hebrew, Muñoz became especially relevant as an astronomer. He had the chance to observe the SN 1572 supernova, like the famous Tycho Brahe, and did calculations about its parallax, whose results led him to clash with other scientists in Spain, but which Brahe himself incorporated to his 1603 treatise about the topic. He was also one of the first Spaniards to defend the Copernican system, designed the water supply system of Murcia, Lorca and Cartagena, and also left notes on which Galileo would later capitalize.

* '''Luis de León''' (1527-1591): better known as Friar Luis de León, this is the only member of the School of Salamanca the average reader might be loosely familiar with, likely on the ThemeParkVersion that he was some poor friar imprisoned by the Spanish Inquisition for speaking up against oppression or something alike. In reality, De León was one of the greatest poets and humanists of the Spanish Renaissance, a master of the ascetic religious literature, and one of the experts that created the Gregorian Calendar for Pope Gregorius XIII. His clash with the Inquisition came when some other clergymen, envious of his success, slandered him with the accusations of being a heretic, criticizing the Bible, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking translating a text from Hebrew without license]], which got him imprisoned for four years in a long judicial process... in which he was ultimately declared innocent and freed. He was famous for keeping writing even in prison and for beginning his first post-prison university lecture with the matter-of-factly quote "[[DissonantSerenity as we were saying yesterday...]]"
* '''Domingo Báñez''' (1528-1604): a successful theologian and Thomistic scholar, who was the director and confessor of Saint Teresa of Jesus, as well as an enemy of Friar Luis de León who was among his accusers. Ironically, he was not free from flirting with the Inquisition himself, as he participated in an argument about free will that turned out dangerous, and later De León himself accused him of being a Luteran due to his ideas about predetermination. Báñez was also part of the committee of the Gregorian Calendar reform.
* '''Luis de Molina''' (1535-1600): another enemy to Báñez, Luis de Molina was a strong proponent for free will in theology, trying to reconcile Augustinian ideas about divine will and the Renaissance love for freedom in a current later named ''Molinism''. His ideas were inflammatory to both Catholics and Protestants, to the point Pope Clement VIII had to intervene and organize a debate that, to nobody's surprise, ultimately solved nothing. It's much more notable, however, his political contribution that the power doesn't really belong to the king, but that the latter is just an intermediary for the people; essentially, a predecessor of the 18th and 19th century thought. Like many others in this list, he also investigated about economy, developing the topics of contract law and price inflation put by Azpilcueta.

* '''Francisco Suárez''' (1548-1617): nicknamed "Doctor Eximius et Pius" ("Doctor Exceptional and Pious"), Suárez was one of the greatest members of the school, as well as the single finest thinker of his time, to the point his work is considered a turning point between Renaissance and Early Modernity. He made great developments in metaphysics, in which he combined Thomism, Scotism and nominalism, but he also developed philosophy of law, in which he called for [[LaResistance resistance against tyranny]] and criticized both the divine right of his time and the concept of social contract that would become cool later (although his own ideas weren't so far away, and in fact some adepts of Locke would find Suárez appealing). His current of thought, ''Suarism'', would ironically clash against the enlightened absolutism defended in the 18th century by Bourbon monarchs, who eventually banned it from a Spanish Empire already in disintegration. People as varied as Leibniz, Descartes, Schopenhauer, Heidegger and Grotius cite Suárez as a source of inspiration.

The Spanish conquest of America had been kickstarted under the 1493 Papal bulls, which authorized to conquer new lands with the obligation to evangelize the natives, but monarchs Isabella I and Ferdinand II modulated this by banning native enslavement and demanding the indigenous would be justly treated. By the influence of Friar Antonio de Montesinos, a defender of the indigenous, they mandated the 1512 Laws of Burgos, which tried to balance the rights of conquerors and conquered through the ''encomienda'' system. However, over the years, more clergymen warned that the difficulty to enforce those laws and the system's loopholes were allowing abuses to continue, which coincided with a series of debates in Salamanca, headed by Francisco de Vitoria, about what did exactly entail those rights. Influenced now by Bartolomé de las Casas, the most outspoken and spectacular of the next defenders, King Charles V consulted Vitoria and his colleagues and wrote the 1542 New Laws, abolishing the previous legislation, but this only caused ''encomenderos'' to literally revolt against the crown. Sick and tired of the topic, Charles called Salamanca and demanded a council to solve it once for all.

The School of Salamanca was a school of diverse intellectual areas created in the Spain of the Renaissance, based mostly on the University of Salamanca and to a lesser degree in the universities of Alcalá and the Portuguese Coimbra. A prolongation of the medieval scholasticism of Creator/ThomasAquinas, it could be essentially considered the main body of law, philosophy and science of the Spanish Empire, with an influence that lasted almost as much as the empire itself and got directly involved with its politics, until being succeeded by the Spanish Universalist School in the 18th century.

This school might be considered the greatest branch of thought you had never heard about, especially due to the persistent impression, often repeated in pop culture, that the 15-19th century Spain was an intellectual wasteland where merely claiming that the Earth was round could get you burned in the stake as a witch by the always unexpected UsefulNotes/SpanishInquisition. In reality, far from falling behind the rest of Europe during the Renaissance, Spain produced its own vibrant variation of the intellectual revolution that was taking place, not only affecting its own course through History, but also directly shaping the thought of many to follow. The influence of the School of Salamanca on the topics of law, philosophy, physics, medicine, economy and astronomy is just as great as its obscurity, and listing its overlooked accomplishments reads almost like an AlternateHistory.

* '''Gómez Pereira''' (1500-1558): obscure and ignored by History, Gómez Pereira studied philosophy and medicine in Salamanca, although he didn't become a teacher, instead gaining fame as a merchant, engineer and doctor. He did a couple inventions of windmills that were never taken up, but more famously predated Descarted by 80 years by stating an equivalent to "I think, therefore I am", to the point Descartes was literally accused of plagiarism by a later commentator, Pierre Daniel Huet, who also accused Descartes of plagiarizing yet another Spaniard, Francisco Sánchez the Skeptic, in his Cartesian doubt.

* '''Luis de León''' (1527-1591): better known as Friar Luis de León, this is the only member of the School of Salamanca the average reader might be loosely familiar with, likely on the ThemeParkVersion that he was some poor friar imprisoned by the Spanish Inquisition for speaking up against oppression or something alike. In reality, De León was one of the greatest poets and humanists of the Spanish Renaissance, a master of the ascetic religious literature, and one of the experts that created the Gregorian Calendar for Pope Gregorius XIII. His clash with the Inquisition came when some other clergymen, envious of his success, slandered him with the accusations of being a heretic, criticizing the Bible, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking translating a text from Hebrew without license]], which got him imprisoned for four years in a long judicial process... in which he was ultimately declared innocent and freed. He was famous for keeping writing even in prison and for beginning his first post-prison university lecture with the quote "as we were saying yesterday..."

* '''Francisco Suárez''' (1548-1617): nicknamed "Doctor Eximius et Pius" ("Doctor Exceptional and Pious"), Suárez was one of the greatest members of the school, as well as the single finest thinker of his time, to the point his work is considered a turning point between Renaissance and Early Modernity. He made great developments in metaphysics, in which he combined Thomism, Scotism and nominalism, but he also developed philosophy of law, in which he called for resistance against tyranny and criticized both the divine right of his time and the concept of social contract that would become cool later (although his own ideas weren't so far away, and in fact some adepts of Locke would find Suárez appealing). His current of thought, ''Suarism'', would ironically clash against the enlightened absolutism defended in the 18th century by Bourbon monarchs, who eventually banned it from a Spanish Empire already in disintegration. People as varied as Leibniz, Descartes, Schopenhauer, Heidegger and Grotius cite Suárez as a source of inspiration.

The debate took place in Valladolid in 1550, in a great event that included personalities like Domingo de Soto, Melchor Cano and Bartolomé de Carranza (not Vitoria himself, as he had sadly died some years earlier). On one side of the debate, Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda defended the classical, Aristotelian WhiteManBurden, arguing that the natives' paganism, cannibalism and HumanSacrifice were calling for the Christians to civilize them by any means necessary. On the other side, Bartolomé de las Casas countered by claiming that the natives were not more brutal than the ancient western men, used Vitoria's arguments about how Christians had no legitimate right over other peoples, and argued that evangelization of the savages should be peaceful, never by force. Have in mind this was ''not'' a debate about racism, though, as by this point of history, nobody in the Iberian Peninsula considered people of color to be anything other than people, and intermarrying was already common in the empire. What was in the stake was whether waging war of conquest was a rightful way to save the souls of the indigenous, and although there was no official result, De las Casas emerged as the spiritual victor and the answer ended up being a surprising no.