Abstract
The author discusses Francisco de Vitoria (1483-1546), a Dominican and a prominent European humanist. The author first presents Vitoria's life, his studies of theology in Paris, his activites in Valladolid, and his activities at University of Salamanca.
The author describes the famous School of Salamanca, which Vitoria helped to establish, and which, just as Vitoria did, connected its interest in moral theology with legal questions. The legal questions are discussed in the final section of the article, which emphasizes the problems of the legal status of American Indian populations in the New World.
According to Vitoria, it is precisely the humanity of the Indians that implies certain vested rights that the Spaniards should not have denied to the Indians.