chapter three

New Worlds and

Their Challenges

O

ne day in 1534, the Dominican monastery of San Esteban in Sala-

manca played host to a notably interesting guest. Th is was a cleric

named Vicente de Valverde, who regaled his clerical hosts with stories of his

recent travels— which were, by any standard, riveting. Valverde had served

as chaplain to a Spanish adventurer named Francisco Pizarro, and in that

role had been at Pizarro’s side in the conquest of Peru. He told tales of the

wondrous riches that had been amassed, although it is not possible to say

how candid he was about some of the methods used by his employer—

including the kidnapping of the Incan ruler in breach of a truce, followed

by a general massacre of natives. It may be surmised that serving as the

confessor of Pizarro may have been a demanding and time- consuming

task.

In all events, Valverde’s accounts of his experiences made a great impres-

sion on his hosts, and on one of them in par tic u lar. Th is was a monk named

Francisco de Vitoria, who up until then had taken little or no interest in

New World aff airs. He was a theologian, chiefl y distinguished as a leading

fi gure in the sixteenth- century revival of the philosophy of that earlier Do-

minican, Th omas Aquinas. Vitoria hailed from a prominent family in Bur-

gos. He studied in Paris in the early years of the sixteenth century, especially

the works of Aquinas, and then returned to Spain to teach theology, fi rst at

the College of San Gregorio in Valladolid. He then moved to the University

of Salamanca, where he held the prime chair in theology and expounded the