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