Francisco de Vitoria

The conquest of the Americas, the Protestant Reformation, and conflict with the Turks were together upending European society and the Church when Francisco de Vitoria became chair of theology at the University of Salamanca in 1526. Vitoria was born in Spain in 1486, and after becoming a Dominican friar he studied law, philosophy, and theology in Paris. He returned to Spain in 1523 and three years later became chair of theology at Salamanca. In 1532 he penned "De Indis" ("Concerning the Indians"), a treatise in which he argued that, contrary to popular opinion, Indians in the Americas were not necessarily damned by their social structures, religion, or lack of Christianity. De Indis was a crucial landmark in the history of human rights as well as constituting the origins of international law. Vitoria also wrote about the requirements for a just war, asserting that no war was just if it endangered the world or Christendom.

Sources: Richard P. McBrien. Catholicism. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1994. P 1318.