Britannica Sources used in this answer

How did Francisco de Vitoria and other Salamanca scholars use the Summa theologiae?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

St. Thomas Aquinas Enthroned Between the Doctors of the Old and New Testaments, with Personifications of the Virtues, Sciences, and Liberal Arts, fresco by Andrea da Firenze, c. 1365; in the Spanish Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence. — Thomism *St. Thomas Aquinas Enthroned Between the Doctors of the Old and New Testaments, with Personifications of the Virtues, Sciences, and Liberal Arts*, fresco by Andrea da Firenze, c. 1365; in the Spanish Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence.

At the University of Salamanca, Francisco de Vitoria and his successors, such as Domingo de Soto and Domingo Bañez, transformed theological education by adopting a new style of lecturing that was based directly on the Summa theologiae of Thomas Aquinas.1

By centering their instruction on this work, these scholars moved away from the traditional practice of commenting on Peter Lombard’s Four Books of Sentences, which had been the standard textbook for theology masters for centuries. This shift allowed Vitoria and his colleagues to engage more deeply with the systematic theology of Aquinas, influencing a wide range of thinkers—from the mystic Teresa of Ávila to defenders of indigenous rights like Bartolomé de las Casas. Furthermore, this pedagogical approach shaped the formation of early Jesuit theologians, who utilized the teachings of Aquinas to emphasize human knowledge and freedom.12