SOURCE: Parry, J. H. “The Right of Conquest.” In Spanish Theory of Empire in the Sixteenth Century, pp. 12-26. London: Cambridge University Press, 1940.

In the following essay, Parry discusses the enormous influence Dominican theologians in the 1500s had on the debate about whether Spain had the right to force Indians to convert to Christianity. In particular, Parry concentrates on churchmen John Major and Francisco de Vitoria, who gave religious justifications for the Spanish conquest even as they demanded that Native Americans receive at least some degree of civil protection.

The Dominicans in the early sixteenth century were the principal champions throughout Europe both of missionary enterprise and of scholastic thought. At the Spanish court they held a privileged position—at least under Charles V—as the Emperor's emissaries in his intricate negotiations with the Papacy. In the New World they supplied a body of zealous and disciplined teachers...