ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on another source of Las Casas’s formation: the academic disciplines of canon law and theology. Canon law study began and became dominant in Spain’s oldest universities: in Salamanca in 1218 in León, and in Valladolid in 1264 in Castile. Their rigorous, lengthy, expensive, and text-based programs in canon law bolstered the prestige of canon law study at both universities, and insured that highly trained letrados (learned men) were available for governmental and ecclesial positions. Las Casas studied canon law in preparation for the priesthood. This chapter innovatively argues that he earned a bachillerato and a licenciatura, and constructs a credible timeline for such studies. This chapter also addresses developments in the field of theology and their relationships to the Order of Preachers, such as establishing a Faculty of Theology at the Dominican Colegio de San Esteban (1222) and later at Salamanca and Valladolid. The Dominicans’ Thomistic orientation also shaped the Iberian School of Theology and the School of Salamanca. This chapter culminates demonstrating that Las Casas’s adroit juridical approach was derived from his canonistic, philosophic, and Thomistic studies, as well as from other formative experiences as a cleric and friar on both sides of the Atlantic.
