Sign up for free online course: salamanca.ufm.edu/en The School of Salamanca is a MOOC offered by Universidad Francisco Marroquín that consists of five chapters. An overview of the School of Salamanca, the main intellectual current of early modern Spain. The online course consists of three main chapters on the school’s contributions to Human Rights, Politics, and Economics, plus an introduction, a conclusion, and brief chapters on the school’s founder Francisco de Vitoria and its climactic figure Juan de Mariana. Learn about the origins of the Hispanic liberal tradition as well as the scope of its fundamental influence on modern Western Civilization. Win a badge by successfully completing the activities of the course. Eric Clifford Graf is a professor of literature at Universidad Francisco Marroquín. He has a PhD in Spanish language and literature from the University of Virginia (1997). He specializes in medieval and early modern Spain, the history of the novel, Renaissance studies, and literary, political, cultural, and economic theory. Credits: New Media | UFM 2017 salamanca.ufm.edu newmedia.ufm.edu ufm.edu

1. salamanca.ufm.edu

2. The School of Salamanca, a MOOC offered by Universidad Francisco
Marroquín, explains the origins of Hispanic liberal tradition as well as
the scope of its fundamental influence on modern Western Civilization.
The course consists of five chapters: Vitoria, Human Rights, Politics,
Economics, and Mariana.
The comic is part of the e-learning resources the online course offers its
students to reinforce their learning through each chapter. It serves as a
graphic representation of controversial themes and characters within the
School of Salamanca.
Enrich your learning experience by analyzing the comics and participate in
the course activities at salamanca.ufm.edu

3. Published academic essays
ufm.academia.edu/EricCliffordGraf
Other online courses
Discover Don Quijote de la Mancha
donquijote.ufm.edu/en
The course content is developed and presented by
professor Eric Clifford Graf from Universidad Francisco
Marroquín. He graduated from the University of Virginia
in 1997 with a PhD in Spanish language and literature.
He has worked at the University of Virginia, The
College of William & Mary, the University of Chicago,
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Smith
College, Wesleyan University, and Kershner Trading
Group. He specializes in the history of the novel,
medieval and early modern Spain, and literary,
political, cultural, and economic theory. He is
author of the book Cervantes and Modernity
(Bucknell UP, 2007). In addition to numerous
academic essays on the poetry, theater, and
narrative of Miguel de Cervantes, he has also
published on The Poem of the Cid, Garcilaso de la
Vega, Juan de Mariana, El Greco, San Juan de la Cruz,
Pedro de Calderón, José de Cadalso, Vicente Aleixandre,
Julio Cortázar, and Sigmund Freud.

5. “The intellectual shift represented by late-
scholasticism began as a nominalist and
empiricist renewal at the University of
Paris, led by Scottish Dominican John
Major (1469-1559). The goal was to get
beyond stale, rules-based reasoning,
which was often weighed down by
excessive appeals to ancient and medieval
authorities, and to overcome silly
metaphysical polemics about things like
the spatial nature of angels. Instead, Major
grounded philosophy in real life by using
reason in order to attend to issues that
mattered to everyday people.”

7. “Vitoria’s explanation of evil as the
inevitable result of God’s gift of free will
to humans has realistic and anti-utopian
implications, laying the groundwork for
reason and choice to prevail over idealism
and dogma.”

10. “The feminist attitudes and activities of a
prioress like Santa Teresa de Ávila (1515-82),
a novelist like María de Zayas (1590-1661),
and a New World Bishop like Francisco
Marroquín Hurtado (1499-1563)
exemplify the reformist thinking
of the School of Salamanca.”

12. “The School of Salamanca was keen to
define, analyze, debate, and theorize
about international law, the rules of
warfare, and the rights of non-Christians
and slaves. Many of these topics already
had ancient classical and Biblical roots,
but they received added attention in
the context of the expanding Spanish
Empire. The rights of people in newly
discovered overseas territories were in
dispute almost immediately after the
discovery of America.”

15. “Who doesn’t get upset when they see their
taxes being wasted by governments and
politicians? Again, Mariana’s princely advice
manual offers a good example of how lavish
ceremonies, grandiose building projects,
opportunistic and parasitic courtesans,
the shameless plunder of private wealth,
and other misuses of public funds were of
great concern to political commentators.
Another fascinating example here is
provided by Fajardo Saavedra, who adapts a
Machiavellian perspective on state finance:
just as, when it comes to politics, it is
better to be feared than to be loved; when
it comes to public funds, it is better to be
tightfisted than indulgent.”

17. “Pedro Simón Abril, who translated Aristotle’s
Politics into Spanish in 1584, as well as
Mariana and Suárez, who were following
Aquinas, indicated a range of examples of
ancient, biblical, and modern tyrants. They
worried about the monarch’s use of force to
extend his power. Suárez’s famous Defensio
fidei (1613) was banned and burned in England
and France for opposing the power of the
sovereign. Abril and Mariana were particularly
nostalgic for the medieval Kingdom of Aragón,
with its independent judiciary and its formal
requirement that its kings submit to its local
laws, known as fueros.”

20. “The Salamancans didn’t just think
occasionally and in the abstract about
such matters; they produced detailed
treatises analyzing and evaluating a range
of complicated financial instruments: early
modern variations on what today we would
recognize as puts, calls, collars, forwards,
swaps, credit guarantees, credit sales,
loans, and annuities. There’s evidence
that mid-sixteenth century Spaniards
practiced double-entry accounting and
used a discounted cash flow analysis of
investments. Their derivatives, equity and
debt arrangements, accounting practices, and
financial conventions anticipated Wall Street.”

22. “Like the leading figures of the Austrian
School—Carl Menger, Ludwig von Mises,
and Friedrich Hayek—the Salamancans
focused on ethics, human nature,
behavior, and choice when thinking about
economics. In the famous Hayek versus
Keynes debate, it’s pretty safe to say that
the majority of Salamancans would be
with Hayek.”

25. “Mariana wanted checks on monarchical
power. This should come as no surprise: the
scholastics emphasized the popular origins of
sovereignty and many of their preferred
medieval sources, such as Aquinas, approved
of tyrannicide. As usual, Mariana was more
radical than his peers regarding this issue,
not only insisting in De rege on the right to
kill tyrants but broadening his definition of a
tyrant to include the prince who inflates the
money supply. He went on to argue in favor
of killing kings so that these would recognize
the limits of their power and the punishment
that awaited them if they turned to tyranny.”

27. “The modern Austrian School of Economics
traces its roots to the School of Salamanca.
Austrians who have signaled this relation
to various degrees would include Menger,
Dempsey, Schumpeter, Grice-Hutchinson,
Roover, Rothbard, etc.”

29. UFM New Media production
Universidad Francisco Marroquín
Executive Direction
Professor
Illustration
Editorial design
Stephanie Falla
Eric Clifford Graf
Carlos Rodríguez
Sandy Rodríguez

30. Website salamanca.ufm.edu
Direction Calle Manuel F.Ayau (6ta Calle
final), zona 10 Guatemala, Guatemala 01010
Phone Number (+502) 2338-7849
Guatemala, October 2017
UFM thanks the following sponsors for
their generous support of this MOOC:
Smith Family Foundation and The Bottoms Family
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