Soto, Domingo de

Born: 1494-XX-XX Spain

Died: 1560-11-15 Spain

Flourished: Spain

Domingo de Soto was born Francisco de Soto in Segovia, Spain, around 1494 or 1495. He began his studies in Segovia, then studied arts in Alcalá, Spain, 1512-1513, and metaphysics and theology in Paris. In 1520 Soto returned to Alcalá and held a professorship at the Colegio de San Ildefonso until 1524 when he resigned to enter religious life. He started at a Benedictine monastery but ultimately joined a Dominican order at Burgos, Spain, entering the order formally in 1525 and taking the name Domingo. That same year Soto moved to Salamanca where he taught at the Colegio de San Esteban until 1532, then at the University of Salamanca from 1532 until 1545. In the latter year he was named to the Council of Trent where his assignments included censoring books for heresy and assisting in the formulation of dogmatic decrees. Charles V called Soto to Germany in 1547, where he served as the emperor’s confessor and spiritual advisor, before returning to his order in Salamanca in 1550. From 1552 until his resignation in 1556 he served as chair of theology at the University of Salamanca. Soto authored numerous works of philosophy, weighing in on the moral questions raised by Spain’s colonial efforts and finding colonization difficult to justify. He died in Salamanca.

James S. Olson and others, eds., Historical Dictionary of the Spanish Empire, 1402-1975 (New York: Greenwood, 1992), 565-66; Charles G. Herbermann and others, eds., The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York: Encyclopedia, 1912), 14:152-53.