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Pope Paul III and the American Indians*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2011

Lewis Hanke
Lewis Hanke
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Harvard University
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Extract

When Alexander VI promulgated the bull Inter caetera on May 4, 1493 granting Spain a large part of the new world, there seems to have been no doubt that the natives who dwelt in the ‘very remote islands and mainlands’ would be willing and able to accept the teachings of the Catholic church. For Alexander had been informed that in those far off lands were

very many peoples living in peace and, as reported, going unclothed, and not eating flesh. Moreover, … these very peoples … believe in one God the Creator in heaven, and seem sufficiently disposed to embrace the Catholic faith and be trained in good morals. And it is hoped that, were they instructed, the name of the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, would easily be introduced into the said countries and islands.

These optimistic predictions were not fulfilled and, as the Spanish conquest of the Americas proceeded to reveal the existence of millions of natives, the action of the papacy in the conversion and protection of these masses of Indians became an important matter, for as that studious seventeenth century jurist, Antonio de Leon Pinelo, declared:

Inasmuch as the Indies were conceded to the kings of Castile principally in order to favor and convert the Indians, no harm must come of this concession.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , April 1937 , pp. 65 - 102
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1937

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References

1 Davenport, Francis G., ed., European treaties bearing on the history of the United States and its dependencies to 1648 (Washington, D. C., 1917), p. 76Google Scholar.

2 Tratado de confirmaciones reales (Buenos Aires [Madrid, 1630], 1922), p. 241Google Scholar.

3 Andrés Gonzáles de Barcia, ed., Epítome de la biblioteca oriental y occidental, II (Madrid, 1737), 786.

4 Hergenröther, Joseph, Catholic church and Christian state, II (London, 1876), 153Google Scholar, and Ludwig Pastor, History of the Popes, VI (London, 1898), 162Google Scholar.

5 None of the recent works on the period have considered the American aspect of events. This is true not only of Capasso's books on Paul III but also of the following: G. Buschbell, Die Sendungen des Pedro de Marguina an den Hofs Karls V im September/Dezember 1545 und September 1546, Spanische Forschungen der Görresgesellschaft, IV (1933), 311–354; Ludwig Cardauns, Zur Geschichte Karls V, 1536–1538, Quellen u. Forsch. aus ital. Archiven und Bibl., XII (Rome, 1909), 189–211, 321–367; Walter Friedensburg, Kaiser Karl V. und Papst Paul III. (1534–1549), Schriften des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte, Jahrgang 50, Heft 1 (Leipzig, 1932), 1–99.

6 For more information on this controversy consult my essay, The First Social Experiments in America (Cambridge, Mass., 1935Google Scholar).

7 Elegías de Varones Ilustres de las Indias (Madrid, 1589Google Scholar), Primera parte, elegía I, canto 6, stanza 28. Sixteenth century Spanish poets in general exhibited a very generous and humane spirit whenever they depicted the American Indian. For details on this subject consult John Van Horne's article on The Attitude toward the Enemy in Sixteenth Century Spanish Narrative Poetry, Romanic Review, XVI (1925), 341–361.

8 Bartolomé de Las Casas, Historia de las Indias, lib. III, cap. 99.

9 A. de I., Indiferente General 1530, fol. 452.

10 Section I, proposition 22.

11 Francisco Javier Hernáez, Colección de Bulas, Breves y Otros Documentos Relativos a la Iglesia de América y Filipinas, I (Brussels, 1879), 102.

It may be pertinent to point out here that civilized nations in general have rarely been magnanimous in their attitude toward subject natives. For example, we find Samuel Sewall at the beginning of the eighteenth century, when he was a judge of the Superior Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony, noting down in his diary that he had ‘essayed to prevent Negroes and Indians being rated as cattle, but could not succeed.' [As quoted by William Sumner Jenkins, Pro-Slavery Thought in the Old South (Chapel Hill, 1935), p. 4.] And during the Pequot War in 1637 people were not wanting who felt that ‘the Lord [had] delivered up the heathen as stubble to the sword of his chosen people and dunged the soil with their flesh.' [Samuel Eliot Morison, The Founding of Harvard College (Cambridge, 1935), p. 177.] In 1703 in the same colony the Reverend Samuel Hopkins is supposed to have expounded the idea that God had willed the extermination of the Indians and therefore had approved when Popham hunted them down with dogs, a procedure much favored by the Spaniards. [G. Stanley Hall makes this assertion, The Relations between Lower and Higher Races, Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Second Series, XVII (1903), 7–8.]

The Puritans considered the Indians and negroes accursed savages who might properly be destroyed or enslaved. ‘We know not when or how these Indians first became inhabitants of the mighty continent, yet we may guess that probably the Devil decoyed these miserable salvages hither in hope that the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ would never come to destroy or disturb his absolute empire over them,’ said Cotton Mather. [As quoted by Wertenbaker, Thomas J. in The First Americans (New York, 1927Google Scholar), pp. 231–232.] John Eliot started his missionary work in Massachusetts about 1636. Neither he nor his more vocal contemporary Roger Williams ever occupied the place in the English colonies as protectors of the Indians that Las Casas did in the Spanish world. Eliot's statement that ‘to sell soules for mony seemeth to me a dangerous merchandize’ is a mere lamb's bleat to the roars of Las Casas against Spanish practices.

[The best brief comparison of the English and Spanish views and actions on the Indian question is Chap. V, The Wards of the Spaniards, in Herbert I. Priestley's The Coming of the White Man (New York, 1929). A. W. Lauber's Indian Slavery in Colonial Times Within the Present Limits of the United States (New York, 1913) is useful too.]

However universal may have been the mistreatment by ‘civilized’ nations of subject people, the idea that only the Spaniards were cruel has lingered on in strange places, for we find even such a widely read and critically minded student as William Graham Sumner asserting: ‘The Spaniards and the Portuguese of the sixteenth century treated all aborigines with ruthlessness because the aborigines were outside of Christianity and entitled to no rights or considerations.’ [Selected Essays of William Graham Sumner, A. G. Keller, ed. (New Haven, 1924), p. 329.] It should be said that one of Sumner's disciples, E. G. Bourne, wrote the first significant and fair-minded work in English on the Spanish colonies.

12 Colección de documentos inéditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista, y colonización de las posesiones españolas en América y Oceania, XII (Madrid, 1864–1884), 107–108. About the same time Leo X seems to have interested himself in the controversy between the parties contending over the Indian slavery problem, but nothing much is known concerning this matter. The only reference to it occurs in a rare work by Angelo Fabroni, Leonis X Pontificis Vita (Pisa, 1797). The Library of Congress has one of the few copies in the world, a copy which William Hickling Prescott owned in 1829. Unfortunately the Regesta of Leo X compiled by Cardinal Joseph Hergenröther (Freiburg, 1884) do not go beyond 1515.

13 Hernáez, vol. I, pp. 56–65. For a bibliographical note on Garcés and a list of other volumes in which the letter has been printed, see Robert Streit, Bibliotheca Missionum, I (Münster, 1916), 14. The Biblioteca Nacional (Madrid) possesses a Memoria que Diferentes Autores Hacen del Ilmo. Sr. D. Fr. Julián Garcés, Primero Obispo del Pueblo de los Angeles, Sección de Manuscritos, Ms. 3048, no. 1. Among the unpublished works of Dr. Nicolás León was a study entitled Documentos y Noticias Inéditas o Poco Conocidos referentes al Ilmo. Sr. D. Fr. Julián Garcés, Primer Obispo de Tlaxcala, Dr. Nicolás León. Noticia de Sus Escritos Originales Impresos e Inéditos … 1874 a 1925 (Mexico, 1925?), p. 37.

14 Bartolomé Juan Leonardo de Argensola, Anales de la Corona de Aragón, lib. I, cap. 74.

15 Juan de Solórzano Pereira, Politíca Indiana (Madrid, 1648), lib. II, cap. 1, núm. 10. Agustín Dávila Padilla asserts that this letter was printed in Rome in 1537, Historia de la Fundación y Discurso de la Provincia de Santiago de México de la Orden de Predicadores, lib. I, cap. iii.

16 Hernáez, vol. I, p. 65.

17 Translated by Francis MacNutt, Bartholomew de Las Casas (New York, 1909), pp. 427–431.

18 Corneille de Pauw, Recherches philosophiques sur les américains, ou mémoires intéressants pour servir à l'histoire de l'espèce humaine, I (Cleves, 1772), 38.

Of course this shallow and supercilious interpretation of De Pauw was combatted by contemporary writers friendly to Spain. Francisco Clavijero, the Mexican Jesuit, correctly stated in his Storia antica del Messico (Cesena, 1780–1781) that the bull ʻno tiene por objeto declarar que los Americanos son realmente hombres, pues esto sería una insensatez agena de aquél, y de cualquier otro sumo pontífice: si no sostener los derechos naturales de los Americanos, contra las tentativas de sus perseguidores, y condenar la injusticia, y la inhumanidad de aquellos que, bajo pretexto de ser los Indios idólatros, e incapaces de instrucción, les quitaban los bienes, y la libertad, y los empleaban a guisa de animales. Los Españoles en verdad hubieran sido mas estúpidos que los más incultos salvages del Nuevo Mundo, si, para reconocer por hombres a los Americanos, hubieran necesitado aguardar la decisión de Roma. Mucho antes que el papa espidiese aquella bula, los reyes Católicos habian recomendado eficazmente la instrucción de los Americanos, dando las ordenes mas urgentes para el menor perjuicio en sus bienes, ni en su libertad.’ The quotation comes from the Spanish version, Historia antigua de Méjico, translated by José Joaquín Mora, II (London, 1826), 331–332.

19 Probably this refers to the royal order dated Aug. 2, 1530. [D. I. U., vol. X, pp. 38–43.]

20 Hernáez, vol. I, pp. 101–102.

21 Ibid., vol. I, 65–67. As José Toribio Medina pointed out, this bull was important not only because of its clauses against slavery but also because it relegated the Indians, in all matters of faith, to the ordinary jurisdiction of the bishops, giving the bishops power ‘ut ipsos apostatas ex vestris dioecesibus omnino expellatis et expellere satagatis; ne teneras in fide animas corrumpere et seducere possint.’ This provision paved the way for such inquisitorial proceedings against the Indians as made Bishop Landa notorious. [Fray Diego de Landa, Inquisidor de los Indios de Yucatán, Proceedings, International Congress of Americanists. London. 1912 (London, 1913), pp. 484–496.]

22 For excellent bibliographical notes on these bulls consult Robert Ricard, La ‘Conquête Spirituelle’ du Mexique (Paris, 1933), p. 111, and Robert Streit, Bibliotheca Missionum, vol. I, p. 15. The best Spanish translation of Sublimis Deus is given by Mariano Cuevas, Documentos Inéditos del Siglo XVI para la Historia de México (Mexico, 1914), pp. 84–86.

23 Luis G. Alonso Getino remarks upon the similarity between the ideas advanced by Garcés in his letter to the pope and Vitoria's doctrine, El Maestro Fr. Francisco de Vitoria, rev. ed. (Madrid, 1930), p. 148. Vitoria had been invited by Paul III in 1536 to come to Rome to help prepare for the Church Council, but did not go.

24 James Brown Scott, the Spanish Origin of International Law. Francisco de Vitoria and His Law of Nations (Oxford, 1934), p. 281.

25 No thorough, complete account exists of the American aspects of Spanish-papal relations in the sixteenth century. A very valuable survey of the materials available is found in Ricardo de Hinojosa's Los Despachos de la Diplomacia Pontificia en España (Madrid, 1896). Pedro Leturia has written several excellent articles which bring together many important facts, El Regio Vicariato de Indias y los Comienzos de la Congregación de Propaganda, Spanische Forschungen der Görresgesellschaft, II (1930), 133–177; Las Grandes Bulas Misionales de Alejandro VI: 1493, Bibliotheca Hispana Missionum, I (1930), 211–251; Der heilige Stuhl und das spanische Patronat in Amerika, Historisches Jahrbuch der Görresgesellschaft, XLVI (1926), 1–80; and Felipe II y el Pontificado en un momento culminante de la historia Hispano-americana, Estudios Eclesiásticos, núm. extraordinario de 1928. See also the earlier chapters in J. Lloyd Mecham's Church and State in Latin America (Chapel Hill, 1934) and other works cited therein.

26 A. Rodríguez Villa, Don Francisco de Rojas, Embajador de los Reyes Católicos, Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, vol. XXVIII, p. 190.

27 Hernáez, vol. I, pp. 20–21.

28 Leturia, Pedro, El Origen histórico del Patronato de Indias, Razón y Fe, LXXVIII (1927), 20–36Google Scholar.

29 Eloy Bullón y Fernández, Un Colaborador de los Reyes Católicos; el doctor Palacios Rubios y sus Obras (Madrid, 1927), p. 69.

30 Eloy Bullón y Fernández, pp. 240–241.

31 Colección de Documentos inéditos relativos al Descubrimiento, Conquista, y Organización de las antiguas Posesiones españolas de Ultramar, XIV (Madrid, 1885–1932), 102–105.

32 Harrisse, Henry, Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima. Additions (Paris, 1872), p. 41Google Scholar.

33 Hernáez, vol. I, pp. 24–26.

34 Primeras Negociaciones de Carlos V, Rey de España, con la Santa Sede (1516–1518), Cuadernos de Trabajos de la Escuela Española de Arqueología e Historia en Roma, II (Madrid, 1914), 68.

35 Probably a fair number of papal pronouncements on American affairs are still to be found. Pastor (vol. VI, p. 97) cites an unpublished bull, and a rare imprint has just come to light which includes a brief issued by Clement VII in 1532 to Alfonso Mateo of Española giving him power to create notaries and judges, legitimate children, and grant titles of Bachelor, Licentiate, and Doctor. M. Serrano y Sanz, Un Impreso rarísimo de 1532,con Noticiasde Indias, [Erudición Ibero-americana, III (Madrid, 1932),241–247].

36 Confidimus te, quoad in humanis degeris barbaras nationes ad rerum omnium opificem et conditorem deum cognoscendum non solum edictis admonitionibusque, sed etiam armis et viribus (si opus fuerit) ut earum animae caelestis regni fiant participes compulsurum.

The original minute of this bull is to be found in the Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Arm. 35, t. 34, fols. 21–24. The New York Public Library also possesses an unpublished brief Nuper Maiestati issued by Clement in March, 1530, which freed all persons from the penalties of former papal decrees, which they might have feared to incur by favoring the Emperor's authority in ecclesiastical appointments. Clement here stated explicitly that archbishops and bishops were nominated by the Emperor. Mr. Wilberforce Eames was good enough to locate this bull and brief and have them photostated for my use together with a report made on March 6,1850, on the material by Professor G. W. Alexander of Princeton which has been used in preparing this essay.

37 Pastor, vol. IX, p. 271.

38 If we follow Professor Hans Zinsser, the latest and most persuasive exponent of the louse theory of history, this bull may be considered a result of the plague which broke out amongst the French army besieging Naples in 1528. The pestilence rapidly destroyed French power in Italy and led directly to the dependence of Clement VII upon Charles V. [Rats, Lice and History (Boston, 1935), pp. 252–253.]

39 Asensio de Morales, Patronato eclesiástico de los Reyes de España, Revista general de Legislación y Jurisprudencia, XL (1872), 70.

40 Pastor, vol. X, p. 55.

41 Calendar of State Papers. Spanish. Pascual de Gayangos, ed., vol. IV, part I (London, 1879), 78.

42 Pastor, vol. X, p. 56.

43 Merriman, The Rise of the Spanish Empire, vol. III, p. 297.

44 Gachard, Louis Prosper, Relations des Ambassadeurs vénitiens sur Charles-Quint et Philippe II (Brussels, 1855), p. ixGoogle Scholar.

45 True History of the Conquest of Mexico, Maudslay, A. P., ed., V (London, 1916), 151–153Google Scholar. Friar Domingo de Betanzos, who held a low opinion of the Indians, was also favorably received by Clement VII a couple of years after Cortez sent his ambassador but not much is known of this episode. [Historiadores del Convento de San Esteban de Salamanca, Justo Cuervo, ed., III (Salamanca, 1915), 64.]

46 This memorial should prove to be an interesting document if ever found. Cardinal Mercati, Prefect of the Archivio Segreto Vaticano, was kind enough to search there but was not able to locate it.

47 Don Fray Juan de Zumárraga (Mexico, 1881), pp. 128–129.

48 Angelo Mercati, ed., Raccolta di Concordati (Rome, 1919), pp. 1–2.

49 I owe this reference to Pedro Leturia's recent work La Emancipación hispano-americana en los informes episcopates a Pio VII (Buenos Aires, 1935), p. 3.

Portuguese monarchs also enjoyed great ecclesiastical powers. One writer believes that ‘probably in no European state was the Placetum regium used so widely, or so strictly and for so long a time, as in Portugal and its colonies…. Without the exequatur of the cabinet, neither ordinance of bishop nor decree of Pope, whether dogmatic or disciplinary, had any validity in law which was recognized by the state within the Portuguese dominions. The publication of any act which was not pleasing to the authorities became physically impossible.’ [Adelhelm Jann, Die katolischen Missionen in Indien, China und Japan (Paderborn, 1915), pp. 112–113.]

50 According to Pastor (vol. XX, pp. 499–500), ‘Paul III's pontificate formed an epoch in the development of the hierarchy in America, and no less than ten dioceses owed their origin to his pastoral care.’

51 Archivo General de Simancas, Sección de Estado, Legajo 892, fol. 197 ff. Undated memorial to the king. A transcription of the pertinent parts of this letter is given as Appendix II of this essay.

52 Streit (Bibliotheca Missionum, vol. II, p. 29) states that Bartolomé de Las Casas and Pedro de Angulo accompanied Minaya but this is by no means certain.

53 Minaya may have been one of the six friars Friar Reginaldo de Pedraza was instructed by royal order in 1529 to take to Peru. [Federico González Suarez, Historia eclesiástica del Ecuador, I (Quito, 1881), 24.] On the other hand, Minaya may have been one of those restless friars who wandered to Peru without authority, a common practice in the early days of the conquest, according to a report dated Feb. 3, 1534, made by Berlanga, Bishop. [Henry R. Wagner, The Spanish Southwest, 1542–1794. An Annotated Bibliography (Berkeley, 1924), p. 48Google Scholar.]

54 Probably Minaya referred to the ordinances Charles V issued on Dec. 4, 1528, for the good treatment of the Indians [D. I. U., vol. IX, pp. 386–399] or to the law dated Aug. 2, 1530, against enslaving the Indians. [Ibid., vol. X, pp. 38–43.]

55 Though it is impossible to determine the exact date of this conversation with Pizarro, probably it occurred some time in the period May-September, 1532.

56 The Franciscans with Cortez explained to the Indians that they were not gods but men sent by the pope to bring them eternal salvation, not to hunt for gold. [Jerónimo Mendieta, Historia eclesiástica indiana, J. García Icazbalceta, ed. (Mexico, 1870), p. 218.] The Jesuit Gonzalo de Tapia declared to the Indians of Orobatu, New Spain, in 1591: ‘We have not come to seek gold or silver in your lands, nor to make slaves of your women and children. We come to you alone, few in number and unarmed; and we come only to give you the knowledge of the Creator of heaven and earth, for without this knowledge and faith you will be unhappy forever.’ [W. Eugene Shiels, Gonzalo de Tapia, Founder of the First Permanent Jesuit Mission in North America (New York, 1934), p. 97.] See also José María Póu y Marti, El Libro perdido de las Pláticas o Coloquios de los Doce Primeros Misioneros de México, Miscellanea Francesco Ehrle, III (Rome, 1924), 281–333. Many other instances might be given.

57 When Cortez had been offered a grant of land on his arrival in Española in 1504 he is supposed to have refused haughtily, saying, ‘I came to get gold, and not to till the soil like a peasant.’ [Prescott, The Conquest of Mexico, I (Philadelphia, 1890), 195.]

58 Minaya's fracas with Pizarro was not the first in the Indies. There had been so many that a royal order of Jan. 25, 1531, was sent to the Dominican Provincial of New Spain, stating that ‘ecclesiastics must not preach or speak against persons in authority in such a way as to produce a scandal but should reprove them privately and send word to the King.’ [Disposiciones Complementarias de Leyes de las Indias, I (Madrid, 1930), 1.] Rev. Benno Biermann, O.P., believes that this royal order was a result of Las Casas’ fiery denunciations from the pulpit in Puerto de la Plata.

The reproaches of Minaya and other ecclesiastics against the Peruvian conquistadores often had a decided influence as may be seen from the wills they left. Manuel Sierra de Leguizamo doubted that he had acted justly toward the Peruvian Indians and over fifty years after he had helped to conquer their lands he made provision in his will for pious works as an atonement. [Manuel de Mendiburu, Diccionario histórico-biográfico del Perú, vol. VII, pp. 391–399.] Another such will was made by Nicolás de Ribera el Viejo in 1556. [José de la Riva-Agüero y Osma, El Primer Alcalde de Lima Nicolás de Ribera el Viejo y su Posteridad (Lima, 1935), pp. 28–29.] Mr. Bertram Lee of Lima states that he has seen many similar wills. It is interesting to note that Spaniards in the old world also had tender consciences, for Sepúlveda states that many of the Spaniards who participated in the sack of Rome included in their wills the provision that the goods they had stolen from Roman citizens should be restored. [Bol. de la Acad. de la Hist., XXI (1892), 309.]

59 This law permitting slavery was evidently decreed as a result of Friar Tomás Ortiz's strong denunciation of Indian character before the Council of the Indies. At least Francisco López de Gómara so states. [Historia General de las Indias, cap. CCXVIII.]

60 In the light of this statement concerning Betanzos, the recent declaration by Alberto María Carreño that ‘Betanzos was responsible for the issuance of Paul III's bull by the mediation of his special envoy Minaya’ must be rejected. [Fr. Domingo de Betanzos, Fundadór en la Nueva España de la Venerable Orden Dominicana (Mexico 1924–1934), p. 155.]

61 Loaysa occupied the presidency during the periods 1524–1528 and 1536–1537. [Antonio de León Pinelo, Tablas Cronológicas de los Reales Consejos Supremo y de la Cámara de las Indias Occidentales (2d ed., Madrid, 1892), pp. 2–3.]

62 It may be that Minaya was the person who froze the blood of Vitoria with tales of Spanish cruelty in the Indies, for Vitoria said that he was informed by one who was in Peru at the time of the first battle with Atahualpa. [Vicente Beltrán de Heredia, Ideas del Maestro Fray Francisco de Vitoria anteriores a las Relecciones ‘De Indis’ acerca de la colonización de América, segun Documentos Inéditos, Anuario de la Asociación Francisco de Vitoria, II (1931), 10.]

63 Vicente Beltrán de Heredia, Estudios Teresianos, La Ciencia Tomista, tomo XLII (1930), 174.

64 Minaya may have hurried back to Spain to secure this royal approval or he may have waited until the Emperor arrived in Genoa on June 22,1538. [Manuel de Foronda y Aguilera, Estancias y Viajes del Emperador Carlos V (Madrid, 1914), p. 453.] It is difficult to believe, however, that Minaya ever obtained the Emperor's approval.

65 The hard treatment meted out to Minaya did not prevent other ecclesiastics from seeking aid in Rome for the Indians. Juan Valle, first bishop of Popayán, was on his way to Rome to inform the pope on Indian affairs when death overtook him. [D. I. I., vol. V, pp. 493–496.] Las Casas shipped to Pius V one of his own legal compositions in which he showed why the pope ought, to excommunicate and anathematize any one declaring war against infidels to be just. [J. García Icazbalceta, Colección de Documentos Inéditos para la Historia de México, II (Mexico, 1866), 599–600.] The Franciscan Alonso Maldonado, considered by some the spiritual descendant of Las Casas, likewise applied to Pius V for aid in protecting the Indians. When his superiors learned that he had sent a volume of suggested reforms for the Indies to the pope, the Franciscans informed the Council of the Indies, denounced his conduct, and imprisoned him. Maldonado escaped from the convent where his superiors had shut him up, fled to Portugal, obtained credentials from Cardinal Crivelli, and in due time presented himself in Rome. The Spanish ambassador immediately bestirred himself and apparently sent both Maldonado and his literary labors back to Spain. [Luciano Ildefonso Serrano y Pineda, Correspondencia Diplomática entre España y la Santa Sede durante el Pontificado de S. Pio V, IV (Rome, 1914), lxii-lxiii.] The result was that the pope instructed his nuncio in Madrid to remind the king that ‘the Spanish kings had been granted the right to conquer the lands beyond the seas on condition that they planted the Christian faith there … that Indians were not slaves and could not be oppressed by heavy taxation … that wars against them must not be lightly undertaken and must never be carried on in a cruel way.’ [Ibid., vol. II, pp. 472–473; Pastor, vol. XVIII, pp. 330–332.] Philip II clearly showed that he did not approve the discussion by Rome of reforms for the Indies, [Luciano Ildefonso Serrano y Pineda, Índice analítico de los Documentos del Siglo XVI del Archivo de la Embajada de España cerca de la Santa Sede (Rome, 1915), p. 16] and in 1593 made a great stir over a memorial which the Archbishop of Lima, Toribio de Mogrovejo, was supposed to have sent to the pope. [Eliás Lizana M., ed., Documentos históricos del Archivo del Arzobispado de Santiago, II (Santiago, 1920), 229–258.] Over a century later Capuchins appealed to the papacyon behalf of the Indians. [Joseph Schmidlin, Catholic Mission History, Matthias Braun, ed., p. 503.]

66 A. de I., Indiferente General 422, lib. 17, pp. 54–56.

67 Ibid., Indiferente General 428, lib. 18, pp. 57–58, 67–68.

68 Ibid., Indiferente General 423, lib. 18, p. 72. Friar Alonso Fernández states in an early seventeenth century history of San Esteban, the monastery to which Minaya belonged, that Minaya returned to Mexico after securing the bulls. [Historiadores de Convento de San Esteban de Salamanca, Justo Cuervo, ed., I (Salamanca, 1914), 78.] If Minaya did return, he must have done so secretly.

69 Mariano Cuevas, Historia de la Iglesia en México, I (Mexico, 1922), 227–228.

70 Lib. I, tit. IX, ley ii.

71 Libro Becerro Núm. i, p. 30 vuelto, Archivo del Convento Franciscano de Quito, Ecuador.

72 A. de I., Patronato 1, ramo 51.

73 According to the official Spanish translation in the Archivo General de Indias, the brief revoked ‘qualesquiera otros que haya dado antes en perjuicio de la facultad del Emperador Carlos Quinto como Rey de España, y en perturbación del buen gobierno de las Indias.’ [Patronato 1, ramo 51.] A similar interpretation is to be found in D. I. U., vol. XVIII, p. 55.

74 A. de I., Patronato I, ramo 39. The original minute of this brief is to be found in the Archivio Segreto Vaticano, arm. 41, t.10, fol. 246, no. 543.

75 Fabio Vigili, the Bishop of Spoleto, an official in the papal chancery.

76 The Latin version of the bull is dated June 9, 1537. while the printed Spanish versions are dated June 2.

77 Hernáez, vol. I, pp. 101–102.

78 See Appendix II, p. 102.

79 Mariano Cuevas, Historia de la Iglesia en México, vol. I, p. 228. Cuevas dates this order 1528, a manifest error. The true date is given in D. I. U., X, 440–441.

80 Of course it is possible that these ‘letters in the form of a brief’ may have been hastily made copies of the various papal pronouncements which Minaya wished to send to the Indies at once. Such things had happened before in the history of the papacy. The dispensation for the marriage of Henry VIII with his brother's widow, for example, was drawn up first in great haste and secretly transmitted to Spain as a brief while it was afterwards more publicly expedited as a bull. [James Hastings, ed., Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, vol. II, p. 895.]

81 Hernáez, vol. I, p. 101.

82 Ibid., vol. I, pp. 101–102.

83 D. I. I., vol. VII, p. 414.

84 El repartimiento de los Indígenas entre los Españoles, Boletín histórico de Puerto Rico, año IX (1922), 284.

85 Papiers d'Etat du Cardinal de Granvelle, Ch. Weiss,ed., II (Paris, 1841), 515–516.

86 Pastor, vol. XI, pp. 118–119.

87 Ranke, The Popes of Rome, I (4th ed., London, 1866), 165. Sarah Austin, trans.

88 Paul was ‘addicted to consulting astrologers as to the propitious hour before entering on any transactions of importance, consistories, audiences, journeys, and so forth.’ [Pastor, vol. XI, pp. 38–39.]

89 Tiepolo, as quoted by Giuseppe de Leva, Storia Documentata di Carlo V in Correlazione all' Italia, III (Venice, 1867), 241.

90 Pastor, vol. XI, p. 291. The most recent writer on the subject is Peter Rassow, Die Kaiser-Idee Karls V. dargestellt an der Politik der Jahre 1528–1540 (Berlin, 1932), pp. 357 ff.

91 See D. I. I., vol. XIV, p. 42, for the letter to Vitoria dated January 31, 1539. On March 31, 1541, the Council again requested Vitoria's opinion as a result of Las Casas’ questions. [A. de I., Indiferente General 423, lib. 19, pp. 228–229.] The reply is dated, July 1, 1541, and is printed in D. I. I., vol. III, pp. 549 ff.

Baptismal problems became burning issues in most mission fields. The Jesuits and Recollects debated the matter in Canada, and in the East Indies too disputes arose. [Pastor, vol. XIII, p. 308.] Likewise in the south before the Civil War the exact influence of baptism on a slave's status became a grave issue and was much discussed by clergy and laity alike. [William Sumner Jenkins, Pro-Slavery Thought in the Old South, pp. 18–21.]

92 Antonio de Remesal, Historia de Chiapas y Guatemala (Madrid, 1619Google Scholar), lib. III, cap. XVIII.

93 Toribio de Motolinia made this statement in his famous memorial to the Emperor against Las Casas dated Jan. 2, 1555. [D. I. I., VII, 263.] Apparently Las Casas never learned that the brief had been annulled, according to one account of his last years. [Biblioteca de Autores Españolas, vol. LXV, p. 197.] This is in itself striking proof of how unknown remained the revocation, for many Spaniards would have been eager to embarrass Las Casas by citing it.

94 Such as Friar Gaspar de Recarte in his “Tratado del Servicio Personal y Repartimiento de los Indios de Nueva España, 1584,’ [Mariano Cuevas, Documentos Inéditos del Siglo XVI para la Historia de Mexico, p. 356]. On May 5, 1621, Dominicans writing to the king from Concepción stated that they believed the bull gave the king ‘potestad imperial’ over converted Indians. [A. de I., Chile 65.]

95 J. Margraf, Kirche und Sklaverei seit der Entdeckung Amerikas (Tübingen, 1865). pp. 218–230.

96 Vol. XII, p. 520.

97 Muñoz Collection, Academia de la Historia, Madrid, vol. 42, fol. 267.

98 Catholic Mission Theory, Matthias Braun, ed., p. 318.

99 Mariano Cuevas published this interesting letter as an appendix to his article Los Primeros Panamericanistos, Miscellanea Francesco Ehrle, III (Rome, 1924), 334–342Google Scholar.

100 Felix de Azara, Viajes por la América Meridional, Francisco de las Barras de Aragón, ed., II (Madrid, 1923), 108–109.

101 A transcription of this deposition is given as Appendix I.

102 Antonio de Herrera, Historia General, Dec. VIII, lib. 1, cap. 8.

103 Diego de Enzinas, Provisiones, Cédulas, etc. I (Madrid, 1596Google Scholar), fol. 83.

104 Antonio Joachín de Ribadeneyra y Barrientos, Manual Compendio de el Regio Patronato Indiano (Madrid, 1755), pp. 3–4Google Scholar.

105 This document comes from the library of the Monasterio de San Felipe in Sucre, Bolivia and I am indebted to Rev. José Cuellar for permission to use it. I wish to record here also my gratitude to Sr. D. Julio Querejazu of Sucre for assistance in obtaining a photostatic copy of the document. See also additional note, p. 101 f.

In order to make the text available to more readers, I have expanded contractions and modernized the spelling.

106 Archivo General de Simancas, Sección de Estado, Legajo 892, fols. 197 ff.