Bartholomew de Las Casas; his life, apostolate, and writings

e material benefit would accrue to the royal revenues; he therefore turned his attention to forming a plan which should comprehend the conversion of the Indians by gentle and peace

enses of founding the colony. The knights were to wear a dress of white cloth, marked on the breast with a red cross, similar to the cross of Calatr

ucats, and beginning with the eleventh year, it would reach the sum of sixty thousand. The foundation of three fortified towns, with at least fifty Spaniards in each, was promised within the first five years. The religious propaganda was to be carried on by twelve Franciscan and Dominican friars, whom Las Casas was to be allowed to choose: for this purpose the King was asked to solicit the necessary faculties from the Holy See.

by contact with the evils of civilisation, and who were thirsting to know the truth and to embrace it. These idyllic barbarians were to furnish the human material on which the knights were to exercise their virtues and all were to be thus united in bonds of loving fraternity and disinterested industry, under the benign government of a dozen monks, who had long since renounced this world and who would give their exclusive attention to leading their flock from a terrestrial into the celestial paradise. A Fra Angelico might

with a storm of objection and ridicule. It was promptly shelved, and not [pg 123] all the urging of Las Casas, the discontent of the Flemings, nor even the efforts of the Chancellor himself to induce the Bishop of Burgos t

on of their rights as free men not only revolted the humanitarian instincts of their Protector, they offended justice and constituted a grave crime against morality, by which the King was inculpated and for which

ut not unimportant nor without results Two of them were secular priests, the brothers Luis and Antonio Corodele, both religious and learned men, doctors of the University of Paris; another was Fray Miguel de Salamanca, also a doctor of Paris; there was Father Lafuente of the University of Alcalá, a Franciscan, Fray Alonso de Leon, an Augustinian, Fray Dionisio, and two others whose names Las Casas was not able to recall when writing his history some forty years after these events occurred. This body of learned men represented everything that was most author

nd to the exercise of jurisdiction in America was the Bull of Alexander VI. issued in May, 1493. The express condition on which the Pope granted the Bull was, that the conversion of the Indians should be the primary care of the Spanish government, and this condition was so clear and binding that it amounted to a reservation to the Pope of an oversight of the means to be adopted for that end. As it was within the recognised power of the Pope to grant such rights and jurisdiction, and to attach conditions thereto, it was equally within his power to annul or withdraw them if the Spanish sovereigns failed to fulfil those conditions. Hence the government of the Indies, in all that pertained to the moral well-being and religious instruction of the natives, was, beyond question, within the legitimate exercise of ecclesiastical control. The exposition of the case by Las Casas, supported by the mass of evidence he was able to furnish and the testimony of the Scotch [pg 126] Franciscan and others, convinced the theologians

the Holy Scripture testifies that in the multitude of the people consists the dignity and honour of the King, and in their diminution is his ignominy and dishonour. We have marvelled at this, knowing the prudence and merits of the illustrious persons who compose the Council for the government of those countries, to whom God appears to have confided such a great world as they are said to constitute, and for which they will have to render a strict account; on the other hand, learning that there can have been no reason why those nations, which lived peaceably in their countries, owing us nothing, should have been destroyed by us, we know not what to say, nor do we find any one to whom to impute such irreparable evils, other than to those who until now have governed them. Since it is incumbent upon us, by virtue of the office we hold at court, to oppose and denounce everything that is an offence and a dishonour to the Divine Majesty and to souls and, to th

r Martyr, Francisco de los Cobos, and others-listened aghast to this speech, which was followed by a moment of silence that none of them

Casas must be at the bottom of this; who puts you, the King's preachers, to meddle in government affairs

r lordship that eight doctors of theology, who might properly address a whole General Council on matters of faith and government of the universal Church, should come to admonish a Council of the King? We may admonish the King's Councils for what they do wrong, for by our office we belong to the King's Council, and hence, gentlemen, we come here to admonish you and to r

from that body, whose intentions were good; he offered to submit these proofs of an equitable [pg 130] disposition to the theologians, though he observed that their presumption did not merit such courtesy. The tone of the discussion softened considerably and it was decided that the various enactments of the Council already in vigour and

e sole source of strength, and the inability to fix upon a remedy for the evils, which all were agreed cried out for one, destroyed the force of the representations in favour of the Indians. All were agreed that the actual state [pg 131] of things was intolerable, but they could not agree upon the remedy to be adopted. In reality no laws could cope with the situation. A weak, retrograde race of ignorant people was suddenly brought into contact with the strong, active Spaniards, who carried with them a civilisation to which the former were inertly refractory. There was but the one possible outcome, which has repeated itself throughout the world's history-the weaker race had to go under. Neither the Utopia of Las Casas nor the laws proposed by

ue his struggle unflaggingly and to keep the Public conscience in Spain awake to the work of [pg 132] justice to be accomplished. In this struggle lay the only hope of protecting the defenceless n

ers, Las Casas dropped that learned body, of which nothing

ong the members of other royal councils. His choice fell upon Don Juan Manuel, Alonso Tellez, the Marquis de Aguilar del Campo, the licentiate Vargas, and all the Flemings who had seats in Councils. Besides these, the King desired [pg 133] that whenever the affairs of Las Casas were to come under consideration, the voting members of all other Councils, including those of War and of the Inquisition, should be present. In virtue of this command, the Cardinal Adrian, who was at that time Grand Inquisitor of Spain, sometimes assisted. This newly constituted Council met rarely, owing to the pressure of public matters of grave importance to the country, and the Bishop of Burgos, who was mortally vexed by the royal decision in favour of Las Casas's complaint, was fertile in pretexts for creating delays. To counteract

ion. This led to further discussion, for Las Casas was invited to respond to the counter proposals, which he did with even more than his usual eloquence. A special meeting was called, before which Las Casas was plied with questions and objections to his plans; but if his enemies thought to find him lacking in ready response, they were sadly deceived, for the promptness with which he disposed of every objection, the clearness with which he answered every question, and the earnestness with which he vindicated the cause of the Indians and flayed their oppressors, ended by convincing even the most indifferent. The brother of the Bishop, Antonio de Fonseca, challenged Las Casas for unjustly accusing the members of the Council of killing the Indians, whereas thanks to his measures [pg 135] such members had long since been obliged to surrender their encomiendas; to this argument Las Casas retorted: "Sir, their lordships have not killed all the Indians, bu

ved at various times, he drew up a memorial to the King, containing thirty reasons why the concession granted to Las Casas should be refused. When these thirty objections were ready the Bishop asked the Chancellor to summon a special meeting of the Council, before which they were read. Las Casas was not present at this meeting, but both Cardinal Adrian and the Chancellor notified him and advised him to reply immediately. The Chancellor's request to the secretary of the Council, Cobos, to furnish hi

eading them at your convenience, it took your lordship two months to get possession of them, and now I

orm of answers to questions supposed to be addressed to him by the King. For four nights Las Casas laboured on his composition until eleven o'clock, at which hour he supped with the Chancellor and afterwa

on over him to restrain his actions in the territory conceded him; the second asserted that by his turbulence he had provoked grave scandals in Cuba; the third pointed out the danger of his forming an alliance with the Venetians or Genoese and delivering to them the profits of his colony; another accused him of having deceived Cardinal Ximenez, and the thirtieth or last of all oracularly stated that there were some secr

tions from the royal revenues by the Spanish officials. This crushing answer, which filled more than twelve sheets of paper, was read at a special meeting of the Council, which the Chancellor had summoned without letting its object be known, and reduced his enemies to humiliated silence. The only observation which even the usually ready Bishop found to offer was th

e fully confirmed. Skirmishing between him and the [pg 139] Bishop went on as usual during the final settlement of the details with the Council a