The History of the Church through 100 Masterpieces

The Apostle οf the Indians

The History of the Church 164 The Apostle οf the Indians Colonists from Spain never doubted that the natives of America had souls, the proof of which is that they did everything to have them baptized. However, there was a question of whether the natives were a people still in infancy, which may have justified them being kept under supervision. This was the point of a debate held in Valladolid in 1550 at the behest of Emperor Charles V, between the Dominicans Bartolomé de las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda. In practical terms, this supervision amounted to slavery, through the system of encomiendas by which property granted to a colonist included those who dwelt upon it. Las Casas himself benefited from an encomienda before becoming a defender of the natives. And his defense was heeded. His reports and critiques led Charles V to issue several decrees aimed at restraining the abuses and even to grant the territory of Venezuela to Las Casas so that he could there apply his proposed methods of colonization and evangelization. But the beauty of this effort at pacifism escaped the natives, who only saw the attempt to colonize. The experiment ended in disaster, with the massacre of all the colonists brought by Las Casas to Venezuela. Nonetheless, his ideas did make their mark, especially one in particular : he proposed that the natives of America be replaced by slaves imported from Africa. Spanish, Anonymous (end of seventeenth century) Bartolomé de Las Casas Biblioteca Colombina, Seville ...