Part 13 (1/2)
Prohibited from publis.h.i.+ng his book in Spain, Sepulveda sent it to Rome where the censors.h.i.+p of the press was freer and where, in fact, the condemned dialogue was printed, together with the author's _Apologia_ addressed to the Bishop of Segovia. An edition of the work was prepared in Spanish for the benefit of those who did not read Latin, but the Emperor forbade the entrance of the one and the other into Spain.
Las Casas took but the time necessary to master the propositions of Sepulveda, before he seized the cudgels in defence of his Indians. From this moment the controversy took another complexion. Sepulveda had so far crossed weapons with learned theologians, men of study rather than of action, who carried on the dispute along purely scholastic lines and according to the recognised rules governing debates between scholars.
His new adversary, who was the best informed man in the world on the special subject under dispute, transferred the debate from academic to practical ground, of every foot of which he was master. Though inferior in learning to the polished humanist, who affected to regard him as a furious fanatic whose crude Latin shocked his scholarly sensibilities, Las Casas was his match in fervid eloquence, overmatched him in the ardour of his feelings, and ended by pulverising him under the weight of facts he hurled upon him.
The controversy a.s.sumed such proportions that the Emperor, in the fas.h.i.+on of the times, ordered the India Council to a.s.semble in Valladolid in conjunction with certain theologians and scholars, to decide whether or no wars for conquest might be justly waged against the Indians. (71) Before this learned jury both Las Casas and Sepulveda were summoned to appear in 1550.
In the first session of the a.s.sembly, Sepulveda stated his propositions and expounded his defence of them, presenting, under four heads, his reasons why it was lawful to make war on the Indians:
1.1. Because of the gravity of their sins, particularly the practice of idolatry and other sins against nature.
2.2. Because of the rudeness of their heathen and barbarous natures, which oblige them to serve those of more elevated natures, such as the Spaniards possess.
3.3. For the spread of the faith; for their subjection renders its preaching easier and more persuasive.
4.4. On account of the harm they do to one another, killing men to sacrifice them and some, in order to eat them.
These reasons were defended by their author in an able discourse, in which all the resources of his vast learning and forensic ability were called into play.
Las Casas occupied five sessions in reading his _Historia Apologetica_, after which the a.s.sembly directed the Emperor's confessor, Fray Domingo de Soto, to prepare a summary of the arguments of both parties, of which fourteen copies should be made for distribution to the members of the conference.
After the reading of Fray Domingo's summary, which was drawn up with perfect impartiality and great clearness, Sepulveda presented twelve objections to the arguments of Las Casas, each of which he argued with great subtlety and erudition. The refutation of these twelve objections by Las Casas, closed this memorable controversy; in none of his writings is the character of the Protector of the Indians more fully revealed than in this final discourse before the conference at Valladolid. To give it in its entirety would occupy too much s.p.a.ce in this place, but the following translation of the speech with which he introduced his twelve answers, is worthy of our closest attention.
After the introductory phrases required by the etiquette of such debates he continued: ”So enormous are the errors and scandalous propositions, contrary to all evangelical truth and to all Christianity that the Doctor Sepulveda has acc.u.mulated, set forth, and coloured with misguided zeal in the royal service, that no honest Christian would be surprised should we wish to combat him, not only with lengthy argument, but likewise as a mortal enemy of Christendom, an abettor of cruel tyrants, extirpator of the human race, and disseminator of fatal blindness throughout this realm of Spain. But the least we could do, having regard to the obligations imposed by the law of G.o.d, is to answer each point here presented, and this will complete his confusion.”
From this vigorous opening, the Bishop went on to examine the nature of the Bull of donation and the intention of Alexander VI. in granting it.
He demonstrated the irrefutable fact that the Catholic sovereigns and the Pope were in absolute agreement, and that the clearness of the language of the Bull left no room for two interpretations. The better to ill.u.s.trate and drive home this argument, he cited articles from the last will of Queen Isabella, of which the following translation proves the truth of his contention:
”Forasmuch as when the islands and terra-firma discovered, or to be discovered, in the Ocean Sea, were granted to us by the Holy Apostolic See, our princ.i.p.al intention, when we asked the said concession from Pope Alexander VI. of happy memory, was to provide for attracting and winning to us the natives, and to convert them to our holy Catholic faith; and to send to the said islands and and terra-firma, prelates, religious, clerics, and other learned and G.o.d-fearing men, to instruct the inhabitants in the Catholic faith: and to use all necessary diligence in teaching them and in introducing good customs among them; all this according as may be more fully seen in the wording of the said concession.
I therefore very affectionately beseech my lord the King, and I charge and command the said Princess, my daughter, and the said Prince, her husband, that they shall execute and accomplish this, making it their princ.i.p.al object, and using the greatest diligence therein. They shall not consent, or furnish occasion that the Indian natives and inhabitants of the said islands and and terra-firma, sustain any injury, either in their persons or their belongings, but they shall rather order that they be well and justly treated. And if they [the Indians] have received any injury, they shall correct it and shall take measures to prevent what is conceded to and enjoined upon us by the wording of the said concession, from being exceeded.”
Reviewing the conditions in the colonies, Las Casas described the richness of the soil and the vast resources of the Indies, declaring that what was wanted there, were industrious, honest, and frugal emigrants, who would develop the agricultural sources of wealth, instead of the horde of rapacious adventurers and dissolute soldiery then engaged in depopulating and ruining them. One by one he stripped Sepulveda's propositions of their brilliant rhetoric, exposing the hollowness and sham beneath the specious reasoning, with which the latter sought to cloak his poverty of facts. Las Casas closed his case with the following brilliant and prophetic peroration:
”The injuries and loss which have befallen the Crown of Castile and Leon will be visited likewise on all Spain, because the tyranny wrought by their devastations, ma.s.sacres, and slaughters is so monstrous, that the blind may see it, the deaf hear it, and the dumb recount it, while after our brief existence, the wise shall judge and condemn it. I invoke all the hierarchies and choirs of angels, all the saints of the Celestial Court, all the inhabitants of the globe and especially those who may live after me, to witness that I free my conscience of all that has been done; and that I have fully exposed all these woes to his Majesty; and that if he abandons the government of the Indies to the tyranny of the Spaniards, they will all be lost and depopulated-as we see Hispaniola, and other islands and three thousand leagues of the continent dest.i.tute of inhabitants. For these reasons, G.o.d will punish Spain and all her people with inevitable severity. So may it be!”(72)
Language worthy of a saint and a statesman, in which there breathed the spirit of prophecy, for the system of government, once initiated by the Spanish officials, was persisted in till the end, while one by one the great possessions of Spain in the New World were torn from the mother country. In no land where freedom of speech was a recognised right, could an orator have used plainer language, and it shows both the Spanish civil and ecclesiastical authorities of that age in a somewhat unfamiliar light that Las Casas not only escaped perilous censures but even won a moral victory over his talented opponent. What would have become of the champion of such unpopular doctrines, attacking as he did the material interests of thousands of the greatest men in the land, had there been daily newspapers in those times, it is not difficult to imagine. Examples of the defenders of forlorn causes are not wanting in our own day, and the fate of those who lead an unpopular crusade is the pillory of the press, which spares no less than did the fires of the mediaeval stake.
The discovery and conquest of the American dominions brought ruin to Spain as a nation; beyond the tribute of glory which those early achievements yielded to the Spanish name, the results were disastrous to her power.
During centuries, much of the best blood of her prolific people was drained by the Americas, so that the population of the peninsula to-day is little more numerous than in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, whereas her territory and natural resources might maintain triple their number.
CHAPTER XXI. - SAN GREGORIO DE VALLADOLID. LAST LABOURS. THE DEATH OF LAS CASAS
Although the forensic encounter with Sepulveda was the most dramatic incident in the latter years of the life of Las Casas after his return to Spain, its conclusion was not followed either by his disappearance or by any diminution of his activity as Protector of the Indians. His habitual residence from that time on became the College of San Gregorio at Valladolid, where he had the companions.h.i.+p of his devoted friend Ladrada and the support of an important community of his Order. Fray Rodrigo, who also acted as confessor to his old friend, would seem to have been something of a wag, as it is related of him that when the Bishop had become somewhat deaf, the confessor might be heard admonis.h.i.+ng his penitent: ”Don't you see, Bishop, that you will finish up in h.e.l.l because of your want of zeal in defending the Indians whom G.o.d has placed in your charge?”(73)
The royal India Council likewise sat in Valladolid, and this fact may possibly have influenced the indefatigable Bishop's choice of that city for his residence. He had made repeated efforts to obtain from the Council some positive proclamation or declaration, affirming the freedom of the Indians as a natural and inalienable right, and at this time, he succeeded in moving that somewhat lethargic body to express a desire for more explicit information on this subject, before reaching a decision. In response to an order from the Council, Las Casas wrote his treatise ent.i.tled, _The Liberty of the Enslaved Indians_ (_De la libertad de los Indios que han sido reducidos a la esclavitud_) which, for greater convenience, he divided into three parts. The first part treated of the nullity of the t.i.tle on which such slavery was based; the second dealt with the duties of the Spanish sovereign towards the Indians, and the third was devoted to the obligations of the bishops of the American dioceses.
In none of his writings are the opinions of Las Casas on questions of the rights of man and the functions of government more lucidly set forth, and while many of the arguments on which he rested his propositions, and which were consonant with the prevalent spirit of his times, would not secure universal a.s.sent in our day, there is not one of the essential principles of his thesis, that has not since been recognised as inherently and indisputably just.