Part 4 (1/2)

Much tierminate and develop the seed the Dominicans had sown in his soul, but the day of fruition came with the peaceful preparation of a discourse suitable for the glorious feast of Pentecost, the birthday of the Church, into whose perpetual custody were couarded Instead of disbursing these spiritual treasures to the hu, almost deified in their simple minds, he had profited by their labours as selfishly as thean effort to gather them into one fold, under one shepherd, which, as a Christian priest, should have been his chief occupation But if the awakening was slow, it was co his beliefs to their logical conclusions; not only was his newly formed conviction that the treatrant violation of all justice, and one that n punishment in the next, absolute, but the first consequence following from it, and which seemed to him imperative, was that he should forthwith set the exa his serfs; the second was the devotion of all his powers toothers see the wickedness of the system by which they profited, and the terriblein it He formed his determination to preach this crusade in season and out and to henceforth use every weapon in defence of the downtrodden natives

Although he treated his own Indians kindly, and he well knew that if he renounced his ”encomienda” their condition would doubtless be worse under the power of their nener than before, Las Casas perceived how impossible it would be to preach justice for the Indians while he hie

He went to the Governor, Diego Velasquez, and opened histhat as his conscience no longer permitted him to hold his Indians in subjection, he had co the Governor of his own grave responsibility, he announced that henceforth his mission would be to preach this doctrine He desired for the moment that his resolution should not be made public until the return to Cuba of his friend and partner, Renteria, as at that tis and farm seeds

The Governor listened with amazement to this new and, to him, monstrous doctrine and, out of friendly interest for Las Casas, and possibly thinking that his present intentions ht subside if the renunciation of his property could be deferred, he counselled hi, ”Look well, father, to what you are doing, lest you may repent, for before God I would wish to see you rich and prosperous” He urged him to take fifteen days for careful consideration of the matter and to then return and discuss his intentions This did not suit the temper of Las Casas who answered: ”My lord, I am much honoured by your desire for my prosperity and for all the other favours you do me; but consider, my lord, that the fifteen days have passed, and should I repent of my intention I have expressed to you and desire to hold the Indians, and should you, out of the regard you bear rant to me, may it please God to punish you severely, nor to pardon you this sin I only beg your lordshi+p that all this shall rerant the Indians to any one, until Renteria's return, so that his affairs reed and his respect for Las Casas being much increased, he thenceforward forward consulted him in all that concerned the welfare of the Indians

On the feast of the assumption, Las Casas preached a sermon on the contemplative, as compared with the active life, in the course of which he yielded to an i towards the Governor's seat, he said: ”My lord, I give you perreed upon between us, and I avail myself of the same to announce it to all here present” He then launched into a fervid discourse upon the blindness, the injustice, the tyranny and cruelty thatthat their salvation was to be despaired of unless they liberated their slaves and treated the natives huled admiration and astonishht it a sin to work their beasts of burden as their Indians, so deeply ingrained was their belief that the natives were created to serve them Some were stimulated to senti the preacher's heroic exa the source of his income in deference to his moral principles

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While Las Casas was passing through these experiences in Cuba, his friend and partner, Renteria, was, by a singular coincidence, arriving at analogous convictions concerning the Indians and pondering upon the for reht be rescued fro lent of that year he made a retreat in a Franciscan one to procure far this period of seclusion from temporal distractions, he came to the conclusion that the best means to benefit the natives would be to found several schools or colleges into which the Indian boys and younger o himself, if necessary, to Spain and seek royal approval and support for this project Las Casas hadhis labours that, having inal idea of waiting for Renteria's return before starting for Spain Although he ithout funds and had noany save by the sale of a old, he wrote to Renteria telling hireat importance, so that, if his friend wished to see him before he started, he must hasten back from Jamaica Renteria, in consequence, finished his business in the island and returned as quickly as possible to Cuba, where he wasby the Governor, Las Casas, and numerous others, for he was a very popular and much esteemed man in the colony It was only when the two friends finally found thee of confidences beca to the insistence of Las Casas, unfolded his plan for the establishratified to learn the project of the other and, after souments, it was decided that, of the two, Las Casas was the one who o to Spain Renteria disposed of his Jamaica purchases and, out of the profits, furnished his friend with h to defray the expenses of as foreseen would be a long and doubtless costly sojourn at court

At this sao sent four of hisas their Prior, Fray Bernardo, who is described as both a pious and a learned reat satisfaction, but to no one did their coan a series of earnest and edifying sermons, in the course of which practical applications of Scripture texts were made to the actual condition of affairs in the colony; and, by using the information furnished them by Las Casas, the preachers were able to make very forcible home thrusts on the subject of the injustice of the systerave responsibility of those Spaniards who oppressed the Indians

These sermons disturbed the conscience of the colonists but not to the point of aeneral feeling of dissatisfaction within themselves and one of intensified exasperation towards the preachers of such unco that it was idle to combat with purely spiritual weapons a syste, perceived their only hope of success lay in having their hands strengthened by royal support, and accordingly their Prior decided to go to Spain with Las Casas, where they

CHAPTER VI - LAS CASAS RETURNS TO SPAIN NEGOTIATIONS CARDINAL XIMENEZ DE CISNEROS THE JERONYMITE COMMISSIONERS

Las Casas was fully conscious of the hostility his mission was bound to provoke, and how odious he would make himself, not only to the colonists, but also to the members of the India Council, the courtiers, and to many influential persons in Spain, all of whom had investments in the colonies and drew incomes from the very abuses he was to co up a sworn and witnessed stateal fore, in which he recounted all the services of every kind that he had rendered in the colonies Lest obstacles ht be put in the way of his departure, he resorted to a little dissimulation and caused the report to be spread that he intended to go to Paris to finish his law studies and take his degree at the university there The colonists, including the Governor, were duped by this subterfuge and he departed in company with the Prior, who took with hie of their journey was to Hispaniola, where the Prior was seized by a severe illness, to which he succuuana

In the city of Santo Doo, Las Casas encountered his old friend and precursor in the defence of the Indians, Prior Pedro de Cordoba, to whom he recounted all that had befallen him in Cuba, his newly found vocation, and his intention to visit Spain and lay the case for the Indians before the King The Prior praised his resolution, but in wishi+ng him all success, he explained the situation he would find awaiting hios, as at the head of Indian affairs, and the royal Secretary, Lope Conchillos, were entirely in favour of the syste themselves shareholders in colonial enterprises As not uncommonly happens, it was on the estates of such absentee owners that the Indians weremercilessly overworked by overseers anxious to curry favour at ho revenues

Although he was sufficiently impressed by what he heard, the zeal of the new apostle was undi in sad need of funds, the Prior decided to profit by the occasion and to send one of his monks with Las Casas to Spain to solicit aid He chose for this mission the same Fray Antonio de Montesinos, whose earnestness in behalf of the natives rendered him a sy the question in Spain, proreat assistance to Las Casas They sailed in Septee arrived safely at Seville, where Montesinos lodged in the iven hospitality by his relatives

The Archbishop of Seville at that ti Ferdinand's favour, and the first service Montesinos rendered his companion was to present hiiven soht them both to Spain, and of the zeal of Las Casas in a cause which the Dominican Order had made peculiarly its own It required no persuasion to enlist the good offices of the Archbishop, as in entire sy and pro, co both the cause and its advocate To facilitate his approach to the King, he furnished Las Casas also with letters to influential persons in the royal household

No better beginning could have been desired, and Las Casas set out for Plasencia where the King then was, arriving there a few days before Christiven hi of the court and upon what persons he ht still be won over, and ere to be avoided A these last, the os and the Secretary, Lope Conchillos Whatever virtues the former may have possessed they were certainly not of the apostolic order and his appointh office of President of the India Council was one of the earliest and greatest calamities that overtook American interests Las Casas was careful, therefore, to deferthe object of his presence until he should have first secured a hearing fro, whose sympathy he hoped to enlist before his opponents could prejudice the ain fortune favoured hi, and explained in the fullest detail the state of things in the islands; the extinction of the natives, which was following rapidly on the barbarities and rapacity of the Spaniards, and the violation of the royal provisions which the benevolence of the late Queen and the sagacity of the King had decreed He was astute enough to couple with the argument that these iniquities lay heavily on the royal conscience, the assurance that the revenues froether, unless these crying abuses were corrected In this conversation the charence, and earnest convictions of Las Casas told powerfully, and he recounted horrifying incidents to the astonished sovereign which, itin the recital by such an eloquent and fervent advocate Again he was co Ferdinand proer audience before Easter in which he would gohis own description of the audience and its results, that neither Conchillos nor the Bishop of Burgos waswhat subject was under discussion

Diego Velasquez ell aware that Las Casas would spare no anda and that his first step would doubtless be to engage the attention of the Ado Colu as well, if he could reach him He wrote therefore to the Treasurer, Passaos warning them of as on foot

The monks of the Dominican Order were, in those days, to be found in many posts of influence, not the least of which was that of confessor to the King, and to Fray To Ferdinand, Las Casas did not fail to go at the outset Matiencio had already shown pronounced sympathy with the cause of the Indians and was, therefore, to be counted upon as a firm ally, both because of his personal convictions and for h his confessor, Ferdinand sent to tell Las Casas that he should preceed him to Seville and wait for his arrival there, when the pro's departure was fixed for the fourth day after Christ just then at the Spanish court The confessor also advised Las Casas not to avoid the Bishop of Burgos and Conchillos; but, on the contrary, to go openly to both and to explain as frankly to the, the exact condition of the Indians, the motives which had proed necessary to stop the depopulation and ruin of the colonies Matiencio reasoned that, as the matter must ultimately come into the hands of these two men, and as they had to be reckoned with, it was far wiser to give the also that Las Casas's ht modify their opposition This counsel did not accord with the plan of Las Casas but he allowed his judght out Conchillos as being the less intractable of the two The letter from the Archbishop of Seville procured hi a benefice or soht have counted upon the favour and assistance of the Secretary to advance his suit, but, as he piously phrases it, he had, by divine mercy, been rescued from the darkness in which, like all the others, he had wandered, a lost man, and was liberated froracious words and courtly blandish resulted froos was of a totally different order and, though it is to be lamented that this prelate did not possesshis state, itin his unlovely character Aht to his attention was the death of seven thousand Indian children within threeto touch some hunorant fool you are!” exclai?” This rough answer goaded his patience beyond control and Las Casas shouted in reply: ”That all these souls perish is nothing to you and nothing to the King! Oh, Eternal God! then to who?” With this he left the Bishop's presence

The activity of Las Casas, his earnestness and his eloquence produced iuid attention of indifferent people and aroused so eneral discussion He recounted his experiences to Archbishop Deza on his return to Seville, and begged hios should be present at the audience the King had proht put the case fully, for he desired to charge them directly in the royal presence with responsibility for the e done to the royal interests by their maladministration of the colonies His project for this dramatic encounter was forestalled, and all the hopes born of the royal assurances given him at Plasencia were dashed by the news that reached Seville of the death of King Ferdinand, which occurred at Madrigalegos on January 23, 1516

This sudden stoppage of his carefully planned cah to Las Casas but he was not disheartened, and resolved to set out at once for Flanders where the young King Charles then was and to present his plans to theFerdinand's last will designated Cardinal Xidom until his successor's arrival in Spain

In a century prolific in great reatest Descended from an honourable fareat proe, however, he quit the secular priesthood for the cloister and became a monk of the Franciscan Order, in which the austerity of his observance of that severe rule of life and the vigour of his intellect advanced hiainst his own inclination, he had accepted the post of confessor to Queen Isabella and from thence forward he becaure in the political and ecclesiastical affairs of the realm

The Queen raised him to the primatial see of Toledo, which carried with it his elevation to the Roman purple The Cardinal-Archbishop of Toledo was the richest and n; but proations to the poe of the times, in no way modified the austerity of Cardinal Xih habit of St Francis under his purple and he patched its rents with his own hands

As he slept on the floor or on a wooden bench-never in a bed-and he held strictly to the diet of a sih none was more in it or knew it better He beca affairs as he had long since been for his sanctity, and the confidence which the King and Queen reposed in him caused him to be admitted to their counsels on all the overnment