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

by Francis Augustus MacNutt

Such a threat was no despicable one, and the members of the Council were brought by it to a milder disposition than that disclosed by the testy reply of their President to Fray Miguel's opening discourse. Garcia Padilla undertook the apology of the Council, protesting that many excellent Provisions in favour of the Indians had emanated 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 those it proposed to put in operation should be presented to the theologians, who would later make known their opinion of them. These comprised the Laws of Burgos published in 1512 and the several amendments of Cardinal Ximenez. After hearing them read, the theologians withdrew, saying they would present their opinion at another sitting.

Fray Miguel was deputed to draw up in writing their conclusions, which he did in the somewhat lengthy form common at that time, the substance of the decision being that repartimientos and encomiendas were condemned absolutely, as the principal and direct cause of the destruction of the Indians; and second, that the only means for correcting the existing abuses and to civilise and convert the Indians was to form towns of at most twelve hundred householders. Las Casas was opposed to the remedy, which he perceived to be not only without efficacy, but positively hurtful to the Indians, who would only deteriorate under such unfamiliar conditions. This divergence of opinion between Las Casas and the preachers introduced disunion where unity was the 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 the preachers nor any other conceivable arrangement could have saved them. The laws enacted were already more than sufficient to protect the natives from oppression and undue suffering, had their application been carried out in the spirit in which they were framed. Even the system of encomiendas might have been worked more rationally, and under it the condition of the Indians need not have been a particularly bad one. Paternal laws, paternally administered in the humane and religious spirit preached by the Dominicans and Las Casas, might have furnished a remedy, but the character of the Spanish colonists, the prevalent greed for wealth, taken together with the indolent habits and temperament of the Indians, opposed unsurmountable obstacles.

The zeal of Las Casas closed his eyes to these existing conditions, which foredoomed his efforts to failure and the Indians to destruction. Fortunately it was so, for he was thus enabled to continue 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 natives from undue excesses, of opposing some check to the injustice of the colonists, and of discharging the moral duty that Christian Spain had assumed towards her humble subjects in the New World.

Seeing the uselessness of further dealings with the preachers, Las Casas dropped that learned body, of which nothing further was ever heard in connection with Indian affairs.

He next adopted the bold policy of formally accusing the whole Council of unfairness and partiality—a truly amazing act of courage on the part of a simple priest, even though he felt himself supported by the sympathy of the Chancellor and several of the King's Flemish favourites. More astonishing must it have been to the members of that august body, that the sovereign should have ordered the impeachment to be taken into consideration. This decision was procured through the influence of the Chancellor, Gattinara, and bore with it the authorisation for Las Casas to designate such persons as he deemed suitable, to sit in the Council with those he had accused, and to thus ensure his affairs an impartial hearing. At the same time M. de Laxao made known to him that the King desired such persons to be selected from among 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 such procrastination, the Grand Chancellor adopted the policy of citing the Bishop to Council meetings without specifying the nature of the business to be considered, and when the unsuspecting prelate appeared, expecting to treat matters of state, he frequently had Las Casas and his Indian affairs sprung upon him. The number of the Council being increased by the admission of the new members from five to more than thirty, the Bishop was powerless to oppose effective resistance, as he could only count on the votes of his five original associates. Nor did the clipping of the Bishop's claws stop there, for whenever he appeared at Court, some of the Flemings contrived, to his intense disgust, to bring the subject of the Indies to the King's attention, so that it only remained for him to appear as rarely as possible.

The Council having consented to the projects of Las Casas, in spite of the Bishop's persistent opposition, orders were given for the necessary [pg 133] authorisations for carrying out his proposed plan. At this juncture the Bishop discovered an ally in the person of Gonzalez Fernandez de Oviedo, author of the Historia natural y moral de las Indias, who had passed much time in America and was highly esteemed as an authority in Indian matters. Oviedo was presented to the Chancellor and explained his reasons for condemning the plans of Las Casas but failed to change Gattinara's opinion. Representatives of the colonists in Cuba and Hispaniola spared no effort to defeat their opponent, promising, if the concessions Las Casas was asking were granted to them, to pay triple the income to the Crown which the latter offered. This offer by the procurators of the colonists was not ignored, and, by command of the King, was laid before the Council for consideration. 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, but they did kill an infinite number while they had them, though the principal and greatest destruction has been committed by individual Spaniards with the assistance of their lordships.” It was obviously impossible to discuss in open council with a man who talked thus, and when the Bishop himself, goaded to impatience, exclaimed, “Well instructed indeed is a member of the King's Council who, because he is a member, finds himself in conflict with Casas!” he got his answer from the imperturbable priest—“Better instructed still is Casas, my lord, who, after having come two thousand leagues at great risk and peril to save the King and his Council from going to hell on account of the tyrannies and destructions of peoples and kings which are perpetrated in the Indies, instead of being well received and thanked for his service, is forced into conflict with the Council.” This ended the discussion, and the concession already granted to Las Casas, was ratified.

Nothing, however, was ever really ended in Spain in those days and too many passions had been aroused, too many interests compromised, for the enemies of Las Casas ever to acquiesce in his victory. The Bishop of Burgos was the last man to accept such a defeat, and to his original stubborn and interested opposition was now added a desire for vengeance on his plain-spoken and successful opponent. From the material contained in all [pg 136] the numberless petitions from the colonies which he had received 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 him a copy of the memorial meeting with no reply, he sent a formal demand for the memorial to be delivered to him without further delay; no denial was possible, but the Council only delivered him the document on the sworn assurance that it should not leave his hands. Gattinara gave the required promise, but invited Las Casas and M. de Laxao to supper at his house that evening, and, laying the great dossier on the table, said to Las Casas, “Now make your answer to these objections advanced against you.”

“How, my lord,” answered Las Casas; “they were three months in forging and drawing them up, and after reading them at your convenience, it took your lordship two months to get possession of them, and now I am to answer them in the space of a Credo! Give me five hours and your lordship shall see what I answer.”

As his promise prevented the delivery of the memorial to Las Casas, the Chancellor arranged a [pg 137] table for him in his own apartment where he could compose his reply, advising him to make it in the form 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 afterwards returned at midnight to his lodging, not without fears for his personal safety, for his enemies were as numerous as they were powerful and sufficiently unscrupulous to use any means for silencing him.

No copy exists of these thirty objections and the answers made to them, and Las Casas says that the originals were burned. From the little that is known of the former, they seem to have been so frivolous and strained that it is amazing the Council listened to them with patience or that the Chancellor deemed them worthy of a reply. The first, for example, stated that, as Las Casas was a priest, the King had no jurisdiction 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 secret things known about him of such a damaging nature that they could only be confided to the King's private ear, and hence were not set down in writing. This ancient method of Court intriguers everywhere, whose [pg 138] mysterious accusations can only be made in secrecy, without the accuser's identity being disclosed, is always new and is ever useful in cases where the condemnation of the accused is determined beforehand.