Aqui se contienen treynta proposiciones muy juridicas: en las cuales sumaria y succintamente se tocan muchas cosas pertenecientes al derecho que la yglesia y los principes christianos tienen o pueden tener sobre los infieles de qualquier especie que sean.
Seville: Sebastian Trugillo, 1552.
Price: $20,000.00
Quarto: 18.5 x 13.2 cm. [20] pp.
FIRST EDITION.
Modern blind-stamped blond calf. A crisp copy, the paper bright and crisp. The woodcut border of the title is slightly shaved at top; a small part of the upper corner of the border has been very discreetly made good in pen. Small, discreet marginal repair to lower margin of title, not affecting the border. Title page printed in red and black within a woodcut border, woodcut initials. Title page repaired at upper right corner, with a small part of the border supplied by hand.
The first edition of Bartolomé de Las Casas’s defense of his position concerning the limits of Spanish sovereignty in the Americas. Las Casas argued that the New World Indigenous peoples (Aztecs, Maya, Purépecha, and others) had been conquered, dispossessed of their lands and goods, subjected to forced labor or enslaved, and forced to pay excessive tribute in violation of the papal commission.
He argued that the Spanish Crown’s legal claim to rule in the Americas rested on a papal commission authorizing peaceful evangelization, not on rights acquired through conquest, and that this authority did not extinguish the natural jurisdiction, lordships, or property rights of Indigenous rulers and individuals.
The conversion of Indigenous peoples was to proceed through peaceful instruction and persuasion, and armed conquest was unlawful. Las Casas further maintained that the encomienda system (in which the Spanish Crown granted Spaniards the right to collect tribute from Indigenous communities and to compel them to perform labor against their will) was unauthorized, tyrannical, and unlawful because it violated the liberties and property rights of Indigenous peoples, obstructed evangelization, and had not been legitimately commanded by the Crown.
This is one of a series of eight treatises Las Casas composed 1541-1552 on the horror and injustice of the encomienda system. He composed this work after being summoned before the Council of the Indies to defend his position on Spanish sovereignty in the New World. The eight treatises were printed in Seville in 1552-1553 “under a special license granting royal privilege and distributed free of charge; these treatises contained the best of Las Casas’s juridical, philosophical, and theological thought.” (Orique, 41)
Las Casas was highly critical of the encomienda system, which he considered a disguised form of slavery. He argued that the faith could not be imposed by force and that Indigenous peoples were the legitimate owners of their lands. He called on the Crown to implement urgent reforms, although he did not question the authority of the King nor the legitimacy of the Spanish presence.
Once a New World colonist and a slave-owner himself, Las Casas spent much of his life arguing forcefully for the abolition of the encomienda system, a policy of virtual enslavement of the Native Americans by Spanish colonists. Las Casas achieved an important legal victory in 1542, when Emperor Charles V abolished the encomienda system. However, the colonial American government refused to implement the new laws, and Las Casas’ own efforts to enforce them, as bishop of Chiapas, ultimately proved unsuccessful.
Diego von Vacano argues that “the first theorist to lay the grounds for a racial conception in politics is the Spanish Dominican friar Bartolomé de Las Casas. In his effort to defend the 'rights' of the Amerindians, Las Casas constructs racial categories . . . his account of Amerindian identity, bodies, appearance and culture created a racialized understanding of the 'newly' discovered peoples of the Americas.
“Las Casas first discovered the Amerindian in the spring of 1493. Christopher Columbus was returning from his first trip to the Americas back to Seville, and he brought back with him some ‘Indians' as human trophies. Las Casas was nine years old at the time and remembered clearly the sight of the natives near the ‘arco de las Imágenes’. Las Casas’ father travelled to the New World, and upon his return in 1499 brought back a young Amerindian for the young Bartolomé, as if he were bringing back an exotic pet for his son’s amusement.
“In 1501-02, at the age of seventeen, Las Casas made his first trans-Atlantic voyage of discovery and self-transformation, probably accompanying his father, Pedro de Las Casas. His initial impetus was not at all related to the desire to ‘convert infidels', it was a more mundane ambition to become rich.” During his second trip to the New World in 1510, Las Casas “experienced what he called a ‘conversion’ from mere colonist to man of conscience. Slowly, Las Casas started to think more about the status of the ‘Indians’, witness more of their travails, and examine his conscience. Eventually, he renounced his property, land, and encomiendas, slaves and territory granted by the Crown.” (Vacano, 401-407)
Las Casas began writing about the mistreatment of Indigenous peoples in 1516, and in his “Historia de las Indias” he wrote “what really moved me to write this book was the great and desperate need of all Spain to have truth and enlightenment on all things concerning the world of the Indian."
The Thirty Propositions:
1. The pope has authority over all peoples insofar as necessary to direct them toward salvation, though it is exercised differently toward Christians and non-Christians.
2. The pope must ensure that the Gospel is preached throughout the world to those non-Christians of whom it may reasonably be believed that they will not resist its proclamation.
3. The pope may appoint and compel suitable ministers to undertake evangelization.
4. Christian rulers must protect and support missionaries with their power and resources.
5. The pope may command rulers to undertake and finance missionary work.
6. Rulers may not undertake such missions independently, except in cases of extreme necessity.
7. The pope may entrust non-Christian territories to particular Christian rulers for evangelization.
8. Such grants exist principally for conversion and salvation, not to increase royal wealth or dominion.
9. The rulers’ true reward is to reign with Christ, and they should not covet earthly recompense; nevertheless, a remunerative grant may be just if it does not injure the rights of non-Christian rulers or individuals.
10. Non-Christian rulers and individuals retain legitimate dominion, jurisdiction, and property by natural and divine law.
11. Denial of these rights is erroneous and destructive; anyone who pertinaciously defends the contrary incurs formal heresy.
12. Idolatry or any other sin does not deprive non-Christians of their lordships, offices, or possessions.
13. Those whose unbelief consists in “pure negation” cannot be punished for it; only those who maliciously obstruct preaching and persist after sufficient admonition may be punished.
14. Alexander VI was obliged to appoint a Christian monarch to oversee evangelization in the Indies.
15. Ferdinand and Isabella were especially qualified by their religious record and their sponsorship of Columbus.
16. The pope lawfully granted Castile universal sovereignty over the Indies and could exclude other Christian rulers.
17. Castile’s title rested on papal authority, concession, and donation, and ultimately upon divine authority.
18. Castile’s universal sovereignty was compatible with Indigenous rulers retaining their natural administration, jurisdiction, lordships, and rights.
19. Indigenous rulers and communities were obliged to recognize Castilian sovereignty only after freely receiving Christianity and baptism; beforehand, they could not be punished for refusing recognition.
20. The Castilian monarchs were obliged to send suitable ministers to preach throughout the Indies.
21. Before conversion, the Castilian monarchs possessed the same limited authority over non-Christians that Proposition I attributes to the pope: only such power as was necessary to advance evangelization and remove obstacles to it.
22. Conversion must proceed through peaceful persuasion, charity, humility, good example, gifts, and gentle treatment.
23. Armed conquest was tyrannical, contrary to Christ, destructive of Christian teaching, and an obstacle to conversion.
24. Advocates of conquest had failed to understand the distinctions among the different categories of non-Christians that had to be considered before determining against whom conquest might lawfully be undertaken.
25. The Crown had not authorized war against peaceful Indigenous peoples; apparent authorizations were obtained through false reports and were repeatedly revoked.
26. All conquests lacking royal authority and just cause were null, unjust, and tyrannical.
27. Castile was obliged to preserve just Indigenous laws and customs, protect Indigenous rights, and place their spiritual and temporal welfare above royal profit.
28. The encomiendas and repartimientos constituted an especially cruel form of tyranny, subjecting Indigenous peoples to mines, personal service, excessive tribute, violence, dispossession, and conditions that obstructed Christianity and destroyed their communities.
29. The encomiendas and repartimientos had never been lawfully commanded by the Crown, as demonstrated by Isabella’s orders to Columbus, Bobadilla, and Ovando, her deathbed reaffirmation of Indigenous liberty, Charles V’s 1523 instructions to Cortés, and the deliberations held under Tavera in 1529.
30. Without prejudice to Castile’s legitimate universal title, the unjust conquests, repartimientos, and encomiendas were legally null because they had been carried out without just cause, royal authority, or obedience to royal commands; this conclusion also explained and defended the seventh rule of Las Casas’s Confesionario.
Alden & Landis 552/12; Church 94; Field 867; Medina 148; Palau 46946; Sabin 11233; Escudero 542; Field, Indian Bibliography, p. 218; Harrisse, Notes on Columbus, p. 20, No. 4; Orique, David. “Bartolomé de las Casas: A ‘Brevísima’ Biographical Sketch.” Literatura Latinoamericana y Lectura Global, (Spring–Fall 2017): 32–51; Von Vacano, Diego. “Las Casas and the Birth of Race.” History of Political Thought, 33, no. 3 (Autumn 2012): 401–426.