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184-497: Bartolomé de las Casas , OP ( US : / l ɑː s ˈ k ɑː s ə s / lahss KAH -səss ; Spanish: [baɾtoloˈme ðe las ˈkasas] ; 11 November 1484 – 18 July 1566) was a Spanish clergyman, writer, and activist best known for his work as an historian and social reformer. He arrived in Hispaniola as a layman, then became a Dominican friar. He was appointed as the first resident Bishop of Chiapas , and

368-567: A World Heritage Site , together with the adjoining Seville Cathedral and the Alcázar of Seville . The origin of the structure dates to 1572 when Philip II commissioned the building design from Juan de Herrera , the architect of the Escorial to house the Consulado de mercaderes of Seville. Until then, the merchants of Seville had been in the habit of retreating to the cool recesses of

552-462: A licentiate at Salamanca , but Las Casas does not say so in his own writings. Las Casas's first encounter with Indigenous peoples happened before he even sailed to the Americas. In his Historia de las Indias , he wrote of Christopher Columbus ' return to Seville , in 1493. Las Casas recorded having seen "seven Indians" in the entourage of Christopher Columbus, being exhibited in the vicinity of

736-483: A pastoral letter issued on 20 March 1545, Las Casas refused absolution to slave owners and encomenderos even on their death bed, unless all their slaves had been set free and their property returned to them. Las Casas furthermore threatened that anyone who mistreated Indians within his jurisdiction would be excommunicated. He also came into conflict with the Bishop of Guatemala Francisco Marroquín , to whose jurisdiction

920-562: A "mixed" spirituality. They were both active in preaching, and contemplative in study, prayer and meditation. The brethren of the Dominican Order were urban and learned, as well as contemplative and mystical in their spirituality. While these traits affected the women of the order, the nuns especially absorbed the latter characteristics and made those characteristics their own. In England, the Dominican nuns blended these elements with

1104-635: A Christian viewpoint. He wrote: "I have declared and demonstrated openly and concluded, from chapter 22 to the end of this whole book, that all people of these our Indies are human, so far as is possible by the natural and human way and without the light of faith – had their republics, places, towns, and cities most abundant and well provided for, and did not lack anything to live politically and socially, and attain and enjoy civil happiness.... And they equaled many nations of this world that are renowned and considered civilized, and they surpassed many others, and to none were they inferior. Among those they equaled were

1288-687: A book entitled " The second volume of the history of the Province of Spain of the Order of Preachers, chronicling the progress of their foundations and the lives of illustrious figures," was written by the chronicler of the Order of Preachers and the province of Spain, the General Preacher Fr. Manuel Joseph de Medrano, Prior of the convent of Santo Domingo in Guadalajara . Medrano, a native of Logroño , dedicated his book to, and under

1472-532: A chaplain, Las Casas participated in Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar 's and Pánfilo de Narváez ' conquest of Cuba . He participated in campaigns at Bayamo and Camagüey and in the massacre of Hatuey . He witnessed many atrocities committed by Spaniards against the native Ciboney and Guanahatabey peoples. He later wrote: "I saw here cruelty on a scale no living being has ever seen or expects to see." Las Casas and his friend Pedro de la Rentería were awarded

1656-502: A decade earlier and sent to the attention of then-prince Philip II of Spain , contained accounts of the abuses committed by some Spaniards against Native Americans during the early stages of colonization. In 1555 his old Franciscan adversary Toribio de Benavente Motolinia wrote a letter in which he described Las Casas as an ignorant, arrogant troublemaker. Benavente described indignantly how Las Casas had once denied baptism to an aging Indian who had walked many leagues to receive it, only on

1840-540: A decree for the creation of the archives according the proposed plans. The project was to bring together under a single roof all the documentation regarding the overseas empire, which until that time had been held among various repositories, including in Simancas , Cádiz and Seville. Responsibility for the project was delegated to José de Gálvez, Secretary for the Indies, who delegated historian Juan Bautista Muñoz for

2024-469: A different avenue of change. He put his faith in his coming audience with the king, but it never came, for King Ferdinand died on 25 January 1516. The regency of Castile passed on to Ximenez Cisneros and Adrian of Utrecht who were guardians for the under-age Prince Charles . Las Casas was resolved to see Prince Charles who resided in Flanders , but on his way there he passed Madrid and delivered to

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2208-559: A fiery sermon that implicated the colonists in the genocide of the native peoples. He is said to have preached: "Tell me by what right of justice do you hold these Indians in such a cruel and horrible servitude? On what authority have you waged such detestable wars against these people who dealt quietly and peacefully on their own lands? Wars in which you have destroyed such an infinite number of them by homicides and slaughters never heard of before. Why do you keep them so oppressed and exhausted, without giving them enough to eat or curing them of

2392-546: A framework—a rule—to organize these components. The Rule of Saint Augustine was an obvious choice for the Dominican Order, according to Dominic's successor Jordan of Saxony, in the Libellus de principiis , because it lent itself to the "salvation of souls through preaching". By this choice, however, the Dominican brothers designated themselves not monks, but canons regular . They could practice ministry and common life while existing in individual poverty. The Order of Preachers

2576-583: A gradual abolition of the encomienda system, with each encomienda reverting to the Crown at the death of its holders. It also exempted the few surviving Indians of Hispaniola , Cuba , Puerto Rico , and Jamaica from tribute and all requirements of personal service. However, the reforms were so unpopular in the New World that riots broke out and threats were made against Las Casas's life. The Viceroy of New Spain , himself an encomendero, decided not to implement

2760-674: A group of nuns to start a teaching mission in King Williamstown. From this mission were founded many Third Order Regular congregations of Dominican sisters, with their own constitutions, though still following the Rule of Saint Augustine and affiliated to the Dominican Order. These include the Dominican Sisters of Oakford, KwazuluNatal (1881), the Dominican Missionary Sisters, Zimbabwe, (1890) and

2944-461: A joint encomienda which was rich in gold and slaves, located on the Arimao River close to Cienfuegos . During the next few years, he divided his time between being a colonist and his duties as an ordained priest. In 1514, Las Casas was studying a passage in the book Ecclesiasticus ( Sirach ) 34:18–22 for a Pentecost sermon and pondering its meaning. Las Casas was finally convinced that all

3128-549: A large number of converts were made, it has to be said that the results were not such as had been hoped for". The differences in religious principles of the Albigensians called for far greater reforms than moderated appearances. Dominic became the spiritual father to several Albigensian women he had reconciled to the faith, and in 1206 he established them in a convent in Prouille , near Toulouse . This convent would become

3312-471: A large number of documents. He indicated that they would merely need to remove the recent partitions of the upper floor and restore the building to its original state. Gálvez communicated the idea to monarch Charles III, who on 27 June 1784 issued a letter instructing Muñoz to draft a proposal for the work needed to convert the building into the Archive of the Indies. In February 1785, Charles III approved

3496-435: A long court fight against Bishop Fonseca and his supporters Gonzalo de Oviedo and Bishop Quevedo of Tierra Firme . Las Casas's supporters were Diego Columbus and the new chancellor Gattinara. Las Casas's enemies slandered him to the king, accusing him of planning to escape with the money to Genoa or Rome . In 1520 Las Casas's concession was finally granted, but it was a much smaller grant than he had initially proposed; he

3680-479: A merchant, descended from one of the families that had migrated from France to found the Christian Seville ; his family also spelled the name Casaus . According to one biographer, his family was of converso heritage, although others refer to them as ancient Christians who migrated from France. Following the testimony of Las Casas's biographer Antonio de Remesal, tradition has it that Las Casas studied

3864-531: A mission among the Maya Indians. They stayed in the convent founded some years earlier by Fray Domingo Betanzos and studied the Kʼicheʼ language with Bishop Francisco Marroquín , before traveling into the interior region called Tuzulutlan, "The Land of War", in 1537. Also in 1536, before venturing into Tuzulutlan, Las Casas went to Oaxaca , Mexico , to participate in a series of discussions and debates among

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4048-604: A narrative of atrocities against the natives of the Indies that would later be published in 1552 as A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies . Before a council consisting of Cardinal García de Loaysa , the Count of Osorno , Bishop Fuenleal , and several members of the Council of the Indies , Las Casas argued that the only solution to the problem was to remove all Indians from the care of secular Spaniards, by abolishing

4232-406: A new plan for reforming the governmental system of the Indies. Las Casas suggested a plan where the encomienda would be abolished and Indians would be congregated into self-governing townships to become tribute-paying vassals of the king. He still suggested that the loss of Indian labor for the colonists could be replaced by allowing importation of African slaves . Another important part of the plan

4416-720: A new resolution to be presented to viceroy Mendoza. His last act as Bishop of Chiapas was writing a confesionario , a manual for the administration of the sacrament of confession in his diocese, still refusing absolution to unrepentant encomenderos. Las Casas appointed a vicar for his diocese and set out for Europe in December 1546, arriving in Lisbon in April 1547 and in Spain on November 1547. Las Casas returned to Spain, leaving behind many conflicts and unresolved issues. Arriving in Spain he

4600-560: A niece of King Valdemar II of Denmark . At that time the south of France was the stronghold of the Cathar movement. The Cathars (also known as Albigensians, due to their stronghold in Albi , France) were considered a heretical neo- gnostic sect. They believed that matter was evil and only the spirit was good; this was a fundamental challenge to the notion of the incarnation , central to Catholic theology . The Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229)

4784-459: A reformed apostolic life. The legates agreed to the proposed changes if they could find a strong leader who could meet the Albigensians on their own ground. The prior took up the challenge, and he and Dominic dedicated themselves to the conversion of the Cathars. Despite this particular mission, Dominic met limited success converting Cathars by persuasion, "for though in his ten years of preaching

4968-494: A royal hospital built with four wings in the shape of a cross, where up to 200 sick Indians could be cared for at a time. He described in detail social arrangements, distribution of work, how provisions would be divided and even how table manners were to be introduced. Regarding expenses, he argued that "this should not seem expensive or difficult, because after all, everything comes from them [the Indians] and they work for it and it

5152-633: A small group of peasants, paying for the venture with money borrowed from his brother in-law. Arriving in Puerto Rico , in January 1521, he received the terrible news that the Dominican convent at Chiribichi had been sacked by Indians, and that the Spaniards of the islands had launched a punitive expedition, led by Gonzalo de Ocampo, into the very heart of the territory that Las Casas wanted to colonize peacefully. The Indians had been provoked to attack

5336-477: A suggestion by his friend and mentor Pedro de Córdoba , Las Casas petitioned a land grant to be allowed to establish a settlement in northern Venezuela at Cumaná . Founded in 1515, there was already a small Franciscan monastery in Cumana, and a Dominican one at Chiribichi, but the monks there were being harassed by Spaniards operating slave raids from the nearby Island of Cubagua . To make the proposal palatable to

5520-404: A total of 4,472 nominally or actually engaged in proper activities of the order. As of 2013 , there were 6,058 Dominican friars, including 4,470 priests. As of January 2021 , there were 5,753 friars overall, and 4,219 priests. France held a foremost place in the revival movement, owing to the reputation and convincing power of the orator, Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire (1802–1861). He took

5704-592: A tradition of profound learning and piety. Strict discipline and plain living were characteristic of the monastery throughout its existence. Bartolomé de Las Casas , as a settler in the New World , was galvanized by witnessing the brutal torture and genocide of the Native Americans by the Spanish colonists. He became famous for his advocacy of the rights of Native Americans, whose cultures, especially in

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5888-647: A treatise called " De unico vocationis modo " (On the Only Way of Conversion) based on the missionary principles he had used in Guatemala. Motolinia would later be a fierce critic of Las Casas, accusing him of being all talk and no action when it came to converting the Indians. As a direct result of the debates between the Dominicans and Franciscans and spurred on by Las Casas's treatise, Pope Paul III promulgated

6072-557: A way that it presupposed that violent conquest would still be carried out, and he encouraged once again beginning a phase of peaceful colonization by peasants instead of soldiers. Before Las Casas returned to Spain, he was also appointed as Bishop of Chiapas , a newly established diocese of which he took possession in 1545 upon his return to the New World. He was consecrated in the Dominican Church of San Pablo on 30 March 1544. As Archbishop Loaysa strongly disliked Las Casas,

6256-528: Is apologetic because it is written as a defense of the cultural level of the Indians, arguing throughout that indigenous peoples of the Americas were just as civilized as the Roman , Greek and Egyptian civilizations – and more civilized than some European civilizations. It was in essence a comparative ethnography comparing practices and customs of European and American cultures and evaluating them according to whether they were good or bad, seen from

6440-479: Is an eye-witness account. It was in the History of the Indies that Las Casas finally regretted his advocacy for African slavery, and included a sincere apology, writing, "I soon repented and judged myself guilty of ignorance. I came to realize that black slavery was as unjust as Indian slavery... and I was not sure that my ignorance and good faith would secure me in the eyes of God." (Vol II, p. 257) "History of

6624-531: Is composed of two bodies, the Chapter of Provincials and the Chapter of Definitors (or Diffinitors ), a unique configuration within the Catholic Church. Each body is of equal authority to propose legislation and discuss other matters of general importance within the order, and each body may be called individually or jointly. The Provincials consists of the superiors of individual Dominican provinces, while

6808-764: Is currently elected for a 9-year term, and is aided by the General Curia of the Order. His authority is subject only to the General Chapter. He, along with the General Chapter, may assign members, and appoint or remove superiors and other officials for the good of the order. The Dominican nuns were founded by Dominic even before he had established the friars. They are contemplatives in the cloistered life. The nuns celebrated their 800th anniversary in 2006. Some monasteries raise funds for their operations by producing religious articles such as priestly vestments or baking communion wafers. Friars are male members of

6992-460: Is required prior to taking final vows of membership. Archivo General de Indias The Archivo General de Indias ( Spanish pronunciation: [aɾˈtʃiβo xeneˈɾal de ˈindjas] ; standard abbreviation AGI ; lit.   ' General Archive of the Indies ' ), often simply called the Archive of the Indies , was created by Carlos III and inaugurated in 1785. It is housed in

7176-488: Is surmounted by a balustrade , with rusticated obelisks standing at the corners. There is no sculptural decoration, only the discreetly contrasting tonalities of stone and stucco, and the light shadows cast by the slight relief of the pilasters against their piers, by the cornices, and by the cornice strips that cap each window. In the aftermath of a devastating plague in 1649, the building appears to have been abandoned by merchants by 1660. From 1660 to 1674, one of its rooms

7360-484: Is theirs." He even drew up a budget of each pueblo's expenses to cover wages for administrators, clerics, Bachelors of Latin, doctors, surgeons, pharmacists, advocates, ranchers, miners, muleteers, hospitalers, pig herders, fishermen, etc. A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies ( Spanish : Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias ) is an account written in 1542 (published in Seville in 1552) about

7544-484: The École Biblique et Archéologique française de Jérusalem founded in 1890 by Marie-Joseph Lagrange (1855–1938), one of the leading international centres for biblical research. It is at the École Biblique that the famed Jerusalem Bible (both editions) was prepared. Likewise Cardinal Yves Congar was a product of the French province of the Order of Preachers. Doctrinal development has had an important place in

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7728-526: The Bull Sublimis Deus , which stated that the Indians were rational beings and should be brought peacefully to the faith as such. Las Casas returned to Guatemala in 1537 wanting to employ his new method of conversion based on two principles: 1) to preach the Gospel to all men and treat them as equals, and 2) to assert that conversion must be voluntary and based on knowledge and understanding of

7912-729: The Caribbean , he describes with care. Gaspar da Cruz ( c.  1520–1570 ), who worked all over the Portuguese colonial empire in Asia, was probably the first Christian missionary to preach (unsuccessfully) in Cambodia . After a (similarly unsuccessful) stint, in 1556, in Guangzhou , China, he eventually returned to Portugal and became the first European to publish a book devoted exclusively to China in 1569/1570. The beginning of

8096-647: The Catalan Revolt of 1646. The book was banned by the Aragonese inquisition in 1659. The images described by Las Casas were later depicted by Theodore de Bry in copper plate engravings that served as a medium of the Black Legend against Spain . The Apologetic Summary History of the People of These Indies ( Spanish : Apologética historia summaria de las gentes destas Indias ) was first written as

8280-648: The Catholic Church . Bartolomé de las Casas was born in Seville ' on 11 November 1484. For centuries, Las Casas's birthdate was believed to be 1474; however, in the 1970s, scholars conducting archival work demonstrated this to be an error, after uncovering in the Archivo General de Indias records of a contemporary lawsuit that demonstrated he was born a decade later than had been supposed. Subsequent biographers and authors have generally accepted and reflected this revision. His father, Pedro de las Casas,

8464-466: The Divine Office and kept all the monastic observances. The nuns lived under the authority of the general and provincial chapters of the order. They shared in all the applicable privileges of the order. The friars served as their confessors, priests, teachers and spiritual mentors. Women could be professed to the Dominican religious life at the age of 13. The formula for profession contained in

8648-599: The Dominican Order and became a friar, leaving public life for a decade. He traveled to Central America , acting as a missionary among the Maya of Guatemala and participating in debates among colonial churchmen about how best to bring the natives to the Christian faith. Travelling back to Spain to recruit more missionaries, he continued lobbying for the abolition of the encomienda , gaining an important victory by

8832-600: The Philippines . Having resigned the Bishopric of Chiapas, Las Casas spent the rest of his life working closely with the imperial court in matters relating to the Indies. In 1551 he rented a cell at the College of San Gregorio , where he lived with his assistant and friend Fray Rodrigo de Ladrada. He continued working as a kind of procurator for the natives of the Indies, many of whom directed petitions to him to speak to

9016-564: The Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum . The Dominican friars quickly spread, including to England, where they appeared in Oxford in 1221. In the 13th century the order reached all classes of Christian society, fought heresy , schism , and paganism by word and book, and by its missions to the north of Europe, to Africa, and Asia passed beyond the frontiers of Christendom . Its schools spread throughout

9200-462: The Valladolid debate , in which Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda argued that the Indians were less than human, and required Spanish masters to become civilized. Las Casas maintained that they were fully human, and that forcefully subjugating them was unjustifiable. Las Casas spent 50 years of his life actively fighting slavery and the colonial abuse of Indigenous peoples, especially by trying to convince

9384-523: The co-patronesses of the order. The Dominican Order came into being during the Middle Ages at a time when men of God were no longer expected to stay behind the walls of a cloister . Instead, they travelled among the people, taking as their examples the apostles of the primitive Church. Out of this ideal emerged two orders of mendicant friars – one, the Friars Minor, led by Francis of Assisi ;

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9568-579: The 16th century confronted the order with the upheavals of Reformation. The spread of Protestantism cost it six or seven provinces and several hundreds of convents , but the discovery of the New World opened up a fresh field of activity. In the 18th century, there were numerous attempts at reform, accompanied by a reduction in the number of devotees. The French Revolution ruined the order in France, and crises that more or less rapidly followed considerably lessened or wholly destroyed numerous provinces In 1731,

9752-521: The 1850s, the Dominicans had half a million followers in the Philippines and well-established missions in the Chinese province of Fujian and Tonkin , Vietnam, performing thousands of baptisms each year. The Dominicans presence in the Philippines has become one of the leading proponents of education with the establishment of Colegio de San Juan de Letran . The Friars, Nuns and Third Orders form

9936-787: The 68th chapter of the General History of the Indies , but Las Casas changed it into a volume of its own, recognizing that the material was not historical. The material contained in the Apologetic History is primarily ethnographic accounts of the indigenous cultures of the Indies – the Taíno , the Ciboney , and the Guanahatabey , but it also contains descriptions of many of the other indigenous cultures that Las Casas learned about through his travels and readings. The history

10120-461: The Americas, Las Casas initially participated in the colonial economy built on forced Indigenous labor, but eventually felt compelled to oppose the abuses committed by European colonists against the Indigenous population. In 1515 he gave up his Native American laborers and encomienda . He then advocated, before Charles V , on behalf of rights for the natives. In his early writings, he advocated

10304-505: The Americas. José de Gálvez had already been considering the idea for a decade and wrote back on 24 April, encouraging him to look in Seville and Cadiz for potential buildings that could house the archive. On 24 May, Muñoz toured the former Lonja with Féliz Carazas and Lucas Cintora. He wrote to Gálvez on 8 June, enthusiastic about selecting this structure since it was a solidly built made entirely of stone and contained sufficient space for

10488-508: The Cathars, the first Grand Inquistor of Spain , Tomás de Torquemada , would be drawn from the Dominican Order. The order was appointed by Pope Gregory IX the duty to carry out the Inquisition . Torture was not regarded as a mode of punishment, but as a means of eliciting the truth. In his papal bull Ad extirpanda of 1252, Pope Innocent IV authorised the Dominicans' use of torture under prescribed circumstances. The expansion of

10672-703: The Constitutions of Montargis Priory (1250) requires that nuns pledge obedience to God, the Blessed Virgin, their prioress and her successors according to the Rule of Saint Augustine and the institute of the order, until death. The clothing of the sisters consisted of a white tunic and scapular, a leather belt, a black mantle, and a black veil. Candidates to profession were questioned to reveal whether they were actually married women who had merely separated from their husbands. Their intellectual abilities were also tested. Nuns were to be silent in places of prayer,

10856-420: The Crown decreed that all copies of Las Casas's Confesionario be burnt, and his Franciscan adversary, Motolinia, obliged and sent back a report to Spain. Las Casas defended himself by writing two treatises on the "Just Title" – arguing that the only legality with which the Spaniards could claim titles over realms in the New World was through peaceful proselytizing. All warfare was illegal and unjust and only through

11040-404: The Diffinitors consists of "grass root" representatives of each province, so created to avoid provincial superiors having to spend excessive time away from their day-to-day duties of governing. To maintain stability of the legislation of the order, new legislation is enacted only when approved by three successive meetings of the General Chapter. The first General Chapters were held at Pentecost in

11224-428: The Dominican Order, held in Bologna during the spring of 1221. Dominic dispatched 12 friars to England under the guidance of their English prior, Gilbert of Fresney, and they landed in Dover on August 5, 1221. The province officially came into being at its first provincial chapter in 1230. The English Province was a component of the international order from which it obtained its laws, direction, and instructions. It

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11408-448: The Dominican Sisters of Newcastle, KwazuluNatal (1891). The Dominican Order has influenced the formation of other orders outside of the Catholic Church, such as the Anglican Order of Preachers within the Anglican Communion . Since not all members are obliged to take solemn or simple vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, it operates more like a third order with a third order style structure, with no contemporary or canonical ties to

11592-470: The East . Another Dominican, Ricold of Monte Croce , worked in Syria and Persia. His travels took him from Acre to Tabriz, and on to Baghdad. There "he was welcomed by the Dominican fathers already there, and with them entered into a disputation with the Nestorians." Although a number of Dominicans and Franciscans persevered against the growing faith of Islam throughout the region, all Christian missionaries were soon expelled with Timur 's death in 1405. By

11776-490: The Greeks and the Romans, and they surpassed them by many good and better customs. They surpassed also the English and the French and some of the people of our own Spain; and they were incomparably superior to countless others, in having good customs and lacking many evil ones." This work in which Las Casas combined his own ethnographic observations with those of other writers, and compared customs and cultures between different peoples, has been characterized as an early beginning of

11960-502: The Hieronimytes. During this time the Hieronimytes had time to form a more pragmatic view of the situation than the one advocated by Las Casas; their position was precarious as every encomendero on the Islands was fiercely against any attempts to curtail their use of native labor. Consequently, the commissioners were unable to take any radical steps towards improving the situation of the natives. They did revoke some encomiendas from Spaniards, especially those who were living in Spain and not on

12144-404: The Iglesia de San Nicolás de Bari, along with "beautiful green parrots, vibrant in color" and Indigenous artifacts. Pedro de Las Casas, Bartolomé's merchant father, left in Christopher Columbus ' second expedition. Upon his return, in 1499, Pedro de Las Casas brought to his son "a young Amerinidian." Three years later, in 1502, Las Casas immigrated with his father to the island of Hispaniola , on

12328-405: The Indians and advocating a return to his original reform plan of 1516. In 1531, a complaint was sent by the encomenderos of Hispaniola that Las Casas was again accusing them of mortal sins from the pulpit. In 1533 he contributed to the establishment of a peace treaty between the Spanish and the rebel Taíno band of chief Enriquillo . In 1534, Las Casas made an attempt to travel to Peru to observe

12512-417: The Indies" has never been fully translated into English. The only translations into English are the 1971 partial translation by Andrée M. Collard, and partial translations by Cynthia L. Chamberlin, Nigel Griffin, Michael Hammer and Blair Sullivan in UCLA's Repertorium Columbianum (Volumes VI, VII and XI). Dominican Order Founded to preach the gospel and to oppose heresy , the teaching activity of

12696-430: The New Laws, but for turning the encomiendas into perpetual patrimony of the encomenderos – the worst possible outcome from Las Casas's point of view. The encomenderos offered to buy the rights to the encomiendas from the Crown, and Charles V was inclined to accept since his wars had left him in deep economic troubles. Las Casas worked hard to convince the emperor that it would be a bad economic decision, that it would return

12880-400: The Order of Preachers. Together with the Members of Priestly Fraternities of Saint Dominic, Dominican Laity and Dominican Youths they form the Dominican family. The highest authority within the Order of Preachers is the General Chapter , which is empowered to develop legislation governing all organizations within the Dominican umbrella, as well as enforce that legislation. The General Chapter

13064-409: The Pontifical Navy, and historian Heinrich Denifle ( d. 1905). During the Reformation, many of the convents of Dominican nuns were forced to close. One which managed to survive, and afterwards founded many new houses, was St Ursula's in Augsburg. In the 17th century, convents of Dominican women were often asked by their bishops to undertake apostolic work, particularly educating girls and visiting

13248-882: The Spaniards of the area that he had to leave. Having been summoned to a meeting among the bishops of New Spain to be held in Mexico City on 12 January 1546, he left his diocese, never to return. At the meeting, probably after lengthy reflection, and realizing that the New Laws were lost in Mexico, Las Casas presented a moderated view on the problems of confession and restitution of property, Archbishop Juan de Zumárraga of Mexico and Bishop Julián Garcés of Puebla agreed completely with his new moderate stance, Bishop Vasco de Quiroga of Michoacán had minor reservations, and Bishops Francisco Marroquín of Guatemala and Juan Lopez de Zárate of Oaxaca did not object. This resulted in

13432-455: The Spanish could defend weak Indians against the abuses of the stronger ones. Las Casas countered that the scriptures did not in fact support war against all heathens, only against certain Canaanite tribes; that the Indians were not at all uncivilized nor lacking social order; that peaceful mission was the only true way of converting the natives; and finally that some weak Indians suffering at

13616-425: The Spanish court to adopt a more humane policy of colonization. Although he did not completely succeed in changing Spanish views on colonization, his efforts did result in improvement of the legal status of the natives, and in an increased colonial focus on the ethics of colonialism. Following his death in 1566, Las Casas was widely venerated as a holy figure, resulting in the opening of his cause for canonization in

13800-647: The Spanish empire as exceptionally morally corrupt and violent. It was republished several times by groups that were critical of the Spanish realm for political or religious reasons. The first edition in translation was published in Dutch in 1578, during the religious persecution of Dutch Protestants by the Spanish crown, followed by editions in French (1578), English (1583), and German (1599) – all countries where religious wars were raging. The first edition published in Spain after Las Casas's death appeared in Barcelona during

13984-601: The Strassburg monastery of Saint Margaret, some of the nuns could converse fluently in Latin. Learning still had an elevated place in the lives of these religious. In fact, Margarette Reglerin, a daughter of a wealthy Nuremberg family, was dismissed from a convent because she did not have the ability or will to learn. The English Province and the Hungarian Province both date back to the second general chapter of

14168-668: The actions of the Spanish in the New World had been illegal and that they constituted a great injustice. He made up his mind to give up his slaves and encomienda, and started to preach that other colonists should do the same. When his preaching met with resistance, he realized that he would have to go to Spain to fight there against the enslavement and abuse of the native people. Aided by Pedro de Córdoba and accompanied by Antonio de Montesinos, he left for Spain in September 1515, arriving in Seville in November. Las Casas arrived in Spain with

14352-469: The ancient Roman basilica of Santa Sabina , which they did by early 1220. Before that time the friars had only a temporary residence in Rome at the convent of San Sisto Vecchio which Honorius III had given to Dominic circa 1218 intending it to become a convent for a reformation of nuns at Rome under Dominic's guidance. In May 1220 at Bologna the order's first General Chapter mandated that each new priory of

14536-462: The area. In this way he was successful in converting several native chiefs, among them those of Atitlán and Chichicastenango , and in building several churches in the territory named Alta Verapaz . These congregated a group of Christian Indians in the location of what is now the town of Rabinal. In 1538 Las Casas was recalled from his mission by Bishop Marroquín who wanted him to go to Mexico and then on to Spain to seek more Dominicans to assist in

14720-553: The bishops of the Dominican and Franciscan orders . The two orders had very different approaches to the conversion of the Indians. The Franciscans used a method of mass conversion, sometimes baptizing many thousands of Indians in a day. This method was championed by prominent Franciscans such as Toribio de Benavente , known as "Motolinia", and Las Casas made many enemies among the Franciscans for arguing that conversions made without adequate understanding were invalid. Las Casas wrote

14904-455: The cathedral to transact business. The building, known as the Lonja , was begun in 1584 by Juan de Mijares , using Herrera's plans. The northern rooms of the ground floor were completed in 1598, as recorded by a dedicatory inscription over the central door of the northern façade, and the rest of the ground floor was completed the following year. Work then began on the next level but construction

15088-401: The ceremony was officiated by Loaysa's nephew, Diego de Loaysa , Bishop of Modruš , with Pedro Torres , Titular Bishop of Arbanum , and Cristóbal de Pedraza , Bishop of Comayagua , as co-consecrators. As a bishop Las Casas was involved in frequent conflicts with the encomenderos and secular laity of his diocese: among the landowners there was the conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo . In

15272-459: The cloister, the dormitory, and refectory. Silence was maintained unless the prioress granted an exception for a specific cause. Speaking was allowed in the common parlor, but it was subordinate to strict rules, and the prioress, subprioress or other senior nun had to be present. As well as sewing, embroidery and other genteel pursuits, the nuns participated in a number of intellectual activities, including reading and discussing pious literature. In

15456-519: The college. Bartolomé de Las Casas died on 18 July 1566, in Madrid. The text, written 1516, starts by describing its purpose: to present "The remedies that seem necessary in order that the evil and harm that exists in the Indies cease, and that God and our Lord the Prince may draw greater benefits than hitherto, and that the republic may be better preserved and consoled." Las Casas's first proposed remedy

15640-419: The commissioners broke down. Las Casas had become a hated figure by Spaniards all over the islands, and he had to seek refuge in the Dominican monastery. The Dominicans had been the first to indict the encomenderos, and they continued to chastise them and refuse the absolution of confession to slave owners, and even stated that priests who took their confession were committing a mortal sin . In May 1517, Las Casas

15824-446: The conclusions of his Democrates Alter , and then the council listened to Las Casas read his counterarguments in the form of an "Apología". Sepúlveda argued that the subjugation of certain Indians was warranted because of their sins against Natural Law; that their low level of civilization required civilized masters to maintain social order; that they should be made Christian and that this in turn required them to be pacified; and that only

16008-462: The construction of a monastery in Puerto Plata on the north coast of Hispaniola, subsequently serving as prior of the convent. In 1527 he began working on his History of the Indies , in which he reported much of what he had witnessed first hand in the conquest and colonization of New Spain. In 1531, he wrote a letter to Garcia Manrique , Count of Osorno , protesting again the mistreatment of

16192-557: The curricular areas, however, theology was the most important. Dartford Priory was established long after the primary period of monastic foundation in England had ended. It emulated, then, the monasteries found in Europe—mainly France and Germany-as well as the monastic traditions of their English Dominican brothers. The first nuns to inhabit Dartford were sent from the priory of Poissy  [ fr ] in France. Even on

16376-556: The defining characteristics of English Dominican spirituality and created a spirituality and collective personality that set them apart. As an adolescent, Dominic de Guzmán had a particular love of theology, and the Scriptures became the foundation of his spirituality. During his studies in Palencia , Spain, there was a dreadful famine, prompting Dominic to sell all of his beloved books and other equipment to help his neighbours. He

16560-418: The diocese had previously belonged. To Las Casas's dismay Bishop Marroquín openly defied the New Laws. While bishop, Las Casas was the principal consecrator of Antonio de Valdivieso , Bishop of Nicaragua (1544). The New Laws were finally repealed on 20 October 1545, and riots broke out against Las Casas, with shots being fired against him by angry colonists. After a year he had made himself so unpopular among

16744-526: The discipline of anthropology . The History of the Indies is a three-volume work begun in 1527 while Las Casas was in the Convent of Puerto de Plata. It found its final form in 1561, when he was working in the Colegio de San Gregorio. Originally planned as a six-volume work, each volume describes a decade of the history of the Indies from the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492 to 1520, and most of it

16928-405: The dismantlement of the city of Asunción and the subsequent gathering of Indians into communities of about 1,000 Indians to be situated as satellites of Spanish towns or mining areas. Here, Las Casas argued, Indians could be better governed, better taught and indoctrinated in the Christian faith, and would be easier to protect from abuse than if they were in scattered settlements. Each town would have

17112-699: The documents arrived in October 1785. Some restructuring of the Casa Lonja to accommodate the materials was required, and a grand marble staircase was added in 1787 after the designs of Lucas Cintara. The archives are rich with autograph material from the first of the Conquistadores to the end of the 19th century. Here are Miguel de Cervantes ' request for an official post, the Bull of Demarcation Inter caetera of Pope Alexander VI in which he divided

17296-473: The emperor on their behalf. Sometimes indigenous nobility even related their cases to him in Spain, for example, the Nahua noble Francisco Tenamaztle from Nochistlán . His influence at court was so great that some even considered that he had the final word in choosing the members of the Council of the Indies . In 1552, Las Casas published A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies . This book, written

17480-527: The encomienda system and putting them instead directly under the Crown as royal tribute-paying subjects. On 20 November 1542, the emperor signed the New Laws abolishing the encomiendas and removing certain officials from the Council of the Indies. The New Laws made it illegal to use Indians as carriers, except where no other transport was available, it prohibited all taking of Indians as slaves, and it instated

17664-568: The encomienda system contributed to its replacement with reducciones . His testimonies on the peaceful nature of the Native Americans also encouraged nonviolent policies concerning the religious conversions of the Indians in New Spain and Peru . It also helped convince more missionaries to come to the Americas to study the indigenous people, such as Bernardino de Sahagún , who learned the native languages to discover more about their cultures and civilizations. The impact of Las Casas's doctrine

17848-533: The entire church; its doctors wrote monumental works in all branches of knowledge, including the extremely important Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas . Its members included popes, cardinals, bishops, legates, inquisitors, confessors of princes, ambassadors, and paciarii (enforcers of the peace decreed by popes or councils). The order's origins in battling heterodoxy influenced its later development and reputation. Many later Dominicans battled heresy as part of their apostolate; many years after Dominic reacted to

18032-487: The establishment of the Kipchak Khanate by Batu), and in 1240 Pope Gregory IX despatched others to Persia and Armenia." The most famous Dominican was Jordanus de Severac who was sent first to Persia then in 1321, together with a companion (Nicolas of Pistoia) to India. Jordanus' work and observations are recorded in two letters he wrote to the friars of Armenia, and a book, Mirabilia , translated as Wonders of

18216-574: The eve of the Dissolution , Prioress Jane Vane wrote to Cromwell on behalf of a postulant, saying that though she had not actually been professed, she was professed in her heart and in the eyes of God. Profession in Dartford Priory seems, then, to have been made based on personal commitment, and one's personal association with God. As heirs of the Dominican priory of Poissy in France, the nuns of Dartford Priory in England were also heirs to

18400-411: The expedition of Nicolás de Ovando . Las Casas became a hacendado and slave owner, receiving a piece of land in the province of Cibao . He participated in slave raids and military expeditions against the native Taíno population of Hispaniola. In 1506, he returned to Spain and completed his studies of canon law at Salamanca. That same year, he was ordained a deacon and then traveled to Rome, where he

18584-419: The faith. It was important for Las Casas that this method be tested without meddling from secular colonists, so he chose a territory in the heart of Guatemala where there were no previous colonies and where the natives were considered fierce and war-like. Because the land had not been possible to conquer by military means, the governor of Guatemala, Alonso de Maldonado , agreed to sign a contract promising that if

18768-425: The first officially appointed " Protector of the Indians ". His extensive writings, the most famous being A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies and Historia de Las Indias , chronicle the first decades of colonization of the Caribbean islands . He described and railed against the atrocities committed by the conquistadores against the Indigenous peoples. Arriving as one of the first Spanish settlers in

18952-530: The first stages of conquest of that region by Francisco Pizarro . His party made it as far as Panama , but had to turn back to Nicaragua due to adverse weather. Lingering for a while in the Dominican convent of Granada , he got into conflict with Rodrigo de Contreras, Governor of Nicaragua, when Las Casas vehemently opposed slaving expeditions by the Governor. In 1536, Las Casas followed a number of friars to Guatemala , where they began to prepare to undertake

19136-410: The following months, being constantly harassed by the Spanish pearl fishers of Cubagua island who traded slaves for alcohol with the natives. Early in 1522, Las Casas left the settlement to complain to the authorities. While he was gone the native Caribs attacked the settlement of Cumaná, burned it to the ground, and killed four of Las Casas's men. He returned to Hispaniola in January 1522, and heard

19320-462: The former merchant guild building in Seville , Spain , built in the late 16th century. It became the repository of archival materials documenting the history of the Spanish Empire in the Americas and Asia. The building was designed by Juan de Herrera ; it is an Italianate example of Spanish Renaissance architecture . This structure and its contents were registered in 1987 by UNESCO as

19504-400: The foundation of the Dominican nuns, thus making the Dominican nuns older than the Dominican friars. Diego sanctioned the building of a monastery for girls whose parents had sent them to the care of the Albigensians because their families were too poor to fulfill their basic needs. The monastery in Prouille would later become Dominic's headquarters for his missionary effort. After two years on

19688-410: The government of the islands. Three Hieronymite monks, Luis de Figueroa , Bernardino de Manzanedo, and Alonso de Santo Domingo, were selected as commissioners to take over the authority of the Indies. Las Casas had a considerable part in selecting them and writing the instructions under which their new government would be instated, largely based on Las Casas's memorial . Las Casas himself was granted

19872-511: The grounds that he did not believe that the man had received sufficient doctrinal instruction. This letter, which reinvoked the old conflict over the requirements for the sacrament of baptism between the two orders, was intended to bring Las Casas in disfavour. However, it did not succeed. One matter in which he invested much effort was the political situation of the Viceroyalty of Peru . In Peru, power struggles between conquistadors and

20056-422: The habit of a Friar Preacher at Rome (1839), and the province of France was canonically erected in 1850. From this province were detached the province of Lyon , called Occitania (1862), that of Toulouse (1869), and that of Canada (1909). The French restoration likewise furnished many laborers to other provinces, to assist in their organization and progress. From it came the master general who remained longest at

20240-480: The hands of stronger ones was preferable to all Indians suffering at the hands of Spaniards. The judge, Fray Domingo de Soto , summarised the arguments. Sepúlveda addressed Las Casas's arguments with twelve refutations, which were again countered by Las Casas. The judges then deliberated on the arguments presented for several months before coming to a verdict. The verdict was inconclusive, and both debaters claimed that they had won. Sepúlveda's arguments contributed to

20424-691: The head of the administration during the 19th century, Père Vincent Jandel (1850–1872). Here should be mentioned the province of Saint Joseph in the United States . Founded in 1805 by Edward Fenwick (1768–1832), afterwards first Bishop of Cincinnati, Ohio (1821–1832). In 1905, it established the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. ,. The province of France has produced many preachers. The conferences of Notre-Dame-de-Paris were inaugurated by Père Lacordaire. The Dominicans of

20608-690: The historical order founded by Dominic of Guzman. The Order of Christ the Saviour is a dispersed Anglo-Catholic Dominican community founded in the 21st century within the Episcopal Church . The Pax Mongolica of the 13th and 14th centuries that united vast parts of the European-Asian continents enabled Western missionaries to travel east. "Dominican friars were preaching the Gospel on the Volga Steppes by 1225 (the year following

20792-773: The increasing demands of female religious establishments on their time and resources. Nonetheless, women's houses dotted the countryside throughout Europe. There were 74 Dominican female houses in Germany, 42 in Italy, 9 in France, 8 in Spain, 6 in Bohemia, 3 in Hungary, and 3 in Poland. Many of the German religious houses that lodged women had been home to communities of women, such as Beguines , that became Dominican once they were taught by

20976-514: The indigenous people endured during the early stages of the Spanish conquest of the Greater Antilles , particularly the island of Hispaniola . Las Casas's point of view can be described as being heavily against some of the Spanish methods of colonization, which, as he described them, inflicted great losses on the indigenous occupants of the islands. In addition, his critique towards the colonizers served to bring awareness to his audience on

21160-431: The information available is taken from visitation records. The "visitation" was an inspection of the province by which visitors to each priory could describe the state of its religious life and its studies at the next chapter. There were four such visits in England and Wales—Oxford, London, Cambridge and York. All Dominican students were required to learn grammar, old and new logic, natural philosophy and theology. Of all of

21344-546: The islands themselves; they even repossessed the encomienda of Fonseca, the Bishop of Burgos . They also carried out an inquiry into the Indian question at which all the encomenderos asserted that the Indians were quite incapable of living freely without their supervision. Las Casas was disappointed and infuriated. When he accused the Hieronymites of being complicit in kidnapping Indians, the relationship between Las Casas and

21528-490: The journey were ill-received, and had to work hard even to survive in the hostile colonies. Las Casas was devastated by the tragic result of his peasant migration scheme, which he felt had been thwarted by his enemies. He decided instead to undertake a personal venture which would not rely on the support of others, and fought to win a land grant on the American mainland which was in its earliest stage of colonization. Following

21712-426: The king, Las Casas had to incorporate the prospect of profits for the royal treasury. He suggested fortifying the northern coast of Venezuela, establishing ten royal forts to protect the Indians and starting up a system of trade in gold and pearls. All the Indian slaves of the New World should be brought to live in these towns and become tribute paying subjects to the king. To secure the grant, Las Casas had to go through

21896-408: The laws in his domain, and instead sent a party to Spain to argue against the laws on behalf of the encomenderos. Las Casas himself was also not satisfied with the laws, as they were not drastic enough and the encomienda system was going to function for many years still under the gradual abolition plan. He drafted a suggestion for an amendment arguing that the laws against slavery were formulated in such

22080-433: The mass baptism practiced by the Franciscans, resulting in a dictum condemning the practice as sacrilegious. But apart from the clerical business, Las Casas had also traveled to Spain for his own purpose: to continue the struggle against the colonists' mistreatment of the Indians. The encomienda had, in fact, legally been abolished in 1523, but it had been reinstituted in 1526, and in 1530 a general ordinance against slavery

22264-595: The mission field, Diego died while traveling back to Spain. Dominic founded the Dominican Order in 1215. Dominic established a religious community in Toulouse in 1214, to be governed by the rule of Saint Augustine and statutes to govern the life of the friars, including the Primitive Constitution. The founding documents establish that the order was founded for two purposes: preaching and the salvation of souls. Henri-Dominique Lacordaire noted that

22448-583: The mission. Las Casas left Guatemala for Mexico, where he stayed for more than a year before setting out for Spain in 1540. In Spain, Las Casas started securing official support for the Guatemalan mission, and he managed to get a royal decree forbidding secular intrusion into the Verapaces for the following five years. He also informed the Theologians of Salamanca , led by Francisco de Vitoria , of

22632-409: The mistreatment of the indigenous peoples of the Americas in colonial times and sent to then-Prince Philip II of Spain . One of the stated purposes for writing the account was Las Casas's fear of Spain coming under divine punishment and his concern for the souls of the native peoples. The account was one of the first attempts by a Spanish writer of the colonial era to depict the unfair treatment that

22816-451: The monarch and discussed the situation in the Indies with him; the king agreed to hear him out in more detail at a later date. While waiting, Las Casas produced a report that he presented to the Bishop of Burgos, Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca , and secretary Lope Conchillos , who were functionaries in complete charge of the royal policies regarding the Indies; both were encomenderos. They were not impressed by his account, and Las Casas had to find

23000-547: The news of the massacre. The rumours even included him among the dead. To make matters worse, his detractors used the event as evidence of the need to pacify the Indians using military means. Devastated, Las Casas reacted by entering the Dominican monastery of Santa Cruz in Santo Domingo as a novice in 1522 and finally taking holy vows as a Dominican friar in 1523. There he continued his theological studies, being particularly attracted to Thomist philosophy. He oversaw

23184-408: The official title of Protector of the Indians , and given a yearly salary of one hundred pesos. In this new office Las Casas was expected to serve as an advisor to the new governors with regard to Indian issues, to speak the case of the Indians in court, and send reports back to Spain. Las Casas and the commissioners traveled to Santo Domingo on separate ships, and Las Casas arrived two weeks later than

23368-504: The order and its scholastic organisation placed it at the forefront of the intellectual life of the Middle Ages . The order is famed for its intellectual tradition and for having produced many leading theologians and philosophers. In 2018, there were 5,747 Dominican friars, including 4,299 priests. The order is headed by the master of the order who, as of 2022 , is Gerard Timoner III . Mary Magdalene and Catherine of Siena are

23552-404: The order maintain its own studium conventuale , thus laying the foundation of the Dominican tradition of sponsoring widespread institutions of learning. The official foundation of the Dominican convent at Santa Sabina with its studium conventuale occurred with the legal transfer of property from Honorius III to the Order of Preachers on June 5, 1222. This studium was transformed into

23736-436: The order produced changes. A smaller emphasis on doctrinal activity favoured the development here and there of the ascetic and contemplative life and there sprang up, especially in Germany and Italy, the mystical movement with which the names of Meister Eckhart , Heinrich Suso , Johannes Tauler , and Catherine of Siena are associated. (See German mysticism , which has also been called "Dominican mysticism".) This movement

23920-401: The order's first studium generale . Dominic was to establish similar foundations at other university towns of the day, Bologna in 1218, Palencia and Montpellier in 1220, and Oxford just before his death in 1221. The women of the order also established schools for the children of the local gentry. In 1219, Pope Honorius III invited Dominic and his companions to take up residence at

24104-487: The order's first studium provinciale by Thomas Aquinas in 1265. Part of the curriculum of this studium was relocated in 1288 at the studium of Santa Maria sopra Minerva which in the 16th century world be transformed into the College of Saint Thomas ( Latin : Collegium Divi Thomæ ). In the 20th century the college would be relocated to the convent of Saints Dominic and Sixtus and would be transformed into

24288-597: The order, and consist of members ordained to the priesthood as well as non-ordained members, known as cooperator brothers. Both priests and cooperators participate in a variety of ministries, including preaching, parish assignments, educational ministries, social work, and related fields. Dominican life is organized into four pillars that define the order's chrism: prayer, study, community and preaching. Dominicans are known for their intellectual rigor that informs their preaching, as well as engaging in academic debate with contemporary scholars. A significant period of academic study

24472-474: The other, the Friars Preachers, led by Dominic de Guzmán . Like his contemporary, Francis, Dominic saw the need for a new type of organization, and the quick growth of the Dominicans and Franciscans during their first century of existence confirms that conditions were favorable for the growth of the orders of mendicant friars . The Dominicans and other mendicant orders may have been an adaptation to

24656-481: The overwhelming force of the crusades brought against them. Diego suggested another reason that was possibly aiding the spread of the reform movement. The representatives of the Catholic Church acted and moved with an offensive amount of pomp and ceremony. In contrast, the Cathars generally led ascetic lifestyles . To try persuasion in place of persecution, Diego suggested that the regional papal legates begin to live

24840-639: The papal mandate of peacefully bringing Christianity to heathen peoples could "Just Titles" be acquired. As a part of Las Casas's defense by offense, he had to argue against Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda . Sepúlveda was a doctor of theology and law who, in his book Democrates Alter, sive de justis causis apud Indos (Another Democrates, or A New Democrates, or on the Just Causes of War against the Indians) had argued that some native peoples were incapable of ruling themselves and should be pacified forcefully. The book

25024-462: The passage of the New Laws in 1542. He was appointed Bishop of Chiapas , but served only for a short time before he was forced to return to Spain because of resistance to the New Laws by the encomenderos , and conflicts with Spanish settlers because of his pro-Indian policies and activist religious stance. He served in the Spanish court for the remainder of his life; there he held great influence over Indies-related issues. In 1550, he participated in

25208-413: The physical abuse and suffering of the Indians. In keeping with the legal and moral doctrine of the time, Las Casas believed that slavery could be justified if it was the result of Just War , and at the time he assumed that the enslavement of Africans was justified. Worried by Las Casas' descriptions of the situation in the Indies, Cardinal Cisneros decided to send a group of Hieronymite monks to take over

25392-637: The plan of convincing the King to end the encomienda system. This was easier thought than done, as most of the people who were in positions of power were themselves either encomenderos or otherwise profiting from the influx of wealth from the Indies. In the winter of 1515, King Ferdinand lay ill in Plasencia , but Las Casas was able to get a letter of introduction to the king from the Archbishop of Seville, Diego de Deza . On Christmas Eve of 1515, Las Casas met

25576-602: The plan's execution. Two basic motivations underlay the project. One was practical, the lack of space in the Archivo General de Simancas , the central repository of the Spanish Crown, There was also the expectation, in the spirit of the Enlightenment , that Spanish historians would take up the history of Spain's overseas empire. It was decided that, for the time being, documents evolved after 1760 would remain with their primary institutions. The first cartloads of

25760-673: The policy of "war by fire and blood" that the Third Mexican Provincial Council implemented in 1585 during the Chichimeca War . According to Lewis Hanke , while Sepúlveda became the hero of the conquistadors , his success was short-lived, and his works were never published in Spain again during his lifetime. Las Casas's ideas had a more lasting impact on the decisions of the king, Philip II , as well as on history and human rights . Las Casas's criticism of

25944-555: The protection of the Illustrious and Reverend Lord D. Fr. Francisco Lasso de la Vega y Cordova, bishop of Plasencia , with privilege, printed in Madrid at the printing press of Geronimo Roxo. During the early 19th century, the number of Preachers seems never to have sunk below 3,500. Statistics for 1876 show 3,748, but 500 of these had been expelled from their convents and were engaged in parochial work. Statistics for 1910 show

26128-479: The province of France furnished Lacordaire (1835–1836, 1843–1851), Jacques Monsabré , and Joseph Ollivier. The pulpit of Notre Dame has been occupied by a succession of Dominicans. Père Henri Didon (1840–1900) was a Dominican. The house of studies of the province of France publishes L'Année Dominicaine (founded 1859), La Revue des Sciences Philosophiques et Theologiques (1907), and La Revue de la Jeunesse (1909). French Dominicans founded and administer

26312-504: The regents a written account of the situation in the Indies and his proposed remedies. This was his " Memorial de Remedios para Las Indias " of 1516. In this early work, Las Casas advocated importing black slaves from Africa to relieve the suffering Indians, a stance he later retracted, becoming an advocate for the Africans in the colonies as well. This shows that Las Casas's first concern was not to end slavery as an institution, but to end

26496-615: The restoration of the Preachers. Several institutions, besides those already mentioned, played important parts. Such is the École Biblique at Jerusalem , open to the religious of the order and to secular clerics, which publishes the Revue Biblique . The Pontificium Collegium Internationale Angelicum , the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas ( Angelicum ) established in Rome in 1908 by Master Hyacinth Cormier , opened its doors to regulars and seculars for

26680-465: The rise of the profit economy in medieval Europe. Dominic sought to establish a new kind of order, one that would bring the dedication and systematic education of the older monastic orders like the Benedictines to bear on the religious problems of the burgeoning population of cities, but with more organizational flexibility than either monastic orders or the secular clergy. The Order of Preachers

26864-513: The settlement of the monks because of the repeated slave raids by Spaniards operating from Cubagua. As Ocampo's ships began returning with slaves from the land Las Casas had been granted, he went to Hispaniola to complain to the Audiencia . After several months of negotiations Las Casas set sail alone; the peasants he had brought had deserted, and he arrived in his colony already ravaged by Spaniards. Las Casas worked there in adverse conditions for

27048-584: The sick. St Ursula's returned to an enclosed life in the 18th century, but in the 19th century, after Napoleon had closed many European convents, King Louis I of Bavaria in 1828 restored the Religious Orders of women in his realm, provided that the nuns undertook some active work useful to the State (usually teaching or nursing). In 1877, Bishop Ricards in South Africa requested that Augsburg send

27232-409: The sicknesses they incur from the excessive labor you give them, and they die, or rather you kill them, in order to extract and acquire gold every day." Las Casas himself argued against the Dominicans in favor of the justice of the encomienda . The colonists, led by Diego Columbus , dispatched a complaint against the Dominicans to the King, and the Dominicans were recalled from Hispaniola. In 1513, as

27416-517: The statutes had similarities with the constitutions of the Premonstratensians , indicating that Dominic had drawn inspiration from the reform of Prémontré. In July 1215, with the approbation of Bishop Foulques of Toulouse , Dominic ordered his followers into an institutional life. Its purpose was revolutionary in the pastoral ministry of the Catholic Church. These priests were organized and well trained in religious studies. Dominic needed

27600-605: The study of the sacred sciences. In addition to the reviews above are the Revue Thomiste , founded by Père Thomas Coconnier ( d. 1908), and the Analecta Ordinis Prædicatorum (1893). Among numerous writers of the order in this period are: Cardinals Thomas Zigliara ( d. 1893) and Zephirin González ( d. 1894), two esteemed philosophers; Alberto Guillelmotti ( d. 1893), historian of

27784-435: The tools and resources they needed to establish themselves there. The recruitment drive was difficult, and during the process the power relation shifted at court when Chancellor Sauvage, Las Casas's main supporter, unexpectedly died. In the end a much smaller number of peasant families were sent than originally planned, and they were supplied with insufficient provisions and no support secured for their arrival. Those who survived

27968-493: The total labor, so that a part of the Indians were always resting and taking care of the sick. He proposed 12 other remedies, all having the specific aim of improving the situation for the Indians and limiting the powers that colonists were able to exercise over them. The second part of the Memorial described suggestions for the social and political organization of Indian communities relative to colonial ones. Las Casas advocated

28152-492: The traveling preachers and put under the jurisdiction of the Dominican authoritative structure. A number of these houses became centers of study and mystical spirituality in the 14th century, as expressed in works such as the sister-books . There were 157 nunneries in the order by 1358. After that year, the number lessened considerably due to the Black Death. In places besides Germany, convents were founded as retreats from

28336-468: The true meaning of Christianity, to dismantle any misconceptions on evangelization. His account was largely responsible for the adoption of the New Laws of 1542 , which abolished native slavery for the first time in European colonial history and led to the Valladolid debate . The book became an important element in the creation and propagation of the so-called Black Legend – the tradition of describing

28520-419: The use of African slaves to replace Indigenous labor. He did so without knowing that the Portuguese were carrying out "brutal and unjust wars in the name of spreading the faith". Later in life, he retracted this position, as he regarded both forms of slavery as equally wrong. In 1522, Las Casas tried to launch a new kind of peaceful colonialism on the coast of Venezuela , but this venture failed. He then entered

28704-461: The venture was successful he would not establish any new encomiendas in the area. Las Casas's group of friars established a Dominican presence in Rabinal , Sacapulas , and Cobán . Through the efforts of Las Casas's missionaries the so-called "Land of War" came to be called " Verapaz ", "True Peace". Las Casas's strategy was to teach Christian songs to merchant Indian Christians who then ventured into

28888-408: The viceroy became an open civil war in which the conquistadors led by Gonzalo Pizarro rebelled against the New Laws and defeated and executed the viceroy Blasco Núñez Vela in 1546. The emperor sent Pedro de la Gasca , a friend of Las Casas, to reinstate the rule of law, and he in turn defeated Pizarro. To restabilize the political situation the encomenderos started pushing not only for the repeal of

29072-425: The viceroyalty to the brink of open rebellion, and could result in the Crown losing the colony entirely. The emperor, probably because of the doubts caused by Las Casas's arguments, never took a final decision on the issue of the encomiendas. In 1561, he finished his Historia de las Indias and signed it over to the College of San Gregorio, stipulating that it could not be published until after forty years. In fact it

29256-459: The work and spirituality of the order is study, the method most used by the Dominicans in working to defend the church against the perils it faced. In Dominic's thinking, it was impossible for men to preach what they did not or could not understand. On August 15, 1217, Dominic dispatched seven of his followers to the great university center of Paris to establish a priory focused on study and preaching. The Convent of St. Jacques would eventually become

29440-457: The world between Spain and Portugal, the journal of Christopher Columbus , maps and plans of Spanish American cities, in addition to the ordinary records that reveal the month-to-month workings of the whole vast bureaucatic machinery of the empire. These have been mined by historians in the last two centuries. Today, the Archive of the Indies houses some nine kilometers of shelving, in 43,000 volumes and some 80 million pages, which were produced by

29624-409: The world for women of the upper classes. These were original projects funded by wealthy patrons. Among these was Countess Margaret of Flanders who established the monastery of Lille, while Val-Duchesse at Oudergem near Brussels was built with the wealth of Adelaide of Burgundy, Duchess of Brabant (1262). Female houses differed from male Dominican houses in that they were enclosed. The sisters chanted

29808-495: The writer of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili ) and Matteo Bandello . Many Dominicans took part in the artistic activity of the age, the most prominent being Fra Angelico and Fra Bartolomeo . Although Dominic and the early brethren had instituted female Dominican houses at Prouille and other places by 1227, houses of women attached to the Order became so popular that some of the friars had misgivings about

29992-407: The years 1220 and 1221. More recent General Chapters have been held as follows: The General Chapter elects a Master of the Order , who has "broad and direct authority over every brother, convent and province, and over every nun and monastery". The master is considered the successor of Dominic, the first Master of the Order, who envisioned the office to be one of service to the community. The master

30176-437: The young king Charles I. Ximenez died on 8 November, and the young King arrived in Valladolid on 25 November 1517. Las Casas managed to secure the support of the king's Flemish courtiers, including the powerful Chancellor Jean de la Sauvage. Las Casas's influence turned the favor of the court against Secretary Conchillos and Bishop Fonseca. Sauvage spoke highly of Las Casas to the king, who appointed Las Casas and Sauvage to write

30360-630: Was a 20-year military campaign initiated by Pope Innocent III to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc , in southern France . Dominic saw the need for a response that would attempt to sway members of the Albigensian movement back to mainstream Catholic thought. Dominic became inspired to achieve this by preaching and teaching, starting near Toulouse , since the Albigensian Christians refused to compromise their principles despite

30544-403: Was a change in the labor policy so that instead of a colonist owning the labor of specific Indians, he would have a right to man-hours, to be carried out by no specific persons. This required the establishment of self-governing Indian communities on the land of colonists – who would themselves organize to provide the labor for their patron. The colonist would only have rights to a certain portion of

30728-427: Was a complete moratorium on the use of Indian labor in the Indies until such time as better regulations of it were set in place. This was meant simply to halt the decimation of the Indian population and to give the surviving Indians time to reconstitute themselves. Las Casas feared that at the rate the exploitation was proceeding it would be too late to hinder their annihilation unless action were taken rapidly. The second

30912-710: Was also denied the possibilities of extracting gold and pearls, which made it difficult for him to find investors for the venture. Las Casas committed himself to producing 15,000 ducats of annual revenue, increasing to 60,000 after ten years, and to erecting three Christian towns of at least 40 settlers each. Some privileges were also granted to the initial 50 shareholders in Las Casas's scheme. The king also promised not to give any encomienda grants in Las Casas's area. That said, finding fifty men willing to invest 200 ducats each and three years of unpaid work proved impossible for Las Casas. He ended up leaving in November 1520 with just

31096-601: Was also limited. In 1550, the king had ordered that the conquest should cease, because the Valladolid debate was to decide whether the war was just or not. The government's orders were hardly respected; conquistadors such as Pedro de Valdivia went on to wage war in Chile during the first half of the 1550s. Expanding the Spanish territory in the New World was allowed again in May 1556, and a decade later, Spain started its conquest of

31280-452: Was also, however, a group of Englishmen. Its direct supervisors were from England, and the members of the English Province dwelt and labored in English cities, towns, villages, and roadways. English and European ingredients constantly came in contact. The international side of the province's existence influenced the national, and the national responded to, adapted, and sometimes constrained the international. The first Dominican site in England

31464-431: Was approved in December 1216 and January 1217 by Pope Honorius III in the papal bulls Religiosam vitam and Nos attendentes . On January 21, 1217, Honorius issued the bull Gratiarum omnium recognizing Dominic's followers as an order dedicated to study and universally authorized to preach, a power formerly reserved to local episcopal authorization. Along with charity, the other concept that most defines

31648-426: Was at Oxford, in the parishes of St. Edward and St. Adelaide. The friars built an oratory to the Blessed Virgin Mary and by 1265, the brethren, in keeping with their devotion to study, began erecting a school. The Dominican brothers likely began a school immediately after their arrival, as priories were legally schools. Information about the schools of the English Province is limited, but a few facts are known. Much of

31832-441: Was deemed unsound for publication by the theologians of Salamanca and Alcalá for containing unsound doctrine, but the pro-encomendero faction seized on Sepúlveda as their intellectual champion. To settle the issues, a formal debate was organized, the famous Valladolid debate , which took place in 1550–51 with Sepúlveda and Las Casas each presenting their arguments in front of a council of jurists and theologians. First Sepúlveda read

32016-413: Was forced to travel back to Spain to denounce to the regent the failure of the Hieronymite reforms. Only after Las Casas had left did the Hieronymites begin to congregate Indians into towns similar to what Las Casas had wanted. When he arrived in Spain, his former protector, regent, and Cardinal Ximenez Cisneros , was ill and had become tired of Las Casas's tenacity. Las Casas resolved to meet instead with

32200-426: Was founded in response to a perceived need for informed preaching. Dominic's new order was to be trained to preach in the vernacular languages. Dominic inspired his followers with loyalty to learning and virtue, a deep recognition of the spiritual power of worldly deprivation and the religious state, and a highly developed governmental structure. At the same time, Dominic inspired the members of his order to develop

32384-439: Was made a canon and ordained to the priesthood in the monastery of Santa María de La Vid. After completing his studies, Bishop Martin Bazan and Prior Diego de Acebo appointed him to the cathedral chapter of Osma . In 1203, Dominic de Guzmán joined Diego de Acebo , the Bishop of Osma , on a diplomatic mission to Denmark for the monarchy of Spain, to arrange the marriage between the son of King Alfonso VIII of Castile and

32568-424: Was met by a barrage of accusations, many of them based on his Confesionario and its 12 rules, which many of his opponents found to be in essence a denial of the legitimacy of Spanish rule of its colonies, and hence a form of treason . The Crown had for example received a fifth of the large number of slaves taken in the recent Mixtón War , and so could not be held clean of guilt under Las Casas's strict rules. In 1548,

32752-460: Was not published for 314 years, until 1875. He also had to repeatedly defend himself against accusations of treason: someone, possibly Sepúlveda , denounced him to the Spanish Inquisition , but nothing came from the case. Las Casas also appeared as a witness in the case of the Inquisition for his friend Archbishop Bartolomé Carranza de Miranda , who had been falsely accused of heresy. In 1565, he wrote his last will, signing over his immense library to

32936-431: Was ordained a secular priest in 1507. In September 1510, a group of Dominican friars arrived in Santo Domingo led by Pedro de Córdoba ; appalled by the injustices they saw committed by the slave owners against the Indians, they decided to deny slave owners the right to confession . Las Casas was among those denied confession for this reason. In December 1511, a Dominican preacher Fray Antonio de Montesinos preached

33120-435: Was paused in 1601 due to funding problems. Work resumed in 1609 but the building was not finished until 1646. Work was directed until 1629 by the archbishop Juan de Zumárraga and finished by Pedro Sanchez Falconete . The building encloses a large central patio with ranges of two storeys, the windows set in slightly sunken panels between flat pilasters . Plain square tablets float in the space above each window. The building

33304-428: Was reversed by the Crown. For this reason it was a pressing matter for Bartolomé de las Casas to plead once again for the Indians with Charles V who was by now Holy Roman Emperor and no longer a boy. He wrote a letter asking for permission to stay in Spain a little longer to argue for the emperor that conversion and colonization were best achieved by peaceful means. When the hearings started in 1542, Las Casas presented

33488-458: Was the prelude to the reforms undertaken, at the end of the century, by Raymond of Capua , and continued in the following century. At the same time, the order found itself face to face with the Renaissance . It struggled against pagan tendencies in Renaissance humanism , in Italy through Dominici and Savonarola, in Germany through the theologians of Cologne but it also furnished humanism with such advanced writers as Francesco Colonna (probably

33672-440: Was to introduce a new kind of sustainable colonization, and Las Casas advocated supporting the migration of Spanish peasants to the Indies where they would introduce small-scale farming and agriculture, a kind of colonization that did not rely on resource depletion and Indian labor. Las Casas worked to recruit a large number of peasants who would want to travel to the islands, where they would be given lands to farm, cash advances, and

33856-416: Was used as a painting academy established by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo . By the 18th century, the building's upper floor had been partitioned for use as apartments. On 12 March 1784, Juan Bautista Muñoz , a historian who was attempting to write a history of the New World , wrote to José de Gálvez , the Minister of the Indies, suggesting the idea of creating a centralized archive for documents relating to

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