broken, and how many promises rendered worthless by the faithlessness Among those who cried out in defense

who cried out in defense of the Indian was

of princes; and those that have been best able to imitate the fox have Bartholomew de Las Casas (1474-1566), who had come as a
succeeded best. . . . · conqueror, but soon joined the Dominican Order of Friars.
It is not, therefore, necessary for a prince to have all the above- After spending years as Bishop of Chiapas in Mexico, he re-
named qualities, but it is very necessary to seem to have them. I would turned to Spain and published a devastating account of the
treatment of Indians by the Spaniards. Though some scholars
even be bold to say that to possess them and always to observe them is
have argued that he told a one-sided story, and though his fig-
dangerous, but to appear to possess them is useful. Thus it is well to ures are exaggerated, his account is generally correct.
seem merciful, faithful, humane, sincere, religious, and also to be so; but
you must have the mind so disposed that when it is needful to be other-
wise you may be able to change to the opposite qualities. And it must be
understood that a prince, and especially a new prince, cannot observe In the island of Hispafiola .:_ which was the first . . . to be in-
all those things which are considered good in men, being often obliged vaded by the Christians - the immense massacres and destruction of
in order to maintain the state to act against faith, against charity, against [the Indians] began. It was the first to be destroyed and made into a des-
humanity, and against religion. And therefore he must have a mind dis- ert. The Christians began by taking the women and children, to use and
posed to adapt itself according to the wind and as the variations of for- to abuse them, and to eat of the substance of their toil and labor, instead
tune dictate, and, as I said before, not deviate from what is good, if pos- of contenting themselves with what the Indians gave them spontane-
sible, but be able to do evil if constrained [compelled]. ously, according to the means of each. Such stores are always small, be-
A prince must take great care that nothing goes out of his mouth cause they keep no more than they ordinarily need, which they acquire
which is not full of the above-named five qualities, and, to see and hear with little labor; but what is enough for three households of ten persons
him, he should seem to be all mercy, faith, integrity, humanity, and each for a month, a Christian eats and destroys in one day. From their
religion. using force, violence, and other kinds of vexations the Indians began to
perceive that these men could not have come from heaven. . ..
The Christians, with their horses and swords and lances, began to
slaughter and practice strange cruelty among them. They penetrated
The Brutality of the into the country and spared . neither children nor the aged, nor . . .
women, . . . all of whom they ran through the body and lacerated, as
though they were assaulting so many lambs herded in their sheepfold.
Conquerors in the New World They made a gallows just high enough for the feet to nearly touch
the ground, and by thirteens, . . . they put wood underneath and, with
The rich, sparsely populated lands of the New World brought fire, they burned the Indians. . . .
many adventurers and settlers from Europe where the popula- They generally killed the lords and nobles in the following way:
tion was comparatively dense and opportunity limited. Those they made wooden gridirons of stakes, bound them upon them, and
ambitious adventurers who won an empire for Spain in the made a slow fire beneath; thus the victims gave up the spirit by degrees,
decades after the discovery of the New World are known as the emitting cries of despair in their torture. . . . ·
conquistadores. The conquest of the native people was accorn- And because all the people who could flee hid among the moun-
plished by superior weapons, treachery, and bloodshed. Whole
civilizations were destroyed in Mexico and Peru. The territory Source: Francis A. MacNutt, Bartholomew de Las Casas: His Life, His Apos-
was robbed of its precious metals, and the inhabitants were often tate, and His Writings, New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1909, pp. 318-21. Re-
subjected to extreme cruelty. · printed by permission of the publishers.

172 173
 tains and climbed the crags to escape from men so deprived of human- [Eck, Official of the Archbishop of Trier, asked Luther:] Do
ity, so wicked, such wild beasts, exterminators and capital enemies of all you wish to defend the boc;,ks which are recognized as your work? Or to
the human race, the Spaniards taught and trained the fiercest boar- retract anything contained in them? . . .
hounds to tear an Indian to pieces as soon as they saw him, so that they [Luther replied:] Most serene Lord Emperor, most illustrious
)
more willingly attacked and ate one than if he had been a boar. These I Princes, most gracious Lords: . . . I beseech you to grant a gracious
· hounds made great havoc and slaughter. hearing to my plea, which I trust will be a plea of justice and truth; and
And because sometimes, though rarely, the Indians killed a few if through my inexperience I neglect to give to any their proper titles
Christians for just cause, they made a law· among themselves that for or in any way offend against the etiquette of the court in my manners
one Christian whom the Indians killed, the Christians should kill a or behavior, be kind enough to forgive me, I beg, since I am a man who
hundred Indians. has spent his life not in courts but in the cells of a monastery; a man
who can say of himself only this, that to this day I have thought and
written in simplicity of heart, solely with a view to the glory of God and
the pure instruction of Christ's faithful people ....
Your Imperial Majesty and your Lordships: I ask you to observe
that my books are not all ofthe same kind.
Luther Refuses to Submit There are some in which I have dealt with piety in faith and morals
with such simplicity and so agreeably with the Gospels that my ad-
to the Diet of Warms versaries themselves are compelled to admit them useful, harmless, and
clearly worth reading by a Christian. . . .
. \_. The second kind consists in those writings leveled against the pa-
When Martin Luther posted his ninety-five theses on the door pacy and the doctrine of the papists, as against those who by their
of the court church at Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, he ex-
wicked doctrines and precedents have laid waste Christendom by doing
pected. to initiate a scholarly debate. Instead he found himself
at the head of a great revolution. Within a few years it became harm to the souls and the bodies of men. No one can either deny or
clear that he differed with the Church not only on the matter conceal this, for universal experience and worldwide grievances are wit-
of abuses but also on fundamental religious doctrines. nesses to the fact that through the Pope's laws and through manmade
By 1520 Luther had set forth views on religion ( such as teachings the consciences of the faithful have been most pitifully en-
justification by faith alone) that undermined the basis of the snared, troubled, and racked in torment, and also that their goods and
Catholic priesthood. When the Pope issued a bull threatening possessions have been devoured ( especially amongst this famous Ger-
him with excommunication, Luther in defiance publicly burned man nation) by unbelievable tyranny, and are to this day being de-
the papal bull. In 1521 he was summoned by the Holy Roman voured without end in shameful fashion. . . .
Emperor, Charles V, to defend his position before the Imperial The third kind consists of those books which I have written against
Diet at Worms. There, in a dramatic encounter with his oppo- private individuals, so-called; against those, that is, who have exerted
nents, Luther again refused to retract his opinions. The Diet
themselves in defense of the Roman tyranny and to the overthrow of
thereupon condemned him and declared him an outlaw. To his
protection came his prince, Frederick the Wise, Elector of Sax- that piety which I have taught. . . . ·
ony, who took him to his castle. Luther's stand before the Diet However, since I am a man and not God, I cannot provide my
made him a popular hero in many parts of Germany.
The Dr. Eck mentioned in the selection debated with Source: Henry Bettenson, editor, Documents of the Christian Church, Lon-
don: Oxford University Press, 1947, pp. 283-85; and from Documents of the Conti-
Luther in 1519 and was instrumental in having Luther's doc- nental Reformation, edited by the Reverend B. J. Kidd, Oxford: The Clarendon
trines condemned by the Pope. Press, 1911. Reprintedby permission of the publishers.
174 175