Las Casas, a pre-modern disciple of Jesus Christ

The Scriptures inspired the lives of many a woman and men of many cultures and times. We do not know about the reactions of the assembly of Christians listening to the homily of Hebrews in the old Church. I want to tell of an example how a single verse of the Bible or some few sentences of a preacher were able to touch the existence of a listener and lead to change his life. I want to speak of the conversion of Las Casas from a sinner and exploiter of women and men slaves to a servant of peace and justice without hiding the life-long process of the individual woman, man and queer of always acting by interacting with the constructive and destructive structures of the Umwelt. For a short description of the life of Las Casas I follow Álvaro Huerga (Huerga, Álvaro. 1998. “Vida y Obras.” In Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas. Obras Completas Vol 1. Madrid: Alianza Editorial).

Bartolomé de Las Casas was born in Seville, Spain in about 1493 CE and in 1566 CE he died in the Dominican College of San Gregorio in Valladolid, Spain. His father Pedro de Las Casas served as a mercenary; he was a colonist in the Indies and a trader in Andalusia. In 1493, he accompanied Christopher Colombus on his second journey. When he came back six years later, his stories contributed to the opening of young Bartholomew’s horizon. Was he of an old Christian family or did his family recently get baptized? We do not know. Nor does Bartholomew ever mention his mother. We do not know her name. We know he had four sisters. Until 1502, Bartholomew stayed in Seville. Since the triumphant entry of Christopher Columbus in 1493, Seville was increasing the number of its 50.000 inhabitants daily. In the 16th century, Seville became the major harbour to connect Europe with the New World (Huerga 1998, 27–37).

On February 13th of 1502, Las Casas junior went to the Indies himself in order to make his fortune and get rich. He reached the island Santo Domingo on April 15 of that year. Thanks to the experience of his father, Bartholomé was better prepared for the real and hard life than most of the conquerors that reached the New World. Nevertheless, he was just one more of the many Spanish colonists and behaved like one. He took part in at least one expedition to fight Indians in rebellion against the Spanish, who forced them to work in the mines and farms. Las Casas received for his part in the suppression the title conquistador and he got some Indians to work at his farm as slaves and as serfs in the gold mines. In 1506, Bartolome travelled back to Spain and Rome. We do not know what he was doing there (ibid, 39–46).

In 1513, he went back to Santo Domingo. The Caribbean Island of Santo Domingo is called the Hispaniola, the Spanish. She was the first Spanish colony in the New World. The eastern two-thirds of the island form today’s Dominican Republic, which borders on the Republic of Haiti. The island lies about 100 kilometers west of Puerto Rico and about 200 kilometers east of Cuba and Jamaica. Las Casas was tired of the hard work in the gold mines. He built himself a house, a little fortress made of wood and clay, protected by the river and a wall. Bartholomé was making a living as an agricultural colonist and was searching for gold in the Yanique river. In September of 1510, the first small group of five Dominicans arrived on the island to preach the Gospel to the colony and all their inhabitants. Two groups were to follow later. The Dominicans observed the barbarity of the Spanish conquerors for a year. In 1511, they began denouncing the abuses of the colonizers and proclaimed human Christian rights for the Taínas, as the local Indians are called. On December 21, 1511, the Dominican brother Antonio Montesino preached to the Spanish. His superior Pedro de Cordoba and the other Dominican brothers backed Montesino claiming that the Spanish on the island were living in mortal sin because of the tyranny and cruelty with which they were abusing and killing the innocent native population. He founded his sermon on John 1, 23.

Las Casas testifies in his History of the Indies that John the Baptist used the words of the prophet Isaiah: “I am a voice of one that cries in the desert: Prepare a way for the Lord!” Montesino in the wastelands of the colony cried in the name of Jesus Christ that the Spanish had no authority to do what they did. The Indians are humans with rational souls, they must be loved by the Spanish as they would love themselves and must be taught the Gospel, baptized and treated respectfully of their rights.

In the name of all Dominicans on the island, Montesino brought forth the prophetic, historic, heroic and movingly empathic denunciation of the rude abuse and killings of Indians as serfs and slaves for the Spanish whom he called sterile conscienceless sinners. The Spanish were oppressing and starving the Indians to death, refusing to treat their sick and negating them the status of humans. The governor and his Spanish colonizers were furiously protesting to the king, the Dominicans were defending themselves. Las Casas was on the side of the Spanish governor Diego Colon who was the son of Christopher Columbus. The son took his father’s title as an Admiral and married Maria de Toledo. Thus, he enjoyed the protection of his wife’s father, the powerful Duke of Alba. Diego Colon’s talent to found and govern cities was as poor as his father’s was. The protest of the Dominicans resulted in the Laws of Burgos of 1512, a first step to defend some rights of the Indians. When in 1511, Brother Antonio Montesino denounced the Spanish tyranny as a living in mortal sin, the encomendero Las Casas listened but did not agree. Montesino took the story of John the Baptist as a model for righteous Christian behavior (ibid, 47–56).

In the Gospel of John, the Baptist uses the simple name John that contrasts with the prestigious priests and Levites, the ministers serving in the Temple of Jerusalem, who listen to his witness. The priests and Levites are a bad example for the people of Israel. John is a good example and Matthew, Mark and Luke have the people listen to John because in the desert he bears witness to the voice that cries, “Prepare a way for the Lord.  Make his paths straight” (John 1, 23).  The Gospel of John stays closer to the Hebrew text than Matthew, Mark and Luke. John uses in its citation from Isaiah 40, 3 the verb “make straight” and not the verb “prepare” as does the Septuagint.

The correct translation of the Hebrew text of Isaiah 40, 3 reads, “A voice cries, make straight in the desert a way for Yahweh”. The Septuagint mistakenly makes cry the voice in the desert, “A voice of one that cries in the desert”. The historic situation of Montesino corresponds to the desert. The way must be made straight in the desert of Hispaniola, where the Spanish live in mortal sin. To straighten the way would mean to respect the rights of the Indians and to stop forced baptizing, labor and slavery. This sermon of Montesino will later serve Las Casas as a model. Like Montesino, Las Casas will tell the Spanish that it is mortal sin to enslave people and take away their personal liberty and freedom of religion.

John the Baptist exhorts to join the way of Jesus. To describe my understanding of the sentence “make straight the way of the Lord” I interpret “join the way of the Lord”. John uses the verb straighten. The Hebrew uses the verb nth, which means “to stretch, to incline, to turn”. It is legitimate therefore to interpret “Turn on the way of the Lord”, or “Join the way of the Lord”.

The way of Jesus becomes the way of Montesino and with the help of Montesino’s sermon on John the Baptist, eventually the way of Las Casas.

Using the Gospel, brother Montesino gave force to his argument. John the Baptist denounces the exploitation of the poor by the priests, Levites, and tax collectors with the voice of the Prophet Isaiah. The author of the Gospel of John turns to the century old tradition of the prophets of Israel, who fought corruption, complained that the kings forgot about Go’d, and denounced the exploitation of the people.

450 years after Brother Antonio Montesino’s denunciation of the Spanish tyranny in Latin America using the words of John the Baptist “Prepare a way for the Lord. Make his paths straight” (John 1, 23) on October 28 of 1958, the newly elected pope of the Roman Catholic Church cited the same verses from John’s Gospel in order to outline the aim of his pontificate and took the name of John, becoming Pope John XXIII, the Good Pope (Alberigo, Giuseppe. 1995. “L’ annuncio del concilio. Dalle sicurezze dell’arroccamento al fascino della ricerca.” In Il cattolicesimo verso una nuova stagione. L`annuncio e la preparazione gennaio 1959 – settembre 1962. Vol. 1 of Storia del concilio Vaticano II, directed by Giuseppe Alberigo, 19–70. 27. Bologna: Società editrice il Mulino).

I turn again to Huerga (Huerga 1998). Years before his conversion to join the way of the just world of Go’d, Las Casas was at the same time serving as a priest and following his activities as a colonizer. We cannot say when Bartholomew received his priestly ordination. One of the Dominicans refused him the absolution of his sins in confession because he had continued exploiting slaves as priest. He still took part in the military expedition to colonize Cuba. His part was to preach and baptize Indians. Gradually though, he was able to realize what he heard preaching the Dominicans.

In Cuba at Easter of 1514, his conversion came near. In his History of the Indies, he testifies that Ecclesiasticus 34, 18–22 struck him very deeply and he cites the Vulgate from memory (ibid, 57–62).

I am citing Ecclesiasticus 34, 18–22 according to the New Jerusalem Bible.

“The sacrifice of an offering unjustly acquired is a mockery; the gifts of the impious are unacceptable. The Most High takes no pleasure in offerings from the godless, multiplying sacrifices will not gain pardon for sin. Offering sacrifice from the property of the poor is as bad as slaughtering a son before his father’s eyes. A meager diet is the very life of the poor, to deprive them of it is to commit murder. To take away a fellow-man’s livelihood is to kill him, to deprive an employee of his wages is to shed blood.”

Las Casas began to realize what he experienced and saw before his eyes: the colonizing system was a system of forced Indian labor and tyranny in Spanish farms and mines. In fact, the Spanish were sinning against the Gospel. In the light of this discovery, Las Casas began eagerly studying the Bible, he finally gave away his Indian serfs and slave and began to preach like the Dominicans in Santo Domingo (ibid, 63–74).

In 1515, Las Casas went to Spain to fight for the rights of the Indians. With him on the ship was the Dominican brother Anton Montesino. Las Casas brought the cause of the Indians before the Spanish court, the king, before bishops and cardinals. He got letters from the pope. He returned once more to the New World (ibid, 75–95).

In 1522, Las Casas asked to take the habit of the Dominicans. He took the vows and studied for three years. In 1527, he was given the order to found a new convent in Puerto de Plata, Santo Domingo in Hispaniola. That year he began to write the History of the Indies (Las Casas 1994) and the Apologetic History of the Indians (Las Casas 1992). He still worked on the History of the Indies after his final return to Spain in 1550. The History of the Indies is considered his principal work, the important documentation of the genocide of the Indian population of the New World by the Spanish conquerors and of Las Casas’s untiring and committed protest and fight against it. He completed the History in 1561, only five years before his death. Astonishingly the History of the Indies was published only in the early 19th century that is almost 300 years after the life of its author (ibid, 149–155).

Las Casas is famous as the defender of the Indians but not as the defender of the African slaves who the Portuguese and Spanish trafficked to the New World (Pérez Luño, Antonio-Enrique. 1990. “Estudio preliminar al Tratado de Regia Potestate.” In Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas. Obras Completas Vol 12. De Regia Potestate, edited by Antonio Larios Ramos and Antonio García del Moral y Garrido, i–xxxix. Madrid: Alianza Editorial). Las Casas fought the European’s view that the Indians were intellectually incapable to govern. In the third volume of his Apologetic History (Las Casas, Bartolomé de. 1992. “Apologetica Historia.” In Obras Completas Volumes 6–8. Madrid: Alianza Editorial) he writes that the Indians were unspoiled by greed, by lie and distrust and led morally and politically impeccable lives in ecologically privileged environments. The Indians by nature were good and innocent. They live in perfect harmony with the cosmos of nature and take advantage of the splendid sky, the climate and the food. Nevertheless, Las Casas is not aware of the coherence criteria for his thinking. It is not on his mind, that rough and cold climates, icy winds and snow-covered mountains like the Andes according to his naturalistic theory must have a very corrupting influence on the human character of the Andean population. Las Casas reserves this negative determination of the climate on the human character for the northern populations of Europe. The North Europeans are unrefined and clumsy, ponderous jumping jacks slow in thinking and of bad judgement. Nor does Las Casas spare the black population of Africa from his deterministic naturalism and from discrimination. In the Apologetic History we read that the Africans’ body is black, and their hair is rough and ugly, that Africans are of low intellect and have wild, cruel and beastly customs (Pérez Luño 1990).

We cannot talk about the genocide of the Indian population in the New World without also memorizing the crime of the establishment of African slavery in Latin America in the sixteenth Century. The colonization of America with the forced labor of African slaves marks the beginning of modern slavery as a system of global organization. According to their values and norms at the time, white European Christian intellectuals, philosophers and theologians, not to speak of the ecclesiastic and political authorities did not question the legitimacy of slavery. In the 16th century CE, there was no protest yet against this systematic refusal of basic Human Rights to millions of human brothers and sisters. Las Casas was not the first to advocate importing African slaves to the Americas to replace the Indian serfs and slaves in the mines and on the farms (Clayton 2009, 1529).  In order to stop the extinction of the Indians, Las Casas, Pedro de Cordoba and his Dominican brothers already in 1516 and 1518 proposed and asked the Spanish King to substitute the Indian with African slaves. In the letter of the 20th of January of 1531 which Las Casas writes to the Spanish King’s Counsel of the Indies, he suggests bringing African slaves to the New World. Las Casas argues that they were able to bear much better the hard labor in the mines and farms than the local Indian population does (ibid). In 1543, Las Casas was elected bishop of the poor diocese of Chiapas, in 1550 CE he presented his resignation, went to Spain and would never return to the Americas.

In the History of the Indies (Las Casas, Bartolomé de. 1994. “Historia de las Indias.” In Obras Completas Volumes 3–5. Madrid: Alianza Editorial), we read of Las Casas’s facing up to the unjust and tyrannical acts of the Indian and African enslavement. In the early 1550ies, when working in the Dominican monastery of San Pablo in Seville on his History of the Indies, he denounced the African slavery (Clayton, Lawrence. 2009. “Bartolomé de Las Casas and the African Slave Trade”. History Compass 7 (6): 1526–1541. 1530. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1478-0542.2009.00639.x). The last twelve years of his life he spent at Saint Gregory continuing to work on the History of the Indies and documenting the destruction of the Indians (ibid). In chapter 129 of the third book of his History of the Indies, we read of Las Casas’s auto criticism. He writes that he repented and judged himself culpable because he had suggested substituting the Indians with Africans; he saw that the captivity of the Africans was as unjust as the captivity of the Indians, and he was not sure if his ignorance on the matter would be excused in the divine judgment. He continues to confess that previously he had thought that the Africans would not die of sickness if they were treated well; but he had to realize that many of them died because of the inhumane conditions of slavery (Pérez Luño 1990).

Las Casas lives at the beginning of the globalization of the world by the Portuguese and Spanish conquerors of the New World. He participates and profits from the suppression of the Indians. He is an example of a conqueror who cruelly oppressed women, men and queer. Then he entered a process of conversion. By analyzing his social choices and the social, political and religious structures of his colonial Umwelt in the light of the Bible, he turned away from oppressing and started defending the Indians. He was not a saint, but he contributed his part according to his possibilities to restore the dignity and freedom of the Indians. He restored his own dignity by repenting that he had suggested to bring African slaves to the Americas. At the time of Las Casas, the idea of an international law was evolving as necessary but there was no talk of the individual woman, man and queer as the subjects of international law. Only in 1948 CE, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) proclaims the individual to be subject of international law and invites every individual, not only single states, to make claims of human dignity, freedom and rights. 500 years earlier, the individual Las Casas was already one of these women, men and queer who began claiming individual Human Rights.

How about the lives of the millions of women, men and queer living in the Caribbean during the last 500 years and now? I listen to the old songs of the suffering women and men of the Caribbean (Roberts, John Storm. 1972. Caribbean Island Music. New York: Nonesuch Records). Heavy, slow sad songs as prayers for salvation and rescue from the perils of exploitation. The slaves take the wording of their song Salve Regina from the first Christians in Rome (ibid, 2). Slaves were already among those Christians. Today nobody in Rome thinks of the Salve as a major kind of vocal music of the Dominican Republic when the choir of the Sistine Chapel sings the Salve Regina. The song of the Salve Regina still preserves some elements of medieval Spanish religious music. The peasant women of the Caribbean implore the Virgin Mary with some words from the antiphon Salve Regina on all sorts of occasions when they come together for work or past time (ibid, 3). Church liturgies do not use and sing these simple songs. That is probably because Caribbean music on the Hispaniola testifies the sufferings, the hopes and the traditions of many cultures. Elements from the exploiting cultures of Britain, Spain and France join elements from the victims, the slaves from the coastal rain forest countries of West Africa, the Yoruba, Ewes, Ashanty, Fon and Ibo people and from the Bantu of the Congo (ibid). The call-and-response pattern of the singing is the most common African-derived vocal technique. The liturgies of the first two Christian centuries also conserved that call-and-response pattern in their rites. In the first Christian centuries, the announcement of the promise of the Lord by the choir and the answer of the believers as praising response was a joyful and lively event of the hoping and thanking and praying community. Today, nobody in our stony cathedrals and churches remembers these joyful beginnings. The architectural elements of ambos and choirs are unable to substitute the life of a singing community. In Europe, the liturgical music of Mozart, Beethoven and Bruckner inspires believing as atheist listeners to feel happy. They do not like disturbances of their aesthetic musical experience and waste not a single thought or feeling on the fact that liturgy is a service for realizing the just world of Go’d.

I am deeply touched listening to the recordings of the melancholy rhythm of the Caribbean music and I am frightened by the few words used for the wording. I am ashamed to see that most men and women in the Hispaniola still today are denied living a life in dignity. The expression of sense in the songs contents itself with few elements and points to the importance of the speaker as possibility condition. Who and what speaks in those songs? Folk music expresses secular and religious sentiments and thinking. There are Christian motives like the Virgin Mary and elements from African religions like the Voodoo or the healer-cum-sorcerer Obeahman who bans the spells at weddings and on the festive final night of a wake. Folk songs, hymns and symphony, belief, conviction and theory, dance, ritual and dogma, the world is everything that is the case.

Women, men and queer mingle and mix with ritual movements and singing. Nobody wonders that symbols like water and serpent and death match the pictures of life; the songs give birth to a picture of hopes and promises and despair with changing sets of elements of their creation.