Friday, September 2, 2011

Bartolome de Las Casas - Biography

Bartolome de Las Casas born in Serville in 1484. His father Pedro de Las casas was a merchant who became sufficiently wealthy to permit his son to study Latin instead of entering the family business. La Casas father and his three uncles accompanied Columbus on his second voyage. In 1512, he left for Indies as the first priest to be ordained in the new world. During his first couple of years, in Indies, he most celebrated leaders of the conquest. Learnt several native languages. In reward of his services as Chaplan, he received Indians and land. By all appearences he had settled in to become a typical encomendero. However, in 1514, he severely codemned Spanish treatment of native people in a Pentecost Sunday sermon. He soon freed his own native slaves and began vigourously interceding with local authorities on the Indians behalf. He questioned the entire system of encomienda and its relationship to Christian morality. In 1520, Charles V granted him a hearing to explain his stance and defend himself against the charges of colonial Spaniards. He called for peaceful conversion of Indies and for agricultural colonization. Charles V supported Casas viewpoint ruling governing of Indies without the force of arms. Yet the ruling had little practical effect in the distant Indies. He left Spain to establish a settlement in Venezuela hoping to peacefully convert local Indians. But opposition from encomenderos and colonial officials helped incite an India rebellion that wrecked the project. He entered the Dominican order as a monk in 1522. He proposed peaceful conversion as an alternative to military conquest in his work "The only method of attracting everyone to the true religion". In monastery, he recorded history of Indieans and initiated collection of documents. In 1537, Charles V supported an effort by Casas to establish missions in Guatemala based on Casas precepts. In 1542, New Laws, forbidding Indian slavery and discontinuing slavery came into force. In 1544, he returned to Indies as Bishop of Chiapas. Las Casas denied final ablation to any Spaniard who refused to free Indians. He issued a Confessor Manual for priests in his diocese. It created public outrage and officials confiscated the Confession Manual. The Council of Indies recalled Las Casas to Spain in 1547. In 1550, he resigned as Chiapas Bishop and churned out remarkable series of publications. In 1552, without seeking permission from Inquistion, Las Casas published "The Devastation of Indies". In his declining years, he remained an advocate of Indian rights. He died in July 1566 regreting for not having done more. He was cremated in Madrid.

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