BULL OF POPE BENEDICT XIV. (DECEMBER 20, 1741.)

To our Venerable Brethren, the Bishops of Brazil and the other Provinces, both in America and the West Indies, subject to our dearly beloved son in Jesus Christ, John, King of Portugal and Algarve.

BENEDICT XIV., POPE.

VENERABLE brethren, the apostolic salutation and benediction. The immense charity of the Prince of Shepherds, Jesus Christ, who came to transmit to men a fuller life, and to give himself up as a victim for the salvation of many, inflames us also, his unworthy representative on earth, with an ardent desire to give our life after his example, not only for his faithful servants, but for all men without exception. The general government of the Catholic Church, imposed on our weakness, constrains us, it is true, to fill and direct in the city of Rome itself, according to the usage and regulations of our fathers, this Apostolic See towards which men flock daily from all sides, in order to watch there with a more attentive eye over the affairs of the Christian republic, and to bring to its ills a more opportune and salutary remedy. It is refused to us to fly towards those distant and scattered countries, and to lavish there on souls ransomed with the blood of Jesus Christ, all the cares of our ministry, our blood itself, did God accord this grace to our desires. Nevertheless, as we would not that a single one of all the nations under heaven should have to complain of being forgotten by the apostolic providence, authority, and beneficence, we call on you, O venerable brethren, who are joined to this same Holy See, to cultivate in common with it the vineyard of the God of armies, to share our solicitude and vigilance, so that, your task becoming easier and more fruitful from day to day, you will win at the end the crown of immortality destined to those who have fought valiantly.

None of you is ignorant of all that has been undertaken for religion by our predecessors and the Catholic princes, faithful and devoted

to the Christian cause, the labors which they have endured, the sacrifices which they have imposed on themselves with a free and generous heart, to send to men wandering in darkness, and sitting in the shadow of death, holy workers whose good examples and salutary preachings might co-operate with the assistance and gifts of piety in lighting the torch of the orthodox faith in these countries, and introducing them to the knowledge of the truth. You doubtless know also the benefits, the graces, the favors, and the privileges which they still accord to-day, in order that these allurements may win them to the Catholic religion, and that by persevering in this way they may attain salvation through the good works of charity.

What bitter grief, therefore, has pierced our paternal heart, when, reperusing the wise counsels of the Roman pontiffs, our predecessors, and their constitutions, which prescribe, under the gravest penalties, that infidels shall not be subjected to outrages, bad treatment, the weight of chains, and death itself, but shall be accorded aid, protection, and favor, we have learned that still to-day men calling themselves Christians (and this happens chiefly in the Brazilian provinces) are so far forgetful of the sentiments of charity diffused in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, as to reduce to servitude the unhappy Indians, the peoples of the eastern and western coasts of Brazil, and other regions. They confound in their barbarity both those who are destitute of the enlightenment of faith, and those who have been regenerated in the waters of baptism. Much more, they sell them as vile herds of slaves, they despoil them of their goods, and the inhumanity which they display towards them is the principal cause of turning them away from employing the faith of Jesus Christ, by making them look upon it only with horror.

Desiring to bear a remedy to these evils, as far as we are able, with the help of God, we have hastened, in the first place, to arouse the ardent piety of our dearly beloved son in Jesus Christ, John, the illustrious king of Portugal and Algarve, and to make appeal to his zeal for the propagation of the faith. With that filial respect for us and the Holy See which distinguishes him, he has promised to send on to the spot to all the officers and ministers of his states, to inflict the severest penalties, conformably to the royal edicts, on such of his subjects as shall be convicted of acting towards the Indians differently from what is required by Christian gentleness and charity.

We next entreat your Fraternities, and exhort them in the Lord not to tolerate, to the detriment of your name and your dignity, the slightest relaxation in the vigilance and solicitude of your ministry,

which the present circumstances demand of you; uniting your own efforts to those of the king, prove to all how much more powerful and efficacious is the zeal of charity, burning in the priest who is shepherd of souls, than the labors of secular ministers in procuring the happiness of the Indians and bringing them to the true faith.

Moreover, by the tenor of these presents, we renew and confirm, by our apostolic authority, the apostolic letters sent in the form of brief, May 28, 1537, by Pope Paul III., our predecessor of happy memory, to John, then Archbishop of Toledo, and Cardinal of the holy Roman Church, and those which Pope Urban VIII., also our predecessor, and of more recent memory, addressed, April 22, 1639, to the defender of the duties and collector-general of the tributes of the Apostolic Chamber. Walking in the steps of our predecessors Paul and Urban, and wishing to suppress the impious attempts of these men, who, far from attracting the infidels to embrace the true faith by all means of Christian charity, as they ought, turn them aside and alienate them from it by acts of inhumanity, we recommend your Fraternities, and, in your person, your future successors, to publish and placard the royal edicts yourselves, or by others, as well in the provinces of Paraguay and Brazil, extending to the Rio de la Plata, as in the other countries and places situated in the East and West Indies. We wish that the execution of these should be hastened by means of an efficient force, and that all should co-operate in securing their observance, on the one hand, with the ecclesiastics and seculars themselves, of every state, sex, condition, and dignity, especially those enjoying any authority and consideration; on the other, all the orders, congregations, and societies, that of Jesus in particular, and all the institutions of mendicants and nonmendicants, monks, regulars, and military orders, especially the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem. All infraction of these regulations shall be, by the very fact, smitten with excommunication latœ sententiæ, which cannot be raised, save in articulo mortis, and after a preliminary satisfaction, either by ourselves, or, in the course of time, by the Roman pontiff then existing, in order that in future no one may be audacious enough to reduce the said Indians to slavery, to sell them, to buy them, to exchange them, to give them away, to separate them from their wives and children, to despoil them of their goods, to transport them from one place or country to another, to deprive them, in fine, in any way whatsoever of their liberty, and to retain them in servitude, or to second those who act thus in authorizing them by teaching and preaching, and in aiding them under a thousand false pretexts by counsels, pro

tection, assistance, or any other co-operation. To put an end to all these disorders, we enjoin you to punish with excommunication all rebellious infractors, who will not obey each of you in all these points, and to employ through your chief the other ecclesiastical censures and penalties, and all the remedies in law and fact which seem opportune to you, so as to maintain a certain order in these measures, by redoubling these censures and penalties, and having recourse, if need be, to the secular arm. And we accord to each one of you, and to your future successors, the full and entire power to act in consequence.

IX.

(Book VII. Chap. II. p. 358.)

BULL OF POPE GREGORY XVI. (NOVEMBER 3, 1839.)

ELEVATED to the highest degree of apostolic dignity, and filling, although without any merit on our part, the place of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who, by the excess of his charity, deigned to become man, and to die for the redemption of the world, we consider that it belongs to our pastoral solicitude to make every effort to divert Christians from the traffic which is made of negroes and other men, whoever they may be.

As soon as evangelical light began to be diffused, the unfortunates who had fallen into the harshest slavery, in the midst of the numerous wars of this epoch, felt their condition become ameliorated; for the Apostles, inspired by the Spirit of God, taught the slaves, on the one hand, to obey their temporal masters as Jesus Christ himself, and to be heartily resigned to the will of God; but, on the other hand, they commanded the masters to show themselves kind towards their slaves, to accord to them what was just and equitable, and not to treat them angrily, knowing that the Lord of both is in heaven, and that with him there is no respect of persons.

Erelong the law of the Gospel establishing in a universal and fundamental manner sincere charity towards all, and the Lord Jesus having declared that he should regard as done or refused to himself all the

acts of beneficence and mercy which should be done or denied to the poor and obscure, it naturally followed that the Christians not only regarded their slaves as brethren, especially when they became Christians, but that they became more inclined to give liberty to those who rendered themselves worthy of it; which was accustomed to be accomplished particularly at the solemn feast of Easter, as is related by St. Gregory of Nyssus. There were even found those who, inflamed with a more ardent charity, threw themselves into chains to ransom their brethren, and an apostolic man, our predecessor, Pope Clement I., of most holy memory, certifies to having known a great number who did this work of mercy. For this reason, the darkness of heathen superstition being wholly dissipated with the progress of time, and the customs of the most barbarous peoples being softened, thanks to the benefit of the law working by charity, things came to the point that several centuries ago there were no longer slaves among the greater part of Christian

nations.

Nevertheless, it is with profound grief that we say it, there have since been seen, even among Christians, men who, shamefully blinded by the desire of sordid gain, have not hesitated to reduce to servitude, on distant lands, Indians, negroes, and other unhappy races, or else to aid in this ignoble crime, by instituting and organizing the traffic in these unfortunates, whom others had loaded with chains. Numerous Roman pontiffs, our predecessors of glorious memory, did not forget to reprimand, according to the whole extent of their charge, the conduct of these men as opposed to their salvation, and blighting to the name of Christian, for they saw clearly that this was one of the causes which most strongly retained the infidel nations in their hatred of the true religion.

To this end tend the apostolic letters of Paul III., of May 29, 1537, addressed to the Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo, under the fisherman's seal, and other much more extended letters of Urban VIII., of April 22, 1639, addressed to the collector of duties of the Apostolic Chamber of Portugal, letters which direct the gravest reproaches against those who dare reduce to slavery the inhabitants of the East or West Indies, sell them, buy them, kill them, exchange them, give them away, separate them from their wives and children, despoil them of their goods, carry them away or send them to foreign places, or deprive them in any manner whatsoever of their liberty; retain them in servitude, or lend aid, counsels, assistance, and favor to those who do these under any color or pretext whatever; or again preach or teach that it is lawful, and, in fine, co-operate in any manner, whatsoever it may be.