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Placed at the
summit of the Apostolic power and, although lacking in merits, holding
the place of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who, being made Man through
utmost Charity, deigned to die for the Redemption of the World, We have
judged that it belonged to Our pastoral solicitude to exert Ourselves
to turn away the Faithful from the inhuman slave trade in Negroes and
all other men. Assuredly, since there was spread abroad, first of all
amongst the Christians, the light of the Gospel, these miserable
people, who in such great numbers, and chiefly through the effects of
wars, fell into very cruel slavery, experienced an alleviation of their
lot. Inspired in fact by the Divine Spirit, the Apostles, it is true,
exhorted the slaves themselves to obey their masters, according to the
flesh, as though obeying Christ, and sincerely to accomplish the Will
of God; but they ordered the masters to act well towards slaves, to
give them what was just and equitable, and to abstain from menaces,
knowing that the common Master both of themselves and of the slaves is
in Heaven, and that with Him there is no distinction of persons.
But as the law of the Gospel universally and earnestly enjoined a
sincere charity towards all, and considering that Our Lord Jesus Christ
had declared that He considered as done or refused to Himself
everything kind and merciful done or refused to the small and needy, it
naturally follows, not only that Christians should regard as their
brothers their slaves and, above all, their Christian slaves, but that
they should be more inclined to set free those who merited it; which it
was the custom to do chiefly upon the occasion of the Easter Feast as
Gregory of Nyssa tells us. There were not lacking Christians, who,
moved by an ardent charity 'cast themselves into bondage in order to
redeem others,' many instances of which our predecessor, Clement I, of
very holy memory, declares to have come to his knowledge. In the
process of time, the fog of pagan superstition being more completely
dissipated and the manners of barbarous people having been softened,
thanks to Faith operating by Charity, it at last comes about that,
since several centuries, there are no more slaves in the greater number
of Christian nations. But - We say with profound sorrow - there were to
be found afterwards among the Faithful men who, shamefully blinded by
the desire of sordid gain, in lonely and distant countries, did not
hesitate to reduce to slavery Indians, negroes and other wretched
peoples, or else, by instituting or developing the trade in those who
had been made slaves by others, to favour their unworthy practice.
Certainly many Roman Pontiffs of glorious memory, Our Predecessors, did
not fail, according to the duties of their charge, to blame severely
this way of acting as dangerous for the spiritual welfare of those
engaged in the traffic and a shame to the Christian name; they foresaw
that as a result of this, the infidel peoples would be more and more
strengthened in their hatred of the true Religion.
It is at these practices that are aimed the Letter Apostolic of Paul
III, given on May 29, 1537, under the seal of the Fisherman, and
addressed to the Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo, and afterwards another
Letter, more detailed, addressed by Urban VIII on April 22, 1639 to the
Collector Jurium of the Apostolic Chamber of Portugal. In the latter
are severely and particularly condemned those who should dare 'to
reduce to slavery the Indians of the Eastern and Southern Indies,' to
sell them, buy them, exchange them or give them, separate them from
their wives and children, despoil them of their goods and properties,
conduct or transport them into other regions, or deprive them of
liberty in any way whatsoever, retain them in servitude, or lend
counsel, succour, favour and co-operation to those so acting, under no
matter what pretext or excuse, or who proclaim and teach that this way
of acting is allowable and co-operate in any manner whatever in the
practices indicated.
Benedict XIV confirmed and renewed the penalties of the Popes above
mentioned in a new Apostolic Letter addressed on December 20, 1741, to
the Bishops of Brazil and some other regions, in which he stimulated,
to the same end, the solicitude of the Governors themselves. Another of
Our Predecessors, anterior to Benedict XIV, Pius II, as during his life
the power of the Portuguese was extending itself over New Guinea, sent
on October 7, 1462, to a Bishop who was leaving for that country, a
Letter in which he not only gives the Bishop himself the means of
exercising there the sacred ministry with more fruit, but on the same
occasion, addresses grave warnings with regard to Christians who should
reduce neophytes to slavery.
In our time Pius VII, moved by the same religious and charitable spirit
as his Predecessors, intervened zealously with those in possession of
power to secure that the slave trade should at least cease amongst the
Christians. The penalties imposed and the care given by Our
Predecessors contributed in no small measure, with the help of God, to
protect the Indians and the other people mentioned against the cruelty
of the invaders or the cupidity of Christian merchants, without however
carrying success to such a point that the Holy See could rejoice over
the complete success of its efforts in this direction; for the slave
trade, although it has diminished in more than one district, is still
practiced by numerous Christians. This is why, desiring to remove such
a shame from all the Christian nations, having fully reflected over the
whole question and having taken the advice of many of Our Venerable
Brothers the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, and walking in the
footsteps of Our Predecessors, We warn and adjure earnestly in the Lord
faithful Christians of every condition that no one in the future dare
to vex anyone, despoil him of his possessions, reduce to servitude, or
lend aid and favour to those who give themselves up to these practices,
or exercise that inhuman traffic by which the Blacks, as if they were
not men but rather animals, having been brought into servitude, in no
matter what way, are, without any distinction, in contempt of the
rights of justice and humanity, bought, sold, and devoted sometimes to
the hardest labour. Further, in the hope of gain, propositions of
purchase being made to the first owners of the Blacks, dissensions and
almost perpetual conflicts are aroused in these regions.
We reprove, then, by virtue of Our Apostolic Authority, all the
practices abovementioned as absolutely unworthy of the Christian name.
By the same Authority We prohibit and strictly forbid any Ecclesiastic
or lay person from presuming to defend as permissible this traffic in
Blacks under no matter what pretext or excuse, or from publishing or
teaching in any manner whatsoever, in public or privately, opinions
contrary to what We have set forth in this Apostolic Letter.
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