Sublimus Dei

Sublimis Deus (named after the Latin opening words: The sublime God ) is a papal bull of Pope Paul III. was announced on 2 June 1537. She forbade the enslavement of the native Indians of America and all other people.

Content

The pope repeated compromising his position, which he a month earlier, in the Breve Veritas ipsa had represented on May 2, 1537 Cardinal Juan de Tavera, archbishop of Toledo. Paul III. explained that the Indians " rational beings with a soul are", and rejected any assertion to the contrary back as diabolical. He condemned their humiliation slaves as null and void. This is true for all peoples, for as yet undiscovered. He spoke to them the right to liberty and property, and concluded with an exclamation for their Christianization. Missionaries should " invite by preaching and good example to the Christian faith." Because the Indians stand as a result of their freedom before God and the law have the right to be baptized.

The bull had a strong influence on the dispute of Valladolid, it is a " Magna Carta of international law" (Hans -Jürgen Prien ). The amounts expressed in their principles were finally the official position of Charles V, the Emperor and King of Spain; However, this was often ignored by the settlers and the conquistadors. Although the bull Sublimis Deus was violated again and again, it remained that anchor to which the missionaries were able to form their struggle to defend the human rights of the Indians.

Background

With the European discovery of America raised speculation about whether the indigenous people of these countries " real people " are or not. This was accompanied by a debate about the mistreatment of the natives by the conquerors. A strong faction believed that these people are not human. They speculated that God had withheld from them Christianity and the Gospel so long because it was not a question of human beings with souls and they are therefore incapable of any redemption. According to the New Testament, the Gospel was already at the times of the apostles preached to all nations (Colossians 1:23 and Romans 16:25-26 ), so that the newly discovered peoples could not be regarded as belonging to the human race. In addition, in the belief that mankind was divided into three races ( Europeans, Asians and Africans ) who met the sons of Noah, and the American people did not fit into this scheme.

Bibliography

Edition

  • Josef Metzler (ed.) America Pontificia primi saeculi Evangelizationis ( 1493-1592 ). Documentation Pontificia ex registris et minutis praesertim in Archivo Secreto Vaticano existentibus. . Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City 1991, Vol I: 1493-1562. ISBN 88-209-1699-1. Veritas ipsa ( Sublimis deus, deus Excelsus ) No. 84, pp. 364-366.
  • Francisco Javier Hernáez (ed.): Colección de Bulas, Breves y otros documentos relativos a la Iglesia de América y Filipinas. Vol I, Brussels 1879, pp. 102-103.

Translation

  • Jakob Baumgartner: Mission and Liturgy in Mexico. Vol 1: Worship in the early church in New Spain. Immensee 1971, pp. 122-123; reprinted in Michael et al Sievernich (Ed.): Conquista and Evangelism - 500 Years of the Order in Latin America. Mainz 1992, ISBN 3-7867-1649-8, pp. 475-476.
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