Consent, Voluntary Jurisdiction and Native Political Agency in Bartolomé de Las Casas' Final Writings

Relying on the principles of Natural law and the medieval juridical glosses on the Ius commune, this study examines Las Casas' final political proposals. It argues that the core of his late writings restores the Roman law concept of Voluntary jurisdiction and applies it to solving the entangled situation of the Indies in which the jurisdictional domains of the Church, the Spanish crown and the Amerindian polities had converged. Consent given freely and without pressure by every individual in Amerindian societies emerges as the only principle that would grant legitimacy to the Spanish presence in the Indies. By laying this conceptual groundwork, Las Casas enabled Amerindian and Spanish intellectuals to think beyond the Ius belli criteria.Keywords: Bartolomé de las Casasvoluntary jurisdictionconsentCanon lawCivil law Notes1 Francis Oakley, Natural Law, Conciliarism and Consent in the Late Middle Ages. Studies in Ecclesiastical and Intellectual History (London: Variorum, 1984), xiv, 798–99.2 I use the expression Ius commune to refer to the Roman law and canon law that informed the juridical and philosophical discussions during the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period (see Manlio Bellomo, The Common Legal Past of Europe 1000–1800 [Washington DC: The Catholic Univ. of America Press, 1995], xi–xiv).3 Influential intellectuals such as Juan López de Palacios Rubios (1450–1524) and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda (1489–1573) relied on the Ius belli.4 For a historical study of the Ius belli, see Frederick H. Russell, The Just War in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, MA: Harvard U. P., 1975), 16–85.5 Rolena Adorno, The Polemics of Possession in Spanish American Narrative (New Haven: Yale U. P., 2007), 72–98.6 José A. Cárdenas Bunsen, Escritura y derecho canónico en la obra de fray Bartolomé de las Casas (Madrid: Iberoamericana/Frankfurt am Main: Vervuert, 2011), 89–107.7 This permanent illegal condition follows from the charge that Las Casas brings against the owners of Indian slaves. In his treatise on this subject, he maintained that their human possessions were owned in bad faith, which in turn makes the situation suitable to be legally dismissed on a permanent basis according to the canon law rule 'the illegal condition of possessing something in bad faith never expires' ('Possessor malae fidei ullo tempore non praescribit') (Catholic Church, Corpus Iuris Canonici [New Jersey: The Law Book Exchange, 2000], r.2.V.13 in VI [my translation]). See Bartolomé de las Casas, Tratados, prólogos de Lewis Hanke & Manuel Giménez Fernández, transcripción por Juan Pérez de Tudela Bueso, trad. de Agustín Millares Carlo & Rafael Moreno, Biblioteca Americana. Serie Cronistas de Indias 41–42, 2 vols (México D.F.: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1997), I, 563. Further references are to these editions.8 The original legal tenet comes from Roman civil law. See Corpus Iuris Civilis (Berlin: Weidmann, 1997), D.50.17.20.9 See Silvio Zavala, La encomienda indiana (Madrid: Centro de Estudios Históricos, 1935), 1–20, 87; see also José de la Puente Brunke, Encomienda y encomenderos en el Perú. Estudio social y político de una institución colonial (Sevilla: Diputación Provincial de Sevilla, 1992), 13–22.10 Corpus Iuris Canonici, r 48.V.12 in VI.11 'Sin is not released if what has been taken away is not restituted' ('Peccatum non dimittitur nisi restituatur ablatum') (Corpus Iuris Canonici, r.4.V.12 in VI [my translation]); Las Casas, Tratados, I, 537.12 See Antonio Moreno Hernández, 'Introducción', in Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, Obras completas, 15 vols (Salamanca: Ayuntamiento de Pozoblanco, 1995–2010); see III (1997), Demócrates Segundo. Apología en favor del libro sobre las Justas causas de la Guerra, estudio histórico del Demócrates por J. Brufau Prats & A. Coroleu Lletget; intro. y ed. crítica de la Apologia por Antonio Moreno Hernández & Ángel Losada, vii–xxxvii, 39–134; cxxxvii–clxxxix, 191–237 (pp. cxxxvii–clxxxix, cxliii–cxlv). Further references come from this edition.13 Sepúlveda, Apología, ed. Moreno Hernández & Losada, in Obras completas, III, 200; Las Casas, Tratados, I, 316–19.14 Obras escogidas de Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, estudio crítico preliminar & ed. por Juan Pérez de Tudelo Bueso, BAE 95–96, 105–06, 110, 5 vols (Madrid: Atlas, 1957–1958), III (1958), Apologética historia sumaria, 105:243 (cap. 73). All further references are to this edition and are given in parentheses in the text.15 Helen Rand Parish, 'Introduction: Las Casas' Spirituality—The Three Crises', in Bartolomé de las Casas, The Only Way, ed. Helen Rand Parish, trans. Francis Patrick Sullivan, S.J. (New York: Paulist Press, 1992), 9–58 (p. 26). Kenneth Pennington solidly established the correct track to assess Las Casas' expertise in his 'Bartolomé de las Casas and the Tradition of Medieval Law', Church History, 39 (1970), 149–61 (p. 160).16 Brian Tierney, Medieval Poor Law. A Sketch of Canonical Theory and Its Application in England (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1959), 28–31.17 Corpus Iuris Canonici, c.7, D.1; Corpus Iuris Civilis, D.1.1.18 Brian Tierney, Rights, Laws and Infallibility in Medieval Thought (Norfolk: Variorum, 1997), II: 629–33.19 See Giuliano Brugnotto, L' 'Aequitas Canonica': Studio e analisi del concetto negli scritti di Enrico da Susa (Cardinal Ostiense), Tesi Gregoriana. Serie Diritto Canonico 40 (Roma: Pontificia Univ. Gregoriana, 1999), 241.20 Bartholomew Brixiensis, in Decretum cum glossa ordinaria et additionibus Bartholomei Brixiensis (Venezia: Andreas de Calabria, 1491), ad c.7.D1.21 'Art or skill is only as good as the degree to which it imitates nature' ('Ars seu artificiu[m] tanto est melius qua[n]to magis imitatur natura[m]') (Bartolus de Sassoferrato, Opera Omnia [c.1339], Ius Commune, 5 vols [Frankfurt am Main: Vico Verlag, 2007], V, 67 [my translation]). This passage in Bartolus signals the usage of some Aristotelian language by the jurists. See Joseph Canning, The Political Thought of Baldus de Ubaldis (Cambridge: Cambridge U. P., 1987), 159–69. See also Fred D. Miller Jr., Nature, Justice and Rights in Aristotle's Politics (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), 40–45.22 Bartolomé de las Casas, Obras completas, dir. Paulino Castañeda, 14 vols (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1988–1992); see XI, 1 (1992), De Thesauris, intro., trad. & ed. por Ángel Losada, 140–42; XI, 2 (1992), Tratado de las doce dudas, intro. & ed. por J. Denglos, 200–01. Further references are to these editions.23 'Finally, after having obtained their free consent and after they have voluntarily accepted the papal appointment of our kings, a treaty should be made with them that includes a pact on the type of rule to be executed and on the means by which they are to support our kings with taxes and services, with both parties taking an oath to insure the preservation of covenants and pacts and similar juridical agreements' ('Postremo habito ipsorum consensu libero et eiusmodi papali de Regibus nostris Institutione voluntarie acceptata, tractatus cum pacto, de modo regnandi, de tributis et de seruitiis Regibus nostris exhibendis, cum prestatione iuramenti utriusque partis de conuentione et pactis seruandis et similia') (Las Casas, De Thesauris, 142; emphasis added [my translation]).24 Niccolo de Tudeschis, Panormitanus, Prima pars super primo decretalium (Venezia: Nicholas Jenson, 1477), ad c.19.X.27.2.25 Baldus de Ubaldis, Ad tres priores libros decretalium commentaria (Aalen: Scientia Verlag, 1970), ad c.53.X.2.28. See also Brian Tierney, The Idea of Natural Rights (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001), 70.26 Corpus Iuris Canonici, c.7.D1.27 Corpus Iuris Civilis, D.2.1.1.28 Bartolus, Opera Omnia, V, 657. See also Albericus de Rosate, Dictionarium Iuris tam civilis quam canonici [Venezia, 1581] (Frankfurt am Main: Vico Verlag, 2009), sub Iurisdictio est potestas. Although 'iurisdictio' and 'imperium' were closely related concepts, the difference between them is a controversial aspect in the scholarship on the Ius commune. See Antonio Fernández de Buján, Jurisdicción voluntaria en derecho romano (Madrid: Reus, 1986), 41. Also Francesco Calasso, 'Jurisdictio nel diritto commune classico', in Studi in Onore di Vincenzo Arangio-Ruiz nel XLV anno del suo insegnamento, ed. Mario Lauria, 4 vols (Napoli: Jovene, 1953), IV, 423–43. For the original notion of 'imperium' as the supreme power in Rome that was progressively associated with other meanings, see James Muldoon, 'Extra Ecclesiam non est imperium: The Canonists and the Legitimacy of Secular Power', Studia Gratiana, 9 (1966), 551–80.29 See Adolf Berger, Enciclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law (Union, NJ: The Lawbook Exchange, 2002), 441, 523.30 'The dominion of a single man over other men, just as it brings about the counsel and guidance that is otherwise known as jurisdiction, belongs to natural law and Ius gentium' ('[Dominiu[m] unius hominis sup[er] alios homines p[ro]ut importat officiu[m] co[n]sule[n]di [et] dirige[n]di quod alias est iurisdictio: est de iure naturali et gentium]) (Las Casas, Tratados, II, 1240) (my translation).31 Corpus Iuris Civilis, D.1.1.5.32 Baldus de Ubaldis, Commentaria omnia (Goldbach bei Aschaffenburg: Keip, 2004), ad D.1.1.5 sub 9.33 Las Casas maintained that different human societies develop along similar lines. He formulates his views by quoting a similar narrative by Cicero and by using the case of Spain as an example in his Historia de las Indias (see Historia de las Indias, intro. por Lewis Hanke, ed. Agustín Millares Carlo, Biblioteca Americana. Serie Cronistas de Indias, 3 vols [México D.F.: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1951), I, 15–16.34 See also Corpus Iuris Civilis, D.1.2.2.35 Fritz Kern, Kingship and Law in the Middle Ages (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1970), 12.36 James Muldoon, Popes, Lawyers and Infidels (Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1979), 8–9.37 Bartolus, Opera Omnia, ad D.49.15.24.38 Bartolus, Opera Omnia, ad D.2.1.1 sub Iurisdictio an cohaereat territorio.39 Canning, The Political Thought of Baldus de Ubaldis, 17.40 Corpus Iuris Civilis, D.1.16.2.41 Baldus, Commentaria omnia, ad D.1.7.36, D.27.9.5.12.42 Giuseppe Franchi, 'Sulla giurisdizione volontaria nell'esperienza giuridica romana', Rivista di Diritto Civile, 1 (1958), 533–67 (p. 547); Buján, Jurisdicción voluntaria, 23.43 See Innocent IV, Apparatus ad quinque decretalium libros (Venezia: Joannes Herbort, 1481), ad c.7.X.1.30; Bartolus, Opera Omnia, ad D.1.16.1; Baldus, Commentaria omnia, ad D.1.16.2.44 Corrado Pecorella, 'Volontaria giurisdizione: Gli inizi di una reiflessione', in Studi in Memoria di Mario E. Viora (Roma: Fondazione Sergio Mochi Onory per la Storia del Diritto Italiano, 1990), 559–68 (p. 561).45 Baldus, Commentaria omnia, ad D.1.7.36; C.3.12.7.46 Baldus, Commentaria omnia, ad C.8.48.1.47 Corpus Iuris Civilis D.1.16.2; Bartolomé de las Casas, Apología, intro., trans and ed. by Ángel Losada (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1988), 482. Further references in the text are to this edition.48 Buján, Jurisdicción voluntaria, 100. See also Paolo Venturi, La giurisdizione volontaria nel diritto processuale civile internazionale (Torino: G. Giappichelli, 2000), 2.49 El Fuero Real de España diligentement hecho por el noble Rey Don Alfonso noueno: Glosado por el egregio doctor Alonso Díaz de Montaluo. Assimesmo por un sabio Doctor de la Universidad de Salamanca addicionado y concordado con las siete partidas y leyes del reyno: dando a cada ley la addicion que conuenía (Salamanca: Iuan Baptista de Terranoua, 1569), 28v [ley 7, Lib. 1, Tit. 7]; Alfonso IX, Las Siete Partidas (Valladolid: Diego Fernández de Córdoba, 1587), 21r [Part. 3, Tit. 4, l. 7].50 Montalvo, El Fuero Real, 28v [ley 7, Lib. 1, Tit. 7 sub En otra tierra]; Gregorio Lopéz, Las Siete Partidas, Part. 3, Tit. 4, l. 7 sub Si non por avenencia de las partes.51 Thomas de Vio Cajetan, Apparatus, in Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summae Sacrae Theologiae S. Thomae Aquinatis, doctoris angelici, ad romanum exemplar diligenter recognita, ad marginem adscriptis locis, quae ab auctore citantur: cum comentariis R.D. D. Thomae de Vio Caietani, cardinalis S. Syxti (Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 2000), ad 2.2.66.8 ad 2.52 'This jurisdiction is called voluntary jurisdiction, or is considered to be similar to voluntary jurisdiction, because infidels, who have never professed our faith, should not be compelled by the Roman Pontiff to do so; they should instead be exhorted and invited peacefully and graciously' ('Dicitur autem voluntaria iurisdictio haec vel similis voluntariae, quoniam infideles, qui numquam fidem sunt professi, compellendi non sunt a Romano Pontifice sed adhortandi et invitandi pacifice et gratiose') (Las Casas, Apología, 482) (my translation).53 The shared language was a standard practice that Las Casas was familiar with from Baldus' and Innocent IV's texts, among others. See Gabriel Le Bras, 'Innocent IV Romaniste. Examen de l'Apparatus', Studia Gratiana, 11 (1967), 305–26 (p. 320).54 'Todos los reyes y señores naturales, ciudades, comunidades y pueblos de aquellas Indias son obligados a reconocer a los reyes de Castilla por universales y soberanos señores y emperadores de la manera dicha, después de haber recebido de su propia y libre voluntad nuestra sancta fe y el sacro baptismo, y si antes que que lo resciban no lo hacen ni quieren hacer, no pueden ser por algún juez o justicia punidos' (Las Casas, Tratados, I, 483).55 'We want this passage to be understood in the following manner: that before and after baptism, if they do not want to recognize our kings as supreme rulers, there is no judge in the world endowed with the authority to punish them for this reason, as stated in the 19th proposition. In fact, among their natural faculties, they have the right to consent to, or dissent from, the Papal donation in any situation, that is before or after their conversion' ('Intelligendum tamen, hoc passum sic volumus, uidelicet, quod tam post baptismum quam ante, si nolunt Reges nostros recipere in principes supremos, nullus est iudex de mundo qui potestatem habeat illos, hac de causa, puniendi, prout determinatum relinquitur in supra posita conclusione et eius probatione. Quoniam in sua facultate naturali habent ius consentiendi uel dissentiendi sepe dicte institutioni papali, in utroque statu eorum, scilicet, uel ante uel post suam conuersionem') (Las Casas, De Thesauris, 300) (my translation).56 Henry R. Wagner and Helen Rand Parish, The Life and Writings of Bartolomé de las Casas (Albuquerque: Univ. of New Mexico Press, 1967), 19, 108–13, 228.57 Corpus Iuris Civilis, D.2.14.1.58 Baldus, Commentaria omnia, ad D.2.14.1 § Conventiones.59 Baldus, Commentaria omnia, ad D.2.14.1 § Conventiones; Corpus Iuris Canonici, c.2.1.X.40.60 Corpus Iuris Civilis, 2.14.1. See also Lucius Ferraris. Bibliotheca Canonica Juridica Moralis Theologica nec non Ascetica polemica rubricistica historica, 9 vols (Napoli: Argelli, 1845–1855), II (1848), 688.61 In Roman law, the procedures for adoption are considered within the institution of the familia, which must be understood in its strict legal sense referring to the Roman legal construct that regulates civil society, and not as a reference to the natural family. Roman legislation generated some mechanisms either to expand its size or to reduce the pressure on its holdings by means of acts of adoption and emancipation. Thus Roman adoptions are very different from their modern counterparts. See Jane F. Gardner, Family and Familia in Roman Law and Life (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998), 1–7, 115.62 'Quod omnis tangit debet ab omnibus approbari' (Corpus Iuris Canonici, r.29.V.12 in VI). See Pennington, 'Bartolomé de las Casas', 157.63 Baldus, Commentaria omnia, ad D.1.7.7.64 Baldus, Commentaria omnia, ad C.5.59.5.65 There the canonist, relying on the Roman law per fundum, states that '[i]f something is common to many, not as a collegiate body but as individuals, what is done by many is not valid unless all agree to it, either collectively or separately' ('Si aliquid est commune pluribus non ut collegiatis sed ut in singulis non valet quod fit a pluribus nisi omnes consentient siue simul siue separatim') (Innocent IV, Apparatus, ad c.6.1.X.2) (my translation).66 Baldus, Commentaria omnia, ad C.5.59.5; ad D.8.3.11.67 Pereña et al., 'Estudio preliminar', in Bartolomé de las Casas, De regia potestate o derecho de autodeterminación, intro., trad. & ed. por Luciano Pereña, J. M. Pérez-Prende, Vidal Abril and Joaquín Azcárraga (Madrid: CSIC, 1969), ix –clvii (p. cxiv) Further references are to this edition.68 Pennington, 'Bartolomé de las Casas,' 157–58.69 'En todas estas Indias universalmente, si no fue en muy pocas provincias o cuasi ningunas, las cuales nombraremos a su tiempo si Dios quisiere, no tuvieron otra especie de principado y gobernación sino, de las tres susodichas [monarquía, aristocracia o república], la primera, conviene a saber, la de uno que es rey o reino, la cual es la más natural y entre todas la más excelente y semejante a la que el padre rige y gobierna a sus hijos' (Las Casas, Apologética historia, 2:211 [Cap. 197]).70 Francisco de Vitoria, Relecciones teológicas, trad. & ed. por Luis Getino, 2 vols (Madrid: Imprenta La Rafa, 1934), II, 375–76, 192.71 See Tierney, The Idea of Natural Rights, 283.72 Juan López de Palacios Rubios, De las Islas del mar océano intro. de Silvio Zavala, trad., notas & bibliografía de Agustín Millares Carlo (México D.F.: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1954), 36–37. See also Muldoon, Popes, Lawyers and Infidels, 141–43.73 Sepúlveda, Apología, ed. Moreno Hernánez & Losada, in Obras completas, III, 198, 203.74 See for instance the petition that the Mexican legates presented at court arguing that the conquistadors had won the land for the king and took it away from the Devil (Memorial de los procuradores de México [c.1543], Archivo General de Indias [AGI], Indiferente General, legajo 1530, 209). The page numbers correspond to the microfilm of this bundle housed in the Foreign Copying Project at the Library of Congress (Washington D.C.). On the same Antonio de argues on of the conquistadors of See de Antonio de Indiferente General, legajo 1530, See de Tudeschis, (Torino: The encomenderos juridical in their in of not only the many who to the king in support of their such as Juan de in his they also from de and Francisco de Vitoria, without For see de lo que en de a su por en lo que a la de and are in a by de Indiferente General, legajo 1530, See also Innocent IV, Apparatus ad Las Casas at a juridical basis for the that For the by the of the Indies on that de lo que lo que en lo es que por conviene lo en los lo ser que no la que de aquellas del de Indias de de Indiferente legajo 1530, The of the a similar in their of si no la de ser de la de lo que en de a su por en lo que a la de Indiferente General, legajo 1530, Lewis Hanke, de (pp. Hanke, de See The for the of in presented to the of the of the of Univ. of Pereña et al., 'Estudio preliminar', in Las Casas, De regia ed. Pereña, Pérez-Prende, Abril and de después de sus que lo por su y de lo que y que por y por la que que muy de lo que por de y cada uno por y de y que con el de y lo y de con los y que antes y obligados y con lo que en de lo ante un y lo por en de et si vel et in Mexico de et a in Las Casas, De at the Library José Cárdenas Bunsen, el a y a Las Casas', American (p. Adorno, The Polemics of Lewis Hanke, de del sobre los de España en las Indias y las (México D.F.: Fondo de Cultura Económica, de y de las de y de los del y muy del de (Madrid: Imprenta del

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