ABSTRACT
This chapter—the concluding chapter or peroratio—first reiterates the main argument and organizing principle of The Unheard Voice of Law: that the Brevísima relación is an intricately reasoned legal document that employs genres of the early modern legal tradition and is the product of Las Casas’s erudite and persistent juridical approach. This is followed by a summary of the previously presented contextual and textual support for this argument. The next section of this final chapter discusses three plausible foci for future scholarship: the issue of historical accuracy and historical truth, the relationship of Las Casas’s corpus of writings to the Brevísima relación, and the possibility that Las Casas might call for intervention from another sphere of ecclesial jurisdiction, viz., the Santa Inquisición. The last section presents voices of conscience in the Indies, in Spain, and outside of the Iberian peninsula who spoke and wrote on behalf of the miserabilis persona. This study concludes with an appraisal of what distinguished Las Casas as the public and tormented conscience of Spain, and of the multifaceted tenor of his juridical voice that he raised on behalf of the Indigenous people.
