ABSTRACT
THE peculiar relation of the Church to the King of Spain and to the Spanish colonial government in America was due, in a great measure, to the fact that independently the pope was unable to occupy the great missionary field that was opened to the Church by the discovery of America. He “could do nothing by himself in this immense territory; he had not the means of establishing in it the institutions necessary for the propagation of religion, nor was it even possible for an order by him to reach that region unless carried by a costly expedition.” Whatever ecclesiastics or other persons went thither had to follow the direction of the Spanish court, or the captain to whom they were subordinated. 1 It was impossible for the Holy See to proceed in Christianizing the inhabitants of the New World without abiding by the rules, and soliciting the aid, of the civil power. The pope had subjects who were not Spaniards, whom he might wish to employ in the work of converting the Indians, but the execution of such a plan was prevented by the order of the king limiting the emigration to the colonies to Spanish subjects. Whatever power over America the pope may have claimed, whether with or without valid ground, had been transferred to the crown of Spain by the bull of Alexander VI. in 1493. This transfer with respect to the territories in question was absolute and entire: “We give, concede, and assign them in perpetuity to you and the Kings of Castile and of Leon, your heirs and successors: and we make, constitute, and depute you and your heirs and successors, the aforesaid, lords of these lands, with free, full, and absolute power, authority, and jurisdiction.” 1 The subsequent recognition of this cession became a necessary part of the papal policy. The position assumed by the crown under this cession set aside the grounds of the medieval debate between the Church and State. With respect to Spain’s dominions in America, papal action was subject to criticism and veto by royal authority. That this power was not used to hinder the work of the Church may be inferred from the fact that, as new settlements were made the field of practical activity of the Church was expanded. The conversion of the Indians everywhere attended the conquests of the civil power; the Church even encountered no opposition in erecting its peculiar tribunals of the inquisition. The king was dominant, but he was in sympathy with the purposes and methods of the Church; and it was this sympathy which made peaceful co-operation possible where the relations of the Church with the sovereign had “no precedents either in law or in ecclesiastical usages or customs.” 1 In this phase of American history we have to do not with the ecclesiastical law of Europe transplanted, but with laws and pontificial briefs and bulls framed for America and a new body of civil legislation which comprehends the administration and government of the Church of the New World. 2
