The Bull That Defended the New World
Indigenous Peoples Are "Truly Human"
Pope Paul III
On June 2, 1537, Pope Paul III issued the bull Sublimis Deus, declaring that the Indigenous peoples of the Americas were "truly men," fully capable of receiving the Christian faith, and not to be enslaved or stripped of their freedom and property.
The document denounced those who treated Native peoples as subhuman and insisted that evangelization must proceed through preaching and holy example — not conquest, coercion, or dispossession.
But the bull did not end the abuse. Colonists and conquistadors routinely ignored it, and forced labor continued under various legal arrangements. Spain's crown pressured Paul to revoke the enforcement brief, Pastorale Officium, within a year.
The Codex Mendoza, a mid-sixteenth-century Aztec manuscript, reminds readers that the peoples addressed by European rulers and churchmen had their own cultures, records, and political worlds.
Why This Matters Today
Sublimis Deus offered a clear theological rebuke to one of colonization's ugliest claims, that Indigenous peoples could be treated as less than fully human. It did not, however, stop the violence, and it remains part of the church's reckoning with its colonial past.
Scripture for Reflection
"So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." — Genesis 1:27 (NIV)
What lesson from Sublimis Deus feels most urgent for Christians to remember today?
Go Deeper
Sublimis Deus by Pope Paul III: The bull itself is short and worth reading in full. Its twin insistence on Indigenous liberty and non-coercive evangelization may feel shocking to modern ears, but it’s necessary to see I think. (Read Here)
A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies by Bartolomé de las Casas: The Dominican friar's devastating eyewitness indictment of Spanish colonial violence. It was written in 1542, just five years after Sublimis Deus, and still one of the most important documents in the history of human rights. (Read Here)
Native Voices: Timeline by the National Library of Medicine: A well-sourced, accessible timeline of Indigenous health and rights history, including the context for Sublimis Deus and the forced labor systems that persisted despite it. (Explore Here)
