''Pastorale officium'' was an apostolic brief issued by

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

Paul III Pope Paul III ( la, Paulus III; it, Paolo III; 29 February 1468 – 10 November 1549), born Alessandro Farnese, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 October 1534 to his death in November 1549. He came to ...

, May 29, 1537, to Cardinal

Juan Pardo de Tavera Juan Pardo de Tavera (1472–1545) was a cardinal (from 1531) and was Archbishop of Toledo and Primate of Spain (1534–1545), Grand Inquisitor of Spain (1539–1545), Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela (1524–1534), Bishop of Osma (1523– ...

which declares that anyone who enslaved or despoiled indigenous Americans would be automatically

excommunicated Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...

. The harsh threat of punishment (

Latae sententiae (Latin meaning "of a/the sentence lreadypassed") and (Latin meaning "sentence to be passed") are ways sentences are imposed in the Catholic Church in its canon law. A penalty is a penalty that is inflicted , automatically, by force of the l ...

) contained in ''Pastorale officium'' made the

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, O ...

s complain to the Spanish king and Emperor.

Charles V Charles V may refer to: * Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558) * Charles V of Naples (1661–1700), better known as Charles II of Spain * Charles V of France (1338–1380), called the Wise * Charles V, Duke of Lorraine (1643–1690) * Infan ...

went on to argue that the letter was injurious to the Imperial right of

colonization Colonization, or colonisation, constitutes large-scale population movements wherein migrants maintain strong links with their, or their ancestors', former country – by such links, gain advantage over other inhabitants of the territory. When ...

and harmful to the peace of the Indies. The urging of Charles V to revoke the briefs and bulls of 1537 exemplifies the tension of the concern for evangelisation as manifested in the teachings of 1537 and the pressure to honor the system of royal patronage. The weakened position of the

pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

and the memory of the

Sack of Rome (1527) The Sack of Rome, then part of the Papal States, followed the capture of the city on 6 May 1527 by the mutinous troops of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor during the War of the League of Cognac. Despite not being ordered to storm the city, with ...

a decade earlier by imperial troops made the ecclesiastical authorities hesitant in engaging in any possible confrontation with the

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

. Under mounting pressure Pope Paul III succumbed and removed the ecclesiastical censures in the letter titled . The annulling of the ecclesiastical letter was not a denial of the doctrinal teaching of the spiritual equivalence of all human beings. The annulment gave rise to the subsequent papal encyclical ''

Sublimis Deus ''Sublimis Deus'' (English: ''The sublime God''; erroneously cited as ''Sublimus Dei'' and occasionally as ''Sic Dilexit'') is a bull promulgated by Pope Paul III on June 2, 1537, which forbids the enslavement of the indigenous peoples of the Ame ...

'' promulgated by Pope Paul III on June 2, 1537. Thus the ''Pastorale officium'' has been seen as a companion document for the

encyclical An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Roman Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop. The word comes from the Late Latin (originally from ...

''. Stogre (1992) notes that ''Sublimus Dei'' is not present in Denzinger compendium of theological-historical source texts.Stogre, p. 115, fn. 133

Sources

* "''The Origins of Global Humanitarianism: Religion, Empires, and Advocacy''" by Peter Stamatov, * "''The Encyclopedia of Christianity: Si-Z ''", part 5 (Encyclopedia of Christianity (Brill)), 2008 * "'' The Popes, the Catholic Church and the Transatlantic Enslavement of Black Africans 1418–1839''" , Georg Olms Verlag, 2017 * "''That the world may believe: the development of Papal social thought on aboriginal rights''", Michael Stogre S.J, Médiaspaul, 1992,

References

{{Religion and slavery Christianity and law in the 16th century 16th-century Catholicism Abolitionism in South America 16th century in Spain 1537 works 16th-century papal bulls Indigenous land rights Catholicism and slavery Documents of Pope Paul III Excommunication 1537 in Christianity

See also

Sources

References