[Polybius]

It would probably take far more study than you appear willing to invest to discover or deduce the prevailing theological view of the new world people by the Conquistadors. However, in 1537 Pope Paul III issued a series of encyclicals declaring it heresy to describe Indians as other than human. Popes don't and didn't get involved in trivia or insignificant issues indicating the magnitude or prevalence of the problem. Unfortunately, 1538 the pope's declarations were nullified by Spain's monarchy, which declared the pope's declaration in violation of the agreement between the monarchy and the Vatican concerning the powers of the monarchy in the Americas nd the official Spanish doctrine of a subhuman status of the indigenous peoples of the New World was further extended.

Pope Paul III's encyclical of 1537, Sublimus Dei , never addressed the topic of whether or not the Indians had "souls" but whether or not they were "dumb brutes" fit only for slavery.

In other words, the question in Spanish conquered territories at the time was whether or not Indian in the 1530's should be treated as blacks were treated in the U.S. in 1830.

It is a fact that Spanish adventurers saw the Indian population as a source of profit.

However, as far as the Spanish Crown was concerned, the Indians were Spanish subjects and their fair treatment was addressed not only in the last will and testament of Queen Isabella but also in the Laws of Burgos of 1512 which specifically commanded that they should be given Christian instruction.

Queen Isabella, in particular, always considered the Indians as her royal subjects and not "subhumans".

It is important to note that there were those who behaved with respect towards the Arawak. Queen Isabella recognized the Arawak as her subjects, to be protected and treated with at least a basic sense of dignity. When Columbus sent back hundreds of Taino indians to be sold as slaves, Queen Isabella ordered them free and returned to their land. Eventually, the European colonists and sovereigns became so discontent with Columbus' mismanagement that he was arrested and shipped back to Spain in chains. He spent the rest of his life trying to regain his governorship over Hispaniola.

[Natural Law]

We can hardly relate or explain the complexities of this subject, learned in 20+ years of Catholic and Jesuit education in a few paragraphs "shouted" across cyberspace. I think we agree more than we differ.

Sublimus Dei is a papal bull promulgated by Pope Paul III on May 29, 1537, which forbids the enslavement of the indigenous peoples of the Americas and all other people. The pope used in the bull almost the same language as in his letter, Veritas ipsa, to Cardinal Juan de Tavera, Archbishop of Toledo, sent less than a month earlier on May 2, 1537. In these, Paul III unequivocally declares in his language declaring Indians to have souls and be included in those God had endowed with capacity to attain to the inaccessible and invisible Supreme Good and behold it face to face. Thus the indigenous peoples of the Americas were rational beings with souls, denouncing any idea to the contrary as directly inspired by the "enemy of the human race" (Satan). He goes on to condemn their reduction to slavery in the strongest terms, declaring it null and void for as well as for any people known or that could be discovered in the future, entitles their right to liberty and property, and concludes with a call for their evangelization.