By Mike Zonta, OccupySF.net co-editor
Me:
What was the Pope’s 1452 declaration?
ChatGPT:
You’re probably referring to the papal bull Dum Diversas, issued by Pope Nicholas V on June 18, 1452.
This document has become one of the most controversial papal decrees in history because it authorized the Portuguese crown to wage war against certain non-Christian peoples and to enslave captives.
The key passage granted King Afonso V of Portugal the authority:
“…to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and pagans whatsoever… and to reduce their persons to perpetual servitude…”
In modern English, “perpetual servitude” means permanent slavery.
Why was it issued?
The historical context was the expansion of Portugal along the west coast of Africa and conflict with Muslim powers following the fall of Constantinople’s predecessor conflicts. The papacy was encouraging Portugal’s military campaigns against Muslims and supporting exploration and territorial expansion.
Three years later, in 1455, Nicholas V issued another bull, Romanus Pontifex, which expanded Portugal’s exclusive rights over lands it discovered along the African coast. That document reinforced Portuguese claims to trade, conquest, and enslavement in those regions.
Was this the “Doctrine of Discovery”?
Partly.
The so-called Doctrine of Discovery is not a single document but a collection of papal bulls and later legal principles. Among the most important are:
- 1452 – Dum Diversas (authorized conquest and perpetual servitude of certain non-Christians)
- 1455 – Romanus Pontifex (expanded Portuguese rights of conquest and trade)
- 1493 – Inter Caetera, issued by Pope Alexander VI after Columbus’s first voyage, which divided newly claimed lands between Spain and Portugal.
Together, these documents were later cited by European colonial powers to justify territorial claims over lands inhabited by non-Christian peoples.
How is it viewed today?
Today, these bulls are widely criticized as providing religious justification for colonialism, conquest, and slavery.
In recent decades, many Christian denominations and Indigenous organizations have called for repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery. In 2023, the Vatican issued a joint statement rejecting the legal and political use of the “Doctrine of Discovery.” The statement said that these papal documents “did not adequately reflect the equal dignity and rights of Indigenous peoples” and that the doctrine “is not part of the teaching of the Catholic Church.”
One interesting philosophical observation, given our previous conversations, is that Dum Diversas illustrates a distinction you’ve often explored in your Translations: the difference between authority and Truth. Historically, a pope possessed immense institutional authority within the Church. But your first step asks a different question:
Does institutional authority, by itself, establish Truth?
That question allows one to distinguish between an institution’s historical actions and the metaphysical question of what is ultimately true. It’s one reason these fifteenth-century documents continue to be discussed—not only as historical artifacts but as examples of how claims of authority can shape history in ways later generations may judge very differently.
