Wednesday Open Thread: A Day of Great Infamy



It is September 26, 2018 by the Calendar selected by Pope Gregory. By the Mayan Long Count Calendar it is 13.0.5.15.5


conquistadores.jpg

On September 26, 1493, Mayan date 11.13.13.4.2, Pope Alexander set loose the hounds of hell upon the Americas, the Pacific and its Islands, and some of Asia. On this date, he issued the Papal Bull Dudum siquidem granting their Catholic Majesties (Ferdinand and Isabella) ownership of roughly half of the world, its peoples and its riches. Per Wikipedia, it reads in relevant part:

...just as if in the aforesaid letters full and express mention had been made thereof, we do in like manner amplify and extend our aforesaid gift, grant, assignment, and letters, with all and singular the clauses contained in the said letters, to all islands and mainlands whatsoever, found and to be found, discovered and to be discovered, that are or may be or may seem to be in the route of navigation or travel towards the west or south, whether they be in western parts, or in the regions of the south and east and of India. We grant to you and your aforesaid heirs and successors full and free power through your own authority, exercised through yourselves or through another or others, freely to take corporal possession of the said islands and countries and to hold them forever, and to defend them against whosoever may oppose.

This was an extension and territorial expansion as well as a reaffirmation of his previous bull, Inter caetera of May 4, 1493:

Among other works well pleasing to the Divine Majesty and cherished of our heart, this assuredly ranks highest, that in our times especially the Catholic faith and the Christian religion be exalted and be everywhere increased and spread, that the health of souls be cared for and that barbarous nations be overthrown and brought to the faith itself. ...[W]e ... assign to you and your heirs and successors, kings of Castile and Leon, ... all islands and mainlands found and to be found, discovered and to be discovered towards the west and south, by drawing and establishing a line from ... the north, ...to ...the south, ... the said line to be distant one hundred leagues towards the west and south from any of the islands commonly known as the Azores and Cape Verde.


...you should appoint to the aforesaid mainlands and islands worthy, God-fearing, learned, skilled, and experienced men, in order to instruct the aforesaid inhabitants and residents in the Catholic faith and train them in good morals.

An estimation of the behavior to result from the instruction that the ..."barbarous nations be overthrown and brought to the faith..." may be derived from the fact that Pope Innocent III declared a genocidal war of extermination against a sect of European Christians known as the Albigensian Crusade in 1209 and that Ferdinand and Isabella had established the Spanish Inquisition in 1478, a mere 15 years prior. The conquistadores, upon landing would approach the first Indians they could and read to them, in Castilian, a document called the Requerimiento. This docement briefly recited how god made everything and gave it via Peter to the Pope who gave all the lands they were standing on and dominion over all of the inhabitants thereof to Ferdinand and Isabella. It then required the indians to immediately swear fealty to the Spanish Crown and acknowledge the Pope as the ultimate ruler of the entire world. Otherwise

But, if you do not do this, and maliciously make delay in it, I certify to you that, with the help of God, we shall powerfully enter into your country, and shall make war against you in all ways and manners that we can, and shall subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church and of their Highnesses; we shall take you and your wives and your children, and shall make slaves of them, and as such shall sell and dispose of them as their Highnesses may command; and we shall take away your goods, and shall do you all the mischief and damage that we can, as to vassals who do not obey, and refuse to receive their lord, and resist and contradict him; and we protest that the deaths and losses which shall accrue from this are your fault, and not that of their Highnesses, or ours, nor of these cavaliers who come with us. And that we have said this to you and made this Requisition, we request the notary here present to give us his testimony in writing, and we ask the rest who are present that they should be witnesses of this Requisition

Since they understood no Castilian the Indians present reliably failed to rush to pledge fealty to the Spanish Crown and the conquistadores immediately took to slaughtering, raping, enslaving and torturing not merely those present but everybody on that chunk of land that they could hold of on the theory that the earliest victims were deemed to be emmisaries for all. As Eddie Izzard once noted, the Romans were forced to invent a word, "decimation", for killing every tenth individual. They were pikers, mere amateurs, the populations that the Spanish got their hands on suffered vastly worse depredations. In 3 decades they managed to wipe out between 80 and 90 percent of the Taino population, for example. There were barbarous nations involved for certain, total savages in fact, but they were not the ones being overthrown. The Pope, as leader of them all, who knew perfectly well what he was authorizing and who did it, in part, for personal gain, was chief amongst them. There are really no words for this. It should be an international day of mourning.

I won't be here when this posts, and don't know when or if I'll be able to drop by, so ....

The thread is open and the floor is yours. Whazzup?

((The British Library Image taken from page 185 of 'The Life, Travels and Adventures of F. de Soto, discoverer of the Mississippi ... Steel engravings by J. & S. Sartain, ... The illustrations, designed and engraved on wood, by J. W. Orr and R. Telfer, etc')))

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The Aspie Corner's picture

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

enhydra lutris's picture

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

enhydra lutris's picture

have a great day.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Great Depression, but alas, no jumbo shrimp. (-;

From your OP, it seems as though a lot of bulls came from Pope Gregory.

Well done as always, el. And, despite my feeble attempts at humor, as always, I am grateful.
Thank you.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@HenryAWallace

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

The Aspie Corner's picture

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

mhagle's picture

@The Aspie Corner

Often another side to the story. I am somewhat enamored by the Chinese in regards to their land restoration and forest restoration projects.

Thanks for the video!

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

The Aspie Corner's picture

@mhagle Quite a bit of farm land and land in general was poisoned since the restoration of capitalism under Deng Xiaoping. The Great Leap Forward had its own troubles, no question about that, but the restoration of capitalism made things much worse. Their 'Great Green Wall' is a fine place to start, but it's not nearly enough.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

mhagle's picture

Terrible! And I get upset with the repubs for not following Jesus. Pope Greg takes the prize.

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

TheOtherMaven's picture

Born Rodrigo de Borja (which he Italianized to Borgia), his path tot he Papacy was smoothed by a maternal uncle (another Borgia) who preceded him in that office. He was one of those 'Rules don't apply to me" clerics who kept their mistresses on the down-low - and his children made the name of Borgia infamous (particularly Cesare and Lucrezia, although she may merely have been the target of nonstop malicious gossip).

Yes, THOSE Borgias.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

enhydra lutris's picture

@TheOtherMaven
audience by tossing out the family name.
Thanks for resding and have a great evening.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --