Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	church_n	great_a	rome_n	5,301	5	6.4962	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69842	An account of the first voyages and discoveries made by the Spaniards in America containing the most exact relation hitherto publish'd, of their unparallel'd cruelties on the Indians, in the destruction of above forty millions of people : with the propositions offer'd to the King of Spain to prevent the further ruin of the West-Indies / by Don Bartholomew de las Casas, Bishop of Chiapa, who was an eye-witness of their cruelties ; illustrated with cuts ; to which is added, The art of travelling, shewing how a man may dispose his travels to the best advantage.; Selections. English. 1699	Casas, Bartolomé de las, 1474-1566.	1699 (1699)	Wing C797; ESTC R21602	188,943	313

to go a hunting after the poor Indians as they were hunting they lighted on a Woman that was sick who not being in a condition to fly to avoid being devour'd of the Dogs hang'd her self after she had hang'd a Child she had with her of a year old the Dogs presently camt to her and began to devour her but a certain Frier that was happily there perceiving the Child not to be yet quite dead baptiz'd it When they quitted this Kingdom they invited the Son of one of the Princes of the Country to accompany 'em who shew'd a great unwillingness to abandon his Country to follow 'em on which they threatned to cut him in quarters if he did not consent to their desire The Child still persisting in the same mind one of the Spaniards drew his Sword and cut off both his Ears This ill Treatment however could not make him alter his purpose upon which this Brute cut off his Nose and Lips and laugh'd while he was committing this barbarous Action Another brag'd that he had got many Indian Women with Child that he might sell 'em for the more Money Some of the Spaniards have been so inhuman as to give Infants to their Hounds when they were hungry they would take these poor Babes by the two Legs and violently tear 'em asunder into two pieces and then feed their Dogs with 'em They were left of God to such a reprobate mind that they made no more account of human Creatures that were ransom'd by the Blood of Jesus Christ than of Beasts I pass over an infinite number of other unheard of Cruelties which surpass all Imagination When these covetous and ambitious Tyrants left the Kingdom of Yucatan to go in search after the greater Riches of Peru four Franciscan Friers came thither to comfort these miserable People and to endeavour by their preaching to bring those that had escap'd the fury of the Spaniards to the knowledg of the true God The same Friers were very earnestly solicited by many other Indians to come into their Country likewise to teach 'em the Maxims of their Religion They assembled in great companies to inform themselves what sort of Men these Religious Persons were who call'd one another Father and Brother to inquire into their true designs and to know wherein they differ'd from other Spaniards who had exercis'd so much Cruelty over all the West-Indies They were willing to entertain 'em on condition they would come alone to instruct 'em without any other Spaniards to attend 'em which the Friers promis'd very readily assuring 'em they would not offer 'em the least Injury The Governor of New Spain likewise now order'd 'em to promise the Indians that they should be treated more kindly for the time to come and should find no farther occasion to complain of the Spaniards Severity Thus these Religious Men began to preach the Gospel of Christ with a great deal of Zeal and inform'd these People moreover of the good Intentions of the King of Spain towards 'em so that in about forty days time they brought all their Idols to throw 'em in the fire they as readily brought their Children whom they bring up with a great deal of tenderness and fondness to be instructed and built both Houses and Churches for these Friers with all the Affection and Forwardness imaginable All the several Provinces strove with great Emulation for their Company their Zeal was so great for the new Religion they preach'd to ' em So that what the Governors could never obtain of the Indians in many years these Friers accomplish'd in a very little time for the Princes and Great Men of these Provinces at the head of their People in a General Assembly voluntarily submitted to the Government of the King of Spain whom they acknowledg'd for their Soveraign and put themselves under his Protection as may be seen by the account these Friers sent into Spain sign'd with their own hands These pious Men were transported with Joy to find a door open'd to 'em to preach the Gospel in these vast Provinces to those that had escap'd the Barbarity of the several Governors who had massacred such prodigious numbers About this time there came into these parts eighteen Spanish Troopers with twelve foot Souldiers who brought with them abundance of Indian Idols which they had taken out of other Provinces the Commander of these Souldiers sent for one of the principal Chiefs of the Nation and commanded him to take these Idols and distribute 'em throughout the Country and to bring him Indian Men and Women in exchange for 'em threatning him with a severe War if he refus'd to obey him This Prince was so terrified with these Menaces that he carried away all these Idols and dispos'd 'em in the several Cities of his Province requiring the People in the name of this Spanish Captain to worship these false Gods and to render 'em all the Honour and Service they were formerly wont to do To recompense this Action they gave him liberty to make as many Slaves as he pleas'd The Indians frighted with the threatnings that were made 'em deliver'd up their own Children he that had two gave one and he that had three gave two This was the Event of this impious Traffick the Cacyque being forced to obey the Orders of the Spanish Captain One of these ungodly Wretches whose name was John Garcia being taken dangerously sick and ready to expire bethought himself that he had a considerable number of these Idols under his Bed and therefore order'd an Indian Woman that he kept to sell 'em telling her she might make a good market of 'em the matter of which being very valuable he told her every Image was at least fairly worth an Indian in exchange This was the Spaniards last Will and Testament and these were the marks he gave of the pious disposition of his Mind and in the midst of such Cares as these he gave up the Ghost By this Story it may easily be conjectur'd what good Examples the Spaniards set before the Indians and what progress the Catholick Religion is likely to make among these People who being Eye-witnesses of such Actions as these easily perceive that the Europeans have so little sentiment of Religion that they don't much care whether poor Infidels be reduc'd to pay the true God that Worship and Honour they owe him or not It can hardly be said that Jeroboam's Crime who caus'd two Golden Calves to be cast and oblig'd his Subjects to worship 'em is more hainous than that of the Spaniards who drive such an abominable trade with Idols and occasion so much scandal by this shameful kind of Traffick This is the manner of their Conduct and Behaviour in the new World They sacrifice every thing to their detestable Avarice and sell Christ Jesus himself for Gold They are every day renouncing him and dishonouring his Religion by the many infamous Crimes of which they are guilty The Indians seeing the Spaniards still continue

on some accounts War may be made with Infidels for instance if they have violently usurp'd the Lands of Christians as they have the Holy-Land if they profane our Churches break down our Images and offer any great outrages to Christians in hatred and contempt of their Faith That when the Emperor Constantine forbad the Heathens to keep their Idols it was for fear the Christians should be scandaliz'd by ' em He says If God severely punish'd the Crimes of the Sodomites it does not therefore follow that we may take upon us to punish all Infidels for their unnatural Pollutions That we are to admire the Judgments of God but not always to imitate every thing he does He says we may punish Infidels if they blaspheme the Holy Name of God or dishonour the Saints and the Church if they openly hinder the publication of the Faith and if they massacre those that preach it but that it is not lawful to declare War against 'em merely on the account of their Idolatry their unnatural Sins or any other Crimes they commit among themselves And whereas Dr. Sepulueda says The Indians are a barbarous People and born for Slavery the Bishop of Chiapa answers this Objection in saying That we ought not to make War upon Infidels to bring 'em to the true Religion which is only to be demonstrated by genuin Reasons that the understanding may be captivated according to the words of St. Paul That it must be a pious Affection to the Christian Faith that will dispose men to embrace it and that care ought to be taken that they may have no aversion against those that preach it who therefore ought by their good Examples to engage the Indians to relish the Doctrine they endeavour to propagate among 'em That War is visibly contrary to this end because it fills the minds of those Idolaters with horror and indignation against the Christians for bringing so many Miseries upon 'em and that they cannot chuse but think the Law of Christ an execrable Doctrine since it authorizes as they imagin such terrible Disorders The Bishop concludes in saying 't is a mere delusion to assert that the Wars made against these Infidels are not design'd to introduce Christianity among 'em by open force but only to subjugate those barbarous Nations the better to dispose 'em to receive the Faith of Christ voluntarily He pretends that this is ill reasoning because War spreads so much terror among those People that if they afterwards embrace the true Faith 't is to be suppos'd they do it rather out of fear than love and that their Neighbours when they hear what Violence Spoil and Massacres have attended this War may probably to avoid the like Mischiefs blindly embrace the Faith without knowing what they do themselves Dr. Sepulueda urges for another reason of War that the Indians massacre innocent Persons either to sacrifice or to eat ' em To which Argument the Bishop returns this answer That if the Church exhorts us to undertake the defence of Innocents it ought not in this case to be by the way of Arms. First because of two Evils we ought to chuse the least If the Indians massacre some innocent Persons to eat 'em 't is indeed a great Evil but War would bring much greater slaughters with it besides that these Wars dishonour our Religion and render the Christians odious to the Infidels who tho they sacrifice men are not altogether inexcusable because of their great Ignorance and have reason not to put themselves into the hands of the Spanish Soldiers who come with their Swords in their hands to rob and kill 'em instead of instructing 'em in Religion whereas they have no right to punish 'em for their Errors That Plutarch says when the Romans subdued divers barbarous Nations who were wont to offer men in Sacrifice they did not punish 'em for that Crime but only forbad 'em to do the like for the future That it is not to be expected of the Indians that they should renounce their Errors in a moment that the light of Nature which informs 'em there is a God teaches 'em to shew him respect and to return him thanks for the Benefits they receive of him and likewise to endeavour to make atonement for the Sins they commit against his Divine Majesty and that they ought to devote the best they have to him in Sacrifice Consequently their evil Custom of sacrificing human Creatures to the suppos'd Deities they worship is the less to be wonder'd at since they have no knowledg of Divine Revelation but only the glimmerings of natural Light to direct 'em which Light too is obscur'd with much thick darkness in the minds of Pagans That these People believe they perform a very acceptable Service to God when they offer him the Lives of Men that this may be confirmed in some sort by the Testimony of Holy Writ seeing God when he would try the faithfulness of Abraham commanded him to sacrifice his only Son whom he tenderly lov'd which God might do as he is the absolute Master of the Lives of Men that besides this Instance the Scripture testifies that God requir'd the Israelites to redeem their own Lives by the sacrifice of Animals That the Word of God remarks that 't is impossible to give a greater Testimony of Love than to offer ones self for the Person belov'd that those Women in the Indies that were most dear to their Husbands while they lived chose to be buried alive with 'em to give the greater proof of their conjugal Fidelity and Affection In answer to the other Argument alledg'd by Dr. Sepulueda namely that the barbarity of the Indians which he says shews they were born for Slavery is a sufficient reason to declare War against 'em in order to subject 'em to the Government of the Europeans the Bishop of Chiapa says there are three different sorts of Barbarians First that this Term is taken in general to signify any Nation that differs from others by some strange Opinion or peculiar Customs tho they want not Prudence or Policy to conduct their Affairs That the second kind of Barbarians is of those who have no Language proper by which to express themselves to other People such as the English formerly were when they had no Letters or Characters whereby to explain their Thoughts The third sort of Barbarians are such as resemble savage Beasts by the dulness and stupidity of their Minds by their brutish Inclinations and by the extravagance of their Customs who wander up and down in the Fields never dwelling together in Towns or Cities who are without Laws or Civil Government and take no care to observe the Law of Nations who rove about to commit Robberies and use Violence on all that have not power enough to resist 'em such as the Goths and Alans were formerly and such as the Arabs in Asia are to this day That 't is as lawful to make War with this sort of People as to hunt

number of the Inhabitants of this Kingdom by divers kinds of cruel Punishments Some they burn'd alive they cut off the Arms and Legs of others and made Slaves of the rest There are so many things to be said of the ill Treatment and Cruelty the Spaniards exercis'd against the People of this Island that 't is impossible to recount 'em all and if that could be done the recital of 'em would appear incredible and yet the Indians gave the Spaniards no occasion to engage in so barbarous a War against 'em and to commit such Violences upon 'em but one may truly say these poor Creatures liv'd in as great Subjection and Obedience to the Spaniards as the most submissive and obsequious Order of Monks do in the most regular and well-disciplin'd Monastery so that there was no lawful occasion given 'em to rob those of their Property or condemn 'em to a rigorous Slavery who had found means of escaping their bloody Massacres 'T is further to be observ'd that the Indians offer'd no Affront to the Spaniards when they first arriv'd in America So that they had no colourable Pretext for Revenge or the least right to punish 'em after so cruel a manner As for those Sins the Punishment of which God has reserv'd to himself such as Hatred Envy the passionate desire of Revenge the Spaniards had no occasion to reproach 'em on this account since these People have scarce more Strength and Courage than Children of ten Years old On the other side the Indians had a thousand just Reasons to make War with the Spaniards tho these had no reasonable pretence to treat them as they did with a barbarity equal to that of the most savage and inhuman Tyrants After this unjust War was ended with the Destruction and Massacre of all the Inhabitants of these Countries having reserv'd few besides the Women and Children they divided these among themselves some keeping 30 of them others 40 others 100 some 200 according to the Interest they had in the Tyrant of the Island whom they honour'd with the Title of Governor for 't was he that gave 'em these Indians on condition they would cause 'em to be instructed in the Maxims of the Catholick Religion tho the Persons to whose care he committed 'em were the most ignorant cruel covetous and vitious of all Mankind These as might well have been expected took no care to instruct 'em but confined the men to the Mines to get out Gold with incredible Toil and Labour they us'd the Women for Husbandry and Tillage tho this last was a Labour hard enough for men of the most robust and vigorous Constitution They fed 'em only with Herbs or such like Food that had but little Substance or Nourishment in it So that the Milk dry'd up in the Breasts of the Women that gave suck and their Children in a little time pin'd away and dyed with Faintness and Hunger The Men having no Conversation with the Women but dwelling in separate Houses there could be no farther propagation of Children by ' em Thus at length the Men perish'd in the Mines with Hunger and Labour the Women dyed under the pressure of their servitude in the Fields so that all the Inhabitants of this populous Island were exterminated in a short time And indeed if the same course were taken every where else all Mankind would be destroy'd in the space of a few Years The Spaniards oblig'd these poor Creatures to carry Burdens of fourscore or a hundred pound weight for a hundred or two hundred Leagues And that they might travel the more at ease they would make these Indians carry them in Chairs and Horse-litters on their Shoulders They us'd 'em like Beasts of Burden to carry their Utensils and what they pleas'd either for their Profit or Pleasure so that the Backs and Shoulders of these poor Slaves were black with Bruises occasion'd by the great weight of their Burdens These incredible Fatigues did not secure 'em from Blows with Cudgels and Whips accompanied with Curses nor from a great many other Punishments But 't would be endless to describe all the Miserie 's these unfortunate People were made to suffer it would require whole Volumes and the reading of so deplorable a Story would deeply affect and soften every Mind not quite divested of Humanity It is to be observ'd that the Destruction and Desolation of these Provinces began since the Death of the most serene Queen Isabella who departed this Life in the Year 1504. Before this time the Spaniards never durst exercise their Cruelties on the People of this Island nor destroy their Country if they offer'd 'em any Violence 't was as it were by stealth and with great Precaution But after the Death of this Princess the Desolation became general Before this fatal time they took great care to conceal whatever Hardships they made these People endure because the Queen was marvellously zealous both to promote the Instruction and Salvation of the Inhabitants of this new World and to advance their Temporal Advantages and accordingly she gave us many Examples of her Piety and Zeal In whatever part of America the Spaniards set their Feet they perpetrated the same abominable Villanies and Massacres to oppress and exterminate these poor Innocents They seem'd to take Pleasure in the invention of new kinds of Torments and their Fury augmented every day more and more till God Almighty provok'd by so many horrid Crimes abandon'd 'em to a reprobate Sense and permitted 'em to fall as it were from deep to deep and from one Precipice to another Of the Islands of St. John and Jamaica IN the Year 1509 the Spaniards went into the Islands of St. John and Jamaica which resemble delicious Gardens with the same Intentions and Designs they had carried on in the Island of Hispaniola Here they committed a world of Robberies and Cruelties just as they had done in other places where-ever they came The Marks of their Devastations and Murders were every where to be seen They laid all places desolate where they arriv'd exposing Men to the Mercy of Beasts And after having inflicted all sorts of Torments on 'em put 'em in the Mines to work like Slaves as long as they liv'd They entirely depopulated these Countries so that in these two Islands where there were computed to have been above 600000. Inhabitants before their Arrival there are scarce 200 now to be found The rest being all destroy'd with Misery and Hardship and that without having any Pains taken with 'em to instruct 'em in our Religion or to administer the Sacraments to ' em Of the Island of Cuba THE Spaniards pass'd into the Island of Cuba in the year 1511 which contains as much ground in length as from Vallidolid to Rome There were formerly fine and flourishing Provinces to be seen fill'd with vast numbers of People who met with no milder or kinder Treatment from the Spaniards than the rest On the contrary they seem'd to have redoubled