was a papal bull issued by

Pope Eugene IV Pope Eugene IV ( la, Eugenius IV; it, Eugenio IV; 1383 – 23 February 1447), born Gabriele Condulmer, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 3 March 1431 to his death in February 1447. Condulmer was a Venetian, and ...

in 1434 which

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 ...

anyone who enslaves Christians of the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Mo ...

Background

Christianity had gained many converts in the Canary Islands by the early 1430s; however the ownership of the lands had been the subject of dispute between Portugal and the Kingdom of Castile. The lack of effective control had resulted in periodic raids on the islands to procure slaves. As early as the Council of Koblenz in 922, the capture of Christians as slaves by other Christians had been condemned. In 1424

Prince Henry of Portugal ''Dom'' Henrique of Portugal, Duke of Viseu (4 March 1394 – 13 November 1460), better known as Prince Henry the Navigator ( pt, Infante Dom Henrique, o Navegador), was a central figure in the early days of the Portuguese Empire and in the 15t ...

sent a fleet to invade Gran Canaria. The expedition failed. By 1432 he tried to persuade his father, John I of Portugal, to finance another attempt. However, when his brother, Duarte inherited the throne in 1433, the new king agreed. A landing on Gran Canaria was made in 1434, but repulsed by the native

Guanches The Guanches were the indigenous inhabitants of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean some west of Africa. It is believed that they may have arrived on the archipelago some time in the first millennium BCE. The Guanches were the only nativ ...

, and the expedition then plundered the Castilian missions on Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. A complaint was lodged by Fernando Calvetos, the Castilian bishop of San Marcial del Rubicón in Lanzarote, supported by the archbishop of Seville. Calvetos informed the pope of the pillaging carried out by the Portuguese "pirates". Pope Eugene IV issued ''Regimini gregis'' on 29 September 1434, and ''Creator Omnium'', on 17 December 1434, forbidding any further raids on the Canaries and ordered the immediate manumission of all Christian converts enslaved during the attack.

Content

Creator Omnium alludes to the common humanity between converters and converted.Housley, Norman. ''Religious Warfare in Europe 1400-1536'', Oxford University Press, 2002
Eugene excommunicated anyone who enslaved newly converted Christians, the penalty to stand until the captive was restored to their liberty and possessions.Raiswell, Richard. "Eugene IV, Papal bulls of", ''The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery'', (Junius P. Rodriguez ed., ABC-CLIO, p.260, 1997
J. Gordon Melton says that the bull neglects to provide similar protection to those who should resist conversion.Melton, J. Gordon. ''Faiths Across Time'', p.975, ABC-CLIO, 2014
It is not clear to what extent raiders made a distinction between Christian and non-Christian. Michael Stogre holds that Nicholas intended the ban to protect non-Christians as well, in keeping with the view of

Innocent IV Pope Innocent IV ( la, Innocentius IV; – 7 December 1254), born Sinibaldo Fieschi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 25 June 1243 to his death in 1254. Fieschi was born in Genoa and studied at the universit ...

that the flock of Christ included "pagan sheep" that he ultimately hoped to Christianize.Stogre, Michael. ''That the World May Believe: The Development of Papal Social Thought on Aboriginal Rights'', Chap.2, "Alexander Vi and the bulls of Demarcation", p.64, Médiaspaul, 1992
Portuguese soldiers continued to raid the islands during 1435 and Eugene issued a further edict Sicut Dudum that prohibited wars being waged against the islands and affirming the ban on enslavement.

References

Sources

Housley, Norman. ''Religious Warfare in Europe 1400-1536'', Oxford University Press, 2002
* ''"Christopher Columbus and the enslavement of the Amerindians in the Caribbean. (Columbus and the New World Order 1492-1992).''", Sued-Badillo, Jalil, Monthly Review. Monthly Review Foundation, Inc. 1992. HighBeam Research. 10 August 2009 * ''Monumenta Henricina'', (1960–1967), Manuel Lopes de Almeida, Idalino Ferreira da Costa Brochado and Antonio Joaquim {{Religion and slavery Abolitionism in Africa 1434 works History of the Canary Islands 15th-century papal bulls Catholicism and slavery Documents of Pope Eugene IV