Sublimis Deus Declares Indigenous Humanity

June 2, 1537

Pope Paul III issued the bull Sublimis Deus, proclaiming that the native peoples of the Americas were fully human, possessed of souls, and not to be enslaved. Spanish encomenderos largely ignored it, but the document gave defenders like Bartolome de las Casas a weapon in the struggle over conquest. The bull's argument that indigenous peoples possessed rational souls provided the intellectual foundation for subsequent colonial legislation protecting native rights.