Piis fidelium
Piis fidelium is a papal bull issued by Pope Alexander VI. , it dates from June 25th 1493 and belongs to the series of bulls that the Pope had issued on the occasion of the discovery of the New World .
Mission order
With this bull, Pope Alexander VI, who was himself a Spaniard , gave the Spanish kings the power to lead the missionary work of the islands and countries on their own responsibility. He roughly outlined the lands he had discovered, which corresponded to the previous bulls Dudum siquidem and Inter caetera .
With this new bull he gave an important instrument of power of the Holy See to Spain. The mission assignment issued clearly excludes the enslavement of the indigenous population . He wrote, "that the rightful faith in the new countries and islands should be brought by the Catholic kings and would flourish and increase in the following years".
See also
Web links
- America 1492 - Discovery, Invention and Construction of a New World (page 9) ( Memento from December 24, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 64 kB)
- The role of the Vatican in the encounter