Sermon

THE SERMON OF FATHER MONTESINOS


The struggle for justice for the Indians was begun by a small group of Dominican friars, who were horrified by the decline in the indigenous populationand the sights that they daily saw on the island of Hispaniola. In 1511, they delegated one of their number, Father Antonio Montesinos, to preach a sermon that would drive home to the Spanish settlersthe sinfulness of their deeds. Father Antonio's tremendous denunciation produced much dismay and anger among his listeners, but apparently not a single conversion. In the sequel, the infuriatedtownspeople called upon the Dominicans to retract their sentiments in next Sunday's sermon; otherwise the friars should pack up and get ready to sail for home. (This would not have been at all difficult,observes Las Casas, with quiet humor, for all they had on earth would have gone into two small trunks.) In reply, Father Montesinos mounted the pulpit the following Sunday and let loose a second andeven more terrible blast against Spanish mistreatment of the Indians. Las Casas describes the opening round in the great controversy over Spain's Indian policy.

SOURCE: Barotolome de las Casas,Historia de las Indias (1560)

Sunday having arrived, and the time for preaching, Father Antonio Montesinos rose in the pulpit, and took for the text of his sermon, which was written down andsigned by the other friars, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness." Having made his introduction and said something about the Advent season, he began to speak of the sterile desert of theconsciences of the Spaniards on this isle, and of the blindness in which they lived, going about in great danger of damnation and utterly heedless of the grave sins in which they lived and died.
Thenhe returned to his theme, saying: "In order to make your sins known to you I have mounted this pulpit, I who am the voice of Christ crying in the wilderness of this island; and therefore it...