Question — Bontempi, Palladium Theologicum V · from Schola Thomistica
Question II: On the acquisition of dominion over barbarians
EVIL is the report of the Portuguese among the nations, as merchants of slaves; Yet already the Kings of Portugal have tried to regulate by laws whatever crime they perceived in this purchase of slaves, and they sail far and wide to the most remote islands for this kind of trade. The titles honouring this ill-willed commerce are widely reported by Molina Tom. 1. tract. 2. disp. 34. who long dwelt in Portugal, and by Fagundez, a Portuguese, lib. 2. Contractuum.
MALE apud gentes audiuntur Lusitani, mancipiorum mercatores; Attamen iam legibus moderari conati sunt Lusitaniae Reges, quidquid criminis in hac mancipiorum emptione perspexere, et longe lateque ad insulas remotissimas adnavigant ad huiuscemodi mercaturam. Tituli autem honestantes hanc malevolentem mercationem, late referuntur a Molina Tom. 1. tract. 2. disp. 34. qui diu Lusitaniam incoluit, et a Fagundez Lusitano, lib. 2. Contractuum.
THE FIRST is a just war, which Christian Kings wage, either provoked, or for another cause. Especially there are certain nations hostile to the Christian name, which devour strangers, and kill merchants. Such are the inhabitants of Monomotapa, Cafraria, Angola, and other nations.
PRIMUS est iusti belli, quod vel lacessiti Christiani Reges, vel alia de causa gerunt. Praecipue vero nonnullae sunt gentes, Christiano nomini infensae, quae peregrinos devorant, necantque mercatores. Tales sunt incolae Monomotapae, Cafrariae, Angolae, et aliae gentes.
BY A SIMILAR title the western, Brazilian nations, most wild and man-eating, are bought and reduced to servitude.
SIMILI titulo emuntur, et in servitutem rediguntur occidentales, Brasilianae, gentes efferatissimae, et carnivorae.
THE East Indies likewise, of Calicut, and more truly the most savage of Aceh, of Sumatra, the Javanese, the Japanese also once friends of the Christians, now so grown fierce against us that they rage, that Japan is called the land of Martyrs.
INDIAE pariter Orientales Calecutii, magis vero saevissimi Aceni, Somatrae, Iavanenses, Iaponenses etiam olim Christianis amici, iam adeo excrudescentes contra nos desaeviunt, ut Iaponia, terra Martyrum, dicatur.
OTHERS indeed have been made slaves by right, either from wars in Guinea, Manicongo, in Africa, in India, in Ceilan, or in the Empire of the Sinas, from birth; for very many sell themselves, that they may there espouse handmaids, and beget free servants. See Fagundez cap. 3. and the following.
ALII vero iure servi facti sunt, vel ex bellis in Guinea, Manicongo, in Africa, in India Ceilani vel in Imperio Sinarum ex natalibus, plurimi enim seipsos vendunt, ut ancillas ibi desponsent, et liberos ergastulos gignant. Vide Fagundez cap. 3. et sequenti.