In which our hero defends himself before a jury and very nearly gets burned
Seems the trial took place in a room filled with crucifixes and holy oils and was presided over by three judges of the Council of the Indies. The courtroom was full of Castilian gentleman, except for the indigenous translator Luis Pajares and Estebanico the Blackamoor, who were sitting in a dark corner observing it all with their enormous black eyes. Further up, sitting in the second row, was the imperial administration of the lettered city with all the human instruments of its bureaucracy. Before the judges, to the left, was Domingo Vázquez de Soja, accompanied by other noble military men, all of them criollo sons of illustrious conquistadors who’d been born in the New World and considered it their own. To the right, was only our hero, defending himself, dressed in a black lawyer’s robe. The judge spoke first:
“In the name of the King of the Islands and Terra Firma of the Ocean Sea, we openne this court of the first instance in order to reconsile the fyude between troop lieutenant Gregorio Izquierdo versus the nobleman De Soja, both loyall servants of the Crown.”
De Soja’s lawyer began the trial with a dissertation on the savage figure of the native, before the smiling faces of the noblemen:
“… and it canst be asseverated, without a shaddow of a doubt, that the natives are uncultured, inhuman barbarians, as they knowe not God nor recognise his law. Therefore, ours indeed be a just war, as declared by Sepúlveda in Democrates Alter or, On the Just Causes for War Against the Indians, where he recognises the right of the Pope and our Catholic King to enslave the Indians, being as they art natural servants of the Crown. Furthermore, it upholdes the right, under juridickal, theological, and political bases, for iusta causa posesionis, in other wurds, the legitimacy of our conquest, from the Capitulations of Santa Fe to the Laws of Burgos, gathered in the treatises On the Islands of the Ocean Sea by Palacios y Rubios and Concerning the Rule of the King of Spain over the Indians by Matías de Paz. And as syuch, our actions are justified and preserv’d by the law of those just treatises.”
Two of the judges nodded, while the third scratched his curly white wig and gestured with one hand for our hero to begin his rebuttal.
“Much obliged, Your Excellency. All the arguments put forth hath been call’d into question by umpteen people,” said Gregorio Izquierdo, pulling a bundle of books out of his satchel. “Fray Bartolomé de las Casas hath already refuted, in his Apologetic History, the savage nature of the Indians. As for their conversion to Christianity, that art a right of the Indians but not an imperative to be imposed bloodily.”
The people sitting at the back of the room murmured some astounded “oohs” and “aahs” at the impertinence of our hero.
“Conquest for the Gospel, yes, mero et mixto imperio104,” he repeated, reasserting himself. “Howsoever, the era of epics and novels of chivalry has long pass’d, my lords. Now tis registry and law which rule, the tangible and the rational. These natives are not the devil, they art human beings such as ourselves, and as such their treatment at Spanish hands be unjust, and based solely on the fact that they doth not believe in our God, of whom they hath ne’er before heard telle. The plena potestas in re of the Kingdom of Spain and its dominum over the Indians, derived from Roman law, cannot be absolute for were it so then the very Pope in Rome and his Romanus Pontifex bull must necessarily take sides in this trial!”
There was a considerable upturn in the courtroom’s commotion when someone shouted out “heretick!” and the judge banged his gavel as he shouted, “Order … ! Order in the court!”
“Your Excellency, I invent none of this, it’s all in the books,” continued Gregorio. “Fray Francisco de Vitoria revisits the juridical & theological corpus of De potestate civili (1528) in favour of an international law grounded in natural right and not on force. Correspondingly, from a legal perspective, war against innocents goeth against natural and divine law.”
“I object, Your Honor!” said the lawyer for the State. “The Eramist ideas of Second Lieutenant Izquierdo do not correspond with the reality of the colonies. Dost thou not concede that it should be preposterous not to oblige the Indians to labour for and submit to both Church and King?”
“Objecktion overruled,” said the judge. “Allow the soldier Gregorio Izquierdo persevere with his defense.”
“With all due reverence, counsel,” said our hero, “what thou deemst ‘preposterous’ is verily the possibility of true justice.”
“What art thou propounding? That the Indians simply do as they wish?” said the nobleman’s attorney, adopting a surprised expression. “For tis it not also true that in another of Francisco de Vitoria’s books, namely De indis prior (1539), he states that the Indians have no convenyent laws, no magistrates, and are not even capable of governance? The Seven-Part Code hath already establish’d the ocupatio and governance of these savages and their lands, being as they were res nullius, all became ours. And for that motife and none other, the Crown must acte as Father to these savages and, concurrently, govern them so as not to relinquish all that the Crown has achieved, the trade and economic benefits to our Empire.”
“Whilst the aforementioned be veracious,” said Gregorio Izquierdo, “in De indis posterior seu de iure belli (1539), Vitoria himself admitte that natural law prohibits the killing of innocents. Las Casas concurred, in his New Laws (1542), which state that slavery and the encomienda system must be outlawed in favour of a just treatment of the Indians. That an empyre of justice must be established through the use of reason, never force! Roman-Christian law, the Lex romana visigotorum, rejects slavery. In other wordes, the Indians must submit to the power of the King, but war canst be waged against them merely for not being Christians. Alexander VI’s four bulls and the legal justification for the Requerimiento should not presume to sanction any massacre, because tis he who kills an innocent and is unable to admit to his atrocity who demonises that innocent in order to justify his demise. The Gospel leads altogether too swifth to the sword in these lands. And that be indubitably what nobleman Domingo Vázquez de Soja and his vassals did, dispiteous … setting the dogges upon an entire tribe for not submitting to their orders, converting that village into a veritable cemetery of Indians!”
The women in the courtroom gasped in horror and the men coughed and mumbled. The judges didn’t know where they stood in the face of our hero’s exposition, while the noblemen noted with discomfort that Izquierdo was gaining ground. But their lawyer had a trick up his sleeve and this was the time to use it.
“Objection! Objection, Your Excellency!” he said. “Be there perchance a witness in this courtroom to the supposed exploits of which my client is accused? Does perchance any man knowe beyond doubt that this soldier, this Gregorio Izquierdo, be truly who he claimeth to be? Who is this solider, who travells with a black slave as if he were a white man?”
The murmuring in the room grew shriller, becoming a constant soundtrack.
“Order in the court!” called the judge. “Carry on, barrister, and clarify this matter.”
“Your Excellency, I hath heard telle that the soldier Gregorio Izquierdo, who today assumes all the riskes of defending himself, is truly named Juan Urpín and a Catalan national, in other words a foreign’r, and furthermore a lawyer by profession,” continued the attorney, smiling triumphantly. “What bee the motive behind this learn’d man travelling through these new worlds with an assumed name? Be he a fugitive? Be he a runaway from prison or the galleys? Who is Juan Urpín and who is Gregorio Izquierdo? Is he, perhaps, a spy for the English or the Portuguese? This matter must be urgently address’d!”
Our hero, whose face had blanched more and more as he listened, his body sinking into his chair, wanted to die. The crowd in the courtroom erupted in a commotion, each person giving his opinion. He patted down the pocket of his dress coat, searching for the letter from Úrsula Pendregast, but then he remembered that he’d lost it on the high seas. Amid the commotion, Luis Pajares, the native interpreter, stood up from his chair and walked to the middle of the room. The throng, upon seeing his slight, dark figure, was suddenly quiet.
“Your Excellency, witnesses and jury, all assembled bros & hos: mine Christian name be Luis Pajares and I didst right verily eyewitness all these massacres in the jungle,” he said. “And I doth swere, in the name of God Our Father and the Holy Spirit (can I git an amen!), that Gregorio Izquierdo allways comported with honour and kindness among the Indians, while the enraged nobleman Domingo Vázquez de Soja didst murder entire tribes. Carajo!”
“Ti’th tlue!” exclaimed Estebanico the Blackamoor, emerging from behind Luis Pajares. “And ath fo’ the tlue identity of the soldiel Gregorio Izquierdo, do not be led astlay by lumols and tlust mole in the tluth of leason: thi’ vely Don Izquierdo fleed me flom a slave ship and celtain death and that i’ what count.”
After the speeches made by the indigenous man and the African man, the courtroom was dumbstruck. A deafening silence hovered for a few moments over all the shaken faces of those present, until the judge coughed and then murmured a few words with the other judges before speaking.
“Ahem! Well, this court deems it just to dismiss the charges against the noble criollo Domingo Vázquez de Soja, as a recognised figure of great merit in these regions, with a forewarning of possible charges on crimes and misdemeanours shouldst he commit further atrocities. And we shall adjourne our review of the strange ‘case’ of Gregorio … or Juan whatever-the-heck and his suspected dubble personality, whilst considering in accordance with common agreement to ceast and desist all further crimes and misdeamors. Session adjourned!”
While the judge hammered out the sentence and the audience bellowed with rage and confusion at that strange ruling, Captain De Soja and the other noble hidalgos didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. And as for our hero, let’s just say he got lucky that time, but a new fearsome enemy had appeared on the scene, as the attentive reader will see straightaway.
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104. In other words, with absolute power and jurisdiction over sentencing and punishment.