Reading the Doctrine of Discovery: Papal Bull "Romanus Pontifex" of 1455 and Papal Bull "Inter Caetera" of 1493
Threadable-adjacent reading discussion on land ownership
The most recent Threadable* reading selections were the two 15th-century papal bulls that comprise the Doctrine of Discovery, along with a short introduction to Bull Inter Caetera of 1493 from the Doctrine of Discovery organization.
I’m sending the newsletter version of the reading earlier than normally scheduled because the Doctrine of Discovery is heavily intertwined with the 1823 Johnson v. M’Intosh U.S. Supreme Court case, and is also essential to land ownership precedent worldwide, that I really think they should be studied in tandem. The bulls are fussy to read, but short.
I’ve included the two main bulls in the readings, as well as an introductory translation of Bull Inter Caetera of 1493 from the Doctrine of Discovery organization:
The Papal Bull Inter Caetera of May 4, 1493, introduced and translated by
Sebastian Modrow and Melissa Smith
*(https://threadablenative.page.link/Rxp8yegeZ1vXy4u19 if you want to try the Threadable social reading app and need the link! Only works on iOS/Apple devices for now.
For anyone new to On the Commons, an overview of this project is here. These Substack posts are for anyone who doesn’t have iOS or doesn’t want to use Threadable but still wants to know about the readings; the subtitles are marked with “Threadable-adjacent reading discussion on land ownership.” Please feel free to comment or email me with any questions.)
The more I read about the Doctrine of Discovery, the more obvious its importance to land claims and land theft becomes. I think it’s vital enough to understand—not just the content or its contemporary effects, but the way it shapes our world today—that I’ve been trying hard to find other sources that explain it so people don’t have to read it cold and glean its importance for themselves. I was recently listening to a new podcast series, Mapping the Doctrine of Discovery, in which the hosts said in their introductory episode that,
“The Doctrine of Christian Discovery is essentially the key to understanding so much of what ails us today in the world. The Doctrine of Discovery is quite simply the Doctrine of Christian Discovery—that is, the relationship between how religion justified and encouraged the taking of lands by European monarchs and the Vatican from Indigenous peoples around the world.”
The papal bulls included in this reading were written permission from the pope at the time to the monarchs of Portugal and Spain respectively to claim the lands, resources, and people of any place its representatives came across, as long as said lands weren’t already “owned” by a Christian prince.
I don’t want to get too lost in the weeds here. Within Threadable, I included resources for some of the contemporary history from the 1400s; as with the definitions in the Charter of the Forest, just ask if you’d like me to share more! To summarize: almost at the same time that the heavily indebted Christopher Columbus was given permission and funds to sail and claim lands for monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, they had only just reclaimed the kingdom of Granada from the Muslim empire. Pursuing religious war in the name of Catholicism was predominant at the time that Bull Inter Caetera was issued in 1493, granting Spain ownership of around half the world. (I recommend Patrick Wyman’s recent book The Verge for an in-depth and readable history of this time.)
Bull Romanus Pontifex of 1455 was issued on behalf of the Portuguese empire and was directed mostly at West Africa. Both of these bulls gave broad license to the monarchs’ representatives to claim the world, no matter who was already living in lands they came across.
The rulers were, in fact, given express encouragement to claim not only lands and resources, but ownership of non-Christian people themselves.
The power granted and emboldened by these documents cannot, I think, be overstated. Not that land ownership and land theft started with the Doctrine or was limited to Portugal and Spain—the Charter of the Forest, which we went into a few weeks ago, is focused within England’s borders and addresses land enclosures and rights of the commons in the 1200s—but they empowered a hyper-driven and even more violent colonialism. And they were used to justify further taking of Indigenous rights and land for centuries.
The Doctrine of Discovery wasn’t called such at the time. It became doctrine through references in legal cases like Johnson v. M’Intosh that claimed in 1823—without any moral or legal defense—that discovery of land (by Christians or Europeans in general, depending on which empire was doing the discovering) was equivalent to ownership of it.
The point I know I keep making but is crucial, again, is that this precedent is still being used. The Doctrine of Discovery was what Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg referenced when denying sovereignty to the Oneida Nation in 2005. It reads as dusty, outdated history, but is in fact a living doctrine that has profound effects on lives and land around the world.
The link above, to an article by Villanova University professor Dana Lloyd, breaks down the doctrine’s role in that 2005 case and the finicky legal language used to try to erase the harms done: paradoxically, Ginsburg defended the decision on the basis that invasion and colonialism were part of history—done with, in the past—while referencing a doctrine that continues to do harm through legal decisions like her own.
There are also some readings that I didn’t include on Threadable itself because the platform doesn’t yet lend itself easily to exploring other texts within the app, but they are related and provide a broader foundation for thought and discussion:
“Listen,” by Matthew L. M. Fletcher, in the Michigan Journal of Race and Law, on being a Native American student learning about Johnson v. M’Intosh in law school:
“The story is huge. I cannot emphasize that enough. The story’s many strands and fibers contain the fate of ten million, or twenty million, or maybe even 100 million, people living in this land before the Vikings or Columbus arrived. Now imagine how many stories we all have, stories that shape us, define us, restrict us, lead us, teach us, and evolve with us. I have so many, I cannot keep track of them. And I always want more stories.”
“The Doctrine of Discovery and the Elusive Definition of Indian Title,” by Blake A. Watson (author of Buying America from the Indians) from a 2011 Lewis & Clark Law Review Symposium.
“Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery,” from the Assembly of First Nations, January 2018.
Mapping the Doctrine of Discovery, a podcast series from the Indigenous Values Project.
I’m only partway through the Mapping the Doctrine of Discovery podcast, and can’t recommend it enough. It does a better job than I can of explaining how much of an impact this doctrine and the worldviews that shaped it have on our world today, from continued theft of Indigenous lands to climate change to resource extraction. And right in the introductory episode, the hosts lay out the entanglement of missionary Christianity with the belief in entitlement when it comes to Christian (and eventually white, European, etc.) claiming of resources.
“The Johnson v. M’Intosh decision, in which the doctrine of discovery was essentially moved from this Catholic principle of land-taking, conquest, and domination, into a Protestant state-building contest. . . . At the time, Catholics and Protestants literally hated one another. They were killing one another. But on this issue of Christians appropriating everything non-Christians had, they agreed on that principle. After it becomes this principle of law, of property, then this becomes literally becomes the law of the land in U.S. property law. Every law student during their studies is introduced to the Doctrine of Discovery.”
I’ve read a lot about the Doctrine of Discovery, but I hadn’t fully appreciated the Catholic/Christian aspect of it until sitting down with the documents themselves and then listening to the podcast. The legal effects of the Doctrine of Discovery might be most visible today, but the religious worldview they came from can’t be ignored.
These documents are important. They’re important because of what they set in motion in the first place as European empires spread out across the planet. They’re important because, through the U.S. Supreme Court, they gave license to ever more ravenous land theft in early 1800s North America, and were then referenced throughout the world. And they’re important because their influence still defines relationships of colonialism today.
That’s it for this one. The next reading for the Threadable circle on Land Ownership will be from Nick Estes’s book Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance, which is a great book that I think everyone should read. It will be followed by a personal touchstone of mine, a selection from Henry George’s 1879 book Progress & Poverty, detailing the reasons why absolute private land ownership is one of the human world’s biggest sources of injustice.
Thank you, Nia. As Faulkner wrote, "The past is never dead. It's not even past."