“…The advantage of the Encomienda system was that it allowed the Indians to retain their own culture and language, to which they were able to revert during their rest periods.  Unfortunately, it did not also insure their health.  They died in the goldfields, as had the Spaniards whom they replaced: they lived under unsanitary conditions, which caused them to contract fevers, and were overworked and undernourished.  For example, they were not allowed enough free time to obtain meat and fish, whose protein they needed to supplement the starch provided by their cassava bread and sweet potatoes.  Their population declined, and of the many hundreds of thousands who had lived during Columbus’

Many of the Indians died in the goldfields.  Las Casas reports that only 10 percent of the members of three successive Encomiendas originally totally nine hundred survived after three months of service.  There was a perpetual shortage of workers.  In 1515, Velasquez sent raiders to the Bay Islands of Honduras to obtain an additional supply.  Thus was the institution of slavery into Cuba.

From: Irving Rouse, The Tainos: Rise and Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992, pp. 154-155, 157.

One day, all of a sudden our village was invaded and in all parts of our town you could hear yelling and crying.  People were caught and bound by these enemies, some of whom were white and others black.  We could not defend ourselves nor were we able to run away.  All the men and women who could be got were caught and tied hand and foot by our enemies. Their weapons were swords and rifle.

We saw a caravan of slaves who had probably been captured at a nearby village.  They were painfully bound by the neck to these terrible poles.  What a dreadful sight.  We couldn’t believe it!  There were those caught in the fields and fishing at the rivers.  There were those who were caught while hunting and even at home.

I saw mothers among the captives carrying their young children.  The wicked caravan leader had killed many children with his sword.  He didn’t want the mothers and children to hold up the journey.  I could hear the mothers saying it was better to die than to live.

(A captured slave’s account of the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in a slave ship)

The place for slaves under the deck was terribly hot.  The captives were chained to the wall in such a way so that their knees were drawn up close to their chests.  The heat produced great perspiration, so that the air soon became unfit for breathing, and brought on a sickness among many slaves, of which many died.  This terrible situation was aggravated by the galling of the chains, and the filth of the necessary tubs for human waste.  The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, made the scene one of horror.  Those captives who died were unchained and thrown overboard by members of the crew.

After studying the Bible I became convinced that the path to heaven comes by faith alone (praying to God) not by religious practices and ceremonies set up by the church.

In October 1617, Johann Tetzel, the famous priest, came to our town selling indulgences (forgiveness for sins). People would tell him they had committed a sin and after pay him money.  Tetzel would tell them that God forgave them.  He didn’t ask if they were sorry and it didn’t matter how serious the sin was.  As long as they had money, they were pardoned.  What seemed even worse to me was that the practice of selling indulgences had the approval of the Pope.

I mailed my 95 theses to the door of the Great Cathedral of Wittenberg.  By doing so, I did as many others had done in the hope of opening public debate on the issues.  However, someone took my ideas and had them run off in every European language on one of the new printing presses in the area.  Before I knew it my ideas were being discussed all over Europe.

My later criticism went further than the practice of indulgences.  Most important, the idea that the Pope was the final interpreter of religious beliefs and not the Bible is wrong.  Also, why should the Church tell priests how to live or whether or not they could get married?  As a matter of fact, we don’t need church leaders to explain what the Bible means; everyone should study the Bible and learn this for themselves.  In order to make this easier I translated the Bible and changed the church service into German.  I condemned a church that remained wealthy while its worshippers remained poor.

Since that time most of the princes in Northern Germany have become Lutherans.  They have taken church property and established state churches.

I was asked by the Pope to admit I was wrong and take back my views.  I refused.  As a result, I was excommunicated and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, declared me an outlaw.

I, Galileo Galilei,…after [stating] the false opinion that the Sun was the center of the universe and immoveable, and that the Earth was not the center of the same and that it moved, and that I was neither to hold, defend, nor teach in any manner whatever, either orally or in writing, the said false doctrine; and after having received a notification that the said doctrine is contrary to Holy Writ, I did write and cause to be printed a book: I have been judged vehemently suspected of heresy, that is, of having held and believed that the Sun is the center of the universe and immoveable, and that the Earth is not the center of the same, and that it does move.

… I curse and detest the said errors and heresies, and generally all and every error and sect contrary to the Holy Catholic Church. And I swear that for the future I will neither say nor assert in speaking or writing such things as may bring upon me similar suspicion;

I, GALILEO GALILEI, have abjured as above, with my own hand.

residence at Versailles, near Paris, where he established the most brilliant court ever known in

Europe. The most influential nobles were encouraged, and even commanded, to leave their

castles in the country, where life at best was dull, and to come and live with the king at Versailles.

Here the king provided amusements for them, and here he could keep his eye on them. The

nobles could not well be discourteous or disobedient to the king while they lived in his house

and ate at his table. Almost without knowing it, Louis’s noble guests fell into the habit of trying

to please him. The king’s manners were imitated, his words repeated. All smiled when the king

smiled, all were sad when the king was sad, “all were devout when the king was devout, and all

were sorry not to be ill when the king was ill.” If a noble at court displeased the king, he was sent

back to the country to live in his own house, in which case everyone felt—and he did too—that

he was in deep disgrace.…

intensified persecution of Protestants; his actions made the edict [of Nantes] nothing but a scrap

of paper. Finally in 1685 he declared that the majority of French Protestants had been converted

to Catholicism and that therefore there was no need for the edict. It was revoked.

Now Louis launched a reign of terror. He refused to allow French Protestants to leave the

country. He promised that those who remained could worship privately, free of persecution, but

never kept the promise. Their churches were torn down, their gatherings forbidden, their

children made to attend mass. The Waldensians in Savoy were massacred, and six hundred

Protestants “caught making assemblies” were executed. Perhaps two hundred and fifty thousand

fled abroad to escape persecution.…