Dilexit Deus (Principia Moderni IV Map Game)

Dilexit Deus was a Papal Encyclical Letter promulgated by Pope Adrian VI on the last Sunday before Advent in 1541. Its publication was prompted by reports received in Rome from Burgundian missionaries in the Spanish colony of Hispaniola of severe mistreatment of the natives by Spanish colonists.

Text of the Encyclical
To the Patriarchs, our brother Bishops, the Priests, monastics, religious, and all faithful Christians; peace and apostolic benediction to all.

God loved the world that he created the human race in his own image, such that they could participate in the glory of His Self through the capacity with which He endowed mankind. All mankind is created to enjoy eternal life with God, which none may obtain other than through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ through active faith in Him. It therefore follows that all mankind should possess the ability to receive that faith, hence the direction of Christ to his Apostles to 'teach all nations,' all without exception, for all nations and all peoples are capable of receiving His faith.

However in recent times, Satan hath inspired his satellites to proclaim that the peoples recently discovered in the New World are not true men, who can thus be treated as dumb animals, and not as true Men created in the image and likeness of God. By means of this deceit, these servants of Evil have hindered the acceptance of God's salvic Word amongst these peoples, greatly endangering the eternal life of countless souls.

We who, through the Apostolic Succession of St peter, exercise on Earth the position of Vicar of Christ and chief Shepherd of His flock, contrary to these views, consider that these peoples are in fact true Men, created in the Image and Likeness of God, and hereby declare and define such. Furthermore, as true Men enjoying the dignity befitting those created in the Image and Likeness of God, we hereby declare that any one who dares presume to enslave, take the property of, or mistreat in any way inconsistent with their dignity as Human beings, those people of the New World, and all other people who may later be discovered by Christians, shall be excommunicated, and the enslavement or theft of property shall be null and have no binding moral effect.

In concluding these letters, we exhort all Christian men of good will to exert themselves with great fervour in spreading the Word of God amongst the peoples of the New World, all people discovered in the future, and indeed throughout the entire World, and to assisting the Holy Catholic Church in that purpose.

Dated this day, the final Sunday of Ordinary Time in the Year of Our Lord 1541.