Ad Lib
by Benjamin Ramm
SPRING 2005
“HE THAT DIES PAYS ALL DEBTS”, remarks Stephano in The Tempest. Not according to my bank manager he doesn’t, whose Prosperous position may have something to do with the sentences of small print I stumbled upon recently. A few startling particulars reminded me of the Requirement, that infamous document of imperial arrogance drawn up in 1510 to inform foreign powers that their lands had been “donated” to Spain by Pope Alexander VI. The Conquistadors were required to read this declaration to all whose property they sought to confiscate, although this became a symbolic act, as in practise it was often muttered in empty streets or deserted squares, and rarely translated into an indigenous tongue.
Nonetheless, it’s worth having a quick glance at the words of Francisco Pizarro, who spoke the following to an Inca nobleman at Tumbes in 1533:
I, Francisco Pizarro, servant of the high and mighty kings of Castile and León, conquerors of barbarian peoples…request and require you to recognize the Church as your Mistress and as Governess of the World and Universe, and the High Priest, called the Pope, in Her name, and His Majesty in Her place, as Ruler and Lord King…And if you do not do this with the help of God I shall come mightily against you, and I shall make war on you everywhere and in every way that I can, and I shall subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church and his Majesty, and I shall seize your women and children, and I shall make them slaves, to sell and dispose of as his Majesty commands, and I shall do all the evil and damage to you that I am able. And I insist that the deaths and destruction that result from this will be your fault.
Here, surely, is the first written example of victim’s culpability, a sort of perverted version of Catholic guilt. Indeed, Las Casas – himself a Dominican priest – did not know “whether to laugh or cry” upon reading the demands. A similar lack of munificence is evident in my bank’s approach; somewhere near the blurb about “compound interest”, and the repetition of the bank’s “right to seize” goods and property from an already dispossessed pauper, is a Catholic narrative of its own – that of life after death:
If the Customer dies or can no longer manage his or her affairs because of mental illness, this will not affect your commitments under this Guarantee…If we address a demand to a guarantor who has died, this will be a sufficient demand to him or her and his or her personal representatives. It will have the same effect as if the guarantor were still alive.
Moreover, à la Pope Alexander, “You will be responsible for all costs and expenses we properly incur in defending such a claim”.
The bank will, it seems, have the last laugh – only the living dead will cry.
Text of the Requirement reproduced by kind permission of Ronald Wright (Stolen Continents, John Murray, 1992).
Post this article to:
Del.icio.us | 
Digg | 
Facebook | 
NowPublic | 
Reddit