Vincente de Valverde - Negative Side

Negative Side

By far Friar Valverde's negative and contradictory side was his mistreatment of the natives of Peru which, instead of preaching the gospel, he oppressed, enslaved, and forced to work for the church. (This was the complete opposite to what Bartolomé de Las Casas, another Spanish priest, did years later by defending the native's rights in works he published and in visits to Spain to inform King Philip II of the abuses committed against the local natives by the Conquistadors.)

Valverde was later appointed by Pizarro on the commission to apportion lands and natives to the royal officers, and the licentiate, Antonio de Game, whom Pizarro had appointed supreme judge of Cuzco. The latter charged Valverde in a letter to the emperor, dated March 10, 1539, with arbitrary acts and insisted that instead of protecting the natives, he only mistreated them and sought to confiscate their lands, and always gave the greater part to himself and his assistant. Despite the charges, on March 11, 1540, Friar Valverde officiated at the consecration of the new cathedral of Lima. He then headed back to Spain, where he presented to the emperor, by order of Pizarro, a memorial about the conquest under the title of "Relacion de la Conquista de los Reynos de Peru," in which he claimed that the natives could scarcely be considered as human beings, as they had no souls.