Pope Nicholas V, born Tommaso Parentucelli in 1397, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1447 until his death in 1455. While his pontificate is remembered for its contributions to art, and architecture, one of his most controversial legacies is his role in endorsing and perpetuating the Atlantic slave trade, the most tragic and inhumane episode in human history.
In the 15th century, European nations, particularly Portugal and Spain, were embarking on explorations along the western coast of Africa. These voyages, driven by the quest for gold, spices, and territorial expansion, increasingly focused on the capture and trade of enslaved African people. Portugal, in particular, was at the forefront of these expeditions, seeking to expand its empire and wealth through both trade and colonization.
As Portugal’s influence grew, its rulers sought papal approval for their activities in Africa. The Catholic Church wielded immense power at the time, and a papal endorsement would legitimize and further entrench Portuguese dominance in the region.
The Papal Bulls and the Endorsement of Slavery
Pope Nicholas V played a very important role in this period through a series of papal bulls, which are official documents issued by the pope. These bulls not only granted Portugal the right to conquer non-Christian lands but also explicitly sanctioned the enslavement of African people.
The first significant document was Dum Diversas, issued by Pope Nicholas V in 1452, eight years after six caravels returned to Lagos from the Bay of Arguin (in present-day Mauritania) in 1444 with 235 African slaves, the first to be sold in Europe.
This papal bull granted King Alfonso V of Portugal the authority to subjugate and enslave “Saracens” (Muslims), pagans, and other non-Christians. While the bull was initially framed in the context of Christian-Muslim conflicts, it was soon applied to the African continent, allowing Portugal to justify its slave raids and the capture of African people.
A year later, in 1453, Pope Nicholas V further reinforced this stance with the issuance of Romanus Pontifex, which granted Portugal exclusive rights to territories along the west coast of Africa. This bull gave the Portuguese crown not only the authority to expand its explorations but also control over trade, including the trade in enslaved people. It reiterated the right to “to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all pagans whatsoever, and other enemies of Christ wheresoever placed, and the kingdoms, dukedoms, principalities, dominions, possessions, and all movable and immovable goods whatsoever held and possessed by them and to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery.”
These bulls effectively granted Portugal a religious and legal justification for the slave trade in West Africa.
The papal bulls issued by Pope Nicholas V had far-reaching consequences. They marked the beginning of Portugal’s systematic enslavement of Africans, who were forcibly taken to Europe and later to the New World. The pope’s endorsement not only gave Portugal a monopoly over the African slave trade but also set a precedent that other European powers would follow in the coming centuries.
By the time the transatlantic slave trade reached its height in the 17th and 18th centuries, millions of Africans had been enslaved and transported to the Americas, where they were forced to labor on plantations, particularly in Brazil, the Caribbean, and the southern United States. Pope Nicholas V’s bulls helped lay the ideological and legal foundations for this brutal system.
The Church’s Role and Later Reflections
For centuries, the Catholic Church did not officially denounce slavery, even though many theologians and clergymen spoke out against its cruelty. The papal bulls of Pope Nicholas V were never formally revoked, and the Church’s complicity in the slave trade remained a sensitive topic. It was only in later years, with the rise of human rights movements and global condemnation of slavery, that the Church began to reflect more critically on its role.
In recent years, popes like John Paul II and Francis have spoken about the Church’s historical mistakes, including its involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. In 1985, Pope John Paul II apologized to black Africa for the involvement of white Christians in the slave trade. In 2024, following the Catholic Church’s example, the Church of England also apologized for its past links to slavery.
While the Catholic Church may have issued an apology, the legacy of Pope Nicholas V’s bulls will forever remain a dark stain in the history of the papacy, as they sanctioned the Atlantic slave trade, which led to the forced shipment of 12 million to 12.8 million Africans across the Atlantic over 400 years, and resulting in the deaths of an estimated 1.2 to 2.4 million during the journey, with millions more succumbing in seasoning camps in the Caribbean upon arrival in the New World.
I believe your article to be tendentious and not counting the whole story. Slavery in Africa existed well before pope Nicholas V passed his bulls which included mention of the trade of slaves but also of other trades, I mean they were about trade and political administration, not about slavery per se. For many centuries before him, Muslims practiced exactly the same thing, all sanctioned by Muhammad who himself traded, personally captured and owned slaves for much of his life, in Africa and elsewhere. By comparison, this is something there is no account of Jesus ever doing.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/slavery_1.shtml
My point is not saying that Christians were any better than Muslims, my point is that at that point in history and forever before from prehistoric times, slavery was a common practice because the other, the different was considered subhuman and therefore subject to domination, same was done by Romans, Greek, Persian, Egyptians and everybody else. Also in Americas by the Maya and many other precolombian tribes, in India, China or Japan. This is a piece of human universal history, it was awful, unjust, cruel and tragic but we cannot judge those deeds under the light of who we, as humanity are now. We evolved, thankfully, to the point of today codifying it as a crime and enforcing that understanding upon those who for many reasons preferred to stay in the past.
By the way, Portugal was the first European country to abolish slavery in 1761 and across all its possessions in 1868. By comparison, France abolished in 1794 but reintroduced it on 1848. Britain abolished in 1838 but allowed it to continue to exist in British possessions in Africa, South Asia and New Zealand and never effected any reparations for the fortunes it made and the empire it built on the back of slaves across the world.
Again, it was the culture and the mentality of the time. Instead of recriminations about what the past was and the unjustified pain it created, we must look to the present and the future, make sure it is eradicated from our days and prepare our children for never accepting it back and hold onto hope for continued empathy, peaceful coexistence and equality.
Vengeance never got anyone anywhere and it’s no solution for pain.
Thank you for your comment Mr Antonio. You’re right that slavery existed long before Pope Nicholas V, and many civilizations, including Muslims and Africans, engaged in it. The article focuses on Nicholas V because his papal bulls provided religious justification for the atlantic slave trade, which introduced slavery on an unprecedented scale and with new levels of brutality. While his bulls were about trade and political administration like you mentioned, they also provided religious justification for Portugal to monopolize these activities, which unfortunately did include the enslavement of non-Christians.
I also agree that we must look to the present and future, but that doesn’t mean we should forget the past. History is crucial for understanding how such injustices occurred and for ensuring we don’t repeat the same mistakes. Both are important in building a better world.