Papal Bulls: A Blueprint for Conquest A re-examination of the Doctrine of Discovery By Mr. David MacKinnon Jurist - Law Societies of B.C and Quebec © Copyright David J. MacKinnon

US government claim to land title The United States government claims it has “the exclusive right to appropriate the land occupied by the Indians” since the 1783 Treaty to end the American Revolution What then are the origins of this “exclusive right”? © Copyright David J. MacKinnon

The Doctrine of Discovery In 1823, the landmark case Johnson v. M’Intosh, Chief Justice Marshall traced English title to land in America to the “discovery” of America by the Italian explorer John Cabot, acting pursuant to Letters Patent issued in 1496 by King Henry VII’s royal commission. © Copyright David J. MacKinnon

Nemo Dat Quod non Habet – “No- one can give what he doesn’t have” By the treaty which concluded the American revolution, title to land passed from Great Britain to the United States, but even Chief Justice Marshall admitted that neither the declaration of independence nor the treaty confirming it could give us more than that which we before possessed or to which Great Britain was before entitled. Johnson v. M’Intosh, 21 U.S. (8 Wheat.) 543 at 585 © Copyright David J. MacKinnon

“Ultimate Dominion” This title arose out of “the exclusive right of the discoverer to appropriate the lands occupied by the Indians” on the basis of a claim of “ultimate dominion to be in themselves…even while yet in the possession of the natives.” Johnson v. M’Intosh © Copyright David J. MacKinnon

The Letters Patent © Copyright David J. MacKinnon That right to “ultimate dominion” was derived from Henry VII’s Letters Patent, that granted the right to seek out, discover and find lands of heathens and infidels and to “subdue, occupy and possess all such townes, cities, castles and isles of them found”

Henry VII, a Catholic prince But Henry VII was a subject, or subditi, of Pope Alexander VI, even in temporal matters. © Copyright David J. MacKinnon

Subordinate Legal Instrument Henry VII’s Letters Patent constituted a subordinate legal instrument, promulgated pursuant to the two fifteenth century papal bulls Romanus Pontifex (1455) and Inter Caetera (1493), respectively decreed by Pope Nicolas V and Pope Alexander VI © Copyright David J. MacKinnon

The “blueprint for conquest” In 1455, Pope Nicholas V issued the Papal Bull Romanus Pontifex, authorizing the Portuguese king to “capture, vanquish” and subdue… “enemies of Christ” and to “reduce their persons to perpetual slavery” This was the first of the Papal Bulls of discovery, orders by the infallible Pope to enslave, spoliate and subjugate because non-Christians were “heathen”. © Copyright David J. MacKinnon

“Killing the Indian within” The policy behind ultimate dominion and the order to “capture, vanquish and subdue” is based on the idea that non-Christians were homo animales, living in a “base, fallen state” because they were unbaptized. This belief underlies acts such as the kidnapping of the Iroquois chief Donnacona by Jacques Cartier, the placing of children in residential schools to “kill the Indian within” and the refusal to treat natives as equal human beings. © Copyright David J. MacKinnon

A clear violation of International law & the US Constitution The lack of a viable legal and moral underpinning for the order to “capture, vanquish, and subdue” – i.e. by classifying non- Christians as homo animales living in a “base, fallen state” - constitutes a fatal defect which renders the Letters Patent as issued by the royal commission to the Cabots in 1496, ultra vires the powers exercised under the royal prerogative. © Copyright David J. MacKinnon

“Homo Animales” is still US law By basing US government radical title to land upon the Letters Patent, Chief Justice Marshall has incorporated the Letters Patent and the two papal bulls into the US case law by reference or by necessary implication, thereby creating res judicata which stands to this day and clearly offends rights protected under the US Constitution and contemporary international human rights legislation. © Copyright David J. MacKinnon

Long March to Rome On May 1, 2016, a group of indigenous people will march from Paris, France to Rome Italy to petition Pope Francis I to revoke the Papal Bulls of Discovery and to celebrate the wealth of the heritage of indigenous peoples worldwide. © Copyright David J. MacKinnon