Page "Pope Eugene IV" Paragraph 15

Portuguese soldiers continued to raid the islands during 1435, and Eugene issued a further edict Sicut Dudum that prohibited wars being waged against the islands and affirming the ban on enslavement.

Eugene condemned the enslavement of the peoples of the newly-colonized Canary Islands and, under pain of excommunication, ordered all such slaves to be immediately set free.

Joel S Panzer ( 2008 ) views Sicut Dudum as a significant condemnation of slavery, issued sixty years before the Europeans found the New World.

The prohibitions and ecclesiastical sanctions of Sicut Dudum related to the newly converted.

Eugene tempered Sicut Dudum with another bull ( 15 September 1436 ) issued in response to complaints made by King Edward of Portugal that allowed the Portuguese to conquer any unconverted parts of the Canary Islands.

According to Raiswell ( 1997 ), any Christian would be protected by the earlier edict but the un-baptized were implicitly allowed to be enslaved.