Interactions – A Law and Religion Podcast · CSLR at Emory University
Matthew P. Cavedon – From the Pope's Hands to Indigenous Lands
·36 min·3 clips
Was Inter Catera a spiritual mandate or a license for conquest? Spaniards fiercely debated its meaning for 150 years.
As heard by us
A papal text becomes imperial logic, and the episode follows that shift with care.
Matthew Cavadon tracks how Inter caetera shifts from a papal formula into language Spanish readers could use to justify conquest, rule, and evangelization. The best sections show how a legal-religious text can be repeated until it starts doing imperial work of its own.
Why you'd press play
When a papal bull becomes a script for empire.
Listen to the show on