How We Fared in Cholula
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turned out. For the present, he said, we had given pious counsel.[1]
- ↑ With this opinion of Olmedo stood also Las Casas, famed as "the apostle of the Indies" and "protector of the Indians," who testified, "Before the idols can be taken from their hearts we must know the estimation the idolaters have formed of their gods. Then we must paint on their hearts the conception of the true God. Afterwards, shocked at their error, they themselves will throw down and destroy willingly and with their own hands the idols they venerated. . . . This was not the last of the blunders made with these Indians in this matter of religion; they have made them erect crosses, inducing the Indians to reverence them. . . . The most certain and convenient rule and doctrine Christians ought to give and hold when they go for a short time into a place, as these went, and also when they go to live among the people, is to give them examples of virtuous and Christian works, in order that, seeing their deeds, the natives praise and give glory to the God and Father of the Christians, judging that he who has such worshipers cannot but be the good and true God."
