 Antonio de Montesinos, a Dominican friar on the island of Hispaniola, was the first member of the clergy to publicly denounce all forms of enslavement and oppression of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.Theologians such as Francisco de Vitoria and Bartolomé de las Casas drew up theological and philosophical bases for the defense of the human rights of the colonized native populations, thus creating the basis of international law, regulating the relationships between nations.Important contemporary ecclesiastical documents taking a strong stance on enslaving or despoiling the indigenous peoples of the Americas was the ecclesiastical letter "Pastorale officium" and the superseding encyclical "Sublimis Deus".