ingeniosi et solertes, ita ut ne hinc quidem praetextus subiciendi possit desumi, qui tamen per se satis est manifestae iniquitatis. Iam olim Plutarchus πρόφασιν πλεονεξίας fuisse dicit ἡμερῶσαι τὰ βαρβαρικὰ,* improbam scilicet alieni cupiditatem hoc sibi velum obtendere, quod barbariem mansuefacit. Et nunc etiam color ille redigendi invitas gentes ad mores humaniores, qui Graecis olim et Alexandro usurpatus est, a Theologis omnibus, praesertim Hispanis,[28a] improbus atque impius censetur.
* [Plutarch, Pompeius LXX].
so that a pretext for subduing them on the ground of their character could not be sustained. Such a pretext on its very face is an injustice. Plutarch said long ago that the civilizing of barbarians had been made the pretext for aggression, which is to say that a greedy longing for the property of another often hides itself behind such a pretext. And now that well-known pretext of forcing nations into a higher state of civilization against their will, the pretext once seized by the Greeks and by Alexander the Great,* is considered by all theologians, especially those of Spain,[28] to be unjust and unholy.
* [Cf. Plutarch, Of the Fortune or Virtue of Alexander the Great I, 5].