Historian Pidal: I am fortunate enough not to have initially confronted Las Casas alone, but rather in comparison with other contemporaries; I didn't suffer the fascinating charm of the praising siren, because my ears were plugged with the careful reasoning of Fray Francisco de Vitoria and the soldierly tales of Bernal Díaz del Castillo; then Las Casas, next to the great theologians, shrinks extraordinarily, and next to the honorable conquistadors, he oozes bitter hatred and false exaggeration.

El padre Las Casas, su doble personalidad

https://ia902805.us.archive.org/8/items/elpadrelascasass00mene/elpadrelascasass00mene.pdf

But let us note that the defect of credulity implies other, lesser ones. Absolute reliance on the author's narrative leads one to believe that consulting other sources is unnecessary or to making poor use of them. I am referring primarily to Las Casas's other writings that do not contain autobiographical information. The Life of Las Casas by Fabié, for example, provides extensive information on several of Las Casas's writings, but does not examine them to highlight what Las Casas specifically advocated regarding Spanish rule in America, the rights of Indian lords and peoples, Spain's mortal sin, etc. A biography of Las Casas must always bear this doctrine in mind; it must, above all, inform oneself about what Las Casas fundamentally thought about the key issues that motivated his actions, in order to see how he acted accordingly. No biographer provides this information in a general sense; And so strange cases arise, such as the attribution to Las Casas (because he so indicates) of Cardinal Cisneros's reform plan, which is radically opposed to Las Casas's fundamental ideas, or the belief (because he claims so) that he pacified the rebel chieftain Enriquillo, a pacification achieved in a manner contrary to the entire ideology of Fray Bartolomé...

This lack of perspective we notice results in credulous biographies presenting Las Casas as an isolated figure, as he always presents himself, standing out among his contemporaries, who were deformedly diminished by him. I am fortunate enough not to have initially confronted Las Casas alone, but rather in comparison with other contemporaries; I didn't suffer the fascinating charm of the praising siren, because my ears were plugged with the careful reasoning of Fray Francisco de Vitoria and the soldierly tales of Bernal Díaz del Castillo; then Las Casas, next to the great theologians, shrinks extraordinarily, and next to the honorable conquistadors, he oozes bitter hatred and false exaggeration.