They killed partly to save those who defied the power of the church, and partly to prevent the spread of their doctrines.

Their belief was that it was better that one man should die, even by the death of fire, than that hundreds should stray from the pale of the church, and so incur the loss of eternal happiness.

In the Indies, where the priests in many cases showed a devotion, and heroic qualities, equal to anything which has ever been displayed by missionaries, in any part of the world, persecution was yet hotter than it ever was in civilized Europe.
These men believed firmly that it was their bounden duty, at any cost, to force the natives to become Christians; and however we may think that they were mistaken and wrong, however we may abhor the acts of cruelty which they committed, it would be a mistake, indeed, to suppose that these were perpetrated from mere lightness of heart, and wanton bloodthirstiness.
The laws of those days were, in all countries, brutally severe.

In England, in the reign of Henry the Eighth, the loss of an ear was the punishment inflicted upon a man who begged.

The second time he offended, his other ear was cut off.