Sicut dudum is the incipit of the third paragraph of Creator Omnium,[1][2] echoing the abbreviated version reported by Cardinal Cesare Baronius in his Annales Ecclesiastici.

[5] Eugene issued Sicut dudum that affirmed the ban on enslavement,[5] and ordered, under pain of excommunication, that all such slaves be immediately set free: We order and command all and each of the faithful of each sex, within the space of fifteen days of the publication of these letters in the place where they live, that they restore to their earlier liberty all and each person of either sex who were once residents of said Canary Islands, and made captives since the time of their capture, and who have been made subject to slavery.

[6]Eugene went on to say that, "If this is not done when the fifteen days have passed, they incur the sentence of excommunication by the act itself, from which they cannot be absolved, except at the point of death, even by the Holy See, or by any Spanish bishop, or by the aforementioned Ferdinand, unless they have first given freedom to these captive persons and restored their goods.

[5] Eugene tempered this edict with the bull Romanus Pontifex (15 September 1436) due to the complaints made by King Duarte of Portugal, that allowed the Portuguese to conquer any unconverted parts of the Canary Islands.

[9] In 1476 Pope Sixtus IV reiterated the concerns expressed in Sicut dudum in his papal bull, Regimini gregis, in which he threatened to excommunicate all captains or pirates who enslaved Christians.