His last voyage across the Atlantic was pleasant, but his reception in Spain was convoluted. His rules for confession and absolution in Chiapa had preceded him home, and the encomendero class across the Indies and those back in Spain campaigned to make the encomiendas perpetual, handed down from father to son and heirs forever. A flag no redder could be waved before the still bishop of Chiapa. He fought this new challenge for the rest of his life.

Everyone, it seemed, was offering money re the life of the encomiendas. The encomenderos in Spain offered to pay the Crown an immense gift for recognizing perpetuity. The Dominicans in Peru, especially one of Bartolomé's brothers, Father Domingo de Santo Tomás, “organized the Indians [in Peru] to authorize Las Casas to offer Philip II a large sum of money to deny perpetuity.” There appeared to be some proto-modern capitalism at work here.

“It was,” one of Las Casas's most astute modern students, Lewis Hanke, wrote, “in fact a blank check, for Las Casas was authorized to offer as much cash as would be necessary to outbid the encomenderos, no matter how much they offered for the privilege of perpetuity.” While the battle with the encomenderos grew warmer, in the meantime, in 1549, Las Casas pounced on another adversary, this time in his very own Dominican camp.

One of the most antagonistic Dominicans towards the Indians was Domingo de Betanzos, who opposed, for example, the training of Indians for the priesthood.