These laws conclusively and decisively prohibited the enslavement of the Indians, withdrew all grants from all corporations, ecclesiastical and secular, and from those who were or had been Viceroys, governors, or employees of any description whatsoever; previous grants were reduced; Indians were taken from owners who had ill-treated them; all governors were deprived of the faculty to "encomendar" (a system of patents which permitted forced labor of the Indians); owners were compelled to live upon their own possessions; and in all newly discovered territory no grants could be made.