PORTUGAL
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PORTUGAL
he should take from the Moors. In the previous
year Ceuta had been created a diocese, and it was the
first of the many sees erected in non-Christian coun-
tries where the Portuguese carried their faith and
flag. John made two concordats with the Church,
the first at the Cortes of Elvas, the second, in 1427,
at the Cortes of Santarem, but he did not abandon
the bcnrplncifum rcginm. He had been compelled
to make large grants of lands to the miblt-s as the
Window, Thom.
price of their support in the War of Independence.
One of the first acts of his son Edward (in Portuguese
Duarte — 1433-38) was to promulgate the "Lei
Mental" which enacted that these properties should
only descend in the direct male line of the grantee,
on the failure of which they reverted to the Crown.
The ill result of the expedition against Tangier, which
was undertaken against the aihice of Eugenius IV
and ended in the captivity of the Infanta Ferdinand,
h;\stened the end of the crowned philosopher, and
Alfonso V (143S-S1) succeeded to the throne in child-
hood. The people would not accept his mother.
Queen Leonor, as regent, and that office was con-
ferred on the Infanta Pedro, Edward's brother. The
queen and her party never forgave this act; they
stirred up Alfonso against his uncle, who was defeated
and slain at the battle of .\lfarroeira. The authors
of this tragedy were excommunicated by the pope, and
relations between Portugal and Rome ceased, but
were reestablished in 1451, and from 1452 onwards
became very close.
.\lfonso, a typical medieval knight, full of the crusading spirit, was bent on fighting the Moors, and he received every encouragement. Nicholas V, by a Bull of 8 January, 1454, conceded to him all conquests in .\frica from Cape Non to Guinea, with power to build churches the patronage of which should be his, and prohibited any vessels from sailing to those parts without leave from the King of Portugal. By another Bull of the same date the pope extende<l Portuguese dominion over all the seas from .Africa to India. .\ subse(]ii(nt Bull granted to the Order of Christ authority in spirituals over the peoples sub- dued by the Portuguese as far as India, and provided
that no one but the Iving of Portugal should be en-
titled to send expeditions of discovery to those parts.
Finally, in 1481, SLxttis IV confirmed to the kings
of Portugal all islands and territories discovered now
or in the future from Cape Xon to India. The
voyages continued diuing Alfonso's reign, and the
equator was passed in 1471. But the king thought
more of land conquests in Xorth Africa, where he
made three successful expeditions, and continued to
covet the throne of the neighboiu-ing country until
he was defeated, in 1476, at the battle of Toro. His
reign was rendered notable by the publication, in
1446, of the Alfonsine Code.
John II (1481-95) showed great energy in the work of discovery, which had been somewhat neglected since the death of Prince Henn,', and under his aus- pices Bartholomew Diaz passed the Cape of Good Hope in 1486, and in 149S Vasco da Gama reached India. .\ firm believer in absolute government and a man of inflexible will, John broke the power of the nobility, which had become enormous through the unv\-ise liberality of his father, following on the dona- tions of John I. He deprived them of their right to administer justice on their estates, and when they resisted, led by the Duke of Braganza, the king had him arrested and beheaded, and completed his work by himself stabbing the Duke of Viseu and ordering the execution of the Bishop of Evora and others. A great confiscation of estates followed and enriched the Crown, which now became the one power of the realm. John maintained good relations with Castile and, in 1494, made the Treaty of Tordesillas, con- firmed by the Bull of Alexander VI, by which the limits of the possessions of Spain and Portugal in the regions discovered by their seamen were fixed \)y an imaginary fine drawn at 360 leagues west of Cape Verde, the Spaniards acquiring the right to all lands lying to the west and the Portuguese getting ihose to the east. Under this div^ision of the world most of the coastline of Brazil found in 1500 fell to Portugal, and the rest of America and the West Indies to Spain.
Provincial and diocesan synods had become less frequent with each succeeding century (in the fifteenth centurj' not one proWncial sjTiod was held) with the result that ecclesiastical discipline declined. The bishops of the best-endowed sees were almost invariably chosen from noble famihes and some of them lived away from their diocese. This was the case with those of Ceuta and Tangier. By a Brief of 13 October, 1501, issued at the instance of King Emanuel, the bishops were ordered to fulfil their duty of \-isitation, which they seem to have generally neglected. From the beginning, the monastic orders and the chapters had attracted the best talents, and the parochial clergy were usually as ignorant as they were poor. Innocent VIII had to issue a Bull in 1485, providing that no one unable to construe Latin well should be ordained. The prevailing laxity had affected the monasteries, but the orders themselves responded to the desires of the king and the Holy See. .\ reform of the Dominican monasteries began at Bemfica and spread to the other houses. The zeal of the Franciscans was equally marked, no less than twenty-three convents of Observants were founded within a centiu^', and these, despite the op- position of the Conventuals, restored the order to its pristine purity.
King Emanuel (1495-1521) reaped the harvest sown by his predecessors, and every year of his reign witnessed .some new discovery, some great deed. The genius of .\lbuquerque gave him the maritime keys of .\sia, and the monopoly of the Eastern trade made him the richest king in Christendom. In 1514 the monarch sent his splendid emb;i.ssy to Rome to offer the tribute of India at the feet of Leo X, to urge the pope to proceed with the reform of the Church, and
