incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the blessed Peter and Paul Apostles.[1] After a short interval, Jan. 8, 1454, Nicolas issued a Bull in which, after reviewing with praise the zeal of Prince Henry in making discoveries and his desire to find a route to southern and eastern shores even to the Indians, he granted to King Alfonso all that had been or should be discovered south of Cape Bojador and Cape Non toward Guinea and "ultra versus illam meridionalem plagam" as a perpetual possession. Intruders would be visited with excommunication.[2]
These rights were confirmed by Sixtus IV., in a Bull issued June 21, 1481, which granted to the Portuguese Order of Jesus Christ spiritual jurisdiction in all lands acquired from Cape Bojador "ad Indos." This Bull also contained and sanctioned the treaty of 1480 between Spain and Portugal, by which the exclusive right of navigating and of making discoveries along the coast of Africa, with the possession of all the known islands of the Atlantic except the Canaries, was solemnly conceded to Portugal.[3]
Enough has been cited to show that the appeal to the Pope was natural. I venture to conjecture that in these papal
- ↑ "Illorumque personas in perpetuam servitutem redigendi . . . concedimus facultatem." It will be a surprise to many to learn that the revival of human slavery thus received full papal sanction. The first African slaves were brought to Portugal in 1442. The system was in its infancy. What might not the world have been saved if the Vicar of God had forbidden instead of authorizing it! The Church is credited with promoting the abolition of slavery in the Middle Ages. It is difficult to see how she can be cleared of having powerfully contributed to renew it. This Bull of Nicolas V. was repeated and sanctioned by the Bull of Leo X., Nov. 3, 1514, which is in the Bullarum Collectio quibus Serenissimis Lusitaniae, Algarbiorumque Regibus Terrarum Omnium . . . jus Patronatus a summis Pontificibus liberaliter conceditur. . . . Omnes ex legali Archivo deductae, et in hoc volumen redactae . . . jussu serenissimi Petri Secundi Lusitaniae Regis. Ulyssipone, Anno 1707. This Bull of Leo X. is not in Mainard's Bullarium, Rome, 1741.
- ↑ See pp. 178–9 for a translation of part of the passage and for a reference to a translation of the Bull. Nicolas, the next day, issued a Bull in reference to the extension of Christianity in these regions. Raynaldus, Annales XVIII, 423.
- ↑ Bullarum Collectio, 45; Alguns Docs., 47–55. The treaty of 1480 which Harrisse, 3, quotes from a MS. is printed in Alguns Docs., 42–43. Innocent VIII. added his confirmation, Sept. 12, 1484. Raynaldus, Annales XIX, 349.
