In nomine Domini, Amen. Noverint universi presens publicum instrumentum inspecturi, quod anno a nativitate Domini millesimoquatuorcentesi moquinquagesimo sexto, decimasexta mensis Augusti, coram egregio legum Doctore Lupo Valasci[1] de Serpa, illustrissimi domini nostri domini Al fonsi, Portugalie et Algarbii regis Cepteque domini, et in ejus sacro pallacio supplicacionum expeditore, in presencia mei, notarii et testium infrascripto rum, in domo habitacionis ejusdem doctoris, comparuit Alvarus Petri legum licentiatus et ejusdem Serenissimi Regis generalis et legitimus procurator et ejus nomine presentavit dicto doctori quasdam litteras apostolicas Calisti Pape Tercii, quasdam alias Nicolai Pape Quinti in se continentes, non viciosas, non rasas, non cancellatas, set omni suspicione carentes et sigillo plumbeo[2] sigillatas, quarum tenor de verbo ad verbum sequitur et est talis:
Calistus episcopus, servus servorum Dei. Ad perpetuam rei memoriam. Inter cetera que nobis, divina disponente clementia, incumbunt peragenda, ad id nimirum soliciti corde reddimur, ut singulis locis et presertim que Sarracenis sunt finitima, divinus cultus ad laudem et gloriam Omnipotentis Dei et fidei Christiane exaltacionem vigeat et continuum suscipiat incre mentum, et, que regibus et principibus per predecessores nostros, Romanos pontifices, bene merito concessa sunt, [et][3] ex causis legitimis emanarunt, ut, omnibus sublatis dubitacionibus, robur perpetue firmitatis obtineant, apos tolico munimine solidemus. Dudum siquidem felicis recordationis Nicolaus Papa V., predecessor noster, litteras concessit tenoris subsequentis:
[Here follows the bull Romanus Pontifex, printed above, Doc. 1.]
Cum autem sicut [nobis relatum est][3] pro parte Alfonsi Regis et Henrici Infantis predictorum ipsi supra modum affectent quod espiritualitas in eisdem solitariis insulis,[4] terris, portubus, et locis in mari occeano versus meri dionalem plagam in Guinea consistentibus, quas idem infans de manibus Sarracenorum manu armata extraxit, et Christiane religioni, ut prefertur, conquesivit, prefate Militiae Jhesu Christi,[5] cujus reddituum suffragio idem infans hujusmodi conquestam fecisse perhibetur, per Sedem Apostolicam perpetuo concedatur, ac declaratio, constitutio, donatio, concessio, appro priatio, decretum, obsecratio, exhortatio, injunctio, inhibitio, mandatum, et
- ↑ Lopo Vasques, a native of Serpa, stood high in the favor of King Alfonso, by whose order he translated from Latin into the vernacular a work entitled Tomada de Constantinopla pelo Graõ Turco. D. Barbosa Machado, Bibliotheca Lusitana, III. ( 1752) 21.
- ↑ In MS., pumblio.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Not in the MS.
- ↑ In MS., insolis.
- ↑ The Order of Christ was founded in 1319 by King Diniz in conjunction with Pope John XXII. and was endowed with the greater part of the wealth of the recently dis solved Order of the Templars. Prince Henry's African expeditions were made under its banner, and it was granted ecclesiastical and other revenues from many of the newly found lands, in the islands of the Atlantic, Africa, and the Far East. Since its growing wealth threatened to make it a danger to the kingdom, its grandmastership was perma nently united with the crown of Portugal in 1551. In 1789 it was secularized. For an account of this order to 1551 see H. da Gama Barros, Historia da Administração Publica em Portugal nos Seculos XII. a XV., I. ( 1885) 382-388.
