{ "id": "bula-de-alexandro-vi-en-romance", "type": "entity", "name": "Inter caetera in Spanish: the bull of 1493 printed entire in the standard treatise on the law of the Indies", "summary": "Política Indiana libro I capítulo X closes with two precedents — Ireland given to Henry II by Hadrian IV on condition of conversion and a tribute, and Martin V's grant of 1420 to Portugal — and then the whole of Alexander VI's bull of 4 May 1493 \"traducida fielmente de Latin en Castellano\": the donation in perpetuity, the line a hundred leagues west of the Azores, the Christmas 1492 reservation, and excommunication for sailing there unlicensed.", "locale": "en", "tags": [ "colonial-law", "law-of-the-indies", "legal-history", "jurisprudence", "canon-law", "international-law", "exploration", "navigation", "americas", "spanish-empire", "fifteenth-century", "seventeenth-century", "eighteenth-century", "religion", "indigenous-peoples", "cartography", "books" ], "relations": [ { "rel": "related", "target": "titulo-de-la-infidelidad-de-los-indios" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "potestad-indirecta-y-el-titulo-de-la-predicacion" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "solorzano-politica-indiana" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "vitoria-relectio-de-indis-1557" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "patronato-real-de-las-indias" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "bulas-de-paulo-iii-de-1537" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "school-of-salamanca" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "consejo-de-indias" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "anadido-de-1736-a-las-cargas-de-las-encomiendas" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "avendano-thesaurus-indicus-1668" } ], "questions": [ "What did the bull Inter caetera of 1493 actually say?", "Where does the demarcation line of a hundred leagues west of the Azores come from?", "Did the bull of Alexander VI reserve the rights of other Christian princes?", "What penalty did Alexander VI impose on ships sailing to the Indies without Spanish licence?", "Was there a precedent for a pope granting a kingdom to a Christian king?" ], "claims": [ { "id": "c1", "text": "Two precedents are set out before the bull, and both come with conditions attached. §20 of Política Indiana libro I capítulo X, page 41 of the 1736 Madrid impression, adds to those collected by Martha \"la de Adriano Papa IV. que concedió à Henrico II. Rey de Inglaterra, y à sus successores el Reyno de Hibernia, con cargo de convertirle à la Fé, y de que pagassen cierto tributo à manera de feudo à la Iglesia: la qual fueron despues confirmando sus successores, como lo dice el Gran Cardenal Baronio, y otros Historiadores.\" §21 gives the second: \"Y la que Martino V. hizo el año de 1420. à los Reyes de Portugal, quando fueron passando con sus navegaciones el Cabo de Buena-Esperanza, y descubriendo tantas Islas, y tierras de Infieles en la India Oriental, y antes de llegar à ella, dandoselas en pleno, y perfecto dominio con el mesmo cargo de la conversion\", confirmed and extended to the African and Asian coasts by Nicholas V and Calixtus III. Neither bull was opened in its own printing for this entry; both dates and both charges are reported at the second hand of this page.", "sources": [ "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-bula-alexandro-vi-en-romance" ], "confidence": 0.85 }, { "id": "c2", "text": "The translation is announced, and the eighteenth-century editor adds a signed note at the seam. §22: \"La de Alexandro VI. de que tratamos, traducida fielmente de Latin en Castellano, conforma con mas evidencia, lo que se ha dicho, y es del tenor siguiente.\" Between that sentence and the text of the bull, set off by asterisks at both ends, stands \"* Ram. Val. De esta Bula hace mencion Frasso de Regio Patronatu Indiar. lib. 1. cap. 1. n. 2.* y se halla en el Bulario Magno, f. 454. t. 1.\" — the 1736 editor, Francisco Ramiro de Valenzuela, giving the reader two places to check the text against, and signing the note with his own abbreviated name. The body text of the bull that follows carries no asterisk and is the author's.", "sources": [ "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-bula-alexandro-vi-en-romance" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c3", "text": "The bull opens on Granada, not on the Indies. §23 begins: \"Alexandro Obispo, Siervo de los Siervos de Dios: A los ilustres Carisimo en Christo, hijo Rey Fernando, y muy amada en Christo, hija Isabel Reyna de Castilla, de Leon, de Aragon, de Sicilia, y de Granada, salud, y bendicion Apostolica. Lo que mas, entre todas las obras agrada à la Divina Magestad, y nuestro corazon desea, es, que la Fé Catholica, y Religion Christiana sea exaltada mayormente en nuestros tiempos, y que en toda parte sea ampliada, y dilatada, y se procure la salvacion de las almas, y las Barbaras Naciones sean deprimidas, y reducidas à essa mesma Fé.\" The credential the pope names for the grant is the war just ended: \"como lo testifica la recuperacion del Reyno de Granada, que aora con tanta gloria del Divino Nombre hicisteis, librandole de la tyrania Sarracena.\"", "sources": [ "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-bula-alexandro-vi-en-romance" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c4", "text": "The bull describes the peoples it disposes of, and its description is favourable in a way that cuts against its own operative clause. §23 reports the messengers' findings: that in the islands found there live \"muchas gentes, que viven en paz: y andan, segun se afirma, desnudas, y que no comen carne\", and that \"estas mesmas gentes, que viven en las susodichas Islas, y tierras firmes, creen, que ay un Dios, Criador en los Cielos, y que parezen assaz aptos para recibir la Fé Catholica, y ser enseñados en buenas costumbres: y se tiene esperanza, que si fuessen doctrinados, se introduciera con facilidad en las dichas tierras, è Islas el Nombre del Salvador, Señor Nuestro Jesu-Christo.\" Peaceable, monotheist and apt for instruction is the document's own account of them, in the same paragraph that assigns their lands and lordships away in perpetuity.", "sources": [ "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-bula-alexandro-vi-en-romance" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c5", "text": "The operative clause is a donation of sovereignty, and the Spanish text gives it in full. §23, page 42, grants \"de nuestra mera liberalidad, y de cierta Ciencia, y de plenitud del poderio Apostolico\" and then, \"por la Autoridad del Omnipotente Dios, à Nos en San Pedro concedida, y del Vicariato de Jesu-Christo, que exercemos en las tierras, con todos los Señorios de ellas, Ciudades, Fuerzas, Lugares, Villas, Derechos, Jurisdicciones, y todas sus pertenencias, por el tenor de las presentes, las damos, concedemos, y assignamos perpetuamente à Vos, y à los Reyes de Castilla, y de Leon vuestros herederos, y successores: Y hacemos, constituimos, y deputamos à Vos, y à los dichos vuestros herederos, y successores Señores de ellas con libre, lleno, y absoluto poder, autoridad, y jurisdiccion.\" The whole later controversy over what kind of dominion the bull conferred — which the next chapter of the same treatise opens by stating in the words of those who held it conferred only a trusteeship — runs on this sentence.", "sources": [ "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-bula-alexandro-vi-en-romance" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c6", "text": "The line of demarcation is in the same paragraph, and it is drawn from pole to pole. The grant covers the lands found and to be found \"hácia el Occidente, y Mediodia, fabricando, y componiendo una linea del Polo Artico, que es el Septentrion, al Polo Antartico, que es el Mediodia ora se ayan hallado Islas, y tierras firmes, ora se ayan de hallar hácia la India, ò hácia otra qualquiera parte, la qual linea diste de cada una de las Islas, que vulgarmente dicen de los Azores, y Cabo Verde, cien leguas hácia el Occidente, y Mediodia.\" The hundred-league line of 1493 — moved west by the treaty of Tordesillas the following year, which is not mentioned in this chapter — is here in the form the bull gave it.", "sources": [ "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-bula-alexandro-vi-en-romance" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c7", "text": "The bull reserves the rights of Christian princes already in possession, and of nobody else. The donation is made \"con declaracion, que por esta nuestra donacion, concession, y assignacion no se entienda, ni pueda entender, que se quite, ni aya de quitar el derecho adquirido à ningun Principe Christiano, que actualmente huviere posseìdo las dichas Islas, y tierras firmes hasta el susodicho dia de Navidad de Nuestro Señor Jesu-Christo\" — that is, Christmas 1492. The one saving clause in the instrument protects rival Christian sovereigns. The inhabitants described four sentences earlier as peaceable and believing in one God are the subject matter of the grant and are given no reservation, no consent and no remedy in it. That the clause protects Christian princes and no one else is a reading of what the paragraph says and does not say, and the claim is set at 0.85 for that reason.", "sources": [ "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-bula-alexandro-vi-en-romance" ], "confidence": 0.85 }, { "id": "c8", "text": "The charge attached to the grant is instruction, and it is specific about who is to do it. §24 requires the monarchs, \"en virtud de santa obediencia\", to \"procureis embiar à las dichas tierras firmes, è Islas hombres buenos, temerosos de Dios, doctos, sabios, y expertos, para que instruyan à los susodichos Naturales, y Moradores en la Fé Catholica, y les enseñen buenas costumbres, poniendo en ello toda la diligencia, que convenga.\" The same paragraph earlier admonishes them \"por el Sagrado Bautismo, que recibisteis\" to \"inducir los Pueblos, que viven en tales Islas, y tierras, à que reciban la Religion Christiana\", and that in no time should dangers or labours frighten them off.", "sources": [ "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-bula-alexandro-vi-en-romance" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c9", "text": "The instrument's only penalty falls on European shipping, and it is excommunication. §24: \"Y del todo inhibimos à qualesquier personas, de qualquier Dignidad, aunque sea Real, ò Imperial, estado, grado, orden, ò condicion, so pena de Excomunion latæ sententiæ, en la qual por el mismo caso incurran, si lo contrio hicieren: que no presuman ir, por haver mercaderias, ò por otra qualquier causa sin especial licencia vuestra, y de los dichos vuestros herederos, y successores à las Islas, y tierras firmes halladas, y que se hallaren descubiertas\" west and south of the line. (\"Contrio\" is what this impression prints where the sense requires *contrario*; the volume's own search layer returns the same form, so it is the printing's error and not a misreading here. The Latin formula is set in italic in the body.) Nothing in the bull imposes a penalty for anything done to the inhabitants.", "sources": [ "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-bula-alexandro-vi-en-romance" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c10", "text": "The bull closes with a clause about its own copies and a date. It provides that because it would be difficult to carry the letters to every place where they might be needed, transcripts signed by a notary public and sealed by a person constituted in ecclesiastical dignity or by an ecclesiastical chapter are to be given the same faith in and out of court as the originals; it forbids any man to infringe \"esta nuestra Carta de encomienda, amonestacion, requirimiento, donacion, concession, assignacion, constitucion, deputacion, decreto, mandado, inhibicion, y voluntad\" on pain of the indignation of Almighty God and of the apostles Peter and Paul; and it is dated \"Dada en Roma en San Pedro à quatro de Mayo, del año de la Encarnacion del Señor mil quatrocientos, y noventa, y tres en el año primero de nuestro Pontificado.\" The fourteen-word list of what the instrument calls itself is its own account of its legal character and is printed here as it stands.", "sources": [ "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-bula-alexandro-vi-en-romance" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c11", "text": "What this entry establishes and what it does not. It establishes that the standard treatise on the law of the Indies printed the bull of 4 May 1493 entire, in Spanish, in its first book, preceded by two earlier papal grants of infidel territory to Christian kings on condition of conversion; and it gives the bull's operative clauses in that Spanish text — the donation in perpetuity with \"libre, lleno, y absoluto poder\", the pole-to-pole line a hundred leagues west of the Azores and Cape Verde, the reservation for Christian princes in possession at Christmas 1492, the charge to send learned men to instruct, and excommunication latæ sententiæ for unlicensed navigation. It does not establish the wording of the Latin original: this is a translation which the treatise vouches for as faithful and which the 1736 editor invites the reader to check against Frasso and the Bulario Magno, and neither the register copy nor either of those two printings was opened here. It establishes nothing about how the bull was applied, and the treatise's own next chapter, which asks what kind of dominion it conferred and opens by stating the view that it conferred only a tutorship, was not read for this entry.", "sources": [ "solorzano-politica-indiana-1736-bula-alexandro-vi-en-romance" ], "confidence": 0.9 } ], "takeaways": [], "faqs": [], "evidence_tier": "primary", "evidence": { "level": "industry_observation", "source_types": [ "paper" ] }, "moat_flag": false, "winning_edge": "English-language accounts of Inter caetera reached by the search behind this entry paraphrase it or quote the donation clause alone; what did not turn up in that search is the whole instrument in the Spanish in which Spanish American law actually read it, printed in the treatise every judge of the Indies used. This entry gives that text clause by clause: the preamble crediting Granada, the messengers' report that the inhabitants \"viven en paz\", go naked, eat no meat and \"creen, que ay un Dios, Criador en los Cielos\", the donation \"con libre, lleno, y absoluto poder\", the pole-to-pole line a hundred leagues west of the Azores, the reservation for any Christian prince in possession at Christmas 1492, the charge to send \"hombres buenos, temerosos de Dios, doctos, sabios, y expertos\", and the excommunication latæ sententiæ that falls on shipping and on nothing else. Two things the paraphrases lose are here in the same place: that the bull's own description of the peoples is favourable and sits four sentences from the clause disposing of their lands, and that its single saving clause protects rival Christian sovereigns and not them. The 1736 editor's signed cross-reference to Frasso and the Bulario Magno is printed too, because it is the check he offered his own readers.", "confidence": 0.85, "last_verified": "2026-09-27", "media": [], "x": {}, "canonical_url": "https://hispanic-legacy.com/k/bula-de-alexandro-vi-en-romance", "api_url": "https://hispanic-legacy.com/api/k/bula-de-alexandro-vi-en-romance.json", "jsonld": { "@context": "https://schema.org", "name": "Inter caetera in Spanish: the bull of 1493 printed entire in the standard treatise on the law of the Indies", "description": "Política Indiana libro I capítulo X closes with two precedents — Ireland given to Henry II by Hadrian IV on condition of conversion and a tribute, and Martin V's grant of 1420 to Portugal — and then the whole of Alexander VI's bull of 4 May 1493 \"traducida fielmente de Latin en Castellano\": the donation in perpetuity, the line a hundred leagues west of the Azores, the Christmas 1492 reservation, and excommunication for sailing there unlicensed.", "url": "https://hispanic-legacy.com/k/bula-de-alexandro-vi-en-romance", "license": "https://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-4.0.html", "dateModified": "2026-09-27", "citation": [ { "@type": "CreativeWork", "name": "Política Indiana, libro I, capítulo X, §§20-24 — two earlier papal grants and the bull Inter caetera of Alexander VI printed entire in Spanish: at §20 Hadrian IV's grant to Henry II of England and his successors of the kingdom of Ireland 'con cargo de convertirle à la Fé, y de que pagassen cierto tributo à manera de feudo à la Iglesia'; at §21 Martin V's grant of 1420 to the kings of Portugal of the islands and lands of infidels they were discovering, 'dandoselas en pleno, y perfecto dominio con el mesmo cargo de la conversion', confirmed and extended by Nicholas V and Calixtus III; at §22 the announcement that Alexander VI's bull follows 'traducida fielmente de Latin en Castellano', with the 1736 editor's signed asterisked note '* Ram. Val. De esta Bula hace mencion Frasso de Regio Patronatu Indiar. lib. 1. cap. 1. n. 2.* y se halla en el Bulario Magno, f. 454. t. 1.'; at §23 the bull itself, addressed to Fernando and Isabel, crediting 'la recuperacion del Reyno de Granada', reporting that the peoples found 'viven en paz: y andan, segun se afirma, desnudas, y que no comen carne' and 'creen, que ay un Dios, Criador en los Cielos, y que parezen assaz aptos para recibir la Fé Catholica', granting 'de nuestra mera liberalidad, y de cierta Ciencia, y de plenitud del poderio Apostolico' and 'por la Autoridad del Omnipotente Dios, à Nos en San Pedro concedida, y del Vicariato de Jesu-Christo' all the islands and mainlands with their lordships, cities, forts, places, towns, rights and jurisdictions 'perpetuamente à Vos, y à los Reyes de Castilla, y de Leon vuestros herederos, y successores … con libre, lleno, y absoluto poder, autoridad, y jurisdiccion', drawing the line 'del Polo Artico, que es el Septentrion, al Polo Antartico, que es el Mediodia' at a hundred leagues west and south of the Azores and Cape Verde, and reserving the right of any Christian prince actually in possession 'hasta el susodicho dia de Navidad de Nuestro Señor Jesu-Christo'; and at §24 the charge to send 'hombres buenos, temerosos de Dios, doctos, sabios, y expertos, para que instruyan à los susodichos Naturales, y Moradores en la Fé Catholica', the inhibition of all persons 'de qualquier Dignidad, aunque sea Real, ò Imperial … so pena de Excomunion latæ sententiæ' from sailing there without Spanish licence, the clause giving notarised transcripts the same faith as the original, and the date 'Dada en Roma en San Pedro à quatro de Mayo, del año de la Encarnacion del Señor mil quatrocientos, y noventa, y tres en el año primero de nuestro Pontificado'", "url": "https://books.google.com/books?id=huEykw_YtzYC&pg=PA42" } ], "@type": "Article", "headline": "Inter caetera in Spanish: the bull of 1493 printed entire in the standard treatise on the law of the Indies" } }