Inter caetera

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Inter caetera document of May 4, 1493 in the Archivo General de Simancas

Inter caetera were the first words of three papal documents of the 15th century.

  • In the Bull Inter caetera of March 13, 1456, Pope Calixt III confirmed . u. A. the continued validity of the contents of the bull Romanus Pontifex of his predecessor Nicholas V.
  • In the Bull Inter caetera of May 3, 1493, Pope Alexander VI. the current and future rulers of Castile and Leon the lands discovered by Christopher Columbus .
  • In the bull Inter caetera of May 4, 1493, the bulls Inter caetera of May 3, 1493 and the

Replaced the bull Eximiae devotionis dated May 3, the Pope demarcated the areas of Castile and Portugal in the Atlantic Ocean by a dividing line. In the literature, “Inter caetera” usually refers to this papal document dated May 4, 1493.

prehistory

On returning from his first voyage to America, Columbus reached Lisbon on March 4, 1493. The Portuguese King John II received information about the discoveries and at the end of April 1493 sent an ambassador to the court of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand . He demanded that Castile cede the areas occupied by Columbus to Portugal. Johann argued that the Treaty of Alcáçovas agreed an east-west line at the level of the Canary Islands . All areas north of this line were to go to Castile, all areas south of this line to Portugal. Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand immediately contacted Pope Alexander VI through their permanent ambassador in Rome, Bernardino López de Carvajal . on. The result of the negotiations was the bull Inter Caetera dated May 3, 1493, which was probably sent on May 17, 1493. Since the content of the bull of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand was apparently regarded as inadequate, new negotiations in Rome resulted in more advantageous details and additions for Castile in a Bull Inter Caetera, backdated to May 4, 1494, which was probably written in June .

content

Bull Inter caetera of May 3, 1493

The sequence of the contents of the certificate corresponds to the usual scheme. At the beginning, Alexander, Servant of the Servants of God, is named, greeted and blessed as the exhibitor and Ferdinand and Isabella King and Queen of Castile, Leon, Aragon and Granada as addressees. Thereupon the numerous achievements of Isabella and Ferdinand for the spread of the faith, especially the conquest of Granada, are pointed out. Next, the discoveries of the new lands by Christopher Columbus, whose inhabitants Ferdinand and Isabella want to bring the Catholic faith, will be dealt with. For this reason, the Pope gives, grants and transfers to Ferdinand and Isabella, as well as their heirs and successors as kings of Castile and León, all the lands that the agents of the king and the Queen were discovered or to be discovered. In contrast to the salutation, which also mentions the dominion of the Crown of Aragon, the information here is limited to Castile and León (vobis heredibusque et successoribus vestris, Castelle et Legionis regibus). All areas that were already ruled by Christian rulers were excluded from the transfer. Furthermore, all persons who did not adhere to this papal decision were threatened with penalties.

Boundary lines to Inter caetera 1493 and Treaty of Tordesillas 1494

New regulations of the Bull Inter Caetera of May 4, 1493

The new papal document Inter Caetera, dated May 4, 1493, was a replacement for the previous bulls Inter Caetera and Eximiae devotionis of May 3, 1493. It partially adopted the text of these documents. One of the expansion consisted in the fact that not only the lands discovered and to be discovered by the agents of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabellas, the King and Queen of Castile and their heirs and successors, were given, granted and transferred, but also all territories that were west of a line defined in the document, regardless of who discovered it.

The line should run from the North Pole to the South Pole (constituendo lineam a polo Arctico ad polum Antarcticum) a hundred miles west and south (versus occidentem et meridiem) and from any of the islands (qualibet insularum) commonly known as the Azores and Cape Verde Islands are known to be a hundred miles apart. The problems with this formulation resulted from the fact that a line from pole to pole cannot run west and south and the westernmost Azores island is considerably further west than the easternmost of the Cape Verde islands. The question of how to solve this problem has preoccupied many theologians, historians and geographers. In principle, however, the considerations were made superfluous by the Treaty of Tordesillas,

consequences

The Portuguese King John did not agree with the regulation. He began diplomatic negotiations with Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. These negotiations eventually led to the Treaty of Tordesillas , which was concluded on June 7, 1494. He laid the line 370 miles west of the westernmost Cape Verde Islands.

Remarks

  1. ↑ In the Castilian-language literature, these documents are generally referred to as bulls, regardless of their particular type of document.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Frances Gardiner Davenport (ed.): European Treaties bearing on the History of the United States and its Dependencies to 1648 . tape 1 . Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington 1917, p. 27 f . (English, [1] [PDF; accessed July 1, 2019]).
  2. ↑ Frances Gardiner Davenport (ed.): European Treaties bearing on the History of the United States and its Dependencies to 1648 . tape 1 . Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington 1917, p. 56 f . (English, [2] [PDF; accessed July 1, 2019]).
  3. ↑ Frances Gardiner Davenport (ed.): European Treaties bearing on the History of the United States and its Dependencies to 1648 . tape 1 . Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington 1917, p. 71 f . (English, [3] [PDF; accessed July 1, 2019]).
  4. ^ José Antonio Crespo-Francés: Guerra en los mapas. La definición cartográfica de los Tratados - España y Portugal y su expansión oceánica. El espia digital, 2014, p. 13 f , accessed on June 1, 2019 (Spanish).
  5. ↑ Alejandro Remeseiro Fernández: Bula Inter-Caetera de Alejandro VI (1493) y las consecuencias político-administrativas del descubrimiento de América por parte de Colón en 1492 . Ed .: Centro Europeo para la Difusión de las Ciencias Sociales. Archivo de la Frontera, 2004, ISBN 978-84-690-5859-6 , pp. 12 (Spanish, archivodelafrontera.com [accessed June 1, 2019]).
  6. ^ José Antonio Crespo-Francés: Guerra en los mapas. La definición cartográfica de los Tratados - España y Portugal y su expansión oceánica. El espia digital, 2014, p. 23 , accessed on June 1, 2019 (Spanish).

literature

Web links