chapter 4 Alms for the King
Half way up the labyrinth of streets that lead to the Castelo São Jorge, stands the Cathedral of Lisbon. Dedicated to Santa Maria Maior, the construction of the original church was said to have begun in 1147, just after the conquest of the city by Portugal’s first king, D. Afonso Henriques. The Romanesque features of its western façade look more like a fortress than a place of worship: a defiant bastion of the Reconquista built on the site of the Almoravid mosque. For cen- turies Lisbon had been the principal city of the region, owing to its strategic position on the estuary of the Tagus. According to the Manueline chronicler Duarte Galvão, it was the Cathedral of Lisbon that D. Afonso Henriques selected, in 1173, as the final resting place for the holy relics of St. Vincent of Saragossa.1 These relics, and the pilgrims who flocked to see them, would, over the years generate the wealth that was necessary to bring the Reconquista and the building itself to completion, thereby cementing Portugal’s position as a sovereign kingdom. During the reign of Manuel i, the centralization of the religious administra- tion had also become an acute priority. In the reign of João ii, the influence of the absentee Archbishop of Lisbon, the Cardinal of Alpedrinha, had interfered with Portugal’s diplomatic initiatives in Rome. Resident in the Holy City from 1478 until his death thirty years later, the Cardinal of Alpedrinha had controlled episcopal appointments, using them to further the interests of his large family, rather than furthering the interests of his king. From the outset, it became clear to Manuel i that he would have to make a great effort to consolidate con- trol over the episcopacy in Portugal. At the same time, the king and his council- lors recognized early on the revenues available to the crown if it gained a tighter hold over the episcopacy. By cross-appointing bishops to positions on the Casa da Suplicação, the crown began to use the appellate court as a tribu- nal which could commute sentences that involved imprisonment or exile to a fine. Such fines were collected almost as a form of spiritual indulgence that was paid into a piety chest or arca da piedade. The sums of money involved were substantial and probably represented a large source of income for the crown. At the same time, the centralization of hospitals and confraternities that took place in this period also brought significant revenues into the hands of the crown in the form of ‘alms’ and endowments. Finally, changes brought
1 Galvão, Crónica de El-Rei, D. Afonso Henriques,, cap. xlviii.
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Controlling the Episcopacy
For centuries, the Kings of Portugal and elsewhere had been aware that the ability to select their bishops greatly enhanced their powerbase. Their choices often favoured political expediency over competence. Perhaps the most egre- gious example was Manuel i’s appointment of his seven-year-old son as the Bishop of Guarda in 1516. Here the king’s interests lay in the fact that the reve- nues of the diocese could be used to supplement the household of his younger son. In the following year, after the considerable lobbying of Pope Leo x, the eight-year -old bishop was appointed Cardinal. But the consolidation of eccle- siastical benefices into the hands of the crown had occurred long before the shameless promotion of this royal prince. As José Pedro Paiva has explained at length, there were three compelling reasons as to why the Portuguese crown sought to gain control over episcopal appointments. Firstly, the establishment of a central cultural system, where religious dogma reaffirmed the royal author- ity, allowed the king to exercise greater control over his territories. Secondly, by appointing bishops, the crown was able to appropriate the elaborate commu- nication networks that had been developed by the Catholic Church over the centuries and to use them for political ends. Finally, and more generally, the episcopacy promoted hierarchy, order and obedience, all of which were essen- tial to monarchical rule.2 To these three reasons, we can add a fourth which relates to the growing importance and monetary value of spiritual indulgences levied and controlled by the bishops. It was over these ‘alms’ and endowments that the Portuguese crown was eager to gain control. By 1495, great power was wielded by the Cardinal of Alpedrinha. A man of humble origins, D. Jorge da Costa had become attached to the royal court dur- ing the minority of Afonso v and had served as the tutor of the king’s younger sisters. As a confessor to Afonso v, he began his meteoric rise and was conse- crated Bishop of Évora in 1463, Archbishop of Lisbon in 1464 and, with the support of Afonso v, was named Cardinal in 1476. At the end of the War of the Castilian Succession he left for Rome where he advanced rapidly in the Papal Curia. He was an influential member of the conclaves that elected popes Innocent viii, Alexander vi and Julius ii and developed extremely powerful
2 José Pedro Paiva, “Appointment of Bishops in Early Modern Portugal 1495–1777”, American Catholic Historical Association 97 no.3 (2011): 461–62.