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THE Historical Context for the Augustinian Mission to Safavid Persia the Portuguese Padroado the Augustinian Mission to India An

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THE Historical Context for the Augustinian Mission to Safavid Persia the Portuguese Padroado the Augustinian Mission to India An CHAPTER TWO THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT FOR THE AUGUSTINIAN MISSION TO SAFAVID PERSIA The Portuguese Padroado The Augustinian mission to India and, certainly from a Portuguese per- spective, its extensions to Persia, Basra and Georgia, operated within the structure of Portuguese royal patronage, the Padroado Real.1 The ‘right of patronage’ had its origins in the Church’s recognition of those who pro- vided financial assistance through the building of churches or pious foun- dations. Silva Rego suggests that the juridical base for patronage dates to the pontificate of Nicholas II (1058–1061).2 Historical circumstances would result in a unique concentration of ecclesiastical patronage in the hands of the Portuguese monarchs, based on privileges accorded them by the papacy. This ‘Padroado’ would survive the monarchy itself, finally becom- ing extinct only in the last year of the twentieth century with the rever- sion of the Portuguese colony of Macau to Chinese rule. Its roots can be found in Portuguese overseas expansion, beginning when Pope Martin V (1417–1431) granted special faculties to the priests sailing 1 On the Padroado, see the work by an erstwhile missionary of the Padroado in Macau and scholar of note: António da Silva Rego, O Padroado Português no Oriente: esboço histórico (Lisbon, 1940), French translation as Jean Haupt (tr.), Le patronage portugais de l’orient: aperçu historique (Lisbon, 1957); Les Missions Portugaises (aperçu général) (Lisbon, 1958); Roland Jacques, De Castro Marim à Faifo: Naissance et développement du Padroado portu- gais d’Orient des origines à 1659 (Lisbon, 1999); António Leite SJ, ‘Teriam os Reis de Portugal verdadeira jurisdição ecclesiástica?’, Didaskalia 15/2 (1985), 357–367; ‘Enquadramento legal da actividade missionária portuguesa’, Brotéria 133/1 (1991), 36–52. Papal documents relat- ing to the Padroado are given in Levy Maria Jordão and João Augusto da Graça Barreto, Bullarium Patronatus Portugalliae (hereinafter BPP), 6 vols. (Lisbon, 1868–1879), and exam- ined in detail in Charles-Martial de Witte OSB, ‘Les bulles pontificales et l’expansion por- tugaise au XVe siècle’, Revue d’Histoire Ecclesiastique 48 (1953), 683–718; 49 (1954), 438–461; 51 (1954), 413–453, 808–836; 53 (1958), 5–46, 443–471; and idem, ‘Les lettres papales concer- nant l’expansion portugaise au XVIe siècle’, Nouvelle Revue de Science Missionnaire (Neue Zeitschrift fur Missionenswissenschaft) 40 (1984), 1–15, 93–125, 93–125, 194–205; 41 (1985), 41–68, 118–137, 173–187, 271–287. See also Francisco Mateos, ‘Bulas portuguesas e españolas sobre descubrimientos geográficos’ in Actas do Congresso Internacional de História dos Descobrimentos, vol. III, 327–414. 2 António da Silva Rego, O Padroado Português no Oriente e a sua Historiographia (1838–1950) (Lisbon, 1978), 15. 10 chapter two with the armada which set out to conquer Ceuta, leading to the creation of the new diocese of Ceuta, followed by those of Tangier and Safi. Basing his right on the medieval notion of papal sovereignty, both temporal and spiritual, Eugene IV issued the Bull Romanus Pontifex (1436),3 granting Dom Duarte of Portugal the right to conquer those Canary Isles which were not under the control of a Christian ruler. The Bull is important in setting out the main motive for such new conquests: ‘By these present let- ters, we concede to you these lands to conquer, after their being submit- ted to your dominion, and converted to the faith’ (emphasis added). If no action was taken regarding the Canary Isles, the case of the islands of Madeira and of the Azores, discovered in 1419–1420 and 1427–1432 respectively, had been different. These uninhabited islands had been populated by Portuguese from the peninsula, and a primary concern had been the construction of a suitable place of worship.4 With the explora- tion of the African coast beyond Cape Não (Chaunar), also masterminded by Henry ‘the Navigator’, a number of forts and trading posts were estab- lished on the coast of Africa, and the islands of Cabo Verde and of São Tomé and Principe, discovered in 1460 and 1471 respectively, also received Portuguese colonists from Europe. These small centres of population fell outside the dioceses of continental Portugal and, being unable to sup- port an ecclesiastical hierarchy, probably received pastoral care on the basis of concessions and faculties granted to chaplains of the fleet.5 As Portuguese expansion continued, however, a better solution was required, and a number of papal bulls would establish a juridical framework for Portuguese missionary activity. While against the background of the Ottoman seizure of Salonika in 1430, and their siege of Constantinople which would lead to its fall in 1453, in the brief Dum diversas6 Pope Nicolas V in 1453 granted Afonso V of Portugal the right to ‘invade, conquer, take by force and bring about the submission of Saracens and pagans, as well as other infidels and enemies of Christ, whoever and wherever they may be . .’, the Bull Romanus Pontifex7 of 1455 granted to Afonso and his successors the right to ‘found and 3 See António J. Dias Dinis (ed.), Monumenta Henricina (hereinafter MH), 15 vols. (Coimbra, 1960–1974), V, 281. 4 See Charles-Martial de Witte, ‘Documents anciens des archives du Chapitre d’Angra’, Lusitania Sacra 9 (1970–1971), 129–253. 5 So António Leite SJ, ‘Enquadramento’, 39. 6 BPP 1, 22–23. 7 BPP 1, 31–34..
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