IMAGE EVALUATION TEST rARGET (MT-3) V /////J.O ^ V #^. O '/.^M... A 2l /a 1.0 Hfi- ii^ I.I 1.25 1^ ^ us, 2.5 2.2 2.0 1.8 U illlll.6 V] . «» i i* j ft ^0?&II|«9 V OF IBE IWT^L SOCIETY OF CANADA p»I4Siriil8*«^, tJTiRATOR^ A!^^ SECTION II ETC. f^ ^1 LINES OF DBMARCATION OF ALEXANDER VI. AND THE tjeeAtV of torpesii^las By SAMUEL EDWARD DAWSpNXit.0. (L«v,i) Section II,, 1899. [467] Trans. H. S. C. Y II. — The Line of Demarcation of Pope Alexander VI. in A. 1). 1493 and that of the Treaty of Tordesillas in A.D. 1494; with an inquiry concerning the Metrolorjy of Ancient and Mediieval Times. By Samuel Edward Dawsom. Lilt. D. (Laval). (Read May 20, 1899.) w contf<:nts. I. — Intro(lnct< )ry 4(iS II. — I'ublic Iiitcriiiitioiial f.iiw in A. D. l-l!i:! 470 III.— The Form of V.\\)i\] lUills 4S1 IV. —The I)(Mimmitioii of A. D. 14!).'! 4S4 v.— Tlu' First Liiu' 4<.)1 VI.—TliL' Treaty of TortlosiliuH in 14i>4 and tli'.' Hubstitutoil Lini' 4i)G VII.— The ]*uint oi Di'parturo ."ilK) VIII. — Ancient and Media'val Measures of Lcnfjtli .")02 IX. — Tho Linoi- of lA-niareation on tlie Ocean and tlu'ir ^■^lpl)oHl■cl contact with tlie Nortlieaft CoaHt of America o]7 APPENDICES. A.— The Kull of Demarcation of A. D. 14!);{ {fnler cdn-a), collated with the supproKsed draft ; with an English translation 029 B. — The lUiU of A. 1). UiJ.') (Krliniac (Irrolinnis) jjraiitinif to Si)ain, west of the Line, the name rights as had been granted previonsly to Portugal in the east ; with an English translation .V].") C. — The lUdl of Extension of September L'o, 149H ; with an English translation o.'JS D.— The written opinion of ^lossen Jaunie Ferrer npon the Line of Demarca- tion, presented A. I). 149o to the Spanish Sovereigns 541 E. — A table of opinions held by the greater Cosmographers of ancient and media'val times concerning the circumference of the Earth and the length of a Degree upon the Equator 545 Sec. II., 1«)9. 30. 468 KOYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 1. — Introduction, "While during the last five years scholars in the north have been dis- cnpsing the voyages of the Cabots ; in the south, an acrimonious con- troversy was carried on by politiciuns concerning the coasts of Vene- zuela and Guiana, the scenes of the discoveries of Columbus, Hojeda and Pinzon. The question has now been settled, but it would seem that civilization has not gained as much, during the last four hundred years, as might have been expected, inasmuch as political recklessness nearly resulted in bringing on a war between the United States and Great Britain. Patient statesmansliip averted that crime and the con- troversy was at last referred to a tribunal of arbitration and a great calamity to civilization was prevented. The diplomatic documents cited in support of the claim of Vene- zuela go back to the very earliest years of the discovery of the New "World. With the direct question of the boundary between Venezuela and British Guiana, now happily settled, tlie present paper is not con- cerned; but indirect questions were raised, interesting to every student of early American history, and therefore, of early Canadian history, for the history of Canada strikes its roots as deep down into the centiu'ics as does the history of any part of the continent. Before Columbus touched the mainland near the Boca de la Sierpe, Cabot had coasted the shores of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. The main object of this paper is to elucidate the line of demarca- tion drawn in 1493 between the Old World and the New by Pope Alexander VI. and its modification by treaty the following year. Not much has been written upon this subject in English. There is a very excellent article by Prof. Edward G. Bourne in the Report of the American Historical Associatien for 1891, and a recent volume by Mr. Henry Harrisse {Diplomatic History of America, London, 1897), full of research, as all his books are ; but beyond these the student must have recourse to other languages than English if he should seek information of value concerning Avhat has been called, somewhat hastily, that "ab- surd act of assumption." We shall find, on closer inquiry, that we have no right to a patent for the idea of an international tribunal of arbitra- tion. There was one in permanent session in 1493 ; and, by its de- cision, war was then averted between the two foremost nations in Christendom. We shall see, moreover, that although the ownership of half the world v^as involved war was not then so imminent as it was [S. E. DAW.SOS] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 469 Not recently between England and the United States ; not because of any- thing in dispute between them, but on account of a petty territory claimed by n third government, and in assertion of a speculative pro- position in international law of recent invention and doubtful author- ship. The case for Venezuela was based primarily on the Bull of Pope Alexander and upon discovery. Without entering into the controversy it may be obsers'ed, that the "argument proves too much ; for the whole of the present United States fell \,-ithin the Spanish demarcation and, from where Cabot's voyage ended, the whole coast of the Atlantic was first discovered, and ceremonial possession \\"as taken, for Spain. The British take their title in Guiana from the Dutch, and the United States take their title from the Britisli ; so that it is not easy to build an argument on discovery and upon the Bull of 1-493 without involving scmo considerable portions of the United States. While these questions may however be considered as settled it will interest the student to recall the fact that, in these northern seas, the Ime of demarcation was supposed to cut our coast and that Nova Scotia and Newfoundland fell to Portugal. This has been incidentally referred to in previous papers ; but, inasmuch as the ])apiil Bulls of 1493 and the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1491 are v.'itliin the scope of our history, it is not lost labour to inquire what these documents were and what was their meaning. Nothing is more trite than to insist upon the importance of treat- ing each period of history from its own point of view ; but nothing is more dithcult. In recent controversies on early American history it has been often forgotten that Western Europe was Roman Catholic when America was discovered, and that, although the secular head of the Holy Roman Empire had lost his relative importance, the authority of its spiritual head was still unchallenged. Latin was, in effect, a living language — the living language of the services of the Church and a living language for all educated men throughout Europe. The Romance languages themselves had not diverged so widely as now, either from each other or from their common source ; and the barriers of nationality were not raised nearly so high then as they are at the present day. Those who gibbet Sebastian Cabot as a scoundrel and traitor for changing his service, forget that the great sailors of his day changed masters without reproach and that soldiers and statesmen frequently did the same. No one blames Philippe de Comines, who was bom Q Burgundian subject and served in the council of Charles the Bold, for passing over into equally confidential and important employmients 470 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA under his mortal enemy, Louis XI. of France ; but Cabot, an Italian, bom in Venice, is judged as if lie had been a captain in tlie French navy who had sought employment from the Emperor of Germany. Tliis is a misk"iulii]g anaciiruiiism, fur the present exaggerated antag- onism of nationalities is of comparatively recent growth and received its chief impetus in the religioua wars which followed in the sixteenth century. The s!aine tendency to anachronism has alfected tlie interpretation of the old cliartj;. If the early sailors had possessed sullioient know- ledge they would have made more accurate maps ; but they had neither the information nor the instruments necessary, therefore the secret of longitude Avas hidden from them. All their longitudinal distances were calculated by dead reckoning ; and tlie log line, even, was not in use until 1521, but their maps are now ofccn measured in millimetres as if they were the products of an admiralty survey. Elaborate argu- ments have been founded upon the trend of their coast lines, without considering that their maps were drawn to comi>ass bearings, and ours are always drawn to the true meridian. The conditions of the age in M-hich tlioy lived made it possible for the sailors of all the western nations to calculate their distances by a uniform customary league ; but that league was not the admiralty league of three minutes of the p]quator nor the English land league of three statute miles. The present paper then, although it may have been suggested by the Venezuelan controversy, will not discuss the boundary of British Guiana. Its object is to throw light upon our own history by u detailed exanduation of the Bulls of Pope Alexander VI. and the pretensions based upon them. The distances spccilied in the Bull and in the treaty lead to a discussion of the nautical measures of length in use at that time and the Portuguese names still clinging to our coasts bear witness to the belief that the line of demarcation cut the northeastern coast of America, somewhere in the present province of Xora Scotia. All these subjects are of interest, since they bear upon the true interpretation of the early maps and the elucidation of the liistorical geography of our Atlantic coast. II. — International Law in 1493. It has been stated by writers of great weight that Gro ius laid the foundation of international law as it is now understood. This means that, in the application of the principles of international law, references seldom go further back than to the exhaustive work of Grotiu3, pub- lished at Paris in 1625. It does not mean that international law did [S. B DAWSOX] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION^ 471 not exist before Grotius, or that he originated its principles. The most cursory ghince at his great work, De Jure Belli, will show tliat all his ilIiis;trations wore flrawn from Greek, Roman and Jewish history, and it will be found, on perusal, that his principles are derived from natural law or the law of nature as laid down by the Roman lawyers, upon the Roman civil law as found in the Corpus Juris, upon the works of the more philosophical of the Christian Fathers, upon the SynodicaJ Canons recorded in ecclesiastical history and upon the Divine law as revealed in the Bil)le. Grotius does not, himself, pretend to anything else. He was born in 1583, ninety years after the discovery of America, and to attempt therefore, to pass judgment on the Bull of 1493 in the light of our present notions, is an absurd anachronism. Grotius goes further, and, while justly claiming the merit of his work, refers to authors who had preceded him who, as he says, were "partly Divines and partly Doctors of Law." If, therefore, we put aside the conventional law or treaty law of nations, it will be seen that modern international law is founded on the Roman law and on the Canon law, which latter was carried over all Europe by the Roman Church ; for even in England up lo the time of Edward III. the Lord Chancellor was always an ecclesi- astic. In commenting on tliis point, Sir Henry Maine observes^ that "it " is astonishing how small a proportion the additions made to inter- " national law since Grotius's day bear to the ingredients which have " been simply taken from the most ancient stratum of the Roman " Jus Gentium." This Jus Gentium is the law of nature applicable to all human beings, and therefore to nations collectively, and is elo- quently said by Cicero* to be "That law which was neither a thing con- "trived by the genius of man, nor established by any decree of the " people ; but a certain eternal principle, which governs the entire " imiverse, wisely commanding what is right and prohibiting what is "wrong. . . .Therefore, the true and supreme law, whose commands and " prohibitions are equally authoritative, is the right reason of the " Sovereign Jupiter." These things being so, it is somewhat flippant for the London Times to characterize the citation of the Bull of 1493, in the Venezuela dispute, as "comical" or "absurd." It was good law pro tanto, for where else was there, at that time, a court so competent, by learning or tradition, to decide questions which, in their essence, depended on tlie Roman or Canon law as the Court of Rome ? Nor could there, a priori, be conceived one more likely to be impartial ; for the Pope had no sailors through whom he could discover and claim for himself new lands. Flings at the private character of Alexander "VI. are only pre- texts for avoiding argument. We have to do with him in this paper 472 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA only as n frcogrnphcr and as judge in a ourt in a secular matter ; nor have we even to discuss his autliority ; ecause he was, at least in this case, a court of consensual jurisdiction. The popes could see, as Grotius afterwards saw, "such license of going to wai as even barbarous " nations may be ashamed of, that men take arms greedily for light " causes, or none at all." No one at that time impugned their authority, and why should they have recused themselves from an office, or shirked a duty, so clearly incumbent on thorn in their quality as head of the Christian commonwealth ? The conception was, indeed, lofty and most Christian. The heart of every earnest thinker must go forth in sympathy to the man who, in the isolation of an autocratic throne, has, in these latter days, dreamed such a dream as the institution of a court of supreme inter- national appeal. Such a position the popes did in fact occupy at the period of the discovery of America and, as is pointed out by Bryce,^ " they were excellently fitted for it, by the respect which the sacredness •' of their office commanded ; by their control of the tremendous " weapons of excommunication and interdict ; above all by their ex- " emption from those narrowing influences of place, or blood or personal " interest which it would be their chiefest duty to resist in others." For reasons beyond the scope of our argument this was soon to cease ; but in A.D. 1493, Christendom was still conceived to be an organized body of Christian states, of which the Pope was the spiritual head. There was, therefore, an innate fitness in the lawyers and doctors of the civil and canon law at the Curia Romana to deal \vith broad ques- tions of natural and divine law or universal justice extending over inde- pendent nations. The proceedings at Eome were, in matters of inter- national interest, not arbitrary but formal and technical ; for there were resident representatives there of all the powers of Christendom. During the period of their power the popes had often helped the weak against the strong and had often strenuously laboured for that "truce of God," which, even in present times, can alone avert the impending Armageddon. We learn from Sir Henry Maine* that Benthara was so impressed with the confusion attending the modern views of right to territoriefl by discovery and occupancy, that he went out of his way to eulogize this very Bull of Pope Alexander; and Maine himself adds that, although praises of any act of papal authority may seem grotesque in a writer like Bentham, "it may be doubted, whether the arrangement " of Pope Alexander is absurder in principle than the rule of public " law which gave half a continent to ^he monarch whose servants had "fulfilled the conditions required by man jurisprudence for the ac- [«. B- DAWBON] THE LINKS OK DKMAKCATION 478 *' quisition of property in a valuable object which could be covered by " the hand." Modern diplomacy is not in a position to regard as "comical" or "ridiculous" the attempt of the Pope, in 1493, to draw a line of de- marcation through the ocean in the interests of peace between the only powers which were then concerning themselves with discovery and extension, for, translated into the very latest diplomatic form of speech, it was nothing else than the delimitatio of " spheres of inlluence," such ai during the last few years, have r, ^Ited in the partition of the continent of Africa. The doctrine of " Hinterland," is the old prin- ciple under u new name. It is the principle which pervaded the old charters of .the American colonies and made them to extend their claims from sea to sea. As it was then, so it is now ; enormous regions are being marked off upon the map, regions whither white travellers have barely penetrated and containing immense numbers of people who have never seen a European. These are being allotted to one power or another, without any more rational grounds then were the Western or Eastern Indies in 1493 ; and from time to time a Faahoda incident crops up to demonstrate the absence of any governing principle. It has been argued that the perfect equality of eucl: sovereign state, without regard to its size or strength, is a modem principle of international law. That however is doubtful, for it seems in the case oi weak nations to depend rather upon the mutual jealousies of the greater states. Grotius although, as before stated, he mentioned in }\is preface the names of some of his predecessors in the field of inter- national law, did not mention Francis a Victoria, a learned theologian of Salamanca, who in two chapters of his work, Relectiones Theologicce, published first at Lyons in 1559, and then at Salamanca in 1565, went far beyond Grotius and even surpassed the writers of the present day in his humane and liberal views. The book is very rare, but Hallam (Hist. Lit. Vol. 2) gives un account of it and there is a more detailed analysis in Salomon's L'Occupation des Territoires sans Maitre. The chapters bearing on the present question are those entitled de Indis and de Jure Belli, and the fact that such views were at that date publicly expressed by an ecclesiastical professor of high repute, is worthy of serious attention. He maintained that the Spaniards had no more right to the Indies by discovery than the Indians would have had to Spain if they had discovered Spain — that, by public and private law, the Indians were as justly owners of their own lands as if they were Christians — that the Indians did not lose their rights because they were unbelievers, since they had not had the opportunity of knowing the true faith — that Jews and Saracens who were hostile to Christianity retained their 474 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA lands and that nominal Christian princes did so also, though their morals were often not sr, good as those of the Indians, and moreover, that God bestowed his gifts, as he made his sun to rise and his rain to fall, upon the evil and the good. Proceeding with relentless logic, the learned professor demonstrated that the Pope could have no possible right over the lands ot these people, since the dominion of Christ him- self was spiritual, and, if they were heathen, then still less would be the power of the Pope over them ; for they v/ould not even be subject to his spiritual autliority and that no just war could be waged against them on that account. These views, as to the power of the Pope in matters purely temporal, held as they were in the ^r-eat Spanish univer- sity of Salamanca, will be referred to later on ; but at present it must be observed that he still made out to justify the Bull of Pope Alexander, but by two arguments so modern and "up to date," that they might emanate from a Mission Board at New York, or a board of directors at London. If, he argues, these Indians allow the missionaries freely to preach the gospel and meet their efforts only by indifference, they stand in their right ; but if they resist with violence or persecute the neophytes, there will be a just cause of war. That is the argument for the Mission Boards, but the other is no less happy. Every Christian nation, he argued, has an absolute right of commerce with every other Christian nation and to sail its ships along their coasts ; ti,.at right exists therefore towards every pagan nation as well, and, if resisted, there is also a just cause of war. Now we can see the right of the British ships to open the ports of China and the American ships the ports of Japan ; but the learned professor of three centuries ago is still in advance of us, for we evade his conclusions by cofisting laws and proliibitive tariffs. If the Chinese and Japanese had admitted our 6hi])s under similar laws one would like to call back the shade of this most excellent ecclesiastic and ask his opinion, whether a prohibitive tariff was not a prohibitive law. The reference of such territorial questions to the Pope was more- over rational ; since geographical knowledge was nowhere cultivated with so much curiosity and intelligence as at Eome, because of the universality of the claims of the Roman See. Tiie Canon law required the attendance of bishops, at definite intervals, at the Court of Rome, and they were bound to make certain reports through their metro- politans. By these channels the Popes became, on geographical matters, the best informed men in Europe. Upon this subject there has been a great deal of ad captandum writing ; for, while it is qui>- true that current opinion in the middle ages upon geography was cnide and absurd, it is also true that the [s a DAWSON] THE LINES OF DEMAlirATION 473 doctrine of the sphericity of the earth, as tauglit by the Greek geo- graphers, was held by the greater minds within the Church and never authoritatively rebuked. Herein is the essential unfairness of books like President Andrew D. White's Warfare of Science. lie holds the Homan Church responsible for the sputterings of Cosmas Indicopleustes. But that irritable religionist was not a churchman by training, and, although in late life he becume a monk in Egypt, he was a mercliant, a traveller and a sailor for the greater part of his life — he was never a priest. His travels wore extensive and his observations upon what he actually s'aw wore valuable ; but his Chrislian Topixjraphi/ was written in Greek, in the time of Justinian. To make the Roman Church responsible for his extravagances is not fair disputation. The belief in the sphericity of the earth was by no means general in Greek and lloman times. The l''picureans laughed at it a.s a vagary of Pythagoras, and those who, in all ages, are called "common-sense people,"' did not believe it any more than Cosmas, — though they might have ])eon pagans. In Chapter VII. of Plutarch's treatise. On Oie Apparent Face in the Moon's Orb, the theory is ridiculed by one of the speakers. Xo doubt in the middle ages, as in ancient times, the belief was common that the world was flat ; but it was not a doctrine of the church. The passage so often cited from St. Augustine'' merely states that even " if it be supposed or " scientifically demonstrated that the world is of a round and spherical " fonn, it does not logically follow that the other side of the world is " peopled, seeing that nobody has been there to see and that it may be "' all water or, if indeed land, may be bare of inhabitants." The logic is unanswerable and the general op' \ion wus that there were no anti- podes ; though Columbus, than whom there never was a more fervent Catholic, held to the contrary. There were two systems current. One held, with Pomponius Mela to the notion of a southern hemisphere separated from oiu's by an ocean impassable from heat, and the other held with Ptolemy, the belief in a southern continent extending from Africa to Eastern Asia and inclosing the Indian Ocean. During the dissolution and re-crystallization of society there was very little oppor- tunity to think about science and, for the masses, the times were in- deed dark ; but, and the exception is fatal to President ^Vl^ite's thesio, such science as there was existed in the cloister alone ; and that of necessity was the case, for there, in those turbulent days, was the sole refuge for a quiet thinker and in the church was the only career for a man of great intellect but of humble birth ; because the highest posi- tion in it was not limited by class or race or family. Thus it came about that the church attained such power and that with the exception of our own Ar-od, laymen loft so slight a record in the world of letters. 476 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA There was nothing to prevent them becoming scholar3 had they been so inclined. Albert the Great, Bishop of Bollstadt, lectured publicly at Cologne, and recorded in his writings his belief in the existence of antipodes. So did Friar Bacon and, from his writings. Cardinal d'Ailly adopted similar opinions. The Imago Mundi of d'Ailly was the abiding solace of Columbus in his passionate struggles and it was also the chief source of his cosmological knowledge ; since from it, chiefly, he gathered his knowledge of the theories and conclusions of the Greek and Arabian geographers. It is not true that the theories of Columbus were antagonized especially by churchmen. On the contrary, the Dominican monks at Salamanca were in advance of the lay pro- fessors in their scientific views. Those who mainly assisted Columbus to obtain access to the Catholic sovereigns were Fray Juan Perez (Fran- ciscan) Prior of La Kabida, Fray Hernando Talavenx (Dominican) Prior of Prado and Confessor to the Queen, Fray Diego Deza, Pro- fessor of Theology at Salamanca, and Cardinal de Mendoza, who was a minister of the Crown. It was not the scholars nor the churchmen, qua churchmen, who opposed Columbus ; but the "clear headed jjrac- tical common sense folk," of all classes ; supported by the men, and they are not all dead yet, \vho have an infallible gift for finding their own notions in the Scriptures. Writing in 1498, from St. Domingo to the King and Queen, Columbus expresses his gratitude; "all others," he writes, "who had thought of the matter, or heard it spoken of, unani- "mously treated it with contempt, with the exception of two friars, ■'who always remained constant in their belief in its practicability." It is no part of the object of this paper to discuss the beliefs and dogmas of the church ; but it is due to geographical science to say that it is simply untrue that Pope Alexander, as President White asserts, (Warfare of Science, Appleton, 1876, p. 19) laid down "a line of de- "marcation upon the earth as upon a flat disk," and it will be seen, as we proceed, that it is also untrue that " this was hailed as an exercise " of divinely illuminated power in the church " (p. 20). Globes were not in the least uncommon then. The year Columbus sailed, Martin Behaim made a large globe still to be seen at Nuremburg. Long before that (in 1474) Columbus had sent a globe to Toseanelli at Florence, and we read of a globe before 1497 upon which John Cabot taught his son the properties of the sphere. It may readily be supposed that all the globes then in existence axe not spoken of in the books. It is not necessary to think, moreover, with Mr. Harrisse" that the Pope was probably basing his partition upon a plane chart, when he sent the Bull to the Spanish monarchs. It was quite unnecessary, because the line was clearly enough indicated — north and south, from pole to pole, one [b. e. dawsos] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 477 hundred leagues from the Azores or other Portuguese islands. The new discovery of necessity destroyed the value of all previous charts and it was not in the least necessary that the Pope, or his lawyers, should waste any portion of the very short time spent in preparing the Bull in measuring off a hundred leagues upon a chart of any kind. As for President White's "flat disk," the very words of the Bull, "from the " Arctic pole to the Antarctic pole," preclude the notion. Again the popes were, in geographical questions, of necessity in ad'viance of their age ; for, during the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- turies, they had been sending envoys — simple monks for the most part — to the far east to the Tartar emperors, who had broken down the Ijarriers of Mohammedan exclusiveness, and in that way their knowledge of the world had been greatly extended. Moreover, they favoured geo- graphical study. The first translation of Ptolemy into Latin, in l-i09, was dedicated to Pope Alexander V. Pope Nicholas V. commanded the first translation of Strabo, and the first printed edition was dedicated to Pope Paul II. In 1478, the first complete edition of Ptolemy was published and it was printed at Rome and dedicated to Pope Sixtus IV. ^Eneas Sylvius, afterwards Pope Pius II., wrote a work on cosmography and a copy still exists with annota,tions on the margin in the admiral's own handwriting. The Decades of Peter Martyr are mostly letters to popes to keep them informed of the discoveries being made by Spanish and Portuguese sailors. For these and many other reasons a question of cosmography could, at that time, be decided better at Rome than onywhere else. Whatever be their form, the true nature of these Bulls is an award and not a donation ; for they are all drawn subject to a right by dis- covery. The respective "spheres of influence" of Spain and Portugal were delimited ; but the grant to Spain is made "upon condition that " no other Christian king or prince has actual possession of the islands "land mainlands found or that shall be found" before the Christmas last past. Nor need the learned President take exception to the words, " of our own free will and certain knowledge and in the plenitude of " our apostolic power." There are similar words in all documents of that nature by others than popes, for instance, in the patent and rati- fication of privileges to Columbus (April 23, 1497), after stating in the preamble that the power of the sovereigns is derived from " God alone, " whose place they supply in temporal affairs," the grant reads "of our " own proper motion, certain knowledge and royal absolute power." The wording is nearly identical and so is the material form ; for it is a lay Bull, "sealed with a leaden seal hanging by threads of coloured silk.'' The principle is the same in the wording of such documents even now. 478 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA f I The authority is usually referred to and in a republic A70uld read — in virtue of the authority committed to me by tho peoijle, etc., etc. It is merely the substitution of tho will of tho majority for Divine Providonco. In despite of the form of donation it will appear that, even in those days, the title went by discovery. The reason of the request for the special Bull is shown latrr on, and we learn from Herrera that, when Msking for it, the Catholic sovereigns did not compromise their prerogative ; but stated that "most learned scholars in Spain thought " that the application for a grant of teiTitory already in their possession *' was unnecessary." No other decision was open to the Pope, seeing that Spain gave clear proof of discovery and of possession taken. These circumstanccp are recited in the Bull. In those days, title by discoveiy required a formal taking possession in the name of the sovereign with ceremonies, frequently of a religious character, as well as by unfurling and saluting a flag. There has been very little change in succeeding years. As the Etiropean nations began to overflow and unoccupied regions were seized, the extent of territory covered by a settlement grew narrower, but the presently existing doctrine of "effectual occupation" vras not formulated until the conference at Berlin, in 1884, when Ger- many waked up to the fact that the world had been almost occupied while she had been busy in consolidating her national unity. There is not so much "presumption" in the Bull as in the charter of Henry YII. to Cabot three years later. He granted })ower to "sail to all parts, " eountreys, and seas of the East, of the West and of the North, to " seeke out, discover and finde whatsoever isles, regions, etc., of the "heathen and infidels whatsoever they be and in what part of the "worlde soever they be." Then Henry g'ves the grantees power to " subdue, occupy and possess all such townes, cities, castles and isles of " them found, which they are to occupy and possess as our vassals, etc., " giving unto us the rule, title and jurisdiction of tho same villages, " townes, etc., and firme land so found," and in the same lofty style Henry disposes of the regions to be discovered as if they were his property or his by right of his Crown. An unprejudiced comparison will compel the admission that Pope Alexander was the less "arrogant and presumptuous" of the two ; for he at least assigned a defensible reason ; namely, the conversion of the infidels and the carrying of the gospel into all lands. This, in fact, it was his proper function to see to ; for he was at the head of the only mission board then in existence. For centuries after it was not thought that a non-Christian people were capable of sovereignty and proprietorship. Indeed, the question is hardly settled yet in the case of pagan nations. I am not discussing the principle ; I am simply asserting that it still survives, and that in [8. K. DAWBON] THE LINKS OF iJEMARCATION 479 +ho light of many occurrences in tlie Pacific and in eastern seas, it n ight be well to examine our own consciences without dissenbling be- fore throwing stones at Pope Alexanrlir on this account. While arguing for the validity of the Bull of liOS the Venezuelan counsel have greatly overstated the submissivenoss of the English nion- archs of those days and the historical instances of Mr. Ha-risse, whose Diplomatic History of America seems to have been prepared for the case, have led them into error. Wliile it '•■ true that the Bull Lauda- biliter i.s authentic, it is necessary to read it in its own terms, when it will appear, as Dr. Lingard ' long ago observed, that the Pope " Adrian, by this instrument, avoids the usual language of feudal '"' grants ; ho merely signifies his acquiescence in the king's project ; " he is willing that Henry should enter Ireland and be acknowledged as "Lord hy the natives." The submission of Heairy cited as having occurred at Avranches is not accepted as historical by English authori- ties ; but even if the circumstance actually occurred, as stated, the agreement is adnutted to have been a private one by those wlio assert that it was made. Being then, at the utmost, secret and made without the consent of the barons, whatever binding effect it might have upon Ilenry himself, it was invalid as against the realm of England. An intimate knowledge of the laws and ceremonial language of Spain has probably prevented Senor liafaal Seijas from incorporating Mr. Ilarrisse's sixth chapter in the "case."' He could not take so seri- ously the oration of filial allegiance and submission in which the en- voys of Ferdinand and Isabella, on an errand of congratulation to the newly elected Pope, "lay at the fee.t of Ilis Holiness, all they possess on "earth and on the seas ; not only their kingdoms, treasures, fleets and " armies, but also their sons and royal persons." This must be taken to mean only obedience in spiritual matters. Mr. Ilarrisse's ideas of the relations between the temporal and spiritual powers would have shocked every lawyer and statesman in Spain and nine-tenths of the clergy also. It would lead me from my theme to discuss a subject so vast in its literature and so important. I shall, however, enable the reader to form, for himself, an opinion as to the extent of the submission in strictly temporal matters of the monarchs of those days by letting tliem speak for themselves. The following is an extract from a letter by William I., who had just conquered England, to Pope Gregory VII. — the great Hildebrand of Canossa memory — and William had received a consecrated banner for his expedition from Gregory's predecessor. " To Gregory, the most excellent Piistor of the Holy Church, William, by " the grace of God, King of England and Duke of Normandy, sends health and " friendship. Bl 480 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA " Your legaU', Hubert, religious fatlier, lias admonif-lud uie on your part to " do homage to you and your succesHor!*, and to think Ixtter of the money which " my prcdecesHors were accustomed to Hend to tiie liomun Cluirch. Of these " demands, one I have granted ; tiie other I have refused. Homage 1 would not " nor will I do. For I ilid not promise it myself ; nor caii 1 learn that it W5us ever " done by my predecessors to yours," etc., etc. Then he promises to send the usual money. The next letter is from tho barons of England to Pope Boniface VII 1., (tlie writer of the " Unam S'anctam,") who had declared that Scotland was a fief of the Holy See and had summoned Edward I. to desist from invasion 'and plead the matter in the Homan Court. " T(i the m(jst holy father in Christ, the L(jrd P)onifac(>, liy divine Providence, " chief bishop of tlie Holy lioman Church, John, Furl of Warren, and one hun- " dred antl live other barons, send greeting. '• It is wfll known to us and to many others, nio.«t holy father, that the " kingdom of ."Scotland never did, nor iloes, by any right whatever, belong, in " temporals, to the Roman Church. Nor have the Kings of Knglantl, on account " of the indepi'ndent pre-emini'iice of their royal dignity, and a custom at all " times inviolably observed, ever ^'leaded, or been bound to plead, witli respect to " their right to the kingdom aforesaitl, or to their other temporal rights, before " any ecclesiastical or secular judge Mhatsoever," etc., etc. The barons then go on to say that even if the king were disposed to plead they would not permit him to do so ; as it would be to " the '•' manifest disherison of the rights of the Crown of England and sub- " version of the laws, charters and customs inherited from their "fathers." In the face of these two letters tho argument as to the submission of the English kings based by the Venezuelan counsel on Mr. Ilarrisse's book falls to the ground. Ono more letter, and this, from the very King Eerdinand the Catholic, who sent the embassy of obedience to which Mr. Harrisso devotes a chapter, will suilice to show the dilfer- ence between obedience in temporal and in spiritual matters. Eer- dinand was King of Naples, as well as of Aragon, and the Pope had served upon his vice-roy at Naples, a Brief without sending it lirst to be examined and receive the royal placet before publication ; accord- ing tc the fund'amental laws of these kingdoms. The King writes to his vice-roy and after reciting the circumstances, he ijontinues : " All this has not a little excited our anger and indignation ; and we are " equally surprised at and displea.sed with you ; that, considering the importance " of the case and the prejudice which our royal dignity suffered from the act of " the apostolical messenger, which is a violence against all right, never practised " against any king or viceroy of my kingdom," etc., etc. Then, after expressing his indignation that the Pope's messenger had not been instantly hanged, the King goes on to show how the act might be cancelled, as follows : — [S. B. DAWSONJ THL LINES OF DEMARCATION 481 " \on must also use all possible dili>;oiici> to wize titc inesscnper who prc- " scntcd tlio «iid Brief; if yon can got Imld of liini. lie must ivtruut tlu' prosonta- " tion which he made yon of tlic Brief, and rononnce it by a formal act; after " which you will have him immediately hanfjed," etc., etc. These letters cover the period of the greatest hei-^ht of papol power, and it is stra:ige that a Veupzuelan statesman familiar with tlie fundamental law cf Spain, could have fallen into such an error. Mr. liarrisse has evidently not turned his attention .to this branch of liistory for lit wrote in 1893 in his Discovery of America (p. 54). " Nay, whenever a new pope was elected all the Christian kings had " again to do homage for their possessions, old and recent." It is a sur])rising statement. Claims were in p^st ages sometimes made by popes an'^ extremists, whom Dante {De Monarchia) calls ''decretalists," btit no such general claims as these extending to all kingdoms were made and, lieyond doul^t, no sucli acts of homage were ever performed. Although the remarks immediately preceding may seem to lead away from the main subject, tliey do not in reality. It is necessary to clear away these misconceptions concerning the early documents of our history. Tlio Venezuelan dispute was not settled by the Bull or by the principle of discovery ; but by the occurrences of the Dutcli occupation. In 1875, the dispute between Spain and Germany for the Caroline islands was referred to Pope Leo Xlll., and he decided for Spain ; but he did not go upon the title by discovery, nor did he even allude to the Bull of his predecessor, lie based his award upon re- peated acts of occupation by Spain down to the very moment the dis- pute arose. In 1-193, circumstances were verj' different, and while we must take exception to such statements as the preceding, concerning the submission of hhiropean princes generally, or English princes specially, in temporals to the Eoman See, we must concede to the Pon- tiffs a position as international judges if upon no higher ground than upon the ground of consensual jurisdiction. fger act III. — The Outward Form. Before proceeding to consider the papal Bulls bearing on this question, it is necessary to dwell for a moment upon the outward form of these documents ; because, in Protestant countries, vague notions often prevail concerning them and also because, in his Diplomatic History, Mr. Harrisse has treated these American Bulls so incau- tiously as to throw new stumbling blocks in the way of a student of American history. The official decisions of the popes were for the most part set forth in two forms of equal authority — Bulls and Briefs — and this was the 482 KOYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA case whctlier the subject were u do,<,miatic deliverance upon a matter of faith, a direction on a question of discipline, the creation or modi- ilcation of an ir.stitution, or a decision in a secular matter as in the present case. It is inaccurate to call Uiese American Bulls "privileges " issued in tne particular form of the small Bulls, called by the ponli- " fical chancery tiluli or gracious acts.''"* This is to confuse thiuga essentially different. A privikije in canon law is, by its very name, n private or particular law, according a favour to some person or in- stitution ; as, for instance, to a monastery or church " Dicitur lex, " moh" qiiia privilcf/iiim est let; sed quia quamcUu dwet instar Ictjis " ohservari debet; dicifiir privata quia non facil jus quoad omnes." A liluhis is sonicthing still different, and is a presentation or right to a benefice or a churcn. A privilege or title might, indeed, be in the form of a BiUl ; but whether the liull was a small one or not, would depend upon the bulk of the subject matter, and, on the other hand, a small Bull might be of exceeding importance. The Bulls referred to in this question are public laws ; inteniational decisions involving an inchoate right to half the world. They cannot be called "privileges," still less "titles ;" and to call them "small Bulls'' in any sense is an error, as the reader will see on reference to them in the appendix. A still greater confusion is caused by Mr. Ilarrisse's explanation of the word litterae. lie says,^" in relation to the Bulls described later as A and B, "The pontifical privileges were often accompanied by a second '" VUiera, shorter than the first, and of which it was, in fact, the noti- "fication," and again referring to the Bull Eximiac, he says, ^^ "This "' lillera was not exactly an abridgement of the primary Bull, resenib- " ling, for instance, the abstracts of testaments, grants, bills of sale, " or conveyances which our recorders deliver constantly." This is very misleading, for the word littera is general and covers all written communications. Nor is it correct to say that the " pontifical chan- " eery drafted anew important Bulls in condensed form, which were "' transcribed in full in its registers, and were legalized not simply as " true copies but as authentic originals."'- That would be equivalent to a legislature passing two acts covering the same subject, a long and a short one, and making both original and authentic. Moreover, there could be no "papal Bulls for common use"" "carried round on maritime '■ expeditions" to be shown while both th.. larger and "condensed orig- " inals" were retained in the archives. This very singidar error seems to have been suggested by a clause in the Bull Eximiae as follows : " But foiusnmch as it would be very difficult for the preseut k'ttei-s to be car- ' rit'd to all such places as may be expedient, we will," etc., etc., " that to copies " of these presents, signed by a public notary, employed for that purpose and [S. B. DAWGON] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 483 an " provided with the seal of gonie pci-Hon ciulowed with eccU'siastiL'iil dijfiiity, or " with that of an occloBiafitical court, tiic same iinqm'stioiicd liiitli shall he jjivt'ii, " in a court of juHticc, (jr without, or anywhere dfj, as to thene presents if they " were shown or exhibited." This clause is customary in Bulls or Briefs whicii nro intended for wide circulation and will be found also in Inter cetera. It is so common that in some Bulhria, the first words alone are given ''Verum i.imen difficile foret, etc., etc.,'' with a note on the margin to the etl'oet that "faith is to be given to copies." A clause almost in the same words occurs at the end of the encyclical of the present pope couc ning the Jubilee which appeared in the newspapers a few months ago. These two forms of expressing the decision of a pope vary in out- ward appearance. A Brief commences with an abridged formula. The name of the Pope is prefixed and the words, "ad perpetuam rei ineino- riam;" then it continues on with the muin subject matter. It is written on paper, in a modem style of handwriting, dated according to the modern calendar and sealed in red wax with the "fisherman's ring." A Bull, although it possesses no greater authority, is more formal in its salutation and more solemn ; as will bo seen on reference to ap- pendix A. "Alexander, episcopiis, serutts servorum Dei, etc., etc." It is written on parchment and (until recently) was in an antique style of characters. It is dated according to the old Roman calendar ; but the essential note is that the seal is of lead (it migiit be of gold) stamped on one side with the effigies of SS. I'oter unci I'aul and, on the other, with the name of the reigning pope. The seal is attached by strings of various significant colours. There are other points of difference, but the above are the most striking. It is of the essence of a law of any kind, and before all others of these pontifical laws which bind the conscience, tli'at they shall be pub- lished or proniulgated. A secret law is not a law in any sense of the word. Until it is promulgated it does not exist as a law and binds no one. It will be seen later how thia fundamental principle has been entirely overlooked, and this is the more surprising, inasmuch as, by the laws of all Catholic countries in those days, every Bull, Brief or public letter of the popes had to be presented to-cei^tain royal officers and receive the royal placet or exsequatur before being published or even communicated to any other person whomsoever. The extract given on page 480 from a letter to his vice-roy by King Ferdinand the Catholic, will set this matter in a very clear light. In that way monarchs guarded their prerogatives ; for a Bull not promulgated in a country did not bind there. To get over this difficulty it was maintained by some Sec. II., ISSH). .n. 484 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA canonista tlmt a Hull was siilliciently promulgated by being affixed to the gates of tlie Vatican iiiul proelaimed in tlie piazza of the'^ Calnpo di Fiori at Home. This \v;is said to he [)iihlica;ti()n i/t nrhe el orhi. That WBS disputed hy others ; hut, without wandering into a disputed ques- tion, it may eDnfidently he allirmed that a Bull unpubjishod and un- known to the ]K'rsons whom it was intended to bind wantcxl that essen- tial rpiality which l)rought it into life and force. Now, while a Bull was in this inchoate state, it miglit be entered on tile secret register of the Vatican and might be complete in form ; but, before promulgation, it was still open to modilicatiou. It migiit bo found on linal examination tluit the instrument was not drawn in precise accordani'e witli tlie will or instructions of th(- Tope; or some omission or error might he ])ointed out liy the ])erson who had petitioned for it. In such a cuse (and it is not at all an uncommon one) w new Bull would be drafted ^w] it also would be entered at its proper date npon the ivgister. while the first would never ap])ear. This, as will be shown, Wiis what occuiTcd in 119;], and recent researches having, after three hundred and fifty years, unearthed tho first draft, a controversy has arisen most ])erplexing to students. These documents, JiuUs or Uriel's, are known, iind always cited by the (irst words afti r the salutation. The -present paper is chiefly con- cerned with two — the Hxiinhtr dcvotionis, dated May 3, and the Inter cetera dated i\Iay 4 — 'Ijoth of VW^. It will at once be seen therefore that it is paradoxical to write of two Bulls Inter cetera as issued on two successive dnys of the sanu^ year covaring the same subject matter. It is lilce quoting two statutes on the same subject, of the same chapter, of the same regnal year, identical in their wording, save in two or three sentences. One of the chief objects of this paper is to clear up this apparent difficulty. It has been brought forward very prominently of late and magnified rather than explained. IV. — The Demarcation of 1493. On May 4, 1493, Pope Alexander VI. promulgated the JiuU, known from its first words as Inter cetera, in which he delimited, by a line drawn from pole to pole, what would now he called the ''spheres "of influence" of Spain and Portugal. The Bull was sent to Spain by a special messenger. It was received by the Catholic sovereigns and acted upon. A copy was despat-ched to Columbus, then preparing for his second vo}iage, and another to Fray Bull, who was going with him to superintend the missions. It became the subject of innumerable dis- cussions. Copies were made at the time and authenticated by ecclesi- [S. B. DAWBON] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 488 nstical authority ; the original was deposited in the archives of the Iiulies at Seville where it remained until within very recent years ; it has l)eeii printed in all the llnllt^ria; refernHi to and cited in all the books. For three huiulri>d years, no suspicion of any other Inkr cetera arose in the minds of the numlterless ollioials, annalists and historians, who administered American affairs or wrote on American auhjects. In tho year 1T!)T, Juan iJaptisUi Munoz, who had heen entrusted l)y the King of S])ain with the task of writing a history of the New World, and to whom the archives of the kingdom had, for the first time, been thrown o[)en, found, at Sinuinca.>j, u document in the forni of a Bull commencing with the same words lulvr cetera, but dated May 3, (quinto nonas Mail) the day before the historic Bull, whic,. bore date quarto nonas Mali. The two documents were, for the greater pai't of their contents, in identically the same words. In appendix A is printed the full text of the liLstorio Bull of Muy I, and all the words which are not in the Simaucas document are printed in italics. On the other hand, all the words in the Simancas draft which were omitted in the Bull as pronudgated are given in the footnotes, with references to the places from whence they were dro])ped. The reader has, therefore, ]>mctio;dly l)oth Bulls before him. The discovery of the Sinuincas document gave rise to much specu- lation. Hiunboldt gave'"' a partial collation of the two Bulls and ex- ])ressed surprise without oU'ering an explanation. Washington Irving referred to both and did not attempt to reconcile them, but he gave the dates, erroneously, as May 3 and May 3 respectively. Munoz quoted the historical Bull containing the line, but he gave May 3 as the date. In his paper in the American Jlistoriral Report, Prof. Bourne gives a partial collation of the two, and Mr. Harrisse in his Diplomatic Ilislori/ has brought the difficidty into strong light, and has moreover increased it by treating the unpromulgated Bull as the primary one and as a valid and etricacious document. He calls it a "privilege," and says, "apparently within the twenty-four hours" after its publication, Alexander published the other. One of the chief objects of this paper is to show that the Simancas Bull, having never been published, never had the breath of legal life and also, by comparing the two documents, to explain the duplication by internal evidence. The Bulls which Mr. Harrisse in his Diplomatic History brings under review, are four in number ; he has lettered three of them as follows, for ready reference : . . A. Intel' cetera of May 3 — the Simancas, unpub- lished Bull. B. Eximiae devotionis of May 3. 486 ROYAL GOCIETY OF CANADA ■ I C. Ififrr cetera of May 4 — the promulgated B\ill of (Icmiiircittion — the historic Bull. And the fourth may be lettered D. It is a FJiill known only in a Spanish translation made sixty years nftor its supposed date and entitled Extension de la concesion y donacion Apostolirn de las Indias. These four documents, if all thrown together, are conflicting, but B carefuJ examination will olirninato A as an unpromulgatwl document wliicli iH'ver luid a valid and legal exiritenee, and show that 1) does not aflVct the argument, in the first place, because no original copy has ever been found or proved to have existed, and second, because, even if it were n valid document, it adds nothing to the real Bull, being only an explication of what had already been enacted. There will then remain B and (', and these will be found, not only to harmonize, but to supplement each other and to form, when taken together, a logically consistent whole, such as the jxpert lawyers of the Curia Romana would not he ashamed of. While it may be held by extremists, in opposition to the great majority of canonists, and the unanimous opinion of civil lawyers, that a lUdl, when afllxed to the gate of the Vatican and proclaimed on the piazza of the C^ampo di Fieri, was sufficiently promulgated to bind the consciences of all Catholics, no one has yet ventured to assert that a lUdl never published at all, at Home or anywhere else, had any elhcacy wiiatever. One well known instance there used to be of a Bull being published annually in that way at Rome, becuuse it was not admitted to publication elsewhere in Europe ; but that was a very exceptional case which proves the rule and the arguments from it have no validity here, for this was a decision, not on dogma or discipline, but iu a boundary question, wliich Spain had applied for and, of necessity, it had to be notified to the parties concerned who were fitting out expeditions and extending discoveries into all seas. In this case, local publication was of the very essence of the matter ; but the Simancas document lay un- known and unsuspected for three hundred years until Munoz found it in 1797. It does not in the least validate the document to say that when the present pope opened the archives of the Vatican, both Bulls were found on the secret register of Alexander VI. There was, no doubt, an intention to issue that dnted May 3, but the entry of the next day cancelled it and that without mention, because the first draft was never uttered. In fact the very thing the Catholic sovereigns had asked for, to wit, the line of demarcation, had been entirely lost sight of and, therefore, the instrument was of necessity drafted anew. The subject matter of the petition was then inserted and matter duplicated [8. K. DAWSON] THE LINES OF DKMAKUATION 487 in another Bull was oinittod. Tlie case is not i«irallt'l to tluit of the preparation ol' dofrmatio IJiills, but is parallel rather to a copy of the judjnnent of some hifjh civil court in which errora may be found on examination before pulilioation and the Spanish envoy on looking into the first document eould easily see that what his master had specially asked for was not tliere. With regard to the H.rimiae dcvolionis (Mr. Harrisso's B) he in un- doubtedly right in taking it to be a real RuU; but it is misleading to call it a "privilege," and it is a Httcra in no otlier sense than other written communications are lillcnif. Tlie historians he refers to (without men- tioning their names) wlio take tiie Bull to be "a simple invoice sent "with Bulls A atul (', wlien tliey wei- sent to Spain," must Imve wan- dered from some shipping business into the regions of history and canon law. Mr. Harrisse explains that it was not like an " invoice " or an abstract of a "grant"' or "testament" or "bill of sale" or "conveyance." It was not "exactly an abridgment of the primury Bull ;" it might, he thinks, be called "a jiapal i^ull for common use." Ft certainly was very far from being any one of these things. It was simply a deliverance of the Roman court in the usual form of a Bull and, as will appear on rending it in appendix B, it had a clear and distinct meaning, and the sentence in it "proitf In noslrif) liide confertis lillrrift phnuix rontinrlitr" refers to the line of demarcation intended to be in Bidl A but omitte>l When the Bull was redrawn, the next day, as Bull C the clause omitted was inserted, for tliat n-i.ssing clause of demarcation ^vr.s the essential motive of the whoh; transaction. The Roman chancery was as Mr. Ilarrisse observes evidently hurried beyond its usual leisurely pace. The date of this Bidl (H) is May 3 — tlie same date as that of the unpublished Bull. It is not met av ith in the ordinary books, and has tlierefore, been given in appendix B. Mr. Harrisse has given it in an English version. In appendix A of this paper is, as has been said, a copy of Bull C — the historic Bull. If the reader will omit all the words in italics and read into it all the words in the footnotes, in their places as marked, ho will reconstruct the text of the rejected draft. He will see that the draughtsman erred in two directions, first, by making mention of the rights of Portugal which were to form, and did form the subject matter of a separate Bull (B) and, second, by omitting the judgment of the Pope delimiting the territories of the two crowns. The re-drafting of the Bull made the correction in both directions ; for upon a careful comparison, it will appear that the matter dropped from the first draft (Bull A) which is all shown in the footnotes in ap- pendix A, refers solely to the rights of Portugal and is nothing else than what is given in Bull B Eximiae devotionis; while the italicised 488 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA passages contain tho inserted matter which was in effect the cardinal j)oint of tho wliole movement. Tho two documents A and B, iu fact overlap ; while tho two docnnicnts B and C are supplement'ary and form a logical and consistent wliole. The Bnll C distinguishes the respective spheres of action of the two crowns, and the Bull B gathers up all the rights, which in previous Bulls had been conceded to Portu- gal in its sphere, and by one enactment without detailed recital, con- fers them upon Spain to be enjoyed solely in her own then definitely assigned sphere. In that way the two powers would be kept from com- ing into collision and tlie whole mass of prior legislation for Portugal, which extended over lit'ty years and was very voluminous, was enacted . for Spain in a few sentences — by a device very common in drawing up legislation. This, Mr. Harrisse has not observed for he says, "appar- " ently within the twenty-four houiis which followed the publication "of the two Bulls, Alexander VL, May 4, ]ml)lished a third— Bull C,"' and then he proceeds to call it the second Inter cetera. This is under- rating the Roman Chancery. Such blundering would not have passed in a village municiiiality ; for it was is.suing two enactments of the same title and mainly in the same language within twenty-four hours. This Bull C is the only Bull of demarcation recorded in all the BuIIaria, referred to in innumerable documents and the theme of numerous writers for three hundred years while what Mr. TTarrisse calls the "prim- ary Bull" mouldered unknown in the archives of Simancas. In continuntion of his remarks upon this Bull C, Mr. Harrisse says, "We know by tlie Coder Diplomaticus tlint there was attacla'd to " that Bull a leaden seal fastened with silk strings, red and saffron " colour." Beyond doubt, for these as has been shown, are the marks of a genuine l?ull and, in a Bull of grace, the seal is always attached with strings of coloured silk. Following the Codex further, we find that Peter viarcia. Bishop of Barcelona, on July 19, 149:3, testified that he "had held, handled, seen and diligently examined these apostolic " letters of our most Holy Father and Lord in Christ. Alexander VI.. " by Divine Providence Pope, from which hung his true Bull of lead " with threads of silk of a red and saffron colour, according to the style " of the Roman court, sound and entire in their marks, not vitiated, " nor erased, nor in any part suspicious, but free from any doubt what- " ever." Then he proceeds to give a copy of tlie Bull (as in appendix A). It was then at Barcelona and the Bishop had an official copy made and verified in the presence of certain named ecclesiastics and especially of an apostolic notary who was secretary of the Bishop of Seville. This copy was again collated with the original at Seville on Dec. 30, 1502, in the presence of witnesses. The whole is certified to by a [8. B. DAWSON] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 489 notary apostolic with, formalities unnecessary to repeat. There can, therefore, be no doubt as to which document is the "primary Bull." If tlie Bulls B and C are considered together it will be seen that no injustice was done to Portugal. The vei-y mention of her rights en bloc in the Eximiac devotionis and the grant of the same riglits to Spain in a different sjjhere confirmed them. Nothing was awarded to Spain, but what she had diseover_*cl and what she might discover beyond a certain line. The monarchs were not misled by the formal phrases which scandalize modern writers as being "aiTOgant and presumptuous." The decision is in the fonn of an absolute gift "We of our own motion, " and not ut your solicitation, nor upon petition presented in your name," when every one knew that the Bull was issued at the request of Spain. In like manner in Vt32, King George II. granted the charter of Georgia to his petitioners, "of our special grace, certain knowledge, " and more motion," while the territory granted had been discovered and was disputou by S])ain. What the Pope really did was to confirm each power in what it actually Had and to allot "spheres of influence" in which they might pursue their discoveries without quarrelling — pre- cisely as an international congress might do at the present day. No moro account was taken of the Caribs and Indians than is taken now of Africans, I'hilijjpinos, Chinese or liawaiians. Of course, they get the blessings of religion and civilization ; but those also were promised in the Bulls and, in short, in view of recent movements towards a court of international arbitration, the whole proceeding has a modern air — there is as much fundamental justice in one case as in tlie other. Finally there is a fourth document (see appendix C) which we liave lettered D. Mr. llarrisse states that it is "known at present only in a "' Spanish translation made Aug. 30, 1554, by one Gracian, doubtless "Diego Graci'an de Aldrete, then secretary of Philip II. for foreign " languages." It is given in Navarrete as Bula de la extension de la con- cesion y donacion apostolira de las Indias. There is, indeed, a Latin version in Solorzano, but Mr. Harrissc is doubtless correct in supposing it to bo a translation from the Spanish, necessary in a treatise written in Ijatin. The most careful researches at Simancas, Seville and at Kome, have failed to find any trace of an original of the Bull. Not- withstanding the frequency of forgeries of apostolical letters, said by Mr. llarrisse to have existed in the time of Alcjxander VI., he thinks that there was a valid original Bull. The letter cited by him does not bear on the point. It was written by the Catholic sovereigns from Barcelona, Sept. 5, to Columbus, then at Seville, preparing to start on his second voyage. They wrote to ask his opinion on certain sUitements made and say that, if they are true, the Bull (of May 4) should be 490 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA V\- amended. But the Bull D bears date Sept. 25, and twenty days is too short a time to cover the transmission of a letter twice over the extreme length of Spain and an apjjlication to Rome and the issue of a Bull based upon it. Munoz, Herrera., Hiunboldt and other authorities of weight in- oidently notice tliis Bull without objecting to its authenticity, althougli they haxil only the Sjianish translation, and Mr. Harrisse is well supported in his belief, not only by their authority, but by internal evidence; for this Bull D is in effect nothing but such an interpretation or explication of the Inlcr cetera as would likely have resulted from the persistency of the extravagant claims of Portugal. There is nothing in it to suggest occasion for forgery. Without raising the question of the existence of an original Bull, we venture to think that Mr. Harrisse attaches to it a meaning which it will not bear : because, if it had been intended to cancel any of the rights granted to Portugal in previous Bulls, that aspect would not have failed to come to the surface in the negotiations which resuiied in the treaty of Tordesillas the following year, and, if Mr. Harrisse's contention be right, it would have won the case for Spain without argument at the Junta of Badajoz. l)ut although the proceedings have been preserved iri great detail, this Bull was not alluded to. The Roman court could not. without cause assigned, revoke a decision in a secular matter made to a great Catholic power. No injustice was in fact done or attempted to be done to Portugal, but Portugal was not allowed to strain the meaning of the grants made to her so as to appropriate the discoveries just made by Columbiis for Spain. These discoveries were supposed by all to l)e in the "Indies." The West and East Indies had not then been seixarated in thought or name, nor was an intervening continent then su))posed to exist. The Portuguese claimed that their Bulls covered the Indies, ))ecause their grant was "ad Indos," but they had not then reached India by sea, though they had turned the Cape of Good Hope. The Spaniards had found some part, no one knew what, of tlio Indies, and the Bull maintained them in their possession. In reading these old charters one must incessantly guard against the am- biguity of the word East, because the American continent, being non- existent in their thoughts, they constantly spoke of reach ng the East on a westward course. This Bull D, now under review, is supposed to bear date Sept. 25, 1493. It commenced by saying that certain concessions had only a short time before been made to Spain, referring to the Bulls B and C, and then it confirmed them in all their clauses as fully as if recited word by word — the line of demarcation, therefore, was confirmed in the most absolute maui n*. It stated that the grant had been made for [b. k. dawsonJ THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 491 lands to the west and south and continued to the followiujf elTeot (aud here is the point of contention) — that since it niay happen that, in sailing to the west and south, the Spanish sailors may discover land in eastern parts and lands which may helong to India, the Bulls of grant (B and C) are extended in all their clauses to cover such lands, whether thoy are or seem to be in the western, southern or eastern parts or in India. Then followed a noii obslaiitiir clause, evidently aimed at the excessive claims of Portugal, not revoking the Portuguese Bulls, but quashing the strained meaning put into them. The document then stated that, as by chance at some time or other, persons may have navigated these seas, nothing but actual and real previous possession was to avail in setting a bar to Spain in extending her discoveries on a western course. This principle of right by actual possession was adopted in the treaty of Tordesillas. and the reader will find in appendix D, Jaime Ferrer's opinion }.iven to the Spanish raonarchs that the Spanish demarcation might reach westwards round the world to the Ai'abian gulf, "if our ■' f