Enciclopedia Cattolica

CUM SICUT MAIESTAS

Volume IV · p. 623 · 1950

English translation · Testo originale italiano

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

«CUM SICUT MAIESTAS». - Opening words of the bull of Alessandro VI (26 March 1500), which contains the first organization of the Church for the new lands discovered in India.

By it, the Pope, in consideration of the merits of the kings of Portogallo in spreading the Christian name, and on the basis of the decision of King Manuel to send secular and regular clergy to the new lands discovered in India, grants the same king the faculty of subjecting the territory from the Capo di Buona Speranza as far as and including India to an apostolic commissioner, to be appointed by the king of Portogallo, who, vested with episcopal character, was to establish his residence in a colonial city. King Ma-

Article illustration
(by courtesy of the R. Accademia Belgica di Roma)
nuel did not appoint the first commissioner of Laodicea until fourteen years later (1514–17); others followed, until in 1534 the diocese of Goa was erected.

BIBL.: Levy Maria Jordão, Bullarium Patronatus Portugaliae Regum I, Lisbon 1868, p. 29; Bullarum Collectio, ibid. 1707, Appendix, p. 4; Streit, Bibl., IV, no. 372. Carlo Corvo
Cite this article

“CUM SICUT MAIESTAS.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IV (1950), p. 623. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/cum-sicut-maiestas.