PADROADO, PATRONATO. - The complex of rights and obligations, formally granted and imposed by the pontiffs from the mid-15th century upon the crowns of Portugal and Spain to promote a more effective work of apostolate in the newly discovered lands, constituted a particular form of protectorate over the missions, which is called by the Portuguese word padroado when Portugal is concerned, and patronato when Spain is meant.
From the juridical point of view the padroado and the patronato may be described as a quasi-onerous contract, based on a privilege. Thus the clause "rebus sic stantibus" applies to them, as to any other contract. Both were, at the time, the only effective means of initiating and developing missionary work in the vast regions of Africa and of the East and West Indies. It is bound to its time, and must be judged according to the criteria of the age.
I. PADROADO
The beginnings of the padroado coincide with the history of the knightly Order of the "Militia Christi." On May 2, 1312, with the bull Ad providam, the goods of the suppressed Order of the Templars were awarded to the Order of the Holy Hospital (Order of St. John). To avoid the subjection of the vast goods of the Templars to a foreign Grand Master, King Denis founded a knightly order, purely Portuguese: the "Militia Christi." John XXII, with the bull Ad ea ex quibus cultus of March 15, 1319, awarded to this Order both the goods and the members of the suppressed Order of the Templars in Portugal. The purpose of the Order was the struggle against the Moors. At the beginning of the 15th century, King João had the administration of the office of Grand Master of the "Militia Christi" conferred in perpetuity on his son Henrique (or the Navigator) in order to facilitate for him the conquest of Mauretania. In 1415 the city of Ceuta was taken. The infante Henrique had been its animator and, with the knights and the revenues of the "Militia Christi," had had a most effective part in the enterprise. On April 4, 1418, Martin V, with the bull Romanus Pontifex, erected the diocese of Ceuta. In the bull there is still no mention of a right of padroado of the crown of Portugal or of the "Militia Christi." Of great importance, on the other hand, is the bull of Nicholas V Dum diversus of June 18, 1452. Since Alfonso V had undertaken discovery and conquest in Africa for the increase of divine glory, and it was his intention to lead the enemies of the Christian name to the faith of Christ, he obtained for himself and his successors the right of conquest over pagan and Mohammedan lands, whereby the territories would be the property of the king. In the bull Romanus Pontifex of January 8, 1455, Nicholas V once again reconfirmed to the Portuguese crown the right of discovery, conquest and commerce in Africa and in southern and eastern Asia, more or less recognized by the maritime powers of the Catholic West. After Henrique, with the revenues of the "Militia Christi," had conquered Guinea, Callixtus III, with the bull Inter coetera of March 13, 1456, conferred on the Order ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the lands conquered and to be conquered from Cape Nao and Cape Bojador as far as the whole of Guinea and the southern coast of India. With the bull Dum Fidei constantiam of June 7, 1514, Leo X subjected to the jurisdiction of the "Militia Christi" the conquests of the last two years and those to be accomplished in the future. Moreover the king received for himself and his successors the right of patronage over the churches and benefices then existing or to be erected in the future in the said countries. Five days later, on June 12, 1514, with the bull Pro excellenti praemimentia, Leo X suppressed the vicariate of Thomar of the "Militia Christi," to which until then all the Portuguese colonies had been subject in spiritualibus, and erected Funchal, capital of the island of Madeira, as an episcopal see. The territory of the diocese comprised all the lands conquered from the south of Mauretania as far as Further India and China, and Brazil in the west. The king received the right of patronage over the episcopal see, and the "Militia Christi" retained the right of presentation to the 4 dignities and the 12 beneficed clergy of the Cathedral. Thus the king became patron, although the endowment of the diocese came not from the royal treasury but from that of the "Militia Christi," that is, from ecclesiastical goods. On November 3, 1514, with the bull Praecelsae devotionis, Leo X reconfirmed all the privileges granted by Nicholas V and by Sixtus IV, indeed he amplified them in order to defend the Portuguese Asian colonies beyond India against Spanish claims. On November 3, 1534, Paul III, with the bull Anguem reputamus, erected the diocese of Goa, suffragan of Funchal. The boundaries assigned were the Cape of Good Hope in the west, China in the east. In this bull the rights and obligations of the Patron were thus fixed, and then applied in the erection of all the other dioceses of the padroado: 1) the king has the right of presentation to all benefices; 2) on the king falls the obligation to build and maintain all churches, convents and oratories insofar as they are necessary for the ministry of souls; 3) the king maintains all those attached to worship, from the bishop down to the sacristan; 4) the king bears all the expenses of worship; 5) the king provides a sufficient number of priests for divine service and the ministry of souls (missionary monopoly).
It is strange that neither in this document nor in others later is there ever any mention of propagatio fidei inter infideles, perhaps because the Portuguese conquests at the beginning had a purely religious character, owing to the struggle against the Mohammedans. The propagation of the faith was considered a natural obligation of the ecclesiastical hierarchy and of the crown.
In fact, at the beginning of the development of the padroado, Nicholas V in the bull Romanus Pontifex of January 8, 1455, had declared that the conquests of the Portuguese king had as their purpose "animarum salutem, fidei augmentum et illius hostium depressionem, de ipsiusque fidei et Reipublicae Universalis Ecclesiae re agi" and moreover "eisque (agli infedeli e musulmani) incognitum sacratissimum Christi nomen praedicare et facere praedicari."
On the question of the territorial extension of the padroado opinions are divergent. A. Jann would limit the right of patronage to the regions effectively under Portuguese dominion. Against this is to be adduced the Declaratio Gregorii XIII vivae vocis oraculo of October 11, 1577 (J. Dindinger, Bibl. Missionum, XV, p. 560, n. 1931), according to which under the expression "East India" one must understand not only the conquests and discoveries to the south and east of Mauritania, but also the regions of commercial interest to the Portuguese. The peremptory proof against Jann's assertion is the fact that Alexander VIII on April 10, 1600, almost 70 years after the foundation of Propaganda, erected the padroado dioceses of Peking and Nanking in a territory that had never been under Portuguese dominion. Msgr. Fornari (later cardinal) in 1837 in a memorial written by him for the S. Congregazione de Propaganda Fide on the padroado (Arch. Prop. Scritture rif. nelle Congr. Generali, 1837 [953], ff. 321-402) limits the padroado to the effective Portuguese possessions.
It must be said that this way of seeing things has no foundation in the papal bulls. Historically it is established that the popes granted to the kings of Portugal the padroado over all the lands from the south of Mauritania as far as China and Japan, erected as a diocese of padroado in 1588 (Funai). The same held in the other hemisphere for Brazil. When Paul IV on February 4, 1588, with the bull Pro excellenti praemimentia, erected the dioceses of Cochin and Malacca, suffragan of Goa, the delimitation of the dioceses was left to the king. Paul IV declared, moreover, that in perpetuo any change in the right of the padroado, without the consent of the king, would also be without value and contrary to right, even if made by the Holy See. With this the development of the padroado may be considered finished; because in the erection of the dioceses of padroado of subsequent times the same principles were followed.
Portugal, even at the apogee of its power, was never in a position to fulfill fully its padroado commitments. Already in 1582 complaints were heard about the lack of priests in Portuguese India. Portugal, derogating from the missionary monopoly, admitted outsiders, politically unsuspected, obliging them however to pass through Lisbon. With the constitution of Clement VIII Onerosa of December 12, 1600, the Lisbon-Goa route was prescribed also canonically for missionaries who were going to southern and eastern Asia. Eight years later Paul V abrogated this prescription for the mendicant Orders; Urban VIII in 1633 granted the same liberty to all religious, and Clement X in 1673 finally extended the license to the secular clergy and to laymen.
In the 17th century Portuguese colonial power collapsed, and Portugal found itself in the absolute impossibility of fulfilling the great financial obligations resulting from the padroado. Following its union with the crown of Spain (1580-1640), Portugal was dragged into the conflicts between Spain, Holland and England. The pontifical bulls for the Dutch and later for the Protestant English had no value. Portugal retained small portions of its Asian and Oceanian colonies. Meanwhile Rome again became a dynamic religious center and the Holy See thought of taking the missionary work into its own hands. In 1622 the S. Congregazione di Propaganda was founded, which created the institution of apostolic vicars, who were not subject to any diocesan bishop but depended directly on the Apostolic See. They were bishops in partibus infidelium, over whom the padroado could lay no claims. The Holy See took the precaution of deputing these apostolic vicars in territories where the padroado did not exercise a true dominion. In 1637 Propaganda sent Matteo de Castro (v.) to India, without the prior permission of the king patron, appointing him apostolic vicar of Bidjapore, the territory of a Mohammedan prince, independent of Portugal. In the other missions of eastern Asia outside India, Alexander VIII with the brief Super cathedra of 9 Sept. 1659 erected the apostolic vicariates of Tonkin, Cochinchina and Nanking, entrusting them to the first members of the Seminary of Foreign Missions of Paris and assigning them various provinces of China.
Different was the attitude of the Holy See when, for the salvation of souls, it was forced to send apostolic vicars into territory already under the effective dominion of Portugal, but which had passed under Dutch or English dominion. From the briefs of appointment of the apostolic vicars of Malabar (1700 and 1724) it appears that they were only auxiliary bishops, having jurisdiction solely in the places where the bishop of the padroado was prevented from exercising his rights. Consequently the apostolic vicar in those territories had no right alongside the diocesan bishop, nor was a territory assigned to him unconditionally (1700: Arch. Vat. Secret. Brevium, vol. 2024, f. 27; 1724: Arch. Prop. Acta S. Congr. de Prop. Fide, 1724 [94], f. 299). This was still the opinion of Propaganda on 20 Febr. 1832, when the question was decided concerning the jurisdiction of the apostolic vicar of the Great Mogul over the district of Bombay (Arch. Prop., Acta S. Congr. de Prop. Fide, 1832 [195], f. 70).
Instead, in the brief of erection of the apostolic vicariate of Calcutta Latissimi terrarum tracta of 18 Apr. 1834, for the first time the Holy See no longer had regard for the claims of the padroado in India, formerly Portuguese, and appointed an apostolic vicar who in the name of the Holy See governed his territory, entrusted to him unconditionally. From the appointment of the first apostolic vicar (1637) onward, Portugal always protested against this "intrusion" of Rome into its rights, based on previous documents. Portugal, after having lost the financial means to maintain the obligations of the padroado, from the 18th century onward lost with the Masonic regime also the religious spirit that in the past had animated the institution of the padroado. The padroado thus became an instrument of power to maintain political influence in the spheres of interest and in the colonies of times past. The Holy See for its part always preserved the inalienable right to take into its own hands the government of the Churches, wherever the salvation of souls required it. When the Holy See, using this right of its own, erected in the years from 1832 to 1836 in India, formerly Portuguese, 5 independent apostolic vicariates with their own jurisdiction, the opposition of the Portuguese government was such that Rome, by the brief Multa praeclare of 24 Apr. 1838, by an administrative measure provisionally suppressed the dioceses of the padroado in India with the exception of that of Goa. Thus arose the so-called Goanese schism, which Rome sought to end with the Concordat of 21 Febr. 1857 by suspending the execution of the brief Multa praeclare. In practice, however, nothing was changed, because Portugal was not in a position to replace the apostolic vicariates with dioceses of the padroado, for lack of financial means. In the Concordat of 7 Aug. 1886 the rights and obligations of the padroado were again determined. Outside the Portuguese possessions, Portugal retained the right of patronage over the dioceses of Damão, Cochin and Meliapor. For the dioceses of Bombay, Mangalore, Quilon and Trichinopoly, Portugal preserved the right to choose one of the three candidates proposed by the ecclesiastical provinces. Moreover, the Portuguese Christians of the other dioceses of India were free to submit themselves to the jurisdiction of a diocese of the padroado.
In the agreement between the Holy See and Portugal of 15 Apr. 1928 the double jurisdiction was suppressed, and therefore the aforesaid dioceses no longer exercise any jurisdiction outside their own territory. The diocese of Damão was suppressed; for the archdiocese of Bombay the system was introduced whereby every second archbishop had to be of Portuguese nationality. For the diocese of Meliapor a new regulatory agreement was reached on 11 Apr. 1929. New provisions were established with the missionary agreement of 5 Apr. 1941. In India nothing was changed. Two other dioceses of the padroado remain in Asia: Macao in China and Dilly on the island of Timor (the last remnant of the diocese of the padroado of Malacca). In Africa, Loanda was elevated to an archdiocese with the suffragans New Lisbon, Silva, Porto and S. Thomé. In Mozambique, Lourenço Marques became an archdiocese with the suffragans Beira and Nampula. Of the ius praesentandi, only the convention has remained that the Holy See, before the appointment of a bishop, asks the Portuguese government whether there exist difficulties of a political nature against the candidate.
After India achieved independence, Portugal in the Convention with the Holy See of 18 June 1950 renounced the rights of padroado over the dioceses of Cochin, Meliapor, Bombay, Mangalore, Quilon and Trichinopoly, and the Holy See released Portugal from every financial commitment toward the said dioceses (AAS, 42 [1950], pp. 811-14). It should be noted that against the Placet regium, for centuries considered by almost all Portuguese and also by others as an integral part of the padroado, the Holy See has always protested.
II. PATRONATO
The American territories discovered by Columbus on 12 October 1492 were considered territories of India and therefore, according to the pontifical bulls, belonging to the Portuguese crown. The king of Spain, on the other hand, claimed for himself every right over the regions already discovered and yet to be discovered. The question was referred to Pope Alexander VI (v.). On 4 May 1493 (a month after Columbus's return to Spain), in the bull Inter caetera the Pope determined the famous line of demarcation, which passed 100 leagues west of the Azores (moved in 1494 by the Treaty of Tordesillas another 270 leagues further west), thus dividing the earth into two spheres of interest, the one eastern and Portuguese, the other western and Spanish. In the first bull Inter caetera of the preceding day (3 May 1493) the Pope had assigned generally to Spain Terras inventas et inveniendas versus Occidentem. The reasons alleged for this donation were: 1) the Spaniards had been the first to sail westward (ius primi occupanti); 2) Ferdinand and Isabella had promised to convert the inhabitants of the lands discovered and yet to be discovered (fundamentum morale occupati).
On the same day, 4 May 1493, with the bull Eximiae devotionis Alexander VI granted to the Catholic kings, for the lands of the West Indies, all the rights, privileges and favors accorded by the Holy See to the king of Portugal for Africa and eastern India. As an officium oneratum he imposed on the king and queen virtute sanctae oboedientiae the obligation to send suitable missionaries in sufficient number to the West Indies. With the bull Eximiae devotionis of 16 November 1501 he granted to the kings of Spain the tithe of the West Indies, with the renewed commitment to procure the propagation of the faith, to build and maintain churches and to provide them with priests. On 28 July 1508 Julius II, with the bull Universalis Ecclesiae, granted to the king of Spain formally the patronage over all the churches founded and to be founded in the West Indies. With this the development of the Spanish patronage came to an end. The rights and obligations can be summarized in the following 4 points: 1) the king has the right and the obligation to convert the Indians to the true faith (missionary and mission monopoly). 2) The king guarantees the maintenance of the churches and the sustenance of the missionaries and in return receives the tithes. 3) Without royal permission no church may be built. 4) The king has the ius praesentandi for all ecclesiastical offices.
The missionary monopoly was practiced in such a way that only missionaries approved by the king could be sent to the West Indies. Outsiders required a permit from the Spanish government, which in granting this permit was much more generous than the Portuguese one. Thus on 17 September 1734 the General of the Jesuits was granted that a quarter of the Jesuit missionaries could be of German origin. Following the proclamation of independence of the states of Latin America at the beginning of the 19th century and the loss of the Antilles, the Philippines, the Carolines and the Marianas toward the end of the last century, the Spanish patronage extinguished itself. It is to Spain's credit that South and Central America (outside Brazil) are today Catholic countries and that the Philippines is the only Catholic state in Asia.