PADROADO, PATRONATO. – The complex of rights and obligations formally granted and imposed by the popes, from the mid-15th century onward, to the crowns of Portugal and Spain to promote a more effective apostolic work in the newly discovered lands constituted a particular form of protectorate over the missions, which is called by the Portuguese word *padroado* when referring to Portugal, and *patronato* when referring to Spain.
From a legal standpoint, the *padroado* and the *patronato* may be described as a quasi-onerous contract based on a privilege. Thus, for them—as for any other contract—the clause *rebus sic stantibus* applies. Both were, at the time, the only effective means to initiate and develop missionary work in the vast regions of Africa and the East and West Indies. They are bound to their time and must be judged according to the criteria of the era.
I. *Padroado.*
The origins 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 assigned to the Order of the Holy Hospital (Order of St. John). To avoid the subjection of the vast Templar holdings to a foreign Grand Master, King Diniz founded a knightly order that was distinctly Portuguese: the *Militia Christi*. John XXII, with the bull *Ad ea ex quibus cultus* of March 15, 1319, assigned to this Order both the goods and the members of the suppressed Templar Order in Portugal. The purpose of the Order was the struggle against the Moors. At the beginning of the 15th century, King João had his son Henrique (or the Navigator) granted perpetual administration of the office of Grand Master of the *Militia Christi* to facilitate his conquest of Mauretania. In 1415, the city of Ceuta was taken. The Infante Henrique had been its driving force, and with the knights and revenues of the *Militia Christi*, he played a highly effective role in the enterprise. On April 4, 1418, Martin V, with the bull *Romanus Pontifex*, erected the diocese of Ceuta. The bull does not yet mention the right of *padroado* of the Portuguese crown or of the *Militia Christi*. Of great importance, however, is the bull of Nicholas V, *Dum diversas*, of June 18, 1452. Since Alfonso V had undertaken the discovery and conquest in Africa for the increase of divine glory and intended to bring 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 belong to the king. In the bull *Romanus Pontifex* of January 8, 1455, Nicholas V again confirmed to the Portuguese crown the right of discovery, conquest, and trade in Africa and in southern, eastern, and western Asia, more or less recognized by the maritime powers of Catholic Europe.
After Henrique, with the revenues of the *Militia Christi*, had conquered Guinea, Callistus III, with the bull *Inter coetera* of March 13, 1456, granted the Order ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the lands already conquered and those to be conquered from Cape Nao and Cape Bojador to all 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 past two years and those to be undertaken 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 established in the said lands. Five days later, on June 12, 1514, with the bull *Pro excellenti praeeminentia*, Leo X suppressed the vicariate of Thomar of the *Militia Christi*, to which all Portuguese colonies had hitherto been subject *in spiritualibus*, and elevated Funchal, the capital of the island of Madeira, to an episcopal see. The territory of the diocese included all lands conquered from southern Mauretania to the East Indies, China, and Brazil to the west. The king received the right of patronage over the episcopal see, while the *Militia Christi* retained the right of presentation to the four dignities and twelve prebends 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*, i.e., from ecclesiastical goods.
On November 3, 1514, with the bull *Praecelsae devotionis*, Leo X confirmed all the privileges granted by Nicholas V and Sixtus IV, even expanding them to defend the Portuguese Asian colonies beyond India against Spanish claims. On November 3, 1534, Paul III, with the bull *Aequum reputamus*, elevated the diocese of Goa, a suffragan of Funchal. The assigned boundaries were the Cape of Good Hope to the west and China to the east. In this bull, the rights and obligations of the patron were thus established and later applied in the erection of all other dioceses of the *padroado*:
1) the king has the right of presentation to all benefices;
2) the king is obliged 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 engaged in worship, from the bishop 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 noteworthy that neither in this document nor in others issued subsequently is there any mention of the *propagatio fidei inter infideles*, perhaps because the Portuguese conquests initially had a purely religious character, stemming from the struggle against the Mohammedans. The propagation of the faith was considered a natural obligation of the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the crown.
Indeed, at the outset 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 “the salvation of souls, the increase of the faith, and the suppression of its enemies, and that it was a matter of the faith itself and of the Universal Church.” Moreover, “to preach and have preached to them (the infidels and Muslims) the most sacred name of Christ, which was unknown to them.”
Opinions differ regarding the territorial extent of the *padroado*. A. Jann would limit the right of patronage to the regions actually under Portuguese dominion. Against this, the *Declaratio Gregorii XIII vivae vocis oraculo* of October 11, 1577 (J. Dindinger, *Bibl. Missionum*, XV, p. 560, no. 1931) must be cited, according to which the expression “East Indies” is to be understood not only as the conquests and discoveries south and east of Mauretania but also as the regions of Portuguese commercial interest. Conclusive proof against Jann’s assertion is the fact that Alexander VIII, on April 10, 1690—nearly 70 years after the founding of the *Propaganda Fide*—erected the dioceses of Peking and Nanking of the *padroado* in a territory that had never been under Portuguese dominion. Monsignor Fornari (later a cardinal), in 1837, in a memorandum written for the Sacred Congregation of *Propaganda Fide* on the *padroado* (Arch. Prop., Schirurie rif. nelle Congr. Generali, 1837 [953], ff. 321-402), limits the *padroado* to the actual Portuguese possessions.
It must be said that this way of seeing things has no foundation whatsoever in papal bulls. Historically, it is established that the popes granted the kings of Portugal the padroado over all lands from south of Mauritania to China and Japan, erected as dioceses of padroado in 1588 (Funai). The same applied in the other hemisphere for Brazil. When Paul IV, on 4 February 1588, with the bull *Pro excellenti praeminentia*, erected the dioceses of Cochin and Malacca, suffragan to Goa, the delimitation of the dioceses was left to the king. Paul IV also declared that in perpetuity any change in the rights of the padroado, without the consent of the king, would be invalid and contrary to law, even if made by the Holy See. With this, the development of the padroado may be considered concluded; for in the erection of the dioceses of padroado in subsequent times, the same principles were followed.
Portugal, even at the height of its power, was never able to fully fulfill its obligations under the padroado. As early as 1582, complaints were heard about the lack of priests in Portuguese India. Portugal, derogating from the missionary monopoly, admitted outsiders who were politically not suspect, but obliged them to pass through Lisbon. With the constitution *Onerosa* of Clement VIII on 12 December 1600, the Lisbon-Goa route was prescribed even canonically for missionaries traveling to South and East Asia. Eight years later, Paul V abrogated this prescription for the mendicant orders; Urban VIII in 1633 granted the same freedom to all religious, and Clement X in 1673 finally extended the license to secular clergy and laity.
In the 17th century, Portuguese colonial power collapsed, and Portugal found itself absolutely unable to meet the heavy financial obligations arising from the padroado. Following the union with the Spanish crown (1580–1640), Portugal was drawn into the conflicts between Spain, Holland, and England. The papal bulls for the Dutch and later for the English Protestants had no validity. Portugal retained only small portions of its Asian and Oceanic colonies. Meanwhile, Rome became once more a dynamic religious center, and the Holy See resolved to take missionary work into its own hands. In 1622, the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda was founded, which created the institute 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 not claim any rights. The Holy See took the precaution of appointing these apostolic vicars in territories where the padroado did not exercise real dominion. In 1637, Propaganda sent to India Matteo de Castro (v.), without the prior permission of the patron king, appointing him apostolic vicar of Bijapur, a territory of a Muslim prince independent of Portugal. In the other missions of East Asia outside India, Alexander VIII, with the brief *Super catholicae* of 9 September 1659, erected the apostolic vicariates of Tonkin, Cochin-China, and Nanking, entrusting them to the first members of the Paris Foreign Missions Seminary and assigning them various provinces of China.
The attitude of the Holy See was different when, for the salvation of souls, it was obliged to send apostolic vicars into territory already under effective Portuguese dominion but passed under Dutch or English rule. From the briefs of appointment of the apostolic vicars of Malabar (1700 and 1724), it appears that they were merely auxiliary bishops, having jurisdiction only in places where the bishop of the padroado was prevented from exercising his rights. Consequently, the apostolic vicar in those territories had no rights 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 the opinion of Propaganda even on 20 February 1832, when the question of the jurisdiction of the apostolic vicar of the Great Mogul over the district of Bombay was decided (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 tractus*, of 18 April 1834, for the first time the Holy See no longer had regard for the claims of the padroado in formerly Portuguese India and appointed a vicar apostolic 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 “interference” of Rome in its rights, based on previous documents. After losing the financial means to maintain the obligations of the padroado, Portugal, from the 18th century onward, also lost, with the Masonic regime, the religious spirit that had once animated the institution of the padroado. The padroado thus became an instrument of power to maintain political influence in the spheres of interest and colonies of past times. 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 II. When the Holy See, exercising this right, erected in the years from 1832 to 1836 in formerly Portuguese India the independent apostolic vicariates with their own jurisdiction, the opposition of the Portuguese government was such that Rome, by the brief *Multa praeclare* of 24 April 1838, provisionally suppressed the dioceses of the padroado in India with the exception of that of Goa. Thus arose the so-called Goan schism, which Rome sought to end with the Concordat of 21 February 1837, suspending the execution of the brief *Multa praeclare*. In practice, however, nothing changed, because Portugal was unable to replace the apostolic vicariates with dioceses of padroado, due to lack of financial means. In the Concordat of 7 August 1886, the rights and obligations of the padroado were again defined. Outside Portuguese possessions, Portugal retained the right of patronage over the dioceses of Damão, Cochin, and Melapor. For the dioceses of Bombay, Mangalore, Quilon, and Trichinopoly, Portugal retained the right to choose one of the three candidates proposed by the ecclesiastical provinces. Moreover, Portuguese Christians in other dioceses of India were free to subject themselves to the jurisdiction of a diocese of padroado.
In the agreement between the Holy See and Portugal of 15 April 1928, the dual jurisdiction was abolished, and thus the aforementioned dioceses no longer exercise any jurisdiction outside their territory. The diocese of Damão was suppressed; for the archdiocese of Bombay, a system was introduced whereby every second archbishop had to be of Portuguese nationality. For the diocese of Melapor, a new regulatory agreement was made on 11 April 1929. New provisions were established with the missionary agreement of 5 April 1941. In India, nothing was changed. Two other dioceses of padroado remain in Asia: Macao in China and Dili on the island of Timor (the last remnant of the diocese of padroado of Malacca). In Africa, Luanda was elevated to an archdiocese with the suffragans of Nova Lisboa, Silva Porto, and São Tomé. In Mozambique, Lourenço Marques became an archdiocese with the suffragans of Beira and Nampula. Of the *ius praesentandi*, only the convention remains that the Holy See, before appointing a bishop, asks the Portuguese government whether there are any political objections to the candidate.
Having India attained independence, Portugal, in the Convention with the Holy See of 18 June 1950, renounced its padroado rights over the dioceses of Cochin, Meliapor, Bombay, Mangalore, Quilon, and Trichinopoly, and the Holy See released Portugal from all financial obligations toward these dioceses (AAS, 42 [1950], pp. 811-14). It should be noted that against the Placet Regium, for centuries considered by almost all Portuguese and others as an integral part of the padroado, the Holy See has always protested.
II. PATRONATO
The American territories discovered by Columbus on 12 Oct. 1492 were considered territories of India and thus, according to papal bulls, belonging to the Portuguese crown. Instead, the King of Spain claimed for himself all rights over the regions already discovered and to be discovered. The question VI (v.). On 4 May 1493 (a month after Columbus' return to Spain), in the bull *Inter caetera*, the Pope established 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 eastern one Portuguese, the western one Spanish. In the first bull *Inter caetera* of the previous day (3 May 1493), the Pope had generally assigned to Spain the lands discovered and to be discovered "versus Occidentem." The reasons adduced for this donation were: 1) the Spaniards had been the first to sail westward (ius primi occupantis); 2) Ferdinand and Isabella had promised to convert the inhabitants of the lands discovered and to be discovered (fundamentum morale occupationis).On the same day, 4 May 1493, with the bull *Eximiae devotionis*, Alexander VI granted to the Catholic Monarchs for the lands of the West Indies all the rights, privileges, and favors granted by the Holy See to the King of Portugal for Africa and the East Indies. As an onerous duty, he imposed on the king and queen, *virtute sanctae oboedientiae*, the obligation to send a sufficient number of suitable missionaries to the West Indies. With the bull *Eximiae devotionis* of 16 Nov. 1501, he granted to the Kings of Spain the tithe of the West Indies, with the renewed commitment to promote the propagation of the faith, to build and maintain churches, and to provide priests. On 28 July 1508, Julius II, with the bull *Universalis Ecclesiae*, formally granted to the King of Spain the patronato over all churches founded and to be founded in the West Indies. Thus ended the development of the Spanish patronato. The rights and obligations can be summarized in the following four points: 1) the king has the right and duty to convert the Indians to the true faith (missionary and mission monopoly). 2) The king guarantees the maintenance of churches and the sustenance of missionaries and, as compensation, receives the tithes. 3) No church may be built without royal permission. 4) The king has the *jus 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. Foreigners required a permit from the Spanish government, which was much more liberal in granting this permission than the Portuguese government. Thus, on 17 Sept. 1734, the General of the Jesuits was granted that a quarter of the Jesuit missionaries could be of Germanic origin. Following the proclamation of independence of the Latin American states 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 patronato extinguished itself. It is to Spain's credit that South and Central America (excluding Brazil) are today Catholic countries and that the Philippines is the only Catholic state in Asia.