APOSTOLIC AUTHORITY - UNTIL DIFFERENT "AIN'T NO CHAINS ON ME"

The 8^th of January turns up another load of bull. There is something about a papal bull that takes performance writing to a very different level, in particular during the 15^th century. It gave license, by the mere stroke of a pen, to certain friends of the Bishop of Rome to do just about anything they wanted in carving up the world as they began to explore it. This freedom to colonise and enslave was promoted by Pope after Pope.

Romanus Pontifex is a papal bull written on the 8^th January 1455 by Pope Nicholas V to King Afonso V of Portugal. As a follow-up to the Dum Diversas, it confirmed to the Crown of Portugal dominion over all lands discovered or conquered during the Age of Discovery. Along with encouraging the seizure of the lands of Saracen Turks and pagans, it repeated the earlier bull's permission for the enslavement of such peoples. The bull's primary purpose was to forbid other Christian nations from infringing the King of Portugal's rights of trade and colonisation in these regions.

Nicholas V

Dum Diversas (Until different) is a papal bull issued on 18 June 1452 by Pope Nicholas V, that is credited by some with "ushering in the West African slave trade." It authorized Afonso V of Portugal to conquer Saracens and pagans and consign them to "perpetual slavery. Pope Calixtus III reiterated the bull in 1456 with Etsi cuncti, renewed by Pope Sixtus IV in 1481 and Pope Leo X in 1514 with Precelse denotionis. The concept of the consignment of exclusive spheres of influence to certain nation states was extended to the Americas in 1493 by Pope Alexander VI with Inter caetera.

Dum Diversas provided:

 "We grant you [Kings of Spain and Portugal] by these present documents, with our Apostolic Authority, full and free permission to invade, search out, capture, and subjugate the Saracens and pagans and any other unbelievers and enemies of Christ wherever they may be, as well as their kingdoms, duchies, counties, principalities, and other property [...] and to reduce their persons into perpetual slavery.”

By what authority these Popes granted this freedom to pillage is open to question. Apostolic Authority is a rather loose concept. Does it derive from apostolic succession, authority handed down from the apostles through those with whom they came in contact and were chosen to carry on the teachings of Christ?

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey described three meanings of "apostolic succession":

1-    One bishop succeeding another in the same see meant that there was a continuity of teaching: "while the Church as a whole is the vessel into which the truth is poured, the Bishops are an important organ in carrying out this task".

2-    The bishops were also successors of the apostles in that "the functions they performed of preaching, governing and ordaining were the same as the Apostles had performed".

3-     It is also used to signify that "grace is transmitted from the Apostles by each  generation of bishops through the imposition of hands".

At what point did ‘blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth’ become ‘reduce their persons into perpetual slavery’? Perhaps it’s a form of Chinese whispers. I don’t see much truth being poured into vessels with that sort of authority.

Here’s a bit of a You Tube entry which explains it all, if you can believe it. What would we do without American preachers? Ain’t no chains on me.