THE ERECTION OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF GOA
Paul Bishop
Servus servorum Dei
Ad perpetuam rei memoriam
4th February 1557
Although holy and immaculate, the militant church (militantis Ecclesiae), which the heavenly Shepherd, in the fullness of time, chose to be founded on the blood of his only begotten son, pursues with the ardent fire of the beloved state continues with all the faithful whom it has regenerated in Christ and the places and cities where they dwell, those, however, who after a long time in the darkness of ignorance was at last made worthy by the cooperating grace of the Holy Spirit (Spiritus Sancti cooperante gratia), to be converted to the true the true God (ad verum Numen), who is Christ and found worthy to be numbered in the company of his most holy name, as well as their cities, places and the Churches founded therein, as if her adolescent daughters, the Church all the more willingly fosters with the ardour of the same fire and exalts them with still greater prerogatives, given that from their very conversion it is clear that a daily ever more copious harvest abounds in the Church.
Therefore we who, albeit unworthy, have set in the governance of the aforesaid Church under the direction of the same Pastor, though undeserved, we are placed in charge, we sometimes call the churches themselves more dignified titles, especially when the celebrity of the states, the fervent devotion of their citizens and peoples, as well as the wishes of the Catholic Kings (Catholicorum Regum) explain this, and we see that other things are more beneficial in the Lord.(in Domino salubrius expedire)
1-Of course, the Goan Church, which by right is recognized to be under the patronage of our dearest son in Christ, Sebastian, the illustrious King of Portugal and the Aigarbis, from its foundation, or endowment or apostolic privilege, which has not been derogated from in any way up to now, and to which John, Bishop of Goana, is of good memory, while he was alive, he presided over, through the death of the said John the Bishop, etc., the consolation of the shepherd being destitute; Having understood the trustworthy accounts of this kind of vacation, I provided, and watched as shepherds do, considering that of all the places in the East Indies, which once the Kings of Portugal and the Aigarbis had annexed to their temporal dominion, the city of Goana, situated on the shores of the Indian Sea within the Ganges, is the first by reason of amplitude, and so forth, and considering that after the same kings had most happily subjugated by the greatest force and by daily, frequent wars and perils, those vastest realms, provinces, islands, cities, towns, ports and places in those regions they took great care to bring the peoples of the same, inasmuch as deprived of divine and human law, after the darkness of Satan has been scattered, to the Catholic faith, outside which there is no salvation and to the most loving womb of Holy Mother Church by the frequent preaching, precepts, examples, and admonitions of holy men, and for as long as it was expedient they had confounded with salutary arms or had kept at a distance those who baulked at the faith, and they had by their donations embellished and decorated that same city and its royal palace and the seat of the viceroys and its diocese with expensive temples of God, monasteries, hospitals, sacred places, and ecclesiastical ministers.
Considering, too, that in those parts, for the aforesaid reasons the Christian religion gradually has spread far and wide, but that although this is so, no metropolitan church exists to which the inhabitants of those places can have recourse for their complaints and appeals, and they are forced either to apply to extremely distant aforesaid curia or to the metropolitan curia in the kingdom of Portugal, or to renounce the defence of their rights, and on account of this it often happens that very many become more inclined to commit illicit acts, their transgressions and crimes remain unpunished and so today, for sure and manifest reasons, upon the counsel and with the assent of our brethren, with the plenitude of our Apostolic power, we have permanently separated the cities of Malacca and Cochin, with their lands, provinces, islands, and the localities of the diocese of Goa – to be specified by our venerable brother the archbishop of Lisbon with the counsel of the aforesaid king Sebastian, and with other boundaries to be defined – and moreover our beloved sons the clergy and the people of those places from the said diocese and province of Lisbon, to the metropolitan right of which that diocese was subjected in such a way that afterward there will be three dioceses in that place.
We have erected and established these same towns as cities and the parish churches of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin of Malacca for one bishop and the Holy Cross of Cochin for another bishop as cathedral Churches and provided each one with a bishop.
We have conceded and assigned to the churches of the Annunciation of Malacca and the Holy Cross of Cochin, erected as cathedral Churches, the aforesaid cities as their own cities, and two out of the three dioceses to be separated with the aforesaid provinces, islands and localities to be defined for their dioceses and the people and clergy of those places as their clergy and people, as it is set out in fuller detail in our various letters regarding this matter, which were prepared, after mature deliberation with our aforementioned brethren.
Moreover, at the persistent and efficacious request of the aforesaid king Sebastian, we, judging the city of Goa worthy of the archiepiscopal and metropolitan rank and title, with counsel and assent, and plenitude of authority as heretofore, for the praise and honour of Almighty God, the exaltation of the orthodox faith, and the glory of the aforesaid happy and militant Church, perpetually sever, divide and separate the Church of Goa, until recently suffragan of the Church of Lisbon, and the aforementioned city and the diocese of Goa, its beloved sons the clergy and people from the aforesaid province, to whose metropolitan right it is recognized to be subjected, and we fully liberate and exonerate them from the overlordship, jurisdiction, power, subjection, visitation and correction of the aforementioned archbishop and of our beloved sons of the chapter of the Church of Lisbon.
2- Again is the said Church of Goana, as it is preferred, vacant into the metropolitan and episcopal seat of Goana in the archbishopric, and the archbishopric of the metropolitan guard the seat of the province for one archbishop, called Goana, when with the carrying of the mantle and the cross, and with all and every insignia, etc.; right under the patronage of the same Sebastian and his successors, of Portugal and To the Kings of the Algarves, existing for the time being, who thereafter forever they have the same metropolitan ad, as before, as ad once they had the cathedral church of Goana, safe and unharmed remaining, on a similar plan, we erect and establish, by the said authority, and we decorate with the archbishopric and metropolitan name, title, and honor.
3- Moreover, we constitute the aforementioned Church of Goa, the cities of Malacca and Cochin and their aforementioned dioceses as its archiepiscopal and metropolitan province and the same Churches of Malacca and Cochin and their prelates for the time being to be suffragans of the archbishop of Goa, who as members in relation to the head are subject to the same archbishop and his metropolitan rights.
We assign and grant in perpetuity to the aforementioned province of Goa the entire clergy and people of the same Churches and the city of Goa as the provincial subjects, whose individual cases are to be referred according to the prescriptions of the sacred canons to the said Archbishop of Goa, and as regards the archiepiscopal, metropolitan and provincial jurisdiction we subject them to the same.
4. And moreover, it would be, on a similar plan, by Apostolic authority we constitute and depute the present archbishop of Lisbon and the archbishop for the time being be judge as to the specification of the boundaries and definition of terms and the like of the province of Goa and the aforementioned dioceses of Malacca and Cochin and other contingent affairs for the time being, provided that they are not so difficult that in their regard the said Holy See should be consulted.
5. Notwithstanding the Apostolic constitutions and regulations, and others contrary to whomsoever. (Non obstantibus constitutionibus et ordinationibus Apostolicis, caeterisque contrariis quibuscumque).
6. Therefore, no one at all should be allowed on this page of our segregation, division, separation, exemption, liberation, erection, installation, decoration, grant, assignment, subjection, application, appropriation, decree, constitution, etc to infringe upon the deputation, or to contravene it with a reckless venture. But if you who assumed to attempt this, the indignation of almighty God, and he knew that he would attack his blessed apostle Peter and apostle Paul. (Nulli ergo omnino hominum liceat hanc paginam nostrae segregationis, divisionis, separationis, exemptionis, Iiberationis, erectionis, institutionis, decorationis, concessionis, assignationis, subjectionis, application, appropriation, decreti, constitutionis et
deputationis infringere, vel ei ausu temerario contraire. Siquis autem hoc attentare praesumpserit, indignationem Omnipotentis Dei, ac Beatorum Petri et Pauli, Apostolorum ejus, se noverit incursurum)
Given at Rome at St. Peter’s, in the year of the Incarnation Sunday, one thousand five hundred and fifty-seventh, the day before on the ninth of February, in the third year of our Pontificate. (Datum Romae apud Sanctum Petrum, anno Incarnationis Dominicae millesimo quingentesimo quinquagesimo septimo, pridie
nonas Februarii, Pontificatus nostri anno III )
PAUL BISHOP
4th February 1557
