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126 - The public reading of the second letter which the messengers brought from the Curia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2024
Summary
When the reading of this letter had been finished and heard with much joy, all those people were made to fall silent so as to listen attentively, as to the first letter. Then another letter was made public from that same Pope Boniface, of which this is the text:
Boniface, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his well-beloved son in Christ, the illustrious King João of Portugal and the Algarve, health and apostolic blessings.
By the disposition of divine clemency through which kings reign and princes are given power, without any merit of our own, we are placed to be a shining light over the people of Christendom. At times it is therefore necessary to impose order on certain kingdoms and lordships for the sake of peace and justice for the people, and to raise up those whom we know to be worthy and well-suited to rule and govern the people who dwell in them. Once they are placed in such a high position, we must maintain them in it and strengthen them, so that they may judge the people in justice and guide their nations, as befits the lordship they have taken on and the power given to them by heaven for the punishment of evildoers and the glory and praise of the good. In this way the ruler's mind will always be inclined to carry out justice, and his thoughts devoted to rightful law and the protection of sacred peace.
Thus it is that in the filial petition presented to us by the honourable Bishop of Silves and the well-beloved João Rodrigues de Sá, ambassadors representing you and the prelates and people of those kingdoms, sent to us in respect of this matter, it was truly set forth that the said realms were in past days orphaned and deprived of royal dignity because of the death of King Fernando, whose life ended without a legitimate son who could inherit them.
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- The Chronicles of Fernão LopesVolume 4. The Chronicle of King João i of Portugal, Part II, pp. 276 - 280Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2023