Page:European treaties bearing on the history of the United States and its dependencies.djvu/71



Datum Rome apud Sanctum Petrum, anno Incarnationis Dominice millesimo quadrigentesimo nonagesimo tertio, quinto nonas Maii, pontificatus nostri anno primo.

Gratis de mandato sanctissimi Domini nostri Pape.

B. CAPOTIUS. L. PODOCATIIARUS. D. SERRANO. FERRARIIS.

Ap [ril] i.

TRANSLATION.

Alexander, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to the illustrious sover­ eigns, our very dear son in Christ, Ferdinand, king, and our very dear daughter in Christ, Isabella, queen, of Castile, Leon, Aragon, and Granada, health and apostolic benediction. Among other works well pleasing to the Divine Majesty and cherished of our heart, this assuredly ranks highest, that in our times especially the Catholic faith and the Christian religion be exalted and everywhere increased and spread, that the health of souls be cared for and that barbarous nations be overthrown and brought to the faith itself. Wherefore inasmuch as by the favor of divine clemency, we, though of insufficient merits, have been called to this Holy See of Peter, recognizing that as true Catholic kings and princes, such as we have known you always to be, and as your illustrious deeds already known to almost the whole world declare, you not only eagerly desire but with every effort, zeal, and diligence, without regard to hardships, expenses, dangers, with the shedding even of your blood, are laboring to that end; recognizing also that you have long since dedicated to this purpose your whole soul and all your endeavors--as wit­ nessed in these times with so much glory to the Divine Name in your recovery of the kingdom of Granada from the yoke of the Saracens--we therefore are rightly led, and hold it as our duty, to grant you even of our own accord and in your favor those things, whereby with effort each day more hearty you may be enabled for the honor of God himself and the spread of the Christian rule to carry forward your holy and praiseworthy purpose so pleasing to immortal God. We have indeed learned that you, who for a long time had intended to seek out and discover certain lands and islands remote and unknown and not hitherto discovered by others, to the end that you might bring to the worship of our Redeemer and profession of the Catholic faith their residents and inhabitants, having been up to the present time greatly engaged in the siege and recovery of the kingdom itself of Granada, were unable to accomplish this holy and praiseworthy purpose; but the said king­ dom having at length been regained, as was pleasing to the Lord, you, with the wish to fulfill your desire, chose our beloved son Christopher Columbus,