Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/197

173 SECOND VOYAGE. 173 be a principal motive of their present operauons. ciiArxEK The J intimated, finally, that, although many com-. petent persons deemed their application to the court of Rome, for a title to territories already in their possession, to be unnecessary, yet, as pious princes, and dutiful children of the church, they were unw^illing to proceed further vv^ithout the sanc- tion of him, to whose keeping its highest interests were intrusted. ^° The pontifical throne was at that time filled by Alexander the Sixth ; a man who, although de- graded by unrestrained indulgence of the most sor- did appetites, was endowed by nature with singular acuteness, as well as energy of character. He lent a willing ear to the application of the Spanish gov- ernment, and made no hesitation in granting what cost him nothing, while it recognised the assump- tion of powers, which had already begun to totter in the opinion of mankind. On the 3d of May, 1493, he published a bull, Famous in which, taking into consideration the eminent exandervi. services of the Spanish monarchs in the cause of the church, especially in the subversion of the Ma- hometan empire in Spain, and willing to afford still wider scope for the prosecution of their pious labors, he, " out of his pure liberality, infallible knowledge, and plenitude of apostolic power," confirmed them in the possession of all lands discovered, or here- after to be discovered by them in the western ocean, comprehending the same extensive rights of 20 Herrera, Indias Occidentales, Hist, del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 4, dec. 1, lib. 2, cap. 4. — Munoz, sec. 18.