Constitutions of the bishopric

Diocesan constitutions are the laws and instructions peculiar to each diocese, intended to implement and regulate the general laws of the Church. The bishopric of Funchal also has its Constitutions, very old and entirely obsolete, which today have merely historical value. Copies are rare nowadays, but they are highly prized for the study of the religious customs of the time when these Constitutions were drawn up. The first edition is entitled Constituiçôes Synodaes do Bispado do Funchal. Feitas e ordenadas por D. Jeronimo Barreto, Bispo do dito Bispado, Lisboa, por Antonio Ribeiro, 1585, folio, XVI-188 pp. They were drawn up at the diocesan council held in our Cathedral (Sé Catedral) on 13 October 1578, under the presidency of Bishop Dom Jerónimo Barreto, and were approved and ordered to be put into effect by a decree (alvará) of the same prelate, dated 4 May 1579.

Bishop Dom Luís Figueiredo de Lemos convened and presided over a diocesan synod, held in the Cathedral on 29 June 1597, at which supplementary constitutions (Constituições Extravagantes) were made. These were appended to the existing Constitutions and received episcopal approval by a warrant (provisão) of 15 August 1597. Dom Luís de Figueiredo had the new Constitutions printed and the old ones reprinted under the title Constituições synodaes do Bispado do Funchal, com as extravagantes novamente impressas, por mandado de D. Luiz de Figueiredo de Lemos, Bispo do dito Bispado, Lisboa, por Pedro Craesbeeck, 1601, folio, XX-188 pp. At the end come the supplementary constitutions, with a new title page and new pagination, under the title Constituições Extravagantes do Bispado do Funchal, feitas e ordenadas por D. Luiz Figueiredo de Lemos, Lisboa, impresso por Pedro Craeesbeck, Ano X, folio, 54 pp.