Diocese (creation of the)

The first diocese created in the lands of our conquests and discoveries was that of Funchal. Our ever-growing colonial and maritime expansion from the beginning of the 15th century, together with the settlement and exploitation of the newly discovered lands, led to the creation of several bishoprics outside mainland Portugal, and the Madeiran archipelago had the honour of being the first to receive one of these dioceses. When the bishoprics of Angra, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Goa were later created, that of Funchal was raised to the rank of archbishopric and became the seat of an ecclesiastical province, with those dioceses as its suffragans (see Archbishopric).

The steady growth of the population and the remarkable importance that Funchal gradually acquired led Afonso V to raise the settlement to the rank of town (vila) around 1451, and Manuel I later to grant it the status of a city by royal decree (alvará) of 21 August 1508.

It was also essential to put the religious affairs of the archipelago on a more satisfactory footing. Madeira belonged to the Order of Christ (Ordem de Cristo), which had its seat in Tomar, and it was therefore the Order’s task to oversee matters of ecclesiastical jurisdiction; to this end it had delegated the direction of all religious questions on this island to the vicar of Our Lady of Calhau (Nossa Senhora do Calhau). The creation of an autonomous diocese was thus imperative, headed by a prelate who could perform all acts of worship and freely oversee every matter of church discipline. King Manuel I understood this and requested the creation of the Funchal diocese, which Pope Leo X established by a bull (papal bull) of 12 June 1514, freeing the new bishopric from the jurisdiction of the mastership of the Order of Christ.

The first bishop of this diocese was Dom Diogo Pinheiro, who held a high office in the Order of Christ, to which Madeira belonged in spiritual matters. We shall deal with him in a separate article. The main purpose of creating the diocese was to place the personal and immediate direction of religious affairs in this archipelago in the hands of a prelate who could also perform all the acts of worship and canonical jurisdiction reserved to the ecclesiastical rank to which bishops belong. This, however, did not happen. Only fifty-two years after the creation of the Funchal diocese did its fourth bishop, Dom Jorge de Lemos, come in person to take possession of his office, which he held for some years.

On page 568 of the ‘Longing for the Homeland’ (Saudades da Terra) there is the Latin text of a bull, which is described there as the one that created this diocese. This is not correct. It is the bull Pro excellenti praeeminentia, cited under this title in various places, that is the papal instrument establishing the bishopric of Funchal. It is transcribed in full on p. 257 of vol. 1 of the Corpo Diplomatico Portuguez, edited by Rebêlo da Silva and published in 1862, and it had already appeared, at least in part, in other, older works. Rebêlo da Silva’s edition is a copy taken directly from the Torre do Tombo (national archives), where the original and authentic record are kept in the Bundle of Bulls (Maço das Bulas), under no. 34. This document, which is fairly long, was translated into Portuguese some years ago by Father Ricardo Augusto de Sequeira, a distinguished teacher at our lyceum (state secondary school), and published in several issues of the Correio do Funchal (‘Funchal Courier’) in November 1897.

In the same volume of the Corpo diplomático, already cited, there is on p. 261 another bull, beginning with the words Gratiae divinae praemium, addressed to King Manuel I, which officially announces the creation of the diocese of Funchal and the appointment of Dom Diogo Pinheiro as its bishop. The one transcribed in the ‘Longing for the Homeland’ is addressed to the faithful and clergy of Madeira. All of them bear the date 12 June 1514. In the old Bishop’s Palace of Funchal (Paço Episcopal do Funchal), framed and hanging on one of the walls of the palace’s main hall, was the parchment containing the actual original of a bull concerning the creation of this bishopric, which we believe to be the one transcribed in the notes to the Saudades.