Carta (cópia) do Bispo do Japão, [D. Luís Cerqueira], sobre a necessidade de se amparar a Igreja do Japão pertencente à coroa de Portugal e sobre o breve do Papa Paulo V que possibilitou a abertura do porto das Filipinas para o Japão e China, tanto a religiosos como a seculares.

This is a diplomatic and ecclesiastical letter, dated 8 March 16[unclear: bis/6is], authored by the Bishop of Japan and addressed to a high-ranking Portuguese official—referred to as “Your Excellency”—presumably a member of the Royal Council or colonial administration in Goa or Lisbon. The document...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Cerqueira, D. Luis
Format: Manuscripts
Language:pt-PT
Published: 1612-03-16
Subjects:
Online Access:https://macau-legacy.usj.edu.mo/docs/Y4XYK359/viewer_Y4XYK359.html
Description
Summary:This is a diplomatic and ecclesiastical letter, dated 8 March 16[unclear: bis/6is], authored by the Bishop of Japan and addressed to a high-ranking Portuguese official—referred to as “Your Excellency”—presumably a member of the Royal Council or colonial administration in Goa or Lisbon. The document originates from Nagasaki and is preserved in the Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino (Lisbon) and Biblioteca Nacional do Rio de Janeiro. It concerns Portugal’s ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the Japanese mission amid escalating Spanish and papal intervention. The Bishop reports on a 1611 papal brief issued by Pope Paul V at the instigation of the Spanish Crown and Philippine religious orders, and with support from the Castilian Consejo de Indias, authorising clergy—including secular priests—to enter Japan and China via the Philippines, bypassing traditional Portuguese routes through Goa and Macau. He stresses the Crown of Portugal’s sovereign claim over the Japanese church, warns of potential jurisdictional conflict and pastoral discord, and encloses a memorial petitioning the Portuguese monarch to seek corrective papal briefs. Supplementary archival notes indicate related discussions on Philippines–Japan–China trade and Jesuit mobility under the same papal authorisation. The manuscript bears multiple institutional stamps and marginalia confirming its provenance and archival history.
AHU-Arquivo Historico Ultramarino Volume 1 - 003