New Worlds and Th eir Challenges 103the condition that the conquerors convert their new subjects to the Catholic
faith aft er gaining control. Th e distinctive feature of this doctrine was the
absence of any requirement of prior wrongdoing on the part of the infi del
rulers. It should also be noted that, as in Islamic belief, the actual conversion
of the population was still required to be voluntary, so that the dilatatio prin-
ciple did not amount, strictly speaking, to forcible conversion. But it justifi ed
the employment of force as an ancillary— and prior— aid to conversion.
Th e dilatatio theory was not invoked in the original proclamation of the
northeastern crusade by Pope Eugenius III in 1147. It fi rst emerged in the
context of Eu ro pe an occupation of the Canary Islands in the fourteenth cen-
tury. In 1344, Pope Clement VI made a grant of the islands to a certain Luis
de La Cerda, a Spanish native who had transferred his allegiance to France.
La Cerda’s grant included the enviable title of “Prince of the Fortunate
Isles.” He was thereby authorized to conquer and rule the islands but was
also instructed to employ his powers to promote conversion of the native
population to Christianity. Th e following year, Clement VI conferred the
status of crusade onto La Cerda’s plans for conquest. As it happened, La
Cerda never embarked on the conquest of his felicitous principality. But the
concept of dilatatio was now launched.
In the early fi ft eenth century, the debate over the validity of the dilatatio
principle became an element in a bitter legal dispute between the Teutonic
Knights and the government of Poland. Th e Teutonic Knights were offi cially
entrusted with conducting the northeastern crusade. Beginning in 1147, the
knights were authorized by the papacy fi rst to subdue and then to convert,
the pagan populations of the region. Th is right of conquest and jurisdiction
did not, however, extend to areas where persons had converted voluntarily
to Christianity. Th at meant that attacks were not to be made against Po-
land, which had been Catholic since the tenth century.
Ill feeling between the Poles and the order began in 1386, when the queen
of Poland married the then- pagan duke of Lithuania— with the Lithuanian
ruler being baptized into the faith at the same time. Th e Polish- Lithuanian
government then demanded that the knights halt their attacks against Lith-
uania, on the ground that conversion was now proceeding in a peaceful man-
ner. Th e knights continued their attacks, however— and accused the Poles of
employing infi dels against them. In response, the Polish government sought
to have the Teutonic Knights disbanded completely. In 1415, the disputatious