the royal treasury by promoting the country’s economy.
Afonso III continued his predecessors’ policy of
strengthening royal prerogatives. This was accom-
plished chiefl y through the use of the inquiricões gerais
(general inquiries) and confi rmacões (confi rmations). In
1258, in response to complaints from royal offi cials as
well as commoners, the crown sent investigative teams
into the comarcas (districts) of Entre Douro e Minho,
Trás-os-Montes, and Beira Alta to examine titles to lands
claimed by nobility and clergy. Sworn testimony was
taken to determine if the rights of the crown were being
respected. Afonso III was anxious to curb the power of
the old nobility and the higher clergy, especially those
in the comarca of Entre Douro e Minho, the oldest and
most populous region of Portugal. These investiga-
tions revealed a wide range of violations, including the
usurpation of the royal patrimony, evasion of taxes, and
abuses of commoners by the privileged estates, both
secular and clerical. Laws were promulgated to deal with
these infractions and they soon sparked fresh opposition
from clergy and nobility.
In 1267 a number of Portuguese prelates traveled to
Rome and presented Pope Clement IV with an extensive
list of grievances. They accused Afonso III of condon-
ing, even encouraging, violence in civil administration,
of using unfair practices in his business dealings, and
of infringing on ecclesiastical liberties. The Portuguese
monarch answered these charges with testimonials from
the towns of the kingdom that defended his actions and
praised his administration. In addition, in 1273, during
the meeting of the cortes at Santarém, Afonso III estab-
lished a commission to investigate his acts and those of
his offi cials. But the papacy was not impressed by the
results of this investigation, which maintained that there
had been little wrongdoing. In 1275 Pope Gregory X
ordered that the king correct abuses and promise not to
repeat them under pain of a series of penalties. These
penalties would be invoked in stages, beginning in
1277, and would progress from local interdict, to ex-
communication, to a general interdict for the kingdom,
to freeing the Portuguese from obedience to their king.
And, indeed, by the end of 1277, Afonso III had been
excommunicated and the kingdom placed under inter-
dict. Soon, minor revolts broke out against the king in
which Afonso III’s son and successor, Dinis, took part.
In January 1279, a month before his death, Afonso III
made his peace with the Church and with his son.
See also Alfonso X, El Sabio, King of Castile and
León; Blanche of Castile
Further Reading
Livermore, H. V. A History of Portugal. Cambridge, U.K., 1977.
Serrão, J. V. História de Portugal. Lisbon, vol. 1 1977.
Mattoso, J. (ed.) História de Portugal, Lisbon, vol. 2 1993.
Francis A. Dutra
ALAIN DE LILLE (ca. 1115/20–1203)
Known throughout the later Middle Ages as Doctor
universalis, Alain was probably born in the city of
Lille (Nord), though the Île-de-la-Cité in Paris has also
been proposed. He became a Cistercian shortly before
his death; when his body at Cîteaux was exhumed in
1960, his age was put in the eighties, and his height at
about 5 feet.
An anecdotal life sometimes appended to commen-
taries and frequently found in early printed editions of
the Parabolae is late and untrustworthy. We have no
contemporary record of where Alain studied, or of any
ecclesiastical benefi ts he enjoyed. His early literary and
theological works, however, imply a Paris training, and
reliable 13th-century sources list him among the masters
there. Study before 1150 at the Benedictine abbey of
Bec has been suggested, but there is no proof.
Alain seems to have been based in the southwest by
the 1160s and to have written extensively against the
Cathars in that region. Manuscripts of his works often
call him Alainus de Podio, implying a connection with
Le Puy, and two 13th-century manuscripts call him Alain
of Montpellier. His De fi de catholica contra haereticos
was dedicated to Guilhem VIII, count of Montpellier
(r. 1172–1202); in four books, it argues successively
against Cathars, Waldensians, Jews, and Muslims. His
Distinctiones dictionum theologicarum was dedicated
to Abbot Ermengaud of Saint-Gilles (r. 1179–95). The
Liber poenitentialis is dedicated to Archbishop Henry
Sully of Bourges (r. 1183–93), and his brief commen-
tary on the Song of Songs was written for the prior of
Cluny.
With a few exceptions, the dates and chronology of
Alain’s works are far from certain, but the earliest are
generally thought to be the Regulae caelestis iuris (ca.
1160), also known as De maximis theologicis, which
treated theology as an exact science, with scientifi c rules
based on geometry, and the summa Quoniam homines
(1160–65), an incomplete work discussing God and
the Trinity, angels and humanity, according to the rules
of logic. Some themes are repeated in the brief De vir-
tutibus et vitiis et de donis Spiritus Sancti. His shorter
theological works include numerous Sermones diversi,
commentaries on the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostles’
and Nicene creeds, several short pieces on angels, in-
cluding De sex alis cherubim (sometimes accompanied
by a drawing), and the rules of celestial law, which
made use of geometrical principles in its discussion of
the heavens. A few hymns are also ascribed to Alain of
which the best known is Omnis mundi creatura.
The Latin Parabolae are a collection of maxims in
elegiac verse, similar in approach to the Distichs of Cato
and also designed for use in Latin classes in the schools.
They were frequently copied from the 12th through the
15th century, and early printed editions are common.ALAIN DE LILLE