108 Law and Morality Abroad (to ca. ad 1550)An immediate and obvious problem regarding all these new lands— new,
that is, to Europeans— was to determine who had own ership of them and on
what basis. Th e diffi culties involved became apparent as early as the four-
teenth century, when Spain and Portugal advanced rival claims to title to
the Canary Islands. It has been observed that these had been (purportedly)
granted by Pope Clement VI to Luis de La Cerda in 1344, but with no practi-
cal result. Eff ective Eu ro pe an control over the islands was only achieved
early in the fi ft eenth century, when two French noblemen established a
settlement— and also obtained the surrender and conversion to Christianity
of the native king of Lanzarote. Th is time, lordship of the islands was ob-
tained, by way of a feudal act of homage, from the king of Castile instead of
from the papacy.
Th e Portuguese government, however, contested the validity of this pur-
ported grant by Spain. Th e result was a scholarly contest between advocates
for the two sides— the fi rst major example of a detailed legal dispute over
title to territory. In support of its cause, the Portuguese government en-
listed two Italian professors of law: Antonio de Rosellis (who taught canon
law at the University of Padua) and Antonio Minucci da Pratovecchio (who
taught civil law and canon law at the Universities of Florence, Padua, and
Bologna). Th eir principal contention was that the native Canarians had
obstinately refused to allow missionaries to preach the Christian faith and
that Portugal had taken it upon itself to wage a just war against them for
this off ense.
To counter these claims, the Spanish government enlisted an equally
distinguished fi gure: an ecclesiastic named Alfonso (or Alonso) de Carta-
gena. From a family of converts from Judaism, Alfonso studied civil and
canon law at the University of Salamanca and later served in various
church positions. He was also an active diplomat and translator of classi-
cal texts. In 1437, he published his Allegationes... super conquista insula-
rum Canariae (Allegations about the Conquest of the Canary Islands). His
principal contention was that the islands had formed part of the old Vi-
sigothic kingdom— or, alternately, that the Visigothic kings had possessed
at least a right of conquest— and that the present Castilian monarchs were
the successors to those prior rights. Th e dispute, fortunately, was eventu-
ally settled by the parties (as will be seen), but the aff air provided a telling
fi rst glimpse of legal problems that could so easily arise in exploration