Alfonsine Ordinances

The Alfonsine Ordinances () were a complete restatement of Portuguese law, enacted in 1446 or 1447 during the reign of the Portuguese King Afonso V ().

The five books of the Ordinances were the first codification of Portuguese law and established a legal hierarchy between Portuguese royal laws, Roman law and Canon law.

In 1521, they were succeeded by the Manueline Ordinances () of Manuel I.

History

In the beginning of the 15th century, Portuguese law was in a state of confusion, even the courts were unsure which royal laws were still valid and should be applied to a case. Furthermore, the legal hierarchy between these royal laws and Roman and Canon law was unclear. To rectify this confusion at least in part, John I of Portugal () ordered with a ', dated 18 April 1426, what counted as "Roman law" before Portuguese courts. He decreed that Roman law as stated in the should be applied and, when it contained no answer to the issue in question, the annotations on the contained in the by Accursius should be used. When even the was of no help, the commentary on the by Bartolus was to be given precedence. With this declaration, John I only clarified how the secondarily applicable Roman law was to be understood; he did not clarify the legal hierarchy between royal Portuguese, Canon and Roman law.

To rectify this, John I later commissioned the first systematic compilation, reformulation and updating of the primarily applicable Portuguese law. This commission was given to João Mendes (the ) and, after Mendes death, to , who finished it on 28 July 1446. After a revision of the compilation by a commission, the work was completed in July 1446 and given to King AfonsoV, who had succeed John I and Edward as king of Portugal. Despite lending the ordinances its name, King Afoso V had little influence on them as they were completed during his minority – he was born in 1432 – and the regency of his uncle Peter, the Duke of Coimbra.

Due to a court document of August 1447, which references the Alfonsine Ordinances, legal scholars assume that they entered into force at the end of 1446 or the beginning of 1447. Their diffusion into Portugal proved, however, difficult, as they were completed before the invention of the printing press.

In 1521, the Alfonsine Ordinances were succeeded by the Manueline Ordinances () named after King Manuel I.

Content

General content and structure

Legal scholars consider the Alfonsine Ordinances to be the first codification of Portuguese law and the foundation for its development for centuries afterwards. They were, however, far from being a complete system of law and scholars speculate that only the ' had a complete set of all five books of the Ordinances. Its sources were the royal Portuguese laws, Canon law, the case law of the higher courts of Portugal, the , Roman law and local customs. The structuring of the Ordinances into five books might have been influenced by the 1234 Decretals of Gregory IX.

The first book of the Alfonsine Ordinances considers the state and its administration. The second book deals with the rights of the Catholic Church, the King and the nobility. The third book contains the rules of civil procedure, while the fourth book states the substantive private law. The final fifth book considers criminal law and procedure.

An important clarification of the Alfonsine Ordinances was the establishment of a clear legal hierarchy in Portuguese law: Firstly, the royal Portuguese laws were supreme. When they contained no answer, a distinction was made between temporal () and spiritual questions (). In case of the former, Roman law was to be applied, while in case of the later, Canon law was applicable. An exception was, however, stated in the case of "sinful results": If the application of Roman law resulted in (sinful results) than Canon law was again applicable (book II, title 9). Roman law was to be applied according to the of Accursius and the opinion of Bartolus. If even these authorities did not help to solve the case than the King himself should decide it (book II, title 9).

Restrictions on Jews and Muslims

The Alfonsine Ordinances contained special restrictions for Jews and Muslims, for example forcing them to wear a distinctive symbol or badge on their clothing (for Jews: book II, title 86; for Muslims: book II, title 103). Other examples were that Jews were generally not allowed inside the house of a Christian woman when her husband was absent (book II, title 67), and when Jews or Muslims disguised their identity "with the intention of sinning with Christian women" they would be punished by enslavement (book V, titles 25 and 26).

Printing

The authoritative printed version of the Alfonsine Ordinances () was done by the University of Coimbra in 1792 with a facsimile edition printed by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in 1984.
*
*

References

Citations

Sources

*
*
*
*
*
*

Further reading

*
* The text of the Alfonsinas Ordinances.

{{Authority control

1440s in law
Legal codes of Portugal
Legal history of Portugal