In the papal bull Manifestis Probatum, Pope Alexander III acknowledged Afonso as King and Portugal as an independent crown with the right to conquer lands from the Moors.

In 1452, Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, granting Afonso V the right to reduce " Saracens, pagans and any other unbelievers " to hereditary slavery.

This petition was complied with by Pope Pius IV, January 26, 1564, in the papal bull, Benedictus Deus, which enjoins strict obedience upon all Catholics and forbids, under pain of excommunication, all unauthorized interpretation, reserving this to the Pope alone and threatens the disobedient with " the indignation of Almighty God and of his blessed apostles, Peter and Paul.

The Tridentine Creed was initially contained in the papal bull Iniunctum Nobis, issued by Pope Pius IV on November 13, 1565.

These new lands were divided between the Portuguese Empire and Spanish Empire, first by the papal bull Inter caetera and then by the Treaty of Tordesillas and the Treaty of Zaragoza ( 1529 ).

More likely, Pope Sixtus IV granted Cesare a release from the necessity of proving his birth in a papal bull of 1 October 1480.

* 1484 – Pope Innocent VIII issues the Summis desiderantes, a papal bull that deputizes Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger as inquisitors to root out alleged witchcraft in Germany and leads to one of the most oppressive witch hunts in European history.

* 1520 – Martin Luther burns his copy of the papal bull Exsurge Domine outside Wittenberg's Elster Gate.

* Regimini militantis Ecclesiae was the papal bull promulgated by Pope Paul III on September 27, 1540, which gave a first approval to the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits, but limited the number of its members to sixty.

The papal bull provoked legislative initiatives against Catholics by Parliament, which were however mitigated by Elizabeth's intervention.

The inscription declares, citing a 12 November 1548 papal bull of Pope Paul III, that God inflicts " maledictions and excommunications " on all who abandon a child of theirs whom they have the means to rear, and that they cannot be absolved unless they first refund all expenses incurred.

German peasants greet the fire and brimstone from a papal bull of Pope Paul III in Martin Luther's 1545 Depictions of the Papacy

The Fourth Council of the Lateran was convoked by Pope Innocent III with the papal bull of April 19, 1213, and the Council gathered at Rome's Lateran Palace beginning November 11, 1215.

Although the belief was widely held since at least Late Antiquity, the doctrine was not formally proclaimed until December 8, 1854, by Pope Pius IX in his papal bull Ineffabilis Deus.

It was not until 1854 that Pope Pius IX, with the support of the overwhelming majority of Roman Catholic bishops, whom he had consulted between 1851 – 1853, promulgated the papal bull Ineffabilis Deus ( Latin for " Ineffable God "), which defined ex cathedra the dogma of the Immaculate Conception:

* 1521 – Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.

* 1520 – Pope Leo X threatens to excommunicate Martin Luther in papal bull Exsurge Domine.

* 1514 – Pope Leo X issues a papal bull against slavery.

Another major benefit came in 1139, when Pope Innocent II's papal bull Omne Datum Optimum exempted the Order from obedience to local laws.

After more bullying from Philip, Pope Clement then issued the papal bull Pastoralis Praeeminentiae on November 22, 1307, which instructed all Christian monarchs in Europe to arrest all Templars and seize their assets.

* 1256 – The Augustinian monastic order is constituted at the Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV issues a papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae.

* 1252 – Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad extirpanda, which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition.

The first medieval inquisition, the episcopal inquisition, was established in the year 1184 by a papal bull entitled Ad abolendam, " For the purpose of doing away with.

On May 15, Pope Innocent IV issued a papal bull entitled Ad exstirpanda, which authorized the use of torture by inquisitors.

* 1307 – Pope Clement V issues the papal bull Pastoralis Praeeminentiae which instructed all Christian monarchs in Europe to arrest all Templars and seize their assets.

Fourth Council of the Lateran ( 1215 ) defined transubstantiation, addressed papal primacy and clerical discipline.

A second was addressed to the nobles and people of Germany, urging them to obey Boniface, while a third to the bishops in Alamannia and Bavaria confirmed Boniface ’ s status as the papal vicarus, and ordered them to assemble in a council twice a year at Augsburg under Boniface ’ s authority.

There is much more reason for suspecting the letter addressed " to the nobles of England, the citizens of London, and the community of the whole realm ", in which Grosseteste is represented as denouncing in unmeasured terms papal finance in all its branches.

Others argue that this view results from an excessively broad interpretation of statements that had a narrower sense in their original context, and from contrasting the infallible documents of the ecumenical council with papal statements that were not infallible because they were not addressed to the whole church.

No Bishop or Diocese of Finland is mentioned in a papal letter from 1171 ( or 1172 ) by the seemingly well-informed Pope Alexander III, who otherwise addressed the situation of the church in Finland.

Writers such as Nicholas Afanassieff and Alexander Schmemann have declared that the phrase " presiding in agape ", used of the Church of Rome in the letter that Ignatius of Antioch addressed to it in the first years of the 2nd century, contains a definition of that Church's universal primacy ; but the Roman Catholic writer Klaus Schatz warns that it would be wrong to read as statements of the developed Roman Catholic teaching on papal primacy this letter and the even earlier First Epistle of Clement ( the name of Clement was added only later ), in which the Church of Rome intervenes in matters of the Church of Corinth, admonishing it in authoritative tones, even speaking in the name of God.

A papal letter from Gregory VII is addressed to Inge together with either Håkan or Halsten Stenkilsson as kings of the västgötar, ordering them to collect tithe and send priests to Rome to educate themselves.

Father Gustavo Gutierrez describes " Sublimus Dei " as the most important papal document relating to the condition of native Indians and that it was addressed to all Christians.

The party set out on 27 January 1249, with letters from King Louis and the papal legate, and rich presents, including a chapel-tent, lined with scarlet cloth and embroidered with sacred pictures.

Cesare was appointed commander of the papal armies with a number of Italian mercenaries, supported by 300 cavalry and 4, 000 Swiss infantry sent by the King of France.

The legates were received by King Sigismund and by the assembled Bishops, and the King yielded the presidency of the proceedings to the papal legates, Cardinal Dominici of Ragusa and Prince Charles of Malatesta.

* 1925 – Roman Catholic papal encyclical Quas Primas introduces the Feast of Christ the King.

He suggested that it was not a papal banner to the King but a papal banner to the Churchly legate in the North, more specifically to archbishop Andreas Sunesøn, which he – without the knowledge of the King – brought with him on the King's crusade in the Baltic countries, in an effort to make the army take on a Christian symbol ( over the king's symbol ) and thereby strengthen the power of the church.

A siege of the castle was started, but through papal intervention King Henry later entered on a more conciliatory path.

( The Council of Constance was called by the German King and later Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund and only obtained papal confirmation later.

On July 17, 1251, Pope Innocent IV signed two papal bulls, ordering the Bishop of Chełmno to crown Mindaugas as King of Lithuania, appoint a bishop for Lithuania, and build a cathedral.

Illustration from Cassell's History of England ( 1902 ) In return for King John's submission to his papal and universal authority, Innocent III declared the Magna Carta annulled, though many English Barons did not accept this action.

He saw it as an affront to the Church's authority over the King and the ' papal territories ' of England and Ireland, and he released John from his oath to obey it.

Shortly before his death, Innocent IV had granted Sicily, a papal fiefdom, to Edmund, second son of King Henry III of England.

On 12 April 1261, shortly before his death, Alexander issued a papal bull for King Henry that absolved him of oaths taken in the Provisions of Oxford, which was instrumental in the War.

In July 1276, he was one of the three cardinals whom Pope Adrian V sent to Viterbo with instructions to treat with the German King, Rudolf I of Habsburg, concerning his imperial coronation at Rome and his future relations towards Charles of Anjou, whom papal policy supported.

However, upon being elected Pope at the papal conclave of 1303, he released King Philip IV of France from the excommunication that had been laid upon him by Boniface VIII, and practically ignored Boniface's bull Unam sanctam, which asserted papal supremacy over secular rulers.

Pope Celestine V abdicated on 13 December 1294 at Naples, where he had established the papal court under the patronage of King Charles II of Sicily.

These views, and his chronic intervention in " temporal " affairs, led to many bitter quarrels with the Emperor Albert I of Habsburg, the powerful Colonna family of Rome, King Philip IV of France, and Dante Alighieri, who wrote his essay De Monarchia to dispute Boniface's claims of papal supremacy.

Pius II succeeded in reconciling the Emperor and the King of Hungary, and derived great encouragement as well as pecuniary advantage from the discovery of mines of alum in the papal territory at Tolfa.

He was elected in an election held at Perugia that lasted four months while cardinals argued over whether to call in Charles of Anjou, the youngest brother of King Louis IX of France to carry on the papal war against the imperial house of Hohenstaufen.

In March 1309, the entire papal court moved from Poitiers ( where it had remained for 4 years ) to the Comtat Venaissin, around the city of Avignon, which was not then part of France, but an imperial fief held by the King of Sicily.