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.

His attitude towards the Roman Catholic Church was hostile ; he was one of the only three bishops who, according to a statement made to Gregorio Panzani, the papal envoy, by Richard Montagu, were ‘ counted violently bent against the Papists ’.

The papal encyclical Mystici Corporis expresses the dogmatic ecclesiology of the Catholic Church thus: " if we would define and describe this true Church of Jesus Christ – which is the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church – we shall find no expression more noble, more sublime, or more divine, than the phrase which calls it ‘ the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ.

In 1565 it is recorded in the diary of the papal chapel choir that Cardinal Vitelli requested the choir to be assembled at his house and held a private test of some Mass settings in order to see ‘ whether the words could be understood ’.

Comparing Gandhi with Leo Tolstoy during the year he died, Pal noted that Tolstoy ' was an honest philosophical anarchist ' while Gandhi remained in his eyes as ' a papal autocrat ' Firm and ethically grounded, not only did he perceive the ' Congress Babel ' in terms of its shortsightedness in late 1920s or, Congress as an instance of repudiating debt's folly, composed of a generation ' that knows no Joseph ', Pal's critical comments should be located in context, since nobody can jump out of his skin of time.

However the principalities of some of the highest prelates were not known as prince -( arch ) bishopric, which they effectively were, but rather by a term corresponding to a more prestigious ecclesistial or temporal rank: the three German archbishoprics of Prince-electors ( Cologne, Mainz and Trier ) were styled Kurfürstentum ' Electorate ', the patriarchate ( an archbishopric ) of Aquileia just that, the ( Arch ) Bishop of Rome's Italian principalities the Papal State ( s ); on the other hand the papal principality in France, the Countship of Venaissin, where the papacy had resided in ' Babylonian exile ' in Avignon, but which remained a papal state, separate from the Italian states, even after Avignon had been raised to archbishopric, was simply known by its temporal status, no reference to the highest of all princes of the church.

High-profile Eurovision events are the annual Eurovision Song Contest ( organised since 1956 ) and Eurovision Dance Contest ( organised in 2007 and 2008 ), the Eastertime papal blessing ' Urbi et Orbi ', the Vienna New Year's Concert, the Palio in Siena and major European sports events, but routine transmissions of sport and culture amount to over 15, 000 transmission hours per year.

In 1008, after long negotiations with the Bishops of Würzburg and Eichstätt, who were to cede portions of their dioceses, the boundaries of the new diocese were defined, and Pope John XVIII granted the papal confirmation in the same year.

Until the 1460s, it was customary for cardinals to wear a violet or blue cape unless granted the privilege of wearing red when acting on papal business.

Previously, the pallium worn by the Pope was identical to those he granted to the primates, but in 2005 Pope Benedict XVI began to use a distinct papal pallium that is larger than the primatial, and was adorned with red crosses instead of black.

With the recent election of Benedict XVI in 2005, his personal coat of arms eliminated the papal tiara ; a mitre with three horizontal lines is used in its place, with the pallium, a papal symbol of authority more ancient than the tiara, the use of which is also granted to metropolitan archbishops as a sign of communion with the See of Rome, was added underneath of the shield.

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

Louis I, Duke of Anjou, was granted a phantom kingdom of Adria to be carved out of papal Emilia and Romagna, if he could unseat the pope at Rome.

As a reward for helping free Stephen from the oppression of Hugh of Arles, Stephen granted Cante di Gabrielli the position of papal governor of Gubbio, and control over a number of key fortresses.

A papal dispensation had to be granted for Henry to be able to marry Catherine, and the negotiations took some time.

During his brief pontificate, Leo granted the canons of Bologna a special papal bull ( epistola tuitionis ) where he exempted them from the payment of taxes.

Pius VI sued for peace, which was granted at Tolentino on 19 February 1797 ; but on 28 December of that year, in a riot blamed by papal forces on some Italian and French revolutionists, the popular brigadier-general Mathurin-Léonard Duphot, who had gone to Rome with Joseph Bonaparte as part of the French embassy, was killed and a new pretext was furnished for invasion.

Pope Alexander IV ( 1259 ) urged the French bishops to support it, Urban IV ( 1262 ) recommended it to the goodwill of the whole Christian world, and Clement IV ( 1268 ) granted it papal approbation.

This offer was apparently satisfactory, and imperial recognition of the papal election was granted.

Having been granted papal rights from Avignon was perhaps the reason that the ties to Rome were never very strong in Haarlem, since the building most commonly called the Cathedral in the center of town only held a cathedra for 19 years, from 1559 to 1578.

The Papacy ruled it by appointed rectors, seated in a magnificent palace, and the principality continued to be a papal possession until 1806, when Napoleon granted it to his minister Talleyrand with the title of Sovereign Prince.

having been granted a charter in 1220 by Cardinal Conrad von Urach and confirmed by Pope Nicholas IV in a papal bull of 1289.

In 1481, the papal bull Æterni regis had granted all land south of the Canary Islands to Portugal.

The interference of Pope Clement VI, however, granted James a hearing in Barcelona in front of papal delegates.

Fossombrone being within the papal states, Petrucci applied for a patent with the Pope for the exclusive right to print music, which was granted for several years ; however the Pope rescinded the patent when Petrucci failed to produce keyboard music, granting it instead to one of Petrucci's competitors at Rome.

The claims of Spain on the Oregon Country dated to the papal bull of 1493 which had granted to Spain the rights to colonize the western coast of North America and to the actions of Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513, when he claimed all the " South Sea " ( the Pacific Ocean ) and the lands adjoining the Pacific Ocean for the Spanish Crown.

In the past strict dress codes had to be followed by those granted a papal audience.

In the Catholic Church, a priest, deacon, or bishop may be dismissed from the clerical state as a penalty for certain grave offenses, or by a papal decree granted for grave reasons.

Evidence suggests that in the 1130s the order was becoming militarised: in 1136 Fulk, King of Jerusalem, granted the newly built castle at Bethgibelin to the order and a papal bull from between 1139 and 1143 may indicate the order was hiring people to defend pilgrims.

A ferocious letter from the pope to the papal nuncios, on 19 March 1423, denounced the proceeding as calculated to ensnare simple souls and extort, from them a profane reward, thereby setting up themselves against the apostolic see and the Roman pontiff, to whom alone so great a faculty has been granted by God ( Cat.