Thus it was that the Spanish sovereigns, being Christian, applied for a confirmation of title to Alexander VI., then sovereign pontiff of Christendom, at the same time insinuating, in a somewhat worldly fashion, that learned men regarded the rights of their Catholic Majesties secure enough even without such confirmation. No valid objections before the holy tribunal could be raised against Christian princes powerful enough to sustain their pretensions to ownership while propagating the true faith in heathen lands; but Pope Eugene IV. and his successors had already granted Portugal all lands discovered by Portuguese from Cape Bojador to the Indies. In order, therefore, to avoid conflict, the bull issued the 2d of May, 1493, ceding Spain the same rights respecting discoveries already granted Portugal, was on the day following defined to this effect:—An imaginary line of demarcation should be drawn from pole to pole, one hundred leagues west of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands; all lands discovered east of that line should be Portugal's, while west of that line all should belong to Spain. Thus by a very mortal breath and the flourish of a pen, the unknown world, with all its multitudes of interests and inhabitants, was divided between these two sovereignties, occupying the peninsula of south-western Europe; though in their wisdom they forgot that if the world was round, Portugal in going east and Spain in going west must somewhere meet, and might yet quarrel on the other side. Subsequently, that is to say on the 7th of June, 1494, by treaty between Spain and Portugal the papal line of partition was removed, making it three hundred and seventy leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands, Portugal having complained of want of sea-room for southern enterprise. This removal ultimately gave the Portuguese Brazil. And ecclesiastics claim that care was ever exercised by the Spanish crown to comply with the obligations thus laid upon it by this holy sanction.