The freedom of the seas : $b or, The right which belongs to the Dutch to take part in the East Indian tradeGrotius, Hugo
Philosophy
The freedom of the seas : $b or, The right which belongs to the Dutch to take part in the East Indian trade
Grotius, Hugo
Freedom of the seas; Law of the sea
Now, inasmuch as no one concedes to the Pope in temporal matters a
_jus disponendi_, except perhaps in so far as it is demanded by the
necessity of spiritual matters, and inasmuch as the things now under
discussion, namely, the sea and the right of navigating it, are
concerned only with money and profits, not with piety, surely no one
can have
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respiciant, sequi nullam hac in re fuisse illius potestatem. Quid,
quod ne Principes quidem, hoc est, domini temporales possunt ullo
modo a navigatione aliquem prohibere, cum si quod habent ius in mari
id sit tantum iurisdictionis ac protectionis? Etiam illud notissimum
est apud omnes, ad ea facienda quae cum lege Naturae pugnant, nullam
esse Papae auctoritatem.[113a] Pugnat autem cum lege Naturae, ut
mare aut eius usum quisquam habeat sibi proprium, ut iam satis
demonstravimus. Cum denique ius suum auferre alicui Papa minime
possit, quae erit facti istius defensio, si tot populos immerentes,
indemnatos, innoxios ab eo iure quod ad ipsos non minus quam ad
Hispanos pertinebat uno verbo voluit excludere?
Aut igitur dicendum est nullam esse vim eiusmodi pronuntiationis,
aut quod non minus credibile est, eum Pontificis animum fuisse, ut
Castellanorum et Lusitanorum inter se certamini intercessum voluerit,
aliorum autem iuri nihil diminutum.
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the face to insist that the Pope had any jurisdiction here. What of
the fact that not even rulers, that is to say, temporal lords, can
prohibit any one from navigation, since if they have any right at all
upon the sea it is merely one of jurisdiction and protection! It is
also a fact universally recognized that the Pope has no authority to
commit acts repugnant to the law of nature.[113] But it is repugnant
to the law of nature, as we have already proved beyond a doubt, for
any one to have as his own private property either the sea or its
use. Finally, since the Pope is wholly unable to deprive any one of
his own rights, what defense will there be for that Donation of his,
if by a word he intended to exclude so many innocent, uncondemned,
and guiltless nations from a right which belongs no less to them than
to the Spaniards?
Therefore, either it must be affirmed that a pronunciamento of this
sort has no force, or, as is no less credible, that it was the desire
of the Pope to intercede in the quarrel between the Spaniards and the
Portuguese, and that he had no concomitant intention of violating the
rights of others.
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CAPVT VII
_Mare aut ius navigandi proprium non esse Lusitanorum titulo
praescriptionis aut consuetudinis_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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