ABSTRACT
At the time of Nicholas IV's election in February 1288, for thirteen long years the king and kingdom of Portugal had been suffering the consequences of excommunication and interdict, as specified in 'De regno Portugalie', Gregory X's 'constitution, ordinance and provision' of September 1275. Nicholas IV's bull of foundation of the University of Lisbon affords a further example of the historical value of such diplomatic minutiae. At the request of King Dinis, and doubtless because the king had need of him at home, he was dispensed from making the 'ad limina' visit to the papal court. The king of Castile was outside his own fiscal loop while the independence enjoyed by his Jewish almoxarife at Seville demonstrated his own impotence and the futility of the legislation decreed at the cortes of Medina del Campo, not least the prohibition of the likes of D. Samuel from holding public office.
