Here is the full text of the oath so that any priest or other member of the clergy can take a crack at updating this for our times.
King John IV, by the grace of God, King of Portugal, and the Algarves, before and beyond the sea in Africa, Lord of Guinea and of Conquest, Navigation, and Commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and India, etc, doth hereby make known this mine provision, seeing by the most particular aid of the Lord Our God restituted to the Crown these my Kingdoms and fiefdoms of Portugal, considering that the Lord King D. Afonso Henriques, my progenitor and first King of this Kingdom, being acclaimed and raised King, in recognition of Her great aid, and with the consent of his Vassals, took as a special advocate the Virgin Mother of God, Our Lady and under Her sacred protection and patronage offered to Her all his successors, Kingdoms and Vassals, with particular tribute in sign of vassalage. Wishing I to imitate his Holy Zeal and the singular piety of the Lords Kings my predecessors, recognising in my person the great and continued aid of the most powerful Mother of God Our Lord, by intercession of the Virgin Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception; being we here then convened in Estates-General, with all three Estates of the Realm, did I propose the obligation we had of renewing and continuing this promise and venerating with most particular affection and solemnity the feast of Her Immaculate Conception. And in these Estates convened, with the consent of all, do we hereby take as Patroness of our Realms and Fiefdoms, the most Holy Virgin Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, in the form of the documents by the Holy Father Urban VIII, obliging me to seek the confirmation of the Holy & Apostolic See, and therefore offer again in my name and of the Prince Theodosius, my above all beloved son and all my descendants, Kingdoms, Fiefdoms and Vassals, to the Holy House of the Conception, situated at Vila Viçosa, for having been the first in all of Iberia of this particular devotion, 50 gold coins each year in Tribute and Vassalage. Likewise do We Promise and Swear, with the Prince and Estates, to confess and always defend (even with our lives if necessary) that the Virgin Mary Mother of God was conceived without original sin, having in respect that the Roman Church our holy mother, to whom we are bound in obedience and to follow, celebrates with particular office and feasts the Most Holy & Immaculate Conception, with no prejudice however that should Holy Mother Church deem to the contrary, this oath will be null; we hope with great confidence in the infinite mercy of the Lord Our God, that by means of this our Lady Patroness and Protectress of Our Kingdoms and Fiefdoms, of whom, to our honour, we confess ourselves vassals and tributaries, may She be our refuge and protection against our enemies, to the prosperity of these Realms, for the greater glory of Christ Our Lord, the exaltation of our Holy Catholic Roman Faith, the conversion of Gentiles and the destruction of heretics. And should any person intend or operate against this our promise, Oath and Vassalage, by this same effect, being our vassal, we remove his rights to being a natural person of these Realms and exile him from this Kingdom. And if that person be among our descendants, which may God not allow, let him no longer be counted among our descendants; hoping that by the same Lord God who gave us this Kingdom and raised us to the Royal dignity, may such a descendant by from that dignity struck down and deprived. And that for all time there be certainty of this our oath and promise established in the Estates-General, we order that three public Acts of it be kept, one sent to the Court of Rome for confirmation by the Holy Apostolic See, another to be kept at the House of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception of Vila Viçosa, and the other one at the Tower of the Fall. Given in this our city of Lisbon, on the 25th March, on the year of the nativity of Our Lord 1646. The King.
© 2021, Anthony Stine. All rights reserved. You may reuse or copy this post by giving credit and providing a link.
Do any Christian monarchs of confessing states obtain anymore? Not that I am aware, but I’m no specialist. Certainly Lizzie O’London wouldn’t count… However, what we do in our own household each day is to observe a “douzaine” in honor of this mystery. our Lady’s first privilege, according to the style of the Scriptural Rosary, with six OT & six NT quotes echoed with an Ave. (It begins with the Apostles’ Creed & Pater & is concluded with a Gloria Patri, the Tract from Her Mass in Septuagesima & the Collect from the Solemnity.) Spanning the whole of Sacred Scripture, the quotes also afford homeschoolers, if not others besides, a way of considering the major divisions of the books of both Testaments. At our pace, it takes about 12 min., and as the closing quote is the familiar tandem by which Apoc 11 closes & Apoc 12 opens, Guadalupe’s portrait makes a wonderful sacramental before which to render this dulia. If you’d like a printable booklet of this (3 sheet printed on two sides, folded and nested), I’d be quite happy to forward you my .odt file of it. Just send me a functional email address.