Inigo Lopez was a Spanish lord who issued decrees signed by the authority “Gratia Dei”, or loosely, “by the Grace of God” as he sought to elevate his own standing to that of the king, Garcia Sanchez III of Navarre. Up until that time, it was uncontested that the king in a Christian monarchy was appointed by God, and then the monarch could appoint subordinates that acted pursuant to the authority by the king. Lopez’ logic was that, if a king were appointed by God and exercising authority that flowed from that, the power of the appointments must also be vested by God as well.

Lopez was a political genius in that he allied himself with the most powerful monks at Spanish monasteries and gave them a distribution of the taxes as a quid pro quo for their agreement that he was acting through a right that came to him … Read the rest of this article!