Franciscus Serafim de Freitas (also Seraphim or Seraphinus; c. 1570 – 8 March 1633) was a Portuguese jurist and canon lawyer.
[1][2] He attended the Jesuit school Colégio de Santo Antão in Lisbon and the University of Coimbra, where he received a doctorate in canon law on 25 October 1595[3][4] or 1598.
[1][2] De Freitas taught at the University of Valladolid,[5] where he was the Vespers Professor of Canon Law.
[8] He wrote a book called De iusto imperio Lusitanorum asiatico, published in Valladolid in 1624.
[9] De iusto imperio defends the papal donation,[6] two sets of bulls by which Pope Nicholas V, in 1454, and Pope Alexander VI, in 1493, purported to give the Catholic monarchs of Portugal and Spain, respectively, the prerogative to explore the Americas.