Portuguese Inquisition Research Articles

Bento Teixeira, the Inquisition and Prosopopeia

The Portuguese Inquisition in sixteenth-century Brazil and the identity of Bento Teixeira, a New Christian poet. The Latin teacher who was familiar with Greco-Latin classics and biblical texts. The inquisitorial process of Bento Teixeira. Duarte Coelho and the founding of the captaincy of Pernambuco. Jorge de Albuquerque Coelho, hero of Prosopopeia, a Renaissance epic poem. The presence of Jewish values in Prosopopeia, the first published Brazilian poem. Imitatio according to Quintilian and classical epics. The annotated editions of Prosopopeia.

Negotiating converso identities in the inquisition courtroom

Abstract This paper explores the processes of identity construction and negotiation through face work in a Portuguese Inquisition record, corresponding to the trial for Judaism of Catarina de Orta. Concentrating as much on the inquisitor’s questions as on the answers offered by the defendant, I show here that impoliteness and self-politeness co-occur in interaction in the Portuguese Inquisition courtroom discourse. On the one hand, the inquisitor makes abundant use of impoliteness strategies with at least three main aims: to exert his power over the defendant, to trigger specific negative emotions, and to attack her face and her credibility. On the other hand, the defendant’s answers display numerous features of self-politeness, aimed at saving her face from the inquisitor’s attacks and accusations. It is precisely through the interplay of impoliteness and self-politeness that the two competing narratives proposed by the accuser and the defendant are constructed and re-elaborated during every interrogation.

Inter-sexual Mate Competition in Humans: A Historical Example from Seventeenth Century Portugal.

Inter-sexual mate competition occurs any time opposite-sex individuals simultaneously seek to acquire or maintain exclusive access to the same sexual partner. This underappreciated form of mate competition has been anecdotally documented in several avian and mammalian species, and systematically described among Japanese macaques and humans. Here, we extend the concept of inter-sexual mate competition by reassessing a remarkable series of Portuguese letters, penned in 1664 and later discovered and translated by Mott and Assunção (J Homosex 16:91-104, 1989). The letters comprise one side of a correspondence between two males, former lovers who were scrutinized by the Portuguese Inquisition. After ending the relationship, the recipient of the letters was betrothed to a woman, which provoked a jealous response from his jilted male lover and pleas to reunite. We argue that the letters portray a prolonged sequence of inter-sexual mate competition in which a male and female competitor vied for the same man. An established taxonomy of mate competition tactics was applied to the behavior of both competitors illustrating many parallels with contemporary examples of inter-sexual mate competition. Through this comparison, we show that modern mate competition taxonomies can be fruitfully applied to historical texts and that inter-sexual mate competition occurred hundreds of years before the present. Other examples of inter-sexual mate competition are likely to exist in the historical record, providing a rich source of scientific information if appropriate theoretical frameworks are employed. Indeed, any time individuals are attracted to sexual partners who behave in a bisexual manner, then inter-sexual mate competition can ensue with members of the other sex.

Inquisition and Purity of Blood in Portugal during the Seventeenth Century

The aim of this paper is to analyse the role played by the Portuguese Holy Office in the process of social discrimination against New Christians, that is, those who were considered to be descendant of Jews converted to Christianity in the late fifteenth century. This article focuses specifically on the different and changing attitudes of the Inquisitors General to the issue of purity of blood during the seventeenth century. In the course of that century, some people considered to be New Christians (with fama or nota) managed to join the Portuguese Holy Office. Nevertheless, this was not due to the fact that Inquisitors General and members of the General Council rejected discrimination using theoretical, religious and moral arguments, but to the impossibility of achieving undoubtful knowledge about the origins of those seeking to join the Inquisition. At the same time, once racial discrimination became institutionalised within the Inquisition during the final third of the sixteenth century, the Inquisitors General became less concerned about the allegations of impure blood made about some of its ministers, so long as it could be demonstrated that they were good Christians and of use to the institution, or else capable of contributing to the specific personal interests of the tribunal’s rector. Nevertheless, not all supposed or real conversos succeeded in joining the Holy Office, as evidenced by cases of self-exclusion and the numerous proofs of “purity of blood” that were not approved. To address these questions, we turn to the proofs of “purity of blood” carried out by the Portuguese Inquisition, as well as to correspondence and documents from other institutions of the Portuguese and Spanish monarchies.

INFLUÊNCIA INQUISICIONAL NO SISTEMA PENAL BRASILEIRO E NO INQUÉRITO DAS FAKE NEWS

The intervention of the Inquisition in world history brings to the collective imagination a certain anguish,even if undeserved, and also suggested in the national penal system. The present work analyzes the historical aspect of the procedural molds of the Inquisition and relates them to the Fake News Inquiry; examines, demonstrates and clarifies the different forms adopted by the ecclesiastical judicial organization created during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in the fight against heresy or to prevent its spread, in the Medieval Inquisition, in the Spanish Inquisition and in the Portuguese Inquisition from a procedural point of view and historical; seeks to make an exposition of the actuality of the Inquisition in the Brazilian penal system, with examples: the police investigation, the indictment of the author, the complaint; directly relating to the “Fake News” Inquiry and the “Daniel Silveira” case. To prepare this article, bibliographical, documentary, descriptive and qualitative research will be used, with studies of scholars and Constitutional matters being addressed. It became clear, therefore, that the Inquisition was nothing more than a procedural advance in world history. However, nowadays the “Fake News” Inquiry, which by the word should be a procedural step arising from the Inquisition, since its inception,violates the Constitution and goes so far as to extrapolate, in many respects, problems that not eventhe Inquisition had.

African Voices from the Inquisition, I: The Trial of Crispina Peres of Cacheu, Guinea-Bissau (1646–1648), ed. and tr. Toby Green, Philip J. Havik and F. Ribeiro da Silva

This book is a major contribution to our understanding of the voices of subalternised populations in history, and demonstrates the richness of the inquisitorial archives for knowing and understanding the lives of black men and women with African backgrounds, some of them enslaved, who usually did not leave many written accounts of their existence. It is clear that the words recorded in the trial of Crispina Peres were not the literal words spoken by the Africans involved in it, as is observed by the editors and translators of this volume, Toby Green, Philip J. Havik and F. Ribeiro da Silva; furthermore, the defendant did not speak Portuguese and her statements required a translator to explain to the Inquisition official the meaning of what she was saying. But it is still a testimony very close to the original, as was generally the case in Inquisition proceedings. The archives of the Portuguese Inquisition still have much potential and deserve to be further explored.

Litteras arena conspergere. Uncovering blotting sands on the Portuguese Inquisition documents

Historical and archival research focused on the Portuguese Inquisition documents (1551–1800) uncovered the use of arena known as blotting sands, a writing accessory used to hasten ink drying. We present in this work the first systematic study combining image analysis, SEM/EDS and µ-Raman techniques, statistics and chemometrics to characterise the blotting sands used by the Portuguese Inquisition and hypothesise their provenance. Iron-titanium and iron oxide minerals categorised as texturally mature sands are the dominant species, consistent with sediment extraction from fluvial or beach contexts and later processed. Chemometrics unveiled time period trends by clustering the samples according to morphology and composition data. This work constitutes a groundbreaking step towards uncovering this intricate writing tool.

Tears and Contrition in Early Modern Iberian Inquisitorial Trials (1560–1610): A Preliminary Study

Abstract The History of Emotions has been establishing itself as a field of historical research since the 1980s, but, to date, almost no attempt has been made to approach the study of the Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions through the history of emotions. Focusing on the period 1560–1610, which followed the conclusion of the Council of Trent, this essay endeavours to offer a preliminary analysis of Iberian inquisitorial trials for the history of emotions. The first section examines the case study offered by the trial of the Spanish soldier Bartolomé Domínguez, who was prosecuted in Portugal for committing sacrilege in 1589. Having lost all his money gambling, Bartolomé drew his sword and slashed at a wayside cross. This public act of sacrilege led to Bartolomé’s arrest and an investigation by the Inquisition. The surviving inquisitorial trial dossier provides an interesting insight into the role played by emotions in inquisitorial justice and social disciplining in the early modern Iberian Peninsula. The second section examines a limited sample of trials that have been edited and seeks to find references to tears and weeping in such sources. It discusses what such references reveal about the attitudes of inquisitors towards tears within the legal context of inquisitorial trials, and whether tears were always seen as evidence of genuine contrition. The third and final section focuses on investigating how the context of post-Tridentine spirituality might have played a role in the increased attention that the inquisitors paid to other physical signs of contrition beyond tears.

Toledot Yeshu as a framework of identity resistance

This essay focuses on extracts from Toledot Yeshu (Stories of Jesus) revealed in the trials of the Portuguese Inquisition from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Considering explicit and longer versions, as well as allusions that seem to point to the Jewish story of Jesus or other texts opposing Christianity, this paper aims to understand why they were used, and in what context, and explain their utilization across time. Additionally, it also seeks to highlight how extracts from Toledot Yeshu were used in speeches of identity defense that were part of the cultural heritage of Jews in the Iberian Peninsula on the eve of the general expulsions in the late fifteenth century.

A holistic approach to understanding the iron-gall inks in the historical documents of the Portuguese Inquisition (1570–1790)

A substantial part of our written heritage is threatened by the fact that much of it has been written using iron-gall ink (IGI). One such example is the documents of the Portuguese Inquisition Tribunals, held by the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo. Here we present the first systematic analytical approach, using SEM/EDS, µ-FT-IR-ATR and µ-Raman techniques, to characterise fragments from historical records of the Inquisition Tribunals of Évora, Lisboa and Coimbra from the 16th to 18th centuries. The writing ink was identified as IGI, providing complementary compositional data and establishing differences between various formulations of the ink. Additionally, the deleterious effects of the inks-associated degradation phenomena were highlighted. This work allowed understand the writing inks used by this Portuguese institution.

The Suspension of the Portuguese Inquisition, 1674 to 1681: The Female Perspective

Abstract Using trials and wills of women arrested in the Portuguese inquisitorial purges of New Christian families between 1672 and 1674, which gave rise to negotiations for a General Pardon and unprecedented suspension of the Inquisition, this article argues that there was a concerted strategy of female education amongst New Christian families, teaching literacy and business savvy to girls. This was not as a tool of empowerment or self-determination against a paternalistic society, but a necessity for the family to function under the scrutiny of neighbors and threat of inquisitorial persecution. Literacy was both a political strategy, a tool that could be used to undermine and evade the inquisition’s codes of secrecy, and a way to ensure the family and its vitally important business networks survived in the diaspora. Exploring the idea that reading and writing can be political acts, I will examine here what literacy meant for the practicality of lives lived in the shadow of the inquisition and diaspora.

The Mandinga Experience: Illusion and Proof in the Inquisition Case of Patrício de Andrade, 1690

Abstract: In 1690, Capeverdean freedman and servant Patrício de Andrade was sentenced to exile by the Portuguese Inquisition for putting on performances of bodily invulnerability so convincing that no one could believe he had not made a pact with the devil. These performances, which he called experiências (from experientia meaning both experience and experiment), had a purpose: to demonstrate the protective powers of the amulets he made and sold, later known as bolsas de mandinga . But Patrício, as he sought to prove to the inquisitors, was an illusionist and swindler, whose experiences relied not on diabolical assistance, but on his own dexterity, artifice , and pretense . This article reconstructs and analyzes these performances inside and outside the space of the inquisition tribunal, showing how mandingueiros like Patrício both dramatized and promised a solution to pervasive fears around violence and bodily insecurity in Lisbon and across the empire, and mastered a vocabulary of experiential proof that, before the law, put considerable pressure on existing regimes of verification.

Identity Dilemmas: Nation, Religion and Race Among the Portuguese Jews from Holland to Colonial Brazil

This article discusses the identity dilemmas of the Sephardic community settled first in Amsterdam, after in the Colonial Brazil during the 17th century. It reviews the the classical historians dedicated to research on the Sephardic Diaspora in Early Modern History, like Arnold Wiznitzer, Daniel Swetschinsky, Jonathan Israel, Mirian Bodian and, mainly Yosef Kaplan, who proposed the concept of new to designate the New Christians who returned to their ancestors Judaism in Amsterdam and Brazil. It is based on sources from the Kahal Kadosh Zur Israel, the Jewish congregation founded in the city of Recife under the Dutch rule during the 1630s, particularly the records and also the regulation of 1648. It analyses, mainly, several Holy office's charges against Jews who, during the Dutch rule in Brazil, converted themselves to Judaism, comiting the crime of apostasy from Catholicism. Many of them tried to scape from Pernambuco after the Dutch defeat, in 1654, but were catched by the Portuguese Inquisition during the 1650's and the 1660's. The focus of the discussion lies on the relationship between the concept of Men of the Nation (Gente da Nacao in Portuguese) and religious and race identities adopted by this diasporic community. A community persecuted in for religious and racial reasons in the Iberian world, but that also owned his proper prejudices against some minorities, like the mulattos and the Ashkenazi Jews, whether in Holland, whether in Colonial Brazil.

Putting the Indices into practice: censoring science in early modern Portugal

ABSTRACTDuring the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Inquisition was the institution most invested in the censorship of printed books in the Portuguese empire. Besides publishing the Indices of Forbidden Books, the Holy Office was also responsible for overseeing their implementation and ensuring their efficacy in preventing the importation, reading, and circulation of banned books. Overall, the sixteenth-century Indices condemned 785 authors and 1081 titles, including 52 authors and 85 titles of medicine, natural history, natural philosophy, astronomy, chronology, cosmography, astrology, and divinatory arts. By looking at the largest collection of early modern scientific books in Portugal, I will argue that a closer inspection of marginalia and ownership, and the establishment of a typology of expurgations is essential for the comprehension of the actual practices and the mechanisms of censorship. By examining the material evidence of censorship, in order to reconstruct expurgation practices, this paper reveals the processes and effectiveness of ecclesiastical control in the Portuguese Inquisition and highlights the differences between what inquisitors wrote in the Indices and what others put into practice.

From Inquisition to E-Inquisition: A Survey of Online Sources on the Portuguese Inquisition

The Portuguese Inquisition in the colonies of the Empire remains understudied due to a lack of primary source materials that are available the researchers and educators. The advances in digital technologies and the current drive to foster Open Access have allowed us to understand better the relations among the complex set of circumstances as well as the mechanisms that, in their totality, represent the Portuguese Inquisition. The present paper seeks to answer questions that vary from describing these resources to identifying the institutions that created them. Digitized resources serve as a surrogate of the originals, and we can leverage the access to these electronic surrogates and enhance our understanding of the mechanisms of inquisition through E-Inquisitional objects in pedagogy and research.

Quando foi criada a Inquisição de Lisboa? – explorando hipóteses

Afirmam as memórias setecentistas que “a Inquisição de Lixboa foi erecta pelo Serenissimo Cardeal Infante D. Henrique em julho de 1539”. Sem se ignorar uma anterior atividade inquisitorial naquela cidade, documentada desde meados de 1537, muitos estudos acabam por reiterar tal afirmação sem, no entanto, questioná-la. Este estudo propõe-se, finalmente, a fazê-lo! Através de uma leitura integral e extensiva dos documentos produzidos durante os primeiros anos de vida do tribunal, procurarse- ão indícios que permitam formular teses sobre a data de criação deste tribunal, mostrando, em última análise, como estas se antagonizam e que fragilidades residem na sua fundamentação. Procurar-se-á ainda, numa perspetiva comparada, saber como esta questão foi colocada pelos estudos que se debruçaram sobre os restantes tribunais inquisitoriais portugueses e sobre os seus congéneres espanhóis.

NUMERACY OF RELIGIOUS MINORITIES IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL DURING THE INQUISITION ERA

ABSTRACTWe assess the numeracy (age heaping) of religious minorities, particularly Jews, and other defendants of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions, and compare it with the general Iberian population. Our database includes 13,000 individuals who took part in Inquisition trials, and 17,000 individuals recorded in censuses and parish registers who serve as a control group. We thoroughly discuss the representativeness of our samples for the populations we aim to capture. Our results point at a substantial numeracy advantage of the Judaism-accused over the Catholic majority. Furthermore, Catholic priests and other groups of the religious elite who were occasional targets of the Inquisition had a similarly high level of numeracy.

Philip De la Cour (1710–1785), a Jewish Physician in eighteenth-century London and Bath

Portugal exiled its Jews in 1497. In 1536, the Portuguese Inquisition began to persecute Jews who continued to practice their religion in secret. It became difficult for the secret Jews to leave Portugal, but small communities of emigres grew up around Europe, especially in London, Amsterdam and Salonica (Thessaloniki), and beyond. As the Portuguese Inquisition became more active in the early decades of the eighteenth-century, Jews, who had been accustomed to practising their religion in secret, while outwardly conforming to Catholicism, were again sought out for persecution. Philip De la Cour's parents escaped from Portugal and arrived in London around 1707 and his eventful life in London and Bath illustrates many of the aspects of eighteenth-century Jewish medical life.

‘All men have been considered equal by me’: The attitude of Amatus Lusitanus towards treating gentiles according to his Physician’s Oath

The ancient Jewish law took a strict approach to medical relationships between Jews and non-Jews. The current study deals with the attitude of Amatus Lusitanus (1511–1568), a notable Portuguese Jewish physician towards treating gentiles. The Physician’s Oath of Lusitanus emphasises that as a doctor he treated people from varied faiths and socio-economic status. Lusitanus treated many non-Jews. For instance, he received an invitation from the municipality of Ragusa to serve as the town physician and he accepted this mission. In Anconare, he was called upon to treat Jacoba del Monte, sister of Pope Julius III, and he also prescribed for Julius himself. Amatus Lusitanus was forced to leave his country because of the Portuguese inquisition and wandered in many countries. Despite the hostile religious attitude of his close surroundings, he did not retaliate against his patients and provided medical treatment indiscriminately.

Aspectos da religiosidade popular na cultura marítima no Atlântico, séculos XVI ao XIX

O mundo do trabalho marítimo entre os séculos XVI e XIX foi marcado pela circulação espacial de grande número de pessoas. O longo afastamento da comunidade de origem e das instituições ali existentes teve implicações na construção de uma cultura marítima no Atlântico. Aqui serão analisados aspectos relacionados à religiosidade expressada a bordo e no âmbito das viagens de longo curso, onde destacaremos aspectos como, as cerimônias a bordo, a questão da devoção mariana e aos santos católicos e, um breve estudo de desvios e heterodoxias de marinheiros processados pelo Santo Ofício português.