In the Name of the Inquisition: The Portuguese Inquisition and Delegated Authority in Colonial Pernambuco, Brazil

When the Portuguese Inquisition officially began in the year 1536, Brazil inhabited only the extreme margins of the Portuguese Empire and elicited little concern from the Inquisitors in Lisbon.¹ Royal authority only became permanently established in 1549 in the person of Tomé de Sousa as governor-general of Brazil. The establishment of ecclesiastical authority over Brazil occurred about the same time through the padroado real, or royal patronage. The Order of Christ (whose grand master was the king himself) and the Mesa da Consciência e Ordens administered the royal patronage in the colony. The Church in Brazil remained directly subordinate to the archbishopric of Funchal on Madeira until the first diocese was established in Bahia in 1551. Pernambuco did not become a diocese until 1676 when Bahia became an archbishopric. Throughout the entire colonial period Bahia remained the only archbishopric in Brazil, although six bishoprics were eventually established. For Pernambuco, this meant that until 1676 the highest local ecclesiastical officials were the vicars general, the rectors of the Jesuit College, and the priors of the Benedictine, Franciscan, and Carmelite convents.

The effective settlement and growing economic importance of the colonies, principally in Pernambuco with the production of sugar, required the expansion of the Inquisition overseas. To that end, in 1551, the Tribunal of Lisbon gained jurisdiction over Brazil, the Atlantic islands, and Africa. In Portugal tribunals existed in Évora and Coimbra and one was also created in Portuguese India in Goa.² These tribunals came to be administered by inquisitors who relied upon an army of lesser officials. The inquisitor general assumed the centralizing role of president of the general council that oversaw the activities of all the other tribunals. In questions of policy and procedure, the inquisitor general and the general council reigned supreme, unless the pope or the king ruled differently.

To fulfill its responsibilities to police the religious and moral orthodoxy of the colonial population, the Inquisition initially chose to rely on infrequent temporary tribunals that visited Brazil only occasionally and on the existing political and religious establishment. All civil and religious authorities were legally bound to obey the orders of inquisitional officials, and to honor the privileges the crown had granted them. This permitted the Inquisition to rely on civil and ecclesiastical authorities to support its various activities. For example, the Inquisition used secular authorities during the famous autos-de-fé (acts of faith). These autos-de-fé served as public demonstrations of inquisitional power where the convicted were formally punished and reconciled with the Church. Those whom the Inquisition sentenced to death were "relaxed" (i.e., delivered) to the secular authorities, who carried out the punishment. The secular authorities either garroted those who preferred to meet the flames as Christians and "confessed" their sins or set the torch to those who refused all reconciliation and defiantly met the scorching flames alive.

This reliance on secular and ecclesiastical authority went beyond support at the autos-de-fé and extended into almost every aspect of the Inquisition's activity. The collaborative system developed between the Inquisition and other government and religious institutions can best be seen in areas where the Inquisition had few officials and where it took some time to develop a network of resident officials—such as the Captaincy-General of Pernambuco, Brazil. This Captaincy-General eventually included the sub-ordinate captaincies of Alagoas, Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte, and Ceará (see Figure 1). The Captaincy-General of Pernambuco is well suited to a study of the Inquisition's use of non-inquisitional personnel and institutions because it did not develop an effective network of officials until after 1690. It also had to rely on non-inquisitional authorities throughout the entire eighteenth century in the vast Pernambucan interior, far from the bustling urban centers. In addition, Pernambuco possessed one...