Portuguese Inquisition
The
Portuguese Inquisition was established in
Portugal in
1536 at the request of the
King of Portugal,
João III.
Manuel I had asked for the installation of the
Inquisition in
1515, but the pope did not agree until after his death. It was a Portuguese analogue of the more famous
Spanish Inquisition.
As in Spain, the Inquisition was put under the authority of the King. It was headed by a
Grand Inquisitor, or General Inquisitor, named by the
Pope but selected by the king, and always from within the
royal family. The Grand Inquisitor would later nominate other inquisitors. In Portugal, the first Grand Inquisitor was
Cardinal Henry, who would later become King. There were Courts of the Inquisition in
Lisbon,
Coimbra and
ÉvoraIt held its first
auto da fé in Portugal in 1540. Like the Spanish Inquisition, it concentrated its efforts on rooting out converts from other faiths who did not adhere to the strictures of Catholic orthodoxy. The Portuguese Inquisition expanded its scope of operations from Portugal to Portugal's
colonial possessions, including
Brazil,
Cape Verde and
Goa, continued as a religious court, investigating and trying cases of breaches of the tenets of orthodox
Roman Catholicism until 1821. The activity of the courts was extended to book
censure,
divination,
witchcraft and
bigamy under João III. Book censure proved to have a strong influence in Portuguese
cultural evolution, keeping the country uninformed and culturally backward. Originally oriented for a religious action, the Inquisition had an influence in almost every aspect of Portuguese society: politically, culturally and socially.
In Portugal, the inquisitors
excommunicated King
João IV in 1656, after his death. The body of the dead king was pulled from his
coffin as it lay in the cathedral, undressed, and cast on the ground. After excommunicating the cadaver, the inquisitiors pronounced
absolution, had the body replaced in the coffin, and left.
The
Goa Inquisition was established in
Goa in 1560 by Aleixo Dias Falcão and Francisco Marques, who occupied the palace of the
Sabaio Adil Khan. The Inquisition changed the
demographics of Goa forever.
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The Inquisition in Goa
