¹ Alexandre Herculano has written the definitive account to date of the long process by which the Inquisition established itself in Portugal. See História da Origem e estabelecimento da inquisição em Portugal, vol. 1–3 (Lisbon: Editora Livraria Bertrand, 1975). Other accounts can be found in de Azevedo, J. Lúcio História dos Cristãos-Novos Portugueses, 3d ed. (Lisbon: Clássica Editora, 1989)Google Scholar; Inquisição e Cristãos-Novos; Siqueira, Sonia “O momento de inquisição (I),” Revista de História 42, no. 85 (January-March, 1971), pp. 49–73 CrossRefGoogle Scholar and idem, “O momento de inquisição (II),” Revista de História 43, no. 87 (July-Sept. 1971), pp. 43–85.

² Sonia Siqueira notes that some officials came to Brazil with cartas already in hand from the Tribunals of Évora or Coimbra. That is true, but her assertion that this somehow indicates that the Tribunal of Lisbon did not retain absolute jurisdiction over Brazil is unfounded. When the officials were in Brazil, they were under Lisbon's jurisdiction and could not legitimately engage in inquisitional activity without Lisbon's consent. See Siqueira, Sonia A. A Inquisição portuguesa e a sociedade colonial (São Paulo: Editora Ática, 1978), p. 141.Google Scholar

³ For works that describe the inquisitional techniques used to control and repress heretical beliefs and behaviors, see Novinsky, Anita A Inquisição (São Paulo: Brasiliense, 1982)Google Scholar; Saraiva, António José Inquisição e Cristãos-Novos, 6th edition (Lisbon: Editora Estampa, 1994)Google Scholar; Bethencourt, Francisco História das Inquisições: Portugal, Espanha, e Itália (Lisbon: Temas e Debates, 1996)Google Scholar; and collections of studies on the Inquisition, such as Novinsky, Anita and Tucci Carneiro, M. Luiza eds., Inquisição: Ensaios sobre mentalidade, heresias e arte (Rio de Janeiro: Expressão e Cultura, 1992)Google Scholar; and dos Santos, Maria Helena Carvalh ed., Inquisição, 3 vols. (Lisbon: Universitária Editora, 1989).Google Scholar

⁴ For some of the best studies using inquisitional records, see Vainfas, Ronaldo A Heresia dos índios: Catolicismo e rebeldia no Brasil colonial (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1995)Google Scholar; idem, Trópico dos pecados: Moral, sexualidade e Inquisição no Brasil (Rio de Janeiro: Campus, 1989); de Mello, Laura e Souza, , O diabo e a terra de Santa Cruz: Feitiçaria e religiosidade popular no Brasil colonial, 2d ed. (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1994)Google Scholar; idem, Inferno atlântico: Demonologia e colonização séculos XVI–XVIII (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1993); Novinsky, Anita Cristãos novos na Bahia: A Inquisição, 2d ed. (São Paulo: Editora Perspectiva, 1992)Google Scholar; de Mello, José Antônio Gonsalves Gente da nação. Cristãos novos e judeus em Pernambuco, 1542–1654 (Recife: Editora Massangana, 1989)Google Scholar; Mott, Luiz Homosexuals da Bahia: Dicionário Biográfico (Séculos XVI–XIX) (Salvador: Editora Grupo Gay da Bahia, 1999).Google Scholar

⁵ A handful of studies of the officials in the Portuguese Empire have appeared. See Novinsky, Anita “A Igreja no Brasil colonial. Agentes da Inquisição,” Anais do Museu Paulista 33 (1984), pp. 17–34 Google Scholar; Mott, Luiz Inquisição em Sergipe (Aracajú: Editora Fundese, 1989)Google Scholar; idem, “Um nome … em nome do Santo Ofício: O Cônego João Calmon, comissário da Inquisição na Bahia setecentista,” Universitas, Cultura, 37 (July-September, 1986), pp. 15–31; Higgs, David “Á recepção da revolução francesa em Portugal e no Brasil,” Actas do Colóquio 2 a 9 Novembre de 1989 (Porto: Universidade do Porto, 1992), pp. 227–246 Google Scholar; idem, “Comissários e familiares da Inquisição no Brasil ao fim do período colonial,” in Inquisição: Ensaios sobre mentalidade, heresias e arte, eds. Novinsky, Anita and Tucci Carneiro, M. Luiza (Rio de Janeiro: Expressão e Cultura, 1992), pp. 374–388 Google Scholar; Torres, José Veiga “Da repressão religiosa para a promoção social: A Inquisição como instâneia legitimadora da promoção social da burguesía mercantil,” Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais 4 (October, 1994), pp. 109–135 Google Scholar; Calainho, Daniela “Em nome do Santo Ofício: Familiares da Inquisição portuguesa no Brasil colonial” (MA Thesis, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 1992)Google Scholar; Wadsworth, James E. “Joaquim Marques de Araújo: O poder da Inquisição em Pernambuco no fim do período colonial,” in De Cabral a Pedro I: Aspectos da colonização portugesa no Brasil, ed. da Silva, Maria Beatriz Nizza (Porto: Humbertipo, 2001), pp. 309–320 Google Scholar; and idem, “Agents of Orthodoxy: Inquisitional Power and Prestige in Colonial Pernambuco, Brazil” (Ph.D. Dissertation: University of Arizona, 2002). By contrast, the officials of the Spanish Inquisition have received far more attention. See, for example, Lea, Henry Charles A History of the Inquisition of Spain, 4 vols. (London: MacMillan Company, 1922), 2: pp. 263–284 Google Scholar; Contreras, , El Santo Oficio, pp. 67–178 Google Scholar (probably the best study on the topic available); Haliczer, , Inquisition and Society, pp. 151–208 Google Scholar; Mier, E. El conflicto del poder y el poder delconflicto. El familiar de la Inquisición, Toribio Sánchez de Quijano de Cortés (Santander, 1992)Google Scholar; Pasamar Lázaro, José Enrique Los familiares del Santo Oficio en el distrito inquisitorial de Aragón (Zaragoza: Ebro Composición, 1999)Google Scholar; and Cruz, Gonzalo Cerrillo Los familiares de la Inquisición española, Valldolid: Junta de Castilla y León (Consejería de Educación y Cultura, 2000).Google Scholar

⁶ Sonia A. Siqueira recently published transcriptions of all of the regimentos except that of 1570. For ease of reference, I have cited her publication when referring to the regimentos. See Siqueira, Sonia A. “Os Regimentos da Inquisição,” Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro 157, no. 392 (July-Sept. 1996), pp. 495–1020.Google Scholar

⁷ For ease of reference and for those who wish to refer to the regimentos themselves, I have included the book, title, and paragraph of the information cited first and Siqueira's publication second. 1613 Regimento, Book I, Title I, Paragraph II. See Siqueira, , “Os Regimentos da Inquisição,” pp. 615–616 Google Scholar; 1640 Regimento, Book I, Title I, Paragraph 1. See Siqueira, , “Os Regimentos da Inquisição,” pp. 694 Google Scholar; 1774 Regimento, Book I, Title I, Paragraph 1. See Siqueira, , “Os Regimentos da Inquisição,” pp. 885–886.Google Scholar

⁸ Sonia Siqueira mistakenly asserts that several familiares were resident in Bahia and Pernambuco before the 1613 Regimento. She cites Fr.de Santa Maria Jaboatão, Antônio Catálogo genealogico das principais familias … em Pernambuco … e … na Bahia (1768).Google Scholar Reprint, RIHGB 3, no. 1 (1889), pp. 5–489 for Antônio Coelho Pinheiro, 1611, and Francisco Sotil de Siqueira, 1602. But it is unclear where she got the dates. A thorough and careful search of the habilitações did not turn up anything on either of these men. Jaboatão may have been right that they were familiares, but it is impossible to verify his information with the records of the Inquisition. Diogo de Verçosa, whom she lists as a familiar in 1611, applied but never received an appointment. Francisco de Oliveira from Recife was denied because of New Christian ancestry. She lists Lourenço Gomes Ferraz from Recife as receiving a carta in 1612, but it was actually 1690. She makes a similar error with Father Joaquim José de Melo Cavalcanti. She lists him as approved in 1607 when it was actually 1807. The only other official to appear on her list before 1613 is Manuel Gonçalves de Cerqueira from Pernambuco. I could not find anything on him in the indexes or in the documentation of the Inquisition. Several of the other dates and references she gives are likewise faulty. In fact, only two of the men in her list of eighteen familiares actually lived in Brazil, and they were not appointed until the early 1620s. Some were pilots or merchants who visited Brazil, but these can hardly be construed as resident officials. Siqueira, , A Inquisição portuguesa, pp. 178–181.Google Scholar

⁹ Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo (ANTT), Habilitação do Santo Oficio (HSO), Francisco, maço (m.) 2, number (no.) 48.

¹⁰ ANTT, HSO, João, m. 4, no. 153.

¹¹ ANTT, HSO, Miguel, m. 2, no. 36.

¹² See ANTT, HSO, Nicolau, m. 5, no. 80; Antônio, m. 31, no. 812; ANTT, Habilitações Incompletas (HI), m. 30, doc. 1; ANTT, HSO, Leandro, m. 1, no. 5.

¹³ Pereira, Isaías Rosa A Inquisição em Portugal: Séculos XVI–XVII–Período Filipino (Lisbon: Vega, 1993), pp. 121–122.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Baião, Antonio “Tentativa de estabelecimento duma Inquisição privativa no Brasil,” Brotéria 22 (1936): pp. 480–481.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Higgs, David “Sacred and Secular Law in Late Colonial Brazil” (Paper delivered at the Latin American Studies Association, Chicago, 1998), pp. 1–6.Google Scholar

¹⁶ See ANTT, Conselho Geral do Santo Ofício (CGSO), m. 19, no. 76; CGSO, m. 6, no. 27; CGSO, m. 7, no. 34; CGSO, m. 4, no. 28; CGSO, m. 40, no. 40; Iquisição de Lisboa (IL), Número de Transferência (NT) 2125, 2146, 3135; IL, m. 33 & 54. The officials sometimes requested more edicts to replace old ones that were falling to pieces. See ANTT, IL, m. 4, no. 3.

¹⁷ ANTT, IL, Livro 20, fol., 246v–249.

¹⁸ The edict for Goa dealt with the problems of syncretism with Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and other religions. For Angola, the edict included direct references to the various practices and ceremonies of African culture and religion. See,. Higgs, , “Sacred and Secular Law,” p. 2.Google Scholar The edict for Angola can be found in ANTT, IL, m. 52.

¹⁹ ANTT, CGSO, m. 30, no. 2.

²⁰ 1640 Regimento, Book I, Title XXI, Paragraphs 2 and 4. See Siqueira, , “Os Regimentos da Inquisição,” pp. 758–759.Google Scholar

²¹ “Instrução que hão guardar os Comissários do Santo Officio da Inquisição nas cousas, e negocios da fee, e no demais que se offerecerem.” See ANTT, CGSO, m. 12, no. 28.

²² Anita Novinsky asserts that familiares were spies for the Inquisition and acted somewhat like the Nazi Gestapo. See Novinsky, , “A Inquisição,” 4 Google Scholar; idem, “A Igreja no Brasil colonial,” p. 19. The only evidence I have seen that familiares acted as spies was in the inquisitional prison in Lisbon, where they did spy on prisoners in their cells to see if they continued their heretical behavior in prison. Henry Kamen also argues that the familiares in Spain never acted as spies. See Kamen, , The Spanish Inquisition, p. 145.Google Scholar

²³ ANTT, CGSO, m. 12, no. 28.

²⁴ Sonia Siqueira identifies 136 comissános in all of Brazil: 36 in Pernambuco. She identifies 72 notários in Brazil (43 in Pernambuco) and 33 qualificadores (9 in Pernambuco). Her tabulations are extremely low for Pernambuco and probably elsewhere. She does not inform us exactly how she obtained her numbers, so we cannot check them. But as I went through the habilitações, I collected information for the rest of Brazil. For comissários, I found at least 184 in Brazil (Rio de Janeiro had at least 39, Bahia 38, Minas Gerais 10, Grão Pará 9, Maranhão 8, São Paulo 7, Mariana 3, Espírito Santo 2, Matto Grosso 1, and Goiás 1, Pernambuco 66). For notários I found at least 89 in Brazil (Pernambuco 58, Bahia 13, Rio de Janeiro 10, Minas Gerais 3, Maranhão 2, Mariana 2, Grão Pará 1). For qualificadores I found at least 39 in Brazil (Pernambuco 13, Bahia 15, Rio de Janeiro 8, Maranhão 2, and Sergipe 1). These numbers are probably still low because a good thorough search has yet to be made. I quit taking down information on the rest of Brazil because time would not permit the luxury. For Siqueira's numbers, see A Inquisição portuguesa, pp. 163,168,181.

²⁵ Gonsalves, José Antônio e Mello, , “Um Tribunal da Inquisição em Olinda, Pernambuco (1594–1595)” Revista da Universidade de Coimbra 36 (Sept., 1991), pp. 369–374.Google Scholar

²⁶ The Inquisition also contemplated sending a visita to Paraíba in 1619 with Antônio Teixeira Cabral, as inquisitor, but it is not known whether Cabrai actually held a tribunal in Paraíba. See ANTT, CGSO, NT, 4149.

²⁷ For the proceedings of these visitas, see Primeira Visitação do Santo Ofício às partes do Brasil. Confissões da Bahia, 1591–1592, with a preface by de Abreu, João Capistrano (Rio de Janeiro: F. Briguet, 1935)Google Scholar; Primeira Visitação do Santo Ofício às partes do Brasil. Denunciações da Bahia, 1591–1593, with an introduction by de Abreu, João Capistrano (São Paulo: Paulo Prado, 1925)Google Scholar; Primeira Visitação do Santo Oficio às partes do Brasil. Denunciações de Pernambuco 1593–1595, with an introduction by Garcia, Rodolfo (São Paulo: Paulo Prado, 1929)Google Scholar; de Mello, José Antônio Gonçalves ed., Primeira Visitação do Santo Ofício às partes do Brasil. Confissões de Pernambuco, 1594–1595 (Recife: Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, 1970)Google Scholar; “Livros das Denunciações que se fizeram na Visitação do Santo Ofício à Cidade de Salvador da Bahia de Todos os Santos do Estado do Brasil, no ano de 1618,” vol. 49, Anais da Biblioteca Nacional do Rio de Janeiro (Rio: 1927), pp. 100–392; “Segunda visitação do Santo Ofício às partes do Brasil. Livro das Confissões e Ratificações da Bahia—1618–1620,” with an introduction by França, Eduardo d'Oliveira e Siqueira, Sônia vol. 17, Anais do Museu Paulista (São Paulo: n.d)Google Scholar; and Livro da Visitação do Santo Oficio da Inquisição ao Estado do Grão-Pará (1763–1769), with a preface by Amarai Lapa, José R. (Petrópolis: Vozes, 1978).Google Scholar

²⁸ Luciano Raposo de Almeida Figuereido argues that Episcopal visitas generally failed to impose orthodox morality on the people in Barrocas Famílias: Vida familiar em Minas Gérais no século XVII (São Paulo: Editora Hucitec, 1977).

²⁹ This practice has led to a certain amount of confusion among scholars unfamiliar with the system who have assumed that when an inquiry stated that a certain individual was a juiz comissário that he was necessarily an official of the Inquisition. One example of this type of confusion can be found in Lustosa, Fernanda Mayer “Raízes judaicas na Paraíba colonial: Séculos XVI–XVIII” (Master's Thesis, University of São Paulo, 2000), p. 85.Google Scholar

³⁰ During the inquisitional visits to Brazil, Jesuits often served as deputies and assessors. See Leite, Serafini S.I., História da Companhia de Jesus no Brasil, 2 (Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira, 1938), pp. 388–389.Google Scholar

³¹ In 1559, the Inquisition requested the assistance of the bishop of Bahia D. Pedro Leitão with some processos in Brazil, but he was still in Lisbon and could not help. See Baião, , “Tentativa,” p. 477.Google Scholar

³² Baião, António A Inquisição em Portugal e no Brasil: Subsidios para a sua história: A Inquisição no século XVI (Lisbon: Arquivo Histórico Portuguese, 1920), Documentos, p. 70.Google Scholar

³³ de Almeida, Fortunato História da Igreja em Portugal, 2 (Porto: Livraria Civilização, 1971), pp. 421–422.Google Scholar

³⁴ ANTT, IL, Livro 191, folio (fol.) 853.

³⁵ 1774 Regimento, Book I, Title I, Paragraph 13. See Siqueira, , “Os Regimentos da Inquisição,” p. 890.Google Scholar

³⁶ ANTT, IL, Livro 18, fol. 254.

³⁷ ANTT, IL, Livro 19, fol. 171v.

³⁸ ANTT, IL, Livro 23, fol. 325.

³⁹ ANTT, IL, Livro 19, fols. 244v–245.

⁴⁰ ANTT, IL, Livro 817, fol. 121; IL, NT 2125.

⁴¹ ANTT, IL, Livro 151, fols. 369–370.

⁴² ANTT, IL, Livro 23, fol. 134v.

⁴³ ANTT, HSO, Antônio, m. 213, no. 3164.

⁴⁴ ANTT, IL, Livro 216, fols. 45–48. Anita Novinsky has shown that many of those prosecuted by the Inquisition in the sixteenth century were accused of crypto-Judaism. She argued that Brazil appealed to New Christians precisely because they were relatively free from persecution in Brazil and even when they were punished by the Inquisition, they often found that they could continue to function in Brazilian society without any more than the usual constraints. See Novinsky, Anita Cristãos-Novos na Bahia: A Inquisição, 2d ed. (São Paulo: Editora Perspectiva, 1992).Google Scholar José Antônio Gonsalves de Mello argues that the New Christians came to Brazil to take advantage of the growing sugar industry, to escape the constant attention of the Inquisition in Portugal, and to gain some degree of religious liberty. See de Mello, Gonsalves Gente da Nação, p. 7.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Lina Gorenstein Ferreira da Silva has studied the New Christians of Rio, including this group in Herético e impuros: A Inquisição e os cristãos-novos no Rio de Janeiro século XVIII (Rio de Janeiro: Secretaria Municipal de Cultura, Departamento Gerai de Documentação e Informação Cultural, Divisão de Editoração, 1995).

⁴⁶ This wave of inquisitional activity in Paraíba began with the denunciation of two New Christians against members of their own families, probably motivated by revenge. A brief study of this episode appears in Lustosa, , “Raízes judaicas na Paraíba colonial,” pp. 84–109.Google Scholar Bruno Feitler has studied this episode in detail. See Feitler, Bruno Inquisition, Juifs et Nouveaux-Chrétiens au Brésil: le Nordeste XVIIe et XVIIIe Siecles (Louvain: Leuven University Press, 2003).Google Scholar

⁴⁷ In looking at the confessions presented in the two inquisitional investigations at the end of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth, Patricia Aufderheide noted that it was typically “a white, Portuguese-born man of middle age and middle income who appeared before the Tribunal. Few women appeared …” See Aufderheide, Patricia “True Confessions: The Inquisition and Social Attitudes in Brazil at the Turn of the XVII Century,” in Luso-Brazilian Review 20, no. 2 (Dec. 1973), 212.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Bethencourt states that Robert Rowland claims that only 500 cases from Brazil came before the Lisbon Tribunal. This number is very low. See Bethencourt, , As Inquisições, 129.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Novinsky, Anita Rol dos Culpados: Fontes para a história do Brasil, século XVIII (Rio de Janeiro: Expressão e Cultura, 1992).Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Novinsky, Anita Inquisição: Prisioneiros do Brasil, Séculos XVI–XIX (Rio de Janeiro: Expressao e Cultura, 2002).Google Scholar

⁵¹ Mott, Homossexuis da Bahia.

⁵² Part of the difficulty stems from our inability to know with any confidence the number and nature of denunciations made in colonial Pernambuco, or anywhere else. At the time, there simply was no way to guarantee that either the officials or the priests who received denunciations would pass them on. Likewise, we cannot know how many of the denunciations actually reached Lisbon and, once there, whether they ever went further than the promotor (prosecutor) or were even preserved by him. After 1808, the system was disrupted for a time because of the Napoleonic wars with a resulting decline in the reporting of denunciations from Pernambuco to Lisbon (see ANTT, IL, Livro 161). Likewise, when the inquisitional archives were turned over to the National Library in the nineteenth century, much of the documentation was mixed up and scattered. Consequently, no single source for denunciations exists—if it ever did. Several books from both the Inquisition of Lisbon and the general council contain large but incomplete lists of cases, and the books of the promotor are filled with denunciations and correspondence. It has not been possible to perform a complete search of all the widely-scattered sources for the simple reason of its large volume. To make matters more difficult, the lists that do exist vary considerably in the kind and consistency of information that they provide. Frequently, there are no dates, crimes, or places of residence listed. Any attempts at quantifying inquisitional activity should be seen as mere estimates that probably grossly under-represent what actually went on.

⁵³ Luís A. de Oliveira Ramos coined the phrase heréticos de filosofia and made the same argument. See Oliveira Ramos, Luís A. “A Inquisição pombalina,” Brotéria 115, no. 2–4 (August-October, 1982), pp. 173–174.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ See Figuereido, Barrocas Famílias.

⁵⁵ See, for example, ANTT, IL, Livro 18, fol., 206v.

⁵⁶ ANTT, HSO, Jerónimo, m. 12, no. 186.

⁵⁷ ANTT, IL, m. 10, document (doc.) 105; ANTT, IL, Livro 301, fis. 255-264; ANTT, Papeis do Brasil Avulsos m. 1, no. 2, fl. 100; Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino (AHU), Pernambuco, caixa (ex.) 99, doc. 7769; AHU, Pernambuco, ex. 73, doc. 6118. Antônio Teixeira da Mota inspired a huge manuscript volume making an account of all the injustices he was accused of committing during his tenure in office. See ANTT, Manuscritos do Brasil, 1 no. 35.

⁵⁸ The queen had named him in 1781. See AHU, Ceará, ex. 8, doc. 2.

⁵⁹ AHU, Ceará, ex. 8; doc. 27. A whole series of documents relating to this case can be found in AHU. See AHU, Ceará, ex. 8, docs. 21, 22, 26-29 and AHU, Ceará, ex. 9, docs. 9, 22, 23, 44.

⁶⁰ AHU, Ceará, ex. 8, doc. 29.

⁶¹ The influx of prisoners to Lisbon caused the Inquisition to appoint another deputy to handle the increased workload. See ANTT, IL, Livro 156, fol. 171.

⁶² Lustosa, , Raízes judaicas na Paraíba colonial, pp. 82–109.Google Scholar Bruno Feitler has also dealt extensively with this case. See “Cristãos-Novos da Paraíba: Do tempo dos judeus ao tempo da Inquisição,” (Typed Manuscript, Paris, 2002); idem, Inquisition, Juifs.

⁶³ ANTT, IL, Livro 21, fols. 347–347v.

⁶⁴ The following summary is taken from his own account as written to the Inquisition. See ANTT, IL, m. 31, no. 2.

⁶⁵ Bethencourt, , História das Inquisições, p. 275.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ ANTT, IL, Processo 8059. Two prisoners from Angola were kept in the prison of the Jesuit college in Olinda. See ANTT, IL, m. 30, doc. 11.

⁶⁷ ANTT, IL, m. 10, doc. 69.

⁶⁸ ANTT, IL, Livro 255, fol. 370, no date.

⁶⁹ ANTT, IL, m. 10, doc. 69.

⁷⁰ ANTT, IL, m. 10, doc. 69.

⁷¹ Schwartz, Stuart B. Sugar Plantations in the Formation of Brazilian Society: Bahia 1550–1835 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp. 258–263.Google Scholar