Portuguese Inquisition Inquisition

a copper engraving 1685: die inquisition in portugall

the portuguese inquisition formally started in portugal in 1536 @ request of king joão iii. manuel had asked pope leo x installation of inquisition in 1515, after death in 1521 did pope paul iii acquiesce. @ head stood grande inquisidor, or general inquisitor, named pope selected crown, , within royal family. portuguese inquisition principally targeted sephardic jews, whom state forced convert christianity. spain had expelled sephardic population in 1492; many of these spanish jews left spain portugal targeted there well.

the portuguese inquisition held first auto-da-fé in 1540. portuguese inquisitors targeted jewish new christians (i.e. conversos or marranos). portuguese inquisition expanded scope of operations portugal colonial possessions, including brazil, cape verde, , goa. in colonies, continued religious court, investigating , trying cases of breaches of tenets of orthodox roman catholicism until 1821. king joão iii (reigned 1521–57) extended activity of courts cover censorship, divination, witchcraft, , bigamy. oriented religious action, inquisition exerted influence on every aspect of portuguese society: political, cultural, , social.

the goa inquisition, inquisition largely aimed @ catholic converts hinduism or islam thought have returned original ways, started in 1560. in addition, inquisition prosecuted non-converts broke prohibitions against observance of hindu or muslim rites or interfered portuguese attempts convert non-christians catholicism. aleixo dias falcão , francisco marques set in palace of sabaio adil khan.

according henry charles lea, between 1540 , 1794, tribunals in lisbon, porto, coimbra, , Évora resulted in burning of 1,175 persons, burning of 633 in effigy, , penancing of 29,590. documentation of 15 out of 689 autos-da-fé has disappeared, these numbers may understate activity.