In defence of the faith : Joaquim Marques de Araújo, a comissário in the age of Inquisitional decline / James E. Wadsworth.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wadsworth, James E., 1968-

Series:

McGill-Queen's studies in the history of religion. Series two ; 61.

McGill-Queen's studies in the history of religion. Series two, 1181-7445 ; 61

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Araújo, Joaquim Marques de, 1742-1820.

Araújo, Joaquim Marques de.

Catholic Church--Clergy--Biography.

Catholic Church.

Clergy.

History.

Inquisition.

Brazil.

Inquisition--Brazil--History.

Catholic Church--Brazil--History.

Brazil--Church history.

Church history.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xxii, 202 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Montréal ; Ithaca : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2013]

Summary:

Joaquim Marques de Araújo ardently defended the Inquisition for fifty years, only to find himself sidelined and forgotten. In Defence of the Faith offers an insightful examination of one man's career as a comissário of the Portuguese Inquisition in Pernambuco, Brazil, from 1770 to 1820. James Wadsworth argues that as legal extensions of the inquisitors in Lisbon, the comissários played a role far superior to what their small numbers might suggest. They were not the psychopaths, fanatics, or secret network of spies so common in the popular imagination. Rather, they were the linchpins in the inquisitional system that policed the orthodoxy of the Catholic flock and qualified candidates for inquisitional office. Joaquim Marques's career demonstrates that comissários had considerable room to manoeuvre, though they remained distinctly vulnerable to social and political shifts in power. His story reveals an institution divided against itself, which proved unwilling or unable to support its men in the field. Consequently, Joaquim Marques's attempts to protect himself and the Inquisition from attack proved futile. He died a defeated man on the eve of the political, intellectual, and spiritual upheaval he had long predicted and resisted. In Defence of the Faith is a study of the decline of the old regime and the rise of a new order in late-colonial Brazil as experienced by an unbending agent of a once powerful institution that slowly collapsed during his lifetime. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Setting the Stage for an Experiential Microhistory 3

2 In the Name of the Holy Office: Comissários in Pernambuco 16

3 A Life and Career in Focus 30

4 A Plague of Bigamy 51

5 Of Libertines and Diabolical Doctrines 72

6 Suspended in the Agony of Decay 94

7 The Zeal of the Pharisee 111

8 The End of an Era - The End of a Career 129.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [175]-191) and index.

ISBN:

9780773541177

0773541179

OCLC:

813522407