On gentilidade as a religious offence: a specificity of the Portuguese inquisition in Asia?

Lourenço, Miguel Rodrigues

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/53846

Use this identifier to reference this record.

Name:	Description:	Size:	Format:
122124173.pdf		795.84 KB	Adobe PDF	Download

Send Feedback

Authors

Lourenço, Miguel Rodrigues

Abstract(s)

From the 1620s on, inquisitors in Goa referred ever more frequently to ‘gentilidade’ to name a type of religious offence perpetrated by local Christians in the Estado da Índia. This contribution proposes that the notion of ‘gentilidade’ employed by the inquisitors was a consequence of the overwhelming judicial activity of the Holy Office of Goa against religious offences originating in local customs, which resulted in singling out one that specifically suggested heresy and apostasy—which they named ‘gentilidade’. This chapter analyses how this identification can be established and whether it represented a specificity in the Portuguese Inquisition by comparing such cases to the Santidade movement in Brazil.