Latest / The History of Portugal: The Small Nation That Built a Global Empire — Fexingo History / The Portuguese Inquisition in Brazil: Faith, Fear, and Colonial Control
Transcript
- Lucas: So far in our episodes on Portugal's empire, we've hit the Inquisition in Goa pretty hard — how it terrorized the Indian coast, forced conversions, burned books. But there's another chapter that's less talked about: the Inquisition in Brazil. And it's a weirdly different story. Luna: Different how? I thought the Inquisition was the Inquisition everywhere. Lucas: You'd think so, right? But Brazil was massive, underpopulated, and the Church didn't have the same infrastructure. The Portuguese didn't even establish a full Tribunal of the Holy Office in Brazil — unlike Goa, which had its own Inquisition from 1560. Brazil was under the jurisdiction of the Inquisition in Lisbon, but for most of the 16th century, it relied on visitations. Luna: Visitations — so like traveling inquisitors? Lucas: Exactly. The first major one came in 1591, when the Inquisition sent Heitor Furtado de Mendonça to Bahia. He spent years traveling through the colony, hearing confessions, denouncing heretics. But the targets were different from Goa. In India, the Inquisition focused heavily on Hindus and crypto-Jews. In Brazil, the biggest groups accused were New Christians — converted Jews — and also African slaves accused of witchcraft, indigenous people practicing their old rites, and even some French Protestants hiding out. Luna: So it wasn't just about Jews — it was about anyone who didn't fit the Catholic mold. Lucas: Exactly. And because Brazil had a huge enslaved population from Africa, the Inquisition got tangled up in controlling African religious practices. There's a famous case from 1610 in Salvador, where a group of slaves was accused of forming a 'holy ghost' cult — they were dancing, speaking in tongues, claiming possession. The inquisitors called it feitiçaria — witchcraft — and punished them severely. Luna: But what about the indigenous people? Were they targeted too? Lucas: Yes, but mainly when they mixed Catholic symbols with their own traditions. The Jesuits had been converting indigenous groups since the 1550s, but by the late 1500s, the Inquisition started to see those converts as potential backsliders. There's a record of a mameluco — a person of mixed European and indigenous ancestry — who was denounced for wearing a feathered headdress during a Catholic procession. The inquisitors took it very seriously. Luna: So it was a way of policing cultural boundaries, not just religious ones. Lucas: Absolutely. And it also had a financial angle. The Inquisition could confiscate property from those convicted. So there's a pattern of accusations against wealthy New Christians in the sugar-producing regions of Pernambuco and Bahia. A lot of those cases were probably motivated by greed. Luna: So the Inquisition in Brazil was as much about power and money as about faith. Lucas: You hit the nail on the head. And because Brazil was so vast, the Inquisition's reach was patchy. Most people never saw an inquisitor. But the fear was still there — and it shaped the colony's culture for centuries. The auto-da-fé of 1579 in Salvador was a huge public spectacle: people paraded through the streets in penitential robes, some were burned at the stake. It was meant to intimidate. Luna: But if the Inquisition was less organized in Brazil, how did it survive so long? Lucas: It adapted. In the 17th century, the Inquisition established what's called the Inquisição Episcopal — meaning each bishop could act as an inquisitor in his own diocese. So instead of a central tribunal, you had local bishops with inquisitorial powers. That made it more flexible, but also more arbitrary. Some bishops were zealots, others weren't. It really depended on who was in charge. Luna: I've heard that the Inquisition in Brazil didn't burn as many people as in Europe. Is that true? Lucas: It's hard to get exact numbers, but yes — the Brazilian Inquisition executed far fewer people than its Spanish or Portuguese counterparts. Partly because the colony was newer, partly because the Church didn't want to alienate the slave population. But there were still dozens of executions over the 17th and 18th centuries. And the records show plenty of torture, exile, and public shaming. Luna: So it was less lethal, but still oppressive. Lucas: Exactly. And it lasted longer than you might think. The Portuguese Inquisition was only abolished in 1821, after the Liberal Revolution. By then, Brazil was already moving toward independence. So the Inquisition was part of the colonial fabric right up to the end. Lucas: One thing that really stands out to me is how the Inquisition in Brazil intersected with slavery. African slaves were often accused of witchcraft, but they were usually punished with flogging or sale — not death, because they were valuable property. In a weird way, being enslaved could protect you from the stake. Luna: That's a chilling logic — your life spared because you're someone's investment. Lucas: Exactly. And free Black people and mixed-race individuals had no such protection. There's a case from 1640 in Rio de Janeiro where a free Black woman named Maria was accused of making pact with the devil. She was tortured, confessed, and sentenced to five years of exile in Angola. That was a common punishment — sending people to Africa as a form of banishment. Luna: So the Inquisition was also a tool for controlling free people of color. Lucas: Absolutely. And it's one reason why the Inquisition in Brazil has been studied more in recent years — it reveals so much about colonial society: race, class, religion, and power. The records are full of everyday life: what people wore, what they ate, how they prayed. It's a strange but valuable window into the past. Lucas: Speaking of behind the scenes — you know, putting this episode together made me realize how much archival work goes into these stories. The Inquisition records are scattered across Lisbon, Salvador, and Rio. It's only because a handful of listeners chip in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo that we can spend time digging into these sources. That support literally funds the research and production. So if you've been enjoying these deep dives, that's one way to keep them coming. Luna: Yeah, it's true — we don't run ads, so listener support is what makes this possible. Lucas: Anyway, back to the Inquisition. One of the most fascinating episodes happened in the 1740s, when a group of New Christians in Minas Gerais was accused of practicing Judaism in secret. The Inquisition sent a special commissioner to investigate, and he uncovered a network of families who had been observing Jewish rituals for generations — passing down prayers, keeping dietary laws, all while outwardly Catholic. The trial took years. Luna: So crypto-Judaism survived in Brazil for centuries. Lucas: It did. And the Inquisition's response was brutal: several people were arrested, their property confiscated, and some were sent to Lisbon for trial. But the community itself wasn't wiped out. In fact, there's evidence that crypto-Jewish practices continued in remote areas of Minas Gerais into the 19th century. Luna: That's remarkable — the persistence of faith under persecution. Lucas: It really is. And it shows that the Inquisition, for all its power, couldn't completely erase difference. Brazil was too big, too diverse, too resilient. The Inquisition's legacy there is complex — it's a story of control and resistance, of fear and survival. Luna: I guess that's a theme we keep coming back to — how empires try to impose order, and how people find ways around it. Lucas: Exactly. And next time, we'll look at how the Portuguese Inquisition operated in another corner of the empire: Africa. From Angola to Mozambique, the Holy Office had a presence too, and it shaped the slave trade in ways we're only beginning to understand.