The Ministers of the Third Order of St. Francis of Coimbra in the eighteenth century: social profile, families and networks of the powerful

Abstract

This paper is a preliminary approach to the study of those Ministers of the Third Order of St. Francis who discharged their mandate in eighteenth-century Coimbra. A sociological profile of the rulers of the Order during this period shows that the institution had an elitist bias, but also that its executive positions were able to attract the city’s most distinguished people. Ministers were gentlemen, aristocrats, University professors, dignitaries and canons of the cathedral chapter, rectors of collegiate churches, jurists, citizens and aldermen (some with many years of service).