O arcebispo de Braga, D. Frei Bartolomeu dos Mártires (1559-82). Um caso de inquisição pastoral?

Abstract

Relations between bishops and the Inquisiton have been the subject-matter of recent historiography on ecclesiastical justice in the Early Modern Catholic world. The exact image of a general cooperation between these two powers in Portugal may not obliterate the historical knowledge of the concrete tracks that produced such a balance. When Friar Bartolomeu dos Mártires was Archbishop of Braga (1559-82), the Portuguese Inquisition enjoyed limited power in this archdiocese, particularly when compared to the other dioceses in the North of Portugal. The present case study attempts to provide an explanation for this, in the light of the theological culture of the Archbishop of Braga, of his position in the Kingdom's political and religious hierarchy and of the few traces of an efficient model to track heresy, in place of the Holy Office: the "pastoral inquisition".