The Portuguese Inquisition accounts: the example of Évora and Lisbon courts (1701-1755)

Abstract

From the accounting reports drawn up annually by each Inquisition board when reporting to the Conselho Geral do Santo Ofício, it is intended to develop a comparative analysis of Évora and Lisbon Tribunals’ income structure. The composition of the inquisitorial income allocated to the tribunals in the first half of the 18th century will be analysed, putting emphasis on a key issue: to what extent did the confiscation of property to
the sentenced people by the Inquisition contribute to the Holy Office financial support? The historiography has suggested that the Inquisition contributed with financial revenues to the balancing of public accounts and at the same time was self-financed from this. There are individual cases where the first situation was observed, but the main focus of this work is not in this. However, it is not known to what extent the tax authorities were important to the healthy life of the inquisitorial coffers. So it will be necessary to analyse the overall composition of the revenues allocated to the courts, allowing us to understand how important the tax authorities are.