Secular clergy and skin colour in the Portuguese Empire (16th-18th centuries): a controversial issue

Abstract

Could people who had not white skin become part of the secular clergy of the Roman Catholic Church in the dioceses of the Portuguese seaborne empire? This article will attempt to address this question through an holistic and long-term approach, covering territories in Africa, Asia, America and the Atlantic world, using a comparative approach. I proceed from the hypothesis that the prevailing theses in historiography over the last 50 years, based on Charles Boxer's thesis, are not pervasive to all territories of the empire between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. If Boxer does not miss the nub of the matter, caaling attentio to the few non-Europeans among the secular clergy, the question is much more complex and has many variables that he missed. Based on the cross-reading of various primary sources, some of which have so far been scarcely examined in order to address the central question raised in this article, it seeks to demonstrate that, from an early date, the clergy was open to non-European people. However this road became controversial and gave rise to various forms of resistance, even though it did not prevent populations originating from America, Africa and Asia from joining the secular clergy, sometimes holding important positions.