Inquisition’s adventures in Brasil

Abstract

https://doi.org/10.1590/2179-8966/2023/71158

Conceived as the second part of a class on modern inquisition (the first class has been published in Capítulos de Política Criminal, Rio, 2022, ed. Revan, pp. 71 ss), the text contains a study on the procedures of the Portuguese inquisition, especially of the disputes related to the (in)sufficiency of the sole witness and to how its identity and the circumstances of their testimony were kept from the accused, all the while highlighting the mystic functions attributed to the confession. Acknowledging three acculturations that favored the transplant of the inquisitorial mentality into the native populations and later to the exiled African cultures, the text dwells on the four Visitations to Brazil undertaken by the Holy Office. Finally, confessions and denounces produced during those Visitations provide the raw material to unravel our blasphemies and the activity of our sorcerers, fortune tellers and healers, noting that persecution to the latter survives to this day.

Keywords: Criminal policy; Inquisition; Visitations; Blasphemies; Fortune tellers; Healers.