Em busca dos «tempos» da Inquisição: (1573-1615)

Abstract

To know the power of the Inquisition in the Portuguese society compels us to establish the limits of different periods because if this institution existed for 285 years, its dominance and its action have no always been the same, even if its form did not change. The differences in the «paces» must be analysed. The analysis will be based on the following distinctive features: 1 — the institutional organisation; 2 — the agents and their spheres of action; 3 — the paces of the persecuting action and the types of crimes; 4 — the relationships with other powers (namely the State). Then we will try to follow the path of the institution between 1573 and 1615 both by showing the improvements in its repressive and preventive mechanism and by analysing the meaning and the internal consequences of the general pardon granted by the Pope in 1604.