JUSTIÇA E MISERICÓRDIA NA MESA DO SANTO OFÍCIO DE LISBOA: as penas dos padres sodomitas

Abstract

Nevertheless the councils’ preoccupations, especially from Trent, with ecclesiastic discipline, the expression clerical vice characterized Portugal and Brazil contexts in XVI – XVIII centuries, when many men of the Church practiced sodomy. This article analyzes the punishments given to the sodomite ecclesiastics by the Portuguese Inquisition, an important Ancient Regime institution, trying to observe the privileges and the inquisitorial clemency to the ecclesiastics who confessed their sins and to the others who were accused. Besides, it analyzes the justice from the Church that helped the Inquisition, hearing people who accused the priests, helping to capture the sodomites from the Church and sending them to Lisbon.