New book “Vigias da Inquisição”

Luís Reis Torgal, Founding Member of CEIS20, historian and Retired Professor at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Coimbra, has recently published his book Vigias da Inquisição edited by Temas e Debates, which is now available for consultation in the Center's library.

Synopsis

After experiences as a military officer and financier, Manuel Fernandes Vila Real (1608-1652) left for France in 1638, where he played an important role in supporting Portuguese embassies and worked hard as a writer in the service of the Restoration. A book collector, Vila Real returned to Portugal in 1649 in the entourage of the Count of Vidigueira, bringing with him a number of works, some of them banned by the Censorship. King João IV, who had granted Vila Real the title of "royal noble knight" of his House, was about to send him on a new mission, in recognition of the distinguished services he had rendered in France in the service of Portugal, when the Holy Office arrested him for being "one of those who read and retain books by heretics or some ungodly sect". The Inquisition, a "state within the state", preferentially targeted New Christians and Jews, but also extended its claws to all "heterodoxies" and "bad customs". The Vila Real prison reveals the struggles between the powers of the Crown and the Church, and shows how impossible it was to have a "different culture" in Portugal, especially if it affirmed or highlighted ideas that were contrary to the official Catholic faith. Nor did the Christians.