Cross-Cultural Politics and the Suspension of the Portuguese Inquisition 1674–81

This book tells the story of the unprecedented suspension of the Portuguese Inquisition (1674-81), a negotiation that started with a request for a general pardon but quickly developed into a crisis over the legitimacy of the Inquisition itself. This analysis of the denouement in the long struggle between New Christians, as forced converts from Judaism were known in Iberia and their persecutors, the Portuguese Inquisition, moves away from binary and national, religious or economic perspectives, arguing that the suspension was entirely political.

Taking a transnational approach, this book focuses on agency and decision-making, exploring not only the crucial Roman dimension, but examining all the actors involved; from New Christian merchants, Jesuit fathers, Inquisitors and bishops to the cardinals of the Roman Inquisition asking just how it was possible to bring such an apparently powerful institution to the brink and its efforts to defend itself. The book is an in-depth study of negotiators and negotiations. Using the analytical idea of cross-cultural politics, the book shows how liminal groups could use the skills and connections gained through cross-cultural trade, translating economic trust into political leverage, to galvanic effect. The New Christians acted as diplomats for themselves, questioning the Inquisition’s legitimacy and methods, pioneering appeals for minority rights in the face of institutional repression.

This book will be of interest to political and social historians of early modern Europe, Iberian and Italian studies, the Inquisition, Catholicism, and legal histories of rights. It also speaks to scholars of diaspora, transnational history, and minority agency.