The making and the actions of the Holy Inquisition Commissioners` network in Colonial Minas Gerais

Through the study of the action of the inquisition commissioners, this article seeks to reveal the relations between the Portuguese Inquisition and the ecclesiastical structure of the Minas Gerais State Captaincy in the colonial period. The focus of the analysis will be the making and the action of the network of Holy Inquisition commissioners in the gold Captaincy. What was the profile of these commissioners? How were they recruited from the local ecclesiastical hierarchy? What was the role assigned to them in the inquisitional action that took place in Minas Gerais? How did they act? What was the relationship between the introduction of the commissioners into the local ecclesiastical structures and the commissioners` inquisitorial activities?

Inquisition, Jesuits and Archbishops

As actividades da Inquisição de Goa devem ser estudadas nos contextos políticos contemporâneos da correspondente época estudada. O caso aqui analisado coincide com a ameaça dos Maratas à Província do Norte e a sua posterior ocupação. Foi um golpe severo aos interesses do Estado e da Inquisição, Ordens Religiosas, etc. É também curioso notar o aproveitamento que os Jesuitas faziam do sistema de castas para neutralizar os seus rivais, nomeadamente o clero nativo de casta brâmane.

The Photoreceptor Cell-Specific Nuclear Receptor Gene (PNR ) Accounts for Retinitis Pigmentosa in the Crypto-Jews from Portugal (Marranos), Survivors from the Spanish Inquisition

The last Crypto-Jews (Marranos) are the survivors of Spanish Jews who were persecuted in the late fifteenth century, escaped to Portugal and were forced to convert to save their lives. Isolated groups still exist in mountainous areas such as Belmonte in the Beira-Baixa province of Portugal. We report here the genetic study of a highly consanguineous endogamic population of Crypto-Jews of Belmonte affected with autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa (RP). A genome-wide search for homozygosity allowed us to localize the disease gene to chromosome 15q22-q24 (Zmax=2.95 at θ=0 at the D15S131 locus). Interestingly, the photoreceptor cell-specific nuclear receptor (PNR) gene, the expression of which is restricted to the outer nuclear layer of retinal photoreceptor cells, was found to map to the YAC contig encompassing the disease locus. A search for mutations allowed us to ascribe the RP of Crypto-Jews of Belmonte to a homozygous missense mutation in the PNR gene. Preliminary haplotype studies support the view that this mutation is relatively ancient but probably occurred after the population settled in Belmonte.

Registre de l'inquisition de Toulouse.

Acquis le 1er avril 1835 de M. Soulages parmi 13 volumes pour le prix de 700 francs; cf. B.n.F., département des Manuscrits, registre des acquisitions 1833-1848, n° 1789; — signature de Monsieur "Magi" de Toulouse (14v)