On the historiography of the Portuguese "Santo Ofício"

Abstract

A great part of the historiographical discourse about the Portuguese Santo Ofício was established upon silences. Such discourse, at times, becomes out of tune with the historical research, disregards objective data, adopts a militant posture, turns the academic debate into a passional matter, analyzes documents with a manifested and declared partiality, and writes a history that silences important points to the comprehension of the institution Tribunal of the Santo Ofício of the Inquisition in Portugal. This article briefly summarizes the historiography about the Portuguese Santo Ofício, and discusses some of the reasons for the weak interest of a considerable part of the historiography for the analysis of the Portuguese inquisitorial Regiments – which were the basis of the sets of norms that guided the judiciary practices of the Lusitanian Inquisition –, reflecting on the extent to which the ideologization of the studies concerning the institution contributes to this disinterest and compromizes the results of these studies.