The goal is to understand how the episcopate
and its network of agents, as well as its administrative and judicial structures, were
formed, operated and contributed to the process of shaping of Christianity in
the Portuguese seaborne empire.
The project aims at:
1 - Reconstructing and understanding the
activities of the overseas episcopate in the evangelization process, a field
in which the historiography has been monopolized by the actions of the regular
clergy
2 - Understanding, from the perspectives of
comparative history and connected history how bishops, following the model of
the kingdom's dioceses, operated in areas as diverse as the Atlantic islands,
Brazil, Africa, and Asia
3 - Determining the bishops role in the process
of confessionalization and the assertion of royal authority in the empire
4 - Assessing how bishops and secular clergy interacted with populations and
other agents responsible for the dissemination and control of Catholic
orthodoxy, namely, the Inquisition and the regular clergy.
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