"Nor smaller nor less frequent injustices are commited in India"

: social condition and punishments in the Holy Office Tribunal of Goa

Abstract

The Goa Inquisition was a court marked by its own aspects in relation to the other Portuguese inquisitorial courts during its operation, from 1560 to 1812. Aspects that, in certain ways, had approximations and distances from the practices of the inquisitorial institution throughout the Portuguese Empire. Regarding the convictions and punishments attributed to the defendants, this can also be verified through research carried out in the folios of the Reportorio – a document that lists information about the proceedings between 1561 and 1623 of the Holy Office of Goa. The purpose of this paper, which is derived of a masters’ dissertation chapter, is to examine whether in this court there was a relationship between the sentencing of certain penalties to the offense committed and who committed it, and whether this possible relationship was characteristic only of the Goan court or not. This study seeks to comprehend the operation of this Inquisition in its early decades, and how it was shaped by the context in which it was in societies of Portuguese colonialism in Asia, and how it affected them.