Goa Inquisition

Inquisition of Goa Inquisição de Goa
Francis Xavier requesting John III of Portugal for a Catholic expedition in Portuguese India
Type
Type	Part of the Portuguese Inquisition
History
Established	1560
Disbanded	1812
Meeting place
Portuguese India

The Goa Inquisition was the office of the Portuguese Inquisition acting in Portuguese India, and in the rest of the Portuguese Empire in Asia. It was established in 1560, briefly suppressed from 1774–1778, and finally abolished in 1812. Based on the records that survive, H. P. Salomon and Rabbi Isaac S.D. Sassoon state that between the Inquisition's beginning in 1561 and its temporary abolition in 1774, some 16,202 persons were brought to trial by the Inquisition. Of this number, it is known that 57 were sentenced to death and executed, and another 64 were burned in effigy (this sentence was applied to those who had fled or died in prison; in the latter case, the remains were burned in a coffin at the same time as the effigy). Others were subjected to lesser punishments or penance, but the fate of many of those tried by the Inquisition is unknown.

The Inquisition was established to punish apostate New Christians and Muslims who converted to Catholicism, as well as their descendants—who were now suspected of practising the religion of their ancestors in secret.

In Goa, the Inquisition also turned its attention to Indian converts from Hinduism or Islam who were thought to have returned to their original ways. In addition, the Inquisition prosecuted non-converts who broke prohibitions against the observance of Hindu or Muslim rites or interfered with Portuguese attempts to convert non-Christians to Catholicism.

While its ostensible aim was to preserve the Catholic faith, the Inquisition was used as an instrument of social control against Indian Catholics and Hindus, and also against Portuguese settlers from Europe (mostly New Christians and Jews but also Old Christians). It also was a method of confiscating property and enriching the Inquisitors.

Most of the Goa Inquisition's records were destroyed after its abolition in 1812. It is impossible to know the exact number of those put on trial and the punishments they were prescribed.

The Portuguese initially resisted the introduction of the Inquisition, despite pressure from the "Catholic Monarchs," Ferdinand and Isabella, whose marriage in 1469 united the Iberian kingdoms of Aragon and Castile into a unified Spain. By 1492 they had expelled, forced the conversion of, or killed all the Moors and Jews in Spain.