The word ‘inquisition’ in a title focuses the attention of a reader on an institution which evokes images of secrecy, cloaked judges, incarceration, torture, trials, punishment, humiliation and exemplary death in spectacular autos-da-fé. James Wadsworth does discuss the creation and legacy of myths surrounding the Inquisition, originating in the Reformation, inflamed by virulent criticism during the Enlightenment, distorted to ‘spin’ nineteenth and twentieth century political agendas, and perpetuated in an often uncritical historiography which he seeks to correct. The story which he has to tell in this original study is far removed from an institutional study of the Holy Office in Spain, Portugal, France and Italy, or even in Mexico City, Lima and Goa, but instead is centred on northeastern Brazil, a Portuguese colony where the institution was never formally established. His enquiry is couched in the frame of reference of a social and cultural historian and he characterises his very readable monograph as ‘the story of an ongoing dialogue between the Inquisition, potential candidates for inquisitional office, and the society in which they lived’ (p. 4). The mantra which impresses itself on the reader is ‘honour, privilege, prestige, and status’. The ‘orthodoxy’ of the title refers to Catholic orthodoxy which the Inquisition and its representatives or agents were sworn to uphold.

In an exercise in prosopography, the author has created a social, economic, occupational and geographical collective biography of 1046 applicants for inquisitional office between 1613 and 1821 in the captaincy-general of Pernambuco and subordinate captaincies. The results are adequate to the task at hand but not as complete as might have been desirable. This reviewer would have welcomed a squeezing of the data and greater reliance on the qualitative rather than the quantitative. Of the applicants, 773 were appointed, with familiares (663) and comisários (66) predominating. The process involved careful screening, written and verbal testimony under oath, and judicial and extrajudicial enquiries in places of origin in Portugal or the Portuguese Atlantic islands to ensure that candidates were of Old Christian descent, white, of impeccable conduct and morals, and financially and residentially stable. Successful applicants included planters, merchants, lawyers, physicians, licensed artisans and lay clerics. Seekers of these offices had to weigh the potential benefits – certified religious orthodoxy, honour and prestige, status, and even power over their peers – against risks accruing to them and their families from conflicting or negative information concerning ‘purity of blood’ (religious and racial), or even from delays in the confirmation process. This could undermine what status they already enjoyed, and erode individual and family honour, to say nothing of financial costs which could be substantial. For those admitted as familiares, they joined a group which constituted a colonial ‘nobility of the land’ (nobreza da terra), were beneficiaries of corporate privileges associated with service to the Inquisition, and were eligible to be members of an exclusive militia company and a brotherhood. Wadsworth emphasises that the stakes were high enough that fraud and misrepresentation occurred in massaging or creating genealogies in the application process and that, so coveted was the office of familiar, that it invited impostors, tricksters and charlatans to claim membership in this select group.

The author has been successful in two further regards. He has not fallen into the trap of describing this class as a homogeneous group locked in a time capsule, or of masquerading under the rubric of ‘colonial’. The richness of his sources in Brazil and Portugal have enabled him to trace societal changes in Pernambuco during the two centuries primarily under discussion, with special reference to changing priorities and values, and how these had an adverse impact on the degree to which such offices were sought. He has also examined the institution of the Inquisition and the degree to which this underwent change not only internally but as a result of external factors. Most notably, this included events in Europe such as the Dutch wars and propaganda, the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment, and events within Portugal such as relations between the Crown and the Catholic Church. Reforms enacted during the tenure of the Marquis of Pombal (chief minister, 1750–77), namely, prohibition of the ‘purity of blood’ criterion, abolition of the distinction between New and Old Christians, and legislation outlawing enslavement and discrimination against Amerindians (but not against African-born or Afro-Brazilians), contributed to undermine the exclusivity hitherto associated with being an agent of the Inquisition. That Pombal himself did not favour the Inquisition, that the Inquisition went from being a bastion of privilege and power to losing its comparative advantage among other contemporaneous institutions (undergoing a shift from social control to social promotion and the erosion or abolition of its jurisdiction), meant that by the latter part of the eighteenth century the institution had become increasingly irrelevant and thus less attractive to potential applicants within Portugal and overseas. Further, the American and French revolutions, the book trade to Brazil, and returning students, kept Brazilians well informed on republican and revolutionary trends and these found fertile breeding grounds in Brazil. English pressure led to the extinction of the Inquisition in Goa, and the Napoleonic invasion of Portugal and subsequent flight of the royal court to Brazil, were devastating. Wadsworth outlines these external factors – societal, economic and ideological – succinctly, but emphasises that factors internal to the Inquisition and its agents, and the refusal to countenance reform, contributed to its decline in Portugal and in Pernambuco and its extinction in 1821.

Wadsworth is to be congratulated on opening up a new avenue for enquiry into the role of the Inquisition in the Early Modern period in an attractive volume with good maps, tables, invaluable footnotes, extensive bibliography, and useful index. That 183 pages of text have been compressed into 12 chapters has given little opportunity for in depth and more sophisticated discussions of interesting ideas and the work still has all the characteristics of a dissertation. For example, comparison to other status groups would have been welcomed. He owes a debt to earlier scholars of the Inquisition in Europe and in Brazil who have built a foundation of knowledge on which he has drawn but some of whose conclusions he has not shied from challenging, revising, restating or correcting. His work on Pernambuco is pioneering and, hopefully, will inspire others to pursue comparable studies for Bahia, São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. The fruits of these collective regional histories will permit a synthesis for Portuguese America, and bring a Brazilian voice to debates on the Inquisition in Ibero-America, stimulate informed discussion of comparative colonialism in America and, in the case of the Portuguese empire, suggest points of convergence and divergence between Brazil and other colonies. Wadsworth has shown how rewarding insights, derived from regional archives, can be when used in conjunction with collections housed in national libraries and national archives. He has demonstrated the potential of these sources and how far-reaching hypotheses and conclusions based on them can improve our understanding of relationships between metropolis and colony, between Church and State, and between bishops, the Jesuits, and Religious Orders. By focusing on individuals he has brought a human dimension not only in terms of a physical presence, but also, by reaching into the interstices of history and biography, he has begun to unravel the skein of individual hopes, aspirations, strengths and frailties, of vanities, of pride and lust after collective and family prestige and power, and of pragmatism and idealism. His work shows how risky it was to base these on any institution or on a system of values and priorities which were susceptible to change and vulnerable to becoming outmoded.