July 16, 1547
Paul III Completes the Portuguese Inquisition
Historical context
On July 16, 1547, Pope Paul III issued Meditatio cordis, giving the Portuguese Inquisition the secret procedure John III had sought.
Archive record
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- Date
- July 16, 1547
- Verified sources
- 1
- Archive threads
- 3
On this day, Pope Paul III issued the bull Meditatio cordis. The Center for the Study of Religious History at the Catholic University of Portugal records that this 1547 bull completed the legal frame set in 1536 and introduced secret proceedings, so the accused did not learn the names of the witnesses against them.
The same center records that the bull Cum ad nihil magis of 1536 is the one that defined how the Portuguese Inquisition would work. John III had asked Rome for a tribunal on the Spanish model. The 1547 bull is the grant that removed the remaining papal limits. Courts sat in Lisbon, Coimbra, and Évora. The tribunal was abolished in 1821.
Research trail
Sources and further reading
- Inquisição · Centro de Estudos de História Religiosa · Universidade Católica Portuguesa View source
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