Os profetas dos fins dos tempos: processos messiânico-milenaristas frente ao Tribunal do Santo Ofício Português (XVI-XVIII)

Abstract

This dissertation sought to analyze two characters who considered themselves chosen by God to reveal the mysteries of the world, denounced and imprisoned by the Portuguese Inquisition: Pedro de Rates Henequim and Father Manoel Lopes de Carvalho. Both lived in Brazil and based their work on the writings of Father Antônio Vieira. Henequim sought in D. Manuel the title of Emperor of the Fifth Empire, which for him would be in Brazil, the stage of the Earthly Paradise, creating his 101 theses. Father Carvalho created a “Memoir to His Majesty” and within the inquisitorial prisons a “Theological Treatise” containing 66 articles filled with Jewish questions and criticisms of the Court of the Holy Office, placing himself as the Messiah himself. This dissertation sought to outline the historical context of the emergence and formation of the Tribunal of the Holy Office, analyze the crimes of heretical propositions and blasphemies that were combated, and contextualize the concepts of messianism, millenarianism, and prophets throughout history, bringing to light several authors who wrote about them, such as Joaquim de Fiore, Gonçalo Annes Bandarra, and Father Antônio Vieira. The exegesis of the writings of the Book of Daniel and the Apocalypse of Saint John are also analyzed. This research shows that both had practically the same readings, demonstrating how ideas of a messianicmillenarian nature were in vogue and emerged throughout the centuries, remaining or undergoing a certain increase to respond to the demands of such times, especially in moments of political, economic, social, and religious crises, in vogue for a figure capable of meeting their desires, be it a Last Emperor or even a Messiah. The analyses carried out in this dissertation on these prophets sought to answer the reasons that led them to leave the colony, in the regions of Minas Gerais, to return to Portugal, calling themselves announcers of the end of times, dealing with their millenarian and messianic questions, using inquisitorial sources to respond to such demands.