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✅Why was the captain of the donatary of São Miguel, D. Rodrigo da Câmara, judged by the Inquisition?

In 1651, the trial of D. Rodrigo da Câmara, captain of the donatary of the island of São Miguel, took place in the tribunal of the Holy Office. What was, after all, his crime? How did he end up in the clutches of the Inquisition?

He was accused of manifestly immoral behavior, having adopted a conduct of sexual perversion for many years. In fact, he had engaged in illicit relations with nuns from several Azorean convents and was also accused of homosexual practices with young men.

And while the friar-related adventures were somewhat overlooked—especially because at the time, as he was the godson of Philip IV of Spain (then king of Portugal), he enjoyed some degree of impunity—his later involvement in homosexual practices would ultimately be his downfall. He was frequently accompanied, even during his trips to Lisbon, by a retinue of young men with whom he engaged in homosexual acts in exchange for promises of money, honor, and titles.

It was this debauched behavior that led to his imprisonment by the Inquisition in 1651. Among the many testimonies, there were those from twelve pages of the count, who confirmed the truth of the crime he was accused of: procuring and sodomy.

In the sentence issued in 1652, it was stated that D. Rodrigo da Câmara, Count of Vila Franca, had repeatedly committed the “horrendous and abominable sin of sodomy, both as the agent and patient with many males, forcing some of them, by various means of promises and threats, to consent to the said sin,” crimes that led to his sentence of life imprisonment in the dungeons of the Inquisition.

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