ABSTRACT
Scholarly analyses of the Misericórdias first appeared at the end of the nineteenth century, but it was Charles Boxer who first examined them on a par with the other institutions of local power that he judged to be fundamental in the Portuguese Empire, the Câmaras (municipal councils). Boxer considered both institutions to be the keys for understanding the local dynamics of power and government. As mentioned in the introduction to the present volume, he drew primarily on printed sources to present a comparative overview of local institutions in four cities of the Portuguese empire: Macau, Goa, Bahia, and Luanda. ough his analysis centered on the role played by the Câmaras in imperial administration, Boxer considered the Misericórdias as their twin.1 More recently, in the 1990s, scholars have analyzed the Misericórdias at the level of the Portuguese empire. ese examinations stressed the differences among the confraternities found across the empire, while recognizing their common religious and administrative principles.2 As should be expected, local conditions provide much of the explanation for this diversity. Important factors included the ethnic makeup of the population, the ways in which the Portuguese related to the indigenous or imported populations, and the organization of the local economy. Significantly, however, a given area’s relationship with the metropolis affected the different procedures and social habits of its local Misericórdia. And as the essay by J.S.A. Elisonas in this volume reveals, this Portuguese model of charity was not limited by the bounds of empire and left its mark on forms of confraternal piety in cities such as Nagasaki and Kyoto.
