Abstract
The Brotherhood of Our Lady, Mother of God, Virgin Mary of Mercy was dedicated on 15 August 1498 in a chapel of the cathedral of Lisbon. The traditional founders were a group of laymen and a Trinitarian friar. The new brotherhood was approved by the Regent Dona Leonor and confirmed by her brother, the King Dom Manuel I. Statutes were drawn up, and the initial membership was limited to fifty nobles and fifty plebeians. The avowed object of the brotherhood was to afford spiritual and material aid to all in need. From this modest origin the brotherhood, popularly known as the Santa Casa da Misericórdia or simply the Santa Casa, spread throughout the Portuguese-speaking world. Branches ranged from Nagasaki in Japan to Ouro Prêto in the interior of Brazil. The story of the Misericórdia is comprehensible only against the background of the older story of charitable assistance in Europe.
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Notes
G. Duby, La société aux XIe et XIIe siècles dans la région mâconnaise (Paris, 1953), p. 64.
For a general study of the relationship between population increase and productivity see David Herlihy, ‘The Agrarian Revolution in Southern France and Italy, 801–1150’ in Speculum, vol. 33 (1958), pp. 23–41
Which modifies the over-optimistic portrayal given by H. Pirenne, Mediaeval Cities: their origins and the revival of trade (Princeton, 1946), p. 81.
For a study of these artisan groups in France see E. Martin Saint-Léon, Histoire des corporations de métiers depuis leurs origines jusqu’à leur suppression en 1791 (4th ed., Paris, 1941), especially pp. 171–4 on mutual assistance.
For a complete study of the Italian brotherhoods see G. M. Monti, Le confraternite medievali dell’Alta e Media Italia (2 vols., Venezia, 1927), especially vol. 1, chapters 4–7.
F. da Silva Correia gives a full list of outbreaks in Portugal sanitário (Lisboa, 1937), chapter 37.
Eduardo Freire de Oliveira, Elementos para a historia do municipio de Lisboa (19 vols., Lisboa, 1882–1943), vol. 1, p. 363; cf. vol. 1, p. 318 for municipal measures as early as 1437.
Rui de Pina, Crónica de El-Rei D. João II (Coimbra, 1940), chapter lxv.
Henrique da Gama Barros, Historia da administração publica em Portugal nos seculos XII a XV (II vols., 2nd ed., Lisboa, 1945–54). vol. 5, p. 125.
Gomes Eannes de Zurara, Crónica da tornada de Ceuta por El Rei D. João I (Lisboa, 1915), chapter ciii.
For a general description of these pilgrimages see Mário Martins, S.J., Pere-grinaçōes e livros de milagres na nossa Idade Média (2nd ed., Lisboa, 1957).
Magalhães Basto, História da Santa Casa da Misericórdia do Pôrto (Porto, 1934), p. 327.
For a survey of the monastic and military orders and the social action of the clergy in Portugal see Fortunato de Almeida, História da igreja em Portugal (4 vols., Coimbra, 1910–24), vol. 1, pp. 264–340 and pp. 541–9, vol. 2, pp. 103–85 and pp. 439–43, vol. 3 (2nd part), pp. 467–88.
Paul Viollet, Histoire des institutions politiques et administratives de la France (3 vols., Paris, 1890–1903), vol. 3, pp. 143–76, and especially pp. 164–5
L. Lallemand, Histoire de la charité (4 vols., Paris, 1902–12), vol. 3, p. 333, n. 1 and p. 334, n. 7.
Marcello Caetano, ‘A antiga organização dos mesteres da cidade de Lisboa’ in Franz-Paul Langhans, As corporaçōes dos oficios mecânicos-subsidios para a sua história (2 vols., Lisboa, 1943–6), pp. xi–lxxiv.
A. Braamcamp Freire, ‘Compromisso de confraria em 1346’ in Archivo Historico Portuguez, vol. 1, no. 10 (Lisboa, 1903), pp. 349–55.
Damião de Góis, Crónica do Felicissimo Rd D. Manuel (4 vols., Coimbra, 1949–55), part 1, chapter i.
The first view is held by Costa Godolphim, As Misericordias (Lisboa, 1897) and Vitor Ribeiro, A Santa Casa da Misericordia de Lisboa (subsidios para a sua historia) 1498–1898 (Historia e memorias da Academia Real das Sciencias de Lisboa, Nova Serie, 2a Classe. Tomo ix, parte ii, Lisboa, 1902). Protagonists of the second are Magalhães Basto, op. cit., and F. da Silva Correia, Estudos.
The 1618 Compromisso fixed the number of brothers at 600 and some historians have taken this to apply to the initial membership, António da Silva Rêgo, História das Missões do Padroado Português do Oriente. India. 1500–1542 (Lisboa, 1949), pp. 237–8.
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© 1968 A. J. R. Russell-Wood
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Russell-Wood, A.J.R. (1968). The Santa Casa da Misericórdia in Portugal. In: Fidalgos and Philanthropists. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-00172-9_1
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