On Gentilidade as a Religious Offence: A Specificity of the Portuguese Inquisition in Asia?

The transfer of the Iberian Inquisitions to the overseas territories of Portugal and Spain in 1560 and 1569–71 impacted the functioning of these tribunals in ways that were by no means superficial—to the extent that this institution was challenged by problems that it had not anticipated and for which it was only minimally prepared. Despite being an institution that was intended to be uniform in its organization and procedures, in African, American, and Asian contexts, the Inquisition was forced to adjust its models of surveillance as they were practiced in the Iberian Peninsula. The territories where the Crown