Dissertation Information for Bryan Alan GivensNAME:
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SCHOOL: ADVISORS: COMMITTEE MEMBERS: MPACT Status: Fully Complete Title: The reluctant visionary: Maria de Macedo and the millenarian culture of Portugal Abstract: Though widely understood as a popular phenomenon, the variant of Portuguese messianism known as Sebastianism has not been the subject of a systematic social history, and very little is known regarding who believed in it or what the specific content of their beliefs was. In 1665, Maria de Macedo was tried before the Inquisition for claiming to travel to a "Hidden Isle" where she spoke to the long-lost King Sebastian. The resulting trial record provides us with an excellent opportunity to understand popular beliefs about Sebastian for two reasons. First, her testimony on the subject of Sebastian during the trial was both extensive and detailed, allowing for intensive analyses of many aspects of the sebastianista legend. More importantly, her trial record contains copies of a pamphlet she dictated to her husband fifteen years before she was arrested by the Inquisition. This pamphlet was, therefore, not mediated by the Inquisition in any way, which means that it provides us an almost unique opportunity to hear a popular voice speaking about a popular belief, unmodified by the biases of an elite transcriber. |
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