Mercaderes de la gracia: las compañias de negocios curiales entre Roma y Portugal en la edad moderna

Abstract

This article analyzes the role of the curial in the early modern period. The curial was a professional and highly specialized intermediary between the Portuguese society and the offices of the Roman Curia, quite often integrated into companies with correspondents in Italy and the Iberian Peninsula. These curial companies managed thousands of requests of Catholic believers to the papal grace (e.g. matrimonial dispensations, provisions of ecclesiastical benefices, resignations, pensions, indulgences), offering even financing to their clients. This intermediation space became a very lucrative market, thanks to which families of Portuguese businessmen like the Nunes Sanches (a case study examined here as an example) accumulated an enormous patrimony that would serve as the basis for their upward mobility.

Keywords

• Portugal
• Church history
• Papal bulls
• Curial market
• Roman Curia