The Council of Trent as a normative resource in Brazil (19th c.)

Volume 23 of the Global Perspectives on Legal History out now

How was the Council of Trent employed to address problems of ecclesiastical administration in the Brazilian empire during the reign of D. Pedro II (1840–1889)? Going beyond a view of this normative set as rigid or as a battle flag for ultramontanists against liberals, this study dives into a variety of sources from the praxis of the Council of State (Brazil) and the Congregation of the Council (Holy See). Anna Clara Lehmann Martins’ analysis of these practices – in the author’s words, this “fabric of the ordinary” – shows the Tridentinum as a rather plastic resource in the hands of clerics, bureaucrats, and jurists, modulated within a scenario of multilevel governance and multinormativity.

Anna Clara Lehmann Martins holds a cotutelle doctoral degree in law from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) and in modern and contemporary history from the Universität Münster, having elaborated her doctoral dissertation as part of the Max Planck Research Group “Governance of the Universal Church after the Council of Trent” led by Benedetta Albani at the mpilhlt.