The recruitment of secular clergy under an analysis with variation in scale:

Constitutions, patronage, municipal councils and family.

Abstract

The present work aims to portray, from the experiences of the author's research on parochial clergy in the extreme south of Portuguese America, how the variation of scales can contribute to enrich the prosopographic analysis of this group. In this sense, concentrating here on the recruitment of the secular clergy, we will debate about four coefficients that could mark - in the sense of encouraging or limiting - the priestly ordination of a subject: the ecclesiastical legislation of the First Constitutions of the Archbishopric of Bahia; the prerogatives arising from the monarch under the sign of the royal patronage; the pressure and negotiation power of the municipal councils, in this case that of Rio Grande de São Pedro do Sul, as bridges between local desires and central strategies; and the strategies and expectations of the individual and their family members.