Banca de DEFESA: MARNEY SILVA GARRIDO

“Against freedom of conscience”: 

conflicts and cases of intolerance between Freemasonry and the Catholic Church via the Alagoas press (1870 – 1889)

Freemasonry, Catholic Church, press, intolerance.

The present research proposes to analyze how, in the region of Alagoas, between the
years of 1870 and 1889, the confrontation between Freemasonry and the Church took place,
focusing on cases of intolerance disseminated or promoted by the local press. The core of this
debate is located within the Alagoas intellectual elite, seeking to understand: (1) how the
confrontations between the two institutions took place in the province of Alagoas; (2) which
personalities of the time were behind the joint press attacks; and, (3) what were the impacts of
these confrontations on Alagoas society in the period. As main sources, periodicals in
circulation in the province of Alagoas in the period were selected, especially Labarum –
Órgão da Maçonaria, pastoral instructions and books of personalities of the time linked to the
conflict. Some techniques are used: the analysis of discourse, where it is understood as
influenced by external factors, being part of a historical process that endows it with legitimacy
for certain groups or individuals, based on the Foucauldian definition (FOUCAULT, 1996) ;
also the definition of Certeau for analysis of sources (CERTEAU, 2017), for whom all
production is related to a time and place, enabling the understanding of institutions and other
factors in the surroundings. The research tends to contribute to the field of History of Alagoas,
within the scope of conflicts and power relations in the province in the imperial period,
specifically with regard to the History of Alagoas Freemasonry and its role in the
transformations that occurred, a topic still little addressed in the literature state history.