"Let us be free from the jurisdiction of the bishops of Maranhão"

the discourses for ecclesiastical autonomy of the Piauí Province (1829-1838)

Abstract

This research analyzes the speeches in favor of the emancipation of Piauí in relation to the episcopal government of Maranhão, in the time cut from 1829 to 1838, a period in which there was a strong onslaught of Piaui groups in search of the constitution of an autonomous diocese. In a context where the province of Piauí was subordinated to the bishopric of Maranhão, since 1728, the attacks of groups that made up the economic and political elite of Piauí to separate the spiritual governments of the two provinces, expressed in the documents of the General Council of Government and the Provincial Assembly, were observed. The narrative built in defense of the creation of the diocese of Piauí was elaborated in order to denounce economic and spiritual damage to the Province and to emphasize the benefits that the separation would bring, inspired by the ecclesial examples of Goiás and Cuiabá. However, the documental ballast analyzed, centered on the documentation produced by executive and legislative, denotes the strong desire of the local economic and political leaders to attend to internal conveniences, fruit of a complex matrimonial organization established on inbreeding unions, which through an autonomous diocese, would find itself free of the costs and embargoes imposed by the clerical administration of Maranhão.