Ecclesiastical Chamber
Original title: Camara Eclesiastica
The diocesan office handling the religious and ecclesiastical business of the diocese of Funchal, probably founded with the bishopric in 1514 and one of the oldest public offices in Madeira.
This is the department through which all the religious and ecclesiastical business of this diocese passes. It must have been created in the very year the bishopric was created, that is, in 1514, and, after the customs house, it is the oldest public office existing in this archipelago.
The original salary of its clerk (escrivão) was three thousand réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis) a year. By royal decree (alvará) of 28 October 1564 it was raised to eight thousand réis, to which the department’s customary fees must certainly be added. We believe that its organisation was once very different from what it is today.
The archive of the ecclesiastical chamber held very valuable documents, not only for the history of the diocese but also for that of the Madeiran archipelago. A fire that broke out there towards the end of the 17th century destroyed almost all of these documents.
This ecclesiastical department has always been attached to the bishop’s residence. When, under the provisions of the Law of Separation, the lyceum (state secondary school) was installed in the bishop’s palace (Paço Episcopal) in January 1914, the ecclesiastical chamber had moved a few months earlier to a house opposite the former Seminary (Seminário), in Rua Júlio da Silva Carvalho, which belonged to the Seminary. In May 1918 it was installed in one of the outbuildings of the new bishop’s palace, on Largo do Ribeiro Real, next to the British cemetery.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 05-
A fire destroyed nearly all the valuable archive of the Câmara Eclesiástica.
-
Pope Leo X's bull Pro excellenti praeeminentia created the diocese of Funchal, ending the Order of Christ's spiritual supremacy; the church became a cathedral, D. Diogo Pinheiro was named first bishop and Frei Nuno Cão first dean.
-
A royal warrant raised the salary of the clerk of the ecclesiastical chamber from three to eight thousand réis.
-
Under the Separation law the Funchal lyceum was installed in the former bishop's palace.
-
The office was installed in the new bishop's palace at Ribeiro Real.
Place
Places mentioned · 05
- Bishop's palace
Funchal. Old bishop's palace, taken over by the lyceum in 1914, forcing the office to move.
The old bishops' palace in Funchal, built in 1751 after the 1748 earthquake and enlarged by Bishop Teles da Silva, with the bishop's São Luís chapel beside it. It housed the seminary and lodged the nuncio. From 1914 it was taken over by the lyceum, forcing the Câmara Eclesiástica to move, and paintings and vestments from it went to the Archaeological Museum.
- British Cemetery
Funchal. Next to the new bishop's palace.
The British (Protestant) cemetery in Funchal dates from a licence of 1761. The first burial ground stood where the Largo do Conde do Ribeiro Real is now, and the present cemetery was built in 1808 and enlarged in 1852 and 1889. It lies on Rua da Carreira, next to the new bishop's palace, and holds a memorial stone to the Reverend R. T. Lowe.
- Largo do Ribeiro Real
Funchal. Site of the new Paço Episcopal where the office was installed in 1918.
Largo do Ribeiro Real is a square in Funchal and the site of the later, definitive episcopal palace. The Camara Eclesiastica was installed in this new Paço Episcopal in 1918, and the square houses the bishop's residence and the church offices.
- Rua Júlio da Silva Carvalho
Funchal. Street of the office's temporary premises from 1913/14.
Rua Júlio da Silva Carvalho is a street in Funchal where the ecclesiastical office (Câmara Eclesiástica) had temporary premises from 1913/14. It was hit by two shells in the 1916 bombardment of Funchal.
- Seminary
Funchal. The office moved to a seminary-owned house opposite it.
The office moved to a seminary-owned house opposite it.