Marquis of Pombal
Original title: Marquês de Pombal
Describes the thanksgiving ceremonies held in Funchal on 20 January 1776 after the Marquis of Pombal escaped an assassination plot.
On 20 January 1776 religious ceremonies were celebrated with the greatest pomp in the church of the College (Igreja do Colégio, the Jesuit college church), in thanksgiving for the Marquis of Pombal’s escape from the crime planned by the Genoese João Baptista Pele, who was executed in Lisbon. The sermon was preached by Friar Inácio José de Varona who, to please the Marquis – represented at the ceremony by his kinsman, Governor Sá Pereira – implied in his address that the Jesuits could not have been strangers to the said crime.
The cost of the religious celebrations was borne by the Royal Treasury Board (Junta da Fazenda) of the Island of Madeira.