Pinheiro (Dom Diogo)

The very bull (papal bull) creating this diocese, Pro excellenti preeminentia, of 12 June 1514 (vol. 1, p. 363), names Dom Diogo Pinheiro as the first bishop of Funchal. Since this archipelago belonged to the Order of Christ (Ordem de Cristo), and Dom Diogo Pinheiro was one of its highest-ranking members, holding the lofty office of Dom Prior (D. Prior, head of the priory of Tomar or of the collegiate church of Guimarães) and Vicar of Tomar, the seat of the Order, he was the obvious choice to occupy the new episcopal throne established within that powerful body and in the area of its spiritual jurisdiction, which stretched to the furthest bounds of the East.

The first prelate of Funchal never came to his bishopric, and on being invested in the new office he had certainly not thought of crossing the ocean to tend his flock in person. The great prestige and influence he enjoyed at court, and the posts he held as councillor (conselheiro, honorary title of the royal council) of state and judge of the Desembargo do Paço (the royal supreme court; desembargador do paço), did not allow him to take direct charge of the episcopal government of the new diocese.

He did not, however, neglect the administration of his bishopric. Little more than a year after its creation, he sent the prelate Dom Duarte (vol. I, p. 382) to this island, where he performed all the episcopal functions and consecrated our Cathedral (Sé Catedral) in 1516. He sent other visitors to this diocese, charged with watching over canonical discipline and superintending the various ecclesiastical services. He died in 1526, having governed this bishopric for 12 years.

Dom Diogo Pinheiro came from noble and distinguished families. He was the son of Dr Pedro Esteves Marques and Dona Isabel Pinheiro. He was Dom Prior of Guimarães and counsellor to Manuel I, and held the offices already mentioned. Alexandre Herculano highlights the qualities of his character: he had the courage to condemn publicly the persecution of the Jews and to defend them with all the weight of the authority and prestige he enjoyed. Still more remarkable was his stance on the condemnation of Dom Fernando, Duke of Bragança, who was executed in 1483 for conspiring against the life of John II. He maintained at court that the duke was the victim of a great injustice, and he wrote the Manifesto da innocencia do duque de Bragança D. Fernando II, which is included in the Provas da Historia Genealogica of Dom António Caetano de Sousa.

Dom Diogo Pinheiro died in Tomar in 1526 and was buried there, and ‘today he lies’, says Vieira Guimarães in his remarkable work Ordem de Christo, ‘in a superb and beautiful tomb in the chancel of the church of Santa Maria dos Olivais (St Mary of the Olive Groves)’.