The creation of the diocese of Pará in the eighteenth century:

The “pomp and circumstance” as a way of demarcating the Church ’s social place in an Old Regime society

Abstract

The present article is about the importance given to the rules of appearance and prestige as fundamental elements to hold and enhance power. In modern period, appearance and prestige were important elements in order to build a new way to behave and see the world. The gorgeous ceremonies had an eminent didactic character, intending to demonstrate the hierarchy of the place occupied and exalting before everyone's eye the place of an social corpus. Therefore, when the installation of bishoprics in the north of Portuguese America, the “pomp and circumstance” was very useful, showing church and ecclesiastic's place in that society. For that, the care with the ceremonies within many aspects of the bishoprics in Maranhão and Pará, will be analyzed, since the act of installing the dioceses to the selection method of the clergy.