The tortuous life of Manoel Vieira Martiniano

“considered a sodomite, using this sin with several boys”

Abstract

For many centuries, deviant sexual relations - especially sodomy - were categorized as a place of sin and promiscuity, leading its perpetrator to be under constant surveillance by the community where he lived, by the Catholic Church and especially by divine justice, justice that had as its earthly representation the dreaded and implacable Portuguese Court of the Holy Office. In this article we have constructed a narrative oriented to the sexual, social, and religious life of Manoel Vieira Martiniano, resident of Ilhéus and accused of committing the crime of sodomy with a variety of boys, especially with slaves. Besides the accusations focused on the nefarious sin, other moral and sexual deviations will be pointed out - but not with great emphasis - because this way we will be able to better understand how these subjects dealt with the fine line between desire and sin and how the most varied homoerotic relationships contributed to shake the moral foundation of the eighteenth-century Bahian society.