NAVIGATORS AND HERETICS: RELIGIOUS CONFLICTS PRESENT IN CORSAIRS ACTIONS IN THE SOUTH ATLANTIC OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
Corsairs; religiosity; travelers reports; 16th Century Europe.
The present work aims to analyze the reports written by the corsairs crew of two episodies of attack in Portuguese America, namely: the actions captained by Thomas Cavendish in the villages of Santos and São Vicente (1591-1592) and by James Lancaster (1594) in Recife, Pernambuco. Firstly, we will place our research object in the political-social context of the 16th century Europe, which is essential for the delimitation than we understand as corsairs and also for understand the causes of the attacks, Afterwards, we will analyze the religious issues present in these reports, understanding that the conflicts concerning the reforms of Christianity carried out in the 16th century were also contained in such corsairs actions. For the effort to analyze the reports, we will seek to understand how these writings were produced, published and disseminated in Europe and overseas.