Trent Postponed: The Projects for the Establishment of the Tridentine Seminary in Cape Verde (1570–1866)

Decreed on 12 January 1570, the seminary of the diocese of Cape Verde was established in 1866 in the format of a Seminary-High School. In this paper, I analyse the projects for the establishment of the seminary in Cape Verde, unpacking the dynamics behind the failures before 1866. First, I discuss the period from the 1570s to the 1640s, with the Jesuits at the epicentre. I then examine why the seminary project went adrift thereafter. Finally, I explain the decisive role of Bishop José Luís Alves Feijó (1865–71) in the establishment of the Seminary-High School. I contend that, in the first phase (1570s–1640s), the project failed because the leaders of the Jesuit mission, influenced by racial and civilisational prejudices, deemed the natives unfit for refined theological training. Moreover, the Jesuit mission lacked the stability to undertake the project. After their departure in 1642, no ecclesiastical player before Bishop José Luís Alves Feijó demonstrated any meaningful commitment to the seminary project. The underlining thesis of this paper is that episcopal negligence (episcopal absenteeism prevailed) and the inability or unwillingness of different field players to compromise were primarily responsible for the failures of the projects to establish the seminary before 1866.