Conclusion

Summary

Did the death of Vicente Nogueira in 1654 mark a turning point between a century of improvisation and a new age of absolutism? Scholars have often characterized the mid-seventeenth century as just such a radical change. Yet, when considering the contributions that mercenaries of knowledge made to the intellectual and political life of Late Renaissance and Baroque international relations, characterizing such a transition in stark terms becomes impossible. This final chapter uses three expressions of Nogueira’s memory to tell the story of Nogueira the plotter, who dabbled in scandals at the Roman curia in the early 1650s among Portuguese circles interested in defending oppressed religious minorities and same-sex emotional communities against the Portuguese Inquisition. Like many other mercenaries of knowledge, Nogueira took extreme care throughout his life to present himself as a pious and virtuous man despite being an inveterate nonconformist. Such positions were not incompatible. In fact, ambivalence was the key to navigating an age of improvisation and doubts which was here to stay.