On November 1, 1755—Halloween—a great earthquake struck Lisbon, Portugal.
According to later estimates, the Lisbon Earthquake killed roughly sixty thousand to one hundred thousand people. The vast discrepancy was said to be because the fires and tsunami that followed nearly reduced all of Lisbon to ashes. The Lisbon Earthquake also became one of the causes of Portugal's declining national strength and the subsequent decline of its colonial empire.
The impact of the Lisbon earthquake went far beyond rebuilding the city. As victims of the disaster searched the ruins and found relics such as crosses and statues of the Virgin Mary, malicious theological accusations erupted.
Priests preached all manner of exaggerated panic over original sin to their parishioners, while the Church wondered why the earthquake had happened on Halloween of all days.
Clergymen enjoyed the privilege of being exempt from customs inspections. No customs officer would lift a cleric's robes to see what he wore beneath them. It was precisely these clergymen who hid gold beneath their robes, stealing on a massive scale. For a time, even members of the clergy were driven out of the mining districts of Brazil, while gold was smuggled throughout the Americas.
Portugal still had the Inquisition at the time. Even after a catastrophe that nearly destroyed all of Lisbon, people were more worried that prisoners held by the Inquisition might escape amid the disaster.
Even by the time João I died in 1777, the city's reconstruction had not been completed. Marquis of Pombal, João I's famous minister, also lost his position. Vast numbers of crude huts sprang up on the open land around the seven hills surrounding Lisbon, where refugees lived, while the nobles and priests repaired their stone residences.
Marquis of Pombal was Portugal's famous reformer, the king's chief minister, and could even be