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Millenarianism and Empire Portuguese Asian Decline and the ‘Crise de Conscience’ of the Missionaries
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 April 2010
Extract
Millenarian movements appeared in a number of European countries during the early modern era, but only in Portugal are any of them known to have manifested themselves in a colonial empire. In fact, one form, known as Sebastianism, persisted in Brazil longer than it did in the metropolis and even outlived the colony's independence in 1822. This article, however, does not concern itself with the belief that King Sebastiāo would return miraculously from the battlefield of El Ksar-el-Kebir to rule over his people and indeed all Europeans for a thousand years – a superstition already known well enough to Iberianists and to historians of witchcraft and the occult. Instead, it will deal with something much less familiar.
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1 For instance, see the Documentos Remetidos da India, Arquivo Nacional do Torre do Tombo, Livros 43–62; they form an almost unbroken litany of despair.
2 It is curious how few writers simply ascribed the Portuguese plight to the superior resources of their rival(s). One has the feeling that both the clergy and reformers like Francisco Rodrigues de Silveira were so eager to score their points against the conduct of governmental employees that they were only too glad to make it appear that the reverses were really due to the corruption and discrimination they attacked!
3 For information regarding the papal mediation, the best source I have found is de Witte, Charles Martial, Les bulles pontificales et l'expansion portugaise au XVe sieècle (Louvain 1958)Google Scholar, which is also available as four articles, in Revue d'Hisloire Ecclésiastique 48 (1953), 49 (1954), 51 (1956) and 53 (1958). There is a good short discussion in Vianna, Hélio, História do Brasil (14th ed. (and all others); Sao Paulo 1980) 32–36Google Scholar. The text of the Inter caetera bulls, as well as of Eximiae devotionis, can be found in Davenport, Frances G. ed., European Treaties Bearing on History of the United States and Its Dependencies (4 vols.; Washington D.C. 1914) I, 77–96.Google Scholar
4 Davenport ed., European Treaties I, 77–78. I am aware that the interpretations are legion, and that the Vatican may have simply assumed that it did indeed possess temporal power over kings.
5 See Hoffman, Paul E., ‘Diplomacy and the Papal Donation, 1493–1584’, The Americas 30, 2 (1973) 156–165.Google Scholar
6 See Hanke, Lewis, The Spanish Struggle for Justice in the Conquest of America (Philadelphia 1949) 23–36 and chapter X.Google Scholar
7 Of the various translations of the Mare Liberum, I have employed the English translation of 1916 by J.B. Scott, published by the Carnegie Foundation.
8 de Freitas, Frei Serafim, Do Justo Impeacute;rio Asiático dos Portugueses (De Iusto Imperio Lusitanorum Asiatico). tr. de Meneses, Miguel Pinto, with an introduction by Marcello Caetano (2 vols.; Lisbon 1959–1961)Google Scholar. These arguments are contained in chapter 10, in Vol. I, 247–261; in Vol. II (the original Latin), 120–130.
9 Ibidem., Chapters XII, 287–291 in I; 150–153 in II; 353–359 in I; 201–205; 371–382 in I; 217–225 in II. In making this ‘synthesis’, I have not attempted to present all the arguments of Freitas, but more to give the flavour of the debate.
10 Winius, G.D., The Fatal History of Portuguese Ceylon; Transition to Dutch Rule (Cambridge, Mass. 1971) chapter IV and V.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11 de Andrade, António Alberto Banha ed., Dicionário da Igreja em Portugal (2 vols.; Lisbon 1982) 1, 494–495.Google Scholar
12 Winius, Fatal History, 51.
13 Spinola, Antonio Ardizone, Portugal Restituido na Decima Sexta Geracam de Seus Reys Naturals, prometido por Deos ao Sancto & Invicto Rey Dom Affonso Henriques & emparada do Ceo com prodigios e milagres (Lisbon n.d., but before 1680) 3Google Scholar. An early edition, apparently in three volumes, of the Cordel Triplicado de Amor a Christo Jesu Sacramentado (Lisbon 1680). The earlier volume is curious in that it contains no licenses or imprimatur, nor even a printer and date.
14 Ibidem, 31.
15 Ibidem, 32.
16 Cordel Triplicado, 363.
17 Ibidem, 553.
18 Ibidem, 652–735. Spinola was invited to Lisbon by King john, after news had reached him of the Italian's strong support of his legitimacy. The sermons of the third and last book were preached in his presence.
19 de Queyroz, Fernāo, Conquest of Ceylon, tr. Perera, S.G., S.J. (3 vols.; Colombo 1930) 1, 5*.Google Scholar
20 de Queyroz, Fernāo, A Vida do Veneravel Irmāo Pedro de Basto (Lisbon 1689) 7.Google Scholar
21 Ibidem, 138.
22 Ibidem, 132–136.
23 Ibidem, 145–146.
24 Ibidem, 364.
25 Ibidem, 365.
26 Ibidem, 382.
27 Ibidem, 378.
28 Ibidem, 388.
29 Ibidem, 389.
30 Ibidem, 390.
31 Ibidem, 421 ff.
32 There are few monographs on Fifth Monarchist, prophetical nationalism in regard to Portugal, and most writing on it concerns António Vieira, S.J. Modern Portuguese historians pointedly avoid it. The best work on the subject is Cantel, Raymond, Prophétisme et messianisme dans l'oeuvre de António Vieira (Paris 1960)Google Scholar. See also Boxer, Charles R., The Church Militant and Iberian Expansion (Baltimore and London 1978) 116–118.Google Scholar
33 Andrade, Dicionário da Igreja 1, 495. He does not seem to have been affected by the millenarist thinking which was so prevalent in Portugal, however, and which was doubtless so effective in preparing the ground for the Restauraçāo. Perhaps the fact that he was an Italian who had reached India by land helps explain this. He was also shrewd enough to use his royal pulpit to get what he most wanted: permission to introduce a convent of his Theatine Order into Portugal at a time when the country could scarcely afford such luxuries and the crown was trying to keep church expenditure down. He boldly asked for this in a sermon to the king - and got it. Sec Cordel Triplicado, 733–734.
34 Boudens, Robrecht, O.M.Z., The Catholic Church in Ceylon under Dutch Rule (Rome 1957) passim.Google Scholar