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 PORTUGAL

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PORTUGAL

tinued during the reign of Alfonso VI (16.56-83), an imbecile youth of criminal tastes, who was de- posed in 1667, his brother Pedro becoming regent and, on Alfonso's death, ascending the throne. The reign of Pedro (1683-1706) is marlced by the dis- covery of gold in Brazil, by the signature of the Methuen Treaty with England, and by the par- ticipation of Portugal in the War of the Spanish Succession, when an Anglo-Portuguese army entered Madrid. Though the Portuguese had lost most of their possessions in the East, their missionaries con- tinued to spread the Faith in pagan countries and actually defended remote possessions like Timor against the Dutch. In 1690 the Bishoprics of Pekin and Nankin were established by Alexander VIII, and, after a conflict with the Propaganda, the claim of Portugal to nominate prelates for all sees in the East was allowed.

In 1691 the Cortes met for the last time previous to the Revokition of 1820. The leading ecclesiastical figure of the age was Father Antonio Vieira, preacher, protector of the Indians of Brazil, and confidential agent of John IV. The relations between the Jesuits and the Inquisition had never been cordial, and the tribunal, aware of Vieira's sympathy for the converted Jews, and anxious to humble the Society, condemned certain propositions taken from his writings, sen- tenced him to seclusion in a college, and deprived him of the right to preach. Thereupon Vieira went to Rome and presented a memorial to the pope, who ordered an inquiry into the methods of the Inquisi- tion and suspended it until reforms should be intro- duced. It submitted after a struggle, and, when Innocent XI revoked the suspension in 1681, the tribunal had to adopt a milder procedure. The gold and diamonds of Brazil enabled John V (1706-50) to imitate Louis XIV in magnificence. To licentious habits he united a taste for ecclesiastical pomp. He displayed his piety by building an enormous pile, church, monastery, and palace in one, at Mafra, by providing tlie large sums required in connexion with the canonization of various saints, and by obtaining from the pope the elevation of the Archlaishopric of Lisbon to the dignity of a patriarchate, together with the title, for himself and his successors, of "Most Faithful Majesty". Except in the case of the Lis- bon aqueduct, the country reaped small benefit from the vast sums expended by the artistic, pleasure- loving monarch; and if religion was outwardly honoured, the bad example set by John helped to lower the already impaired national standard of morals. The nobility had by this time ceased to visit their estates and degenerated into a race of mere courtiers. The interests of the common people were neglected by the Government, almost their only friends being the religious orders. At the pope's bidding, John sent a fleet against the Turks which helped to win the battle of Matapan in 1717.

The reign of Joseph (1750-77) is made famous by the administration of the Marquess of Pombal, the real ruler of Portugal for over twenty years. The energy he displayed at the time of the great earth- quake of 1755 confirmed his hold over the king, and with royal support he was able to use the alleged "Tavora Conspiracy" to humble the nobility and to continue the campaign he was directing against the Jesuits, whom he was determined to master. His accusations against them of seditious conduct in the missions and of illicit trading were merely pretexts. He had already dismissed them from Court, delated them to Rome and secured the appointment of a friend of his. Cardinal Saldanha, as their reformer, and when an attempt was made on the king's Ufe he attributed it to Jesuit machinations, confiscated the property of the company in the Portuguese dominions ancl expelled the Portuguese .Jesuits, re- taining the foreigners in prison. The pope had re-

fused to incriminate the whole company for the faults of individuals, and Pombal's reply was to dismiss the nuncio and break off relations with Rome. Hence- forth the real head of the Church in Portugal was the Minister. He heaped ignominy on the Jesuits by securing the burning of Father Malagrida by the Inquisition, and his work was completed when, under pressure from the Catholic Powers, Clement XIV sup- pressed the Society in 1773. Pombal's ruin of the Foreign Missions was perhaps his greatest crime and was by no means compensated for by his abolition of slavery and of the distinction between old and new Christians. He undoubtedly made great and neces- sary reforms in internal administration and freed Portugal for the time from its subservience to England, but his commercial policy was a failure, and the harm he did far outweighed the good. Above all he forged those fetters for the Church which still paralyse her action.

The death of Joseph brought about the fall of the minister, but the new sovereigns Pedro and Maria (1777-1816), while opening the prisons which Pombal had filled with his opponents, left much of his work untouched. The king died early, the queen lost her reason, and their son John, a sympathetic but weak man, was named regent. French ideas — those of the Encyclopedists and of the Revolution — were kept out of the country as long as possible, but the am- bition of Napoleon gave little hope of security to a small kingdom which was regarded as the dependent of England. The Treaty of Fontainebleau divided the country between France and Spain; the famous proclamation was issued, stating that the House of Braganza had ceased to reign, and Junot with a French army occupied Lisbon in 1807. The royal family fled to Brazil, and Portugal was governed from there until 1820. Queen Maria died at the close of the Peninsular War, which led to the overthrow of the Napoleonic power, and John VI (1816-26) came to the throne. The Revolution of 1820 forced him to return home, and he had to accept a constitution of a most radical character, for which the country was entirely unfitted. One calamity succeeded another. The opening of the ports of Brazil to foreign ships ruined Portuguese commerce, the separation of the colony diminished the prestige of the mother coun- try, which was reduced to a miserable plight by the long war, and internal feuds were added to external troubles. On the death of John, his son Pedro IV gave a new constitution, called ''the Charter", and then resigned the throne in favour of his infant daughter Maria II, naming his brother Miguel re- gent. The Conservatives, or Absolutist Party, how- ever, who hated the Charter as the work of Liberals and Freemasons, desired him as king, and he sum- moned a Cortes of the old tj^pe which placed him on the throne in 1828. The Radicals and Chartists at once organized resistance to what they called the usurpation and, after a long civil war, were successful. By the Convention of Evora Monte, Miguel had to abandon his claims and leave the country. The victorious Liberals initiated an era of persecution and robbery of the Church, the eff'ects of which are .still felt. The religious orders were the first to go. The orders of men were suppressed, and their prop- erty confiscated, nominally to enrich the treasury, but private individuals reaped the benefit. The orders of women were allowed to die out, further professions being prohibited. The people, deprived of the monks and friars, who were their teachers, preachers, and confessors, gradually lost their knowl- edge of religious truths, because the secular clergy were unprepared to take the place of the orders; besides which, the bishops and clergy were bound hand and foot to the State.

The last half-century of the Portuguese Monarchy, embracing the reigns of Pedro V (1853-61), Louis