DOCSLIB.ORG

Rethinking the Fifth Empire: António Vieira and the Clavis Prophetarum Autor(Es): Valdez, Maria Ana T

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Rethinking the Fifth Empire: António Vieira and the Clavis Prophetarum Autor(Es): Valdez, Maria Ana T Rethinking the Fifth Empire: António Vieira and the Clavis Prophetarum Autor(es): Valdez, Maria Ana T. Publicado por: Brown University; Universidade do Porto URL persistente: URI:http://hdl.handle.net/10316.2/25267 Accessed : 29-Sep-2021 02:40:44 A navegação consulta e descarregamento dos títulos inseridos nas Bibliotecas Digitais UC Digitalis, UC Pombalina e UC Impactum, pressupõem a aceitação plena e sem reservas dos Termos e Condições de Uso destas Bibliotecas Digitais, disponíveis em https://digitalis.uc.pt/pt-pt/termos. Conforme exposto nos referidos Termos e Condições de Uso, o descarregamento de títulos de acesso restrito requer uma licença válida de autorização devendo o utilizador aceder ao(s) documento(s) a partir de um endereço de IP da instituição detentora da supramencionada licença. Ao utilizador é apenas permitido o descarregamento para uso pessoal, pelo que o emprego do(s) título(s) descarregado(s) para outro fim, designadamente comercial, carece de autorização do respetivo autor ou editor da obra. Na medida em que todas as obras da UC Digitalis se encontram protegidas pelo Código do Direito de Autor e Direitos Conexos e demais legislação aplicável, toda a cópia, parcial ou total, deste documento, nos casos em que é legalmente admitida, deverá conter ou fazer-se acompanhar por este aviso. impactum.uc.pt digitalis.uc.pt Vol. 10 · n.º 2 · Winter 2012 Rethinking the Fifth Empire: António Vieira and the Clavis Prophetarum1 Maria Ana T. Valdez2 Abstract It is this paper’s purpose to introduce António Vieira’s model of the Fifth Empire and to contextualize it within the biblical exegesis tendencies of his time. Vieira’s conceptualization is of utmost importance for understanding the intellectual and religious environment of seventeenth-century Portugal: a disturbed time, during which people searched for answers in biblical prophecies to explain the reasons behind so much suffering. Vieira’s systematization, however, was first viewed as a possible heresy by the Portuguese Inquisition and was only later, and in part, rehabilitated by Antonio Casnedi. The Clavis prophetarum is also an expression of an eschatological hope common to the Iberian world, although it focuses mostly on Portugal. Keywords António Vieira, Clavis prophetarum, Fifth Empire, Apocalyptic Literature, Portugal Resumo Este artigo propõe analisar e contextualizar o modelo de Quinto Império proposto pelo Pe. António Vieira de acordo com os modelos de exegese bíblica praticados no seu tempo. A conceptualização vieiriana é fundamental para a compreensão do ambiente intelectual e religioso do século XVII português: um período conturbado durante o qual as pessoas procuravam compreender as razões do seu sofrimento à luz de profecias bíblicas. A sistematização efectuada por António Vieira, apesar de inicialmente tida como uma possível heresia por parte da Inquisição portuguesa, foi mais tarde reabilitada pela sententia de Antonio Casnedi. É necessário relembrar que a opus magnum vieirina—Clavis prophetarum—é um dos melhores exemplares de literatura escatológica daquela época, e que coloca a tónica no papel a realizar por Portugal e pelo monarca português com vista ao estabelecimento do reino divino de Deus na Terra tal como prometido nos textos bíblicos. Como tal, não é de estranhar que o Papa e o Rei português sejam descritos como “vigários de Cristo na Terra.” Palavras-chave António Vieira, Clavis prophetarum, Quinto Império, Literatura Apocalíptica, Portugal 1 This paper is part of the research undertaken for the PhD thesis in History, presented by the author to the University of Lisbon in December of 2008. It would not have been possible without the financial support of FCT, through the program POCI 2010. 2 CHUL, University of Lisbon and Yale University, Department of Religious Studies. E-mail – [email protected] Valdez Rethinking the Fifth Empire Many historians have devoted their life’s work to the study of phenomena such as prophecy, millenarianism, and apocalypticism, and in particular to its emergence, development, and influence, as well as the reasons why at times such phenomena appear to have vanished from the collective mind. It is our belief that R. Rusconi is on the right track when he underlines the originality of Iberian intellectual movements, especially after the beginning of Maritime Expansion (Rusconi, 1999: 132). Therefore, and risking jumping immediately to a conclusion, I have to say that it is my belief that the Iberian Peninsula, including its overseas territories, does indeed represent an original intellectual phenomenon regarding the issue of political prophecy. Vieira’s work, and particularly the Clavis prophetarum, represents a major contribution to the reinterpretation of a biblical concept used not only by the Church, but also by the broader community of Christians, as if it held the key to the promised kingdom of God. It is, nonetheless, necessary to remember that Vieira is not introducing a new subject at all. He is reinterpreting, according to his own beliefs and agenda, the theory regarding the end of time and the consequent achievement of the eschatological kingdom as it was first introduced by Daniel and later developed by the Christian author of the Book of Revelation. Moreover, because the achievement of the kingdom of God was so important for Christians, many theologians over the centuries attempted to interpret these texts in a way that would permit them to tell their communities how close, or not, they were to the end of the world, and, consequently, to the new beginning. Authors such as Josephus, Jerome, Hippolytus, Augustine, and Fiore, among many others, should be counted among these theologians. a) Daniel In the Book of Daniel (c. 2nd century bce), we find two different accounts of historical periodization based on the scheme of four succeeding empires. The first is found in Chapter 2 in the description of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, while the second account, in Chapters 7-8, is concerned with the description of the four beasts, and, in particular, with the depiction of the last two periods of the four-age schema, using the images of the ram and the he-goat. The first account of the theory of the four empires in the Book of Daniel is considered by scholars as the introductory chapter to the visions of the apocalyptic section. For example, regarding this issue, Hartman writes that: “(…) once independent stories that e-JPH, Vol. 10, number 2, Winter 2012 59 Valdez Rethinking the Fifth Empire the compiler of the Book of Daniel prefixed to his apocalyptic visions are made up of a theme within a theme” (Hartman and Di Lella, 1978: 142). It is only during the second part of this tale that the scheme of the four kingdoms is introduced. In accordance with the revelation that Daniel received in a night vision following previous prayers to the God of Israel, he told the king that he (the king) had seen an enormous and frightening statue. This statue was composed of different materials: the head was gold, the chest and arms were silver, the middle and the thighs were bronze, the legs were iron, and the feet a mixture of clay and iron. The king then saw how a stone had destroyed the entire statue, first hitting the feet. Afterwards, the same stone became a great mountain and filled the entire world. Following this description of the dream, Daniel explains its meaning to the king. First, he notes that Nebuchadnezzar was king because he had been chosen by Yahweh (Daniel, 2:37). He explains after this that the different materials represented successive empires, the golden one (the Babylonian Empire) being the first. At the same time, he describes how Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar’s successors were condemned to be defeated and how their supremacy would be destroyed in the future. Empires were predestined for destruction until the appearance of the “feet,” a mixture of clay and iron that represented the weakness of that last kingdom. From this last and weak kingdom however, a stronger one would rise up in the future. This kingdom was predicted to last forever and to be indestructible by the will of God, the same god who had given the dream to Nebuchadnezzar. The succession of empires forecast in this dream can also be interpreted in the light of historical events (Rowley, 1959: 161-73). It is common to read into this description the succession of empires in the Ancient Near East down to the 2nd century bce. According to this theory, the golden head would represent Babylon, the silver arms and chest, Media, the bronze middle and thighs, Persia, and the iron legs, Greece.3 Although scholars take the mixture of clay and iron portrayed in the statue’s feet to refer to the division of Alexander’s empire after his death, most would agree that the iron mixed with clay refers to the policy of intermarriage existing between Ptolemies and Seleucids. Moreover, from the point of view of Jewish resistance during the reign of Antiochus IV, the stone was also understood by the text’s editor to represent the eschatological Jewish kingdom still to come. The future would cause this schema to be continuously reinterpreted. From the 1st century CE onwards, the emphasis of the interpretation was placed on Rome instead of 3 Although Josephus points to Rome as the last empire, the chronology of the book does not permit us to reach such a conclusion. e-JPH, Vol. 10, number 2, Winter 2012 60 Valdez Rethinking the Fifth Empire Greece. In accordance with this subsequent interpretation, the sequence of empires would be Assyria, Media and Persia (understood as part of the same unity), Greece, and, finally, Rome as the last empire. The text of Daniel, Chapter 2, does not, however, specify the names of the empires, thus allowing for the theory of the four-kingdom scheme to be widely applied in the future when many reinterpretations were to follow.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • PORTUGUESE HUMANISM and the REPUBLIC of LETTERS Maria
    INTRODUCTION TRANSOCEANIC CROSSROADS – PORTUGUESE HUMANISM AND THE REPUBLIC OF LETTERS Maria Berbara and Karl A.E. Enenkel Transoceanic Crossroads: Images of the Lusitanian Empire: Italy, Portugal and the New World Historians and art historians have recently reminded us that globali- sation is not a phenomenon that originated in the late 20th century.1 For example, the expansion of the Lusitanian Empire in the 15th and 16th centuries – combined with inventions in the fields of transporta- tion, communication and printing – was a cornerstone of a new age of globalisation. During the reign of King Manuel I, when Portugal experienced a period of unprecedented wealth, Lisbon became one of the most important sites of international exchange. In only two years – between 1498, when Vasco da Gama, after circumnavigating Africa, arrived in Calcutta, and 1500, when Pedro Álvares Cabral landed on the Brazilian coast – Portugal succeeded in establishing a global com- mercial maritime network; in the first decade of the 16th century, it strengthened its commercial bases on the western coast of Africa and in Brazil, Persia, Goa, Malacca, Timor. In this context, colonial con- quests were understood as the fulfilment of biblical prophecies. The reign of King Manuel I was interpreted by humanists and artists in a providential sense: the King, whose very name goes back to the mes- sianic tradition, was seen as the Messiah of a re-born Empire. These concepts were often related to the classical past, which offered a language that could be applied in diverse ways to different historical contexts. Carolingians, Ottonians, French 18th century revolutionar- ies and Latin American 20th-century dictators, among many others, have used rhetorical and visual elements of the classical past in order to legitimise contemporary forms of government.
    [Show full text]
  • The Reception of the Book of Daniel (And
    The Reception of the Book of Daniel (and Danielic Literature) in the Early Church Wisdom and Apocalypticism Section SBL Annual Meeting in Washington, November 18-22, 2006 by Gerbern S. Oegema, McGill University 3520 University Street, Montreal, QC. Canada H3A 2A7 all rights reserved: for seminar use only. Any quotation from or reference to this paper should be made only with permission of author: [email protected] Abstract Whereas cosmogony has traditionally been seen as a topic dealt with primarily in wisdom literature, and eschatology, a field mostly focused upon in apocalyptic literature, the categorization of apocryphal and pseudepigraphic writings into sapiential, apocalyptic, and other genres has always been considered unsatisfactory. The reason is that most of the Pseudepigrapha share many elements of various genres and do not fit into only one genre. The Book of Daniel, counted among the Writings of the Hebrew Bible and among the Prophets in the Septuagint as well as in the Christian Old Testament, is such an example. Does it deal with an aspect of Israel’s origin and history, a topic dealt mostly dealt with in sapiential thinking, or only with its future, a question foremost asked with an eschatological or apocalyptic point of view? The answer is that the author sees part of the secrets of Israel’s future already revealed in its past. It is, therefore, in the process of investigating Israel’s history that apocalyptic eschatology and wisdom theology meet. This aspect is then stressed even more in the later reception history of the Book of Daniel as well as of writings ascribed to Daniel: if one wants to know something about Israel’s future in an ever-changing present situation, one needs to interpret the signs of the past.
    [Show full text]
  • If Not Empire, What? a Survey of the Bible
    If Not Empire, What? A Survey of the Bible Berry Friesen John K. Stoner www.bible-and-empire.net CreateSpace December 2014 2 If Not Empire, What? A Survey of the Bible If Not Empire, What? A Survey of the Bible Copyright © 2014 by Berry Friesen and John K. Stoner The content of this book may be reproduced under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For more information, please visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ International Standard Book Number: 978-0692344781 For Library of Congress information, contact the authors. Bible quotations unless otherwise noted are taken from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Cover design by Judith Rempel Smucker. For information or to correspond with the authors, send email to [email protected] Bound or electronic copies of this book may be obtained from www.amazon.com. The entire content also is available in PDF format reader at www.bible-and-empire.net. For the sake of concordance with our PDF edition, the page numbering in this book begins with the title page. Published in cooperation with CreateSpace, DBA On-Demand Publishing, LLC December 2014 If Not Empire, What? A Survey of the Bible 3 *** Naboth owned a vineyard beside the palace grounds; the king asked to buy it. Naboth refused, saying, “This land is my ancestral inheritance; YHWH would not want me to sell my heritage.” This angered the king. Not only had Naboth refused to sell, he had invoked his god as his reason.
    [Show full text]
  • Vieira's Eschatological Sources
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Universidade de Lisboa: Repositório.UL Universidade de Lisboa Faculdade de Letras Departamento de História Historical Interpretations of “Fifth Empire” - Dynamics of Periodization from Daniel to António Vieira, S.J. - Maria Ana Travassos Valdez DOCTORATE IN ANCIENT HISTORY 2008 Universidade de Lisboa Faculdade de Letras Departamento de História Historical Interpretations of “Fifth Empire” - Dynamics of Periodization from Daniel to António Vieira, S.J. - Maria Ana Travassos Valdez Doctoral Dissertation in Ancient History, supervised by: Prof. Doctor José Augusto Ramos and Prof. Doctor John J. Collins 2008 Table of Contents Table of Figures.....................................................................................................................3 Resumo...................................................................................................................................4 Summary ................................................................................................................................7 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................8 Introduction .........................................................................................................................11 1) The Role of History in Christian Thought....................................................................... 14 a) The “End of Time”.......................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • 484 Ana Paula Torres Megiani and Luís Silvério Lima, Eds
    484 Book Reviews Ana Paula Torres Megiani and Luís Silvério Lima, eds. Visions, Prophecies and Divinations: Early Modern Messianism and Millenarianism in Iberian America, Spain and Portugal. Leiden: Brill, 2016. Pp. 268. Hb, $142. Across the early modern Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking worlds both elite and popular cultures nurtured yearnings for perfection, salvation, vindication, and power in prophetic invocations of imminent social and political trans- formations. Visions, Prophecies and Divinations examines these hopes and ex- pectations, manifest in dreams, visions, spiritual practices, healing, exegesis, and Inquisitorial interrogations. The result of a collaborative research project, these essays offer fine-grained case studies and illuminate broader connec- tive experiences including the movement and circulation of ideas and people within the Iberian world, the interplay of erudite and popular cultures and of local practices and politics with imperial and universalizing projects, the imperatives of history and cosmology, and the gendered configurations of au- thority and dissidence. While many of the essays address specialists and in- tervene into established historiographical debates, the extensive introduction by the editors Luís Filipe Silvério Lima and Ana Paula Torres Megiani provides a comprehensive guide to the scholarly inquiries and claims that have led to this point. In doing so, the editors also survey the categories that scholars have deployed to describe and understand prophetic experiences. Are mil- lenarianism and
    [Show full text]
  • Downloaded from Brill.Com09/25/2021 01:30:11AM Via Free Access 206 Ditommaso of Four Metals of Descending Value, Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Iron
    The Four Kingdoms of Daniel in the Early Mediaeval Apocalyptic Tradition Lorenzo DiTommaso 1 Introduction* The four kingdom schema is a historiographic framework that divides the last phase of human history into four periods, each period ruled in turn by a domi- nant power or world-empire. Although it originated in classical antiquity,1 the schema received its enduring formulation in chapters 2 and 7 of the biblical book of Daniel, where it acquired an apocalyptic valence.2 There the schema is presented in the form of heavenly revelation,3 which gave it a predetermined dimension.4 Both chapters expect the fourth kingdom to be overthrown by the eschatological kingdom of God, thus terminating the sequence.5 The four kingdoms are never named but instead are identified symbolically.6 In chapter 2, King Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a giant statue that is composed * Research for this article has been funded by 2011–16 and 2018–23 grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, for which I am grateful. I thank Loren Stuckenbruck and Andrew Perrin for their invitation to submit a version of my conference paper to this volume. 1 Joseph Ward Swain, “The Theory of the Four Monarchies: Opposition History under the Roman Empire,” cp 25 (1940): 1–21; and Samuel K. Eddy, The King is Dead: Studies in the Near Eastern Resistance to Hellenism 334–31 BC (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1961). On the construction of time and history in the Seleucid era, see now Paul J. Kosmin, Time and Its Adversaries in the Seleucid Empire (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2019).
    [Show full text]
  • An Intertextual Intertwining of Mystic Nationalisms; Saramago's Post-Modern Challenge to the Pessoan and Salazarist Discourses in 0 Ano Da Morte De Ricardo Reis
    An intertextual Intertwining of Mystic Nationalisms; Saramago's Post-Modern Challenge to the Pessoan and Salazarist Discourses in 0 Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis Malcolm McNee University of Minnesota, EE. UU. Approaching contemporary Portuguese of any universalizing, reifying, mythic, or fiction in light of its relationship to questions utopian discourse that would define Portugal of national identity and the post-modern or a Portuguese messianic vocation. concern with exposing fissures in the mono­ Demonstrating, as Ellen Sapega has put it, "a liths of History, an exceptionally complex lack of confidence in the traditional or peda­ and fruitful starting point is José Saramago's gogical discourses of identity", Saramago 1984 novel, 0 Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis. contrasts and intertwines the Salazarist dis­ This work is a clear attempt to deconstruct course with a number of other corresponding and problematize the symbols and ultrana­ and competing discourses, in what might be tionalist ideology of Salazar’s Estado Novo1. read as an effort to relativize all potentially By re-presenting many of the historical reductionist uses of language. He encourages events as well as the socio-economic and a reflection on History in general terms, political landscape of 1936 Lisbon, Saramago unveiling the discursive mechanisms of its effectively demonstrates the relativity and construction. He achieves this in O Ano da propagandistic nature of the official, repres­ Morte de Ricardo Reis through what Helena sive, reductionist discourses controlled by Kaufman has termed "historiographic com­ the Salazar regime. mentary”: Saramago, however, has a larger project Este tipo de comentário historiográfico, in mind than a simple dismantling of Salazar’s que reflecte sobre o construir da Historia, proto-fascist political ideology.
    [Show full text]
  • America(N) Matters
    peter freese freese America(n) Matters America(n) his anthology brings together 21 of the more than Selected Essays 200 articles and essays published between 1977 and 2017 by Professor Peter Freese from the Matters University of Paderborn, one of the most distinguished freese authorities on American literature and culture within Germany and beyond. Arranged in four broad American Studies # A Monograph Series thematic sections covering the ‘matters of America’, the essays range widely across a vista of subjects, Matters America(n) Volume 283 writers, concepts and contexts, from the evolution of the American Dream to the visions of end times as apocalypse or entropic decay, from the corrupt glitter of Hollywood to the ancient mysteries of mythic landscapes, from literary classics to hip hop. Edited by He convincingly shows how the study of arts, par- michael mitchell ticularly literature, gives privileged access to the markus wierschem kaleidoscopic diversity of American society, opening up incomparable panoramas and fascinating insights. An indispensible aid to the scholar but also accessible to the general reader, these essays show how the study of America matters. isbn 978-3-8253-6852-4 american studies – a monograph series Volume 283 Edited on behalf of the German Association for American Studies by alfred hornung anke ortlepp heike paul peter freese America(n) Matters Selected Essays Edited by michael mitchell markus wierschem Universitätsverlag winter Heidelberg Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar. umschlagbilder © Peter Freese isbn 978-3-8253-6852-4 Dieses Werk einschließlich aller seiner Teile ist urheberrechtlich geschützt.
    [Show full text]
  • An Intertextual Intertwining of Mystic Nationalisms; Saramago's Post- Modern Challenge to the Pessoan and Salazarist Discourses in 0 Ano Da Morte De Ricardo Reis
    UC Berkeley Lucero Title An Intertextual Intertwining of Mystic Nationalisms; Saramago's Post- Modern Challenge to the Pessoan and Salazarist Discourses in 0 Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3tz2f5vd Journal Lucero, 10(1) ISSN 1098-2892 Author McNee, Malcolm Publication Date 1999 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California An intertextual Intertwining of Mystic Nationalisms; Saramago's Post-Modern Challenge to the Pessoan and Salazarist Discourses in 0 Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis Malcolm McNee University of Minnesota, EE. UU. Approaching contemporary Portuguese of any universalizing, reifying, mythic, or fiction in light of its relationship to questions utopian discourse that would define Portugal of national identity and the post-modern or a Portuguese messianic vocation. concern with exposing fissures in the mono­ Demonstrating, as Ellen Sapega has put it, "a liths of History, an exceptionally complex lack of confidence in the traditional or peda­ and fruitful starting point is José Saramago's gogical discourses of identity", Saramago 1984 novel, 0 Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis. contrasts and intertwines the Salazarist dis­ This work is a clear attempt to deconstruct course with a number of other corresponding and problematize the symbols and ultrana­ and competing discourses, in what might be tionalist ideology of Salazar’s Estado Novo1. read as an effort to relativize all potentially By re-presenting many of the historical reductionist uses of language. He encourages events as well as the socio-economic and a reflection on History in general terms, political landscape of 1936 Lisbon, Saramago unveiling the discursive mechanisms of its effectively demonstrates the relativity and construction.
    [Show full text]
  • Prophecies As Political Instruments in the Entangled Histories of Spain, Portugal, and the Middle East 16Th-18Th Centuries
    Hamsa Journal of Judaic and Islamic Studies 6 | 2020 Varia A Moor of Granada: Prophecies as political instruments in the entangled histories of Spain, Portugal, and the Middle East 16th-18th centuries Mònica Colominas Aparicio and Gerard Wiegers Electronic version URL: https://journals.openedition.org/hamsa/277 DOI: 10.4000/hamsa.277 ISSN: 2183-2633 Publisher CIDEHUS - Centro Interdisciplinar de História Culturas e Sociedades da Universidade de Évora Electronic reference Mònica Colominas Aparicio and Gerard Wiegers, “A Moor of Granada: Prophecies as political instruments in the entangled histories of Spain, Portugal, and the Middle East 16th-18th centuries”, Hamsa [Online], 6 | 2020, Online since 30 April 2020, connection on 13 May 2021. URL: http:// journals.openedition.org/hamsa/277 ; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/hamsa.277 This text was automatically generated on 13 May 2021. Hamsa est mise à disposition selon les termes de la Licence Creative Commons Attribution - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de Modification 4.0 International. A Moor of Granada: Prophecies as political instruments in the entangled histo... 1 A Moor of Granada: Prophecies as political instruments in the entangled histories of Spain, Portugal, and the Middle East 16th-18th centuries Mònica Colominas Aparicio and Gerard Wiegers Introduction 1 The use of prophecy as a political instrument within medieval and early modern Mediterranean societies is often connected to the widespread idea of the arrival of a messianic king who will rule during the end times and who will be anticipated by the Antichrist. In the Iberian context of the prophetic text, on which we will focus, two traditions may be distinguished.
    [Show full text]
  • The Nature of the Conquest and the Conquistadors
    proceedings of the British Academy, 81, 5-36 The Nature of the Conquest and the Conquistadors ALISTAIR HENNESSY Centre for Caribbean Studies, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL Summary. The opening gold-plundering phase of the Conquest in the Caribbean was succeeded by the in-depth conquest and settlement of Central and South America. Fired by the crusading legacy of the Reconquest of Spain from the Moors, the conquistadors’ military, organizational, entrepreneurial and diplomatic skills, powers of endurance, and technological superiority facilitated conquest of fragmented Indian societies. To this must be added the impact of diseases, the evangelizing success of the missionaries, and the siring of a new race of mixed blood. Although the centralized, agriculture- based Aztec and Inca empires quickly fell to the conquistadors and their Indian allies, nomadic hunting, gathering and jungle tribes remained unconquered for centuries. Elsewhere in the Americas, absence of gold and silver and of a sedentary labour force resulted in different forms of societies. In French Canada, fur-trapping needed Indian co-operation; in New England family farms excluded Indian participation; in Brazil, Virginia and the Caribbean absence of Indian labour to harvest tropical staples led to the African slave trade. Whereas in Spanish America the conquistador was the culture hero, in Canada it was the coureur du bois, in New England the Puritan farmer, and in Brazil the bandeirante, explorer and path- finder of the heartland of South America. THEMORE THAT IS WRITTEN about the Conquest the more puzzling it becomes. It still perhaps poses the greatest of challenges to the historian to explain how a handful of adventurers could subdue mighty empires Read at the Academy 4 December 1992.
    [Show full text]
  • Religion in Portugal, 2002
    THE 21 ST CENTURY ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WORLD RELIGION (2002) General Editor, Dr. J. Gordon Melton Santa Barbara, California, USA Religion in Portugal By Tiago Santos and Miguel Farias Portugal, the westernmost country of Europe, was imagined by the propaganda of the fascist régime (1928-1974) as a profoundly Catholic nation. However, more recently, its syncretism has been rediscovered by the scholars of the democratic period. Furthermore, the extensive 1998 ISSP survey on religious beliefs and attitudes seems to corroborate that canonical and non-canonical beliefs and practices coexist effortlessly in Portuguese society. Prior to the foundation of the state in 1139 C.E., the territory that corresponds to present- day mainland Portugal had already been subject to a cross-pollination of religious influences by the ways of conquest, trade and migration. Before the first Iron Age, which begins as the Phoenician colonization of the Iberian Peninsula advances, all things are shrouded in the absence of thorough archaeological research. The Phoenicians brought not only the technology of iron and the first form of writing known in the Peninsula but also new rites, gods, and ways of worship. Contemporary scholarship emphasizes their survival in Christian garb. An infernal god named Endovellicus, the most documented (70 inscriptions) indigenous deity, provides an additional example of this survival of ancient religious strata; his cult not only thrived under the Roman Empire but took a later Christian spin and became a cult of Saint Michael. The story of Priscillianism, a fourth-century Christian heresy that emerged in the northwest of the Peninsula, also substantiates an image that almost anything could happen religiously.
    [Show full text]