journal of jesuit studies 2 (2015) 77-99 brill.com/jjs The Role of Science in the History of Portuguese Anti-Jesuitism Henrique Leitão ciuhct, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa
[email protected] Francisco Malta Romeiras ciuhct, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa
[email protected] Abstract When dealing with the expulsion of the Jesuits from Portugal and with the building of anti-Jesuitism in the eighteenth century, historians usually focus on their alleged involve- ment in the attempt to murder king Dom José I and on the complex economical ques- tions related with the foundation of the state trade company in Brazil. However, the Pombaline accusation of obscurantism and scientific illiteracy also played a central role in the history of anti-Jesuitism in Portugal, mainly due to its wide acceptance and lon- gevity. This argument was not only directly relevant for the expulsion of the Jesuits in the eighteenth century but it was also a keystone of the anti-Jesuit propaganda that eventu- ally led to the expulsion of the Society of Jesus from Portugal in the twentieth century. Keywords anti-Jesuitism – expulsion of the Jesuits – Portuguese Jesuits – Marquis of Pombal – obscurantism – anticlericalism – republican revolution – history of science – science education – scientific popularization 1 The Arguments of an Anti-Jesuit Campaign Although anti-Jesuitism was born with the very foundation of the Society of Jesus and had a long and convoluted history, it is perhaps safe to say that it © Leitão and Romeiras, 2015 | DOI 10.1163/22141332-00201004 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial 4.0 Unported (CC-BY-NC 4.0) License.