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VIEIRA, ANTONIO (1608-1697)
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See also:VIEIRA, See also:ANTONIO (1608-1697) , Portuguese Jesuit and writer, the " See also:prince of See also:Catholic See also:pulpit-orators of his See also:time," was See also:born in See also:Lisbon on the 6th of See also:February 16o8. Accompanying his parents to See also:Brazil in 1615 he received his See also:education at the Jesuit See also:college at See also:Bahia. He entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1625, and two years later pronounced his first vows. At the See also:age of eighteen he was teaching See also:rhetoric, and a little later dogmatic See also:theology, at the college of Olinda, besides See also:writing the " See also:annual letters " of the See also:province. In 1635 he received the priesthood. He soon began to distinguish himself as an orator, and the three patriotic sermons he delivered at Bahia (1638-40) are remarkable for their imaginative See also:power and dignity of See also:language. The See also:sermon for the success of the arms of See also:Portugal against See also: His success, freedom of speech and reforming zeal had made him enemies on all sides, and only the intervention of the king prevented his See also:expulsion from the See also:Company of Jesus, so that prudence counselled his return to Brazil.
In his youth he had vowed to consecrate his See also:life to the See also:con-version of the See also:negro slaves and native See also:Indians of his adopted See also:country, and arriving in See also:Maranhao See also:early in 1653 he recommenced his apostolic labours, which had been interrupted during his stay of fourteen years in the Old See also:World. Starting from Path, he penetrated to the See also:banks of the Tocantins, making numerous converts to See also:Christianity and See also:civilization among the most See also:savage tribes; but after two years of unceasing labour, during which every difficulty was placed in his way by the colonial authorities, he saw that the Indians must be with-See also:drawn from the See also:jurisdiction of the See also:governors, to prevent their exploitation, and placed under the See also:control of the members of a single religious society. Accordingly in See also:June 1654 he set See also:sail for Lisbon to plead the cause of the Indians, and in See also:April 1655 he obtained from the king a See also:series of decrees which placed the See also:missions under the Company of Jesus, with himself as their See also:superior, and prohibited the enslavement of the natives, except in certain specified cases. Returning with this See also:charter of freedom, he organized the missions over a territory having a See also:coast-See also:line of 400 leagues, and a See also:population of 200,000 souls, and in the next six years (1655-61) the indefatigable missionary set the See also:crown on his See also:work. After a time, however, the colonists, attributing the shortage of slaves and the consequent diminution in their profits to the See also:Jesuits, began actively to oppose Vieira, and they were joined by members of thesecular See also:clergy and the other Orders who were jealous of the See also:monopoly enjoyed by the Company in the See also:government of the Indians. Vieira was accused of want of patriotism and usurpation of jurisdiction, and in 1661, See also:aster a popular revolt, the authorities sent him with See also:thirty-one other Jesuit missionaries back to Portugal. He found his friend King John IV. dead and the See also:court a See also:prey to See also:faction, but, dauntless as ever in the pursuit of his ambition, he resorted to his favourite See also:arm of preaching, and on See also:Epiphany See also:Day, 1662, in the royal See also:chapel, he replied to his persecutors in a famous rhetorical effort, and called for the See also:execution of the royal decrees in favour of the Indians. Circumstances were against him, however, and the See also:count of Castelmelhor, fearing his See also:influence at court, had him exiled first to See also:Oporto and then to See also:Coimbra; but in both these places he continued his work of preaching, and the reform of the Inquisition also occupied his See also:attention. To silence him his enemies then denounced him to that tribunal, and he was cited to appear before the See also:Holy See also:Office at Coimbra to See also:answer points smacking of See also:heresy in his sermons, conversations and writings. He had believed in the prophecies of a 16th-See also:century shoemaker poet, Bandarra, dealing with the coming of a ruler who would inaugurate an See also:epoch of unparalleled prosperity for the See also: It was a heavy See also:blow for the Company, and though Vieira recovered his freedom and much of his See also:prestige shortly afterwards on the See also:accession of King Pedro II., it was determined that he should go to Rome to procure the revision of the sentence, which still hung over him though the penalties had been removed. During a six years' See also:residence in the Eternal See also:City Vieira won his greatest triumphs. See also:Pope See also:Clement X. invited him to preach before the College of Cardinals, and he became See also:confessor to See also:Queen See also:Christina of See also:Sweden and a member of her See also:literary See also:academy. At the See also:request of the pope he See also:drew up a See also:report of two See also:hundred pages on the Inquisition in Portugal, with the result that after a judicial inquiry Pope See also:Innocent XI. suspended it for five years (1676-81). Ultimately Vieira returned to Portugal with a papal See also:bull exempting him from the jurisdiction of the See also:grand inquisitor, and in See also:January 1681 he embarked for Brazil. He resided in Bahia and occupied himself in revising his sermons for publication, and in 1687 he became superior of the province. A false See also:accusation of complicity in an assassination, and the intrigues of members of his own Company, clouded his last months, and on the 18th of See also:July 1697 he passed away. His See also:works See also:form perhaps the greatest See also:monument of Portuguese See also:prose. Two hundred discourses exist to prove his fecundity, while his versatility is shown by the fact that he could treat the same subject differently on See also:half a dozen occasions. His letters, See also:simple and conversational in style, have a deep See also:historical and political See also:interest, and form documents of the first value for the history of the See also:period. As a See also:man, Vieira would have made a nobler figure if he had not been so great an egotist and so See also:clever a courtier, and the readiness with which he sustained directly opposite opinions at See also:short intervals with equal warmth argues a certain lack of sincerity. His name, how-ever, is identified with great causes, See also:justice to the See also:Jews and humanity to the Indians, and the fact that he was in advance of his age led to many of his troubles, while his disinterestedness in See also:money matters is deserving of all praise. See also:Principal works: Sermoes (Sermons) (15 vols., Lisbon, 1679-1748); there are many subsequent See also:editions, but none See also:complete; See also:translations exist in See also:Spanish, See also:Italian, See also:German and See also:French, which have gone through several editions. Historic do Futuro (Lisbon, 1718; and ed., ibid., 1755); this and the Quinto Imperio and the See also:Clovis Prophetarum seem to be in essence one and the same See also:book in different redactions. Camas (Letters) (3 vols., Lisbon, 1735-46). Noticias reconditas do modo de proceder a Inquisicao de Portugal See also:corn os seus presos (Lisbon, 1821). The Arte de Furtar published under Vieira's name in many editions is now known not to be his. A badly edited edition of the works of Vieira in 27 volumes appeared in Lisbon, 1854-58. There are unpublished See also:MSS. of his in the See also:British Museum in See also:London, and in the Bibliotheque Nationale in See also:Paris. A bibliography of Vieira will be found in Sommervogel, Bibliotheque de la compagnie de Jesus, viii. 653-85. VI$L$-See also:GRIFFIN, See also:FRANCIS (1864– ), French poet, was born at See also:Norfolk, See also:Virginia, U.S.A., on the 26th of May 1864. He was educated in France, dividing his time between Paris and See also:Touraine. His volumes include Cueille d'avril (1885); See also:Les Cygnes (1887; new series, 1892); La Chevauchee d'Yeldis (1893) ; Swanhilde, a dramatic poem (1894) ; Laus Veneris (1895), a See also:volume of translations from See also:Swinburne; Poems et Poesies (1895), a collection containing much of his earlier work; See also:Phocas le jardinier (1898); and La Legende ailee de See also:Wieland le Forgeron (1899), a dramatic poem. M. Ville-Griffin is one of the most successful writers of the See also:vet's Libre, the theory of which he expounded, in See also:conjunction with MM. See also:Paul See also:Adam and See also:Bernard Lazare, in the pages of a periodical entitled Entretiens politiques et litteraires (1890-92). He is at his best in the See also:adaptation of the symbolism of old See also:legend to See also:modern uses. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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