Câmara (Father Luís Gonçalves da)

This Madeiran is the well-known and celebrated tutor of King Sebastian, whose qualities of character – and, in particular, the ascendancy he gained over the young monarch’s mind – have been judged in such different ways by our critics and historians. The enemies of the Society of Jesus, of which he was one of the most illustrious members, portray him as an unscrupulous and ambitious man who thought only of the aggrandisement of his order. They accuse him of having sought to encourage the excessively adventurous leanings of his pupil, which had as their sad epilogue the loss of Portuguese independence. There are others, among them the unimpeachable Manuel Bento de Sousa, who hold an entirely contrary opinion and do not blame the influence of Father Luís Gonçalves da Câmara for the risky enterprises on which King Sebastian embarked. The author just cited says: ‘Father Luís Gonçalves da Câmara was a good man. His gaze was turned to heaven, his thoughts to God, his inclinations to virtue. He was a believer, a saint, a mystic. In the higher offices of the Society he governed the fathers by peace and directed everything with gentleness, moving others by his sincere detachment from this world. As rector of the college of Coimbra he showed his subordinates nothing but meekness, and when, through discipline or as a test, he was lowered from rector to cook of the house, he bore the change with the most angelic patience. In the lands of the Moors he sacrificed his time, his rest and his health to the comfort of the captives. He lived in the dungeons and was adored by the prisoners, who prostrated themselves as he passed, kissing his habit and earnestly begging the solace of his presence. At court he gave rise to no complaint, requested no favour and found employment for no relative; and although it is said that it was he who introduced his brother Martim, and perhaps he did, it is certain that he left not a single proof of sharing in the latter’s ambitions and misgovernment. His disinterestedness went so far that he would neither eat nor sleep in the palace, so that the queen had to oblige him to do so...’

Luís Gonçalves da Câmara was born on this island in 1518, the son of João Gonçalves da Câmara, 4th

captain-donatary of Funchal, and of Dona Leonor de Vilhena, daughter of the Count of Tarouca. In a year we cannot now determine, he enrolled at the University of Paris, which was then a very important centre of European intellectual life and drew a considerable number of students from every country to its celebrated courses, whose reputation at that time was universal. There Luís da Câmara proved a student of extraordinary talent, not only in Latin, Greek and Hebrew but also in the courses of philosophy and theology, in which he distinguished himself remarkably. When John III reformed the University of Coimbra and brought several professors from France to teach in our universities, Father Luís Gonçalves da Câmara was one of those chosen to join the teaching staff of our foremost seat of learning, where he held various chairs.

He resolved to join the Society of Jesus, and within this order he held high offices. He had known the founder of the Society personally in Paris and later formed the closest friendship with him; but it was in Coimbra, while teaching at the university, that he entered the Jesuit congregation, making his profession on 2 April 1546. The following year he was appointed rector of the College of Coimbra, and three years later he went to Rome on business for his order. There, in the company of Ignatius of Loyola and other important figures, he gained great prestige and displayed his rare gifts of intellect. In the capital of the Catholic world he was chosen as superior of the Jesuits’ professed house and as visitor (visitador, ecclesiastical inspector) of the order in Portugal and Spain.

On returning to his homeland he was appointed confessor to Prince João, father of King Sebastião, and later tutor to that monarch, a post he held for some years. On this subject the author already cited says: ‘His qualities as a virtuous priest were, in the time of Sebastião, the same that everyone had recognised in him when they had earlier sought him out as confessor to John III, overriding his wishes, which were only to live in the seclusion of his cell. His pupil grew so attached to him that losing him was the greatest sorrow of his life. That king without affections, who esteemed no one in this world with sincerity of heart, wept for only two people: Father Câmara and Dom Álvaro de Castro... Great must have been the master’s gifts to achieve this wholly moral seduction, which lacked even the aid of physical attractions, which help so much. Father Câmara was exceedingly ugly, a stammerer and blind in one eye.’ It was doubtless for this reason that Pinheiro Chagas asserts that he prevailed through the power of his intellect alone. The affection, however, that he inspired in his royal pupil, in his subordinates at Coimbra and in the captives in Morocco cannot in any way have been won by the force of intellect alone.

Historical works, including those of Pinheiro Chagas, commonly assert that Luís Gonçalves da Câmara exercised a baleful influence on the mind of Sebastião. Manuel Bento de Sousa contradicts this in the following terms: ‘it was the great Marquis of Pombal... who in his indictment of the Jesuits heaped up every fault that imagination could invent..., it was he who gave most currency to this inaccuracy, making Father Câmara a corrupter of the young king in the interests of the order.’ Father Luís Gonçalves da Câmara died in Lisbon on 15 March 1575, aged 57.