Jesuits

João Gonçalves da Câmara, the sixth captain-donatary (capitão-donatário) of Funchal, was in Lisbon when, in the first days of October 1566, French corsairs attacked this city and carried out the terrible sack of which the old Madeiran chronicles speak with such horror. The donatary came to the rescue at once, but the help brought by his fleet arrived too late, for the French had already left the island after several days of destruction and slaughter. In this fleet the captain-donatary brought the Portuguese Jesuit Francisco Varca, whose companion was a Castilian religious of the same order, surnamed Naxera. The preaching and religious services of these two members of the Society of Jesus pleased people enormously, so much so that the author of the Saudades went as far as to say, in a grossly exaggerated hyperbole, ‘that he did not know which of these things had been greater for this island, what it lost with the arrival of the corsairs or what it gained with the coming of these religious’.

Three years later, at the urgent request of the inhabitants of Funchal, King Sebastian founded a college of the Society in this city by the royal decree (alvará régio) of 20 August 1569, which is transcribed in full on p. 738 of ‘Longing for the Homeland’ (Saudades da Terra). This document fixed the annual endowment at 600$00 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis), ‘paid in produce of the best quality and that with which the Rector and fathers of the said College are most content’. This endowment, for the year 1569, that is, three and a half centuries ago, was not small, but it grew considerably through many private donations and various privileges granted by the monarchs.

To form the new community, the following left Lisbon on 9 March 1570 and reached Madeira on the 18th of the same month: Father Manuel de Sequeira, rector of the College; Father Pedro Quaresma, professor of moral theology; Father Belchior de Oliveira, to perform the religious duties; the deacon Vasco Baptista, professor of Latin and rhetoric; and two further religious. Because plague was raging in the capital, they did not enter this city but settled provisionally in some houses belonging to Fernão Favila next to the chapel of Nossa Senhora da Ajuda (Our Lady of Help), where they stayed for little more than a month.

The Jesuits then moved their residence to the hospice (albergaria) of St Bartholomew, founded by Gonçalo Anes Velosa (see vol. 1, pp. 30 and 70), and remained there for some years. Less than two months after their arrival, they opened their classes in theology, philosophy, Latin and rhetoric in some houses next to the old chapel of São Sebastião (St Sebastian), on the site now called Largo do Comércio. The solemn opening took place on 6 May, and on that occasion Professor Vasco Baptista delivered a speech in Latin befitting the event.

From 13 to 30 June 1570, that is, a few months after the religious of the Society had settled in Funchal, the forty Jesuits who were martyred by French Huguenots off the Canary Islands stayed in this city; they were later canonised, as stated in the article devoted to Blessed Inácio de Azevedo (see vol. I, p. 110).

We shall deal with the Jesuits’ College and Church in a separate article.

The royal decree establishing the college states that the religious would reside there ‘studying and reading Latin and cases of conscience’, but it is known that they also taught logic and rhetoric, which made up an abridged course in the old humanities. When the members of the Society settled into the new College, they opened their courses there. These were called the Aulas do Pátio (‘Courtyard Classes’, the public secondary classes held in the former Jesuit college), because they were held in an inner courtyard that formed part of the College, as has already been described in the article Education.

Besides the church of the College of São João Evangelista (St John the Evangelist) (Colégio de São João Evangelista), the Jesuits owned the residences of Pico dos Frias (‘the Frias’ peak’), near the Pico (‘peak’) fortress (Fortaleza do Pico), of Pico do Cardo (‘thistle peak’), in Santo António (‘St Anthony’), of Our Lady of Succour (Nossa Senhora do Socorro), in Caniço (‘reed’), and of Fundoa, in São Roque, on the right bank of the Ribeira de Santa Luzia (‘St Lucy’). They were country houses with chapels attached, where the Jesuits took turns to carry out the various religious services.

The upkeep of the community, the religious solemnities and other acts of worship, the pious obligations imposed by the benefactors and donors of the college and church, and the other obligations inherent in the religious orders all called for great expense. This was met from the substantial revenues the Jesuits held on this island. If we give full credence to the documents published on p. 747 and following of the Saudades, we see that the Society of Jesus had an income in Madeira of 10,808,049 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis). Of this, 5,670,000 réis came from public taxes, 4,028,783 réis from the revenues of the estates of the College, Church and Chancel, and 1,109,266 réis from the revenues of the estates of the chantries of Our Lady of Succour, St Anthony, São Miguel, São Francisco Xavier and Cem Mil Virgens. Besides these revenues, the community of the College of São João Evangelista had others, from capital lent at interest, etc.

According to the same documents, the public taxes collected by the Jesuits were the revenue from bread and wine in the parishes (freguesias) of Campanário, Ribeira Brava, Tabua and Serra de Água; that from fish and small tithes (miunças) in the parish of Campanário (‘bell tower’); that from fish, vegetables and small tithes in the parish of Ribeira Brava (‘wild river’); that from small tithes and vegetables in the parishes of Tabua (‘bulrush’) and Serra de Água (‘water sawmill’); and that from fish in the parish of Tabua.

When the Marquis of Pombal ordered the expulsion of the Jesuits throughout the country, the members of the Society living on this island had to abandon their College, after being held there as prisoners, cut off from all contact, for more than a year. On 29 May 1759 the College and the Church were unexpectedly surrounded, and the imprisonment and isolation continued until 16 July 1760, when the religious embarked for Lisbon. The carrack the Nativity of Our Lady (Nossa Senhora da Natividade), commanded by the Count of São Vicente, came to Funchal; he was charged with conveying to the capital the eighteen Jesuits who were in Madeira.

During the imprisonment all their movable and immovable property was sequestrated. An inventory was drawn up of the rural and urban properties, the furniture, the objects of worship, the silver, the money, etc., and all the documents and papers found in the various residences were carefully collected. The Church and the College were placed in the keeping of the diocesan prelate. The properties were let and later sold at public auction. The Quinta Grande (‘large estate’), which is today a parish (freguesia) and was the largest of the Jesuits’ properties, was sold for 140,000 cruzados; the quinta (country estate) of Pico do Cardo fetched 7 contos, and the residence of Pico dos Frias 9 contos.

Among the Madeiran Jesuits we must mention here Luís Gonçalves da Câmara, Manuel Álvares and Sebastião de Morais, with whom we deal elsewhere in this Elucidário.