Abstract
Antônio Vieira lived through almost the whole seventeenth century. He lived in remarkable places and saw remarkable people of his time: in the deep Amazon forest with Indians untouched by Western civilization; in the Portuguese-Jewish community of Amsterdam with Menasseh ben Israel; in Paris with Cardinal Mazarin; in Rome with Queen Christina of Sweden; in a prison cell with Portuguese Inquisitors.
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Notes
In Vieira’s utopia there will be no sin at all, everybody will be saved, most will live more than 300 years, and there will be no conflict of values, laws or beliefs in the entire world.
Antônio Vieira, Obras Escolhidas,ed. por Antônio Sérgio e Hernâni Cidade (Lisboa: Livraria Sa da Costa, 1953), IX: 104ff.
Vieira, Obras Escolhidas,VIII: 214. “0 templo de Jerusalem sera reedificado e se hâo-de restabelecer as oblaçoes, etc., näo como significativas do sacrificio incruento ou da eucaristia como futura, porém sim do sacrificio eucaristico como presente.” Vieira saw this permission as necessary to facilitate the conversion of the Jews.
See Jonathan I. Israel, “Dutch Sephardi Jewry, Millenarian Politics, and the Struggle for Brazil (1640–1654),” in David S. Katz and J.I. Israel (eds) Sceptics, Millenarians and Jews. ( Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1990 ), 76–97.
Vieira, Obras Escolhidas,VIII: 177–182. It should be noted that Vieira was one of the main opponents to the enslavement of the Indians by Portuguese settlers.
Ibid.,VI: 36. “Bandarra is a true prophet. He prophesied that King Joao IV will do many things that he has not done yet nor can he do if he does not resurrect. Therefore King Joao IV will resurrect.”
Ibid. The main prophecies of Bandarra according to Vieira are that the Portuguese king will sail to Jerusalem, that in his way to Jerusalem he will defeat the Turks, be crowned the king of the Turkish empire, bring to the Pope the Lost Tribes converted to Christianity and establish universal peace in the whole world.
The general main charge raised by the Inquisition was that Vieira was providing interpretations of Scripture different and independent from those of the Church authorities.
For a detailed biography of Vieira, see J.L. Azevedo, Historia de Antônio Vieira ( Lisbon: Editora Classica, 1992 ).
Vieira, Obras Escolhidas,VIII: 19. “In the first it is shown that a new empire will be established in the world; in the second, what empire will this be; in the third, its greatness and happiness; in the fourth, the means through which it will be established; in the fifth, in what land; in the sixth, when; in the seventh, by whom.”
Ibid. 9. “Prophetic language is more suited to the majesty of the mysteries and to instill admiration for them than to make them known and intelligible”
Ibid.,27. “to the common good and rule of mankind and to the private good of all men.”
Vieira means sacred histories of the future, which are based on attested prophecies, for no human being has knowledge of the future without God’s extraordinary illumination.
Ibid.,46. Vieira argues that in the same way that Jeremiah’s prophecies brought peace of mind to the captive Jews in Babylon — for they announced their future liberty, the prophecies of Bandarra, Gregório de Almeida e Frei Gil produced the same effect among the Portuguese during the Spanish rule.
Ibid.,67. “Lerdo os Portugueses, e todos os que Ihes quiserem ser companheiros, este prodigioso livro do futuro, e coin ele embraçado em uma mao e a espada na outra, posta toda a confiança ern Deus e em sua palavra, que conquista havera que nâo empreenderâo?”
But of course disagreeing with Vieira’s historical interpretation of them, attributing not to Portugal but to Spain the leading role in the millenarian events.
Ibid.,91–92, 115. Vieira makes another interesting comparison with the ancient Jews on this issue. He notes that Cyrus, who was gentile, recognized the prophetic nature of the dream that said the Jews would be freed, releasing them spontaneously. By contrast, the Catholic kings of Spain fail to recognize the prophecies that glorify Portugal, thereby uselessly shedding blood.
The major ancient sources of scepticism are Cicero’s Academica and Sextus Empiricus’ Outlines of Pyrrhonism and Adversus Mathematicos. Richard H. Popkin has shown in his classic work, The History of Scepticism from Erasmus to Spinoza,(Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1979) that the revival of ancient scepticism in the Renaissance, in particular the rediscovery of the writings of Sextus Empiricus, coincided with the intellectual crisis of the Counter-Reformation and led to an widespread and deep Pyrrhonian crisis in Western thought.
See R.H. Popkin, “Prophecy and Scepticism in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century,” British Journal for the History of Philosophy, Vol. 4 (1996), 1–20.
Vieira was certainly aware of the skeptical challenge through the philosophy textbooks used in Jesuit colleges of the time. See Laurence Brockliss, “Discussing Method in the University World of Descartes France,” British Journal for the History of Philosophy, Vol 3 (1995), 16–20.
Vieira, op. cit 1. Man knows little of the present, still less of the past, and nothing of the future.
Ibid.,226. Sacred histories of the past are excepted from his scepticism with respect to historical reports of past events because such histories are also based on scripture. However, he claims that sacred histories of the future are more certain than sacred histories of the past because there is controversy over the precise date of the creation of the world, compromising any subsequent chronology. By contrast, the starting point of the history of the future is not the origin of the world, which is uncertain, but the end of the world, which can be established with moral certainty from the Bible.
Ibid.,136. Secular histories “are full not only of uncertain and not probable things but also of things inconsistent with truth and acknowledged as false. This may or not be the fault of the historian.”
Ibid. These pieces of information “are mixed with many errors that arise out of ignorance or malice”
These factors are indicated by Sextus Empiricus in the fourth mode based on conditions and dispositions that leads to the suspension of judgment. Sextus notes that every subject is necessarily in one or other disposition. Because different dispositions lead to very different perceptions of the same thing one cannot assert that the thing is such as it appears from one’s perspective. See Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism I, ed. by R.G. Bury ( Cambridge: Loeb Classical Library, 1990 ), 101–117.
Pierre Bayle, “Chrysippus,” note G, Dictionnaire Historique et Critique.
Vieira, op. cit.: 136. Historians “having such a clean heart and completely in love of truth”
Ibid.,137. “Whoever wants to have a clear picture of the falsity of secular histories should read the same history related by different historians. He will see that the reports are contradictory. Because only one of them can tell the truth it is certain that none does.”
Sextus Empiricus, Outlines, I 165. “The mode based on discrepancy leads us to find that with regard to the object presented there has arisen both amongst ordinary people and amongst the philosophers an interminable conflict because of which we are unable either to choose a thing or reject it, and so fall back on suspension.”
Vieira, op. cit 147 and 150. God wills that the content of a prophecy be fully displayed only in the right time. This is “para nos ter sempre suspensos na expectaçâo e pendentes de sua providência.”
The same reason explains the expectation that the fulfillment of the prophecies is imminent. Were they not imminent they could not be historically interpreted. When the expected day arrives and nothing happens Vieira, like other millenarians, delays the expected day. The new date cannot be too distant for in this case the prophecies could no longer be historically interpreted.
Ibid.,230–244. Vieira gives a very detailed interpretation of this prophetic text, arguing that it refers to the Amazon region.
Sextus Empiricus, Outlines, I, 169. This is the “mode of circular reasoning… when the proof itself which ought to establish the matter of inquiry requires confirmation derived from that matter.”
See R.H. Popkin, Isaac La Peyère, His Life, His Ideas and His Influence ( Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1987 ).
See S. Akerman, “Queen Christina and Messianic Thought” in David S. Katz and J.I. Israel (eds) Sceptics, Millenarians and Jews ( Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1990 ), 150–51.
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Neto, J.R.M. (2001). Vieira’s Epistemology of History. In: Kottman, K.A. (eds) Millenarianism and Messianism in Early Modern European Culture. Archives Internationales d’Histoire des Idées / International Archives of the History of Ideas, vol 174. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2280-3_7
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