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added , that it was after the developement of facts made by this letter that the Inquisition was suspended in Portugal from 1674 to 1681 . " At the request of Queen Christina , Vieyra , in 1669 , received from the general of his order , an invitation to visit Rome . The queen , delighted by nis eloquence , * was desirous of engaging him as her confessor ; but Vieyra ' s wishes were absorbed in his missionary labours . After having re-established
his health at Lisbon , and , in 1678 , declined new offers from the Queen of Sweden , he re-embarked for Brasil , where he arrived in 1681 . He was appointed , on the first of January , 1688 , by the general of the Jesuits , Visitor of the Provinces , and the Superior of all the Missions . He passed the remainder of his life at Bahia , where he occupied a small house with a garden , in one of the suburbs . In this retirement he employed himself in
the correction and printing of his works . He afterwards received a brief from Clement X ., authorizing him to publish his works without submitting them to the approbation of any censors—a circumstance not the least remarkable of his life . Vieyra rigidly observed his vow of poverty . He possessed no property , and wore the same cloak for fourteen years . He died in a state of nearly total blindness , in 1697 , at the age of 89 .
" In the writings , as well as in the adventurous life of Vieyra , we perceive a poetic character , which is a predominant characteristic of the Portuguese prose writers . We shall quote , in proof of this , the extract of a sermon which this zealous missionary delivered at the church of our Lady of Ajuda , at Bahia , during the obstinate and glorious struggle which Portugal
had to maintain against Holland . This piece is marked by all the pious courage and all the zealous singularity of so energetic a character . It is pronounced by the Abbe Raynal , f to be the most extraordinary discourse that ever was delivered from a Christian pulpit . Vieyra , having taken for his text the xliv . Psalm and 23 verse , where the Psalmist , addressing God , says , Awake . Why sleepest thou , O Lord ? thus proceeds :
V * It is thus remonstrating rather than supplicating that the prophet-king speaks to God . The [ present ] times and circumstances are the same . — It is not , therefore , to the people that I shall preach this day ; my voice and my words shall ascend higher . I aspire at this moment to penetrate the bosom of the Deity . This is the last day of Easter , fie dernier jour de la quinzainej which in all the churches of the mother country is devoted to prayers before the sacred altars ; and since this day is the last , it is proper to resort to the only and the last remedy . The Christian orators have in vain laboured to lead you to repentance : since then ye have been deaf , since
they have not converted you , it is thou , Lord , whom I would convert . — Knowest thou not that the heretic , elated by the successes which thou hast granted him , has already said that it is to the falsehood of our worship he owes his protection and his victories ? And what wouldst thou that the heathens who surround us should think of this ?—The Talapoin , who does not yet know thee , the unsteady Indian , scarcely wet with the water of baptism ? Hast thou then given us these countries only that they may be wrested from us ? If thou hast destined them for the Dutch , wh y didst thou not call them while the land was uncultivated ? Has the heretic rendered
thee such signal services , and are we so contemptible in thine eyes , that thou * " He preached before her in Italian . " f " Histoire PMlosophique . Paris , Amable Coste , 1820 , T . v . p . 37 ; and Jiecueil des Sermons du P . Vieyra , Lisbon , 1679 , 1696 , 12 Vola . 4 to ., terciera parte , p . 467 . The Sermon is entitled , Pdo bom Successo das Armas de Portugal contra as de Hoilande >"
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100 Memoir of Antonio Vieyru .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1828, page 100, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2557/page/28/
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