O Padre Antonio Vieira e os interesses cristãos-novos

Abstract

O discurso de Vieira sobre a ordem económica do seu tempo e a tenaz procura de soluções a que dedicou grande parte da sua vida, sobretudo entre 1643, data da famosa Proposta, e 1681, ano em que regressou à Baía, é indissociável da luta travada pela defesa dos cristãos- -novos emigrados para que se moderassem as práticas inquisitoriais. Afinal, que pretende Vieira desde 1643? Em síntese isto: que os fundos financeiros sejam investimento activo em companhias de comércio de longa distância, e os benefícios, garante, logo se tomariam evidentes.

The ideas of the Jesuit António Vieira about the economic order of his time, and his persistent search of solutions, to which he devoted a considerable part of his life - above all between 1643 (when he wrote his famous Proposta) and 1681 (the year in which he returned to Baía- Brasil) - are closely related to his stmggle in favour of the so called “New Christians” (converted Jews), specially of those who had been forced to leave Portugal fleeing the Inquisition. However by proposing that the Holy Office should be more temperate towards the New Christians, he aimed at attracting their financial resources to be invested in trade companies, from which great benefits - as he asserted - would soon be obtained.