In order to give an unprejudiced view of the methods and purposes pursued by the early Jesuit missionaries I quote from Baron de Santa-Anna Nery,[4] himself a Catholic: “The Missionaries did not insist upon any strict theological teaching, being sure that their orthodoxy would soon be disfigured; they had but one aim in view, to render gentle and good these unhappy human beings, who gave themselves up recklessly to every impulse of their violent passions.
“The God of the Christians became for these imaginative savages the awe-inspiring Tupan. Satan was incarnate in the person of the terrible Anangá. Then they grasped a trinity, based upon the Catholic Trinity, and composed of the sun, the moon and Ruda, the god of love. We took part in our childhood at processions where fetich beliefs were mixed up with Christian rites. The ingenious priests who invented ceremony certainly did more than all the other preachers put together to perpetuate a semblance of the Catholic faith amongst the Indians.
“When the Indians celebrated any saint’s day they erected an altar in their hut upon which they placed an image of the Saint and at its feet is placed the Siare. In front of the house they raise a large thatched roof. Tables are set up and everything prepared for dancing and merrymaking.”
In this way were the native Indians induced to adopt at least the external forms of religion. It was not long until the majority of the aborigines became nominal adherents of the new religion. Wherever a tribe became baptized a church was erected in which to hold services, and a priest was left in charge. These priests instructed the Indians in rudimentary agriculture as well as theology, and the superiority of the educated priest over the ignorant native soon gave him a position of great vantage and influence. Power proved pleasing to the Jesuit. It was not long until the priests were really stronger than the civil authorities, and a practical theocracy sprang into existence.
They fought for the freedom of the Indian. The colonists wanted to enslave these poor natives, and make them work, willingly or unwillingly, on the plantations which they themselves were too lazy to cultivate. This was strenuously resisted by the Jesuit fathers, and by the church authorities in general, and led to many hard struggles. So when we read of the early struggles between the “Paulistas” and the Jesuits, one cannot help but sympathize with the latter, for they were championing the rights of the weak. And yet their motives do not seem to have been wholly altruistic, for they eventually endeavoured to reduce the Indians to a blind obedience to their own whims and will. Though they gave him a great measure of peace, they made him a blind servant to the will of an ambitious priesthood. The colonists continued their efforts to enslave the Indians, and in the end the Jesuits were expelled for a time from several of the states.
One of the most noted of this order was named José Anchieta, who was a native of Teneriffe, and the son of a Portuguese nobleman. It was as much due to his courage and genius as any other cause that the Jesuit influence spread as it did and became established so firmly that it has not been shaken even to this day in many sections of Brazil. He was sincere, eloquent, learned and an indefatigable worker. He went among the Indians, learned their language and acquired an almost superhuman influence among them. He became looked upon by the natives as almost divine. Water poured over his bones is said to have worked a thousand miracles, and a few drops of it are reported to have turned water into wine. Other men of power and influence there were, and a string of missions was established among all the capitancias. These reached up the Amazon to the uppermost limits of Portuguese territory, and even to the region claimed by the Spanish Jesuits, where some minor conflicts of authority ensued. The Jesuits founded a number of educational institutions in Brazil, which have exerted a great and good influence, and many of these exist even to-day. This is greatly to the credit of this remarkable order.
Bahia has always been a great centre of church influence in Brazil. There is one chapel in that city that was founded in 1582. It was built upon a spot where a miraculous image of a Virgin was said to have been discovered. And so one will find all over Brazil, as well as in Spanish-America, churches whose foundation is built upon alleged sacred spots, and many of them are now places for pilgrimages. One of these is the church of Nuestra Senhora de Peñha, which can be seen on a conspicuous height as one proceeds up the harbour of Rio de Janeiro. This church is reached by a series of three hundred and sixty-five steps. During one week in October thousands upon thousands of the natives visit this sacred shrine, and many of them climb up all of these steps on their knees as evidence of contrition, or act of penance. Everywhere church festas are celebrated, and many of these retain in a remarkable degree the traditions of old. In Bahia the natives celebrate one festa occasion by gathering together all the donkeys of the city, and elaborately decorating them with foliage and flowers.
CHURCH AT NICTHEROY.
At Pará is celebrated a festa which is noted in the country. The origin of the celebration is generally described as herewith given. Two hunters sought rest under the shade of a tree while returning from a hunt, and fell asleep. A strange woman appeared to one of the men in a dream, and told him to search in a thicket nearby. To his great surprise a beautiful image of the Virgin was found near the trunk of a palm tree. The two men were overjoyed at the find and presented it to the governor, who placed it in the palace chapel. On a certain day it was decided to show the image to the public, but the image had disappeared. A search disclosed it in the same thicket. A second time it was placed in the palace chapel, and a second time it found its way back to the thicket. This transpired at least twice more, although tradition differs as to the exact number of times, and then it was decided to build a chapel on that spot. This was done. Miracles have been very numerous at this shrine. Its virtues have so spread that thousands visit it, and a great procession is formed each year with the statue occupying an important position in it. Everyone joins in the procession, and the occasion is made a great event at Pará. The collection of relics in the form of wax arms and wax legs, with red spots showing where deadly wounds had been healed, and wax heads with red spots showing where sores or wounds had been cured is exceedingly ghastly. The belief of the people in these traditions is no doubt much less than in former times, and many who take part in the festas now probably do so principally because it is a custom hallowed by age.