PORTUGAL
305
PORTUGAL
I (1861-89), and Charles I (1889-1908), was one of
internal peace and increasing material prosperity.
But only in the last few years have Portuguese
Catholics begun to emerge from a state of lethargy.
Modern Portuguese statesmen, usually Catholic only
in name, have interested themselves in ecclesiastical
affairs to preserve old privileges, such as the Padroado
in the East, but hardly ever to assist the Church in
the performance of her Divine mission. The Con-
cordat of 1886 regulated many of the questions in
dispute with the State and Hintze Ribeiro's decree
of 1896 authorized the existence of religious order.s
under certain conditions. The prospect of better
conditions for the Church vanished, however, with
the coming of the Revolution in 1910, which drove
the Braganza dynasty from the throne, and delivered
Portugal into the hands of the Radicals, whose
hostility to the Catholic religion was made evident
by the adverse course of the Provisional Government
set up by the Revolutionists. On 1 February, 1908,
King Charles and the Crown Prince were assassinated
in the streets of Lisbon. The murder was perpe-
trated by a man named Buica and several associates,
and was applauded by the Republican press. The
succession devolved on the second son, who ascended
the throne as Emanuel II. His reign was, however,
brief. On 3 October, 1910, a revolution, which had
been arranged for 10 October, broke out prematurely,
and Emanuel fled from the capital to Gibraltar, where
he shortly afterwards embarked for England. A
provisional government, republican in form, was pro-
claimed, with Theophilus Braga, a native of the
Azores, as President. He immediately set to work
to carry out the radical measures of the republican
programme, the first of which was the summary and
violent expulsion of the religious congregations, the
seizure of their property by the State, the abolition
of the Senate and all hereditary privileges and titles.
The separation of Church and State was also arbi-
trarily decreed by the provisional government.
On 20 April, 1911, a second decree, in 196 articles, was promulgated, regulating in detail the previously sweeping enactments. Article 38 of this decree pro- hibits any minister of religion, under the penalties of article 137 of the Criminal Code and the loss of the material benefits (pensions) of the State, from criti- cizing "in the exercise of his ministry and on the occasion of any act of worship, in sermons or in public writings, the public authority or any of its acts, or the form of the government or the laws of the Republic, or denying or calling into question the rights of the State embodied in this decree or in other legislation relative to the Churches". Chapter iv devotes twenty-seven articles to the ownership and administration of church buildings and property. Churches, chapels, lands, and chattels, hitherto ap- plied to the public worship of the Catholic religion are declared property of the State, unless bona fide ownership by some private individual or corpora- tion can be proved. Chapter v, in twenty-four articles, provides for boards of laymen (after the man- ner of the French Law of Associations) to take charge of and administer the temporalities needed for Catho- lic worship. This arrangement is, however, revo- cable at the pleasure of the grantor (the State). Buildings intended for religious purposes, but not yet utilized, whether in course of construction or completed; buildings which for a year have not been used for religious purposes and such as by 31 Decem- ber, 1912, shall have no board of laymen to adminis- ter them, shall be taken by the State for some social purpose. Only Portuguese citizens who have made their theological studies in Portugal may officiate. Chapter vi deals with the question of pensions for the ministers of the Catholic religion, and permits them to marry. Article 175, chapter vii, stipulates that "ministers of religion enjoy no privileges and XII.— 20
are authorized to correspond officially by mail
with the public authorities only, and not with one
another".
A Constituent Assembly, elected early in the sum- mer of 1911, on 19 June of that year formally decreed the abolition of the Portuguese monarchy.
III. Actual Conditions. — A. Ecclesiastical Or- ganization. — By the Constitutional Charter Catholi- cism was, prior to the Republic, the religion of the State, but all other religions were tolerated, so long as they were not practised in a building having the exterior form of a church. Continental Portugal is divided ecclesiastically into three metropolitan provinces, containing twelve dioceses (nine suffragan). The Patriarchate of Lisbon has for suffragan sees Guarda and Portalegre; the Archbishopric of Braga has those of Braganea, Lamego, Coimbra, Oporto, and Vizeu; the Archbishopric of Evora, those of Beja and Faro. The Patriarch of Lisbon is con- sidered to be entitled to a cardinal's hat, and the archbishop of Braga bears the title of "Primate of the Spains", an honour which, however, is dis- puted by Toledo. The Azores and Madeira each contain an episcopal see and the colonial sees include those of Cape Verde, Angola, Goa (a patriarchate), Damao, Cochin, Mylapur, Macao, Mozambique, and St. Thomas (S. Thomg).
According to the Concordat of 1886, bishops were nominated by the Government, appointed by the pope, and paid by the State. Parish priests were appointed by the minister of justice, after informa- tion as to their fitness supplied by the bishops, so that they were State functionaries, and often owed their positions to political influence. To qualify for any ecclesiastical post, they had to obtain a govern- ment license before taking orders. In the Islands the parish priests were paid by the State, but on the Con- tinent their income was derived partly from a fund called Congrua, which consisted of contributions levied on the parishioners, and partly from stole fees. There were twelve seminaries for the education of the clergy on the Continent, two in the Islands, and four in other colonies. There is also a Portu- guese College in Rome and one for Foreign Mis- sionaries in Portugal. The seminaries were sup- ported partly by their own funds and partly by the Junta Geral da Bulla da Cruzada, an ancient in- stitution which derived its income from offerings made for dispensations, etc. The clergy were exempt from military and jury service, and were ineligible for any administrative position, except the Parish Council (Junta da Parochia), of which the parish priest is the president. These councils administered the property of the parish church and taxed the parishioners for the construction and repair of church and presbytery, the expenses of worship, church orna- ments and vestments, etc. The confrarias and irmandades, which numbered about 9000, were in- dependent bodies, ruled by their own statutes.
B. Religinus Orders. — How the Jesuits were ex- pelled by Pombal, and how, in 1834, the religious orders of men were suppressed and their property seized by the State, has been told above. .At the same time the orders of women were prohibited from taking novices and were allowed to die out, after which their convents also passed to the State, but by the Decree of IS April, 1901, religious congrega- tions were permitted to exist when they were dedi- cated exclusively to instruction or good works, or to spreading Christianity and civilization in the colonies. Long before this decree, the Jesuits had returned and opened colleges for the education of youth, and a number of orders and religious institutes were even- tually established in Portugal. These included Missionaries of the Holy Ghost, Benedictines, Franciscans, Irish Dominicans, Little Sisters of the Poor, Sisters of the Third Order of St. Dominic,
