Some notes on the Cortes Polyticas de Appolo by Agostinho Manuel de Vasconcelos.

Curto, Diogo Ramada

Agostinho Manuel de Vasconcelos wrote a discourse entitled Cortes Polyticas de Appolo. Celebradas neste anno de 1628 na villa de Cintra. Resumidas, e divulgadas por mandado de S. Majestade clarissima pello excelentissimo Mercurio, embaixador, e interprete dos Deoses e Presidente do Conselho da Reformacao Serenissima. * Several copies of this manuscript in Portuguese have survived in different archives, without any explicit reference to the name of the author. (1) This is perhaps the reason why scholars interested in this period, and in this writer in particular have completely ignored what is in fact, in literary terms, one of the most sophisticated works penned by him. (2) Many other texts published or written in the short period which runs from the Discursos varios politicos (1624) by Manuel Severim de Faria, to the Primor e honra da vida soldadesca (1630) edited by the Jesuit father Antonio Freire, belong to the same context of intense political discussion. (3) Although extremely important, the analysis of that context will not be at the centre of this paper, whose aim is to capture the intention of the author using different languages and vocabularies. The analytical argument followed in this paper will challenge some of the most recent interpretations of Portuguese political culture during the period the Habsburg dual monarchy.

History, notably the history of Portuguese kings and noble captains, is one of the most common languages used by Vasconcelos in order to shape a political discourse. This is evident in Vida de Don Duarte de Meneses, Tercero Conde de Viana. Y sucessos notables de Portugal en su tiempo, published a year earlier, and in the two works that came out in 1639 in Madrid, the Vida y acciones del Rey don Juan el Segundo, and Sucession del Rey Don Filipe segundo en la corona de Portugal. In fact, the initial chapters of the treaty are dedicated to the succession and principal actions of Portuguese kings. The themes examined include the defence of the sovereignty of the kingdom, the donations practised by a number of monarchs seeking the support of their nobility, the reaction of D. Joao II against the liberality of his predecessors and his strategy for the assertion of absolute power, the policy of openness towards New Christians by D. Manuel and his benevolence towards the Braganca family persecuted by his predecessor, the controversial abandonment of North African fortresses by D. Joao III, the madness of D. Sebastiao represented by his imperial dream in contrast to the reforms promoted by the Crown during his reign, his education by the Jesuits, the rumours about his survival after the battle of 1578, the unstable character of D. Henrique, and the Portuguese patriotism represented by D. Antonio rival claimant to the crown against Philip II. Until 1580, dynastic conflicts leading to doubts about the legitimate titles of new kings, donations affecting the king's patrimony, reforms promoted by the Crown, and debates concerning the emerging signs of Portuguese decline and its reasons are some of the problems raised in the text by reference to the history of the Portuguese monarchy. (4) With the arrival of Philip II in Portugal, the discussion of the status of the king wavers between that of conqueror and father, but by the time it comes to his son Philip III of Spain (always referred to as Philip II of Portugal), it is clear he is seen as no longer treating the Portuguese as their father, but as conquered subjects. Breaking with the rights and privileges sworn by his father at the Cortes of Tomar, all the factors leading to Portuguese decline were set in place: Castilian ministers were introduced in the government of Portugal, the Crown patrimony was alienated, conquests overseas were not protected, and several efforts to widen taxation were made. The king was not considered entirely guilty of these misdoings, and is at one point presented as acting under the influence of his favourites. In any case, for Agostinho Manuel, at least since the campaign of D. Antonio, Prior do Crato, as claimant to the crown, there are reasons to consider the growing importance of patriotic or nationalistic feelings as a central factor for understanding Portuguese political history. (5) Thus Philip II, for example, is portrayed, as at least apparently acting like a father of the Portuguese, in order to compensate for their melancholic sense of loss over the age when they had been ruled by their own kings. (6)

If history provided Agostinho Manuel one of the political languages with which to express his patriotic vision of Portugal, he can by no means be said to have written a history of Portugal. His way of using the past was shaped by the adoption of a kind of dramatic fiction, in the form of a mythological assembly held in Sintra, chaired by Apollo, god of the sun, and attended by all the Portuguese kings. This literary construction --clearly inspired in Traiano Boccalini's Ragguagli di Parnaso--allows the author to play off different characters from across different time periods. When Philip II arrives in Sintra, for example, all the other Portuguese kings refuse to meet with him. (7) The presence of Egas Moniz, who, as a contemporary of the first king of Portugal, is made to represent the ancestral Portuguese at this assembly, demonstrates the possibilities of the same literary device. More specifically, the analogy with royal ceremonies --from royal audiences to grand entrances, from banquets to royal visits to the High Court and funerals--can be found all through the text. In this regard the most spectacular use of a literary construction shaped by royal or court ceremonies can be found in the description of the festival organized by Diana to celebrate the presence of Apollo at her court. The most important Virtues were invited to participate in a magnificent banquet, which was no simple task since they all lived very far way from the court... Honesty, Mercy, Justice, Fortitude, Prudence, Modesty, Temperance are characters praised by Apollo in a discourse made at the end of the banquet. The succession of feasts was followed by a literary dispute won by Luis de Camoes, prince of the Portuguese poets. (8)

The classification of Portuguese writers and historians defines a concrete frame with which Agostinho Manuel entertained a dialogue among peers. Though Camoes was the prince of all the poets, there was still competition among the writers. Sa de Miranda, as a poet and moral philosopher aspired to rival with him and with Seneca and Plato. Other poets with moral aspirations are referred in terms of their abilities: the gentleness of Diogo Bernardes, the elegance of Rodrigues Soropita, the culture of Estevao Rodrigues, and the inspiration of Soares de Albergaria. The responsibility for excluding other poets, like the author of the Sylvia de Lisardo, is attributed to Apollo. This list is followed by another, of writers of comedies, in which the preoccupation with hierarchical ranking is more evident: Jorge Ferreira de Vasconcelos takes first and second places with Eufrosina and Ulissipo, respectively, while the third position is attributed in equal terms to Camoes and Sa de Miranda. Two romances of chivalry are considered as equivalent to poetry: Amadis written by D. Vasco Lobeira, regarded as an old and noble Portuguese, receives the first place, followed by Palmeirim de Inglaterra whose author, Francisco de Morais, was another Portuguese. More ambiguous is the integration in the same series of the works of some historians who are depicted as willing to compete with the poetry, or fiction, represented by the romances of chivalry. In fact, Antonio Brandao, author of the first part of the Monarquia Lusitana, and Pedro de Mariz, known for his Dialogos de varia historia, were for different reasons disqualified as historians, and in part identified as authors of fictions. Honours for historians emerge at other points in the text, where the work of Duarte Nunes de Leao is quoted, or the histories of the Portuguese expansion in Asia by Joao de Barros and Diogo do Couto are presented in contrast to the works of poetry, headed by Camoes. In any case the history of the Portuguese expansion is conceived in terms of the role of noble captains like Vasco da Gama, Afonso de Albuquerque, D. Francisco de Almeida, D. Joao de Castro and D. Luis de Ataide. (9)

The names of noble and virtuous captains who made the Portuguese empire, the names of Portuguese kings, and the names of a few other heroes, like D. Nuno Alvares Pereira or Egas Moniz, represent ways of thinking about the history of Portugal. In parallel to this process of identifying a nation (to use our modern vocabulary), Agostinho Manuel insisted on the importance of different forms of writing, from poetry to history, calling attention to the names of different authors, and foremost to Luis de Camoes. In other words, history and literature are the two pillars of a more general work of identifying a nation, while at the same time discussing her political situation. One can also suggest that the double status of Agostinho Manuel as historian and as poet (or critic of poetry) is strongly present in a text that is conceived by means of a literary device. The author himself insisted on this point, declaring that he was obliged to hide a virtuous moral and political doctrine under the cover of a metaphor, following the examples inspired in Traiano Bocallini and others of using paintings, chess games or other children's games, as a means to better work his effect and convince his audience. (10) The political language of virtues opposed to vices, therefore, occupies the centre of the stage. To demonstrate the centrality of a discourse about virtues, Agostinho Manuel cites Joao de Barros, who he translated the Ethics of Aristotle through the metaphor of a game (in a work presented to the mother of Philip II), and planned to do the same for the Aristotelian conceptions of Economics and Politics. (11) Another way of representing the so-called political language of virtues is exemplified by the already mentioned deployment of the Virtues as characters attending the banquet that Diana offered to Apollo, following the reception of the Portuguese kings in Sintra. In this case the language of virtues overlaps with that of court ceremonies (to which one can also add the popular model of letters from Hell or the writing of wills). (12) Other instances at which the text is clearly shaped by the same language can be found in the portrayal of the perfect viceroy or governor, of the perfect general or captain, and also in the figure of the prince. (13)

Virtues are also the main criterion for evaluating decline, within a cyclical conception of time, which proceeds from creation to expansion, and always ends up in decline. (14) Some references by Agostinho Manuel support the interpretation that the decline of Portugal could be conceived as Divine punishment for human sins. However, the intention of the author is mostly oriented to point out the human causes for Portuguese decline, such as: private interests opposed to public virtues, the breakdown of manly or virtuous values, and the proliferation of rumours exciting different forms of envy. The reference, at the start of the text, to the example of D. Afonso IV who was mostly devoted to the pleasures of hunting, and for this reason forgot his duties to the res publica, illustrates the importance of denouncing private passions or interests. (15) More general is the denunciation of private interests, and the ambition of wealth in particular, as the main cause of the decline of the Portuguese empire in the East. (16) By the same token, the impact of courtly fashions, the new patterns of consumption ascribed to the devilish behaviour of women, and the evident signs of diffused practices of homosexuality represented another way of conceiving the decline of society. (17) In contrast to these tendencies, Agostinho Manuel emphasized the virtuous model of the Portuguese of old and of the noble captains of past times. The same language of virtues opposed to vices can be seen to inform several references to rumours and murmurs. The reason for integrating such references within the terms of discourse of the language of virtues is due to the fact that the figure of Murmuratione is contrasted to that of Fame, which is usually ascribed to virtuous and exemplary characters. Curiously, the tendency to spread feelings of envy through rumours is twice considered a Portuguese feature. (18)

Faced with a body in decline, it was urgent to plan the treatment. This is the main reason why it was so common to find the analogy of a sick body applied to a political society in decline. (19) The literary device of an assembly chaired by Apollo, presiding over a council for the reformation, provides the instruments for an intervention. The advice given by former Portuguese kings, that expressed by several Virtues, and the examples of noble soldiers representatives of the Portuguese values of old, was complemented by that of the need to reward the Portuguese for their services. (20) Thus the distribution by the king of gifts among the Portuguese is considered one of the ways to solve the problems of the political body. In any case, it is difficult to reduce the different ideas about reforming the political body to a single plan or one all encompassing strategy. An analysis of the entire discourse written by Agostinho Manuel will confirm that political reforms are as segmented as the many estates composing a political body. It is also possible to identify in the text different conceptions of time: a more linear perspective based on the succession of kings and dynasties, located within a cyclical vision framing the Portuguese in a situation of decline, and finally a general conception of change as something which is propitious to decline.

What is the result of this analysis concerning the notion of political body composed of different estates, the emphasis on its reformation, and a conception of history and time which combines the notion of cycle with a reaction against change? In the text of Agostinho Manuel there is no contradiction between the need for reformation, and a negative attitude to change. For him it was precisely through the practice of a series of reforms that it was possible to return to the old and noble Portuguese values, in order to arrest the process of decline. The difficulty it presents to modern readers resides in the fact that his ideal of reformation, which since the Enlightenment has become entangled in notions of progress and improvement, is associated rather with the ideal of a return to an older and perhaps static political and social order.

One consequence of this approach deserves further elaboration on account of its apparently paradoxical nature. Although the text, through its adopted literary device several times dramatizes the ideal of reformation, one can also find in it strong criticisms of the reforms that were being attempted in Spain and in Portugal during the time of the Count-Duke Olivares, when the discourse was written. The proliferation of advisers, which meant individual proponents of political projects ('arbitristas'), government by extraordinary commissions ('juntas') which bypassed and undercut the role and function of regular councils, and the special judicial missions of inspection and control attributed to magistrates ('devassas' or 'visitas') are singled out in the text and come in for strong criticism. (21) But the author does not criticise these reforms in order to defend a simple corporative and static conception of society. Agostinho Manuel was well aware of the positive aspects of a good reform, as had been the case during the reign of D. Sebastiao. (22) In other words, in the Cortes Politicas de Apolo, instead of a stark contrast between reformation or the defence of a static and corporative society, one can trace a discussion about different ways of reforming the political body, and the articulation of the appropriate way of proceeding towards such a reformation. While Agostinho Manuel criticized the 'arbitristas', in other words, he can himself be considered one of them.

It is also possible to find in the manuscript many elements which challenge a simple conception of a corporate and constitutional society --an interpretation that historians of today bring to the study of the history of law for the period when this text was written. (23) There are several reasons for questioning this reductionism. The use of the metaphor of the body to understand the totality of politics and society should be placed in relation with a series of other metaphors and analogies used to think about politics. In other words, it is by no means obvious that the metaphor of the body was given primacy among the various metaphors with which politics was thought. It is also possible to argue that an analysis of the text is more suggestive of a tradition of political thought based on different estates. Artisans or craftsmen, kings or princes, New Christians, homosexuals, nobles, priests, captains and soldiers, courtesans, women, prostitutes, lawyers, and doctors--to name them in the order in which they appear in the text--are some of those estates. There are, however, at least four other alternative dimensions that overlap with the conception of a political order based exclusively on the existence of heterogeneous states. Firstly, it is possible to identify patriotic or nationalistic feelings opposing Portuguese to Castilian ministers, captains or soldiers. Second, the text reveals a very strong sense of the international dimension of politics, which can be found in all the references to the losses recently suffered in the Estado da India, to the benefit of the Dutch and the English. Thirdly, there are several elements which suggest an opposition between an oligarchy of powerful or privileged men, and the common people. (24) It is in this respect that one can understand why the political voice of liberty represented by a shoemaker is twice praised in the text, (25) even while the common people do not always come in for words of praise, especially when they are associated with revolts, rumours and the subversion of the political order. (26) The fourth and last dimension concerns the importance attributed to the political role of cities, like Lisbon, Evora, and Oporto.

There are other reasons for questioning the centrality of a legal and constitutional understanding of politics, from the point of view of Agostinho Manuel. If one wants to take seriously a more fragmented conception of society, composed of different estates, constitutionalism, by contrast, as a way of understanding the whole society can only produce a reductionistic view of politics. Whereas in the manuscript we are considering, the dramatization of Portuguese history and literature is organized in function of very concrete political issues. A few of the most important themes may be briefly referred.

New Christians are portrayed as already so integrated at all different levels of society, that it would be very difficult to know who they were, in order to expel them from the kingdom. This was the case not only among the nobility, but also among the clergy, and professors at the University of Coimbra. Hence the importance of reinstating a clear separation by means of purity of blood. By the same token, all the general pardons granted by Philip III were criticised, as was the money thereby obtained by the king, which was not approved by God. The Inquisition, too, should be inspected in order to return to its old status. The language of virtues is again used in order to evaluate its proceedings: 'prudence was to know how to find a balance between favour and respect'. (27)

In contrast to the ambiguity demonstrated where New Christians were concerned--seemingly accepted as integrated but condemned on account of their social and political role--no tolerance at all was extended towards homosexuals. At least two scandalous inquiries were conducted between 1610 and 1640, and extensive lists of homosexuals were compiled, and these are here taken as very concrete proof of moral decadence.

From another perspective, it is important to consider Agostinho Manuel's criticism of the political role of bishops in government (during a time when one of them was governing Portugal and acting as the king's representative), and his clear defence of the nomination of the Infant D. Carlos as a princely viceroy. The need for government by a single person, invested with the authority of the king, is presented as the only way to reinstate justice and to break the hold of the powerful nobility and of the main magistrates. As against the corporate self-interest of these privileged groups, a new viceroy--Agostinho Manuel hoped--would reintroduce a virtuous government.

The extensive chapters concerning the analysis of the decline of the Portuguese Estado da India, still the most important part of the Portuguese empire, reflect the same perspective. It is in the entrenched defence of private interests by the governors and captains of fortresses, rather than in any threat posed by external enemies, that the problem is seen to lie. The reform of the Estado da India was thus imagined primarily as a return to the old virtues of the founding captains and noble soldiers. They embody the virtues systematically represented in the model figure of the good captain.

A conclusion of this simple analysis cannot go beyond the work of Agostinho Manuel and the intentions of his Cortes Polyticas de Apollo to which this article has restricted itself. For him, it was necessary to think about the political problems of Portugal in terms of patriotism, a sort of monarchical patriotism to be precise. This is a risky concept, and the effort to conceptualise it susceptible to misunderstanding under the weight of its own fraught historiography because once appropriated by right-wing historians for their own ideological interests, and consequently rejected by more academic historians. History and literature, with concrete references to a field of historians and writers only comparable to the old models of antiquity exemplified by Tacitus and Cicero, were the main ways by which this patriotism was conceived. By the same token, the nation was considered a political body and her political life was imagined in terms of several metaphors and forms of representation. The role played by political ceremonies within the different forms of imagining the nation also had an impact upon literary constructions, starting with the dramatization of the political scene presented in these Cortes Polyticas de Appolo.

The language of virtues and the search for a permanent reformation of the political body were not two terms of an opposition, but two sides of the same coin. More problematic is to understand why inside a discourse conceived as a way of reforming politics and society, there are such strong criticisms of contemporaneous reformations, including the diversity of suggestions presented by the 'arbitristas', the organization of extraordinary councils called 'juntas', and government by judicial inspections ('devassas', and 'visitas'). In any case, the language of virtues, proceeding through the accumulation of different images (Prudence, Mercy, Honesty, etc.) is parallel to the one conceiving the political body as composed of a series of estates. This is quite different from constitutional and corporative conceptions of politics and society, and represents, perhaps, a less anachronistic perspective from which to evaluate the work of Agostinho Manuel.

* Paper presented at a conference on Seventeenth Century Portuguese History that took place at the University of Oxford in September 2003. I wish to thank the organizer, Maria Joao Branco, for her kind invitation.

European University Institute

(1) Arquivos Nacionais / Torre do Tombo, Casa Fronteira, cod. 21, fols. 67-109; all subsequent references to folios refer to this copy. I know of other copies of the same manuscript in the Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa, Biblioteca Geral da Universidade de Coimbra, and in a private collection. For a manuscript including an explicit reference to the name of the author, see Dicionario bibliografico portugues, vol. XXII. To establish Agostinho Manuel de Vasconcelos as the author, one need merely compare the content of this manuscript with some passages from his Vida de Don Duarte de Meneses, Tercero Conde de Viana y sucessos notables de Portugal en su tiempo (Lisboa: Pedro Craesbeeck, 1627).

(2) Jean Colomes, 'Hispanisants portugais du XVIIeme siecle. D. Agostinho Manuel de Vasconcelos et la defense des Bragance', Bulletin des Etudes Portugaises et de l'Institut Francais au Portugal, n. s., 11 (1947), pp. 186-237, and 'Hispanisants portugais du XVIIeme siecle. D. Agostinho Manuel de Vasconcelos. Notes additionnelles', id., pp. 274-91 [Mario de Sampayo Ribeiro reviewed both articles in Biblos, 23 (1947), pp. 227-34, 592-94, to which Colomes replied with 'Hispanisants portugais. En reponse a une interpretation malheureuse', Bulletin des Etudes Portugaises et de l'Institut Francais au Portugal, 11 (1947), pp. 345-48]; Francisco Jose Caeiro, 'Reabilitacao do historiador D. Agostinho Manuel de Vasconcelos', Anais da Academia Portuguesa de Historia, 21 (1972), pp. 9-205; Edward Glaser, The 'Fortuna' of Manuel de Faria e Sousa: An autobiography (Munster: Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandling, 1975), pp. 84-86, 375-79; Antonio de Oliveira, 'Para a historia do embargo a publicacao da obra de D. Agostinho Manuel de Vasconcelos, Vida y acciones del rey Don Juan el Segundo', in id., Movimentos Sociais e Poder em Portugal no Seculo XVII (Coimbra: Instituto de Historia Economica e Social-Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra, 2002), pp. 143-57.

(3) Manuel Severim de Faria, Discursos varios politicos (Evora: Manuel de Carvalho, 1624); Primor e honra da vida soldadesca, ed. by Antonio Freire (Lisboa: Jorge Rodrigues, 1630). See Diogo Ramada Curto, 'Amor da patria num tratado de 1626 sobre as armas e as letras', in Humanismo para o Nosso Tempo: Estudos de Homenagem a Luis de Sousa Rebelo, ed. by Aires A. Nascimento, Helena Langrouva, Jose V. de Pina Martins, Thomas F. Earle (Lisbon: Barbosa e Xavier, 2004), pp. 309-33.

(4) Cortes Polyticas de Apollo, fol. 71 (dynastic conflicts); fol. 72 (different interpretations of the past), fol. 76v (reforms and reasons for decline).

(5) On Portuguese patriotism associated with loyalty to D. Antonio, Prior do Crato, see Traiano Boccalini, Ragguagli di Parnaso e scritti minori, 3 vols., ed. by Luigi Firpo (Bari: Laterza, 1948), vol. III, pp. 281-82, Centuria Terza--Ragguaglio XCV: 'La Nazion portoghese chiede che sia incisa nelle tavole di metallo del foro Delfico la fedelta da lei dimostrata a Don Antonio e, malgrado il contrasto della Monarchia di Spagna, lo ottiene'.

(6) Cortes Polyticas de Apollo, fol. 78: 'pellos esquecer da saudade grande de seus Reys naturaes'.

(7) Cortes Polyticas de Apollo, fols. 77v-78.

(8) Cortes Polyticas de Apollo, fols. 85-86. This was not the first time that lists of Portuguese writers were the object of discussion, on a previous attempt to establish this kind of Portuguese canon see Diogo Ramada Curto, 'Os Louvores da Parvoice', Peninsula. Revista de Estudos Ibericos, 1 (2004), pp. 191-99.

(9) Cortes Polyticas de Apollo, fols. 70v, 72, 86-87, 96v-97.

(10) Cortes Polyticas de Apollo, fols. 68v-69.

(11) Cortes Polyticas de Apollo, fol. 69.

(12) Cortes Polyticas de Apollo, fol. 94v ('testamento do Oriente').

(13) Cortes Polyticas de Apollo, fols. 87v-89, 99-101, 106.

(14) Cortes Polyticas de Apollo, fol. 79v.

(15) Cortes Polyticas de Apollo, fol. 67.

(16) Cortes Polyticas de Apollo, fol. 69v ('os ministros que pella major parte governandosse por seus interesses repartem a pena e o premio por respeito que he a total ruyna dos Imperios'); fol. 93 ('antes presumindo conveniencias particulares, mais que zelo publico'; fol. 94v ('queixas contra ministros Portuguezes, que o governarao, em que os accusava de cobicosos, remissos, e puco zelosos do bem publico'); fol. 95 ('os capitaes das fortalezas Portuguezas, os quais occupados en seus tratos, esqueciao a obrigacao principal do Euangelho').

(17) Cortes Polyticas de Apollo, fols. 84-84v, 85 ('Cortezania, e a Policia' opposed to 'Honesty'), 98.

(18) Cortes Polyticas de Apollo, fol. 84, 90.

(19) Cortes Polyticas de Apollo, fols. 78v-79v.

(20) Cortes Polyticas de Apollo, fol. 79v.

(21) Cortes Polyticas de Apollo, fols. 92-93, 98v-101.

(22) Cortes Polyticas de Apollo, fol. 76v ('as reformacoes que tracarao ao principio de seu governo, e como o zello daquella accao nao era para condenar de todo').

(23) Jean-Frederic Schaub, Le Portugal au Temps du Comte-Duc d'Olivares (1621-1640): Le conflit de juridictions comme exercice de la politique (Madrid: Casa de Velazquez, 2001); Idem, Portugal na Monarquia Hispanica (1580-1640) (Lisbon: Livros Horizonte, 2001).

(24) Cortes Polyticas de Apollo, fol. 67v, 87, 97v.

(25) Cortes Polyticas de Apollo, fols. 67, 97v.

(26) Cortes Polyticas de Apollo, fol. 99.

(27) Cortes Polyticas de Apollo, fol. 82v.