Os jesuítas no Brasil dos Felipes: encontros e desencontros de uma ordem plural

Abstract

This study analyses the presence of the Society of Jesus during the Philippine period focusing on the intensification ofthe distinct positions found into the Jesuits’modus procendi related to the option between Indian missions or schools. After the establishment of the Iberian Union, the difficulties for the Jesuit missionary project in the Colony increased a lot. In the other hand, the Jesuit schools get a position of importance in society. At that time, the reports of the activities executed by the Jesuits started giving more importance to the ministries practiced with the novices and scholastics, and also those dedicated to help the inhabitants of the urban areas, instead of the works with the Indians. This dissertation purposes the analysis of the impact caused by the increasing of schools inside the Society of Jesus as a different way of understanding the crises in the Indian missions. In this direction, it tries to enlighten the presence and works of the polemic Jesuit Society in colonial Brazil.