The Role of Azeredo Coutinho in the Enlightenment of Brazil

Abstract

JOSX JOAQUIM DE CUNHA DE AZEREDO COUTINHO contributed to the introduction of the Enlightenment into colonial Brazil and, thus, unintentionally, albeit significantly, to Brazilian independence. His role as an essayist and educator speaking for the Enlightenment, at first glance, might seem to be in conflict with his role as royal official and General Inquisitor of the Realm. On the one hand, Azeredo Coutinho's secular, scientific, philosophic, and literary studies and pursuits were those of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. Yet on the other hand, Azeredo Coutinho held fast to certain traditional opinions and professional orientations as exemplified by his several positions with the Portuguese Inquisition. Whatever the psychological problems resulting from the conflict of roles, this essay is concerned solely with the contributions to the Enlightenment in Brazil made by the remarkable Bishop Azeredo Coutinho. Born on September 8, 1742,1 at Campos dos Goitaeazes in the Captaincy of Rio de Janeiro, into a wealthy, sugar-owning family, Azeredo Coutinho spent a rustic childhood on his father's country estate. At the age of six he was taken to Rio de Janeiro to begin his formal education. He studied Latin, grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy with the best teachers of that growing colonial center. Young Azeredo Coutinho had an able mind but was of delicate health. After his graduation in 1762, his father sent him to Minas Gerais on a trip intended to improve his health. The extended journey into the interior gave the youth an opportunity to gain a firsthand familiarity with Brazil's