THE JESUITS AND “AS SEEN FROM COIMBRA”

The Society of Jesus came into existence in Paris in 1534. Founded by Inácio de Loyola and other university students, this educational community aimed at religious individuals arose from the impact of the Protestant Reform movement, which challenged some of the basic principles of the Catholic Church, and from the new discoveries in the Western world by the Portuguese and Spanish.

King Joseph III asked Inácio de Loyola for support in order to respond to the colonial programme and overseas missions, and was the first European monarch to embrace the Jesuit project. The first Jesuit priests arrived in Portugal in 1540, and the first Jesuit establishment, the School of Jesus, was founded in Upper Coimbra in 1542. The first stone of the current building was laid on land provided by the University of Coimbra in 1547.

The Jesuit complex in Coimbra grew around its teaching and scientific vocation and acquired international recognition. They published manuals that were adopted by the Ratio Studiorum Institute on a universal basis, and Cursus Conimbricensis, which had an enormous impact on teaching across Europe and all over the world.

Intellectual and spiritual training was extremely thorough, and the Jesuits left Coimbra on evangelisation missions in territories with a Portuguese presence, as illustrated in the “As Seen from Coimbra” exhibition. Featuring a process of globalisation, which was innovative at the time, it symbolises the Society of Jesus´ scientific and teaching project that linked Europe to Africa, Brazil and Asia through the Jesuit missionaries.