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THE EXPULSION OF A “TAPUTINGA” MISSIONARY FROM POMBAL’S AMAZON: THE ANNUAL LETTER OF FATHER LOURENÇO KAULEN (1755-1756)

Abstract

In 1756, one year after the promulgation of the first reforming laws of the future Marquis of Pombal for the Portuguese Amazon, the Jesuit Lourenço Kaulen wrote, as a missionary of the village of Piraguiri on the Xingu river, an annual letter. Beyond the regular pastoral activities, he described his violent expulsion from the mission. Member of the group of “tapuitinga”, or Central Europeans, who came at the beginning of the 1750s, Kaulen is one of the first religious to be accused of disobedience to the new legislation. The annual letter, in addition to reporting precarious everyday life in a remote mission in the Amazon, is one of the earliest references to an anti-Jesuit action that, by the way, had the direct implication of the indigenous neophytes.

Keywords
Society of Jesus; “Tapuitinga” fathers; Colonial Amazon; Policy of Pombal; Missionary writing

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