ABSTRACT
This paper proposes a discussion on the political dynamics behind the Lazarist expansion toward schools and welfare institutions, and the limitations imposed by the Empire's political field to the ultramontane clergy. We worked with the hypothesis that both the expansion and the need for control were means of dominating over the family, which, from our point of view, was disputed by the Church and the State. We have also discussed a concept of "religious issue" in nineteen-century Brazil.
Keywords:
regalism; ultramontanism; circulation of ideas; religious issue; Reform.