Father Antonio Vieira: Fifth Empire architectonics in the letter Hopes of Portugal (1659)

Abstract

The first great prophetic text of Father Antonio Vieira, Hopes of Portugal, Fifth Empire of the World perfectly reflects, within Portuguese mythical history, both the Jewish providentialist view synthesized in Bandarra’s ballads and the messianic nationalist view synthesized in the legend of Christ’s epiphany to D. Afonso Henriques on the eve of Ourique battle. In this sense, Hopes of Portugal, Fifth Empire of the World consists on a synopsis-text of the pure totality of Father Antonio Vieira’s first prophetic vision, and a generator of the theses constant in the History of Future and the Defense before the Saint Officium, only modified by the author after his incarceration in the cell of the Congregation of Saint Officium, in his last work, Clavis Prophetarum.