Entre a cruz e a espada: a influência do Seminário de Olinda no discurso revolucionário de Frei Caneca

Abstract

The objective of this work was to verify the influence of the Olinda Seminar on the revolutionary speech of Frei Caneca. The Olinda Seminar was a seminary school founded in 1798 with the aim of training young people to become citizens, having a liberal bias. Frei Caneca was among the students of the first class of the Philosophy Course at the institution. He was arrested for his alleged participation in the Pernambucana Revolution (1817), received Royal pardon (1821), and became one of the leaders of the Confederation of Ecuador (1824). Through his writings, published in the newspaper he founded, he managed to alert the population of Pernambuco about the cowardly acts of the imperial government and publicize the bases that would support the Confederation of Ecuador. In order to meet the objective intended by this work, it was necessary to analyze the texts published by Frei Caneca that gave rise to his imprisonment in 1824 and establish a relationship with the contents studied at the Olinda Seminar. It was concluded that Frei Caneca's writings were, albeit indirectly, influenced by the Olinda Seminar, since: there was the presence of quotes from authors that were part of the school curriculum, which were used by him as an argumentation tool ; his speech was in line with the school's objectives, present in the institution's academic opening prayer; he consistently praises the school in one of his last writings.