O iluminismo católico em Portugal no século XVIII: poder e religião

This work aims to address the issue of the Catholic Enlightenment in Portugal in the 18th century, taking as its object of analysis its protagonists, their writings and their political action. In a society marked by Catholicism, the Enlightenment acquired specific contours, as happened throughout Europe. After the expulsion of the Society of Jesus in 1759, the new elites at the court of D. José I began to gain expression in the various spheres of national life. In the restricted group that exercised political and ecclesiastical power, the sensitivity of the Catholic Enlightenment demanded reforms in all areas so that there would be political, economic and cultural progress, with the corollary being the human and spiritual progress of all subjects, in other words, was aspired the progress and happiness of the people.