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The French in Sixteenth-Century Brazil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Charles E. Nowell
Charles E. Nowell*
Affiliation:
University of Illinois
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Extract

The European Movement to the New World began before Protestantism had made its appearance. In the sixteenth century, Spain and Portugal had the Western Hemisphere largely to themselves, and all religious and missionary effort from those countries was naturally Catholic. Protestant states did not colonize in any substantial way until after 1600. But meanwhile a few sporadic efforts had come from France, where Calvinism had begun to loom as a major religious and political force. French Huguenots played some part in these attempts. Their share in the settlement made by Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon at Rio de Janeiro in 1555 has been noticed by historians, but in general has been misunderstood.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 5 , Issue 4 , April 1949 , pp. 381 - 393
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1949

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References

1 Le voyage au Brésil de Jean de Léry, 1556–1558, ed. Charly Clerc (Paris, 1927). The original edition was published in 1558. Clerc somewhat modernizes Léry’s French.

2 Publicações da Academia Brasileira. Cartas Jesuíticas, I (Rio de Janeiro, 1931), 226. Hereinafter cited as Cartas Jesuíticas.

3 Cartas Jesuíticas, III (Rio de Janeiro, 1933), 157. The modern French Protestant, John Viénot, gives the same interpretation, “L’Amiral Coligny et l’expansion française,” Société de l’Histoire du Protestantisme Français. Bulletin, LXXX, 6e série (1931), 147–166.

4 Staden, Hans, The captivity of Hans Stade of Hesse in A. D. 1547–1555, trans. Albert Tootal, ed. Burton, Richard F. (London: Hakluyt Society, 1874).Google Scholar

5 Denis, Ferdinand, Une fête bresilienne célébrée à Rouen en 1550 (Paris, 1850).Google Scholar

6 Ibid., 73–74.

7 Pierre de Ronsard, “Discours contre fortune à Odet de Coligny, Cardinal de Chastillon,” Des Poèmes, livre II.

8 François Rabelais, Gargantua, livre II.

9 Michel de Montaigne, Les Essais, livre I, chap. xxxi.

10 All the known facts about Villegaignon’s life are given by Gaffarel, Paul, Histoire du Brésil français (Paris, 1878)Google Scholar, and by Heulhard, Arthur, Villegaignon, roi d’Amérique (Paris, 1897).Google Scholar

11 Whitehead, A. W., Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral of France (London, 1904), 67.Google Scholar

12 Ibid., 70.

13 Romier, Lucien, Les origines politiques des guerres de religion, I (Paris, 1913), 498.Google Scholar

14 This is the view of Heulhard (op. cit., 93). The voyage has been disputed by some, but there seems no adequate reason for doubting that it was made.

15 Butler, Ruth Lapham, “Thomé de Sousa, first governor general of Brasil,” Mid-America, XXIV (October, 1942), 248.Google Scholar

16 Heulhard, op. cit., 104.

17 Ibid., 98–99.

18 Haton, Claude, “Memoires,” ed. Bourquelot, Felix, Collection de documents inédits sur l’histoire de France, VIII (Paris, 1857), 37–38.Google Scholar

19 Ibid.

20 Thevet later wrote two books based on his Brazilian experiences: Les singularités de la France antarctique (1558), and ha cosmographie universelle d’André Thevet (1575). Their principal interest, however, is in the descriptions given of the country. Thevet left Brazil before the chief events occurred which are under discussion here. [Editor’s note: Further information concerning Thevet may be found in the article, “Some Remarks Concerning Andre Thevet”, by Manoel Cardozo, in THE AMERICAS, I (1944), 15–36.]

21 Rodrigues, José Carlos, “Religiões acatholicas,” Livro do centenario, II (Rio de Janeiro, 1901), 11.Google Scholar

22 Léry, Le voyage au Brésil, 62.

23 It is necessary to qualify the statement, because a few years earlier Pero de Campo, Portuguese proprietor of Porto Seguro, had been accused of heresy and sent home to face the Inquisition. Calmon, Pedro, História do Brasil, I (São Paulo, 1939), 186–189.Google Scholar

24 Léry, op. cit., 62.

25 HeuIhard, Villegaignon, 129–130.

26 Léry, op. cit., 64.

27 Ibid., 65.

28 Ibid., 101.

29 Rodrigues, Livro do centenario, II, 12.

30 Léry, op. cit., 27–32. The original is still in the library of Geneva.

31 Ibid., 110–114.

32 Ibid., 114.

33 Cartas Jesuíticas, III, 157.

34 Léry, op. cit., 115.

35 Ibid., 116.

36 Mario de Lima Barbosa, Les français dans l’histoire du Brésil, trans. Clément Gazet (Rio de Janeiro and Paris, 1923), 58, quoting an old French writer, La Popelliniere, Histoire des deux mondes. La Popellinière’s work was not available for the present study.

37 Léry, op. cit., 123; Rodrigues, Livro do centenario, 13.

38 GaffareL, Histoire du Brésil francais, 262; Rodrigues, op. cit., 14.

39 Léiy, op. cit., 278. Heulhard (op. cit., 168–169), who champions Villegaignon in all matters, denies that such documents ever existed, claiming that Villegaignon’s enemies were trying to blacken his reputation. Since it is a case of Heulhard’s intuition against several references to the documents by Léry, the denial hardly seems convincing.

40 Jean Crespin, Histoire des martyrs persécutés et mis à mort pour la vérité de l’Évangile depuis le temps des apôtres jusques à présent (Geneva, 1570). The part concerning these Huguenot martyrs is quoted in extenso by Gaffarel, Histoire du Brésil français, 431–442.

41 Calmon, História do Brasil, I, 273–274.

42 Ibid., I, 276–277.

43 Ibid., I,275–277.

44 Cartas Jesuíticas, III, 160.

45 The official, who was Estacio de Sá, nephew of Mem de Sá, is quoted by Rodrigues, op. cit., II, 18.