Teófilo Braga
Encyclopedia
Joaquim Teófilo Fernandes Braga (tiˈɔfilu ˈbɾaɡɐ; São José (Ponta Delgada)
São José (Ponta Delgada)
São José is a civil parish in the municipality and city of Ponta Delgada on the island of São Miguel in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. It is one of the constituent parts of the city of Ponta Delgada, including many historical, commercial and residential buildings extending from the...

 24 February 1843 – 28 January 1924) was a Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....

 writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

, playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

, politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

 and the leader of the Republican Provisional Government after the abdication of King Manuel II
Manuel II of Portugal
Manuel II , named Manuel Maria Filipe Carlos Amélio Luís Miguel Rafael Gabriel Gonzaga Francisco de Assis Eugénio de Bragança Orleães Sabóia e Saxe-Coburgo-Gotha — , was the last King of Portugal from 1908 to 1910, ascending the throne after the assassination of his father and elder brother Manuel...

, as well as the second elected President of the First Portuguese Republic
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

, following the resignation of President Manuel de Arriaga
Manuel de Arriaga
Manuel José de Arriaga Brum da Silveira e Peyrelongue was a Portuguese lawyer, the first Attorney-General and the first elected President of the First Portuguese Republic, following the abdication of King Manuel II of Portugal and a Republican Provisional Government headed by Teófilo Braga Manuel...

.

Biography

Teófilo Braga was born in the Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...

, in Ponta Delgada
Ponta Delgada
Ponta Delgada is a city and municipality on the island of São Miguel in the archipelago of the Azores, an autonomous region of Portugal. It includes 44,403 residents in the urban area, and approximately 20,113 inhabitants in the three central parishes that comprise the historical city: São Pedro,...

, on 15 February 1843, son of Joaquim Manuel Fernandes Braga (likely a grandson of one of King D. João V's illegitimate children), from Braga
Braga
Braga , a city in the Braga Municipality in northwestern Portugal, is the capital of the Braga District, the oldest archdiocese and the third major city of the country. Braga is the oldest Portuguese city and one of the oldest Christian cities in the World...

, and Maria José da Câmara e Albuquerque, from the island of Santa Maria
Santa Maria Island
Santa Maria , Portuguese for Saint Mary, is an island located in the eastern group of the Azores archipelago and the southernmost island in the Azores...

, was another descendant of Portuguese nobility (likely traced to Infanta D. Urraca
Urraca of Portugal
Infanta Urraca of Portugal was a Portuguese infanta , daughter of Afonso I, 1st King of Portugal and his wife Maud of Savoy.Urraca was born at Coimbra. She married Ferdinand II of León with whom she had Alfonso IX of León. This marriage failed to prevent her father Afonso I from declaring war on...

, as the genealogist Ferreira Serpa has identified). Teófilo was, the 13th descendant of Diogo Gonçalves Travassos, father of D. Pedro and de Violente Velho Cabral, daughter of the Commander of Almourol, Gonçalo Velho
Gonçalo Velho
Gonçalo Velho Cabral was a Portuguese monk and Commander in the Order of Christ, explorer and hereditary landowner responsible for administering Crown lands on the same islands, during the Portuguese Age of Discovery.-Biography:He was son of...

, and descendant of Cristovão Falcão, a poet and Count of Avranches. His mother had seven children (Teófilo being the youngest), of which three died in infancy, the others: Luís, João Fernandes and Maria José. Teófilo's father became a widower when he was only three years old (his mother died at the age of 31 years). Originally, his father was an artillery lieutenant and commander in Mosteiros
Mosteiros (Ponta Delgada)
Mosteiros is a civil parish in the municipality of Ponta Delgada in the Azores. The population in 2001 was 1196, its density is 130/km² and the area is 9.2 km². It is located in the northwestern part of the island of São Miguel and is connected by roads to Ponta Delgada in the south and...

, and left the army after the Convention of Évora Monte, and without means, he opened a nautical school and mathematics in Ponta Delgada, eventually finding a position at the local secondary school in Ponta Delgada. Two years later, the older Braga wed a woman (Ricarda Joaquina Marfim Pereira) with a decidedly bad attitude to the young boy, fathering two daughters with Ricarda (Maria da Glória and Maria do Espírito Santo).

The child took refuge in literature, and specifically in the public library in Ponta Delgada or at the home of the Viscount of Praia, where his father (for a time) was a private tutor to the Viscount's daughters. It was in the Ribeira Grande newspaper A Estrela Oriental (English: The Oriental Star), edited by former-pharmacist Francisco Maria Supico (a native of Lousã), that his first naive poem A Canção do Guerreiro (English: "A Song of the Warrior"), in a patriotic tone, dedicated to his brother João Fernandes Braga was published. He followed these with O Meteoro and O Santelmo. In 1859, in an edition paid for by the Viscount of Praia, he published a book of verses at 15 years of age, entitled Folhas Verdes (English: "Green Leaves") and edited by the newspaper A Ilha (English: The Island); it was a timid imitation of Folhas Caídas (English: Fallen Leaves), by noted author Almeida Garrett
Almeida Garrett
João Baptista da Silva Leitão de Almeida Garrett, Viscount of Almeida Garrett was a Portuguese poet, playwright, novelist and politician. He is considered to be the introducer of the Romanticism in Portugal, with the epic poem Camões, based on the life of Luís de Camões...

.

He revealed a tenacity and combative nature and was known to have been disciplined during his time at his secondary school in Ponta Delgada (where his father was teacher) for disparaging remarks made to his teacher. At the end of secondary school Teófilo looked to future prospects, going as far as informing his father of his intention to leave São Miguel
São Miguel Island
São Miguel Island , nicknamed "The Green Island", is the largest and most populous island in the Portuguese Azores archipelago. The island covers and has around 140,000 inhabitants, 45,000 of these people located in the largest city in the archipelago: Ponta Delgada.-History:In 1427, São Miguel...

 and travel to America for a professional career (likely as a typographer or merchant). But his father suggested expanding his studies at the University of Coimbra, mindful of his child's lack of abilities in his preferred fields. Therefore, Teófilo Braga, student, arrived in Coimbra in April 1861, with hopes of achieving a doctorate in Theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

 or Law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

; after a year, in which he repeated his prerequisite entrance qualifications, he entered the Faculty of Law at the University. His first lodging would be at the home of Filipe de Quental (1824–1892), professor of Medicine and paternal uncle of Antero de Quental
Antero de Quental
Antero Tarquínio de Quental , old spelling Anthero, , a Portuguese poet, philosopher and writer, whose works became a milestone in the Portuguese language, alongside those of Camões or Bocage....

.

University

Life as a student was spartan and austere, and he distanced himself from the Bohemian lifestyle on campus, preferring to concentrate on his studies. A contemporary, the writer Ramalho Ortigão
Ramalho Ortigão
José Duarte Ramalho Ortigão was a Portuguese writer of the late 19th century and early 20th century. He spent his early years with his maternal grandmother in Oporto....

, had this to say of the young Teófilo:
"Simple, sober, hard, with habits of austerity bordering on spartan, he knows how to reduce his requirements as he lacks resources, living in his isolation like Robinson on his island, Teófilo Braga has a unique passion, a passion of a prelate of science. He does not publish a volume per week because there is no machine in Portugal that can accompany the rapidness of his pen. He writes with grace, disinterested, in the satisfaction of his supreme pleasure, pleasure of spilling ideas. This incredible force and at the same time his unique weakness; I've never met another. At his most acerbic nature, he has a passion of his ideas...in the 19th century, with his systematic activity and with his impatience guided by the profoundly pacifist philosophy of Augusto Comte, Teófilo Braga is the most perfect archetype of the uncredited worker and useful citizen. In the middle of Portuguese society...[we are] consoled by the power of contemplation, and a figure such as Teófilo Braga is a rare curiosity that we call...a human


While at Coimbra he jumped into the literary agitation; Teófilo joined his contemporaries, which included the writer Antero de Quental
Antero de Quental
Antero Tarquínio de Quental , old spelling Anthero, , a Portuguese poet, philosopher and writer, whose works became a milestone in the Portuguese language, alongside those of Camões or Bocage....

, in what became known as Questão Coimbra (English: Question Coimba), a loose affiliation of artists with non-traditionalist philosophies and ideals around 1865. He remained on the periphery of this groups activities, though, while writing many of his recognized early works: O Pirilampo, O Fósforo and Tira-Teimas. A few of his professors in the Faculty of Law recognized his application, and arranged tasks that supported his studies, including the organization and classification of monastic documents. But it is clear that his new projects did not affect his participation in the student movement, against the autocratic Rector Basílio Alberto de Sousa Pinto and many of the traditionalists at Coimbra. He reserved his best efforts for his own projects; during this time he convinced editor Gomes Monteiro, of Casa Moré (a publishing house in Oporto), to publish his poem Visão dos Tempos (in 1864). It was a work that borrowed directly for its base the themes from Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....

's La Légende des siècles
La Légende des siècles
La Légende des siècles is a collection of poems by Victor Hugo, conceived as an immense depiction of the history and evolution of humanity....

, and captured in verse all the essential classicism of Judaism and Christianity. The work received many positive reviews. At the time the indisputable authority in literature was António Feliciano de Castilho
Antonio Feliciano de Castilho
António Feliciano de Castilho, 1st Viscount of Castilho , Portuguese man of letters, born at Lisbon.He lost his sight at the age of six, but the devotion of his brother Augusto, and aided by a retentive memory, enabled him to go through his school and university course with success; and he acquired...

 and his Lisbon admirers, whom could make or break the reputation of young authors. Castilho, and his protégé Manuel Pinheiro Chagas were captivated by the classic prose of Visão (English: Vision) and congratulated in public Bragas' work.

But this was not repeated in his follow-up book of poetry Tempestades Sonoras, which were preceded by a philosophical prologue that was both obscure and indecipherable. Generally, Castilho's conservative Lisbon supporters criticized severely many of the personalities with dissident tendencies, both from the artistic side, as well as from the political. At the time of the publication of Tempestades, Antero de Quental had just completed his Odes Modernas (English: Modern Odes), a shockingly militant work that challenged the conservative constitutional monarchy in Portugal, its class society and the religious hierarchy. Castilho and his prelates decided to begin a philosophical battle, without quarter, against the two iconoclasts, "that they considered exponents of a School at Coimbra of depraved tastes and highly harmful." The literary "conflict" began in earnest when Manuel Pinheiro Chagas published his obra-prima Poema da Mocidade. António Feliciano de Castilho, in a letter-to-the-editor António Maria Pereira, to promote the book and provide a prologue to the volume, critically attacked Antero Quental and Teófilo Braga, as well as their loose affiliation of friends. This was the beginning of the Questão Coimbrã Movement, an impassioned period that involved many Portuguese literary writers, that included many critical texts and apologies. Antero de Quental responded with his work which challenged Castilho's original text, which he entitled Bom Senso e Bom Gosto (English: Good Sense and Good Taste), followed by A Dignidade das Letras (English: A Dignity of Letters) and Literaturas Oficiais (English: Official Literature), while Teófilo challenged with his literary violent work As Teocracias Literárias (English: The Literary Theocracy). After his first year at the University, won by his tenacious inflexibility and idealism, Braga was confronted by the literary conflicts between traditionalists and modernists:
Quickly, I found myself encircled by hate; they cut-off my life in the newspaper; in Law classes, they took my academic distinctions; the critics devastated me rudely; the bookstore owners refused to publish what I wrote; and the patriarchs of Letters, with their authoritative weight smiles with sober equivalence at my intellectual value, circulating depressive stories about my character and customs, which served to dismake my scarifices. Another would have given up. I saw myself forced to reverse the base of my existence, abandon the Art that had seduced me, because it removed my contemplative serenity, and I launched myself into criticizing, into erudite knowledge, into science, into philosophy."


Rocha Martins referred to an interview that he had with Braga, in 1916, and where, as a visible admirer of the writer and president, he wrote of Teófilo's life and difficulties at Coimbra. Teófolio had recalled that one time, in Oporto, at the home of the librarian Moré he had crossed paths with Camilo Castelo Branco, who had extended his hand in friendship, but Braga had "turned his back". As Rocha Martins elaborated, Teófilo "was just a youth then...today he would not have turned his back on anyone...All men should learn to forgive". It was not just an attack on aesthetic differences between political ideologies, Castilho also supported his protégé (Chagas) for the chair in the department of Modern Literature in the Faculty of Letters, and used his letter to support and champion him for the position. The position was a "golden opportunity", and it was clear that both Teófilo and his friend Antero Quental were interested in the position.

In April 1868 Teófilo Braga married Maria do Carmo Xavier (Porto
Porto
Porto , also known as Oporto in English, is the second largest city in Portugal and one of the major urban areas in the Iberian Peninsula. Its administrative limits include a population of 237,559 inhabitants distributed within 15 civil parishes...

, 14 November 1841 – 14 September 1911), sister of Júlio de Matos, generally from a wealthy family (the couple would live at the Matos home for a time). Their life together would be tragic, marked by the premature deaths of their children: Joaquim, just after his birth (1869), Teófilo, at 13 (1886) and in March of the following year, Maria da Graça, at 16 (1887). Maria do Carmo, whose health was always fragile, was inconsolable (and by the time her husband held the Presidency her health was debilitated and passed away shortly afterwards). Camilo Castelo Branco
Camilo Castelo Branco
Camilo Ferreira Botelho Castelo-Branco,1st Viscount de Correia Botelho , was a prolific Portuguese writer of the 19th century, having authored over 260 books . His writing is, overall, considered original in that it combines the dramatic and sentimental spirit of Romanticism with a highly personal...

 a declared enemy of the writer, would be unusually forgiving, when Teófilo's children died within a short period of one another; at the time, Camilo would write the sonet A maior dor humana" (English: The Greatest Human Pain).

His political affiliations made it difficult to obtain a professorship at the Academia Politécnica do Porto (English: Polytechnic Academy of Oporto), as well as the Faculty of Law in Coimbra. Teófilo Braga had to wait a year, in 1872 (when he obtained his Law degree), in order to succeed in his application to a position as a full professor in Modern Literature, in a memorable public competition. He was the superior choice of the presiding judge of the committee, beating out his rival Manuel Pinheiro Chagas and Luciano Cordeiro, backed by semi-official patrons.

Positivism and published works

Teófilo aspired to be a systematic thinker; a theorist based on evidence which permitted a intrepid and dogmatic interpretation of Man, world and life. It was therefore, no surprise, that he accepted the tenants of Positivism
Positivism
Positivism is a a view of scientific methods and a philosophical approach, theory, or system based on the view that, in the social as well as natural sciences, sensory experiences and their logical and mathematical treatment are together the exclusive source of all worthwhile information....

. This positivist spirit would guide him between 1872 and 1877, under the influence of Joaquim Duarte Moreira de Sousa a professor of Mathematics in Castelo Branco, with whom he regularly had conversations. It was the teacher's curious spirit and following of Auguste Comte
Auguste Comte
Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte , better known as Auguste Comte , was a French philosopher, a founder of the discipline of sociology and of the doctrine of positivism...

 and Émile Littré
Émile Littré
Émile Maximilien Paul Littré was a French lexicographer and philosopher, best known for his Dictionnaire de la langue française, commonly called "The Littré".-Biography:Émile Littré was born in Paris...

 that influenced Teófilo during this period. It was these influences that brought him to found, along with Júlio de Matos, the magazine O Positivismo in Oporto, between 1878 and 1882, to write Traços Gerais de Filosofia Positiva (English: General Ideas of Philosophical Positivism), 1877 and later Sistema de Sociologia (English: System of Sociology), 1884.

While still professor of Letters and research fellow, Teófilo Braga was studious and unrested, yet he continued to give all his attention to his family (showering on them gifts from his poor remuneration
Remuneration
Remuneration is the total compensation that an employee receives in exchange for the service they perform for their employer. Typically, this consists of monetary rewards, also referred to as wage or salary...

). In his home on Travessa de Santa Gertrudes he lived a monastic lifestyle, usually broken by invitations from admirers or civic campaigns. But generally, he was able to concentrate on his writing, including his monumental História da Literatura Portuguesa (English: History of Portuguese Literature). With a vast repository of documents he would nurture interpretations of medievl romances and produce ultra-romantic works of realism. It was also during this time when he would show interests in ethnography, especially folklore: in 1867, História da Poesia Popular Portuguesa (English: History of Popular Portuguese Poetry), Cancioneiro Popular (English: Collection of Popular Poems) and Romanceiro Geral, and then later (1869) the book Cantos Populares do Arquipélago Açoreano' (English: Popular Stories of the Azorean Archipelago). He would repeat this style in 1883 Contos Tradicionais do Povo Português' (English: Traditional Stories of the Portuguese People) and in 1885, two volumes entitled O Povo Português (English Collection of Portuguese Romances), about costumes and traditions, but his studies were generally criticized during the period.

On some occasions he was considered a plagiarist; it is clear that Braga read profusely and was not too careful while editing his analyses, omitting citations and mentioning unreferenced ideas or the theories of others. The medic and politician Ricardo Jorge, didn't hold back his exasperation in his book Contra um plágio do Prof. Theófilo Braga (English: Against a Plagiarized Work of Professor Teófilo Braga), in 1917:
Teófilo Braga, the venerated image of a diverse writer...remember the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n idols, crowned with many heads...he is multi-headed. Each head, full of knowledge. Like the carrancas of a fountain, there erupts from each mouth a torrent of recorded science.


Even Antero de Quental who got along well with Teófilo referred to him as a hierophant
Hierophant
A hierophant is a person who brings religious congregants into the presence of that which is deemed holy. The word comes from Ancient Greece, where it was constructed from the combination of ta hiera, "the holy," and phainein, "to show." In Attica it was the title of the chief priest at the...

 of literary charlatanism. The Brazilian historian Sílvio Romero, called him Papa dos charlatães (English: Father of Charlatans). José Relvas, another contemporary, was another person who dismissed his contributions; he noted that the prestige he gained was not justified, and that only those who did't read his published works would admire him.

The political aspects of positivism, was a version of republicanism that acknowledged the stratification of classes within the capitalist model. Teófilo, while reading the works of Comte, fixated on the more radical rationalisms on Philosophical Positivism. On the philosophies of Auguste Comte
Auguste Comte
Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte , better known as Auguste Comte , was a French philosopher, a founder of the discipline of sociology and of the doctrine of positivism...

, defending the ideas of positivism
Positivism
Positivism is a a view of scientific methods and a philosophical approach, theory, or system based on the view that, in the social as well as natural sciences, sensory experiences and their logical and mathematical treatment are together the exclusive source of all worthwhile information....

. "The positivist consolidated above all the idea that the Republic could not be just a coup d'etat, and that maybe, we should dispense with revolutionary intentions." The Republicans believed that "to create a Republic required a liberation of individuals of their older ideas...[that] without a doubt, it was [their] spiritual subjugation" In turn of the Century Portugal, about 50,000 individuals (in a population of less than six million) had declared themselves as non-Catholics. For Republicans, they believed that the population was captive to a Roman Catholic church that (in 1864) had condemned liberalism and all modern ideas. For the historian António Reis, Teófflo Braga's doctrinaire style was important in consolidating the Republican cause. His viceral Jacobinismo, allowed him to sythesize the thesese of Republican Federalists; the themes of administrative decentralization, imperial mandates and limits which would allow the management of the Portuguese republican model of public education, on the combat of clerical ultramontanism, national sovergeinty, and development of democratic ideals that would include universal suffrage. All these ideas would be elborated in the newspapers A Vanguarda, O Século and O Rebate. The militancy of these works would serve as blueprints for many republicans of his time, guide their positions and administration. Between 1879 and 1881 he would write many of his more political ideas, including Soluções Positivas da Política Portuguesa (English: Postivist Solutions to Portuguese Politics), 1879, História das Ideias Republicanas em Portugal (English: A History of Republican Ideas in Portugal), 1880, and Dissolução do Sistema Monárquico-Representativo (English: Dissolution of the Monarchial-Representative System), 1881. These propaganda pieces did not mean an end to his other works; in addition to participating in numerous comedies, festivals, clubes and republican associations, he was one of the personalities, in partnership with Ramalho Ortigão
Ramalho Ortigão
José Duarte Ramalho Ortigão was a Portuguese writer of the late 19th century and early 20th century. He spent his early years with his maternal grandmother in Oporto....

, to coordinate the fesitivities to mark the third centenary of the death of Luís Vaz de Camões
Luís de Camões
Luís Vaz de Camões is considered Portugal's and the Portuguese language's greatest poet. His mastery of verse has been compared to that of Shakespeare, Vondel, Homer, Virgil and Dante. He wrote a considerable amount of lyrical poetry and drama but is best remembered for his epic work Os Lusíadas...

, the epic Portuguese writer,(10 June 1880). He would later become a partner in the Academia Real das Ciências (English: Royal Academy of Sciences), Lisbon, and the Academia Real de História (English: Royal Academy of History), Madrid, where he would be honoured in subsequent years.

Politics

Braga became active in Portuguese politics in 1878, when he ran for deputy as an independent federalist republican. Over the years, he occupied many posts in the structure of the Portuguese Republican Party
Portuguese Republican Party
The Portuguese Republican Party was a Portuguese political party formed during the late years of monarchy that proposed and conducted the substitution of the Constitutional Monarchy by the Portuguese First Republic....

. He participated on the political barricades during the revolt in Oporto (31 January 1891), added to the list of members of the Republican Party and worked in partnership with Francisco Homem Cristo. The membership of the Republican Party in Lisbon never anticipated the success of the Republican revolt in the north. Teófilo and Homen Cristo attempted to include membership from the army in the movement, but were debilitated by a revolt that did not attract many of the upper echelons of the military and whose membership were generally seduced by the romantic image of the soldier. After the failure of the conspiracy, with many of those involved in retreat or sent to a military tribunal in Leixões
Leixões
Leixões is located 4 km to the north of Douro River mouth, in Matosinhos municipality, near the city of Porto. Leixões is one of Portugal's major seaports. Leixões Sport Club, commonly knows simply as Leixões, is Matosinhos' sports club....

, the two openly criticized Lisbon Republicans for their lack of support or solidarity with the members in Oporto. Teófilo occupied himself with arguing with the objectors and taking on an important role in the propaganda of the Republican Party. By 1896 he was a member of the Grupo Republicano de Estudos Socias (English: Republican Social Studies Group).
The political situation in Portugal had degraded after the 1890 British Ultimatum. Further, between the 19th Century and 20th Century, the system of power that rotated between the parties was slowly desmantled; the divisions introduced by João Franco
João Franco
João Franco Ferreira Pinto Castelo-Branco, GCTE was a Portuguese politician, Minister, 43rd Minister for Treasury Affairs and 73rd Prime Minister in the last years of the Portuguese monarchy...

 and José Maria de Alpoim
José Maria de Alpoim
José Maria de Alpoim Cerqueira Borges Cabral was a politician, member of the Progressive Party of Portugal, and later the Republican Party of Portugal, who held various roles during the last years of the constitutional monarchy in Portugal...

 resulted in the creation of splinter groups along side the two historical constitutional parties (respectively, the Partido Regenerador Liberal alongside the Partido Regenerador and the Dissideência Progressista from the Partido Progressista
Progressive Party (Portugal)
The Progressive Party , along with the their opponent the Partido Regenerador, was a political party in Portugal during the constitutional monarchy at the end of the 19th century.-Ideology:...

), which would alter the rules of political coexistence. A dictatorship created by João Franco after May 1907 (supported by King D. Carlos) was a episode of cumulative crises provoked by Hintze Ribeiro
Ernesto Hintze Ribeiro
Ernesto Rodolfo Hintze Ribeiro, was a prominent Portuguese politician. His name sometimes appears styled as Ernesto Rudolfo, Ernesto Rodolpho Hintze Ribeiro and Ernst Rudolph Hintze Ribeiro...

, leader of the Partido Regenerador, and José Luciano de Castro, responsible for the Partido Progressista. Teófilo Braga accompanied many of these events, as well as the French dictatorship, the regicide
Regicide
The broad definition of regicide is the deliberate killing of a monarch, or the person responsible for the killing of a monarch. In a narrower sense, in the British tradition, it refers to the judicial execution of a king after a trial...

 and enthronement of King D. Manuel II
Manuel II of Portugal
Manuel II , named Manuel Maria Filipe Carlos Amélio Luís Miguel Rafael Gabriel Gonzaga Francisco de Assis Eugénio de Bragança Orleães Sabóia e Saxe-Coburgo-Gotha — , was the last King of Portugal from 1908 to 1910, ascending the throne after the assassination of his father and elder brother Manuel...

, of which the journalist João Chagas wrote: ...[Manuel II assumed the military regalia] when by now it was not needed. The republican cause had grown in importance, nurtured by the Republican Party, members of freemasonry, the Carbonária Portuguesa and by numerous groups of doctrinarian idealists influenced by the cause.

On 1 January 1910, he became an effective member of the Political Directorate of the party, joining Basílio Teles, Eusébio Leão, José Cupertino Ribeiro, and José Relvas
José Relvas
José Maria Mascarenhas Relvas José Maria Mascarenhas Relvas José Maria Mascarenhas Relvas (Golegã, Golegã, March 5, 1858 - Alpiarça, Casa dos Patudos, October 31, 1929; , was a Portuguese politician.-Political career:...

. On 28 August 1910, he was elected deputy for Lisbon. The change in the system of government, the revolution
Revolution
A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...

, began on the morning of 4 October 1910 and lasted until the following day. Teófilo Braga received the confidance of the movement to occupy the position of President of Provisional Government of the Portuguese Republic. But the old Republican Party would not survive the creation of the Republic; factions quickly developed between groups within the unitary party to form new organizations: Afonso Costa
Afonso Costa
Afonso Augusto da Costa, GCTE, GCL was a Portuguese lawyer, professor, and republican politician.-Political career:Costa was the leader of the Portuguese Republican Party, and he was one of the major figures of the Portuguese First Republic. He was a republican deputy in the Chamber of Deputies...

's faction would form the Partido Democrático
Democratic Party (Portugal)
The Democratic Party , officially known as the Portuguese Republican Party , was a Portuguese left-wing political party during the Portuguese First Republic...

 (the most populist, Jacobin and urban party), António José de Almeida
António José de Almeida
António José de Almeida, GCTE, GCA, GCC, GCSE, , son of José António de Almeida and wife Maria Rita das Neves, was a Portuguese political figure...

 founded the Partido Evolucionista (a contemporary faction that included the rural bouregoeis) and Brito Camacho
Manuel de Brito Camacho
Manuel de Brito Camacho a military officer, writer, publicist and politician, who among other positions, was Minister of Public Works, Commerce and Industry and Republican High Commissioner to Mozambique...

 created the União Republicana (which was an intellectual group with many of its members from Lisbon). The first conflict involved the electoral act: Afonso Costa's "democrats" wanted Bernardino Machado to be the first President of the Republic, but António José de Almeida and Brito Camacho
Manuel de Brito Camacho
Manuel de Brito Camacho a military officer, writer, publicist and politician, who among other positions, was Minister of Public Works, Commerce and Industry and Republican High Commissioner to Mozambique...

  factions were able to elect Manuel de Arriaga
Manuel de Arriaga
Manuel José de Arriaga Brum da Silveira e Peyrelongue was a Portuguese lawyer, the first Attorney-General and the first elected President of the First Portuguese Republic, following the abdication of King Manuel II of Portugal and a Republican Provisional Government headed by Teófilo Braga Manuel...

 in that title. Teófilo Braga, who was always more closely affiliated with the membership of the "Democrats" and owing to small problems with Arriaga, sided with Bernardino Machado.

He would return to government in May 1915; he became the President of the Republic after the abrupt resignation of Manuel de Arriaga
Manuel de Arriaga
Manuel José de Arriaga Brum da Silveira e Peyrelongue was a Portuguese lawyer, the first Attorney-General and the first elected President of the First Portuguese Republic, following the abdication of King Manuel II of Portugal and a Republican Provisional Government headed by Teófilo Braga Manuel...

. Arriaga had supported Pimenta de Castro to run the government, and the General had established a dictatorship, which was eventually defeated. In disgrace the pacifist first President vacated the position, and the membership of the assembly had elected Braga to the position.

Later life

Braga was an extremely austere man; after becoming a widower, he was a recluse and occupied a lot of his time in his library. Even as President, he would walk, umbrella or cane in hand, everywhere, and generally, his Presidency itself was not an exercise in ostentatious living. Over time, as a man-of-letters, Teófilo Braga was recognized by historians as an erudite author. His final home, was on the second-floor of 70 Rua de Santa Gertrudes à Estrela, in Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

, and usually accompanied his neighbor for breakfast or lunch. He wore over-used clothing, of which many he repaired personally, including white linens which were his departed wife's possessions (and reminded him of their earlier life together). His was a solitary figure, and had lost many of his closest relations (his mother died early in his life, his father died in the Azores, he lost his children in their infancies and his beloved wife died before he), as well as his sight.

In his last will, he expressed his desire to be interred in a civil service, without ceremony. He died at 81 years of age, on January 28, 1924, but was buried in the Jerónimos Monastery
Jerónimos Monastery
The Hieronymites Monastery is located near the shore of the parish of Belém, in the municipality of Lisbon, Portugal...

 in Belém
Belém
Belém is a Brazilian city, the capital and largest city of state of Pará, in the country's north region. It is the entrance gate to the Amazon with a busy port, airport and bus/coach station...

, Lisbon.

Published works

As for his literary career, one can find books by Braga on the history of literature, on ethnography
Ethnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...

 (mainly his search for popular stories and traditional songs), poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...

, fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...

, and philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

. Braga's body of published work is also connected to historical investigation; while balancing philosophy, linguistics and culture he wrote História da Poesia Popular Portuguesa (English: The History of Popular Portuguese Poetry), História do Teatro Português (English: History of the Portuguese Theatre) and História das Ideias Republicanas em Portugal (English: The History of Republican Ideals in Portugal). One of his most contentious, from a scientific point-of-view, was História do Romantismo em Portugal (English: The History of Romanticism in Portugal), in 1880, although his four-volume História da Universidade de Coimbra (English: History of the University of Coimbra) is still considered important.

Poetry

  • Visão dos Tempos (1864)
  • Tempestades Sonoras (1864)
  • Torrentes (1869)
  • Miragens Seculares (1884)
  • Poesia do Direito (1865)

Essays

  • As Teorias Literárias – Relance sobre o Estado Actual da Literatura Portuguesa (1865)
  • História da Poesia Moderna em Portugal (1869)
  • História da Literatura Portuguese (Introdução) (1870)
  • História do Teatro Português (1870–1871) - 4 volumes
  • Teoria da História da Literatura Portuguesa (1872)
  • Manual da História da Literatura Portuguesa (1875)
  • Bocage, sua Vida e Época (1877)
  • Parnaso Português Moderno (1877)
  • Traços gerais da Filosofia Positiva (1877)
  • História do Romantismo em Portugal (1880)
  • Sistema de Sociologia (1884)
  • Camões e o Sentimento Nacional (1891)
  • História da Universidade de Coimbra (1891–1902) - 4 volumes
  • História da Literatura Portuguesa (1909–1918) - 4 volumes

Anthologies and research

  • Antologias: Cancioneiro Popular (1867)
  • Contos Tradicionais do Povo Português (1883)

See also

  • List of Presidents of Portugal
  • List of Prime Ministers of Portugal
  • Portuguese First Republic
    Portuguese First Republic
    The Portuguese First Republic spans a complex 16 year period in the history of Portugal, between the end of the period of constitutional monarchy marked by the 5 October 1910 revolution and the 28 May coup d'état of 1926...

  • History of Portugal
    History of Portugal
    The history of Portugal, a European and an Atlantic nation, dates back to the Early Middle Ages. In the 15th and 16th centuries, it ascended to the status of a world power during Europe's "Age of Discovery" as it built up a vast empire including possessions in South America, Africa, Asia and...

  • Timeline of Portuguese history (First Republic)
    Timeline of Portuguese history (First Republic)
    This is a historical timeline of Portugal.-1910:*October 4 - Beginning of the Republican Revolution. The Republic is proclaimed in Loures, just north of Lisbon.*October 5...

  • Politics of Portugal
    Politics of Portugal
    Politics in Portugal take place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. The President of the Republic is the head of state and has several significant political powers, which he...

  • Culture of Portugal
    Culture of Portugal
    The culture of Portugal is the result of a complex flow of different civilizations during the past Millennia. From prehistoric cultures, to its Pre-Roman civilizations , passing through its contacts with the Phoenician-Carthaginian world, the Roman period , the...

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