Author: Rômulo Ehalt
Part of: Coimbra in India (coord. by Rômulo Ehalt)
Peer-Reviewed: Yes
Published: December, 27th, 2025
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18069054

The latest version of this entry may be cited as follows: Rômulo Ehalt, “Abreu, Lopo de”, Conimbricenses.org Encyclopedia, Mário Santiago de Carvalho, Simone Guidi (eds.), doi = “10.5281/zenodo.18069054”, URL = “https://www.conimbricenses.org/encyclopedia/abreu-lopo-de”, latest revision: December, 27th, 2025.

Life and Works

Lopo de Abreu (c. 1515-1573) was born in Vizeu in 1547 and entered the Society of Jesus in 15 May 1564 (ANTT, Mss. da Livraria, n. 622, f. 371). In 1570, while still a Jesuit brother, the Provincial of Portugal Jorge Serrão chose him to compose the group of missionaries to be sent to India that year. However, no Jesuit embarked on the carreira that year due to an epidemic of plague in Portugal. Abreu received holy orders in 1574, when he became a lecturer at the University of Évora. His whereabouts before teaching at the university is uncertain. Until his departure to India in 1578, Abreu taught cases of conscience in the university. On the hallways he could have met the likes of Luis de Molina (1535-1600), Cipriano Soares (1524-1593) and Fernão Rebelo (1547–1608), all of them professors at the same university at that time (História da Universidade Teológica de Évora (Séculos XVI a XVIII), p. 191). Despite his uncertain formation—we have no confirmation if Abreu was a doctor or not—he was often complimented as a talented theologian. Procurator of the Province of India in Portugal Martim da Silva (1533-c. 1583), upon recommending him to teach in Asia, described Abreu as a “man of rare virtue, able to lecture on any topic, even Greek.” However, the same evaluation also draws attention to his limited capacity for administrative work (DI XI, p. 154-155). Throughout his life, Abreu was often described as a prudent individual, with good judgement and a phlegmatic temperament, although physically weak (DI XIII, 667, DI XV, 175, DI XVI, 936, Goa 24, 382v).

Between 1570 and 1575, Abreu wrote numerous times to his superiors petitioning to be sent to Índia or, if possible, to Japan, to teach theology. His correspondence indicates close connections to other relevant figures of Coimbra at the time. Besides Francisco de Borgia, general of the Society of Jesus between 1565 and 1572, Abreu also asked for recommendations from Jorge Serrão, provincial of Portugal between 1570 and 1574, and Pedro da Fonseca, who visited the University of Évora in March 1570, for the doctorate ceremony of Inácio Martins, and in December 1572 for the Jesuit provincial congregation (Carvalho 2020).

According to himself, Abreu was supposed to be one of the members accompanying Alessandro Valignano to India in 1573, but was inexplicably excluded from the group (ARSI, Lus. 67, f. 86-86v). Eventually, in 1578, he was appointed by the procurator Martim da Silva to integrate the group of fourteen missionaries heading to Asia, which included Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), Michele Ruggieri (1543–1607), Francesco Pasio (1554–1612) and Rudolfo Acquaviva (1550–1583). On the evening of 24 March 1578, while D. Sebastião (1554-1578) prepared his campaign in Africa, Abreu embarked on the nau Caranja, also called Bom Jesus (DI XI, *19-*23, 161-162).

After a stop in Mozambique, where the group met the new viceroy, D. Luís de Ataíde (1516-1581), Abreu and his companions arrived in Goa in late August or early September of 1578. By then, the city was besieged by the Sultan of Bijapur, Ali Adil Shah (1558-1579), who enjoyed strong support from the people of Salsete. Abreu’s talents were quickly employed in a commission formed in the following year to answer to a consultation by the new viceroy, who inquired whether to accept a request from the population of Salsete that wished to continue practicing Hindu rituals.

Despite his wish to be sent to Japan, Jesuit obedience forced Abreu to remain in India for the rest of his life. Upon arriving, he was appointed a professor at the College of São Paulo by the Provincial of India Rui Vicente (1523-1587, prov. 1574-1583), where Abreu taught two theology lessons (DI XII, 198). In 1584, one year after the martyrdom of Rudolfo Acquaviva and his four companions in Cuncolim, Abreu was sent to Cochim, where he served as minister at the College of Madre de Deus for about a year and a half (Aranha 2006, 151-162). Thanks to strong support from his superiors, he was able to profess the fourth vow on 14 January 1585 (DI XII, 207, 282; DI XIII, 445, 825; DI XV, 175).

In 1586, he returned to the College of São Paulo of Goa, now appointed as a preacher, master of studies, and lecturer of theology. In the years he remained in Goa, he also served as spiritual prefect, confessor of the college’s brothers, and consultant to the rector (DI XIV, 790, DI XV, 175, DI XVI, 936, 994, Goa 24, 266v). His epistolary production was rather limited. Almost all of his letters were written in observance of his obligations as consultant (DI XII, 385-392; DI XIII, 749-750; DI XV, 344-377. DI XVII, 289). However, this position allowed him to participate in numerous commissions and meetings of high relevance. For instance, Abreu took part in the 3rd and 4th Congregations of the Province of Goa, in 1588 and 1594 (DI XV, 83; DI XVI, 635). He was also present during the discussions that removed Alessandro Valignano from the Visitation of the Province of India and reappointed him Visitor of the Vice-Province of Japan in 1595. Japan was also at the center of a diferente debate at that same time, When Abreu and other Jesuits discussed moral challenges of the Japanese mission and the entry of mendicant orders in the archipelago (DI XV, 344-377, DI XVII, 100, 336, Alvarez-Taladriz 1977, 1-23, Ehalt 2019b, 1-14). He was also one of the numerous Jesuits to write opinions on the revision of the 1586 Ratio Studiorum, discuss confession manuals sent from Europe to Asia, forced baptisms in India, and to suggest ammendments to the 5th Congregation of the Province of Goa, in 1599 (DI XV, 344-377; DI XVII, 288-293; Goa 22-I, 31-46; Ajuda 49-V-18, 372-378v).

In 1597, Abreu was transferred to Margaon, the main village of the region of Salsete. At the local College of Espírito Santo, he was appointed vicar of the Church of Salvador do Mundo, in Loutulim/Lottli, also in the Salsete area (DI XVIII, 849; Goa 24, 266v, 273, 316). It was during this period that Abreu penned his summa, finished in 1603.

A hiatus in the catalogues of the Province of Goa makes it difficult to trace Abreu’s activities until 1605. In November 1606, when the catalogue is compiled, Abreu’s name is absent, possibly due to a disease that made it uncertain if he should be included among the lists of living or deceased Jesuits (Goa 24, 390-391v). The annual letter written in December 1606 explains Abreu’s health state. Eventually, he chose to return to the College of São Paulo, where he passed away in late 1606 (Goa 24, 415; Goa 33-I, 182v). The same letter also indicates that Abreu left a brief summa of cases, written in Portuguese, which was used in the education of confessors (Goa 33-I, 182v).

Suma de Moral

Despite being impossible to clearly indicate which institutions adopted Abreu’s manual, the Suma de Moral was rejected by the Jesuit Curia soon after its completion. In 1607, Claudio Acquaviva (1543-1615) forbade its use in Jesuit schools, since the adoption of a manual of moral theology written in Portuguese would be detrimental to the study of Latin. The Jesuit general considered that using Abreu’s manual could negatively influence the capacity of local students in evaluating moral cases and the access to other authoritative texts, almost all of them written in Latin (Wicki 1953, 159; Wicki 1980, 505; Goa 5, 100v). But even though it was excluded from classrooms, the Suma de Moral kept being referenced by numerous other theologians, canonists, and casuists in Asia throughout the seventeenth century.

There were at least two places where the manuscript was actively used: Macau and Bardez. In 1616, a list of books kept at the procuratura of the Province of Japan in Macau included a copy of the “suma do Pe. Lopo de Abreu” (Humbertclaude 1943, 20). The same volume was still in the library in 1633, when a new list was elaborated following the death of Diogo Valente (1568–1633), Bishop of Japan (Golvers 2006, 8, Humbertclaude 1943, 43). Besides these two catalogues, the Suma was used in debates held at the Jesuit College of Madre de Deus of Macau. A debate held in 1620 by the Jesuits of Macau refers to the Suma twice when debating issues of confession and restitution (Ajuda 49-VI-6, 123v-124 and 143). Meanwhile, the De Matrimoniis Neophitorum (Ajuda 49-VI-6, 45-98v), a compilation of casuistical opinions relative to matrimonies in Japan composed around the 1650s, reproduces passages of the manual in Latin (f. 95-98v).

Some aspects of the Macau debates are noteworthy. The Latin excerpts included in the discussions differs from the Latin translation available to us in the only extant full manuscript of the Suma de Moral (see Manuscripts). Second, the answers given to the issues proposed in the De Matrimoniiis Neophitorum are in Portuguese, which suggests that the Macau copy of the Suma was, indeed, a manuscript copy of the original manual in vernacular. The same is suggested by continuous references to specific folios of the copy extant in the College of Macau, which indicates that there was only one copy of Abreu’s work in that Jesuit library.

Another relevant evidence of the relevance of Abreu’s text in Portuguese Asia is found in Codex 913, of the Manuscritos da Livraria collection at the Torre do Tombo. Despite the absence of authorship in this codex, a loose piece of paper found between folios 171v and 172 indicates that this volume was still in use by the Franciscans at the Church of Penha de França, in the village of Sirulá, in Bardez, in the late seventeenth century.

The manuscript has a list of questions and answers of various cases written in Portuguese based on the “summa do P.e Lopo d’Abreu.” The cases involve definitions of penitence, usury, excommunication, regularity, and other topics. Many of the topics include references to cities and toponyms of Portuguese India including Goa and Cochim. Some of the answers are based on Francisco Suárez’s Commentariorum ac Disputationum (1602), which goes to show the connections between Abreu’s intellectual production and the more recent developments of Coimbra and Salamanca in Europe. The same Codex 913 also has an excerpt from Abreu’s manual on the absolution of excommunications (f. 190).

Abreu’s treatment of the issue of absolution is also referred by the Franciscan Boaventura das Chagas (?-?) in his 1614 Tratado dos Previlegios que gozam os Religiozos mendicantes (Biblioteca Central de Panjim, Ms. 29), and by the Franciscan António da Graça (?-?) in the 1689 Breves Resoluções Moraes em Forma de Repertório Alphabetico (Biblioteca Central de Panjim, Ms. 5).

The publication of a fac-símile edition of the Latin translation of Abreu’s Suma de Moral, composed by Vicente Álvares SJ (1581-1634) will allow further studies of this seminal work. Indicated by Jesuit historian Francisco Rodrigues as the most popular manual of moral theology of early modern Asia (Francisco Rodrigues, tomo 2, vol. 2, 458), comparisons between this manual with contemporary materials and an analysis of the context of its production, particularly considering Abreu’s involvement with the revision of the Ratio Studiorum, will be fundamental to identify contributions of this author beyond the scope of pragmatic literature.

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