Female Education and Monastic Enclosure in Early Modern Portugal: Notes for a Reflection

Abstract

The history of women’s education in Portugal predates the implementation of an official system, which was only consistently addressed after 1836 with Passos Manuel’s reform of primary instruction. Long before that, particularly from the Early Modern period onwards, women religious played a key role in providing education. Convents and Third Order houses—alongside families, charities, and religion-inspired foundations—offered instruction considered appropriate to women’s gender and social status. The Council of Trent (1545–1563) extended strict enclosure to all female convents, leading to the “monasticisation” of education—an arrangement that neither promoted the visibility of female learners nor encouraged the development of the pedagogical models that shaped their instruction. The later emergence of teaching orders, despite their adherence to enclosure, began to challenge the traditional monastic model. Drawing on largely unpublished or scarcely explored archival sources, this article seeks to shed light on the historical reasons behind the prominent and precedent-setting role of monasticism in the field of female education, and to address the enduring invisibility that still shrouds the cloistered world.

1. Introduction

The idea of an official women’s education system in Portugal emerged relatively late. Its first intentional formulations date back to 1790, in the broader context of the 1772 reform of elementary studies carried out under the Marquis of Pombal.1 Yet it was only under the Constitutional Monarchy, particularly after Passos Manuel’s 1836 primary education reform, that the matter was consistently addressed (Adão 2014, pp. 55–67). In contrast, the practice of women’s education lato sensu, conceived as a response to social needs, is as old as the Portuguese nation itself. Reflection on the topic is likewise not a prerogative of the Contemporary Period. Eighteenth-century writers such as Luís António Verney (1713–1792) and Ribeiro Sanches (1699–1783) already discussed the issue, while even earlier sources attest to the resonance of the “Querelle des Femmes” in Portugal (M. d. L. C. Fernandes 1995, p. 103).

Yet these formulations and debates proved to be limited in scope and, by any measure, belated. Well into the modern period—and indeed throughout a substantial part of it—the intellectual marginalisation of women, consonant with their social status and representation, advanced pari passu with a narrowly circumscribed and elitist educational regime. This stood in sharp contrast to the pedagogical structures made available to boys, who—albeit not universally—could access a formally organised system of instruction in colleges such as those of the Jesuits and the Oratorians, in universities, and in other institutional settings (See, for example, Sonnet 1988, pp. 6–8).

For centuries, women religious—here understood to include both enclosed convents and Third Order houses subject to the rule of enclosure—held a privileged position in promoting women’s education, particularly among the higher social strata. This role, however, was shared-no longer exclusively among the upper elites-with other agents, including families, charities, and houses of seclusion founded by the Crown or by private initiative, most often religious (Rijo 2022, pp. 154–56).

The Early Modern period, shaped by Humanism and the Counter-Reformation, reinforced this allocation. Women were recognised as privileged transmitters of values and therefore accorded special dignity in the project of re-Christianising and moralising society (Henneau 2013, pp. 67–68). However, at the same time, the decrees of the Council of Trent (1545–1563) on enclosure, now extended to all female convents, resulted in the “monasticisation” of education (Henneau 2013, pp. 69–70)—a phenomenon particularly noticeable in Portugal.

Women’s education remained linked to a predominantly contemplative framework until the dissolution of religious orders in the 1830s.2 This makes it especially difficult for the historian to access sources. The world of pupils—distinct from, yet adjacent to, the world of the Rule—suffers from a double invisibility: that traditionally associated with the history of women, and that produced by the conditions of enclosure. Pupils’ lives as laywomen, and their educational programmes are rarely listed in monastic records or other institutional sources.

Moreover, the education provided within the cloister—neither aligning with the concept of formal instruction nor possessing official status—proves difficult to grasp in depth, all the more so given the long temporal span in which it was situated. The complexity increases with the introduction—albeit belated in Portugal—of two orders devoted explicitly to teaching. Though observant of enclosure, they challenged the exclusivity of the traditional monastic model and even questioned its historical adequacy.

Unlike in other European contexts, where scholarships have provided comprehensive accounts of the relationship between cloister and women’s education, Portugal still lacks such an overview.3 Nevertheless, essential contributions exist. For specific orders or convents, we may cite the works of Zulmira Santos and Helena Queirós (Dos Santos 2008–2009; Santos and Queirós 2012), Marta Lobo (Lobo de Araújo 2017), and Irene Vaquinhas (Vaquinhas 1996). On education, and specifically on women’s education, relevant studies include those by Áurea Adão (Adão 2014), Rogério Fernandes (R. Fernandes 1994), and Maria de Lurdes Correia Fernandes (M. d. L. C. Fernandes 1995). Research on female monasticism in the Early Modern period has also been significant, notably studies of intramural cultural practices by Antónia Fialho Conde, Elisa Lessa, Isabel Morujão, and Margarida Lalanda (Conde and Lalanda 2020), as well as studies on religion-inspired seclusion houses, with essential contributions by Delminda Rijo (Rijo 2022) and Maria Antónia Lopes (Lopes 2025).

This paper builds upon this scholarship, as well as on my own previous inquiries into the female monastic world (See, for example, M. L. Jacquinet 2024a, pp. 35–50). It has been further enriched by consulting archival material that has been hitherto unpublished or rarely used, often from a comparative perspective. These include records from the Arquivo das Congregações (Archives of the Religious Congregations) and the Ministério dos Negócios Eclesiásticos e da Justiça (Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs and Justice), held at the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo (Torre do Tombo National Archive), as well as internal documentation from religious houses and records concerning the operation of the Public Instruction Commission, available at the Arquivo Histórico Parlamentar (Parliamentary Historical Archive).

This article aims to provide evidence and raise questions that may contribute to a more precise and comprehensive understanding of convent’s role in women’s education during the Ancien Régime. By combining social, religious, and political perspectives, it seeks to offer an informed reading of the pedagogical dynamics of enclosure and to question the reasons for its hegemony, its exemplary status, and the legacy it left in the Portuguese educational landscape.

2. Education and Enclosure

In sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe, the Catholic Reformation and Counter-Reformation gave rise to a movement of religious fervour and Christian renewal that mobilised large numbers of women as active agents of re-Christianisation (Henneau 2013, pp. 67–69). Within this context, women’s education was conceived as both an apostolic mission and as a privileged instrument enabling women to fulfil that mission.

This movement, more religious and doctrinal than pedagogical, was inspired by major Humanist thinkers who endorsed the importance of women’s education, such as Erasmus, Thomas More, and Juan Luis Vivès. The latter’s “De institutione feminae Christianae” (1523) was highly influential (Annaert 2012, p. 10). At the same time, many churchmen expressed confidence in women’s spiritual potential, recognising their aptitude for devotion, sanctity, and charity. St Francis de Sales, in the preface to the Constitutions of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary, which he founded with Jeanne de Chantal, declared: “Elles font tous les jours infinité de biens.”4 In his wake, several authors affirmed their faith in women’s virtues, at times engaging in what Marie-Élisabeth Henneau has described as a “form of religious feminism.” In the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, figures such as Fénelon, Rollin, and Madame de Maintenon consolidated and disseminated educational models that had a lasting influence into the final decades of the Ancien Régime, as did the success of specific male orders, notably the Society of Jesus.

Multiple apostolic initiatives emerged, particularly focused on good deeds, which included the instruction of girls. The Order of Saint Ursula (1535), the Company of Mary Our Lady (1607)—the first female congregation dedicated explicitly to teaching—and the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary (1610) were founded in this context. In northern Europe, the so-called Jesuitines, closely linked to Ignatian pedagogy, also flourished. Education was likewise undertaken by Third Orders, Beguines, and communities of devotees, as well as by institutes founded under episcopal or parochial patronage (Annaert 2012, p. 20).

The strengthening of monastic enclosure and its extension to all female religious houses, implemented in the wake of the Council of Trent, led to an inevitable—albeit relative—monasticisation of female education, through the conversion to contemplative life of certain institutes, some of which were originally secular and had initially embraced a pedagogical vocation (Henneau 2013, p. 72). Nevertheless, many retained their educational role by creating boarding schools, or, in the case of the Ursulines, by maintaining both boarding and day schools in the same convent—the latter offering free public instruction for girls (Annaert 2012, p. 20). Tridentine legislation also required a specific space for pupils, separate from the nuns, and the appointment of a maîtresse des séculières to provide group lessons, replacing the former practice of individual tutoring by the pupils’ religious relatives (Zarri 2011, p. 12).

From the Council of Trent onwards, the monastic boarding school became almost compulsory for girls from wealthy families, whether they intended to embrace religious life or not (Henneau 2010, p. 119). Initially admitted for short stays, often in preparation for First Communion, they later remained for more extended periods, sometimes for years, to decide on their vocation and acquire valuable training for their future roles (Annaert 2012, p. 10). This transitional stage was modelled on the monastic novitiate, which, over time came to include secular pupils (Zarri 2011, p. 11). Like the novitiate, it retained a strongly religious and moral framework, complemented by basic instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic, as well as needlework and “female-adequate skills” and, in some convents, art and theoretical subjects (Sonnet 1988, p. 61). Pupils, like novices, also participated in the practical activities of the convent—from the pharmacy to the sacristy and parlours, from the library to the refectory and kitchen—though for them this was preparation for managing a household (Sonnet 1988, p. 69).

Rather than developing the mind or conveying specialised technical skills, convent education aimed primarily at forming character and mould conduct according to Christian moral standards (Sonnet 1988, p. 61). Even menial tasks were valued above all for their ability to foster discipline and humility (Lobo de Araújo 2017, p. 665). Lacking a structured pedagogical programme—such as the one that emerged in the eighteenth century under the influence of the Jesuit ratio studiorum—monastic education prioritised moral and spiritual instruction over literary or scientific education (Zarri 2011, p. 23).

Although educational institutions outside strict enclosure gradually expanded—among them Third Order convents and houses for orphans or destitute girls, often of secular inspiration (Zarri 2011, p. 14)—claustral schooling continued to shape the lives of women up to the threshold of the Contemporary Period.

Portugal, broadly aligned with the Catholic European scenario described above, evidences a prevalence of the claustral model over that of the active life, in particular if we do not consider the then Portuguese colonies.5 The convent, together with enclosed Third Order houses, was the main structure for women’s education during the Ancien Régime.6 Teaching orders, widely diffused across Europe from the seventeenth century, arrived in Portugal only very late: the Ursulines in 1753 and the Visitandines in 1784.

3. The World of the Pupils

Although not encompassing all female monastic houses—some of which, according to their statutes, were prohibited from admitting secular individuals, including servants and pupils—it is plausible to assume that, in Portugal, the world of female pupils accounted for the majority, at least if we consider both monasteries and Third Order retreats subject to strict enclosure.

The sources attesting to the presence of pupils in convents are abundant: petitions for admission, records of pastoral visitations, chronicles of religious orders, writings by ecclesiastics on female monastic life, among many others.7 Yet this abundance contrasts with the vagueness of information regarding the precise status, functions, daily life, and activities of pupils. Convent constitutions, as normative texts designed primarily for the religious community, mention pupils only insofar as they set maximum admission numbers for secular residents—including pupils, servants, and others.8

According to José de S. Cirilo Carneiro, author of a treatise on monastic enclosure, pupils were those young women “who serve no one in the convent; who live there independently, and who, whether by birth or by wealth, are regarded, and regard themselves, as ladies in worldly terms.” (Carneiro 1814, p. 64). Drawing mainly on rules of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars, especially that of 27 May 1607, Carneiro lists the conditions under which pupils could be admitted to enclosed convents. These may be summarised as follows: the convent must already have received girls for education; pupils must be explicitly admitted as such; they must live apart from the dormitories and workplaces of professed nuns and novices; admission required the licence of the Congregation, the consent of the Mother Superior, and the favourable vote of the majority of the community; their numbers could not exceed the quota assigned to the house; they could not bring servants; they must wear modest dress appropriate to virgins; they must be between seven and twenty-five years of age; they must observe the laws of enclosure and leave only with permission from the Congregation; finally, payments for their upkeep had to be made in advance, every six months, and guaranteed by a deposit (Carneiro 1814, pp. 11–17).

In practice, however, these rules were not always observed. This was especially true in terms of the prohibition on bringing servants, which is systematically contradicted by documentary evidence. Doubt also arises regarding the separation between pupils and professed nuns, as suggested by a document concerning the Dominican convent of Corpus Christi in Vila Nova de Gaia, where one pupil is recorded as having rented the “cell and kitchen” previously occupied by a nun, in addition to a “house” and even a “level” [?] in the “Dormitory of the Ante-choir, which has a window onto the turnstile courtyard” (ANTT, Ordem dos Pregadores, Mosteiro de Corpus Christi de Vila Nova de Gaia, liv. 1, fl. 9).

As a general rule, pupils were secular girls from wealthy families, entrusted by their relatives to a convent where, even without an immediate intention of taking the veil, they were instructed in Christian doctrine, social etiquette, basic literacy, and other skills deemed suitable for their gender and status. Moreover, they took part in certain aspects of community life, observed its rules, respected enclosure, and maintained modesty in dress and personal appearance.

The reasons for admission, as revealed in petitions, were multiple and diverse. In December 1795, Francisco Gomes, Bishop of the Algarve, granted the request of António dos Santos Cavaco, who sought to place his “minor daughter of seven years, Maria Rita da Conceição” in the Convent of St Joseph of Lagoa, so that, “free from the dangers of the world, and in view of the good example and virtue of that holy community, she might incline herself to the path of perfection until such time as she could decide and choose her state of life” (ANTT, Arquivo das Congregações, mç. 9, mct. 7). Luísa do Resgate, from Vila Viçosa, requested admission to the convent of Our Lady of the Servite Sisters in Borba, in 1826, “with a maid to serve her,” declaring her “desire to withdraw as a secular pupil.” (ANTT, Ministério dos Negócios Eclesiásticos e da Justiça, 2.ª série, mç. 43, n.º 168, cx. 152). Similarly, in December 1824, D. Justina Carlota de Sousa petitioned to “retire to the Royal Convent of Santa Clara […] with the possibility of having two maids” (ANTT, Ministério dos Negócios Eclesiásticos e da Justiça, 2.ª série, mç. 9, n.º 171, cx. 25). Notably, she described herself as having “been a pupil since childhood at the Royal Convent of Celas,” and appears to have wished to continue as she had always lived, while remaining a secular resident. Her convent of origin thus functioned as a preparatory stage for a mature decision that nonetheless remained poised between the Rule and the world.

Such cases highlight both the flexibility of the convent in shaping women’s life trajectories and the porous nature of the category of “pupil” and of convent education itself. Occasionally, however, more precise—albeit still general—descriptions of educational functions do appear, as in a document from 1839 concerning the Convent of St Theresa in Freixinho, diocese of Lamego:

Sixteen residents live in this Convent —3 mistresses and 15 pupils. The revenues are administered by the Regent, the Mother Superior, and two councillors, assisted by a procurator. The public, says the Vicar Capitular, holds great sympathy for this house because of the education conveyed to the pupils, who are taught reading, writing, embroidery, and vocal and instrumental music.

(ANTT, Ministério dos Negócios Eclesiásticos e da Justiça, 3.ª série, mç. 167, cx. 230)

From the concept of education in enclosure derives the idea of who was responsible for teaching. The nuns, who generally acted as mistresses, probably instructed pupils and novices alike (Henneau 2010, p. 120). The case of Josefa Peregrina Oliveira e Silva illustrates this: in 1789, she was admitted as a novice to the Royal Cistercian Convent of St Bernard in Portalegre “without payment of dowry or fees,” on condition that she would “sing, learn to play the organ, and teach both the nuns and the pupils of the convent.” (Arquivo Distrital de Portalegre, Mosteiro de São Bernardo de Portalegre, cx 01, liv. 1, fl. 311). A similar idea is conveyed in a brief regulatory text concerning the office of mistress of reading, of unknown date and provenance. Her duties included ensuring the correct performance of readings in the refectory and other contexts, supervising readers, and providing reading lessons to those in need (ANTT, Arquivo das Congregações, liv. 238).

The long-standing coexistence of secular and religious life within convent walls inevitably led to criticism, which intensified with the growing censure directed against the regular clergy, whether from rationalist and anticlerical circles or from clerics concerned about the decrease in discipline in cloistered life. The controversy did not focus on the quality of instruction or its usefulness to pupils, but rather on the relationship between the secular and the cloistered worlds. An episcopal visitation of Corpus Christi in Vila Nova de Gaia, on 26 August 1737, warned that pupils must always respect the nuns and observe, “in dress and adornment alike,” the same rules recommended to the religious women (ANTT, Ordem dos Pregadores, Mosteiro de Corpus Christi de Vila Nova de Gaia, liv. 13, fls. 4v–5). A later visitation reiterated the ban, previously imposed, forbidding pupils and “young women” from entering the choir during the recitation of the Divine Office, “so as not to disturb so holy an exercise.” (ANTT, Ordem dos Pregadores, Mosteiro de Corpus Christi de Vila Nova de Gaia, liv. 13, fl. 15). A letter of 1791 from D. Frei Caetano Brandão, Archbishop of Braga, to the President of the Junta do Estado Atual e Melhoramento Temporal das Ordens Religiosas (Board for the Assessment of the Current State and Temporal Improvement of Religious Orders),9 summarises these concerns:

As for the pupils! Ah, Sir! They are the most harmful thing imaginable, equally prejudicial to the convents and to the seculars themselves: some enter only to finish corrupting the little innocence that remains; others to learn infamies they might never have conceived in their parents’ homes. And the worst is that permissions for such admissions continue to come from the Secretariat, without any prior examination by the Prelate into the applicants’ conduct […]. May His Majesty, for the love of God, put an end to so great a disorder, refusing to allow such permissions to be issued, except in extraordinary cases and only after an examination of all the relevant circumstances.

(do Amaral 1818, p. 91)

4. Education-Focused Monasteries

From the mid-eighteenth century onwards, the hegemony of the contemplative paradigm in Portugal was challenged by two religious orders devoted explicitly to female education, albeit under the observance of enclosure. In 1753, in Pereira do Campo, near Coimbra, the first monastery of the Order of St. Ursula was founded. This order, created as a secular institute in 1535 by St. Angela Merici in Brescia, Italy, bore a distinct Ignatian imprint in its spirituality and pedagogical framework.10 It soon founded more houses in Viana da Foz do Lima (around 1777), Braga (1785), and finally Lisbon (ca. 1788), and a school for the education of orphan girls (Santos and Queirós 2012, p. 68). Somewhat later, in 1784, the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary, founded in 1610 by St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane Frances de Chantal, settled in Lisbon and set up a monastery at Junqueira in Belém.

Thus, a structured and autonomous educational regime, with a defined curriculum combining religious, literary, and artistic training, was introduced into the monastic context. This was conducted either exclusively in boarding schools, in the case of the Visitandines, or through both boarding (paid) and day-schooling (free and public), in the case of the Ursulines. Their entry into Portugal was belated, considering that these orders had already been established for a long time and had a notable impact in several other European countries, successfully achieving the reconciliation—disrupted by Trent—between the contemplative ideal and the apostolic mission. Their establishment was neither casual nor untimely, as it not only recognised the traditional prestige of the cloister in shaping female life but also embraced the ideals of educational advancement and the acknowledgement of women’s social and moral contributions, which Enlightenment currents increasingly demanded.

Female education benefitted from the convergence of several circumstances: the defence of universal access to instruction, the growing awareness of the dignity of women as human beings, and the appreciation of their civic contribution as educators (Jesus and Franco 2022). As transmitters of values and privileged instruments of order and collective moralization, women were transformed into active agents of social progress and change.

This set of ideas was already present in the influential works of Luís António Verney (1713–1792), author of “Verdadeiro Método de Estudar” (True Studying Method), and António Ribeiro Sanches (1699–1783), author of “Cartas sobre a educação da mocidade” (Letters on Youth Education). However, the wide-ranging pedagogical reform inspired by Enlightenment ideals is not reflected in the schools of the orders mentioned above. The Ursulines, as is known, established themselves in Pereira through the initiative of D. Luiza das Chagas and thanks to the support of Queen Mariana of Austria, adopting the statutes of that Order dated 1611 (R. Fernandes 1994, p. 198). The era of the Marquis of Pombal was unfavourable to them due to the Jesuit nature of their educational model.

The coming to Portugal of the Order of the Visitation, on the other hand, benefited from the devout enthusiasm warmly received at the court of Queen Maria I, inspired by the revelations of the Visitandine Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647–1690) and the consequent revival of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Santos 2004, p. 998). Indeed, the first monastery of the order in Portugal was founded during Queen Maria I’s reign, who also consecrated the first church in Christendom to the Sacred Heart. Teodoro de Almeida, the leading advocate of the order’s establishment in Portugal, was likewise a great promoter of the devotion (Santos 2004, p. 998).

This does not mean, however, that the coming of the Ursulines and Visitandines was at odds with contemporary ideas of social progress or disengaged from the new role assigned to female education. The preface to a grammar authored by a Visitandine nun—the first Portuguese grammar explicitly designed for female education in Portugal and the first written by a woman—evidences this (Kemmler et al. 2010, p. 379). Addressing the teachers, Soror Francisca de Chantal Álvares wrote: The reason behind the Republic’s exceptional mothers lies in female education, which results in perfect Citizens and contributes to the good of the State” (Kemmler et al. 2010, p. 379).

Unlike other monasteries—except in their observance of enclosure—these communities offered structured education, with specialised teachers, following pedagogical models based on Jesuit teaching or on humanist programmes and ideas consecrated in works such as those by Fénelon and Rollin, which were inspirations for Portuguese Enlightenment reformers (Santos and Queirós 2012, p. 61). Richer in scientific subjects and in music, their curricula nevertheless focused on conveying behavioural models within a strict religious framework that permeated all teaching.

The Ursulines’ programme included three significant components: religious (catechism, preparation for First Communion, and spiritual exercises); literary (reading, writing—in Latin and the vernacular—and arithmetic); and artistic (sewing, lacemaking, and music) (Santos and Queirós 2012, p. 68).

With only one school, in Lisbon at Junqueira, the Visitandines offered the following programme:

II. On Education

As the number of girls is already considerable, you can now see what their education entails. They are taught to read, write, do arithmetic, and study religion. In addition, they are taught Portuguese grammar, which is very useful to them and a gateway to the grammars of French, Italian, Latin, and English, since all these languages are taught from the beginning, if they wish to learn them. They are also taught sewing, knitting, lacemaking, and embroidery in white, gold, and coloured silks; and finally, solfège, harpsichord, and geography. But what is most astonishing in these girls, even the very young ones, is their gravity and modesty in all public acts, which makes them universally admired.

(Santos and Queirós 2012, p. 72)

Despite these similarities, the two orders presented different educational emphases. The Visitandines’ programme was broader in subject matter and more selective in recruitment, as it was primarily intended for noble families. In contrast, the Ursulines’ system was more versatile, combining boarding schools for those able to finance them with free day-schooling accessible to girls from less privileged social backgrounds (Santos and Queirós 2012, p. 70).

5. Establishment of Public Classes in Convents or Retreats

The establishment of the orders mentioned above in Portugal appears to have inspired a broader movement to open convents to public education, which marked initiatives promoting female education from the last quarter of the eighteenth century through the early years of Liberalism (R. Fernandes 1994, p. 199). Almost contemporaneous with the measures enacted following the reform of elementary studies carried out under the Marquis of Pombal, promulgated on 6 November 1772, these initiatives achieved in female education what the earlier reforms had failed to accomplish. Indeed, it was only in 1790 that the State authorised the establishment of 18 schools for girls in Lisbon—a project that was nevertheless postponed and only resumed in 1814 (Adão 2014, p. 60). However, the extension of female education to the entire country was only addressed by the primary education reform of 1836, promoted by the government of Passos Manuel (Adão 2014, p. 65).

Even before the creation of public schools for girls, the Ursulines, facing financial difficulties in 1780, petitioned the Real Mesa Censória (Royal Monitoring Board) for the “grant of an ordinary subsidy through the Literary Subsidy Fund,” a tax specifically created to finance public instruction under the reform of the Marquis of Pombal. Given the services they provided, effectively public, the request was granted (Adão 2014, p. 56).

The Ursulines’ organisational structure and the prestige they subsequently accrued may have inspired initiatives undertaken by D. Frei Caetano Brandão (1740–1805), Archbishop of Braga, between 1789 and 1805, within the scope of his vigorous pastoral duties. In 1791, he commissioned works at the Convent of Terceiras de São Francisco in Braga to set up a public school for girls “from outside.” (R. Fernandes 1994, p. 199). The archbishop’s personal initiative was also responsible for creating public classes at the Convent of Caridade and at S. Domingos in the same city, as well as twenty other girls’ schools within his jurisdiction (R. Fernandes 1994, p. 199).

Founded in 1768, the Convent of Caridade exhibited similarities with Ursuline monasteries, not only due to the coexistence of enclosure and education, but also because of the dual regime in its pedagogical component: boarding for pensioners and day-school for external students (Lobo de Araújo 2017).

The Ursulines’ reputation may have further inspired proposals such as that presented on 12 February 1875 to the Chamber of Deputies, “to found an Ursuline school in the Convent of Jesus in Aveiro for the pedagogical training of female teachers” (Ruas 2025, p. 111). Within the context of official education, still in its early stages, the tradition and prestige of religious orders ensured their precedence.

Although less widespread, the Visitandines may also have served as precedents for private initiatives, such as that apparently undertaken by Father Joaquim José dos Santos, founder of a “House for Female Education at Junqueira near Salésias” (R. Fernandes 1994, p. 199). In 1790, while providing public instruction, it received funding from the Literary Subsidy Fund and, a year later, was exempt from the décima tax. This non-monastic institution, about which little is known, offered lessons in reading, writing, singing, and piano (R. Fernandes 1994, p. 199).

The opening of the cloister to public education, or to active social life, was fostered both by the idea of education as a social necessity and its endorsement by the national authorities. Several other examples, not listed here, testify to this phenomenon. In 1818, Genoveva Maria do Espírito Santo, founder of the Monastery of the Reparation in Vila Pouca da Beira, established in that town a “House for Regular Education” for girls (M. L. d. C. V. G. Jacquinet 2008, p. 133). By 1822, there is mention of female education at the Convent of Santa Maria Madalena in Castelo Branco, under the Third Order of Carmel. This house, founded in 1779 by Bishop D. Bernardo António de Mello Osório of Guarda and Castelo Branco, was staffed with “two teachers, paid by the diocese,” one teaching reading, arithmetic, and catechism, the other instructing in “female-adequate skills, the most relevant for a mother.” Classes were free and attended by more than forty girls from the city (AHP, Secção I/II, cx. 19, mç. 12, doc. 17).

Also in 1822, a petition was submitted to the Public Instruction Commission by the abbess and other nuns of the Convent of Corpus Christi in Vila Nova de Gaia, requesting the creation of a “school for girls’ education.” (AHP, Secção I/II, cx. 48, mç. 27, doc. 115). Archival evidence, however, shows that this monastery had long been receiving pupils. Did the petition respond to the interest in expanding boarding education to include day schooling open to the public? Or was it driven by the convenience of formalising the monastic boarding school, thereby securing corresponding public funding and, in the face of an imminent closure of the monastic house, ensuring the preservation of the convent?

6. Secularisation and Religious Reform on the Eve of Dissolution of Religious Orders

The consistent promotion of elementary female education as part of a public policy was not implemented until 1836 and for the most part remained under the aegis of religious structures, such as monasteries, retreats, and affiliated institutes. From the last quarter of the eighteenth century onwards, education expanded to a broader audience through the creation of public schools. Nevertheless, the cloister continued to assert its precedence, with public teacher recruitment tending to target institutions that prepared religious teachers (Vargues and Torgal 1995, p. 79).

The dynamic nature and flexibility of religious houses, however, faced adversities. Alongside the maintenance of enclosure—which naturally limited the presence of secular women and the practice of apostolic work—there was growing hostility toward religious orders, which reached its peak in the 1820s and 1830s during the so-called “Issue of the Regulars”. Religious orders were linked with the Ancien Régime and conservative values, socially obsolete, and internally compromised, and thus targeted by liberals and ultimately dissolved by decree in 1834.

In 1789, amidst this secularisation and anti-congregational conjuncture—following the French Revolution and measures adopted across Europe—the Junta do Exame do Estado Atual e Melhoramento Temporal das Ordens Religiosas (Board for the Assessment of the Current State and Temporal Improvement of Religious Orders) was established in Portugal. Reflecting regalism under Queen Maria I (1777–1792), the body sought to address the “deficient state of regular houses” (M. L. Jacquinet 2024a). In 1830, parallel regulations for female and male religious were created and adopted. The opening of female convents to public service was justified through educational activity, with the plan stating:

For Religious women to contribute more to the Church and State, and cooperate in public prosperity, a rule must be passed that in all convents one or more Religious women, besides Christian instruction, also teach young women, female-adequate skills and arts. All convents (whose statutes do not present relevant incompatibility) must build a space where, without altering the Laws of Enclosure, Religious women may teach all external girls who apply to attend; these religious women of poor convents will earn the remuneration usually awarded to secular teachers, which will be applied for the benefit of the convent.

(ANTT, Ministério dos Negócios Eclesiásticos e da Justiça, mç. 270, cx. 216, n.º 1)

This reform did not eliminate pupils within the cloister or the education they had received. The plan clarified that: “Convents that currently admit pupils within the Cloister may continue to do so, observing exactly what is legally determined on this matter, and with the girls paying for their maintenance.” (ANTT, Ministério dos Negócios Eclesiásticos e da Justiça, mç. 270, n.º 1).

The innovation proposed here was the opening of convents to public education, which is justified in a document appended to the “Plan”, where one reads:

The Plan proposes the measure of entrusting Religious women with the public education of persons of their own sex, under the conditions stated in the same paragraph. And although this is not expressly mandated by Canon Law for all convents of Religious women, it cannot be deemed contrary to the spirit of the Church; rather, it is more in keeping with it, given that the Church has approved Institutes specifically dedicated to the service of teaching; and in many Catholic countries, this is practiced to good effect by many convents of Religious women from various Institutes.

(ANTT, Ministério dos Negócios Eclesiásticos e da Justiça, mç. 270, n.º 1)

Reality imposed itself inexorably over the “letter of the law”, according to which contemplative life in enclosure remained the guiding norm. Yet this attribution of a public function to convents—though unprecedented as a formal proposal from the State—nonetheless echoes pre-existing realities, such as the presence of pupils within the cloister and the existence of Orders dedicated to education. It also reflects more recent developments, such as the creation of public classes within religious houses. At the same time, it bears witness to an effort toward aggiornamento in relation to the broader Catholic Europe, where female education was already structured around specialised institutions which, both in number and in capacity, competed with religious communities—these themselves combining boarding and day schooling.

Despite the continuous link between convents and female education, the Junta’s initiative exposed the social and economic unsustainability of monasticism as designed at the time. It is likely that preservation of the religious houses, rather than the promotion of education per se, drove the Junta’s actions. Nevertheless, the inclusion of education in the convent created a mutually advantageous convergence: the cloister, benefiting from its traditional educational prestige, legitimised public teaching, while public instruction, in turn, reinforced the social authority of the cloister.

The Junta’s proposal, however, had no immediate effect, as it was intercepted by the 30 May 1834 decree dissolving religious orders, which disrupted the joining of Rule and Secular life. Nonetheless, the gradual dissolution of female religious houses—sometimes extending until the death of the last professed nun—allowed, in some instances, the unofficial continuation of regular life, occasionally taking on charitable or educational missions (M. L. Jacquinet 2024b). Instances exist of monastic communities founding educational institutions from the outset, such as the School of Sanguedo in Vila da Feira (M. L. d. C. V. G. Jacquinet 2008, pp. 88–89). This phenomenon of unofficial monastic life—previously termed “crypto-congregationalism” (M. L. Jacquinet 2024b)—represents an ecclesial response that resists secularisation while valuing female education as a means of re-evangelisation (Vaquinhas 1996, p. 434). The inevitable decline of religious orders directly facilitated the increase in apostolic congregations, which partially inherited the space and influence left by the dissolved monasteries.

7. Conclusions

An examination of female education across the long duration of the Ancien Régime, though with gaps, inevitably revolves around monastic cloistering. The monastery was the ultimate destination for many women who professed solemnly therein, and a temporary residence for others preparing to assume one of several mature-life choices.

Historically, woven ties connected the world of professed nuns and that of secular pupils, ensuring lines of continuity. The cloister had long been attended by girls under the care of religious relatives, and instruction through the novitiate had long been integrated into monastic life, involving dedicated spaces and specialised teachers. However, continuity alone did not justify assigning young women’s education to the monastery; instead, it was the Tridentine disciplinary framework, which, by forbidding apostolic activity for female communities and imposing enclosure, “monasticised” the education they once offered.

The growing autonomy of the educational mission within the monastery—marked by the late establishment of Orders specifically dedicated to teaching—reopened the Rule to apostolic activity and enabled the monastery to claim for itself the pursuit of a civic purpose, one that would only be fully assumed by the central authorities in the following century.

The prestige of these orders—particularly St. Ursula’s—and their exemplary success likely encouraged the creation of public schools in other convents, as well as private educational institutions. They also provided legitimacy to the curtailed proposal of the Junta do Estado Atual e Melhoramento Temporal das Ordens Religiosas (Board for the Assessment of the Current State and Temporal Improvement of Religious Orders) in the 1830s, aiming to house public female education in the monastery. Based on available evidence, it seems that Third-Order retreats, with their more flexible organisation, may have played a particularly prominent role in opening the cloister to public teaching.

The convergence between Rule and Secular life—or between cloistered contemplation and social apostolate—further intensified in the period between the decrees dissolving religious orders and the actual closing of female monasteries. Organised unofficially as charitable associations, some monasteries not only ensured their survival but, by becoming “useful to the Church and the State”, succeeded in asserting a tradition long cultivated within the cloister. Future active congregations would come to inherit this legacy, which, lying beyond the scope of the present study, invites further enquiry.