Abstract:
During the period of the Protestant Reformation, there was an appropriation of Holy Scripture by the population. Starting from the General Priesthood of all Christians, the Reformation demanded that each person have free access to the reading and interpretation of the Bible. However, for this to be possible, it was essential that the population be literate. That's why Luther, Melanchthon, Bugenhagen and so many other characters of the Reformation worked hard so that education was offered to all people, whether they were rich or poor, boys or girls. Centuries later, starting in 1824, the first waves of immigrants from the region we know today as Germany began to arrive in our country. Mostly Protestants, they brought with them their bibles, hymnals and, in general, the Small Catechism, by Martin Luther. Faced with the almost total absence of schools, they decided to take action. If, in the 16th century, Luther proclaimed: “Beside every church, a school”; due to the restrictive legislation of the country – which at the time was officially Catholic and did not allow them to build temples with towers and bells – they decided to build schools first and, on weekends, use them to worship their God there. Thus, this dissertation seeks to find out to what extent the Protestant Reformation influenced the education of the Province of São Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul during the Brazilian imperial period.
