Editorial data

The magazine Homens Livres, “Free from Finance & Parties”, which thus states its anti-plutocratic and non-partisan vocation, saw two issues, dated December 1st and 12th, 1923. It did not present itself with a hierarchical structure, but with the names of its 36 collaborators. In a note included in the first issue, António Sérgio is identified as the main editor (redactor principal) and Reynaldo dos Santos as the publisher (editor).

The choice of title is provocative, or at least ambiguous, given that it evokes Masonic vocabulary. In the same vein, the opening text bears the mark of the integralists’ faith in the novelty of the century – neither left nor right, they are men of the 20th century, free from the powers that be, and in search of a “national idea”, a “national purpose”.

The group of collaborators includes almost all the members of the Board of Directors that founded Seara Nova in 1921, which António Sérgio was not yet part of: Aquilino Ribeiro; Augusto Casimiro; Faria de Vasconcelos; Ferreira de Macedo; Jaime Cortesão; Câmara Reys; Raul Brandão; Raul Proença¹. Of the 1923 and 1924 Board of Directors, all were Homens Livres – António Sérgio; Câmara Reys; Faria de Vasconcelos; Raul Proença. Among the 36 collaborators, Ezequiel de Campos, Raul Proença, Celestino da Costa, and António Arroio had been part of the Pela Grei magazine, a fact that shows the group’s eclecticism.

The seareiros were, however, a minority group among the 36 collaborators², which included renowned elements of integralismo lusitano, such as António Sardinha, Hipólito Raposo, Pequito Rebelo, Castelo Branco Chaves. They are, however, the majority as article authors in the first issue of the magazine³, while in the second, in addition to the unavoidable presence of António Sérgio, diverse contributions can be found, namely those of António Sardinha and Castelo Branco Chaves.

The polemic between Sérgio and Sardinha regarding “republican souls” highlights the former’s political-ideological ecumenism and the cordial relationship between the two.

António Sérgio called the integralists “republican souls”, revealing little preoccupation about the division between monarchists and republicans⁴. As he would acknowledge in a later clarification, he was one of those who “accepted” the Republic, and trusted that the regulation of the election and functions of a president would allow him to exercise “that balancing role that the Integralists attributed to the King” ⁵. António Sardinha will respond that Bonald maintained that the best would combine “republican independence” with “monarchical loyalty and obedience” ⁶, and citing Maurras to analyse the possibilities of the republic, he called upon the experiences of Primo de Rivera and Mussolini, as safeguarded by the qualities of the monarchy. In response, António Sérgio corrected unnecessary misunderstandings in a magazine that was intended to give voice to the common: the man of the 20th century, a “new politics”, where “the monarchist of the 20th century” and the “republican of the 20th century” were united by their passionate devotion to the res publica.

Cecília Honório

Francisco António Correia and José de Azeredo Perdigão were not a part of it.↩︎
Figures outside the Seara Nova sphere – Afonso Lopes Vieira, Agostinho de Campos, António Arroio, António Sardinha, Artur Castilho, Augusto da Costa, Aurélio Quintanilha, Carlos Malheiro Dias, Carlos Selvagem, Castelo Branco Chaves, Celestino da Costa, Ezequiel Campos, Gualdino Gomes, Hipólito Raposo, José de Figueiredo, Manuel da Silva Gayo, Marck Athias, Pequito Rebelo, Raul Lino, Reis Machado, Francisco Lacerda, Reynaldo dos Santos, Sarmento Pimentel, Simões Cardoso, Vieira de Almeida, Vieira de Campos.↩︎
With several articles by António Sérgio, beside the contributions of Raul Proença, Jaime Cortesão, and Aquilino Ribeiro.↩︎
António Sérgio, “Vivos e Mortos”, Homens Livres, n.º 1, pp. 1-2.↩︎
António Sérgio, “Lapsos e mal entendidos”, Idem, n.º 2, p. 15.↩︎
António Sardinha, “Almas republicanas”, Idem, n.º 2, pp. 6-7.↩︎