Career
He was an early supporter of Newtonian science and became known as the Portuguese Newton. Moura Portugal was born in Moimenta da Serra, Portugal. In 1741 he was elected to the Royal Society in London.
In 1747 he was tried and found guilty of proposições heréticas e escandalosas by the Inquisition, and spent the rest of his life in Junqueira Prison in Lisbon.