Career
He was a Benedictine monk and from 1699 to 1739 devoted himself to teaching first philosophy and later theology. Between 1726 and 1739 he published his Teatro críticocritico universal, a series of articles and essays. In 1742 appeared the first volume of the Cartas eruditas, a series completed in 1760. The subject matter of these two series is extremely varied and ranges from a Defense of Women and a Study of the Remedies for Memory, to an Intellectual Map and Comparison of Nations. Like Addison and many other of his contemporaries, FeijóoFeijoo was imbued with the attitude of a spectator and he turned his critical attention to the customs, beliefs, ideas, and superstitions of his time. Such a storm of refutations and polemics was provoked upon the publication of his criticisms that Ferdinand VI, an admirer of Feijóo,Feijoo, issued a special royal decree in 1750, prohibiting further attacks on the author.