Early on in the Posthumous Works of Frederick II of Prussia (1712-1786), one finds an almost singularly unflattering description of João V of Portugal . Commonly misattributed to Voltaire, Frederick's written portrait of the Portuguese "priest-king" (this is Voltaire's term, found in a 1747 letter to Frederick II) has found its way into numerous historical works, periodicals, magazines, and even popular travel guides.1 It reads: "Dom João was known only for his strange passion for Church

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... ies. He obtained a papal brief giving him the right to a patriarch; and by another brief he was allowed to perform mass except for the consecration. His pleasures were priestly functions and his buildings convents; his armies were monks and his mistresses nuns" (47).2 Frederick II's portrait of João V suggests a man hampered by overzealous religiosity and substantial boundary issues-an assessment neatly and artistically expressed in the palace/monastery in Mafra and one that has become, not by chance, nearly universal over time.