ABSTRACT
Of the numerous genres found within Brazilian popular verse, poems of religious content have the longest tradition of all, dating back to feudal Europe. Biblical stories and episodes from the life of Christ or the saints have been retold in many different forms in tolhetos. It is a didactic literature, in which the observance of Christian values brings reward and immoral behaviour is severely punished. Readers are constantly warned to be on their guard against temptation. In some poems the Devil appears, but his attempts to gain control of souls is always defeated by divine intervention.
