He won notoriety as an opponent of the Enlightenment and of Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquis of Pombal, for which he spent eight years in prison.

[1] Anunciação was nominated Bishop of Coimbra by the King on 22 February 1739, and approved by Pope Benedict XIV on 19 December 1740.

[5] On 8 November 1768 Anunciação issued a pastoral letter,[6] condemning a number of books of Enlightenment doctrine.

Among these were the Encyclopédie, works of Rousseau including the Social Contract, Justinus Febronius' De statu ecclesiae et legitima potestate Romani Pontificis, and Voltaire's La pucelle d'Orléans.

[9] This gave De Lemos canonical rights to govern the diocese during Anunciação's years in prison, and to succeed him on his death on 29 August 1777.