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Encyclopaedia Judaica

Persecution of the Jews: The Inquisition of the church against the Jews 1481-1834

How criminal Catholic "Christian" church and the criminal Pope justified anonymous allegations against the Jews and New Christians with torture, degradation, and burning - and confiscation of the property

from: Inquisition; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, vol. 8

presented by Michael Palomino (2007)

The Inquisition in the Portuguese Colonies

11. Inquisition in the colonies of Portugal: Brazil 1579-1822

[Inquisition prisoners from Brazil are brought to Europe]

BRAZIL. A more common haven of refuge for the Portuguese Conversos was Brazil, where the bishop of Salvador was given inquisitorial powers in 1579, although all prisoners had to be sent to Europe for trial. Great visitations were held between 1591 and 1618. Between July 1591 and February 1592 scores of people came to confess or to testify before the board of inquisitors against foreigners, friends, and relatives.

[1593/5: Accusation of a synagogue at Pernambuco]

The testimonies and confessions indicate the presence of a considerable community of Conversos in Bahia (Salvador). In 1593/5 the inquisitors visited Pernambuco, where grave accusations had been preferred against a number of people. Thus, Diego Fernandes and his wife Branca Dias had been accused of establishing a synagogue in the house of Bento Dias Santiago, a central figure among the Judaizers at Pernambuco.

[Sugar exportation in Conversos' hands]

The Conversos in Brazil played an important part in exporting sugar from Brazil, thanks to their connections with Conversos in Portugal and those who escaped to Amsterdam and there returned to Judaism. Many of them escaped from Brazil to Buenos Aires and from there to Peru, Paraguay, and Chile, following an investigation opened against 90 Conversos in Bahia.

[More Inquisition after the Portuguese expansion against Dutch colonies - stake at Lisbon in 1647]

Inquisitorial activity in Brazil was especially great in the middle of the 17th century after the Portuguese reconquered the country from the Dutch, under whose rule many New Christians had seized the opportunity to return to open Judaism. Many of them figured in the great auto-da-fé at (col. 1391)

Lisbon of Dec. 15, 1647, when six - including Isaac de Castro Tartas - were "relaxed" (see Procedure, below).

[1713: 38 New Christians from Rio victims of the Inquisition]

In 1713, 38 New Christians sent from *Rio de Janeiro appeared in the Lisbon auto-da-fé, others (including Father Manoel Lopes de Carvalho, who was burned alive as impenitent) suffering in the following year. One of the, Abrabao alias Diogo Rois Rodriguez, called Dioquintio Hebreo, was condemned to be flogged and to five years in the galleys.

[1731: Last Inquisition victim from Brazil]

The last Judaizer condemned by the Inquisition in Brazil was Manuel Abreu de Campo; he died before the sentence was carried out, and was burned in effigy in Lisbon in 1731. Toward the end of the 18th century persecution of Judaizers tended to decrease in Brazil, and was generally aimed at new targets: Freemasons and followers of the Enlightenment. with the independence of Brazil (1822) the persecutions ended altogether, and Jews gradually began to immigrate to that country.> (col. 1392)

Africa

[Inquisition in Portuguese African colonies]

<Conditions in the Portuguese colonies in Africa were much the same, an inquisitorial visitation taking place in Angola in 1626.> (col. 1392)

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