The Curiel family in 16th-century Portugal

<plain_text><page sequence="1">The Curiel Family in 16th-century Portugal* EDGAR SAMUEL The events in which the Jews of early-modern Portugal became unwillingly involved were highly traumatic. When in 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella issued their decree expelling the Jews and Moors from Spain, a delegation headed by Rabbi Isaac Aboab, the head of theYeshiva of Guadalajara and the last Gaon of Castile, visited King Jo?o II of Portugal and reached agreement with him.1 Jews could enter Portugal on payment of 8 cruzados a head - blacksmiths and armourers to be admitted at half price - 600 families could settle in Portugal and the rest must leave with eight months.2 The royal accounts show that the king collected nearly 112,000 cruzados from the Jews, including a penal levy for those who had entered Portugal without paying the poll tax.3 Where the agreement did not work well was on the emigration side. Many Jews had been robbed on the way and few could afford the increasing cost of chartering a ship after paying to enter the country and trying to survive in a new land. Some went to Morocco, Italy or Turkey, but the majority of the immigrants remained in Portugal. This heavy immigration into a small country created great fear and resentment, even more so when plague broke out among the refugees. In 1493 King Jo?o ordered most of the Castilian immigrants to be enslaved. Two years later they were released by order of his successor King Manoel I. But then, in 1496, in order to marry Princess Isabel of Castile, he issued a decree expelling the Jews from Portugal too and ordering them to leave within a year. Soon after, in 1497, he prevented their emigration and ordered them to be baptized by force.4 The persecution in Portugal proceeded by stages. King Manoel gave the New Christians, as the newly baptized Jews now were called, a twenty year exemption from heresy proceedings but that did not mean that they could openly practise Judaism. Physicians and surgeons were allowed to keep their textbooks,5 but for others to possess Hebrew books was a criminal offence. Considerable pressure was exerted to ensure outward conformity to the Catholic faith. The massacre of New Christians in Lisbon in 1506, though strongly deprecated by King Manoel, certainly counselled them to be cautious. It is sometimes asked why the Jews of Portugal did not prefer * Paper presented to the Society on 21 September 1989. Ill</page><page sequence="2">Edgar Samuel martyrdom to baptism, as had many German Jews at the time of the First Crusade. Some did so, including Sirnao Maimi, the last Arrabi Mor of Portugal,6 but most did not. Firstly, the king imprisoned the leading members of the Jewish community in the Estaos Palace in Lisbon. Secondly, Mestre Nicolau Coronel, Queen Isabel's physician, who was a nephew of Abraham Senior,7 the last Rah de la Corte of Castile, who had submitted to baptism, offered to speak to the Jews to persuade them to do as he had done, and most submitted to it.8 Mestre Nicolau settled in Oporto,9 and it was from Amarante, near Oporto, that Duarte Saraiva Coronel a century later came to Amsterdam and converted to Judaism, as David Senior.10 His male-line descendants are called Senior Coronel. The entire Jewish community of Portugal went to the font, including most of their religious leaders. In his book of 1553, Consolaqam as Tribulaq?es de Israel, "The Consolation for the Tribulations of Israel', Samuel Usque presents a religious argument11 which might have persuaded waverers to submit to baptism with the hope of returning to open Judaism later. In Deuteronomy, chapter 28, Israel is threatened with punishments for failing to follow the Torah: If thou wilt not observe all the words of this Law that are written in this book . .. then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful and the plagues of thy seed even great plagues of long continuance . . . And the Lord shall scatter thee among all peoples from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth and there thou shalt serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou nor thy fathers, even wood and stone. And among the nations shalt thou have no repose and there shall be no rest for the sole of thy foot: but the Lord shall give you there a trembling heart and failing of the eyes and languishing of the soul. Reading the curses in Deuteronomy and seeing the events unfold, it was tempting to point out the parallels: the exile from Spain to the most westerly country in Europe, the end of the earth; the plague; the enslavement; and finally their forced baptism, all seemed to fit the pattern of events predicted in Deuteronomy with precision. It must follow, therefore, that these punishments had been ordained by God and must meekly be accepted, so that the promises of redemption would also be fulfilled soon. The problem that confronted the rabbis of Portugal and their successors was how to guide their people through this new Egyptian Captivity and adapt their Judaism to enable it to survive persecution. To aid them they could draw on the experience of the past. In the third century, Bar Kappara had taught that the Israelites came out of Egypt intact because 112</page><page sequence="3">The Curiel Family in 16th-century Portugal they had not changed their names, had not changed their language, had not informed against each other and had preserved their family life and sexual morality.12 Not all these principles were applicable in Portugal. Sexual licentiousness was more of a problem in ancient Rome than in Catholic Portugal. Preserving the Hebrew language was not feasible. They had been forced to change their names on baptism, but it was possible to preserve Jewish names, both in the form of giving children a secret biblical personal name and by remembering the family's Jewish surname, which was still practicable in the 16th century. It was also possible to point out what a highly dangerous sin it was to denounce other people. But although Portuguese secret Judaism departed from mainstream Jewish practice in abandoning circumcision and the dietary laws, it tended to retain Passover, the Day of Atonement, and the three-day Fast of Esther on Monday, Thursday and Monday.13 These adaptations and variants were rooted in Jewish history and teaching. Moreover their religious system worked. Crypto-Judaism outlived the Inquisition and has even survived on a small scale in some places in northeast Portugal into the present century, despite very adverse conditions.14 Now let us consider our case history - the story of the Curiel family of Coimbra. Curiel de los Ajos is a small town in Castile surmounted by the ruins of a powerful medieval castle, in a strategic position on the banks of the river Duero. In 1847 its population was only 334,15 but it is likely that it was twice as large in the late Middle Ages. It had a small Jewish community right down to 1492.16 Therefore it is not surprising to find that the surname is to be found among both Jews and Christians17 living elsewhere in Castile in the 15th century, indicating descent from former inhabitants of the town. In the city of Avila, a Curiel family owned some houses in the Jewish quarter.18 In 1492 one David Curiel sold them to the Convent of Santa Scholastica.19 He had plainly decided to leave Spain with his family for religious reasons. The logical country to which to migrate from Avila was Portugal. It is therefore quite possible that he was the ancestor of the Curiel family of Coimbra, but there is no proof. The first hard information we have about the Curiel family in Portugal comes from a report of the Coimbra Inquisition, which reads as follows: From the letter which Fr Jo?o Dias sent to this Inquisition in the year [1]560, it is known that in Turkey at the Sultan's Court, he saw Fernam Nunes, an old man, who made himself a Jew, together with his wife and two sons, and procuring it from him, he knows that he came from Portugal to Rome, where his father was, who went there with Luiz de Saldanha; 113</page><page sequence="4">Edgar Samuel then that his said father was Fernam Lorenzo, the scarred one, physician, half a New Christian; that Jeronimo de Saldanha, gentleman, had him of a Jewish woman of Lisbon, whom they called a pucarinha and that from there the said Fernam Nunes went to Turkey, where he is a master; and he knows further, that he has a brother in Portugal, who is called Duarte Nunes, trader, who was living in Coimbra, married to Grasia Nunes de Victoria, with whom he corresponds, and that he also lived in Rome.20 So we have here a clear story: a Jewish woman of Lisbon, known only as a pucarinha, 'the little cup', at some time before 1497, when the Jews were baptized by force, gave birth to an illegitimate son, whose name was Fern?o Lorenzo. The father was Jeronimo de Saldanha e Bovadilla, fifth son of Don Diego de Saldana, himself sometime Castilian ambassador to Portugal, who settled there, in 1475 as Secretary to Dona Juana, Princess of Asturias, known as la Beltraneja, the unsuccessful claimant to the throne of Castile and wife of King Afonso V of Portugal, until 1478, when he set her aside and sent her to a nunnery to satisfy her enemies.21 Diego de Saldafia's sons were leading members of the Portuguese Court under King Manoel I.22 His son Jeronimo, then in Rome, was naturalized by that king in 1496.23 If we bear in mind that in medieval Portuguese society not only were Jews and Christians segregated from each other, but also men and women to a large extent, the opportunities for social fraternization between a Christian man and a Jewish woman were very limited. But such an op? portunity occurred in 1493. In that year, King Jo?o II ordered all Castilian Jews, illegally remaining in Portugal after the time limit had expired, to be enslaved, and he sold them off to whoever would buy them. A group of Jewish children was shipped out to colonize the African island of S?o Thome,24 where most of them died, and the young men at Court had a free choice of the girls. The likelihood therefore is - though there is no proof of it - that a pucarinha was acquired as a slave by Jeronimo de Saldanha in 1493 and was kept by him until 1495, when King Manoel, prompted no doubt by the disapproval of his bishops, ordered the release of the Castilian Jews from slavery,25 so the girls could return to their families. This would explain how it arose that Fern?o Lourengo was born in Coimbra26 and that he grew up there in the New Christian community and not, as one might have expected, in Santarem among the Saldanha family, although clearly Jeronimo de Saldanha recognized his illegitimate son and kept in touch with him. Indeed, several of his descendants were named Jeronimo after him. Since the boy's mother was a Jewess, he would have been regarded by Jews as a Jew and, if she was unmarried at the time of his birth, as legitimate. 114</page><page sequence="5">The Curiel Family in 16th-century Portugal We cannot know for certain what Fern?o Lourengo's mother's name was. The pattern of naming among her descendants suggests that she was named Guiomar da Costa, because those who bore that name seem to have been named after her,27 and the circumstantial evidence suggests that her Jewish surname was Curiel. At this point it is worth saying something about the ancestry of Fern?o Lourengo's father. It was common for Sephardi Jews in 18th-century Western communities to claim that they came of noble families and were related to the Portuguese nobility. Once the Curiel family had left Portugal and had joined the open Jewish communities of Hamburg, Venice and Amsterdam, they did not marry out of their communities for two hundred years or more. But their kinship with the nobility of the Peninsula is quite capable of proof Jeronimo de Saldanha was of mixed descent. Both his father's and his mother's families had some Jewish ancestry, but in the male line he was a Visigoth and a direct descendant of Fernando Gonzalez, the 10th-century first independent Count of Castile.28 His ancestors included Afongo Henriques, the first king of Portugal, and the kings of Castile, Aragon and Navarre.29 He was related to all the Portuguese titled nobility.30 The municipal archives of Coimbra give us some direct evidence of the career of his son, Fern?o Lourengo. He appears there not as a physician but as a merchant.31 He married a lady named Felipa Nunes32 and in 1533 was elected, as the representative of the merchants of Coimbra, to the panel of the city's tax assessors.33 Once the first generation of New Christians and the period of immunity from heresy proceedings promised by King Manoel had expired, both the Papacy and the Crown took the view that the New Christians had no right to desert the Christian faith, and their Judaism was treated no longer as their ancestral faith but as if it were a Christian heresy. Moreover, whenever Portugal experienced an earth tremor, a plague or a famine, it was widely believed that this was a Divine punishment on the country for tolerating heresy.34 The teachings of the 16th-century Roman Catholic Church concerning forced baptism were essentially the same as those set out by St Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica three hundred years earlier. A forced baptism was wrong and could be invalid with regard to adults. Aquinas wrote: 'These should in no way be constrained to embrace the Faith and profess belief. For belief depends upon the will.35 But in the case of infant baptism, its validity had nothing to do with the wishes of the child's parents, but depended on the intention of the priest administering the Sacrament. 115</page><page sequence="6">Edgar Samuel Fig.l THE COUNTS OF CASTILE AND LARA AND LORDS OF AZA (RIAZA) male-line ancestors of the Curiel family D. GONgALO FERNANDEZ Count and Lord of Castile and Burgos D. FERN?N GONZALEZ (923-57) The first independent Count of Castile, Amaya, Alava and Lara D. GARCIA FERNANDEZ Count of Castile D. GONfALO FERNANDEZ Count of Lara, Bureva and Aza (Riaza) D. NUNO Count of Lara D. FERNANDO Lord of Aza fl. 1034 COUNT GARCIA I Lord of Aza and Marafion fl. 1054 I COUNT D. GARCIA GARCIAS H Lord of Aza d. 1087 COUNT D. GARCIA GARCIAS 10 Lord of Aza d. 1108 DON GARCIA GARCIAS IV Rico hombre, Lord of Aza d. 1162 I D. GOMEZ GARCIA Lord of Roa, and Ayllon fl. 1165 D. GONGALO GOMEZ DE ROA Lord of Aza and Roa d. 1227 D. GOMEZ GONZALEZ Lord of Roa, Aza and Iscar fl. 1221-64 (Kg. 2) 116</page><page sequence="7">The Curiel Family in 16th-century Portugal Fig. 2 THE LORDS OF AZA (RIAZA) male-line ancestors of the Curiel family (Fig. 1) D. GOMEZ CON?ALEZ Lord of Roa, Aza and I scar a 1221-64 I D. GIL GOMEZ DE ROA Lord of Roa, Aza and I scar d. 1274 D-NUSOGILDEAZA Lord of Aza and Ricohombre a 1286 i&lt; D. ALVAR NUNEZ DAZA Ricohombre fl. 1298 d. before 1331 I D. RODRIGO ALVAREZ DAZA Ricohombre d. 1305 D. ALVAR RODRIGUEZ DAZA Ricohombre a 1331-58 I FERN?N RODRIGUEZ DAZA last Lord of Aza, Partisan of King Pedro the Cruel, after whose death in 1369 he took refuge in England and forfeited the estate, m. England, ALYS DE CLIFFORD Rica Duena Inglessa I JUAN RODRIGUEZ DAZA returned to Spain c 1388, Alcaide of Urena guarda mayor and Councillor of King Enrique IV. d. 1450 m. Dona MARIA DA SILVA d.O. Diego GOMES DA SILVA of Portugal, d.1441 PEDRO JUAN DAZA ALFONSO DE SILVA LUIS DAZA (Rg. 3) 117</page><page sequence="8">Edgar Samuel Fig. 3 THE SALDAHANA FAMILY male-line ancestors of the Curiel family (Fig. 2) ALFONSO DE SILVA m. Dofla SANCHA do. NUNO LOPES DE SALDANA, que fut judio y despues cristiano she being a sister of FERNAN LOPES DE SALDANA, (fl. 1400-45) Treasurer of Castile under King Enrique IV I DIEGO DE SALDANA b. Castile, c.1443 d. France, 1476 Secretary to Queen Juana w.o. King Enrique IV of Castile and Leon. Ambassador to Sicily, and Mordoma Mor to her dau. Dona Juana, known as la Bellraneja, w.o. King Alfonso V of Portugal. Passed to Portugal in 1475 with Dona Juana and d. in France in the suite of King Alfonso V. m. Dona Maria de Bobadilla b. Medina del Campo bur. Santaretn JO?O DE SALDANHA ANTONIO DE SALDANHA ALFONSO DE BOVADILHA CHRISTOV?O JERONIMO DE SALDANHA D. SANCHA Vedorda Cosa to Queen Maria w.o. King Manoel I m. D. Joanna d.O. D. Alvaro de Lima KL of Order of Christ Admiral. Discoverer of Table Bay. m. 1. D. Margarida Freire da Alvaro Femandes Freire 2. D.Britesd.o. Henrique da Silveira Ojp. 3. D.Joannad.o. Aires de Souaz ANTONIO AFONSO LUIS VIOLANTE MARIA Magdalena do. Ruy Femandes Dalmada, Portuguese Royal Factor in Flanders M/ Kl of Santiago of Portugal m. D. Leonor d.o. Anriquede Figuereido DE BOVADILHA Capeldo Mor to King Manoel I Prior of the Milacre, Santarem E BOVADILHA b. Castile c.1474 CURIEL family (Hg. 4) Any person who had been baptized in infancy was bound to believe in and practise the Christian faith, as taught by the Catholic Church. If such a person believed in or practised Judaism, then he or she was an apostate or heretic and should be excommunicated and killed, lest they lead others astray. As Aquinas wrote: In regard to heretics two points must be kept in mind. The first with regard to heretics themselves. The second with regard to the Church. From the point of view of heretics themselves there is their sin, by which they have 118</page><page sequence="9">The Curiel Family in 16th-century Portugal deserved not only to be separated from the Church, but to be eliminated from the world by death. For it is a far graver matter to corrupt the Faith which is the life of the soul than to falsify money which sustains temporal life. So, if it be just that forgers and other malefactors are put to death without mercy by the secular authority, with how much greater reason may heretics be not only excommunicated, but also put to death, when once they are convicted of heresy. On the part of the Church there is merciful hope of the conversion of those in error. For this reason She does not immediately condemn, 'but only after a first and second admonition', as the Apostle teaches. Only then, if the heretic remains pertinacious, the Church, despairing of his conversion, makes provision for the safety of others; separating him, by the sentence of excommunication, from the Church, passes him to secular judgement to be exterminated from the world by death.36 It is not the province of the Church to punish infidelity in those who have never embraced the Faith, according to what the Apostle says (I Corinthians V,12): 'What have I do do to judge them that are without? But the infidelity of those who have once embraced the faith, She may punish by judicial sentence.'37 It was perhaps inevitable that since the king of Spain had an Inquisition the king of Portugal would want one too, but there is little doubt that the visit of David Reubeni to Portugal in 1525 helped to bring this about. He came to visit King Jo?o III under safe conduct, with letters of introduction from the pope, claiming to be the brother of a Jewish king in Arabia who was seeking Christian allies against the Muslims.38 The man was a confidence trickster on the make and the Portuguese were too well informed to believe him, but his mission produced sufficient waves of Messianic excitement among the New Christians of Portugal to alarm the king and his nobility. Jo?o III approached the pope and asked leave to set up an Inquisition39 and this became a high priority of his foreign policy for the next 10 years, until he was granted it in 1535. The 16th century was a period of rising population, monetary inflation and social tension in most of Europe, during which the authority and power of the nobility and Church was from time to time threatened by popular and religious discontent, including the Protestant movements headed by Luther, Zwingli, the Anabaptists and Calvin. Baptism released the New Christians from the social segregation of the Jewish quarter, and allowed a widening of occupational opportunities and partial integration and assimilation into Christian society, but this in response created fear and resentment. As in the 13th century, because Jews were dissenters from the Catholic faith, they tended to be feared as a source of the heretical and rebellious ideas which threatened the stability of the social order. The 119</page><page sequence="10">Edgar Samuel rulers of Portugal believed that an Inquisition could enforce religious conformity. The city of Coimbra, with its bridge across the Mondego and its port, Figueira da Foz, was the most important market town and administrative centre in its region. It had an old-established medieval Jewish community, which the immigration of Spanish Jews probably trebled in number, so a second Jewish quarter was built outside the city walls on the site of an old quarry.40 In 1500 the population of Coimbra was about 5000, of which the New Christians possibly amounted to about 10 per cent or 500. During the 16th century two fresh developments enhanced the population and prosperity of the city. In 1537 King Jo?o III transferred the University of Lisbon to Coimbra, and in 1540 he made it the headquarters of the northern branch of the Portuguese Inquisition. Both developments brought wealth to Coimbra. The university attracted income to the city, with endowments, stipends and student grants being spent there. So did the Inquisition, since not only did the assets it seized mainly from New Christians get spent in the city, but public executions brought people up from the country to watch the victims being burnt, and they spent money in the town. By the end of the century, Coimbra's population had risen to some 10,00041 and at a guess the New Christian element might have been as high as 1000. With its expanding population and economy, within an expanding and prosperous country, Coimbra was a very good place to trade as a merchant, so long as one kept out of trouble; and for a New Christian in 16th-century Portugal, keeping out of trouble meant attending church regularly, confessing and taking communion, especially before Easter, and giving no outward sign of Jewish practice or belief. Duarte Nunes, like his father Fern?o Lourengo, became a merchant in Coimbra. His eldest daughter was born and baptized in 1533 and was named Felipa42 after her paternal grandmother, in accordance with Sephardi Jewish naming custom.43 In 1535 Duarte Nunes bought a house in the main commercial street of Coimbra, the Rua da Calqadau 'the paved street', which remained in the family until the end of the century.45 In 1565 the Town Council bought a length of English green baize from him to cover two Council tables, from which we know that he specialized in selling (and probably importing) fine-quality English cloth46 Duarte and Gracia Nunes kept out of trouble, except that in 1573 the Inquisitors received a denunciation of Duarte Nunes; but two were necessary to initiate a trial, and he died before matters could be taken further47 120</page><page sequence="11">The Curiel Family in 16th-century Portugal Plate 1. Coimbra in the 16th century. G. HogenburgrTs map, 1565. The arrows in the margins indicate the approximate location of Duarte Nunes' house in the Rua Del Calcada. (Courtesy of the British Library.) However, in 1568 Gracia's sister Leonor Nunes was arrested by the Coimbra Inquisition, appearing in an auto da fe in the following year, being sentenced to wear a sambenito perpetually, which was commuted on payment of 50 cruzados.48 The sentence gives a fair indication of her level of Jewish observance. It reads as follows: The Inquisitors, Ordinary and Deputies of the Holy Inquisition etc. are agreed that seeing these acts and confession of Lianor Nunez, New Christian, native of Viana da Caminha and resident in this city the accused prisoner, who is present, because she showed that being a baptized Christian and obliged to have and believe our Holy Catholic Faith and Evangelical Law, she did the contrary, separating herself from it, and passing to the Law of Moses and its rites and ceremonies, after the 121</page><page sequence="12">Edgar Samuel last General Pardon, believing that she would save herself in it, commending herself to the God of Heaven, like a Jewess, and, as such, not believing in Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by not having him as God and she hoped for the Messiah, for whom the Jews hope, believing that he had not already come and for observance of the said Law of Moses she kept Saturdays free of work in intention, and did not keep them in fact in order not to be detected, and she fasted the Fast of Quipur, which comes in the month of September, without eating all day until night time and in the same way she fasted every year on the Fast of Queen Esther, but, because she is delicate and unwell, she did not fast for more than the first day and gave alms on the other two, because she was unable to fast, and she did all the things of a Christian to satisfy the world, without believing in them, remaining in the belief of her errors for many years, until she was imprisoned by the Holy Office and confessed them, and communicating them to other persons of her nation. Seeing all of which, with others of which the acts consist, they declare that the accused was a heretic and apostate from our Holy Catholic Faith and that she incurred major excommunication and the further penalties established by law against similar acts and seeing however that as she has made use of salutary advice and has confessed her faults, asking pardon and mercy for them, with signs of repentance, they receive the said accused, Lianor Nunez, in reconciliation and union with the Holy Mother Church, as she asks, and they order her publicly to abjure her heretical errors in form and punishment and penitence for them assigning her to prison and perpetual penitential costume, where she will be well taught in the matters of the Faith necessary for her salvation, and will comply with the spiritual penances, which they shall impose on her, and they order that she shall be absolved from the said excommunication in forma eclesie*9 There was considerable tension between Old and New Christians in Portugal, both religious and economic. Nothing shows this more clearly than the rules recorded by the Town Clerk of Coimbra in 1520 for the annual Corpus Christi procession, one of the most important public entertainments of the year. The central feature of the procession was a float bearing a silver monstrance, in which the consecrated wafers of the Host were displayed. This was preceded by various displays, dances and travelling group theatricals. For example one tableau depicted the Arms of Coimbra, a crowned maiden emerging from a goblet supported by two dragons. The first group in the procession was the charcoal burners guild, which included the tilers, coal heavers and limeburners and sailors, who were just about the least skilled and respected crafts in the city. They headed the procession with a mock Jewish dance with Torah scrolls50 - a deliberate and annual insult to the New Christian community - who not 122</page><page sequence="13">The Curiel Family in 16th-century Portugal only had to conform to Catholic practice, under the threat of execution and expropriation, but had on this occasion to endure the jeers and ridicule of their social inferiors and fellow-citizens. But by making it an institutionalized annual event, the Council at least limited the risk of public outbreaks of disorder. The coal heavers, lime-burners and sailors worked off their hostility under restraint and the New Christians knew what to expect and could face up to it. The social position of New Christians in Coimbra was economically good. They were an important element among the shopkeepers and craftsmen of the city and were significant too within the university, dominating the faculty of Medicine,51 and very important in that of Law, as both lecturers and students. The careers of Duarte and Gracia Nunes' children are described in the following paragraphs. Their eldest daughter, Felipa, married a successful glover in Coimbra52 and their sons became merchants and settled in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.53 Their eldest son was named Fern?o Lourengo Ramires, after his grandfather. He became a Lisbon merchant trading to Guinea, until he migrated to Tripoli in Syria and converted to Judaism, as Jacob (or Abraham) Curiel.54 Their second son, Francisco de Victoria, was born and baptized in 1540.55 He was sent to a school in Coimbra run by the newly founded Jesuit Order and, as he himself stated, was converted by the Jesuits to Christianity.56 Alone of all Duarte Nunes' children, he abandoned the Judaism preserved in secret by the family, but mutual loyalty persisted. At no stage did he lay information against his kindred, and when his brother Bernardo was arrested by the Inquisition and asked to state his genealogy, he deliberately omitted Francisco from the list of his brothers and sisters.57 Francisco had a fascinating career. He went to Peru as a young man, became a merchant's apprentice and then joined the Dominican Order in Lima.58 He lectured in theology at Lima University, became Commissary of his local Dominican Order59 and was eventually appointed Bishop of Tucuman, in up-country Argentina, where he became a cattle rancher and merchant on the grand scale. He was tough, independent and original, and quarrelled fiercely with two successive Provincial governors and with his Archbishop. He seems to have been the first man to introduce sugar cultivation to Argentina60 and opened up the trade route between Peru and Brazil, by way of Buenos Aires.61 He was strongly reprimanded by Philip II for his trading activities,62 which culminated in a pearl-fishing investment in the Island of Margarita, in Venezuela.63 So far as I know, his was the only known case of a Portuguese New Christian attaining the rank 123</page><page sequence="14">Edgar Samuel of bishop in the 16th or 17th century. The third son, Luis Nunes, became a physician and than a merchant. He had two sons, both of whom eventually migrated to Amsterdam and converted to Judaism. In 1599 his widow still owned the family house in the Rua da Calqada in Coimbra.64 The fourth son, Manuel, who was born in 1544, does not seem to have survived, nor does his brother Nuno, the sixth son, who was baptized in 1547, with Dom Jorge de Ataide, younger son of the Count of Castanheira, then a student at the University of Coimbra, as his godfather.65 I shall come back to the fifth son, Jeronimo Nunes Ramires, later. The seventh son, Diogo Peres da Costa, who Professor Israel suggests was probably named after the marrano martyr, Diogo Peres (who was burnt at the stake in Milan in 1533), had an interesting career. He went out to Peru and became a merchant in Potosi and then is said to have migrated to Venice and Saona (by which I think is meant Salona near Split),66 where he converted to open Judaism, as Abraham (or Jacob) Curiel.671 think that he is the ancestor of the Curiel families of Split and Dubrovnik and of their descendants who settled in Piza, Livorno, Venice and Trieste in the 18th century. He was condemned to death in absentia by the Lima Inquisition in 1601 for Judaism.68 He died in Safed, in the Holy Land.69 The youngest son, Bernardo Ramires, succeeded to the family business in the Rua da Calqada. In 1578 he was arrested and tried by the Inquisition in Lisbon, and his trial reveals much about the family. Rather unexpectedly, he was not charged with heresy or with Judaizing. The Inquisitors had no evidence against him on that score and did not attempt to fabricate any. He was charged with violating the secrecy of the Holy Office,70 since when the mother of a friend of his had been arrested and charged with Judaizing, Bernardo Ramires who was friendly with the Inquisition gaoler had bribed him with a valuable length of blue English broadcloth. He persuaded the man to carry messages in and out of the prison and to give the prisoner's son information about the progress of his mother's trial. One of the first things they did to relieve her feeling of isolation was to smuggle in a piece of fried fish. Bernardo also smuggled messages for a New Christian student named Antonio Sim?es, and for several other prisoners in the prison of the Inquisition. It appears from the trial that there were two sides to the family business: selling high quality English cloth and conducting a banking service for students at the university. Antonio Sim?es came from Evora, and his parents there employed an Evora merchant to remit his allowance to Coimbra, where Bernardo Ramires used to cash his letters of credit for him. The Inquisitors took an extremely serious view of Bernardo Ramires' 124</page><page sequence="15">The Curiel Family in 16th-century Portugal offence. He was a highly intelligent man, did not impede their inquiry and confessed fully and frankly without waiting to be tortured. He was penanced de leve and sentenced to five years in Brazil - later commuted to banishment from Coimbra for five years with confiscation of his property.71 It seems that it was at this stage that his brother Dr Luis Nunes took over the house and business, and most of the other members of the family left Coimbra. Duarte Nunes' fifth son, Jeronimo Nunes Ramires, was born in 1545.72 He was almost certainly named after his father's eldest brother and thus indirectly after his great-grandfather Jeronimo de Saldanha. He became a physician, and after graduating from the university married Maria da Fonseca, orphaned daughter of Dr Lopo da Fonseca, sometime physician to Queen Catherine, the Regent of Portugal.73 He seems to have had the most fashionable medical practice in the country town of Covilh?. The Fonseca family was strongly Jewish and this got them into trouble. In 1564 Beatriz Henriques, widow of Dr Lopo da Fonseca, was denounced to the Lisbon Inquisition, arrested, tried, absolved and released.74 In 1575 the same thing happened to her daughters Maria and Isabel, who no doubt had the benefit of some tuition from their mother. At this time Maria was only fourteen or fifteen, was very recently married and had no children. Her husband was allowed to accompany her and her sister on the long journey from Covilh? to the Inquisition prison in Lisbon. He then seems to have returned to Covilh? and visited some of his more important patients among the local gentry and asked them to intercede with the Inquisition. Three gentlemen and nine ladies of the local Old Christian nobility, three neighbours and two priests gave evidence in Maria's favour, stating that she conducted herself as a good Catholic, attending Mass and confessions regularly, praying in front of sacred pictures and images and working on Saturdays.75 Maria da Fonseca solidly denied knowing anything at all about Judaism, and claimed steadily that she was a good Catholic. The Inquisitors did not torture her. Eventually, Maria76 and her sister Isabel77 were found not guilty of heresy, were ruled to be good Catholics and were absolved from all charges on payment of costs (a procedure which would have been unthinkable a hundred years later). The trials of Maria da Fonseca and of her sister give us quite a lot of information about their household. Covilh? was, and is, a cloth manufacturing town. Since her husband was dead, Beatriz Henriques used to earn some money by spinning and by accepting orders for weaving. The family employed a laundry maid whose job it was to wash their clothes in the river. 125</page><page sequence="16"></page><page sequence="17">The Curiel Family in 16th-century Portugal The other two maids deposed to the Inquisitors that the family ate apart from their servants and did no work on Saturdays. They even seemed to have been observing the Jewish dietary laws to some extent. When the news came that Inquisitors were to visit Covilh?, Beatriz Henriques and her two daughters took care to sit in the window on Saturdays, with distaffs in their hands, spinning as publicly as possible. But none of the fairly damning evidence from the servants carried weight against the risk of offending members of the local nobility, who had testified on behalf of Maria and her sister. The impression given by the trial is that the Inquisition, under Cardinal Dom Henrique, was strongly concerned with avoiding public scandal and sustaining the social order, and was not simply (as at some later periods) a corrupt money-making machine, a law unto itself, or an outlet for the Inquisitors' personal hostilities. It is fascinating to see how hearsay evidence from gentlemen was given much greater weight than direct evidence from servants against their mistresses. The procedure was unjust and unfair, but at least the rules were adhered to, the evidence of some alleged capital enemies was disallowed and one feels that the Inquisition was then very much a part of the royal government of the country. Two years later, in 1580, Maria's half-sister, Genevra da Fonseca, was arrested by the Inquisition and charged with Judaizing.78 An Old Christian neighbour had come into her kitchen while she was baking bread and, rather officiously, had drawn a cross on one of the cakes of dough. Genevra furiously told her she did not want crosses on her bread and rubbed it out.79 This incident caused great scandal among the Catholic women of Covilh?, who naturally feared that such impiety, if left unpunished, could bring Divine vengeance on the town - possibly in the form of famine or plague. Genevra was denounced to an Inquisition Visitation from Lisbon, by several of her neighbours, was arrested and charged with Judaizing. Genevra confessed, then retracted her confession and was condemned to be 'released to the Civil Arm'.80 The conviction of Genevra was not simply on the grounds of heresy. It was more like a trial for witchcraft, where the indignation of her Old Christian neighbours had to be taken into account. The Inquisitors were also most annoyed with her for retracting the confession which they had extracted from her. They might have been prepared to absolve a penitent, but an impenitent rebel had to be killed. 127</page><page sequence="18">C/5 SP U w CD I Q gl J gis eg gS gl 1 D a cd 9 P M 2 ??}S ?(3 o Ml iHlj 5 op oo e 6 p||?l|li Q.c5 &lt;S2</page><page sequence="19">The Curiel Family in 16th-century Portugal She was saved up for two years for the ceremonies celebrating the coronation of Philip II of Spain as king of Portugal, and was publicly burnt at the stake for Judaism in Lisbon, on 1 April 1582, in the king's presence and in his honour. He wrote a letter to his two young daughters in Madrid telling them about the occasion and enclosing his copy of the programme.81 Dr Jeronimo Nunes Ramires and his wife migrated from Covilha to Lisbon,where the professional opportunities were greater. In due course he became physician to the Chapter of Lisbon Cathedral.82 He published a book on blood letting and on Roman weights and measures, which was dedicated by permission to Dom Pedro Castilho, the Inquisitor General and Viceroy of Portugal,83 and he was even, on occasion, consulted professionally by the Inquisition.84 Maria da Fonseca's lucky escape taught the family great caution, but it did not eliminate their secret adherence to Judaism, and they took great care to teach their children as much of the Faith of Israel as they could, after they had reached adolescence. Their daughter Catarina confessed to the Inquisition that in 1602, when she was fifteen years old, her mother told her in the presence of her brothers and sisters, that: She would like to teach them and bring them together, for the salvation of their souls, that they should believe in the Law of Moses, which they should adhere to and keep, in order to save their souls, and God has them for himself, and they should commit themselves to him. He does not teach it to the Nations. And they should fast in the month of September . . . and should keep Sabbaths and leave off eating the flesh of pigs, hares, rabbits and fish without scales, to keep the said Law of Moses and she, the confessant, and her said brothers and sisters answered her that they would do as she taught her, and it seemed good to her that she should do so, and they declared, then and there, that they believed and lived in the Law of Moses and hoped for salvation in it, and that, to keep it, they would carry out the above ceremonies.85 She went on to say that her father also participated in this teaching session. Catarina's brother-in-law and cousin, Duarte Nunes Victoria, confessed to the Inquisitors that in 1608, just before the marriage of Luiza da Fonseca, her father, Dr Jeronimo Nunes Ramires, called him into his study together with the engaged couple and her brother, Duarte, and told his future son-in-law that he believed in the Law of Moses and asked him if he would do so and observe it too, and he agreed to.86 When Jeronimo Nunes Ramires died in 1609 he was buried in Lisbon Cathedral,87 but despite his skill at passing as a sincere Catholic, he had brought up his children as secret Jews. 129</page><page sequence="20">E S|il2 .sag 52 m 5 2* N i Pi ?5j Ii* Q -?3 S 23 3 ig I 3~</page><page sequence="21">The Curiel Family in 16th-century Portugal The emigration of the Curiel family from Portugal was forced on them by a gross breach of security on the part of Dr Jeronimo Nunes Ramires' brother-in-law, Dr Elias Montalto, who was by then living openly as a Jew in Italy. In 1609 he sent a letter to Maria's brother, Dr Thomas da Fonseca, addressed quite openly to him at the Lisbon Post Office.88 Naturally the Inquisition read such correspondence, and it led directly to the arrest of Thomas da Fonseca, who broke down under torture and implicated his sister and her family.89 It led to the arrest of Dr Luis Nunes' son, Duarte and to that of Duarte's wife, Guiomar da Costa and her sisters, Catarina and Luiza da Fonseca. Orders were put out to arrest the others. Maria da Fonseca escaped into Spain, as did her sons, Lopo da Fonseca Ramires and Duarte Nunes da Costa;90 and from Madrid they went on to St Jean de Luz in the South of France, where Maria died. Lopo brought her body to Amsterdam for reinterment as a Jewess.91 Thomas da Fonseca, Guiomar da Costa and Duarte Nunes Victoria were convicted of Judaism de vehemente and went out in an auto da fe to public humiliation. Naturally, all of their property was confiscated. In the course of the trial, Duarte Nunes Victoria was made to confess to a series of stereotype Jewish practices from the Inquisitors' standard list, although he succeeded in stating in the confession that these practices had in several cases not actually been followed, but had merely been intended mentally. He confessed fully and without any more reservation than was necessary to protect his wife, yet despite this he was tortured quite unnecessarily. This torture was described in the processo as part of the procedure for 'purging his heresy'.92 The Portuguese Inquisition aimed to eliminate anyone teaching Judaism and to humiliate and impoverish anyone secretly following it. In the case of the Curiel family, the Inquisition persecuted and robbed them, but did not kill any other members of the family, though they made it impossible for them to remain in Portugal. Henceforth, its members left the country and settled in Pisa, Hamburg and Amsterdam, taking the name Curiel as their Jewish surname. It was in all probability the surname that a pucarinha had borne before the forced baptism of 1497. The Curiel family lived in Portugal as outward Christians for five generations - nearly 120 years. Apart from the bishop, who seems to have been a sincere Christian, they all remained Jews at heart. They had no wish to leave Portugal, but when they were forced to do so they chose full conversion to open Judaism, including adult circumcision. The historical and religious experience of the Secret Jews of Portugal was to have great influence on the course of European Jewish history. The adoption of Western Christian dress and manners by the 'people of the Hebrew Nation', as the baptized Portuguese Jews were officially called, 131</page><page sequence="22">Edgar Samuel naturally continued among those who took refuge abroad, and it helped to win them social acceptance. It was the acceptability and usefulness of the 16th-century Portuguese Nation of Antwerp which led to the toleration of Judaism in the 17th-century Dutch Republic, and thus to the readmission of Ashkenazi Jews into the Netherlands. The Dutch example inspired the readmission of Jews to England and to her colonies. Similarly, the acceptability and usefulness of the Portuguese Jews of 18th-century Bordeaux and Bayonne eventually brought full citizenship rights to the Jews of Avignon, and to the Ashkenazi Jews of Alsace and Lorraine. From France, in the early 19th century, Napoleon Bonaparte carried civil rights to the Jews of Italy, Germany and all other countries of his empire. Yet it was the Portuguese Jews who led the way, thanks to the forced baptism of 1497, and the social emancipation and acculturation which it brought about. Socially and spiritually they regarded their religion as more part of their private, than of their public, life, and they tended to separate one from the other. They were the first modern Jews. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This paper is based on research commissioned by Mr Marcel Curiel of Caracas, Venezuela, and financed by five members of the Curiel family of Curacao and Caracas. In 1982 he engaged Professor Jonathan Israel to write a history of the Curiel family, in which my task was to prepare genealogies and to organize the research in Portugal. This was conducted in Lisbon by Dr Antonio Vasconcelos de Saldanha, and Dra Alice da Conceic?o Correia Estorninho, of the Portuguese National Archives, and, in Coimbra, by Dr Joaquim Tom?z Miguel Pereira, the Librarian of the Botanical Library. This paper discusses the discoveries we made in the 16th-century period and is much aided by Professor Israel's kindness in allowing me to read and use the material in his narrative. I should like to acknowledge the help of the Curiel family, without whom this study would never have been undertaken. I should also like to thank Mr Carlos Van Rijn of Amsterdam and Miss Doriana Curiel of Venice for help with the genealogies. NOTES 1 Haham Imanuel Aboab, Nomol?gia o discursos legales (1629) 299. 2 Rui de Pina, Croniqua del Rey Joham II (Coimbra 1950) 179-83, cited by Maria Jose Pimenta Ferro Tavares, Os Judeos em Portugal no Seculo XV (Lisbon 1982) 253. 3 Tavares (see n. 2) 253-4. 4 See Alexandre Herculano, History of the Origin and Establishment of the Inquisition in Portugal (Stanford University, California 1926) Chapter 2. 5 Manoel Fs proclamation of 3 May 132</page><page sequence="23">The Curiel Family in 16th-century Portugal reference to Mair de Curiel, pedlar in Madrid in 1481. 18 For references to the Curiel family of Avila see Pilar Leon Tello, Judios de Avila (Madrid 1963). 19 Ibid. 440 and 445. 20 Arquivo Nacional de Torre do Tombo (hereafter AN TT) Lisbon, Santo Oficio papeis avulsos M7-2608. I am grateful to Dr Antonio Vasconcelos de Saldanha for this reference and to Dra Alice Conceic?o Estorninho for transcribing it. The original text reads: 'De carta q. enviou o P. Jo?o Dias a esta Inq?o no ano de 560 q. elle vio em Turquia na Corte de Sold?o a fernam nunes h?rnern velho q. se fez judeo com a molher e dous filhos e procurando delle soube q. veyo do Reyno pera Roma onde estava seu pay q. pera la fora com luiz de Saldanha pois q. o dito seu pay hera fermam Lorenzo o riscado medico meo xn. q. o tivera Jeronimo de Saldanha h?rnern fidalgo de huma mulher judea de Lx3* a qm chamavaram a pucarinha, e q. de la fora o dito fernam Nunes pera Turquia onde he mestre e soube mais q. tern no Reyno hum irm?o q. se chama Duarte Nunes tratante q. vivia em Coimbra casado com Grasia Nunes de Victoria com quem escreve e q. tambem viveo em Roma.* 21 Fr. Juan de Mariana S J, His tor ia General de Espana (Madrid 1794) 171. 22 See page lc of the Curiel genealogy. 23 AN TT Lisbon, Chancella ria do D. Manoel, livro 27 fl. 46v. The naturalization of 14% of Jeronimo de Bovadilha, Castilian gentleman, then living in Rome, states that he was the son of Don Diego de Saldana. 24 Usque (seen. 11) Book2, Chapter 27. 25 Dom Jeronimo Osorio, Da Vida e Feitos del Rei D Manuel [Biblioteca Historica, Oporto 1945). 26 AN TT Lisbon, Inquisig?o de Coimbra - processo 8921 Bernardo Ramires, 1578, p.84 (unnumbered) genealogy. 27 Guiomar da Costa, daughter of Duarte Nunes, appears to have been named after her father's eldest sister, who seems to have been Guiomar da Costa, wife of Diogo Rodrigues, goldsmith in the Rua da Calgada of Coimbra. If, as I think, she was the eldest daughter of Fernao Lourenco, she would by custom have been named after her paternal grandmother who was a pucarinha. 28 A letter of 11 December 1551 from 1497. See J. Mendes Remedies, Os Judeus em Portugal (Coimbra 1895) 432-4. 6 Cecil Roth, A History of the Marranos (New York 1974) 60; Roth gives no source for this story. 7 Tavares (see n. 2) 495. 8 Remedios (see n. 5) 298, citing an anonymous unpublished MS dated 1624: Apologia em abono dos christ?os cognominados novos deste reyno de Portugal. 9 Tavares (see n. 2) 510, note 104. 10 E. M. Koen, 'Amsterdam Notarial Deeds Pertaining to the Portuguese Jews in Amsterdam up to 1639' Studia Rosenthaliana (University of Amsterdam) II, No. 2 (July 1968) 268 note 45. 11 Samuel Usque, Consolagam as Tribulag?ens de Israel (Coimbra 1906) 3rd dialogue, Section 28, p. XXX. 12 The Midrash Rabbah, Translated into English with notes, glossary and indices, Leviticus (Soncino Press, London 1939-61) 414, XXX. 5. 13 The three-day Fast of Esther is mentioned, as a Palestinian practice, in 'Tractate SofermV, The Minor Tractates of the Talmud I (Soncino Press, London 1965) 317, Chapter XXI, Rule 1.1 am grateful to Mr Joseph M?nk for this reference. The practice is commended again by Rabbi Asher, the 14th-century rabbi of Toledo, in the Arba Turim, which was the authoritative code used by 15th-century Spanish Jews. This explains the prevalence of the practice in Portugal, even though Jews in other countries kept a one-day Fast as was codified by Rabbi Joseph Caro in his 16th-century Shulhan Aruch. 14 See Samuel Schwarz, Os crist?os novos em Portugal no seculo XX (Lisbon 1925). 15 Pacual Madoz, Diccion?rio Geografico Estadistico Historico deEspaha y sus Posesiones de Ultramar VII (Madrid 1847) 288. 16 Luis Suarez Fernandez (ed.) Documentos acerca de la Expulsi?n de los judios (Valladolid, 1964). 17 For Christians named Curiel see Registro General del Sello 841, 223, and fol. 169 reference to Jaime Curiel of Almanza. For Jews named Curiel see Revue des Etudes Juives XVIII (Paris 1889) 138 for a reference to Rabbi ?ulema Curiel, tailor in Valdeolivas in 1388; Fritz Baer, Die Juden in Christlichen Spanien (Schocken Verlag, Berlin 1936) 133</page><page sequence="24">Edgar Samuel Admiral Ant?nio de Saldanha to Ruy Gomez de Silva, Prince of Eboli, states that Diego de Saldana's parents were Afonso da Silva and Dona Sancha de Saldana, sister of the Contador Mayor. Arquivo Historico Ultramarine - Reino-caixa 24 - documento 2. I am grateful to Dr Maria da Costa of the Arquivo Nacional de Torre do Tombo and to Dr Ant?nio Vasconcelos de Saldanha for this reference. Lope Garcia de Salazar's Las Biendanqas e Fortunas of 1472 (Madrid 1884) gives an account of the life of Don Fern?n de Saldana, Contador Mayor of Castile under Enrique IV, which states that he was a son of Nuno de Saldana que fue judio y despues cristiano e arrendador de rentas. The male line ancestry of Affonso de Silva is traced to Fernando Gonzalez in Don Luis de Salazar y Castro's Hist?ria Genialovica de la Casa de Silva (Madrid 1685)" and Hist?ria Genialogica de la Casa de Lara (Madrid 1697). 29 Don Luis de Salazar y Castro, Hist?ria Genialogica de la Casa de Silva (Madrid 1685). 30 Ibid. 31 Municipal Archives of Coimbra (hereafter 'CMA'), VEREAQOES Vol. 6. Minute of 4 May 1533 : election of Fernao Lourencp as fintador on behalf of the merchants. Minute of 10 May 1533: swearing in of the new fintadores including 'Fernao Lourencp mercador*. 32 Baptismal register of the Parish of S?o Tiago, Coimbra (1510-69), in CMA: entry for 18 October 1524 on the baptism of Maria, daughter of Antonio Fernandez, goldsmith, and of his wife, Lyanor Lopez, states that Felipa Nunez, wife of Ferna Lrcp, merchant was godmother jointly with the midwife. It is quite clear that she was the mother of Duarte Nunes, because he named his eldest daughter after her, in accordance with the Sephardi Jewish naming custom. (Baptism in same register 18 February 1533: 'baptizey filipa fa de duarte nunez mercador e de gracia nunez sua molher'. 33 Seen. 31. 34 Usque (see n. 11) Book 3, Chapter 29, xxxi. 35 S. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica Secunda Secuindae Partis, Quaestio X De Infidelitate Art 8: Et tales nullo modo sunt ad fidem compellendi ul ipsi credant: quia credere voluntates est. See A. P. d'Entreves, Aquinas selected political writing (Blackwell, Oxford 1970) 153. 36 Aquinas (see n. 35) Quaestio XI art 3. Ultrunt haeretici sint tolerandi A. P. d'Entreves (see n. 35) 157. 37 Aquinas (see n. 35) Quaestio XII art 2. 38 See Elkan Nathan Adler, Jewish Travellers (George Routledge &amp; Sons Ltd., London 1930) 251 for Solomon Cohen of Prato's chronicle of David Reubeni's visit to Portugal. 39 Jo?o Ill's memorandum to the Portuguese Ambassador in Rome is undated. J. Lucio D'Azevedo dates it to 1525. I. S. Revah, *Les Marranes Portuguais et P Inquisition au XVIL Siecle' in R. D. Barnett (ed.) The Sephardi Heritage I (Vallentine and Mitchell, London 1971) 496, argues that it was written in 1531. 40 Jose Pinto Loureiro, Toponimia de Coimbra (Coimbra 1964) paragraph on 'Pedreira'. 41 Ibid. 42 Seen. 32. 43 See E. R. Samuel, 'New Light on the Selection of Jewish Children's Names' TJHSE XXIII (1971) 86. 44 CMA VEREAQ?ES, Vol. 7,15A. 45 Repartiq?o das Sisas desta cidade de Coimbra do Ano de 1599. Arquivo Coimbrao (Coimbra) Vol. 26, 289 shows the house owned by a mae de Rosado - Rosado's mother, who was the widow of Dr Luis Nunes. 46 Tagou mais o dito tessro ? duarte nunez merquador de dez covados de Londres verde seis mill rs q se lhe comprar?o pa servire nas messas da camara segdo uso e custe po cabrall o sp.' CMA, Livro de Receita e Despesa da Camara de Coimbra 1565, 78. 47 Luiz de Bivar Guerra, Inventdrio dos Processos da Inquisiq?o de Coimbra (1541 1820) (Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian, Paris 1972) 26, No. 32. 48 ANTT Inquisiq?o de Coimbra, Processo 9161, Leonor Nunes, 1568. 49 Ibid. See also Elvira Azevedo Mea (ed.) Sentenqas da Inquisiq?o de Coimbra em metropolitanos de D. Frei Bartolomeu dos Martires (1567-1582) (Oporto 1982) 93. 50 CMA VEREAQ?ES, 1520 cited in Loureiro (see n. 40). 51 In 1568, in order to induce some Old Christians to enter the medical profession, the Crown offered scholarships for 30 Old 134</page><page sequence="25">The Curiel Family in 16th-century Portugal Christian students to study in the medical faculty at Coimbra. However, this device was quite unsuccessful in persuading Old Christians to become physicians and apothecaries. Theophilo Braga, Hist?ria da Universidade de Coimbra nas suas relaq?es com a Instrucg?o Publica Portuguesa Tomo II 1555 ? 1700 (Lisbon 1895) 779-811. 52 'Arquivo Coimbrao' 25, 256, Domingos Lopes, Luveiro was one of the assessors of the 1567 Sizas. 53 Jose Gon^alves Salvador, O s Crist?os-Novos. Provoamento e Conquista do Solo Brasileiro (1530-1680) (S?o Paulo 1976) Appendix 3a and b. 54 The text of Isaac de Matatitau Aboab's genealogy lists Fernao Lourencp and Diogo Peres da Costa as Duarte Nunes* fifth and sixth children as follows: '5. Abraham Curiel) Dosquaishim chamado fernao Lourenso Ramirez } morreo em Tripole de Suria; e outro chamado Diogo 6. Jaacob Curiel } Peres da Costa morreo em Safet.* See I. S. Revah, 'Estudo e Comentario a Relac?o genealogica de Isaac de Mathatias Aboab* Boletim Intern, de Bibliografia Luso Brasileira II, No. 2 (Lisbon 1961). Since Diogo Peres da Costa settled at Salona on the Dalmatian coast, and Abraham Kuriel, possibly his grandson, was killed in an earthquake in Dubrovnik in 1667 (see: Jorjo Tadit, Jevrei u Dubrovniku do polovine XVII stoljica [Sarajevo 1937] 103-4), it seems likely that his Jewish name was Abraham Curiel and that Fernao Lourencp Ramires* Jewish name was Jacob. 55 CMA Baptismal Register of the Parish of S. Tiago (1510-1569), entry for 13 April 1540. 56 Dom Frey Francisco de Vitoria OP to Padre Jose Anchieta SJ, 6 March 1585: la santa Compania de Jisus de quien soy dedicado y aficionado ab incunablis Fr. Antonio de Egana SJ, Monumenta Peruviana III (Rome 1961) 558. 57 Seen. 26. 58 Fr. Pedro Lozano SJ, Hist?ria de la Compania de Jesus en la Provincia del Paraguay (Madrid 1754) 33. 59 Archivum Secretium Apostolicum Vaticanum, Rome, AA.Arm I-XVIII No. 3459 Memorandum of El Mestre Frey Francisco de Vitoria' O.P. circa 1576. 60 Letter of 10 October 1587 from Juan Ramires de Velasco to King Philip II (Archivo de Indias 74-4-11), published in Roberto Levillier (ed.) Gobernaci?n de Tucumdn - papeles de Gobernadores en el Siglo XVI - Documentos del Archivos de Indias (Madrid 1920) 228. 61 Relaci?n de el viagen del Brasil que vor mandado del Reverendissimo Senor Obispo de Tucumdn se a hecho para atraer religiosos de la Compania de Jesus y descubrir este camifio del Rio de la Plata hasta el Biasa y de ali al Brasil, in Egana (see n. 56) IV, 179. 62 Real Cedula of 28 November 1590, cited in Andres Mille, Itinerdrio de la orden dominicana en la conquista del Peru, Chile y el Tucumdn y su convento del antigo Buenos Aires 1216-1807 (Buenos Aires 1964). 63 P. Francisco de Ang?lo to the Archbishop of Lima, 30 August 1592. Egana (see n. 56) V, 179. 64 See n. 45. 65 Seen. 32. 66 Archivo Historico Nacional, Madrid. Inquisicion libro 1029, 324r-326v, cited in Lucia Garcia de Proodian, Los Judios in America-sus_actividades en los Virreinatos de Nueva Castilla y Nueva Granada S XVII (Madrid 1966), 268: 'Este reo tenemos ynformados que se fue a Ytalia y avia estado en Venecia y Saona*. 67 Seen. 53. 68 See n. 66. 69 See n. 53. 70 ANTT Lisbon (see n. 26). 71 Ibid. 72 See n. 32. 73 Aboab genealogy c.1682 (see n. 4). 74 ANTT Lisbon, Inquisiq?o de Lisboa, processo 1648, Beatriz Henriques. 75 See n. 74, Inquisiq?o de Lisboa, processo 3844, Maria da Fonseca. 76 Ibid. 77 See n. 74, processo 13950, Isabel da Fonseca. 78 See n. 74, processo 4,380, Genebra da Fonseca. 79 Ibid, 'a dita genevra da fonseca desmanchou com as m?os a dita Cruz repreendo com palavras asperas dizendo que n?o queria isso na sua p?o.' 80 Ibid. 135</page><page sequence="26">Edgar Samuel 81 M. Gachard (ed.) Lettres de Philippe II ? ses filles les Infantes Isabelle et Catherine icrites pendant son voyage en Portugal 1581-1583 (Paris 1884) 159. 82 Aos 8 ou 9 de Outubro de 609 en S. Justa falleceo o doutor Iheronimo nunes fisico do R (everen) do cabido da Se. Edgar Prestage and Pedro de Azevedo (edd.) Registros parochi?es de Lisboa: Registro da frequesia da Si II (Coimbra 1927) 492. 83 Hieronymo Nunes Ramirez, Commentaria in Librutn Galeni de Ratione curandi per Sanguinis missionem (Lisbon 1608). 84 See n.74, processo 12,080, Sebastiao Luis, 1601. Dr Jeronimo Nunes Ram ires gave evidence that the prisoner was 'frenetic' and of unsound mind. 85 See n. 74, processo 7,192, Duarte Nunes da Costa, citing that of Catarina da Fonseca. 86 See n. 74 processo 6,172, Duarte Nunes de Victoria. Confession of 11 June 1613. 87 Seen. 82. 88 H. P. Salamon, Une lettre jusqu' ici inidite du Docteur Felipe Rodrigues Montalto (Castelo Branco 1567; Tours 1616) (Foundation Calouste Gulbenkian, Paris 1983). 89 See n. 74, processo 1,355, Thomas da Fonseca. 90 See n. 74, processo 6,172, Duarte Nunes de Vitoria, genealogy. 91 Aboab genealogy. See n.54. 92 See n. 74, processo 6,172. 136</page></plain_text>