Language:
Portuguese
Year of publication:
2007
Titel der Quelle:
Cadernos de Estudos Sefarditas
Angaben zur Quelle:
7 (2007) 31-81
Keywords:
Abrunhosa, Gastão de
;
Crypto-Jews
;
Inquisition
;
Jews
;
Jews
Abstract:
In the last decades of the 16th century, the Portuguese clan of the Abrunhosas (from the village of Meda, products of the intermarriage of Old and New Christians at the beginning of the 16th century) became very influential in the Portuguese state and society, especially in the southwestern city of Serpa. At the beginning of the 17th century, the Inquisition Tribunal of Évora tried several New Christians from Serpa, among them members of the Abrunhosa clan, accused of observing Judaism in secret. This persecution was caused by conspiracies and mutual denunciations between different clans of New and Old Christians. In 1602, the Inquisition issued an arrest warrant against Gastão Abrunhosa, a minor nobleman. Abrunhosa escaped to Spain and protested against these acts of the Portuguese Inquisition; his complaint reached the Court in Castile and the Roman Curia. As a result of his efforts, his relatives were freed. Although the Portuguese Inquisition ceased to persecute the Abrunhosas, and although the family was rehabilitated and recovered its honor, it completely lost its influence in Portuguese society; the name Abrunhosa disappeared, little by little, from the registers of the Chancellery, the military, and other Portuguese institutions of the State and of the Church.
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