Marrano: Encyclopedia II - Marrano - Massacre at Lisbon

Marrano - Massacre at Lisbon

The Portuguese hated the Marranos much more than the Jews, considering them neither Christians nor Jews, but atheists and heretics. Many Portuguese preferred death to being treated by a Marrano physician. The hatred which was felt for the Marranos, and which had long smoldered, broke out at Lisbon. On April 17, 1506, several Marranos were discovered who had in their possession "some lambs and poultry prepared according to Jewish custom; also unleavened bread and bitter herbs according to the regulations for the Passover, which festival they celebrated far into the night." Several of them were seized, but were released after a few days. The populace, which had expected to see them punished, swore vengeance. On the same day on which the Marranos were liberated, the Dominicans displayed in a side-chapel of their church, where several New Christians were present, a crucifix and a reliquary in glass from which a peculiar light issued. A New Christian, who was so incautious as to explain this ostensible miracle as being due to natural causes, was dragged from the church and was killed by an infuriated woman. A Dominican roused the populace still more; and two others, crucifix in hand, went through the streets of the city, crying "Heresy!" and calling upon the people to destroy the Marranos. All New Christians found in the streets were killed; and a terrible massacre ensued. More than 500 Marranos were slain and burned on the first day; and the scenes of murder were even more atrocious on the day following. The innocent victims of popular fury, young and old, living and dead, were dragged from their houses and thrown upon the pyre. Even Old Christians who in any way resembled Marranos were killed. Among the last victims, and the most hated of all, was the tax-farmer João Rodrigo Mascarenhas, one of the wealthiest and most distinguished Marranos of Lisbon; his house was entirely demolished. In this manner at least 2,000 Marranos perished (as many as 4,000 by some accounts) within forty-eight hours. King Manuel severely punished the inhabitants of the city. The ringleaders were either hanged or quartered, and the Dominicans who had occasioned the riot were garroted and burned. All persons convicted of murder or pillage suffered corporal punishment, and their property was confiscated, while religious freedom was granted to all Marranos for twenty years.

The New Christians of Portugal, who were distinguished for their knowledge, their commerce, and their banking enterprises, but were bitterly hated, despised, and reviled by the Christians, were led to entertain better hopes for the future by the appearance of a foreign Jew, David Re'ubeni. Not only was this Jew invited by King John to visit Portugal; but, as appears from a letter (Oct. 10, 1528) of D. Martin de Salinas to the infante D. Fernando, brother of the emperor Charles I of Spain, he also received permission "to preach the law of Moses" ("Boletin Acad. Hist." xlix. 204). The Marranos regarded Re'ubeni as their savior and Messiah. The New Christians of Spain also heard the glad news; and some of them left home to seek him. The rejoicing lasted for some time; the emperor Charles even addressed several letters on the matter to his royal brother-in-law. In 1528, while Re'ubeni was still in Portugal, some Spanish Marranos fled to Campo Mayor and forcibly freed from the Inquisition a woman imprisoned at Badajoz. The rumor spread at once that the Marranos of the entire kingdom had united to make common cause. This increased the hatred of the populace, and the New Christians were attacked in Gouvea, Alentejo, Olivença, Santarém, and other places, while in the Azores and the island of Madeira they were even massacred. These excesses led the king to believe that the Portuguese Inquisition might be the most effective means of allaying the popular fury.

The Portuguese Marranos waged a long and bitter war against the introduction of the tribunal, and spent with some satisfactory results immense sums to win over to their cause the Curia and the most influential cardinals. The sacrifices made by both the Spanish and the Portuguese New Christians were indeed astonishing. The same Marranos who from Toledo had instigated the riot of the communes in 1515, Alfonso Gutierrez, Garcia Alvarez "el Rico" (the wealthy), and the Zapatas, offered through their representative 80,000 gold crowns to Emperor Charles V. if he would mitigate the harshness of the Inquisition (Revue des Etudes Juifs, xxxvii. 270 et seq.). All these sacrifices, however, especially those made by the Mendes of Lisbon and Flanders, were powerless to prevent or retard the introduction of the Holy Office into Portugal. The Marranos were delivered over to the popular fury and to the heartless servants of the Inquisition. They suffered unspeakably. At Trancoso and Lamego, where many wealthy Marranos were living, at Miranda, Viseu, Guarda, Braga, and elsewhere they were robbed and killed. At Covilhã the people planned to massacre all the New Christians on one day; and to achieve this the more easily, the prelates petitioned the Cortes in 1562 that the Marranos be required to wear special badges, and that the Jews in the cities and villages be ordered to live in ghettos as before.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Massacre at Lisbon", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki