Letter from Joana de Oliveira to Inácio Francisco, caulkin workman.
The author suggests the recipient a supernatural explanation for the illnesses of which he complains and tells him about some devotional solutions.
The Inquisition archives contain, apart from the around 40 thousand
individual proceedings ("processos"), a collection of scattered charges, for which
the Inquisition "Promotor" had to decide whether or not to prosecute. Complaints,
confessions, letters by the commissioners or about different stages of each
proceedings are some of the document types that can be found in these books. This
letter has been kept among such documentation.
«Sir. I hope you [...] your good health, as I wish for myself. The health I'm left with, it's good for everything you order me for your service. About what you have told me to ask, through the holder, about your wife's illness, in my prayer I found that the illness she suffered from was an inner spirit. The other problem she carries with her, what it is, I'll tell you that [...] her grandmother, whose name is Ana Domingues, disgraced herself by giving bad pieces of advice to a son, her only child, and by hitting her father-in-law and [...] and a lot of abuses and she confesses that she killed your mother-in-law, whose name, by the way, was Francisca Domingos. And you, if you want me to deal with it, tell me soon, so that you can save yourself and your little girl, for she confesses to have killed all the children you have had. Don't mind your wife and don't spend a penny with her because she's a hopeless case, you have tried to help her too late. Everything I can do for you, be sure that I'll do it. And if you want me to deal with it, tell me in the back of this letter. The holder has handed me three thousand and one hundred and twenty. I won't bother you any longer. Very willing to help you.»
