1578. Carta de Fernão de Álvares, tendeiro, para o seu irmão Álvaro Vaz, lente na Universidade de Coimbra.

Family letter from Fernão de Álvares, a stallholder, to his brother, Álvaro Vaz, reader in the University of Coimbra.

The author writes his brother giving him news from the family and telling him how an Old-Christian was suited for a breach of promise involving a bride who was a New-Christian.

In the header of this letter we find a judicial note, referring this was an accusation against Fernão de Álvares, a stallholder in Lisbon, deceased, and brother of Álvaro Vaz, a reader in the University of Coimbra. The letter was handed in to the Inquisition by a student who lived in a house in front of Álvaro Vaz. The student and a friend claimed that the letter contained a package and had been sent by the addressee's housekeeper or by his niece. They also stated that the family of Álvaro Vaz was New-Christian and that his grandfather had been burnt by the Inquisition.

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.