1655. Carta de Beatriz Rodríguez para Bernardo Portelo, lencero y comerciante.

Letter from Beatriz Rodríguez to Bernardo López Portelo, a draper and a trader.

The author writes to Bernardo López Portelo in order to give him some information regarding 100 reals sent to her by Francisco Gómez.

Bernardo López Portelo (also just Bernardo Portelo in some letters), was a draper and a trader resident in Madrid and native to Portugal who was accused of judaizer in 1661. Among other offences, he was accused of being an abettor of a judaizers network by means of different alms that he was giving to some people reconciled with the Holy Office of Toledo, Valladolid and Cuenca. A witness stated that they first suspected him when they saw many superscripts that belonged to the Jews from Bayonne with his name on it (fol.41). The letters provided as exhibit to the trial together with the rest of the documents were seized from the defendant´s house: most of them were alms petitions. On the verso there are two notes from two different handwritings. One of them could be from Bernardo Portelo indicating: "To give Pedro de Frutos 50 reals". In the other one, from the inquisitor, it reads: "I hereby certify that this letter was found among the papers seized to Bernardo Portelo. Madrid, August 25th 1660. Juan Baptista de Lemos". Eventually, the defendant was condemned to exile and to the payment of 200 ducats.