1653. Carta de Diogo de Brito para a Inquisição de Évora.

Private letter from Diogo Brito to the Inquisitors of Évora.

The author denounces the heresies of Bartolomeu Baião, resident in São Brissos, outskirts of Beja.

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.

«Illustrious Sirs. As a subject of your illustrious personalities, and as a christian, I've told you about the insolences taking place in a house in these outskirts, and they are enough to make this city a punishment. In these outskirts, in the parish of São Brissos, lives a man named Bartolomeu Baião, whose nickname is O Rabo a Costas, and it is certain that he doesn't live as a christian, on the contrary, he seems an heretic and he lives like such. And he says publicly that he lives with the Devil an that he speaks to him three times a day and he kisses his feet. He pretends to be demonized and he speaks wiith no respect nor fear of God. When he sows, he first orders the wheat to the devils and this way he ordered the Devil six bushels of barley, last year, and not even a grain germinated. He said he was purer than God and he cursed the day God was born. He said (...) he didn't know God, Saint Peter nor Saint Paul and if God ever showed himself to him, he wouldn't want to see Him. And if He showed up, he would break him just like any other infamous person. He said, after the bread was kneaded, that he didn't want it to be cooked; and that he would give it to the Devil, as whoever had produced it. He said he would give the money to the Devil. And after that I remember he said "some give the money to the Devil, but no crosses, but I give him the crosses and everything." He is a blasphemer, in such a way that everyone who hears him shivers. He said his wife was purer than the sky and the stars. He speaks against God in a way that makes the floor tremble. He says so many things that he makes those who listen to him shiver. Many of these things I won't write here because the witnesses will state them. The witnesses are his son-in-law, Domingos de Freites, Manuel Baião and his wife, in Arrabaldinho, Ana d'Alves and her daughter, in Arrabaldinho, his servants, Domingos Fernandes and his cattle drover, Atentado, his servant, the slave Luís, this year cornfield farmers, Carvalho, who is in league with (...) Gomes, blacksmith and friend of that same Carvalho, who calls João Fernandes, who's with Pero de Freites, Miguel Fernandes, who's with Domingos de Freites, António Gonçalves, who's with Luís da Rocha, António Mendes Fialho and all his servants, and the slaves with whom he did the threshing floor and whose names he will declare, Manuel Dias Correia, in the dam, Pero do Monte and eveyone in his house, Pero Cansado and his wife, João Cansado and his wife, João da Lança and everyone in his house, António Fialho, Domingos Martins, who lives in the big farm in Quintos, the vicar of Quintos, João Machado, Carvalho's son, weaver, and his father and mother, to Nossa Senhora da Graça, the fuller's earth man and his wife, Francisco Afonso, the shepherd. And this witnesses will reveal many other things than the one I tell here, because in this house people live as if they didn't know God. And if the man is like this, the woman is even worse, because she lives worse than him. She swears without fearing God, she knows arts, heals with words, she is in the company of two cousins, with brothers and first degree nephews, a clergyman who she calls Luís Solteiro and another one who is called Brás Gonçalves. She is imprudently having an affair with both of them, and since her son-in-law stopped her, she told great stories on the day of São Brissos, saying her honour was purer than Our Lady's. This woman has got a daughter at home whose name is (...) Rodrigues, a widow who is the godmother of Brás Gonçalves. She is his lover, even though she is his godmother and cousin. If you search for these things, you'll find even bigger ones. Witnesses of this are Ramos Adela, in Évora street, Ilena, her slave, who is at the house of João Martins, in the waterfall, Luís, his slave, Domingos de Freitas, his son-in-law, his daughters (...) daughter, Catarina Mestra, Domingos de Freites'wife, two sisters-in-law of Domingos de Freites, two daughters of his, Brites do Monte, in the moorery, Loirenço Jácome and his wife, Inês Baioa, her brother, João Baião, Carvalho and his wife, in Nossa Senhora da Graça, his daughter, in the dam, and her husband who is a fuller's earth man, João da Lança, João Cansado and his wife, Pero do Monte and his wife. These witnesses will point many more who know about this. You should investigate these things. We have already told the commissioner about two people claiming to be christians. We haven't done anything so far. You will do what you please and what pleases God the most, whose (...) be greater for many years. Beja, today, 2nd january 1653. Your subject, Diogo de Brito.»