1643. Carta de Mateus Peres da Cruz, padre, para António Guedes Souto-Maior, capitão morgado.

Complaint letter from Mateus Peres da Cruz, a priest, to Captain António Guedes Souto-Maior, a country gentleman.

The author makes a long list of complaints regarding the persecutions and the injustices he has been suffering since the Captain General of his town became his enemy.

Captain António Guedes Sotomaior was arrested by the Inquisition of Coimbra for sacrilege, false statement and disrespect for religious images. He defended himself explaining that he had taken refuge inside a chapel when several women were chasing him because he had slaughtered cattle and pigs that belonged to the community. When trying to make the chapel an impregnable place, he indeed damaged some of its interior, but all of it was an accident, said he. One of his accusers was the author of this letter, a document used by the addressee to prove that the accuser had once been his friend and confider.