1603. Carta de André Barbosa de Novais, abade, para Diogo Vaz Pereira, inquisidor em Coimbra.

Private letter from André Barbosa de Novais, abbot, to Diogo Vaz Pereira, inquisitor in Coimbra.

The author gives some information about a diligence that had been requested from him.

Jorge Vaz, abbot of S. Martinho de Escapães, Porto, presented himself before the Inquisition of Coimbra, claiming that André Barbosa de Novais, abbot of Santa Maria da Arrifana, who he considered his enemy, had threatened to denounce him. The reason for that denouncement was a public preaching by Jorge Vaz, in which he allegedly tried to prove that the name of Jesus enclosed all the mysteries that are in God. The process includes many theological views on the issue, and in the counter-arguments presented by the priest Jorge Vaz it is clearly stated that André Barbosa de Novais was "a capital enemy of the defendant by many causes," which are then widely described. The two letters also included in the process were obtained during the investigation of witnesses, a step made by André Barbosa de Novais at the request of the Inquisition of Coimbra.