1800. Carta de Luís Pereira Pinto, padre, para António Rebelo Santiago, doutor.

Letter from Luís Pereira Pinto, a priest, to António Rebelo Santiago, an ecclesiastical doctor.

The author asks the addressee whether or not he should denounce Manuel Pereira da Graça, a medicine doctor and a knight of the Order of Christ. The latter was heard in prison insulting Christ and the Devil for lacking the power of freeing him.

Manuel Pereira da Graça was a physician who had studied Medicine in the University of Coimbra after having traveled in France. He was prosecuted for heresy. Although he recognized that he spoke frequently against the Church, he explained his reasoning to the Inquisition: he thought that there were too many priests, that they often abused young girls in confession and that miracles were hard to prove. But he only wanted to try the soundness of the priests’ arguments, that was all. He received a light sentence.