[1617]. Carta de Alonso Carrillo de Albornoz, comediante, para [Luis Coutinho].

Letter from Alonso Carrillo de Albornoz, comedian, to [Luis Coutinho].

The author explains [Luis Coutinho] the potential of a special book, most likely the book «Clavicula Salomonis».

The processes 2388 and 4203 of the Inquisition in Lisbon are related, since the defendants involved, António Álvares Cardoso and Alonso Carrillo de Albornoz, were denounced by the same person, Fernando de Ataíde Vasconcelos, who accused also Mariana de Galindo and António de Cáceres.

In 1617, António Álvares Cardoso, a fifty-one-years-old Old Christian, priest of Travanquinha (bishopric of Coimbra), resident in Lisbon, arrived in Plaza de Santo André and asked for Fernando de Ataíde Vasconcelos, son of the Count of Castanheira (although in the lineages of this title there are not records of someone named Fernando). He wanted to tell him that a Spanish man named Alonso Carrillo was in Lisbon: this man had taken part in the latest auto-da-fé, because he made use of a book called «De Clavicula Salomonis». He also said that with that book one could do everything he wanted, including controlling the will of women, of the King and of his ministries. The book had been burned in the auto-da-fé, but another priest, António de Cáceres, had kept a copy of it. Afterwards, on the 3rd of November of that year, Fernando de Ataíde Vasconcelos told the Inquisition that Father António Álvares healed, blessed and made use of incantations, and that in his house he had met also Father António de Cáceres. The whole group gathered under the name of Pentáculo del Anillo de las Tres Ninfas (Pentacle of the Ring of the Three Nymphs). The members exchanged correspondence with each other and, from that meeting, they wrote to Fernando de Ataíde Vasconcelos, too. Some of these letters were included in both proceedings, either in their original form or in copy.

Father António Álvares was detained in the 9th of January, 1618. On December 20th, 1619, he was suspended from his position and sentenced to five years of banishment to Angola. His book and papers were burned. Alonso Carrillo de Albornoz, Spanish and resident in Lisbon, comedian by profession, who signed his letters as Martim Lopes to try not to be recognized, was also found guilty of the crimes of witchcraft and sorcery, and he was sentenced to eight years of banishment to the island of Príncipe.

The book «Clavicula Salomonis» is known to have circulated since antiquity, through the Byzantine period and until the end of the Middle Ages. It is a sort of compendium of astral magic and necromancy, and for some scholars it could originate from Jewish traditions.