1655. Carta de Juan Rodríguez de Amezquita para Bernardo López Portelo, lencero y comerciante.

Letter from Juan Rodríguez de Amezquita to Bernardo Portelo, a draper and a trader.

The author writes to Bernardo López Portelo in order to beg alms.

Bernardo López Portelo (also just Bernardo Portelo in some letters), was a draper and a trader resident in Madrid and native to Portugal who was accused of judaizer in 1661. Among other offences, he was accused of being an abettor of a judaizers network by means of different alms that he was giving to some people reconciled with the Holy Office of Toledo, Valladolid and Cuenca. A witness stated that they first suspected him when they saw many superscripts that belonged to the Jews from Bayonne with his name on it (fol.41). The letters provided as exhibit to the trial together with the rest of the documents were seized from the defendant´s house: most of them were alms petitions. This letter has an annotation on the lower margin from one of the Holy Office´s members, it reads: "I hereby certify that this note was found among the papers seized to Bernardo López Portelo. In Madrid, August 26th 1660. Juan Baptista de Lemos". Eventually, the defendant was condemned to exile and to the payment of 200 ducats.