Ten—
Scorched Parchments and Tortured Memories: The "Jewishness" of the Anussim (Crypto-Jews)

Moshe Lazar

If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered; and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
[JOHN 15:6]

I enter this house [i.e., church], I will worship neither wood nor stone, but only God who governs the universe.
[Converso's silent act of faith]

Inquisitors and inquisitorial institutions initiate their pious enterprise with the burning of manuscripts and books to forcibly halt the dissemination of beliefs contrary to their own dogmas. Failing to eradicate the faith and ritual practices of the "non-believers," stigmatized as heretics, they then resort to mental and physical torture most often leading to conversion. Those accused of being "false converts," stubborn and secret adherents to their earlier beliefs, are destined to burn at the stake, ironically qualified as an auto de fe, an "act of faith." The burning of books is often therefore a classical prelude to the burning of people.

The road that leads from the burning of more than twelve thousand volumes of the Talmud (Paris, 1243), and innumerable Hebrew biblical and parabiblical manuscripts during the subsequent centuries, and to the lighting of the autos de fe is the via dolorosa of medieval European Jewry and its descendants, the Anussim in Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, and elsewhere.^[1] In the thousands of trial records, which the Holy Office of the Inquisition has left as its enduring legacy, lay buried nightmarish chapters in the lives of men and women among the Anussim, from whose memories the torturers have extracted and transcribed religious practices and utterances as evidence of their secret Judaizing. These carefully elaborated minutes of the trial proceedings endlessly record what sort of rituals the Anussim were accused of practicing (mainly presented in the depositions of the prosecution's witnesses) and the kind of prayers they were reciting daily or on certain Jewish holidays (particularly recorded in the confessions of the accused). It is possible therefore, even from the partially published trial records as well as from other

sources, to present a synthetic overview on the continuity of "Jewishness" and Jewish religious devotion among a large number of Anussim over a period of several centuries.

This very continuity of retaining a hidden religious Jewish life, based on a set of customs and rituals, and strengthened by prayers, by biblical and postbiblical reminiscences, and by yearnings for a messianic deliverance has been questioned by some scholars^[2] in a manner that is contradicted by the historical evidence of various sources.

Communities of Anussim in Spain, between 1391 (a year of widespread assaults on the juderías and of mass conversions) and 1492 (the year of Expulsion), living amidst or beside those Jews who did not convert, certainly had different opportunities to preserve their hidden "Jewishness" in comparison with the Anussim of Portugal after 1497 (where all the Jews were forcibly converted)—even more so after the horrible massacre in Lisbon (1506)^[3] —and in comparison with those of Spain after 1492. While the Anussim of Spain between 1391 and 1492 maintained close contacts with those who lived openly as Jews and had no major difficulties in obtaining prayer books, biblical, rabbinical, and Jewish-philosophical texts,^[4] special ritual objects, and kosher food products, the Anussim of Portugal were more dependent on their memory and oral transmission, on symbolic observance of traditional rituals, and on occasional contacts during business trips with former Anussim now living as Jews in Italy and the Netherlands.^[5] These latter Anussim, many of them educated now in convents and monasteries, submitted to the teaching and the preaching of the friars, and had the opportunity to learn a great deal about Judaism, Jewish history, biblical prophecy, and theology excerpted in the literature of the Fathers of the Church and in the anti-Jewish polemical treatises; they could read in the missals, psalms, and other hymns derived from ancient synagogal liturgy; for generations they learned about their patriarchs from Villegas's Flos Sanctorum ; and whatever details they ignored concerning specific Jewish customs, they were introduced to them in the cellars of the Inquisition, learning from both the inquisitors and the confessions of the "Judaizers" the traditional list of Judaizing practices.^[6] Beinart's statement concerning the conversos of Ciudad Real during the fifteenth century is appropriate also to the Anussim of later periods:

And though the memory and knowledge of mitzvoth [religious commandments] became increasingly blurred as the generations went by, and Mosaic laws were the first to be forgotten, customs and traditions nevertheless remained in the Conversos' memory and were handed down for

centuries from generation to generation. Furthermore, for as long as the Inquisition courts existed, the inquisitors were always there to remind the Conversos of what Jewish tradition was, and to revive their memories of Judaism.^[7]

In the Inquisition's cellars in Lima for some twelve years (1627–1639), Francisco Maldonado de Silva, shortly before his death at the stake, composed a letter destined for the Jewish community in Rome, writing that he had a solid knowledge of the Prophets,

. . . et memoriter teneo omnes praedictiones promissionum Dei nostri per ipsos et deprecationes illorum pro populo suo Israel omnesque psalmos David absque nulla exceptione, proverbia multa Salomonis et [eius] filii Sirach, et plurimas orationes tam idiomate Hispano quam Latino a me compositas, sed horum maiorem partem in hoc lacu inclusus didisci, quae omnia (scilicet orationes prophetarum et laudes et psalmos) singulis sabbatis absque libro repeto flexis genibus in conspectu Dei mei depraecans illum pro peccatis meis et populi sui si forte possim (licet indignus) placare furorem suum, ut salvet et congreget eum sicut per suos prophetas promisit. Ego quidem a die qua captus fui devovi illi mori pugnans argumentis viribus et posse propter veritatem eius et observare legem eius usque ad aras ignis qui mihi paratur in brevi (ut colligo) utque me in holocaustum pro peccatis nostris Deus suscipiat . . .^[8]

[ . . . and I know by heart all the predictions related to the promises of our God, revealed through them, and His deprecations in favor of his people Israel, as well as all the Psalms of David without exception, many Proverbs of Salomon and of his son Sirach, and many prayers in both Spanish and Latin versifications composed by me; but most of all these I have learned while confined in this [lion's] den; all these [i.e., the Prophets' prayers, the hymns and the psalms], without any book, I recite every Saturday, kneeling in the presence of God, supplicating Him for my own and His people's sins, in the hope I could (though unworthy) placate His wrath so that He may save and ingather his people as He has promised through his prophets. Verily, from the day I was arrested I vowed to fight to death, with my power and arguments, against the adversaries of His truth and to uphold His Law until the altar of fire being now (I think) prepared for me, so that God may accept me as a holocaust for our sins . . .]

While in prison, Francisco Maldonado de Silva held fourteen disputations with theologians and wrote a great number of essays and two longer works, signing them "Heli Judio, indigno del Dios de Israel, por otro nombre Silva." He was led to his auto de fe in Lima (January 1639) at the age of forty-nine; a friar describes his last moments as follows:

frail, gray-haired, long-bearded, and with the books he had written tied around his neck, when led to the fire the wind had ripped off the curtain behind the podium; seeing this, he exclaimed: "This has been so arranged by the Lord of Israel as to see me face to face from heaven!"^[9]

Martyrs such as Luis de Carvajal (el Mozo), Maldonado de Silva, and José de Silva, like hundreds before them during the Middle Ages, went to the stake sanctifying their monotheistic faith (qiddush ha-Shem ), and imitating the martyrology of the ten celebrated rabbis ('asarah harugey malkhuth ) which occupies a special place in ancient Jewish lore and in the traditional prayer books. One of these sages, Hanina ben Teradyon, we are told, had been draped in a Torah scroll by his persecutors and thrown into the fire. Seeing his daughter distressed, he said to her: "Were I to be burning alone, it would be dreadful to me; now that I am in the fire with the Torah around me, whoever will avenge the honor of the Torah will at the same time avenge mine." His disciples asked: "Rabbi, what do you see?" And he replied: "Burning scrolls, I see, and letters rising in the air."

Contrary to those scholars who doubt the degree of "Jewishness" of the Anussim, the source materials and the sprouting of new communities of former Anussim in Italy, the Netherlands, and the Ottoman Empire present a reality which shows that their "Jewishness" was more than a bundle of vague memories. Yerushalmi rightly therefore states that

the yearning which impelled them to seek the God of Israel in Amsterdam, Venice, or Constantinople remains difficult to understand unless there existed a continuing crypto-Jewish tradition in the Peninsula itself. If, between one hundred and two hundred years after the extinction of the last vestiges of organized Jewish life in Spain and Portugal, this force was still strong enough to graft these withered branches back onto the trunk of the Jewish people, it must have been considerable.^[10]

Concerning the oral transmission among the Portuguese Anussim and, in particular, the important role played by the women, Revah writes:

In this continuous or discontinuous transmission of marranism two social groups performed a decisive role: the family milieu and the professional or university milieu. The women have greatly contributed to the perpetuation of marranism, often behind the back of their husbands: they figure also in greater numbers than men in the autos de fe. Marranism was a simplified religion which ignored hierarchy. Its articles of faith and its essential practices were perpetuated not only through the clandestine oral

transmission but also through the constant harassment by the inquisitorial persecution.^[11]

A confirmation of this role played by women in the preservation of "Jewishness" among the Anussim is already clearly articulated in a letter written (1481?) by Fernando del Pulgar (of converso origin himself): "In Andalusia there are at least ten thousand young women who have never left their parents' home. They observe the ways of their fathers and learn from them. To burn them all is an extremely cruel and difficult act and will force them to flee to places where their correction will be impossible."^[12] During his trial in the Canary Islands, Antonio Correa Núñez relates how his grandmother had initiated him at age thirteen to Judaism:

In this book [Psalms?], he will be able to see all what God did to David and to those who kept the Law God gave to Moses. Through guarding this Law and its ceremonies he will attain the merits King David and all the other attained. By fulfilling the commandments he will receive God's blessing; not keeping them he will be cursed by God.^[13]

The women's role as activists in the dissemination of Jewish customs and prayers,^[14] and their outstanding courage in proclaiming their faith and accepting martyrdom at the stake,^[15] are corroborated during the centuries by the trial records from Portugal, the Canary Islands, Mexico, Peru, and Brazil,^[16] as well as by the testimonies from a community of "New Christians" rediscovered in this century by S. Schwartz in Belmonte, Portugal.^[17] Even at the time that Anussim came out from their schizophrenic existence and returned to open Jewish life, Rabbi Yom Tob Zahalon (in a responsa ) expressed his admiration for the stature and quality, among the Portuguese Anussim, of the women amidst them, "from whom Torah and Judaism shall yet go forth!"^[18]

The knowledge of traditions and rituals was also preserved through smuggling in from abroad books printed in Italy and the Netherlands, especially during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.^[19] But even before that time, information was available from books hidden in wells, buried in gardens, secretly kept inside walls, or acquired from Christians who had snatched them from the flames.^[20]

To put this in its proper historical context, let us follow Rabbi Abraham Saba's description of his flight from his hometown during the tragic events of 1497 in Portugal:

Then the anger of the Lord burnt against his people, so that all the Jews who were in Portugal were ordered by King Emmanuel (God blot out his

name and memory!) to leave the land. Nor was this enough; but after the king had commanded that boys and girls should be torn [from their parents for baptism and Christian education], and then we should be deprived of our synagogues, he ordered that all our books should be seized. So I brought all my books into the city of Porto in obedience to the royal decree; but yet I took my life in my hands by carrying with me to Lisbon the Commentary on the Law which I had composed, as well as a commentary on the treatise Ethics of the Fathers, and one on the Five Scrolls. . . . But when I reached Lisbon all the Jews came to me and told me that it had been proclaimed to the community that every Jew who might be found with a book or with philacteries in his possession would be put to death. So straightaway, before I entered the quarter outside the city, I took these books in my hand; two brothers went with me and dug a grave among the roots of a blossoming olive tree; there we buried them. . . . Tree of Sorrow, for I had buried there all that was pleasant in my sight—the Commentary on the Laws and the Commandments, more precious than gold. . . . For in them I had found consolation for the loss of my two little ones, torn from me by force to become unwilling converts. And I had said: these [books] are the inheritance of those who worship God; therefore must they be better for me than even sons and daughters.^[21]

Commenting upon this rabbi's dramatic description of losing his children to forced baptism and endangering his life in trying to save his own manuscripts, W. Popper writes: "Hidden in wells, buried among the roots of trees, snatched from the very flames, there were always some volumes saved. And as soon as the watchfulness of enemies became a little relaxed, these treasures were brought from their hiding-places; others were smuggled into the city from distant lands by various devices; and still others perhaps were bought from neighbors."^[22] At the end of the fifteenth century, in Soria, a mason working in the home of Juan de Salzedo (formerly Rabbi Yantó [Yom Tob?]) discovered inside a hidden niche in a wall some scrolls in Hebrew which, according to his testimony at a trial, he refused to hand over to their owner, instead taking them home and burning them in his stove.^[23] Several centuries later, in 1848, during the dismantling of an old house in the former call (Jewish Quarter) of Barcelona, three late-fifteenth-century manuscript prayer books in Catalan were discovered inside one of the walls, including one complete traditional Jewish Ritual of daily and holidays prayers, the two others being of a hybrid type (personalized prayers, somewhat spiritually Christianized), having belonged probably to a converso originally from Valencia.^[24] The historian Caro Baroja remembers having seen in his childhood a leather-covered desk whose owner, while doing some repair work, uncovered two scrolls of Hebrew prayers hidden by some

crypto-Jew.^[25] One could multiply these cases to show that in spite of the burning of thousands of biblical and parabiblical manuscripts and books, the Anussim were able to procure for themselves over the centuries copies of Bibles, prayer books, commentaries on the Law, essays on Jewish history, and cabalistic and other mystical treatises to maintain their faith; and wherever those books were not available, they memorized a portable Judaism often transferred from scorched parchments and from inquisitorial sessions to their tortured souls.

Accusations against the Anussim, as well as their confessions, in Spain and Portugal and the New World, used customs and rituals to define them as Judaizers, or "Jews on all four sides" (judeus dos quatro costados) as some of them were called in Portugal. The collection of bits and pieces in the already published trial documents^[26] corresponds to the thirty or more specific "Judaic" beliefs, practices, and customs by which a Judaizing converso could be detected (observance of one of them being sufficient to be brought before the Tribunal of the Holy Office). The list of these practices and customs was published time and again, the edict issued by the Seville inquisitors Morillo and San Martin in 1481 serving as the basic model for all subsequent promulgations. One may sum them up in the following groups:

1. sweep the house clean Friday afternoon; wear clean clothing and festive garments that evening and Saturday; bring out fresh linen and a white tablecloth for the occasion; cook the necessary meals for the Sabbath on Friday, keeping in the over overnight a special dish [adafina, calyente, hamin ];^[27] abstain from work on Saturday;

2. light newly prepared candles on Friday before sunset; at dinner, make a blessing over a cup of wine (baraha , or baraha del vino ) and have each family member drink from the same cup;

3. fast from sunset to sunset, particularly on the Day of Atonement (çinqepur, çonqipur [ = tzom qippur : "Fast of Yom Kippur]), on the eve of Purim (Ayuno de la Reina Esther [Ta'anith Esther : "Fast of Queen Esther"]);^[28] and fast on Mondays and Thursdays;

4. ritual bathing of women on Friday afternoon, on the eve of fasting days, possibly in a special bathhouse [batibila, bet tebilah ];

5. observance of special holidays, such as Passover (pascua del pan çençeño [hag ha-matzoth = "feast of the unleavened bread]), which occurs at the time of "semana santa"; the feast of the Tabernacles (pascua de las cabañuelas ), which occurs in the Fall;

6. reciting certain Jewish prayers such as Shema Yisrael Adonay

Elohenu, Adonay, Ehad ("Hear, o Israel, God our Lord, God is one"), or specific prayers when washing the hands,^[29] when partaking at a meal, and so on;

7. praying in a "Jewish" fashion: facing the wall, standing rather than sitting or kneeling [related to prayers like the amida ], cabdis [= qaddish ], moving head, limbs, and body in a rhythmic manner (sabadear );^[30]

8. bury or burn nail clippings, rather than throw them away;^[31]

9. ritual slaughter of cattle and fowl, reciting some specific prayer during the process; covering the spilled blood with earth or ashes;

10. purifying the meat by cleansing it from any blood, salting and rinsing it; removing all fat, and the sinew from the animal's leg;^[32]

11. abstaining from eating certain animals, birds, or fish considered as impure by the Mosaic law; eating therefore manjares caseres ("kosher food");^[33]

12. observance of special funerary rites when mourning the dead (sitting on the ground, eating hard-boiled eggs and olives); pouring out the water from the jars [cohuerco ], for fear that the soul of the departed might bathe in it);

13. when kneading bread, throw a piece of dough [hala ] into the fire (a custom that was still preserved among the Anussim in Belmonte in this century);^[34]

14. celebrating, on the eve of the eighth day following the birth of a male child (the night before the prescribed circumcision), with dancing and music [hazer hadas ];^[35]

15. when baptizing their children, rubbing off immediately the crisma (baptism);

16. read in books of prayers [ccedil;idur, rezar en hebrayco, meldar como judio^[36] or other books on Jewish matters in Hebrew or in the vernacular [libros judiegos ]; possess amulets with Hebrew inscriptions [nomina escripta en hebrayco ],^[37] and the like;

17. in church, acting hypocritically (not looking at the elevation of the Host, at the Cross; kneeling imperfectly; changing the Pater Noster; etc.).^[38]

All these, and some others,^[39] amply documented in all trials, testify to the permanence and widespread preservation of essential and symbolic rituals among the Anussim over many centuries. It is in the context of the accusations and confessions that one finds the greatest number of Hebrew words, particularly frequent in fifteenth- and sixteenth-

century documents, such as: baraha, varaha (blessing); baraha del vino (blessing on wine); baraha de la mesa (blessing after meal); Dio barohu (for barukh hu , "blessed be He"); trefa, trefe ("non-kosher food"); caser, caxer ("kosher food"); maror ("bitter herbs"); ccedil;edaca ("alms, charity");^[40]çidur ("prayer book" in Hebrew or vernacular); çilhod, zelahod (for selihoth , "penitential prayers"); targun (for targum , Aramaic translation of Pentateuch); quidux (blessing on the wine); cabdis (for qaddish , "mourner's prayer"); guezera ("edict" of Expulsion); tafelines (for thefillin , "phylacteries"); çeçit (generally for talith , "prayer shawl"); çefer, çefer tora ("parchment scroll of the Law"); humas ("Pentateuch"); hevel, vanidad ("vanity, Christian dogmas"); çara ("trouble, tribulation"); quinyan ("property"); midras (for beth midrash , "synagogue, school");^[41]tibila ("ritual bath"), and bitibila ("house of the ritual bath"); and so on. Concerning the frequent use of euphemisms one may note: wood (for "cross"); bread ("Holy Host"); house ("church"); stone ("statue of Christ or saint"); stick ("wooden cross");^[42] very good man ("practicing Judaizer"); servant of God ("of the Jewish faith"). Finally, it should also be noted that Adonay (rather than Señor ), Dio (instead of Dios ), and meldar (more than leer ) are frequently used in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century documents as they are in parallel Judeo-Spanish texts after the Expulsion.

The depth and continuity of "Jewishness" of many Anussim may best be grasped through a comparison between two testaments, written centuries apart, couched in a language that testifies to the profound roots of religiosity in both tortured souls. They reflect in content and in style a cleaving devotion to the faith and practices of Judaism. Don Juda (from Alba de Tormes) in 1410, two decades after the forced conversions of 1391, writes a long will from which I quote the following excerpt:

I give thanks to the almighty Lord God who created the universe and governs us, who did not make me an animal and has kept me to this day in his commandments, for pious and noble is the man who in his last years and old age dies to start a new life—God willing—for I have always placed my hope in His love. And as I am dust and will return to dust, I desire not to be moaned and mourned; nor should you, doña Sol, act despondently, for I hold you in such esteem that should I give you a letter of divorce you would not accept it, as you have stated: "Were you to give me the letter [of divorce] I would refuse it, for your shoe is a firm warrant . . . of my heart";^[43] and I would respond: "May it be God's will!" . . . Let my body be buried in the golden field where our parents are resting—God grant them everlasting peace . . . placed in the grave with my eyes and face looking eastward . . . At learning about my death in the Jewish quarters of Segovia

and Alba, where I was well loved by all my relatives, hoping for the same in the next world, let them say: "Alas, alas, the one who did good deeds has passed away!"^[44]

Luis de Carvajal el Mozo, after some ten years in the Inquisition's cellars of New Spain, having changed his name to Joseph Lumbroso,^[45] writes his final testament a short time before his anticipated auto de fe (December 1596), in which he states the ten principles of his monotheistic creed, partly modeled after the "Thirteen Principles of Faith" of Maimonides (quoted by Luis in his discussion with two doctors of theology during his incarceration):

I believe in the one and only God, almighty and true, Creator of heaven, earth, and sea . . . I believe that God our Lord and universal Creator is one and no more . . . I believe that the law of God our Lord, which the Christians call the dead law of Moses, is alive and everlasting, as recorded in the holy Pentateuch . . . The fourth belief of mine is that it is a sin to worship idols and images;^[46] I believe that the Sacred Sacrament of Circumcision is eternal . . . I believe that Christ [literally "the anointed," as in Hebrew mashiah] the true Father of the future son, Prince of Peace, real son of David, possessor of the scepter of Judah has not arrived . . . I believe in what relates to the mysterious vision of the holy Daniel . . . Tenth:^[47] I believe that King Antiochus, whom the Holy Scriptures called root of sin, because he was the persecutor of God's people and of His holy law, represents the kings of Spain and Portugal . . . from which originate the branches of the inquisitions and the persecutions of the blessed martyrs . . . true Jews [whom they call] Judaizing heretics. However, Judaizing is not heresy but is living according to the Commandments of God our Lord.

Luis de Carvajal concludes with a confession that sounds like a prayer recited on the Day of Atonement:

I again swear, in the name of the Almighty, to live and die for His faith. May it please Him, so that, imitating the zeal of Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael,^[48] and Matathias,^[49] I shall joyfully give away my soul for the faith of the Holy Testament for which they died . . . I hope for strength from the Lord. I do not trust myself, since I am only flesh and of frail nature; and just as I have placed a mother and five sisters in danger for this faith,^[50] I would give away a thousand, if I had them, for the faith of each of His holy Commandments . . . My Lord, look upon me with grace, so that it may be known and seen in this kingdom and upon all the earth that Thou art our God and that Thine almighty and holy name, Adonay, is invoked with truth in Israel and among Israel's descendants. I commit this soul that Thou gavest me to Thy holy hands, promising with Thy help not to change my faith till death nor after it.

I end happily the narrative of my present life, having lively faith in Thy divine hope of saving me through Thine infinite mercy and of resurrecting me, when Thy holy will is accomplished, together with our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and his faithful sons, for whose holy love I beg Thee humbly to confirm this and not to forsake me. May it please Thee to send the angel Michael, our prince, to defend and help me. . . . O Lord, have mercy on the glory of Thy name, Thy law, and Thy people, and the world which Thou Thyself didst create; fill it with Thy light and the truthful knowledge of Thy name, so that heaven and earth will be filled with Thy glory and praise, amen, amen.^[51]

In the spaces between the multiple autos de fe over three centuries, and in the shadow of celebrated martyrs, thousands of humble Anussim led a life filled with shame and fear, guilt and despair, hoping for some Moses to deliver them from the Christian Pharaoh, or some new Esther who would defeat the Hamans of the Inquisition. Asked if he were not a New Christian, a certain Gonçalo, who was suspected of avoiding crossing himself in church, replied: "No, I am not; but I am a converso." Commenting on this seemingly paradoxical statement, Carrete Parrondo writes: "This sentence, if it is correct, is quite surprising as New Christian and Converso are synonyms."^[52] They might certainly have been synonymous in the common language and in the minds of the Christians, but this Gonçalo was resisting being identified as a Christian, New or Old, stressing the fact that he had been converted against his will. Elvira García declared that "in the faith she was born in she wishes to die;" and to the question why she had converted, she replied: "for the sake of my children."^[53] Pedro Núñez de Santa Fe, formerly don Yuça of Valladolid, confessed that if not for all the debts owed to him he would not have converted [in 1492] nor returned from Portugal [in 1494].^[54] Ruy Dias confided to a witness^[55] that "if not for his children, he would leave for the land of Judaea."

Guilt feelings for having converted, or for going on to live as Anussim, dreaming of leaving Christian kingdoms for Jerusalem or Constantinople, and keeping alive the hope of messianic redemption are some of the most frequent themes in the confessions of the Anussim as well as in the most memorized traditional prayers among them and in the personalized poetic versions of certain Psalms transmitted from one generation to the next. Don Yuça, who would send a barrel of wine to his Jewish parents every year for Purim and Passover, confessed that "he repented of having become a Christian, that he would give his wife all their common property, have her return to her father's home, because

he wished to leave for Jerusalem."^[56] In Tras-os-Montes, Portugal, the following fragmentary prayer has survived the centuries:

O meus Deus, quem ja se vira
N'aquela santa cidade
Chamada Jerusalem.
Jerusalem está esperando
cada hora e cada dia . . .
O alto Deus d'Israel,
Cumpri vossas profecias . . .

[O my God, pray one would be so fortunate / to reside in that holy city / called Jerusalem. / Waiting for Jerusalem, / every hour and every day . . . / O exalted God of Israel, / accomplish your prophecies . . .]

From a crypto-Jewish physician living in Guarda, Portugal, who had been denounced in 1582 to the Inquisition in Lisbon, we possess a poetic expression of the deep-seated yearnings for messianic redemption and the ingathering of the captives and exiles in the Holy Land:^[57]

O SONHO

O Sonho que eu sonhava
Se o ouzasse a dizer,
Mas eu ey grande vergonha
Que mo não quizessem crer.

Que sonhava com prazer
Que os mortos se erguião
E tornavam a viver
E que todos [se sahião];^[58]

Os que estavão nas prisões
Traz dos montes escondidos,
Sonhava que erão sahidos
Da dura e forte prisão.

Vi a tribu de Adão
Com as dentes apreganhados
E muito espedaçados
Da serpente do dragão.

E assi vi a Ruben
Co hua voz de muita gente.
O qual vira mui contente
Cantando em Jerusalem.

O quem vira a Belem
E os montes de Syon
E a esse bom Jurdão
Para se lavar mui bem . . .

[THE DREAM. The dream I have dreamed, / if I dared to tell it; /but I feel so ashamed / for fear of not being believed.

For I dreamed with joy / that the dead were resurrected / and returned to live, / that all of them left their graves.

Those who were in the prisons / beyond the mountains hidden, / I dreamed that they went free / from the harsh and cruel prison.

I saw the tribe of Adam / caught in the gnashing teeth / and bitten to pieces / by the serpent, the dragon.

And I also saw Ruben / with the noise of a multitude / coming in great happiness, / singing in Jerusalem.

Fortunate who would see Bethlehem / and the mountains of Zion, / and reach the good river Jordan / to completely wash oneself, etc.]^[59]

To give expression to their guilt feelings and yearning for a prompt divine redemption, the Anussim made the Psalms the most important vehicle to convey their innermost emotions, projecting in the texts they often learned by heart personal variations and allusions to their own situation. We find therefore in the surviving documents of the Inquisition a great number of paraphrased Psalms, particularly those dealing with contrition and repentance, with yearning for messianic deliverance and dreams of returning to Zion. Thus, the book of Psalms, available to them in Jewish or Christian translations in Spanish, became for the Anussim the most continuous source of hope and consolation, prayer and meditation, personal devotion and mystical spirituality. From Christian apocalyptic literature, in particular from the commentaries on Daniel brought by the preachers as persuasive arguments for converting to Christianity, the Anussim appropriated the same texts to deepen their faith in the messianic redemption yet to come. Juan de Salzedo,^[60] when asked one day about how he felt, replied "that he was feeling fine, but that it was said in the Scriptures of the Jews that happy the man who will be found as a Jew after the passing of these [troubled] times," referring probably to Daniel 12:2–3: "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And then they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever."^[61]

A typical poetic paraphrase and personal adaptation of a psalm, fre-

quently alluded to in inquisitorial confessions, has been preserved in two complete versions (in Portuguese and Spanish), with slight variations between them, and recorded during two different trials.^[62] The Portuguese version of 1596 opens as follows:

Alto Dio de Abraham,
Rey forte de Israel,
tu que ouuiste a Ismael,
ouue a minha orazón;
tu que en las grandes alturas
te aposentas Señor,
ouue a esta pecadora
que te chama das bajuras;^[63]

The Spanish version of 1643 reads:

Oh, Alto Dios de Abraham,
Dios fuerte, Dios de Israel,
tu que oíste a Daniel,
oye mi oraçion;
tu que en las grandes alturas
te pusiste, mi Señor,
oye aquesta pecadora^[64]
que te llama de las basuras;
tú que a toda criatura
abres caminos y fuentes;
alce mis ojos a los montes,
donde vendrá mi ayuda.^[65]
Yo bien sé que en mi se encierra
gran pecado que en mi hay.
Mi ayuda de Adonay,
que hizo cielos y tierra;
Santo(s) Dios, fuerte Dios,
misericordioso Dios immortal,
Habed misericordia de mi, Señor.

[O exalted God of Abraham, / almighty God, God of Israel, / you who hearkened to Daniel, / listen to my prayer; / you, who in the high spheres / have residence, O my Lord, / listen to this sinning woman / who calls upon you from the abyss; / you who open for every creature / pathways and water sources; / I lifted up my eyes unto the hills / whence my help will come. / I confess that in me enclosed / a great sin is hidden.^[66] / My help comes from Adonay / who created heaven and earth. / Holy God, almighty God, / merciful and immortal God, / have mercy on me, O Lord.]

Manuel de Morales, an active Judaizer in Portugal, who had arrived in New Spain with the Carvajals and played a major part among the Anussim there, wrote many poetic prayers (some erroneously attributed to Luis de Carvajal, el Mozo)^[67] which were recited on the High Holidays during several generations. One of them opens as follows:

Recibe mi ayuno en penitencia,
Señor, de todo mal que te he cometido;
no permites me falte tu clemencia
pues ves con cuanta angustia te la pido;
ensalzaré tu suma omnipotencia,
será de mí tu nombre engrandecido
y no me des, Señor, lo que merezco,
pues ves que aún en pensarlo estremezco.

Si te he ofendido gravemente,
era por falta de entendimieto . . . (P. 307)

[Accept, O Lord, my fast as penitence for any evil I have done to Thee; do not withhold Thy clemency from me, seeing how anxiously I beg Thee for it; I will extol Thy almightiness, Thy name will be exalted by me; do not retribute to me, Lord, according to my merits, seeing how I tremble only at this thought. / If I have gravely sinned in Thy eyes, it was for lack of understanding; etc.]

His disciple, Luis de Carvajal (el Mozo), destined to become the charismatic martyr of sixteenth-century New Spain, wrote a sonnet that might well be considered as one of the most outstanding mystical and penitential texts ever written, in the style of the traditional piyyutim (sacred hymns) recited in the synagogue on the High Holidays. This composition, in fact, was composed for Yom Kippur and was still known among the Anussim in the mid-seventeenth century:

I have sinned, my Lord; but not because I have sinned
Do I abandon plaint and hope for Thy mercy;
I fear that my punishment will equal my guilt,
But I still hope for forgiveness through Thy kindness.

I suspect that, as Thou hast awaited my return,
Thou hast held me in contempt for my ingratitude;
My sin is made still greater
Because Thou art so worthy of being loved.

If it were not for Thee, what would become of me?
And who, except Thee, would free me from myself?
Who would free me if Thy hand did not shower Thy grace on me?

And except for me, my God, who would not love Thee?
And, except for Thee, my God, who would bear with me?
And, without Thee, my God, to Thee who would take me?^[68]

From single sentences, fragments of psalms and hymns, and poetic paraphrases preserved in both inquisitorial documents and other sources, one can ascertain that the Anussim had at their disposal more than just memorized bits and pieces of traditional prayers. However, the mixture of Portuguese and Spanish, or Catalan and Spanish (in Majorca), in earlier phases illustrates the new presence of books of prayers and other texts in the Spanish language, smuggled in from Ferrara and Amsterdam in the sixteenth century. From the surviving quotations and fragmentary texts it is possible to state without equivocation that the Anussim knew the most important prayers of the Sephardic ritual, the daily prayers as well as those used for the Sabbath, the holidays, and for special occasions (blessings before and after meal, before sleeping and after awakening, before leaving on a journey by land or sea; rules and precepts for certain ceremonial customs; etc.), including some texts of cabbalistic origin which were not in use among non-Sephardic worshipers. We will illustrate these points with a select number of samples from various sources and different periods.

In spite of the mass conversion of the Jewish community in Majorca in 1435, almost fifty years before the official establishment of the Inquisition in the Spanish kingdom, and their seeming insulation from the Jewish and crypto-Jewish communities on the mainland, these Anussim denigratingly known as xuetes, chuetas (the Majorcan equivalent of marranos), who 250 years later were still branded as "New Christians" and excluded from the "Old Christian" society, seem to have preserved important fragments of prayers from the Sephardic ritual.^[69] Isabel Martí y Cortés, noted for her disparaging remarks to her torturers, brings up in her complaints verses from Psalms among Jewish articles of faith:

Christians believe in a God made by the hands of man, who has eyes and does not see, ears and does not hear, mouth and does not speak, hands and does not touch, feet and does not walk; and they have invented a law adapted for their needs which gives them sustenance, and the inquisitors and their secretaries obtain a good salary which sustains them, but the Christians know very well that the Law given by the Lord of Israel to Moses is the true one, and that at the hour of death they believe in the Law of Moses, and so are saved, and that if they would read the Bible without distortions they would all become Jews, but they have mixed up everything, including all the commandments, for the third commandment of the Mosaic Law says to observe the Sabbath . . .

The following text, for example, recorded at her trial in 1678 and transcribed by Braunstein as one unit, represents in reality three different segments of the introductory portion of the morning service (the order being II, I, III; segment II is recited when entering the synagogue):

I. Bendito tu Adonay, nuestro Dios, Rey del mundo, que formó el hombre con sabiduría, y crió en el orados orados, huecos huecos. Descubierto(s) y sabi[d]o delante çilla de tu trono, que si serasse uno dellos, o si se abriesse uno dellos, no [seria] possible sustenarse [por] una hora. Bendito tu Adonay, mel[e]ci[n]an toda criatura, y maravilha(s) para hazer.

II. Yo [1] / con muchedumbre [2] / de tu merced [3] / vendre [4] / a tu cassa [5] / a humillarme [6] / a [7] / Palacio(s) [8] / de tu santidat [9] / (6) con temor [10]

III. Todos criados de arriba [y] abaxo . . .^[70]

Segment II, recited when one enters the synagogue, comprises in the Hebrew original ten words from Psalm 5:8, representing the number of persons necessary (a minyan ) for a regular full service. Segment III here constitutes just the opening line of a special prayer (see next example) of cabbalistic origin, composed by Shelomoh Mosheh Alsaqar, and only incorporated in the Sephardic ritual of prayers.^[71] This composition (which starts in Hebrew, Kol beruey ma'alah u-matah ye-'idun yagidun, etc.), accompanying the other two segments, is already present in an early sixteenth-century Catalan version of the Book of Prayers (Brit. Museum, MS Bodl. Or. 9):^[72]

II. Beneyt tu A[donay], nostre Deu, rey del mon. que crjha l'home ab sabiesa, y cria en ell forats forats, buyts, buyts; descubert y sabut davan cadira de ta honra, que si [sera obert un d'ells, o] sis tancha un d'ells no li es posible per se sostenerse sols hora una. Beneyt tu A[donay], medecinant tota criatura y maravelha[n] per far.

I. Y io en multitud de ta merçe vindre en ta casa, encorbarme a palau de ta santedad, en ta temor.

III. Tot criat alt y baix testificaran y recontaran tots ells [com uno] que A[donay] 1, y son nom 1; 30 y 2 çenderos, y tot entene[n]t sa puritat recontara[n] sa grandeza . . .

[Blessed be Thee Adonay, our God, King of the universe, who createth man with wisdom, and createth in him openings, holes; it is clear and known before the throne of Thy glory, that if one of them would be obstructed, or one of them would burst open, he could not possibly sur-

vive even for a short time. Blessed be Thee Adonay, who careth for all creatures, and createth with marvel.

But as for me, I will come into Thy house in the multitude of Thy mercy, and in Thy fear will I worship toward Thy holy temple.

All the creatures in heaven and on earth will testify and proclaim unanimously that God is one and His name is one. Thirty-two pathways, for those who understand their secret, will proclaim Thy greatness . . .]

The following prayer, equally from among those preserved in the community of Chuetas, was used particularly during the Sabbath service, and is found with more elements in most Hebrew Rituals of Prayer as well as with some variations in the surviving prayers of several communities of Anussim (the original in Hebrew [starting Barukh she-amar we-hayah ha-'olam comprises eighty-seven words, a number which has some esoteric connotations):^[73]

Bendito tu Adonay, nuestro Dios, Rey del mundo, y Rey el grande, el Santo Padre ["santo" not Hebr. text], el Piadoso, lloado en boca de su Pueblo; afermo[z]icado en lengua de todos sus buenos, y sus siervos . . . y con cánticos de David tu siervo. Te lloa[re]mos, engrandeceremos, te alabaremos, te glorificaremos, te enaltezeremos, y nombraremos tu nombre, nuestro Rey, nuestro Dios, unico vivo de los mundos. Alabado y glorificado sea tu nombre sienpre de sienpre. Bendito tu Adonay, nuestro Dios, Rey alabado con alabamiento.

[Blessed be Thee Adonay, our God, King of the universe, exalted King, holy Father ["holy" not in Hebr. text], the merciful, praised on the lips of His nation; extolled in the tongue of His pious followers and servants, . . . and with the psalms of David Thy servant. We will praise Thee, exalt Thee, extol Thee, glorify Thee, magnify Thee, and we will mention Thy name, our King, our God, uniquely alive in all eternity. Praised and glorified be Thy name for ever and ever. Blessed be Thee, Adonay, our God, King exalted with hymns of praise.]

Another prayer, paraphrasing Psalm 91 with additions from other psalms, known as Oração da Formosura ("Prayer of Exaltation"), is found with slight variations in a great number of specimens preserved for centuries among the Anussim of Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, and elsewhere.^[74] I present here the opening sequence of various versions, among many others, in Portuguese. It was recorded at the trial of Brites Henriques between 1674 and 1683. Arrested at the age of twenty-two and tortured over a period of eight years, this young woman recited a great number of prayers, some very extensive, including the Oração da Formosura [notice the use of first person singular in this version (as in the original psalm) contrary to first person plural in the next examples]:

A honra e louvor do Senhor dos altos Ceos: Seja a santa formosura de Adonay, nuestro Dios, perfeita a obra das minhas mãos compõe, perfeita a obra das minhas mãos comporá. Sobre my cobertura do alto, que me lembre do abastador. Digo Adonay é meu Deus, meu abrigo, meu catelo, e meu Senhor, que vos Senhor dos altos Ceus me livreis e me guardeis do laço do encampamento, de mortandade, de quebranto. Não temo o pavor da noite . . .

In a different version recorded in Belmonte half a century ago the prayer reads as follows:

Em honra e louvor dos 73 [in Hebrew text: 72] nomes^[75] do Senhor seja! A Formosura santa do meu Deus de Adonai sobre nós seja. O Senhor dos Ceus compõe as obras das nossas mãos, o Senhor dos Ceus as comporá. Estamos encobertos no alto, á sombra do abastador nos adormecemos. Viva Adonai, meu brio, meu rei, meu Senhor, meu castelo, meu edifico. Elle nos guardará e nos livrara do mau laço, tortura, mortandade, castimento da sua santidade. Debaixo da sua santa Saquiné [for Hebrew shekhinah , "divine presence"] não temeremos o pavor da noite . . .

And at the trial of Diogo Teixeira, the inquisitors recorded the following version:

Em formosura de ti Adonai, nosso Deos, exalçado sobre nos e sobre os feitos de nossas mãos, Adonai Sabaho, sobre nos a conta do alto, a sombra do Abastado, maris (? meu?) rei, Adonai meu grande abriguo, minha penha, meu castello, o Senhor me livrará de laço encampado, de mortandade arrebatosa; debaixo de suas asas me estaziarei . . .

Another hymn of praise, paraphrasing Psalm 148 with personal interpolations, has been recorded in many trial documents or simply alluded to. Recorded in the 1920s in Belmonte, Portugal, the traditional example starts as follows:

Louvai o Senhor, os moradores dos Ceos,
Louvai-o nas alturas;
Louvai-o todos os seus anjos,
Louvai-o todas as suas virtudes.
Louvai-o o sol, a lua, as estrellas e a luz,
Louvai-o todos . . .

A Spanish variation on the same Psalm 148, recorded at the trial of Juan López de Armenia in 1590, starts as follows (showing clearly some individual interpolations):^[76]

A. a S. [Alabad al Señor] todos los arcangeles y los profetas,

A. a S. todos los patriarcas,
A. a S. todos los martires,
A. a S. de dia y de noche,
A. a S. de ynvierno y en verano y en frio y en calor,
A. a S. la luz y las tinieblas,
A. a S. las alturas,
A. a S. las baxeças de la tierra,
A. a S. que no come ni beue, y juzga y ue . . .

In Belmonte, the same psalm has been elaborated in a short song, easy to learn, following the structure and the style of the popular cantigas de amigo of the Gallego-Portuguese tradition, and adapted to a female congregation as a morning prayer:^[77]

Levantai-vos meninas cedo,
Ja quere amanhecer;
Louvaremos ão altissimo senhor
Que nos ha de fortalecer.
Louvai o Senhor ão som da viola
Ele è tudo som e tudo gloria.
Louvai o Senhor meninas
Louvai-o com vozes finas.
Louvai o Senhor donzelas
Louvai-o com vozes belas.
Louvai o Senhor casadas
Louvai-o com vozes claras.
Louvai o Senhor viuvas
Louvai-o com vozes puras.
O Senhor de todos os amores,
Louvai meninas e flores.

Amén, Senhor, que fizeste o dia.

[Awake and rise, O maidens, hastily, / the time of dawn is near; / we will praise the almighty Lord / who will give us strength. / Praise the Lord with the lute / for He is sound and glory. / Praise the Lord, O maiden, / Praise Him with noble voices. / Praise the Lord, O damsels, / Praise Him with beautiful voices. / Praise the Lord, O spouses, / Praise Him with clear voices. / Praise the Lord, O widows, / Praise Him with pure voices. / The Lord of all the loves, / Praise ye maiden and flowers. / Amen, O Lord, who maketh the new day.]

Among the poetic adaptations of the prayer to be recited before retiring to bed at night, we quote one recorded in Idanha-a-Nova :

Na minha cama me deitei,
As minhas portas fechei

Com as chaves de Abrahão;
Os bons entrarão,
Os maus sahirão;
Os anjos do Senhor
Comigo estão.
Amén, Senhor . . .

[I lay down in my bed, / I have closed my doors / with the keys of Abraham; / the pious will come in, / the evil ones will leave; / the angels of the Lord / are here with me. Amen, Lord, etc.]

As the women in Portugal were particularly active among the Anussim and served in a way as lay "cantors" or "priests" (sacerdotisas ) in conducting the secret religious services and educating their children, many prayers for all the various occasions were adapted in song form, including allusions to their own tragic situation. These could then be memorized with ease and preserved as popular songs for generations. A good example is such an adaptation for the Day of Atonement (Oração que se diz no "Dia Puro do Senhor"), possibly composed in 1500 or 1543 (depending on the interpretation of line five in the fragment quoted here; the allusion could be to D. Manuel or Don Juan III):

. . . . . . .
Quebrai, Senhor, este jugo
Que nos peza deshumano;
Livrai-nos, Senhor, livrai-nos
Das garras d'este tirano.

Ha trez annos que o teu povo
Em ferros geme e suspira,
Bastem os males passados,
Aplaque-se a tua ira!

Livraste-o de hum pharãó;
Por santo prodigio novo
De outro pharãó mais duro
Outra vez livra o teu povo.

A tua voz formidavel
Quebrem-se os duros grielhões,
Hoje, porque he o teu dia
Deve ser o dos perdões.

Para nos he a ventura,
Para ti, Senhor, a gloria;
O teu dia sacro santo
Seja o dia da victoria.
Amèn, Senhor . . .

[Break, O Lord, this yoke / of inhumane oppression; / deliver us, O Lord, deliver us / from this tyrant's claws. / For three years already your people / in chains cry and complain; / suffice the past evils, / placate now your anger. / You delivered him from a Pharaoh; / with a new sacred miracle, / from another Pharaoh more cruel, / free once more your nation. / At the sound of your tremendous voice, / let the harsh chains be smashed; / this day, for it is your day, / has to be the day of forgiving. / It should be good fortune to us, / and glory to you, O Lord; / let your sacred holy day / be the day of victory. / Amen, O Lord . . .]

From a series of Passover songs that have survived among the Anussim, I selected the following examples (the first two from Belmonte):

Caminhamos e andamos
Louvaremos ão Deus d'Abrahão,
Que nos livrou do Egypto
De terra da escravidão.

[Let us go forth and march, / praising the Lord of Abraham, / who has freed us from Egypt, / the land of slavery.]

Caminhamos e andamos
Louvaremos ão Deus d'Israel
Que nos livrou do Egypto
Da quelle Rei tão cruel (bis).

[Let us go forth and march, / praising the Lord of Israel, / who has freed us from Egypt, / from that very cruel king.]

The traditional and popular song ("Who knows One? / I know One. / One is God. / Who knows two?" etc.) was preserved among the Chuetas in Majorca in the seventeenth century (with the typical opening part common to the Sephardim: "Qui sabes y entregues; qui es Deu alt en cel? Alabat sie el seu santo nom. Amen. Amen."):

El Uno: El gran Dios de Israel; / Los Dos: Moysen y Aarón; / Los Tres: Abram, Isach y Jacób; / Los Quatro: Maridos de Israel; / Los Cinco: Libros de la Lei; / Los Seis: Dias del Sábado (Misna); / Los Siete: Dias de la Semana; / . . . Los Doze: Tribus de Israel; / Las Treze: Palabras que dijo Dios omnipotente a Moyses. Amen. Amen.

Compare this with a later version sung among the Sephardim in the Ottoman Empire, recorded in two versions by Camhy and Samuelson.^[78]

And, finally, let us quote here a poetic adaptation of the Ten Commandments, originating in Belmonte, which the mother recites to her son as an initiation to their secret monotheistic faith. In this song form, the youngsters could learn with ease the basic tenets of Judaism:

Eu sou teu Deus e Senhor,
Deus dúm poder infinito
Que, piedoso, te salvei
Do captiveiro do Egypto.

Não terás alheios Deuses—,
Que em mim tens o sumo bem;
Ama-me, como a ti mesmo,
E ão teu próximo tambem.

Não tomarás do teu Deus
O seu santo nome em vão—;
E nem por Elle, debalde,
Jures na mais leve acção.

Ao sabbado não trabalhes,
Nem tu, nem filho, ou criado—,
Santificando este dia,
So para mim reservado.

Honrarás teu pãe e mãe—,
Com particular dever;
São pessoas respeitaveis,
Porque te dérão o ser.

Irado, não matarás
O teu proprio semelhante—,
E não conserves jamais
O odio, nem por um instante.

Com castidade serás—,
Modesto em tuas acções,
Sem manchares a tua alma
Com obscenas corrupções.

Não furtarás—, porque o furto,
De propósito e vontade,
E' um crime abominavel,
Que revolta a sociedade.

Contra o próximo não falles,
De todos dizendo bem;
Nem com falso testemunho
Jamais insultes alguem.

Nem por leve pensamiento,
Desejarás a mulher,
Que não seja a tua propria—,
Intentando-a corromper.

Não cubiçarás, emfim,
Aquillo que não for teu—,
Contenta-te com os bens,
Que a Providencia te deu.

Aqui tens, querido filho,
Do bom Deus a lei primeira,
Que devemos observar
Com a fé mais verdadeira.

[I am thy God and Lord, / God of infinite power, / who mercifully delivered thee / from captivity in Egypt. // Thou shalt not have alien gods, / for in me is your supreme good; / thou shalt love me as thyself, / and also thy neighbor. // Thou shalt not use for naught / the holy name of thy God; / and, in His name, never swear / in vain even for a trifling sum. // Thou shalt not labor on the Sabbath day, / neither thy son nor thy servant; / sanctify this day, / set aside only for me. // Thou shalt honor thy father and mother / with particular devotion; / they are respectable people / having given thee thy being. // Irate, thou shalt not kill / any creature in thy likeness; / and never harbor in thy heart / hatred, not even for an instant. // In chastity thou shalt dwell, / modest in thy deeds, / not tarnishing thy soul / with obscene corruptions. // Thou shalt not steal, for theft / done with purpose and intention / is an abominable crime / that subverts society. // Thou shalt not malign thy neighbor; / say good things about all people; / never cause harm to anybody / by false testimony. // Thou shalt not desire, / not even in furtive thought, / a woman which is not thine, / causing her to be defiled. // Lastly, thou shalt not covet / whatever is not thine; / be happy with thy lot / which Providence has given thee. // This is, my beloved son, / the good Lord's First Law; / and we have to observe it / with perfectly sincere faith.]

On 8 December 1596, Luis de Carvajal the Younger was led to his auto de fe. All the way to the quemadero, Father Alonso de Contreras was begging him to kiss the cross—to save his soul, and thus deserve being garroted before burning instead of being burned alive—but in vain. He wanted to die, writes Father Contreras, as the "great zealot, grand teacher and restorer of the forgotten Law":

He was always such a good Jew and he reconciled his understanding, which was very profound and sensitive, with his highly inspired divine determination to defend the Law of God—the Mosaic—and fight for it. I have no doubt that if he had lived before the Incarnation of Our Redeemer, he would have been a heroic Hebrew, and his name would have been as famous in the Bible as are the names of those who died in defense of their Law when it was necessary.^[79]

These words of Father Alonso de Contreras, which sum up the life and martyrdom of Luis de Carvajal, could well serve as an epitaph to

thousands of known and anonymous Anussim as well as a conclusion to our inquiry on the degree and continuity of their "Jewishness."^*