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The Great Conspiracy in Peru*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Seymour B. Liebman
Seymour B. Liebman*
Affiliation:
Miami, Florida
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Extract

During the seventeenth century in Spain's colonial empire, there were two “Great Conspiracies” and the arrests resulting from the discovery of each of these conspiracies in the vice-royalties of Peru and New Spain culminated in an auto de fé. Only these two autos, out of almost 250 held in Spain's colonies, bore the title “El Auto Grande.” The first with this title was held in Lima, Peru, on January 23, 1639, and the second in Mexico City on April 11, 1649. Practically all those penanced in both autos were Jews. Of the sixty-one Jews in the Lima auto, one deceased went to the stake in effigy with ten living prisoners. Many of those whose lives were spared and who were “reconciled” were sentenced to serve as oarsmen without pay on the Spanish galleys plying between Spain and the New World. Their periods of servitude varied between three and ten years. There is no record of any galley oarsman ever being released alive at the termination of his sentence.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , October 1971 , pp. 176 - 190
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1971

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Footnotes

*

LiebmanMr. is the author of The Englightened: The Writings of Luis de Carvajal, el Mozo (Univ. of Miami Press, 1967) and The Jews in New Spain (Univ. of Miami Press, 1970), and is presently doing research on the socio-economic relationships among the Jewish communities of Europe and the New World during 1492-1850. He has taught at the University of the Americas, University of Miami, and Florida Atlantic University, and has lectured at Brandeis, Columbia, and New York University. Research in Spain and Holland in 1968 was made by possible by a grant from the American Philosophical Society.

References

1 Palma, Ricardo wrote that Licenciado Fernando Montesinos termed the Lima auto de fé el castigo de los Portugueses, (Tradiciones Peruanas Completas, Madrid, 1961, p. 1218).Google Scholar Medina, José Toribio also noted that Montesinos in his Relaciones of this auto termed it “ la relación del auto grande que celebró el ano 1639 ” (Historia del Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición de Lima, 2 vols. Santiago de Chile, 1956, 2:144,Google Scholar hereafter cited as Medina, Lima.)

Obregón, Luis González wrote, “El 11 de abril de 1649 celebró la Inquisición uno de los más notables y pomposos de sus Autos…” (Mexico Viejo, Mexico. D.F., 1959. p. 254).Google Scholar Medina, José Toribio used the name El Auto Qrande for the 1649 auto. (Historia del Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición en Mexico, Mexico, D.F., 1952, p. 196,Google Scholar cited hereafter as Medina, Mexico.)

3 Medina, , Mexico, pp. 189, 192, 195.Google Scholar

4 Medina, , Chile, p. 360,Google Scholar quoting from a letter of Alcayaga of May 15, 1636. Alcayaga also attributed to the Jews control “desde el más vil negro de Guinea basta le perla más preciosa.” This last phrase is quoted by Boxer, C.R., Salvador de Sá and the Struggle for Brazil and Angola, 1602–1686. London, 1952, p. 81.Google Scholar

5 Boxer, op. cit., p. 78.

6 Ibid, p. 81, 72; and Lea, Henry C., The Inquisition in the Spanish Dependencies, New York, 1922, p. 337.Google Scholar The Bishop, Francisco de Vitoria, was the son of a noted Jewish family. ( Revah, I.S., “Fundo de manuscritos por l’histoire des nouveaux chrétiens portugais,” Boletin Internacional de Bibliografìa Luso-Brasilera, 2, April-June 1961, p. 293.Google Scholar Although the bishop was a devout Catholic he did nothing to harass the Jews in Tucumán or subsequently when he served in Mexico.

7 Ibid, p. 80.

8 Baroja, Julio Caro, Los Judíos en la España Moderna y Contemporanea, 3 vols.’ (Madrid, 1961), 2: 337.Google Scholar

9 Boxer, op, cit., p. 44.

10 Some of the notarial acts of Holland pertaining to Jews and their ships have been digested by Elie Koen in Studia Rosenthaliana in each number commencing with Vol. 1, No. 1, January, 1967. I have also been informed that I.S. Emmanuel will include a separate index of Jewish ships in his history of the Jews in the Netherlands Antilles. This book is scheduled for publication in 1970.

11 For the role and status of Jews in Mexico see this author’s history, The Jews in New Spain, (Coral Gables, Fla., 1970).

12 Palma, op. cit., p. 363.

13 McCloskey, Josephine Yocum, “Inquisition Papers of Mexico II, The Trial of Louis de la Cruz, 1656,” Research Papers of the State College of Washington, vol. 15, (March 1947), p. 4, fn. 11.Google Scholar Lea, Henry C. wrote, “The conquest of Portugal, in 1580, had led to a large emigration to Castile where Portuguese soon became synonymous with Judaizer.” (Lea, , op. cit, p. 420).Google Scholar Judaizer is usually defined as one who practices Jewish rites. A study of numerous procesos in the Archivo General de la Nación de Mexico, Ramo de la Inquisición (hereafter AGN) and the Archivo Histórico Nacional de Madrid (hereinafter AHN) indicates that judaizer also meant a Jew who practiced his faith. Nunemaker, J. Horace wrote of de León, Simón, “a Judaizer or practicing Jew” (Research Studies of the State College of Washington, vol. 14, (March 1946), p. 9).Google Scholar Boxer, op. cit., p 72, wrote, “We have seen that the terms Portuguese and Jew were synonymous for many Spaniards.” de La Fuente Machain, R. stated, “…Como en toda la America española, el ser portugués implicaba para el concepto popular ser judio.” (Los Portugueses en Buenos Aires. (Buenos Aires, 1931), p. 52.)Google Scholar

For France, Cremieux, Adolph, “Pour Contribuer a l’Histoire de l’Accession des Jugs,” Revue des Estudes Juives, vol. 95 (1933) pp. 45, 46.Google Scholar

14 Lea, op. cit., p. 229.

15 Emmanuel, I.S., “New Light on Early American Jewry,” American Jewish Archives, vol. 7 (January, 1955), p. 4.Google Scholar

16 Lea, op. cit., p. 425. See also the letter of the Bishop of Puerto Rico to the Consejo, AHN, Inquisition, Libro 1037, pp. 62, 63, and 191.

17 de Madariaga, Salvador, The Fall of the Spanish Empire. (New York, 1963), Chapter 15.Google Scholar

18 Ibid, p. 229.

19 Goris, J.A., Etude sur les Colonies Marchanda Meridionales: Portugais, Espagnoles, Italiens: (Louvain. 1925), pp. 553–590.Google Scholar

20 Madariaga, op. cit., p. 231.

21 AHN, Inquisition, Libro 1038, f. 285 vta.

22 Reproduced verbatim by de Prodian, Lucia García, Los Judíos en América. (Madrid, 1966), pp. 270–272.Google Scholar See also the letter following the foregoing which discusses the town of Potosí (Peru) which is “… full of Portuguese … who generally are all of the Hebrew nation …” (pp. 272–274).

23 Boxer, op. cit., p. 55.

24 Sluiter, Engel, “Dutch Maritime Power and the Colonial Status Quo,” The Pacific Historical Review, vol. 11 (March, 1942), p. 35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

25 George A. Kohut, “ Services Rendered to the Dutch by the Jews in Brazil, 1623–1644,” in Wolf, Simon, The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier, Citizen. (Philadelphia, Pa., 1895), pp. 443–453.Google Scholar

26 Wiznitzer, Arnold, “Jewish Soldiers in Dutch Brazil,” Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society (hereafter PAJHS), vol. 46 (September, 1965), p. 149.Google Scholar Boxer takes almost a contrary position. He declared, “A few—but only a few—of the New Christians had joined the Dutch from the day of the occupation, and a handful of other subsequently deserted to them.” (Boxer, op. cit., p. 54 and pp. 50, 51 for a further elaboration of his views and authorities.) See fn. 39, infra.

27 Wiznitzer, op. cit., p. 148.

28 Baroja, Julio Caro, La Socciedad Criptojudía en la Corte de Felipe IV. (Madrid, 1963), p. 23.Google Scholar

29 Baroja, Caro, Los Judíos, 2:336.Google Scholar

30 Medina, , Mexico, p. 134.Google Scholar

31 Baroja, Caro, La Sociedad, p. 23.Google Scholar

33 Medina, , Lima, p. 134.Google Scholar

33 Hyamson, Albert M., The Sephardim of England. (London, 1951), pp. 7, 13Google Scholar; Roth, Cecil, History of the Jews of England. (London, 1964), pp. 139–148.Google Scholar

34 Sluiter, Engel, “Dutch-Spanish Rivalry in the Caribbean Area, 1594–1600,” Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 28 (February, 1948), p. 174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

35 Proceso of Manuel Gómez Navarro, AGN 151, Expediente 6.

36 Proceso contra Manuel Díaz Enríquez and Pedro de Silva Sauceda, AGN, Guatemala 7.

37 Baroja, Caro, Los Judíos, 2:341.Google Scholar

38 Lea, Henry C., A History of the Inquisition of Spain, 4 vols. New York, 1907 3: 279.Google Scholar

39 Ibid. Lea supplies the names of two Jews who resided in Bahia and aided the Dutch in the 1625 capture.

40 Medina, , Chile, p. 365 Google Scholar; Medina, , Lima, 2: 45, 145, 146Google Scholar; Lea, , Spanish Dependencies, pp. 347–425.Google Scholar

41 Lea, , Spanish Dependencies, p. 347.Google Scholar

42 Ibid, p. 425.

43 Ogg, David, Europe in the Seventeenth Century, (2nd. ed. New York, 1965), p. 358 and fn. 15.Google Scholar

44 Medina, , Lima, 2: 115.Google Scholar

45 Boxer, op. cit., p. 80.

46 Ibid, p. 33.

47 Ibid, p. 15.

48 Proceso of Manuel Alvarez Prieto, AHN. Inquisition, Legajo 1621, No. 15.

49 Proceso of Louis Gómez Barreto, AHN, Inquisition Legajo 1621, Nos. 9, 18.

50 Proceso of Miguel Árias del Valle, AHN, Inquisition Legajo 1621, No. 11.

51 Palma, op. cit., p. 218.

52 Medina, , Lima, 2: 145, 146Google Scholar

53 Herrera, Armando, “Un judio limeño del siglo XVI,” Judaica, No. 63 (Septiembre, 1938), p. 35.Google Scholar

54 Emmanuel, op. cit., p. 35.

55 Proceso contra Ruy Diaz Nieto, AGN, Expediente 1; 276, Expediente 14; 177, Expediente 2. Proceso Contra Tomas Treviño de Sobremont AGN 401, Expediente 3; AGN 426; AGN 684, Expediente 63.

56 Adler, Cyrus, “A Contemporary Memorial Relating to Damages to Spanish Interest in America Done by the Jews of Holland, 1634,” PAJHS, vol. 17 (1909) pp. 46, 47.Google Scholar