Through Cracks in the Wall Atlantic World Europe, Africa and the Americas, 1500–1830 Edited by Benjamin Schmidt University of Washington and Wim Klooster Clark University VOLUME 19 Through Cracks in the Wall Modern Inquisitions and New Christian Letrados in the Iberian Atlantic World By LúciaHelenaCostigan LEIDEN • BOSTON 2010 On the cover: An artist rendition of a scene of torture overseen by the inquisitors, superseded by documents produced by the Portuguese Inquisition. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Costigan, Lúcia Helena. Through cracks in the wall : modern inquisitions and new Christian letrados in the Iberian Atlantic world / by Lúcia Helena Costigan. p. cm. – (Atlantic world ; 19) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-17920-2 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Inquisition–Portugal–History. 2. Christian converts from Judaism–Atlantic Ocean Region–History. 3. Christian converts from Judaism–Brazil–History. I. Title. BX1730.C67 2010 272'.2098–dc22 2009040863 ISSN 1570-0542 ISBN 978 90 04 17920 2 Copyright 2010 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands To the memory of my beloved friends, Gertrude and William R. Spaulding, and to Tim, Daniel, and Elen CONTENTS Acknowledgments.................................................... ix Introduction. Portugal, Portuguese America and New Christians: A Missing Link in Iberian and Colonial Latin American Studies 1 I. The Modern Inquisition in Portugal: A Spanish Imposition 9 II. New Christian letrados and the Inquisition in the Spanish and Portuguese Americas ..................................... 17 ChapterOne.LuisdeCarvajal,theYounger,andtheInquisition inNewSpainUnderPhilipII...................................... 25 I. From Victim of the Holy Office to Transformed Subject . 28 II. Carvajal’s Stand and Mediated Voice in the First Trial Proceeding..................................................... 37 III. Self-Fashioning and Public Voice through Literary Discourse...................................................... 43 IV. Carvajal’sSecondTrial........................................ 56 V. Carvajal’s Letters and Testamento ............................. 70 Chapter Two. Bento Teixeira: A New Christian Caught by the FirstVisitoftheInquisitiontoBrazil ............................. 79 I. From Poet and School Teacher to Prisoner of the Holy Office........................................................... 84 II. IntheCellsoftheLisbonInquisition......................... 102 III. Bento Teixeira’s Prosopopéia:TextandContext.............. 112 Chapter Three. Ambivalent Acts of the Inquisition toward New ChristiansintheSeventeenth-CenturyIberianDomains........ 125 I. Spanish Conversos and Portuguese cristãos-novos in Seventeenth-Century Portuguese America and the Spanish AmericanColonies............................................ 127 II. Ambrósio Fernandes Brandão and his Diálogos das grandezas do Brasil ............................................ 136 III. Dawn and Dusk of Brazil as TerradaPromissão............. 143 IV. Manuel Beckman and the Levante do Maranhão ............. 147 viii contents Chapter Four. The Inquisition and Eighteenth-Century Portugal: TheCaseofAntônioJosédaSilva................................. 159 I. FramingAntônioJosédaSilva’sCase......................... 160 II. Glimpses of Antônio José da Silva’s life through his First Trial............................................................ 161 III. Embracing Literature and Theater after His First Trial. .165 IV. FromAbjurationtoSecondIncarceration.................... 169 V. ResistanceThroughWriting .................................. 177 VI. InSearchofPossibleAnswers ................................ 192 Afterword............................................................. 199 Bibliography .......................................................... 203 Index.................................................................. 215 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank the many professors and colleagues who have sup- ported me throughout my career and in the development of this research project. My gratitude extends to William and Gertrude Spaulding, who opened their home and their hearts when I first came to the United States, and to professors Antonio Cornejo Polar and John Beverley from whom I learned as a graduate student to look beyond national borders. Such a perspective has been fundamental in the development of this book, for which I have traveled to many of the same places and spaces in the Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking words, on both sides of the Atlantic, as the New Christians that I study in these pages. From the first phase of the project, which started with a fellowship from the John Carter Brown Library, I benefited from encouragement and suggestions from Norman Fiering and Nelson Vieira. During my time at the JCB I also profited from the exchange of ideas with Benjamin Schmidt, Onésimo Teotonio de Almeida, and Luiz Fernando Valente. When applying for grants from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Studies and from the American Coun- cil of Learned Societies, I greatly appreciated the generosity of Rolena Adorno, Kenneth Andrien, Leopoldo Bernucci, Thomas M. Cohen, Bea- triz González Stephan, João Adolfo Hansen, Russell Hamilton, Randal Johnson, Edward Riedinger, Ileana Rodríguez, Darlene Sadlier, Stephen Summerhill, and Dieter Wanner, who, on different occasions, took the time to read my proposals and to write letters of recommendation on my behalf. Their support and care made it possible for me to receive the grants that allowed me to travel to Mexico and Spain to conduct archival research at the Archivo General de la Nación (Mexico City) and the Archivo General de Simancas. Small grants from the Melton Cen- ter for Jewish Studies and the Center for Latin American Studies at the Ohio State University allowed me to travel to Lisbon, Portugal, and to Amsterdam to obtain additional materials related to my research project. The National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institutes that I directed in and also contributed to this project. The exchange of ideas with the participants and visiting scholars helped me to focus on the project. I thank all of them, particularly Geoffrey Parker who gra- ciously shared some of the archival documents that he had obtained from the Archivo de Simancas. Ronaldo Vainfas and Diogo Ramada Curto also x acknowledgments provided me with insightful comments. I also would like to thank Anita Novinsky, Jonathan Schorsch, and Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert for send- ing me their writings on New Christians and the Inquisition. In the final stages of my research I also received fellowships from the Fundação Luso-Americana para o Desenvolvimento and from the Lilly Library. During my stay in Lisbon the primary sources I found in the “Sala dos Reservados” of Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon, were of enormous value for my research, as were the exchange of ideas with Carlos Reis and Francisco Bethencourt, and the bibliographical references from Nitah Camotin and Luiz Farinha Franco. While in Portugal I also took advan- tage of the opportunity to consult the archives of Torre do Tombo and Arquivo Ultramarino, located in Lisbon. Paleographer Luis Guilherme Gonçalves Machado was instrumental in helping me to decipher some of the convoluted passages from Bento Teixeira and Antonio José da Silva’s inquisitional trials. At the Lilly Library, Indiana University, I took advan- tage of the Boxer Collection. It was a pleasure to work with some of the rare books that belonged to Charles R. Boxer, and to read some of the notes that he wrote in the margins of the books. I learned much from the experience, and also from conversations with my colleague Heitor Martins and his wife Marlene, and also with Breon Mitchell and Rebecca Cape, respectively, Director and Head of Reference and Public Services at the Lilly Library. During the writing phase of this project I was fortunate to work closely with a wonderful group of Latin American and Luso-Brazilian scholars and friends Richard Gordon, Lisa Voigt, Pedro Pereira, Kittiya Lee, and Fabrício Prado. Their comments and suggestions during our so-called “think-tanks” held in different homes in Columbus greatly enhanced my book. The careful reading and insightful comments by my dear colleagues and friends Richard and Lisa helped me to highlight the cracks in the walls of the Inquisition. I am also grateful to Neil Jacobs and Ignacio Corona for their comments and suggestions to the manuscript, to Derek Petrey for assisting me with the translation of a few passages from Antônio José da Silva’s plays, to Rachael Ball for copy-editing the manuscript, and to María Gracia Canedo for designing the cover of the book. In the last months of the project Jason Busic served as my research assistant. It was a pleasure to