Inquisitorial Prison As a Site of Cross-Cultural Encounter: The Case of Manuel Cardoso de Macedo aka Abraham Pelengrino Guer

Introduction

Prisons are often a site of cross-cultural encounter and religious illumination. People from different ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds meet each other and inevitably share ideas and experiences. The inquisitorial prison housed individuals who were accused of crimes of conscience and thus the encounters that a prisoner would have in a secret prison of the Inquisition would often enough center on issues of belief and identity. I will look at a case from Lisbon in the early 1600s, where individuals from different socio-economic, ethnic and religious backgrounds meet and transform each other’s religious outlook and commitments within prison walls. I will pay attention to other, non-incarceratory places of meeting as a way of appreciating the continuities and disruptions between life inside and outside of the prison space.

Manuel Cardoso de Macedo (1585–1652) was an Azorean Old Christian
who found his way to Judaism after first embracing Calvinism as a teenager living
in London and then discovering “the Law of Moses” in a cell he shared with an
accused Judaizer in the prison of the Lisbon Holy Office. Cardoso eventually
escapes Portugal along with members of a large converso family that he met in
prison and he converts to Judaism in Hamburg taking the Hebrew name of
Abraham Pelengrino Guer. He settles in Amsterdam where he lives within the
Portuguese community until his death in 1653.¹

Cardoso’s religious odyssey begins in England. His father was in the dye
and textile trade and conducted extensive business with England. He sent his
teenage son, Manuel to England in 1599 to master the language and apprentice
with some business associates presumably in preparation for a life in the family
business. While in England he encountered the Bible in English translation. This,
according to his telling in the Vida changed his life, setting off a series of independently inspired religious inquiries. He writes: “Scripture was the first thing that they placed in my hand after the ABC.”²

He soon became enthralled with Protestant ideas, eventually rejecting “the religion of his parents” for Calvinism. On trips back to the Azores to visit his family he managed to keep his heresy a secret, but eventually word got out and he was arrested while visiting São Miguel and was eventually sent to the Lisbon Holy Office in 1608. It is in prison where he rejects Calvinism after his discovery of Judaism. Cardoso eventually was released from prison and after connecting with a group of Portuguese conversos he knew from his time in prison, he escaped Lisbon for Hamburg where he formally converted, eventually settling in Amsterdam. Around the 1620s he composed his spiritual autobiography La Vida del buenaventurado Abraham Pelengrino Guer.

The encounters with ethnic and religious others within the warped “third
space” of the inquisitorial prison allow for much more than an exchange of new
ideas or the forging of new friendships. These encounters allow for religious
transformations and a radical shift in the subjects’ sense of self. The following
texts include scenes where space informs the development of Cardoso’s self-presentation as developed in his autobiography. I have selected examples from
both within his Inquisitorial experience and outside of it. I look forward to the
discussion of what the spatial elements of these scenes of encounter and self-reflection add to our understanding of this early modern life.

Cardozo de Macedo, Manuel. La vida del buenaventurado Abraham Pelengrino. Ed. B.
Teensma, Studia Rosenthaliana vol. x 1976. pp.1-36.

Processo De Manuel Cardoso. Tribunal do Santo Ofício, Inquisição de Lisboa, Instituto
dos Arquivos Nacionais / Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo. PT-TT-TSO-IL-28-
319 and PT-TT-TSO-IL-28-319-1.

Related Secondary Sources:

Alberro, Solange. Inquisición y sociedad en México, 1571-1700. México: Fondo de
Cultura Económica, 1988.

Bodian, Miriam. Dying in the Law of Moses: Crypto-Jewish Martyrdom in the Iberian
World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007.

Kagan, Richard L., and Abigail Dyer. Inquisitorial Inquiries: Brief Lives of Secret Jews
and Other Heretics. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004.

Lewin, Boleslao Gaspar de Alfar, Juan de León, and Francisco Botello. Confidencias de
dos criptojudíos en las cárceles del Santo Oficio, México, 1645-1646. Buenos
Aires: Talleres Gráficos, Julio Kaufman, 1975.

Perelis, Ronnie. Narratives from the Sephardic Atlantic: Blood and Faith. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2016.

Source 1 Translation

Cardozo de Macedo, Manuel. La vida del buenaventurado Abraham Pelengrino. Ed. B.

Teensma, Studia Rosenthaliana vol. x 1976. pp.1-36.

I. A Heretic at the Palace, a Free Man in London: A short time after his introduction to English life Cardoso embraced Protestantism. He came under the protection of a certain English nobleman who brought him to the palace to receive a special stipend for neophytes from Queen Elizabeth. In this scene he describes a brazen encounter with the Spanish ambassador at the palace.¹

And thus the Spanish ambassador was there, and seeing me there he recognized me as Portuguese and that I entered into the churches (cerchas), and that I did not go to mass at his home like the other Portuguese and Spanish who were there [in England], whom I always stayed away from… . He [the ambassador] asked me why, being Portuguese I didn’t come to mass? I responded saying: Your Excellency should keep track of his own subjects and not me. (8)

This led directly to his arrest on a return trip home to the Azores.

II. First Arrest: Seeing my temerity the Bishop changed his disposition towards me (se demudou de coor) and he did not know how else to resolve the situation other than to have me taken away by calling the Justice and the constable, and in the mean time he engaged me with words… . .and they took me to the public prison (literally the chains) where they placed me in a cell alone. My father gathered in his home, very sad, and he closed the doors and windows as he was embarrassed (afrontado), and he desired that no one from his house should send me bedding nor food or any other thing. In the end my basic necessities came from the house of my grandparents. (8)

At the end of 8 dias, because the Bishop could not secure me, he had me sent to the Terceira until there would be a ship going to Lisbon. After sailing to Terceira and arriving there they placed me in a dungeon (calaboso), in the prison (aljube) where I was for two months, without talking to anyone, suffering greatly from the ill treatment of the house. At the end of this time period they put me on board a caravel to Lisbon, and they placed me in shackles, and I placed my eyes on them and considered all of the injustices that were done to me and I said with great tears: Lord, it is not for being a thief or an evildoer, but rather in order to find the path to my salvation!

When I came to Lisbon they brought me to the Inquisition, and they stuck me in a sad cave. On the following day they brought me before the tribunal where all of the tyrannical persecuting Inquisitors were seated. And they asked me, as was customary, who I was, what was my name and why I was imprisoned. And I responded that. “I was called Manoel Cardozo de Macedo; From what I understand, I am imprisoned for being a Calvinist” (9).

From page 9-11 there is a long polemical section where Cardoso recounts how he challenged the Inquisitors using basic protestant arguments. Because they could not refute his arguments they placed him in solitary confinement.

III. Solitary Confinement . . and with this they turned to send me to prison, in which I was for five months without them talking to me at all, neither did they give me a bed or a shirt with which to dress; and thus I slept on a small one of straw, enduring cold and hunger –as God knows- filled with filth, and with time I could no longer walk, I developed weakness in one of my legs, of which I will never regain control over (da qual nunca serey s[enho]r) // because in the house that I was in, it being summer, had water passing through the walls.

Solitary confinement was certainly getting to him; he describes requesting an audience with the Inquisitors where he demanded to know his fate:

I said “Sir, I come in order to know if your Lordships have decided to kill me in this house, because if it would be thus I would have patience, because I am good with God. If you are holding me in order to burn me, please give me another, better house and I can live until I reach that state.” He responded, “You have more than what you deserve. There is no better house. Call out for the devil that speaks in you, and see if he will help you, or throw him out and come and take advantage of the mercy of this Table²… (top of page 12)

They took me from the prison where I was till that other day and they turned to bring me to the Table, teeming with vipers, and the President (of the gathered inquisitors) said to me: “We have not considered your deeds, but rather we looked at whose son you are and to your lineage, and using the mercy which is our custom to offer to all, thus we wish to take you out of the place where you are and to give you a your clothes, and place you in the company of an upstanding gentlemen of this city. He is elderly and thus you should obey him as it is proper, cleaning up for him and doing the necessary duties of a servant. Perhaps there the Holy Spirit will touch you so that you can convert (back) to the milk of the Church from which your nursed.”

I thanked them and they brought me into the company of a certain Henrique Dias Milão who was imprisoned for being a Judeo negativo.[^3] There they gave me a change of dress with which I cleaned myself of the filth that was on me. I was very happy with the good company. I realized that my father would be horrified to see me.[^4]

IV Introduction to Judaism Six days later they called Henrique Dias to the tribunal (Meza), and they gave him a pamphlet (libelo) enumerating his sins in which they outlined how he was a Jew, that he kept the Sabbath, and that he did not eat any of the forbidden foods enumerated in the Law, as well as other customary practices. The disgraced man seemed emotionally spent, he was saying that it was all false testimonies that they pinned on him, because he was never a Jew; he then took the pamphlet and threw it on the bed. I picked it up and reading it I asked him, “are there really people who observe that religion, because everything that was in that book was in accord with Scripture… .?”

The good elderly gentleman responded: Son, I don’t know anything about it; I know that I am imprisoned unfairly. Please let me be.

Not wanting to bother him any more I began to pace around the house (caza), thinking about that paper, and seeing that in this sort of house one’s thoughts are more subtle (delgado) than when they are in another location, a certain proposition of Saint Jerome came to me… . (p.12) … . .

I, seeing in my imagination this and many other concepts that would come to me, like the nature of the trinity, I felt myself so oppressed by these thoughts that I arose at 2 past midnight, unable to sleep, I sat on the foot of the bed and raised my eyes to heaven through a small opening and I said: Lord, help me, because I have lost my Salvation. And I awoke without any form of religion, erasing /rejecting all of the Scriptures and not believing in anything contained in them, taking it all as a fable. In the end I was made into a libertine. (13)

With his Calvinism in disarray he decides to save his skin. He pleads for mercy from the Inquisitors claiming a temporary/youthful insanity he is welcomed back by the Inquisitors but he has already resolved to learn more about Judaism.

V. Reform School, an incarceratory seminar on Judaism

I was returned to the prison and I left there with the Auto (da Fe) of April 5, 1609 with a sambenito. There they read my sentence. Then on the following day I was sent to the “General Schools” (Escolas Gerais) as is the custom. Since my mind was never at peace, I would approach certain people and I would ask them. “ Why did they arrest you?” (13). And if they would tell me that it was for being a Jew I would follow up by asking them if indeed they were [Jews]. If they would tell me that indeed they were I would begin to find out what it was all about and as they would tell me I would take away that which I found most to my liking. At the end of two months I left the Schools and I went to live with the children of Henryque Diaz Milão, my [former] cellmate who suffered at the same Auto, may his bones be avenged along woth the rest (13).

A Religious Mission I went with the intention of observing the Sabbath, and little by little getting to know more about the Law of Moses. Because it seemed to me to be the true one. Before I had no awareness of the Law of Moses; in my father’s house it was often said that the Jews worshipped a “Toura”/Female Bull. I went ahead, gathering as much information about it (Judaism) as I could with the utmost secrecy, . . I was sure that no one noticed who I was. I began to develop affection for the people of the Nação, taking their travails as if they were mine (13).

VI. Cardoso writes that he orchestrated a failed escape from Portugal for a group of Conversos. Upon their arrest Cardoso describes presenting himself as the ring leader to the Inquisitors, insisting that he was the only one to blame, his strategy worked to get the others out but he was left to suffer in jail. This I did in the following manner so that by the end of 32 days the others were released, but I they kept inside and they avenged their frustration at not being able to condemn the others on me. They were not able to get at the truth of the matter and they could not do ill to them because it was all in my mouth. They kept me imprisoned until the next Auto [da Fe] without ever being able to get one word from me and thus I was set free. While I was imprisoned they placed me in the company of a Jew from Salonica who was arrested for entering into the Kingdom without a “sign/sinal”. He was named Joesph Bar Jahacob. I acted as if I was debating him and in that way, without anyone noticing, I left his company transformed into one of the teachers of the Jews of those parts (14).

I left and went to stay at the home of a certain Manoel Rodrigues Pinheiro, a native of Celorico, he was a widower with three single daughters, all good Jews and God fearing. I was at his house, with the appropriate honor, for 10 months. Learning and sharing that which I believed with many of the Nação, many who were those who praise God, teaching them, because as I said I left as a good teacher from the company of that good Jew whom God sent to that place for my good (14).

From a Merchant’s Mansion to a Danzig Prison After the arrest of a certain “Jew” with whom he had spent time with, Cardoso realized he had to escape while he could. He makes it out and arrives in Hamburg where he is well received by members of the Dias Milão family- now going by Abensur. He is circumcised and immerses in the mikveh and takes the name Abraham. (p.14, first paragraph of chapter 5)

VII Thirteen days later those gentlemen sought to remedy my livelihood and sent me to Danzig to be in the company of Mosseh Abensur, one of the sons of Henrique Diaz Milão with whom I became friendly. At the end of three months a Mulato died inside the house (died on us) … when he died—May God Save us- the people rose up saying that we killed him in order to drink his blood as a sacrifice as apt of our upcoming holiday (Páscoa), seeing that it was 5 days before Quipur (14-15).

Abensur pleads with Cardoso that they should leave but Cardoso assures Abensur that he will stay behind to protect the property. In the chaos of the attack on their property Cardoso is brought to prison where he is housed with some unsavory characters. In that prison I was stuck between 5 thieves and murderers, may it be that the justice done unto me there will count as payment for my sins and in this way I would take a month before the Inquisition than a day in that prison… .What I most felt was that if my father could see me he would say that this was recompense for straying from the paths that he showed me. This wore me out and I turned to God and asked him to liberate me, which he did as a Compassionate Father after 49 days (15).

He leaves the prison and makes his way back to Hamburg. He is a broken man. Suffering from a sort of leperosy. The doctors eventually heal him. He theologizes his pain and suffering: Considering that they were given to me to test whether I was strong in His Law or not (15).

VIII He ends his narrative by reflecting on his journey from among his idolotrous brothers to the House of God: And the children of the strangers, those who join unto A[donay], in order to serve Him and in order to the name of A[donay], in order to be His servants, guarding the Sabbath from profaning it, holding fast to my covenant, Lo I will bring them to my holy mountain and i will rejoice with them in my house of prayer…For my house will be called a house of prayer; so says A[donay] God to all of the nations; the Oppressed of Israel will be gathered. I will still gather unto Him his oppressed Isaiah (56:6—‐8).[^5]

IX In the Land of Liberty: Judaism on the street Attached to the manuscript copy of Cardoso de Macedo’s Vida is a truncated account of a debate that Cardoso has with someone from his Calvinist past, an English friend he encounters many years later on the streets of Amsterdam. The copyist refers to this encounter in his title of the text as “a desputa y controvérsia que teve aqui com hum Yngrês, ao qual comvenseo y reduziu à Verdade” (a disputation and controversy that he had here with an Englishman, whom he convinced and reduced to the Truth). The text, as it has survived, consists of a long paragraph describing how he met this old friend in Amsterdam and a highly stylized record of the theological debate they entered into regarding the immutability of the Divine law and its implication for belief in Judaism versus Christianity. This account of the debate as it has been preserved is obviously incomplete: Cardoso’s Protestant interlocutor is improbably left with the last word in the debate, making the triumphalist title given to the piece by the copyist of 1769 a misplaced curiosity. The encounter with this old friend is a highly charged event. Many years have passed and Cardoso is a very different man now than when he was a young student in England. Not only has he made a radical religious choice in his conversion to Judaism, Cardoso’s physical state has been greatly altered: he was once young, rich and successful and now he is poor, alone and his body is broken by the travails of his wanderings. He begins this section by describing the place where they met:

Going to the Bourse I had an encounter well outside of what I expected to find there, I met an Englishman, a native of Topham…

At first Cardoso tries to avoid his old friend:

Seeing him I vaguely recognized him and I diverted my path from his; he also
vaguely recognized me, and he approached me, eyeing me [intently] as if putting
his face into mine.
I saw that he was following me from one part to another, and every time I walked
my leg, which is weak from the sufferings I have received,[^6] would go more lame.
He was confused to not recognizing because of the “geito della”, still he became
sure from the appearance of my face, and approaching me he said to me in English:
“Do you recognize me?” and I responded to him in Flemish: “I don’t understand”.
Taking into acount more my tone of speaking [then the actual words] he said: “I
know you well Manoel. What is with your foot?”
I, seeing that I was in a free country and that it mattered little if I was recognized, I
said to him: “The state of poverty that I find myself in makes me want to avoid
you, now that this is how it is, how are you and what brings you here,
Christopher?”