Preg.ta Como se llama, de donde es Natural que edad estado ofizio tiene quien es, o fueron sus Padres y donde residen o murieron, y q relijion profesaron, a que responde----- que se llama Carlota que es natural de Ese casel Ciudad del Enperador de Alemania, de edad de Veintinueve años, poco mas o menos, que ha sido comerzianta, y oi en el dia Pobre hostiatin [?], por averla robado, q.e esta en la actualidad, como en estado de viuda, por ha versele muerto el honbre que era de nazion judaica en la Ziudad de Malaga el que esta enterado en el canpo S.to del hospital de el Rey de dha ciudad que sus Padres se llam aron Leon y Zezilia, naturales y Vezinos de la espresada ciudad de Esecasel que Ygno ra si viven, o han muerto; pero save y le con sta que fueron de nazion Judaica; y responde Preguntada si es Christiana, Baptizda---- Responde que no--------------- Preguntada en que Relijion se crio y que
[Fol. 19r]
Es lo que ha creido y seguido desde que tubo uso de razon, y si la relijion en que ha sido criada es la misma que seguian y profesava sus padres, y si en aquel pais se enseña o sigue la misma o diferentes y quales; responde======
Que la Religion en que se crio es Judai ca, y que esperava el Mesias; y adoravan una imagen dorada como de Bezero, guardan do el dia Sabado por de fiesta, aiunando dho dia desde las diez de la noche de el viernes su vispera asta puesta del sol y oservando [?] la solem nidad contanto rigor que ni mobian un trasto [?]: en cuia relijion fue criada y la misma que seguian y profesavan sus padres, la que esta
va tolerada en aquel Pais, donde Ygualmen te ay Luteranos Calvinistas y Christianos y todos tolerados, y con libre exercizio---
Preg.da Si la guarda. se le preg.ta que es lo que a el presente tiene y cre, y que relijion es la que quiere seguir y profesar en vida y muerte Responde: que tiene y cre a el presente los articulos de nuestra Sta Fe Catholica, que le fue ron hechos presentes pr el Sor Comisionado, y por ante mi el Notario a que contesto; y que la relijion qe quiere seguir y profesar en vida y muerte es la relijion catholica; y por lo mismo desea con vivos y eficazes deseos ser bautizada====
Repreguntada: que como tiene notizia de
los articulos de nuestra Sta Fe Catholica, y quien
[Fol. 19v]
Se la ha enseñado; dijo que con motivo de hallarse con tienda en la ciudad de Malaga salia todas las semanas a vender a Velez Malaga
y en sus Arabales vivia una Paisana suia Chris tiana llamada Cristina que conozia a los refe ridos Padres de la deponente con cuio motivo en su lengua Alemana le enseño la Doctrina Chris tiana y aunque dha Christina savia que los padres de la deponente eran Judios tenia entendi do que esta era Christiana; y con el motivo de su estada en España en Castellano ha apren dido algunos misterios y oraciones como el credo sacramentos los cinco mandamientos de nuestra Madre la Yglesia, el misterio de la Santisima Trinidad, como es dios Remunedaror [sic] y los de- Mas en la lengua nativa:-------------
5 Preg:ta A la quinta fue preguntada que causa, motivo o razon ha tenido y tiene para apartarse de la secta Judaica, y querer seguir y Profesar La Santa Fe Catolica de nuestra Madre La Yglesia Romana, responde= Que por tener por Zierto, que si muere Judia Le condena, y si falleza Catolica espera salvarse y irse a la gloria ==
6 preg.ta A la sesta se remitio a la quarta: por lo que se con- prende, y a la terzera==
7preg.ta A la septima: fue preguntada si save ay al gunas Personas residentes en España de su secta, ocultos, no siendo de aquellos reinos y na ziones a quienes esta permitido p.or causa de
[Fol. 20r]
el comercio y con ciertas condiciones el residir en España; o si save que algunos, o alguno de estos que estan permitidos en estos reynos, havia faltado a los pactos y con- diciones con que se les permite su residen- zia y causado con los dichos, o hecho algun escandalo a los fieles Chatolicos Roma nos, Responde:==== Que conzio asta seis personas de la misma secta ocultos que le enpleaban en el comercio de me- dias de seda, Panuelos, y otros jeneros que se acon pañavan y vendian como en Cadis puerto de la Maria, y otros Pueblos; pero que no tenian casa de residenzia en dha Ziudad en la que le ospe davan en el meson mas cercano a la puerta de la mar, pero que no se acuerda de los nonbres de ellos en comun ni en particular, y se solo que las señas del uno, es como de dos Y.s y uno o dos dedos de altura, bastante grueso, con una zicatriz en la cara como de cuchillada, que no tiene presente en qual de las carillos es, y que ten dra, o representa como de treinta a treinta y cinco años de edad, y que sin duda la causa de no acordarse e los nonbres, es por que viaban [?] entre si poco de ellos, entendiendose con espresiones de ermanos: que es quanto save, pues le debe declarar en esta que ha ejecutado espontanea mente, y bajo de el juramento q.e lleva hecho-
[Fol. 20v]
Y todo la verdad en el que en caso necesario Se ratifica y afirma no firmo esta su decla- Racion por decir no saver. Hizolo el señor comis Ionado a que presente fui
[Signatures: Silvestre Diaz Huerta y Rojas, Dn. Ferndo Diaz de Linares y Toledo]
[Fol. 24v]
En la Va de Consuegra diez dias de
el mes de Junio de este presente año de mil setecientos y noventa, el S.or Comisio nado L.do Frey D,on Silvestre Dias Huerta me entrego el prezedente despacho q.e dijo acavava de Rezivir p.or el coreo or dinario y en su corespondencia havien dole azeptado hizo ante mi el juramen to en forma la de Pectore puesta la ma no sobre la cruz de su avito de non rebelando y a la seguida mando con- parezer a Carlota… Paso ante mi
[signatures]
En la dha Villa dia mes y año a virtud a el anterior proveido [?] conparezio la espresada Carlota de quien dho señor Comisionado le rezevio juramento de fidelidad en forma de dro. que hizo por Dios nuestro Señor y una senal de cruz de dezir la verdad en lo que tiene preguntada como de no rebelar quarto, ni parte de lo que el senor de el despacho dijo; que el que tubo p.or marido era entendido en su pais con el
[Fol. 25r]
Nonbre de Leon y en España con el de Antonio= que no save el dia en que murio, y fue enterado el referido Antonio por Motivo de ha ver salido de la ziudad de Malaga donde por [?] que el dho a vender la declarante los generos de su comerzio a las Ziudades de Sevilla Cordo- va, ezija y otros pueblos en los que gasto [?] nue- ve meses, y a el regreso a la lita_a de Malaga tubo la notizia de que avia fallezido diziendola q.e avria como unos ocho meses q.e murio, y segun la quenta, halla ocurio dho fallecim.to como unos veintiseis meses poco mas o menos= que no tenia casa segura pa su domicili- lio en dha ziudad, pues avitavan en las calles donde zelebravan las ferias que son frequentes en dha ziudad; de modo que quan do eran en la calle de la Victoria se Recojian de noche en la casa q tenia por tienda una viuda que se llamava Catalina, pero q.e la que no conserva mas señas que el tener sus puestos y portal grandes y que por el menzio nado hospedaje pagavan cada noche cin co rs yn y que quando la feria era en la– calle qe nonbran de los mercaderes vizavan de noche junto a la puerta de la mar en una casa que era taverna y se llamava Maria de estado viuda la que los hospedava Y a quien agavan quatro R.s diarios, pero q.e Su casa la tenia en arendamiento la zitada
[Fol. 25v—Not foliated]
Maria ignorando la declarante de quien fuese su [?] propiedad= y que quando salio a vender por el tienpo que deja declarado que el repetido Antonio quedo con quebranta de salud en la espresada casa de la calle de la Victoria que no tubo trato ni comu nicazion que no fuese transcurzo [?] en sus ven- tas, con otras personas, que las dos zitadas— huespedas, Chatalina u Maria a [?] causa de que pasados las ferias salian a vender por los pueblos de la comarca sin tener domizilio fijo en alguno== y que a lazitada zuidad de Malaga solo acudio pr. tres años en tiempo de ferias, pues aunque ha- ze dies y ocho años , poco mas o menos, que salio de su Pais seis años ha estado en Portugal, tres en Francia, y los demas en España que los tres gasto [?] como deja declarado y en los seis restantes estubo en Zaragoza Panplona, Valencia y otras ziudades como tanbien en Barcelona donde un estudian te pr el precio de medio doblon de a ocho las hizo a la declarante y Zitado Antonio la carta de casamiento==que quando conozio y trato en Veles Malaga a la paisana la Christina era viuda de un invalido cuio nonbre Ygnora que vivia en casa de arendamiento situada en los arabales y que no save el nonbre de la calle=que dha Christina vivia de el travajo de sus manos hilando y haciendo votones=que de
[Fol. 26r]
su casa no puede dar mas señas que el hallarse sola pero que ay otras muchas casillas semejantes p.or lo solas = y en quanto a las señas Personales de dhas Cristina solo puede de zir que era mujer mui anziana de mediana estatura con todo el cavello blanco y que no tiene presentes otras mas señas== y aviendola reconvenido sobre todos y cada uno de los par ticulares contenidos en el despacho, para qe con la maior claridad, y espezificzion hazia su deposizion, dijo y repitio que no podia espo- ner, ni esplicar mas que lo que deja declarado vajo de el juramento, que deja hecho en que e ratifco y afirmo no firmo p.r no saver, lo hizo el S.or Comisionado y Yo el notario que a todo fui presente.
[Signatures: Liz.do Dn Silvestre Diaz Huerta, etc.]
[27r]
Present.da en Toledo
y Junio 25 de 1790
M.I.S.
El Inqor fiscal de este S.to Oficio en el expediente Que se ha formado a instancia de la muger Nombrada Carlota que solicita abjurar los Errores de la secta Judaica y ser admitida al gremio de nuestra Religion Catholica Apos tolica Romana, dice: Ha visto la nueva declaracion que en diez del corr.te ha echo dha espontanea, y confrontada con la an- terior q.e otorgo en 16 de mayo halla algu- nas contradicciones y otras especies inve risimiles, y con el fin de q.e le venga en co- nocimiento de lo q.e afirma esta muger, y que no se incida en algun embuste que intente practicar es de parecerle le reciba otra declaracion p.r ante el mismo comisionado y Notr.o de [?] consuegra, in terrogandola en forma sobre las preguntas siguientes
1a. Como dice es Nat.l de Hese Casel, Cuidad del S.to [?] Emperador, quando es soberania particu lar de Alemania. Que exprese los Pueblos que hay inmediatos al de su naturaleza.
2.a Como dice que los padres se nombraban Leon y Cecilia y q.e ern Judios, quando estos nombres son de la ley de gracia, y sus
[Fol. 27v]
padres tenian plena libertad civil y moral en su pais y podian usar de los nombres propios de la ley de Moises.
3.a Como dice en su primera declaracion que residio en la ciudad de Malaga seis años si desp.s dice que solos tres, y que tenia en dha ciudad tienda, y desp.s dice que solo ven- dia en las ferias de dia, y de noche se recogia en la calle de la Victoria, y en una ta- berna junto a la puerta del Mar en las casas de Cathalina y Maria sin los apellidos, ni señas personales es estraño no esprese ni se acuerde de las conexiones , o Parien tes que tengan p.a q.e le venga en conociomto de la identidad o existencia.
4.a Que declare el tiempo annual en q.e ha visto celebrarse feria en al calle de los mercaderes de aquella ciudad, o diga la C.e que entienda ser esta, porq.e si entiende ser la C.e nueva que esta en frente de la Puerta del Mar, en esta se tiene entendido q.e no hay feria en todo el año.
5.a Que exprese si en alguna ciudad o pueblo de España ha sido enpadronada en alguna Iglesia Parroq.l, o alistada como Vecina p.r la Justicia, y donde sea, y en qual año; o si ha ohido misa, y recibido los sacra- mentos de la Penitencia y comunion cre- yendolos interiorm.te o no.
6.a. Expresara las mercancias en q.e tnia su tra- fico, y si las compraba, p.a revenderlas, al
[Fol. 28r]
contraste [?], o al fiado especialm.te en los nueve meses que andubo p.or varias partes sin su hombre, y diga los sugetos y sus domicilios con qn.es trato con este motivo, los que haya tratado y la conozcan con el de andar a las varias ferias y poblacion- nes de Andalucia que declara, que no es verisimil caminarse sola, y dejase de darse a conocer en q.to a s Patria y aun su Reli gion con los varios viajantes o andantes de su clase con q.nes es forsoso se haya jun tado en caminos, o en posadas.
7.a y final. Que el dho comisionado le haga las demas preguntas oportunas para que se venga en maior conocimiento de que en ver dad es Judia, y desea de veras ser Catholica y q.e se le hallen personas de nuestra S.ta Religion q. la hayan conocido, y puedan informar de la conducta, opinion, y Religion que haya crehido esta Muger.
[signature; Jun. 23, 1790]
[Fol. 30v, starting in line 27]
[Marginal note:] Inspczion Y declarazion En la villa de Consuegra dicho dia mes y año [2nd of August 1790] a consequenzia de el [illegible]
[Fol. 31r]
notificazion anteriores Conparecio en su merzed y de mi el notario la susadha Carlota de quien recivio juramento de fidelidad pr dios N.S. y una Señal de cruz de dezir la verdad en lo que supiere y fuere preguntada y siendolo p.r
el despacho, comision a la primera pregunta Responde= que es Zierto que Esecasel es Ziudad de un Duque pero q.e este esta sujeto a el enperador de Ale mania, y que por esta razon dijo ser de el enperador dha Ziudad y que aun que save y le consta ay muchos pueblos inmediatos no save el nonbre de alguno de ellos
A la Segda. Preg.ta dijo que aunque tienen plena libertad para el uso de su secta acostunbran a su [undeciphered word] tomar los non bres de la ley de grazia eszeptuando los nonbres de Manuel, Maria y Juan y pr. lo dho a sus padres los entendian conlos nonbres de Leon y Cezilia----------------Preguntada por su Zenor [sic.] dize que la Residen- zia de los seis años en la ziudad de Malaga que dijo en su primera declaracion se entiende aver acudido seis años a las ferias de dha Ziudad y los tres que dize en su segunda declaracion es y la entiende haver estado el que llama su nonbre tres años enfermo en ella asta que murio sin
[Fol. 31v]
el Sagrado Bautismo; esto respondio= Leiosele su declaracion y dijo no tenia que adicionar cosa alguna. Ratificose en ella, no la firmo por no saver, lo hizo su merzed y Yo el notario
[Signatures]
[Fol. 35r]
Yllmo. Señor
Mui sor mi y de toda mi veneracion: con el maior cui- dado le he hecho diligencia qe V.S.Y. se sirve encar garme pr. la comision antecedente y no he podido dar con ninguna de las citas q.e en ella se expresan; en la calle de la victoria no he hallado mas qe. una viuda llamada Cathalina, y esta asegura q.e nunca recogio en tienpo de feria, ni fuera de el en su casa, o portal persona alguna mas q.e una Garvansera conocida suia y vecina de esta Ciu.d en la Calle de la Trinidad; creyendo quivocacion en la expresion de la feria en la cale de mercaderes p.r decir, o dever decir en la calle del Carmen, he buscado en la Puerta del mar la casa taberna, q.e la vivia una muger llamada Maria, viuda, y aunq.e en aq.l sitio hai varias Tabernas y Bodegas ni en el dia, ni de algunos años a esta parte me danrazon de la tal escanias. [?] En el Hospital R.l no se puede saber q.do murio el Antonio p.rno descrive qual era su apellido. Por lo q.e devuelvo la comision, p.aq.e si pudiese ser venga con algunas circunstancias mas claras que puedan servir de govierno, p.a averiguar lo q.e V.S.Y. desea saber, pues con unas noticias tan vagas
[Fol. 35v]
nada he podido adelantar.
Nro. Grgue aV.S.Y.[illegible]Ma
Laga 30 de oct.re de 1790.
Yllm.o S.or
B. L. P. de V.S.Y. su mas
Rend.do Subdito y Capp.n
Joseph Fernandez
Maqueda
[Fol. 36r]
M.I.S.
El inq.or Fiscal de este Sto. Oficio en las dilig.s practicadas a instancia de la Muger que se nombra Carlota, y q.e se hally en la villa de consuegra solicitando se le admita al Gremio de N.S.M. la Ygl.a C.A. R. mediante el Sto Bau- tismo, y prebia abjurcion de la secta Hebrea en que dice ha nacido la ha profesado, dice: que la recorreccion de de registros echa en este y en los demas tribunales del reyno no ha resultado cosa alguna contra esta pretencion; y como por las diligencias que se han practicado en la ciudad de Malaga median te el Sto Oficio de Granada tampoco haya resultado comprobada la existencia que Dha espontanea declara haber echo en las ferias y casas de dha Ciudad, quedan en la misma anterior obscuridad de sus declaraciones los conocimientos que convendrian tenerse, a saber es que en realidad esta espon- tanea ha sido y es Judia, y que sinceramente desea abjurar esta reproba secta y recibir el S.to Bautismo. La calidad de ser esta Muger baga, y no citar una sola Persona que conteste en su estado civil
[Fol. 36v]
o concepto moral y lo que es mas, ni aun en su existencia fisica despues de tantos años que ha discurrido por tantos Pue- blos y Provincias del Reyno, son circun stancias que la recomiendan mui poco
p.a q.e sea crehida en sus declaraciones y en ciertos terminos parece al fiscal por aho ra que se de comision al Cura Prior de dho Consuegra […] Silvestre Diaz Huerta por que ante el Familiar Alg. Maior Dn Fern.do Diaz de Linares y asociado de quatro sa- cerdotes seculares o Regulares los mas autho rizados y literatos de dha villa de Consuegra examinen de nuevo a dha espontanea haciendole todas las preguntas que les parezcan oportunas p.a apurar si en reali dan no ha recibido el Sto Bautismo y ha sido de secta Hebrea y si su conversion es sincera, y se halla instruida en nuestros stos. dogmas Catholicos, y les parece perseve- rara en ntra S.ta Religion Catholica A R.na y que informen las resultas con el dicta men de dhos Cura Prior y quatro sacerdotes, y venido q. sea se pase al Fiscal p.a decir lo q. haya lugar. Secreto de Ynq.n de Toledo
Nov.e 13 de 1790
[Fol. 38v]
En la villa de Consuegra Veinitiocho dias de dho mes [noviembre] y año [1790], a virtud de la prezedente diligencia comparecieron ante su merced y de mi el notario, los presviteors y Carlota contenidos en ella; y aviendosele por todos y cada uno hecho las preguntas y repreguntas que se tubieron por convenientes, a la predha Carlota, conforme a lo m[---]cedo prezedido el juramento de fidelidad que se [—]e tomo, hallaron todos y cada uno ver a comun parezer zierto el deseo que tiene de rezivir el Santo Baptismo y no haverle recivido asta de presente; pero que en quanto a la Ynstruczion de la doctrina Christiana se halla mui tierna, por lo que si el tribunal estimase por convenien te espedir su orden, a qualquiera de los Paro chos de la Villa de Madredejos donde tiene su domizilio y en este acto preg.da ha ofrezido permanecer en el para qe se le administre el S.to Sacramento de el Baptismo, tienen por de ne zesidad q.e antes de administrarsele se le ecxa mine bien en la Santa Doctrina; que es quanto de comun acuerdo pueden y deven informar a el S.to tribunal y p.a que conste lo firmaron con su merced dho señor Juez de que doy fe
[Signatures:
Lic.do D.n Sivestre Diaz Huerta y Roxas
Dn Antonio Jesus Diaz Gallego
Dn Elias Gabriel Aguilar Albarez
Fran.co Garcia de Juan [Ivan?] Perez
Joachin de Cassas y Vida
D.n Fern.do Diaz de Linares y Toledo
Source 2 Original Text
Archivo Historico Nacional, Inquisición de Toledo, legajo 137, expediente 15 (1791-1792): Salomon Bergom (a.k.a. Carlos Bergamo).
[COVER, FRONT MATTER]
Toledo (Inquisicion de) Judaizantes Bergom (Salomon)
luego Carlos Bergamo, natural de Mantua, carpintero, resi-
dente de Toledo
Delacion espontanea
1792-1793
Lego 137 n. 15
[Fol 13r]
Pres.da en la Ynq.n de Tol.do 11 de Dic.re del 1792
-Grisa. (Solo)
Sino P.tes D S.to Tribunal
De inquisicion Al S.on Ynq.or Fiscl
Salomon Bergom de mi primier Nombre e a ora me liamo
Carlos Bergamo A p dus: espone che essendo de su nacimento
E creado in Lei del testamento Antigo e che cu algunos agnos che a tenido veredero deseo de
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[Fol. 15r]
Abbrazare la lei de Gesu cRisto Pero che mese traversava unas Dudias che me impidiaa la esegue[r] E Aora che las tiene convencido Supp. Rendidamente. US: che se Dine a dar—ordine conparente Perche mese Batica e Ricicuri[illegble] Innel gremio della Santa Eglesia Gracia che spera di Ricivir de la Pieta de US
Toledo 1792 a 9 .10—ebre ApD us
Salamon Bergom natural de mantuua in italia
Present.da en 19 de dic.re de 1792 + Por presentda y pone Con sus antectes al sr Fiscl
En el sto Oficio de la Ynqon de la Ciu.d de Toledo diez y ocho dias del mes de Dici- Embre de mil setecientos noventa y dos, estando en su auda de la mañana
el S.or Ynquisiodor Lic.do D.n Fran.co Xa- vier Ersua (q.e asiste solo) entro el porte- ro de camara y estraos [?] de dho S.to Ofic.o e hizo presete q.e en la Porteria de tri-
bun.l havia un hombre q.e pedia Au- diencia; y haviendo sido mandado en-
trar dho. señor Ynq.or le recivio Jura-
m.to en forma de decir berdad en todo lo que supiere y le fuere preguntado, y
con el se tratare
Preguntado como se llama, de donde es natural, que edad y oficio tiene, quienes
son sus padres o quienes fueron, y donde residen, o murieron, y que Religion pro-
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fesaron.
Dixo: Que se llama Salomon Ber-
[Fol. 15v]
Bergom, nat.l de la ciud.d de Mantua en la Lombardia de Ytalia de quarenta y cinco años de edad poco mas o menos, oficio car- pintero hacer bombas; que su Padre se llamo Abraam Bergom; y su Madre Ni-
col ignora su apellido, q.e residieron en la dha ciu.d de Mantua, que el dho su Padre
ha oido decir ha muerto, su madre lo ig- nora: Y q.e le parece profesaron la religion Mosayca, en laq.e le criaron hasta la ed.d
de nueve años en la q.e se huyo de su casa
en la compañia de un cavallero Ginebri-
no llamado D.n Pedro ignora su Apellido, con q.n paso a Viena y otras partes de este Ynperio, y estubo en su comp.a p.r espacio de cinco años desde donde paso a Milan en donde estubo como tres o quatro años aprendiendo oficio, de alli a Roma en
donde estubo tres años poco mas o menos, desde Roma paso a Florentin de campaña, en cuya ciu.d estubo como unos dos añ s . desde Florentin bolbio a Milan endonde estubo como año y medio, de Milan
paso a turin en donde permanecio como año y medio, de Turin bolbio a
[Fol. 16r]
Biena y estubo un año; desde Biena paso
a Parma donde permanecio como año y medio; desde Parma bino a Marsella
en Francia , y de Marsella paso a Lan-
guedoc; el primero Ciu.d y segundo Puerto
de Mar tanb.n en Francia en cuyos Pue-
blos estubo como año y medio; que de Languedoc bino a la Corte de Madrid,
en donde y sitios R.s de la Granja, y Es-
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corial estuvo como quatro años ; que de dha corte y sitios, paso al R.no de
Galicia en donde estuvo como unos diez años en las ciudades de Santiago, Coruña y Lugo; que despues paso al R.no de Portugal en donde paso como un año en las ciudades de Oporto, y Lisboa, qe de aqui bolbio a Madrid e donde estu- bo como quatro años, y bino a esta ciud.d de Toledo el dia Santiago el Mayor
de este presente año.
Preg.do si es christiano bautizado, q.n
Le bautizo, en qe. lugar, con q.e Materia, Y en q.e forma; si asistieron Padrinos,
Y q.nes fueron; y si la forma de q.e en su
[Fol. 16v]
bautismo usò el Ministro es la misma con q.e a costumbran Bautizar en aq.l pais.
Dixo que no es Chrsitiano bauti-
Zado porq.e sus padres le criaron como lleba dicho en la ley de Moyses en la q.l se ha man tenido hasta de presente.
Preg.do que es loq.e ha creido en la Re- lig.n q.e ha seguido; y si en aquel Pais enqe se crio se enseña o sigue la misma, o diferen tes y quales.
Dixo: Que creyo los diez Mandam.tos como se enseña en la de Moyses q.e es la q.e via seguido y tenido hasta de presente;
Yq.e en aquel pais se sigue la Religion Chris- tiana excepto en el barrio de Elpuet [?] en
la sobredha ciu.d de Mantua, qe. se sigue ladeMosesqe eslaqe ha
seguido y tenido hasta de presente;
y q.e en aquel Pais se sigue la Religion Chris- tiana, excepto en el Barrio de Elpuet [?] en
la sobredha ciu.d de Mantua, qe se sigue la de Moyses, y se circuncidan segun ella como lo esta tamb.n el declarante.
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Preg.do (que supuesto lleba dho q.e ha sido Criado, y hasta de presente ha seguido la ley De Moyses) exprese qual es la q.e quiere se- Guir en lo subsesivo y en la q.e quiere vivir Y morir.
Dixo: Que quiere abrazar, seguir,
Y morir en la Religion catholica, Apostolica Romana
Preg.do que causa o
[Fol. 17r]
motibo tiene y ha tenido p.a querer apartar-
se de la Ley de Moyses y sus herrores q.e hasta aqui ha tenido y seguido, y querer seguir
y profesar la S.ta Fe catholica de Nra. S.ta Madre la Yglesia Romana.
Dixo: que el motibo q.e ha tenido es
Porq.e haviendo oido en algunas conversaciones de hombres instruidos q.e aunq.e Jusuchristo pudo con una sola gota de sangre redimir
a todo el Mundo, quiso pr su ynfinita bondad padecer muchos travajos en su vida, pa-
sion y muerte p.a todo el genero humano
pa el mayor exemplo y probecho de todo el,
y porq ha considerado barias beces, q.e en Religion de Moyses esta aborrecida en todas partes, Y q.e con estas razones ha creido lo
q.e enseña la Religion Catholica q.e es q.e Dios se hizo hombre en las purisimas entrañas
de Maria Santissima, nacio y padecio
muerte y Pasion pr redimir al genero hu
mano; lo q.e pudo hacer e hizo p.r su omni- potencia; y q.e asi quiere detestar y detes-
ta el herror de los Judios, q.e niep[illegible]
ven venido el verdadero Mesias. q.e
es Jesuchristo; Dios y hombre verdadero.
[Fol. 17v]
Y q.e destesta qualquiera [illegible]os errores de dha Secta, como consiguiente al de no creer
los Judios q.e haya venido el Mesias
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verdadero a redimir el genero huma
no.
Preg.do si en algun tiempo y qual siguio,
y profeso Nra Sta Fe y Religion Catholi-
ca Romana; y despues apostato de ella,
que motibo tuvo pa apostatar; y qunto ti- empo tuvo los dhos herrores; y si en algun tiempo ha sido instruido en nra S.ta fe Ca- tholica y Religion Romana pr alguna persona, y quien fue el qe le explico y ense- ñò los Misterios, y articus de nra S.ta
Fè.
Dixo: Que en ningun tiempo ha seguido,
ni profesado nra S.ta Fe Catholic Roma- na; y q.e p.r tanto no ha apostatado de ella, y toda su vida ha tenido y seguido la
Ley de los Judios: Y q.e no ha sido instrui do p.r persona alguna particularm.te en
nra S.ta Fe y Religion Catholica , y qe solam.te alguns conversaciones particu- lares, y sermones q.e ha oido le han dado alguna luz e instrucc.on p.r conocer
[Fol. 18r]
la verdad de nra S.ta fe catholica Roma- a y la falsedad de la de los Judios; y q.e p.ano ser conocido de qe profesaba la dha ley de los Judios, ha procurado ocultar su profesion especialm.te en el tiempo del cumplim.to Pasqual, en el qe o com- praba la cedula de haver cumplido ,
o se mudaba de Posada , y Parroq.a Preg.do si save q. algunas Personas
residentes en España sepan, y profesen
los dichos errores, u otros semejantes
a ellos, y opuestos a nra. Fe Catholica,
no siendo de aquellos Reynos, y Naciones, a quienes esta permitido p.r causa del co- mercio, y con ciertas comiciones el
residir en España; o si save q.e algunos,
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o algunos de estos q.e estan permitidos en estos Reynos haya faltado a los pactos
y condiciones conq.e se les permite su resi- dencia, y causado con sus dhos o hechos algun escandalo a los fieles Catholi-
cos Romanos.
Dixo: que no save q.e alguna
persona resid.te en estos Reynos de España siga, ni profese la ley de los Judios y sus errores, ni otros semejantes a ellos y opues-
[Fol. 18v]
opuestos a nra S.ta Fe y q.e tampoco tiene noticia de q.e hayan reñido y dado escanda lo los fieles catholicos Romanos con sus dichos y hechos.
Preg.do que motibo tiene p.a decir y ase- Verar q.e ha sido circuncdado =, y no bauti- Zado.
Dixo: que como nacio de padres He- breos en cuya compañia vibio hasta la edad de nuebe años, y estos no se bautizan ni bautizan a sus hijos asi puede ase- gurar q.e no esta bautizado; y porq.e des- pues q.e salio de la potestad de sus Padres tampoco se ha bautizado; y en confir- macion de lo referido dice q.e oyo decir
a sus padres varias veces q.e estaba cir- cuncidado solam.te Y haviendosele leydo esta su declaracion q.e tiene hecha en pre- sencia del dho S.to Ynquisidor.
Dixo: q.e estaba bien escrito segun
El lo havia declarado ; y q.e solo tiene q. aña- Dir q.e desde q.e bino a España y residio
En la Corte de Madrid travaxo en ella
con D.n Joseph Lopez evanista del Rey
nro. Señor, q.e vibe en la calle del Horno
de la Mata; y q.e en los diez años q.e
[Fol. 19r]
residio en Galicia como lleba dicho lo mas del tiempo travaxo p.a la cuenta, y q.e no se acuerda de los sujetos p.a cuya cuenta travaxo algun poco de tiempo; y q.e desde q.e vino a esta ciu.d ha trabajado en las casas de Bern.do Albarez, q.e vibe a la Plazuela de la Roperia vieja; y en la de Yetro Cat de Nacion Frances, q.e vibe en la calle de la obra prima, y ambos evanistas y Carpinteros; y que asi es la verdad bajo juram.to q.e tiene fho. En q.e se afirma y ratifica, y lo firmo de su puño de q.e yo el yn[illegible]i- to secretario certifico
[Signatures: Salamon Bergom
D.r D.n Mn.l de Quevedo (Guevara?) Bustamte]
Introduction
The Early Modern Period, an era of “confessionalization,” provides numerous examples of individuals of immediate, distant, feigned, or merely imputed Jewish origin whose religious and social allegiances shifted radically. The phenomenon of Iberian New Christians or conversos comes to mind. Early modern Jews who became Christians but who, unlike conversos, possessed no personal and familial background in Christianity constitute an allied field of research (See examples in the Bibliography, below). Scholarly assessments of the ways in which these Jewish non-conversos learned and influenced their adopted Christian culture(s) often concentrate on intellectual production. The focus is not surprising, as the converts under discussion were usually educated individuals to whom Christian patrons often assigned prominent roles as anti-Jewish polemicists and missionaries. By contrast to the apologetic works and other religious writings of and about such converts, the texts presented here offer glimpses of the experience of uneducated, relatively inarticulate people of very modest material means who found themselves at a crossroads between Jewish (or Jewish-identified) and Hispano-Catholic identities, and whose formal cultural realignment caused no historical ripple.
The folios selected for this workshop comprise large excerpts of two inquisitorial cases dating from the early 1790s. Both dossiers are relatively brief and fragmentary. I offer them together in order to provide more analytical possibilities than each of the documents would offer by itself.
In each of the cases, a lone deponent appeared “spontaneously” before the Toledo Tribunal of the Spanish Holy Office to express a desire to renounce Judaism, undergo baptism, and be received into “the bosom” of the Roman Catholic Church. Each of the two declarants—a petty merchant and widow from Hesse-Cassel, and a carpenter from Mantua—dimly related or merely hinted of various informal social interactions. May we approach the latter as informal processes and avenues of Jewish and, to a greater extent, Hispano-Catholic acculturation? If so, the kind of acculturation that these deponents conveyed is largely quotidian, and we must often read between the lines to hypothesize it. By the same token, the cultural learning that the informants described was largely devoid of textual mediation, introspection, and intellectual sophistication.
As records of judicial interrogations the selected dossiers primarily reveal a clash between these ordinary and rather vague (or vaguely- rendered) instances of acculturation on one hand, and, on the other hand, normative institutional concepts of true and false religious paths, true and false religious and ethnic identities, and pure and impure human motivations. We discover, then, far less about interactive learning and mutual formation across openly practiced, autonomous cultures, than about the heavily-biased ethnographic curiosity and the religious and political imperatives of Hispano-Catholic functionaries. At most, the selected texts shed a flickering light on the social transformation of Jewish-identified individuals within the framework of a stark imbalance of power between themselves and a religious institution that possessed the cultural capital to investigate and (re-)define them as “Jews,” and then convert them into “Catholics.” Given this imbalance, and the opacity of the declarants’ words, the documents may ultimately help us to understand how certain cultural obstacles characteristic to the early modern centuries conditioned—or precluded—Jewish-Christian exchange across a barbed ethno-religious, political, and socio-economic divide. My oral presentation of the dossiers may well focus on distortion, dissimulation, domination and conformity as over-determined outcomes of this highly conditioned phenomenon of mis- or non-communication.
A final note on the selected sources: Though the dates of both texts may be late for an early modern workshop, a review of the documents makes it reasonably clear that no matter what sea-changes were occurring beyond Spain in the 1790s, the dossiers were products of the traditional religious outlook of a medieval institution—an institution still engaged in a broader competition for souls that the Catholic and Protestant churches had been waging since the sixteenth century.
Bibliography
Bodian, Miriam. Dying in The Law of Moses: Crypto-Jewish Martyrdom in the Iberian World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007.
Carlbach, Elisheva. Divided Souls: Converts from Judaism in Germany, 1570-1750. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.
Drummond Braga, Isabel. “Uma estranha Diáspora Rumo a Portugal: Judeus e Cristãos- Novos Reduzidos à Fé Católica no século XVI.” Sefarad 62.2 (2002): 259-274.
García-Arenal, Mercedes and Gerard Weigers. A Man of Three Worlds: Samuel Pallache, a Moroccan Jew in Catholic and Protestant Europe. Trans. Martin Beagles. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.
Graizbord, David. “Pauline Christianity and Jewish ‘Race’ in an Age of Confessionalization: The Case of João Baptista D’Este.” In María-Elena Martínez, Max Herring-Torres and David Nirenberg, eds. Race and Blood: Dimensions of Racialization in Spain and Colonial Latin America. Vol. 3 of Jahrbuch für Rassismusanalyse: Analysis of Racism. Berlin and London: LIT VERLAG, forthcoming.
______________. “A Historical Contextualization of Sephardi Apostates and Self-Styled Missionaries of the Seventeenth Century.” Jewish History 19 (2005): 287- 313.
López Belinchón, Bernardo. “Aventureros, negociantes y maestros dogmatizadores: Judíos norteafricanos y judeoconversos ibéricos en la España del siglo XVII.” In Mercedes García-Arenal, ed., Judíos en tierras de Islam, vol. 2: Entre el Islam y Occidente: Los judíos maghebíes en la edad moderna. Madrid: Casa de Velázquez, 2003.
Popkin, Richard H. and Gordon M. Weiner, eds. Jewish Christians and Christian Jews: From the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1994.
Terpstra, Nicholas. “Imagined communities of the Reformation.” Sixteenth Century Journal XL.1 (2009): 222-225.
Wilke, Carsten Lorenz. “Conversion ou retour? La métamorphose du nouveu chrétien en juif portugais dans l’imaginaire sépharade du XVII siècle.” In Esther Benbassa, ed., Memoires juives d’Espagne et du Portugal. Paris: PUBLISUD, 1996.
Zagorin, Perez. Ways of Lying: Dissimulation, Persecution, and Conformity in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990.
Source 1 Translation
Archivo Histórico Nacional, Inquisición de Toledo, legajo 159, expediente 11 (1790- 1791): Carlota Liot.
[Cover, front matter]
Toledo (Inquisition of)
Judaizers
Liot (Carlota)
Of Hebrew Nation, and resident of the village of Consuegra
Her spontaneous testimony and abjuration
1790-1791
Dossier 159, n. 11
[Fol. 6r] Hearing on October 7, 1790
No results issue from the registry of this Holy Office against the woman named Carlota, native of Hesse-Cassel in Germany, of medium height, round face, sort of swollen cheeks, black eyes, brown hair, eyebrows with little hair, Roman nose, 29 years of age more or less, who spontaneously appeared to disclose her Hebraism, requesting entry to the bosom of Our Holy Mother, [the] Church, by receiving the Holy Baptism, according to Your Lordship’s notice of September 23, to which we respond gladly, and will so execute it to whatever extent will please you.
[Inquisition of Murcia, October 2, 1790] Atty. Pedro del Moral [?]
Dr. Don Ramon de Albornos Holy Office of the Inquisition of Toledo
[Fol. 16r] Don Fernando Díaz de Linares y Toledo, Licenciado [= university graduate], [and] titled Senior Apostolic Familiar of this village, with the necessary submission to your Most Illustrious [sic.] acknowledges that on this day, and via Licenciado and Friar, Don Silvestre Díaz Huerta of the [illegible] of St. John, Priest and Prior of Santa Maria la Mayor, in said village [of Consuegra], a woman has presented herself to this informant, who says that she is of Judaic nation, that she is called Carlota, and that she is daughter of Leon, native of Hesse-Cassel, dominion of the Emperor; that she left her place of origin at the age of thirteen, and today is of the age of of twenty-nine. She declares voluntarily (among other things) that in the city of Málaga she has resided for six years, and that in that city she knows many of her nation who are hidden; but that she desires [to receive] the Holy Baptism, and convert to our Holy Catholic Faith, of which intention she has implored (tearfully and with repeated invocations of Mary Most Holy) said parish priest, who, in accord with this informant has offered her the customary sustenance and protection until Your Most Illustrious, informed by this missive, orders what he deems just and advisable.
Consuegra, today, April 24 of 1790
Don Fernando Díaz de Linarez y Toledo
[Fol. 18r] In the village of Consuegra on the sixteenth of the month of May of this present year of one thousand, seven hundred and ninety, the Licenciado, Friar Don Silvestre Díaz Huerta Rojas of the Order [?] of St. John, Priest and Prior of the Parish of Santa Maria la Mayor of said village, has delivered the preceding dispatch…
On said day at ten in the morning by virtue of the preceding act there appeared before the said Mr. Commissioner and me, the notary, the mentioned Carlota, under legal oath, which she took upon God and a sign of the Cross, not to reveal whatever occurred and she said in the deposition
[Fol. 18v] and [to tell] the whole truth under that oath, which obliges fulfillment and observance, as was explained to her. And by virtue of this the [narrative] representation that I, the notary, made to the Holy Office, dated the twenty-fourth of April, was given to her, and I read it to her verbo ad verbum and in its entirety. About it she said that it was the same that she [had] expressed on the cited day to the Commissioner and before me, the notary, [and that] she ratified it in case it was necessary; and thereafter the following questionnaire was posed to her------
Asked what she calls herself, where she was born, her age, civil status, and occupation, who her parents were or are, and where they reside or died, and what religion they professed, she responds: That she calls herself Carlota; that she is a native of Hesse-Cassel, city of the Emperor of Germany; that she is twenty-nine years of age, more or less; that she has been a merchant, and today [is] a poor hostiatin [Lat. Hostiatim, ~victim?], because she has been robbed, and at present in a widow’s state, because of her man, who was of judaic nation, having died in the city of Málaga, and been buried in the Holy Field of the Hospital del Rey of said city; that her parents were called Leon and Cecilia, both natives and citizens of the previously noted city of Hesse-Cassel, and that she does not know if they are alive or dead; but she knows and makes known that they were of Judaic nation.
Asked if she is Christian, baptized--- She responds that she is not---------- Asked in what religion she was reared and what
[Fol. 19r] she has believed and followed since she had use of reason, and if the religion in which she has been reared is the same one that her parents followed and professed, and if in that country [that faith] is taught, or if she follows the same or different ones, and [if so] which ones—she responds: That the religion in which she was reared is Judaic, and awaited the Messiah; and they worship a golden image, like a calf; keep the Sabbath day as a holiday, fasting on said day from ten at night on Friday, its eve, until sunrise; observing [its] solemnity with such rigor that they did not move a [single] utensil: She was reared in this religion, the same one that her parents followed, which is tolerated in that country, where in the same way there are Lutherans, Calvinists, and Christians, all of them tolerated, and [enjoying the] free exercise [of their faiths]---
Asked if the observes it. She is asked what she holds and believes at present, and what religion is the one she wishes to follow and profess in life and in death. She responds: that at present she holds and believes
the articles of Our Holy Catholic Faith, which were made known to her by the Commissioner and in front
of me, the notary, to whom she responded; and that the religion that she wishes to follow and profess in life and in death is the Catholic religion; and she yearns for the same with intense and powerful desires to be baptized===== Asked again how it is that she has notice of the articles of our Holy Catholic Faith, and who
[Fol. 19v] has taught it to her, she said that because she found herself with a store [~commercial stall] in the city of Málaga she went out every week to sell in Vélez-Málaga; and in its suburbs lived a Christian countrywoman of hers, called Christina, who knew the aforementioned parents of the deponent, which is why, in her German tongue, she taught her the Christian doctrine; and although said Christina knew that the parents of the deponent were Jews, she was under the impression that she [the deponent] was a Christian; and because of her stay in Spain, she has learned some mysteries and prayers, such as the Credo, the Sacraments, the five Commandments of our Mother, the Church, the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, how God is a remunerator [?], and the rest, in the native language [of Spain]:------------------ In the fifth [question] she was asked what cause, motive, or reason she has had and has for separating herself from the Judaic sect, and wishing to follow and profess the Holy Catholic Faith of Our Mother the Roman Church. She responds: That being certain that if she dies a Jew it condemns her, and if she dies a Catholic she hopes to be saved and go to glory == To the sixth [question] she referred to the fourth, given what is understood by it, and to the third== To the seventh: She was asked if she knows if there are some persons of her sect who are residing in Spain, hidden, and are not from those realms and nations to whom it is permitted, for reasons of
[Fol. 20r] commerce, and with some conditions, to reside in Spain; or if she knows if some, or any one of these who are allowed [to reside] in these realms, has/have violated the pacts and conditions by which his/their residence is permitted, and caused through his/their words, or deeds, some scandal among the loyal Roman Catholics; she responds:
That she knew up to six people of the same sect, hidden, who employed her in the trade in silk stockings, kerchiefs, and other types of merchandise, who accompanied each other and sold in Cádiz, Puerto de La María, and other towns; but that they did not have a house of residence in said city, where they lodged in the inn nearest to the Puerta de la Mar, but she does not remember their names either collectively or in particular, and I only know [sic.] the [physical] traits of one of them, who was about two Ys[?] and two fingers tall, rather portly, with a scar on his face, as from a knifing, but that she does not recall in which of his cheeks [the scar] is found, and who may be, or looks like he is about thirty to thirty-five tears of age, and that without a doubt the reason that she does not remember the names is that they disclosed little about themselves to each other, addressing one another with brotherly expressions. This is as much as she knows, as she must declare in this spontaneous declaration, under the oath that she has made.
[Fol. 20v] And all of it is the truth, which is ratified and affirmed if necessary. She did not sign her declaration because she said she did not know how to do it. The Commissioner did it, to which I was a witness.
[Signatures: Silvestre Díaz Huerta y Rojas and Fernando Díaz de Linares y Toledo]
[Fol. 24v] In the village of Consuegra, on the tenth day of the month of June of the present year of one thousand, seven-hundred and ninety, Mr. Commissioner, Licenciado and Friar Don Silvestre Díaz Huerta delivered to me the preceding dispatch, which he said he had just received by ordinary mail and in his correspondence. Having accepted it, he made before me a formal oath of Non Rebelando in Todo Pectore, with his hand placed over the cross upon his habit, and immediately ordered Carlota summoned… It occurred before me.
[Signatures]
In the said village, day, month and year by virtue of the foregoing the aforementioned Carlota was summoned, from whom said Commissioner took a formal oath of fidelity by God our Lord and by making a sign of the cross, to tell the truth in what she has been asked, and not to reveal as much, or even part of what the gentleman of the dispatch [sic.]. [She declared] that the one she had as a husband was known in his country by the
[Fol. 25r] name of “Leon” and in Spain by that of “Antonio,” [and] that she does not know the day Antonio died and was buried, because the declarant had left the city of Málaga, in order to sell all the kinds of her [his?] merchandise in the cities of Seville, Cordova, Ecija, and other towns, where she stayed [?] for nine months; and upon her return to the city [?] of Málaga she was notified that he had died, being told that he had died about eight months earlier, and according to her calculation, the death had occurred there about twenty-six months ago, more or less; that he did not have a fixed home as his domicile in said city, as they lived in the streets where the fairs that are frequent in that city were celebrated; such that when the [fairs] were [held] in the Calle de la Victoria, they picked themselves up [or: took shelter] and stayed by night in the house that a widow named Catalina has as her store, but that she does not recall her traits other than that she had her stalls and a large portal; and that for the lodging they paid five reales each night, and that when the fair took place in the street that they call “Of The Merchants” they spent the night at the Puerta de la Mar in a house that was a tavern, [and the woman who hosted them] was called María, a widow, to whom they paid four reales daily, but that the house of the aforementioned María was leased,
[Fol. 25v] and the delcarant is not aware of the property’s owner=and that when she went out to sell at the time she has already indicated, Antonio was left in broken health in the Calle de la Victoria. She did not have any dealings or communication with people besides with the two cited —the hostesses Catalina or María—that was not through her sales, since after the fairs they [=the declarant and her husband] went out to the towns of the county to sell without having a fixed domicile in any of them===and that she only stayed in the mentioned city of Málaga for three years at the time of the fairs. Though she left her country eighteen years ago, more or less, six [of those] years she has been in Portugal, three in France, and the rest in Spain. She spent thee of these [latter] years as she has declared, and the six remaining [years] she was in Zaragoza, Pamplona, Valencia, and other cities, as well as in Barcelona, where a student for the price of half of a Piece of Eight prepared a certificate of marriage for her and Antonio. When she became acquainted with and dealt with her countrywoman, Christina, in Vélez-Málaga, she was the widow of an invalid whose name she does not know, and lived in a leased house located in the suburbs and that she does not know the name of the street. Christina lived from the work of her hands, threading and making buttons. Regarding
[Fol 26r] her house she cannot provide more details than that it stands apart,but that there are many other little houses similar to it because they stand alone. As for Cristina’s personal traits, she can only say that she was a very old woman, of medium stature, with entirely white hair, and that she does not remember any more traits. And having had each and every one of the details contained in the dispatch reviewed for her, and to convey that she made her deposition with the greatest clarity and specificity, she said and repeated that she could not describe, neither explain, more than what she has declared under the oath that she has made, which she has ratified and affirmed. She did not sign because she did not know how to do so. Mr. Commissioner did, and I, the notary, did it, who was present for everything.
[Signatures: Díaz Huerta Y Rojas and Díaz Linares de Toledo]
[Fol. 27r] Presented in Toledo June 25 of 1790
Most Illustrious Sir:
The Inquisitor-Prosecutor of this Holy Office, in the file that has been compiled in the case of the woman called Carlota who wishes to abjure the errors of the Judaic sect and be admitted to the bosom of our Roman Catholic, Apostolic faith, says: He has seen the new declaration that this spontaneous woman has made; and confronted with the earlier one that she proffered on May 16, he finds some contradictions and other inversimilitudes. So that he may find out what this woman affirms, and so as not to fall for some fraud that she may be trying to perpetrate, it seems to him advisable that the same Commissioner and Notary of Consuegra take from her another statement, by formally interrogating her regarding the following questions:
1st. As she says, she is a native of Hesse-Cassel, a city of the Holy [Roman] Emperor, when it is in fact a private domain of Germany. Let her state the towns that are near her city of origin.
2nd. How can she say that her parents were called Leon and Cecilia and that they were Jews, when these names are of the Law of Grace, and her
[Fol. 27v] parents had full civil and moral liberty in their country and could use proper names of the Law of Moses?
3rd. How can she say in her first statement that she resided in the city of Málaga for six years when afterward she speaks of a mere three years? And that she had a store there, yet later says that she only sold in the fairs by day, and by night she lodged in the Calle de la Victoria, and in a tavern next to the Puerta del Mar in the homes of Catalina and María, including neither their family names, nor their physical traits? It is strange that she should not state or remember her [social] ties, or relatives they may have, so that their [her?] identity and existence may be known.
4th. That she declare the time of the year that she has seen the fair held at the Calle de los Mercaderes of that city, or that she say what she believes to be the [proper] name of that street; because if she thinks it is the new street that is in front of the Puerta del Mar, it is our understanding that no fair is held there during any part of the year.
5th. That she state if she has been registered in any parish church, or listed as a citizen by the authorities, and if so, where, and in what year; or if she has heard mass, and received the Sacraments of Penitence and Comunion, believing in them internally, or not.
6th. Let her state in what merchandise she trafficked, and if she bought it in order to resell it
[Fol. 28r] in kind [?] or on credit, especially during the nine months that she was in various places without
her man; and that she name the subjects with whom she dealt for that purpose, and their addresses, those whom she has known and have known her from the various fairs and townspeople of Andalucía that she has mentioned. It is not verisimilar that she has walked alone, without letting herself be known as to her homeland and religion among the various travelers and walkers of her class, whom she must perforce have had to join along roads and at inns.
7th and final: That said Commissioner pose whatever questions he finds advisable so that he can obtain better knowledge of whether she is indeed a Jew and truly wishes to be a Catholic, and so that persons of our Holy Religion be found who have known her, and can inform [us] as to the conduct, opinions, and religion that this woman has held.
[Signature, June 23, 1790]
[Fol. 30v, starting in line 27]
[Marginal note:] Inspection and declaration In the village of consuegra, on said, month, and year [Aug. 2, 1790], as a consequence of the [illegible]
[Fol. 31r] earlier notifications the aforementioned Carlota was summoned before His Mercy and me, the notary, and he received from her an Oath of fidelity by God Our Lord, and with the sign of the cross, to tell the truth of whatever she knows and may be asked. Having done so in accordance with the dispatch and commission, she responds to the first question: That it is true that Hesse-Cassel is the city of a Duke, but that he is subject to the Emperor of Germany, and that that is why she said that the city was the Emperor’s, and that although she knows and acknowedges that there are many towns in its immediate surroundings, she does not know the names of any of them.
To the second question she said that although they have full liberty for the use [sic.] of their sect, they are accustomed in their [undeciphered word: advetuo? Advitico?] to assuming names of the Law of Grace, except the names Manuel, María, and Juan, and for that reason her parents were known by the names of Leon and Cecilia----------------
Asked about her husband [?], she says that by her six-year term of residence in the city of Málaga, which she mentioned in her first deposition, she means that she participated in the fairs held in that city; and the three [following years], which she mentioned in her second deposition refer, and she understands them to be, those in which he who is named was sick for three years until he died without [?]
[Fol. 31v] the holy baptism; this is what she responded. Her declaration was read to her, and she said she had nothing to add to it. She ratified it. She did not sign because she did not know how to do so. His Mercy did it, as did I, the notary.
[Signatures]
[Fol. 35r] Most Illustrious Sir,
Sir of mine and of all my veneration: With the greatest care I have completed the task with which Your Illustrious Lordship […] has charged me by the preceding commission, and I have not been able to locate any of the information that are [sic.] indicated in it. In the Calle de la Victoria I have not found more that one widow named Catalina, and she assures me that neither in the time of the fair nor in the off-season has she ever hosted in her home or portal any person besides a woman, a Garbanzo seller [?], who was her acquaintance and a citizen of this city [who lives in] the Calle de la Trinidad. Believing there to be some mistake in the testimony regarding a fair in the “Calle de los Mercaderes,” by which [the deponent] intended to say, or should have said, “in the Calle del Carmen,” I have looked in the Puerta del Mar for the tavern-house in which there lived a widowed woman named María, though there are many taverns and store-houses. I have found no reason to corroborate such a [undeciphered word], neither present nor past. In the Hospital del Rey one cannot know when Antonio died, because [the deponent] does not indicate his surname. For that reason I return the commission so that if possible it will be returned with some clearer details that may be of guidance in order to investigate what Your Illustrious Lordship wishes to know, as with such vague information
[Fol. 35v]
I have not been able to advance anything.
[Valediction and signature of Joseph Fernandez Maqueda]
[Fol. 36r] Most Illustrious Sir:
The Inquisitor-Prosecutor of this Holy Office, in [light of] the procedures undertaken in the case of the woman called Carlota, who is in the village of Consuegra Requesting that she be admitted to the bosom of Our Holy Mother, the Apostolic Roman Catholic Church via Holy Baptism and prior abjuration of the Hebrew sect into which se says she was born and has professed, affirms: That the review of records made in this and the other trubunals of the realm have not resulted in anything against this request. Yet, since the procedures that have been undertaken in the city of Málaga through the Holy Office of Granada have not resulted in anything that would corroborate the presence that the spontaneous declarant alleges at the fairs and houses of said city, her declarations still obscure the information that would be necessary to know whether she has been and is in reality a Jew, and that she sincerely wishes to abjure that reprobate sect and receive the Holy Baptism. The fact that this woman of vague quality, and does not cite a single person who can answer as to her civil status
[Fol. 36v] or moral character, and what is more, not even to her physical existence after so many years of traveling through so many towns and provinces of the realm, is a circumstance that recommends her very little with respect to the credibility of her statements, and in certain terms it seems appropriate to the Prosecutor that for now a commission be given to the Priest and Prior of Consuegra, Silvestre Díaz Huerta, that [along with] the Familiar, Senior Bailiff Don Fernando Díaz de Linares, in association with the four most authorized and literate secular or regular priests of the village of Consuegra, examine the spontaneous declarant anew, asking her all the questions they deem appropriate, to ascertain whether in reality she has not received the Holy Baptism and has been of the Hebrew sect, and if her conversion is sincere, and she has been instructed in our holy Catholic dogmas and seems to them would persevere in Our Holy Catholic Apostolic Roman religion, and that they inform [us] of the results by means of a report of said Priest and Prior and four Priests, and that it be transmitted to the Prosecutor to say whatever may be necessary. Secret [order] of the Inquisition of Toledo, November 13 of 1790.
[Fol 38v] In the village of Consuegra, twenty-eight days of said month [of November] and year [1790], by virtue of the judicial instructions the Presbyters and Carlota, who are cited in them, were summoned before His Mercy and me, the notary. Each and every one interrogated and reinterrogated Carlota with questions that were deemed advisable, according to the [undeciphered word], her Oath of Fidelity having previously been taken. Each and every one of them found, and are of the common opinion that her desire to receive the Holy Baptism is true; so too that she has not received it to this day; yet, as to her knowledge of the Catholic doctrine, she is found to be very immature; thus, in case the Tribunal deems it advisable to expedite its order to any of the Parish Priests of the village of Madridejos, where her [present] domicile is located, if it should be necessary to examine her well in the Holy Doctrine. In this regard, when prompted, she has offered to remain there so that the Holy Sacrament is administered to her. As to this they are in common accord and can and are obliged to inform the Holy Tribunal. And in acknowledgment they signed along with His Mercy, said Judge, which I faithfully verify.
[Signatures: Licenciado Don Sivestre Díaz Huerta y Roxas (Judge) Don Antonio Jesus Díaz Gallego
Dn Elías Gabriel Aguilar Albarez
Francisco García de Juan Pérez
Joachin de Cassas y Vida
Don Fernando Díaz de Linares y Toledo (Notary)]
Source 2 Translation
Archivo Historico Nacional, Inquisición de Toledo, legajo 137, expediente 15 (1791- 1792): Salomon Bergom (a.k.a. Carlos Bergamo).
[Cover, front matter]
Toledo (Inquisition of)
Bergom (Salomon) Later Carlos Bergamo, native of Mantua, Carpenter Resident of Toledo
Spontaneous Delation
1792-1793
Dossier 137, n.15
[Fol.13r] Presented at the Inquisition of Toledo December 11 of 1792
Salomon Bergom is my first name and now I call myself Carlos Bergamo, at your service [?]: He declares that, being since birth [of], and reared in the Law of the Old Testament, and that for some years has had the true desire to embrace the law of Jesus Christ, But experienced for months [?] some doubts which prevented me from following it. And now he has them convinced [sic.] he begs of you in surrender that you be so kind as to give an order of summons so that I am baptized [?] and received [?] in the bosom of the Holy Church, a grace which he hopes to receive from
Your Lordship’s mercy
Toledo, 1792, 9th of December At your service [?]
Salamon Bergom Native of Mantua In Italy
[Fol. 15r] Presented on December 19, 1792
At the Holy Office of the Inquisition of the city of Toledo, eighteen days of the month of December. of one thousand seven hundred and ninety two, During the morning hearing of the Inquisitor, Licenciado Don Francisco Xavier Ersua (who attends alone), the gatekeeper of the Chamber and dais [?] of the Holy Office entered and made it known that in the superintendence of the Tribunal there was a man who was asking for a hearing; and the latter having been ordered inside, the Inquisitor received his formal oath to tell the truth as to everything he knew, may be asked about, and may be discussed with him.
Asked what he calls himself, of what place he is a native, what his age and occupation are, who his parents are or were, and where they reside or died, and what religion they professed, He said: That he calls himself Salomon
[Fol. 15v] Bergom, a native of the city of Mantua in Lombardy of Italy; forty-five years of age more or less; a carpenter and maker of pumps by trade; that his father was called Abraham Bergom, and his mother Nicol he does not know her last name; that they resided in the city of Mantua; that he has heard that his father has died; he does not know about his mother; and that he thinks they professed the Mosaic religion, in which they reared him until the age of nine years, at which he fled from his home in the company of a Genevan Knight called Don Pedro —he does not know his last name— with whom he proceeded to Vienna and other parts of this [sic.] Empire, and he was in his company for a span of five years, from where he proceeded to Milan, where he was about three or four years learning a trade; from there to Rome, where he was for three years, more or less; from Rome he proceeded to Florentin de Campaña [Saint-Florentin, Champagne?] in which city he was for about two years. From Florentin, he returned to Milan, where He stayed about a year and one half; from Milan he proceeded to Turin, where he remained about a year and one half; from Turin he returned to
[Fol. 16r] Vienna, and was there one year; from Vienna he proceeded to Parma, where he remained about a year and a half; from Parma he came to Marseille in France, and from Marseille he proceeded to Languedoc, first the city and second the seaport, also in France, in whose towns he was for about a year and a half; that from Languedoc he came to the Court of Madrid, where [sic.] and Royal places of La Granja and the Escorial, [where he was] about four years; that from the Court he proceeded to the Realm of Galicia, where he was about ten years in the cities of Santiago, Coruña and Lugo; that afterward he went to the Realm of Portugal, where he spent about a year in the cities of Oporto and Lisboa; that from there he returned to Madrid, where he was for about four years, and he came to this city of Toledo the Day of Santiago the Elder of the present year.
Asked if he is a baptized Christian, who baptized him, where, with what substance [?], and how, if godparents attended, and who they were, and if the manner used
[Fol. 16v] in his baptism by the Minister is the same in which baptism is customarily performed in that country. He said that he is not a baptized Christian because his parents reared him, as he has said, in the Law of Moses, in which he has remained until now.
Asked what he has believed in the religion he has followed; and whether in the country in which he was reared the same is taught and followed, or different ones, and which ones. He said: That he believed in the Ten Commandments as is taught in the Law of Moses, which is the one he had followed and held until the present day. And that in that country the Christian religion is followed, Except in the neighborhood of Elpuet [?] in the above-cited city of Mantua, in which that of Moses is followed, and they are circumcized according to it, as the declarant is as well.
Asked (since he has declared that he has been reared, and until now has followed the law of Moses) to state which is the one he wishes to follow henceforth, and in which he wishes to live and die. He said: That he wishes to embrace, follow, and die in the Catholic, Apostolic, Roman religion
Asked what cause or
[Fol. 17r] motive he has and has had for wishing to separate himself from the law of Moses and its errors, which he has held and followed until now, and for wishing to follow and profess the Holy Catholic Faith of Our Holy Mother, the Roman Church. He said: That the motive he has had is that having heard in some conversations of learned men that although Jesus Christ could redeem the entire world with a single drop of blood, He wished, because of His infinite kindness to suffer many travails in His life, passion and death for all humankind, in order to provide the greater example and benefit to all of it; and because he has considered many times that the religion of Moses is abhorred everywhere; and that for those reasons he has believed what the Catholic religion teaches, which is that God made himself a man in the most pure entrails of Mary Most Holy, was born and suffered death and passion in order to redeem humankind, which He was able to do owing to his omnipotence; and that therefore he wishes to detest, and he detests, the error of the Jews, who do not even [illeg.] the true Messiah to have come, who is Jesus Christ, true God and man.
[Fol. 17v] And that he detests any of [illegible] errors of said sect, as a consequence of Jews’ not believing that the true Messiah has come to redeem humankind.
Asked if at some time he followed and professed our Holy Roman Catholic Faith and religion, and later apostatized from it, [and if so] what reason he had for apostatizing, and how long he held said errors, and if at any time he has been instructed in our Holy Catholic Faith and Roman religion by any person, and who was it who explained and taught the misteries and other articles of our holy faith. He said: That at no time has he followed, neither professed our Holy Roman Catholic Faith; and that therefore he has not apostatized from it, and his entire life he has held and followed the Law of the Jews; and that he has not been instructed by any person in particular in Our Holy Faith and Catholic religion, and that only a few private conversations, and sermons he has heard have given him some light and instruction for knowing
[Fol. 18r] the truth of Our Holy Roman Catholic Faith and the falsity of that of the Jews; and that
in order to avoid making it known that he professed the law of the Jews, he has endeavored to hid his profession of it, especially at the time of the fulfillment of Easter [or: the fulfillment of holidays], during which he bought a certificate of fulfillment, or changed his residence and parish.
Asked if he knows some persons resident in Spain who know and profess the said errors, or similar ones, contrary to our Catholic Faith, who are not of the Realms and nations to which it is permitted, for reasons of commerce, and with certain commissions, to reside in Spain; or if he knows that some, or some of those who are permitted in these realms have not kept the agreements and conditions under which their residence is permitted, and caused with their words or deeds some scandal to the loyal Roman Catholics. He said: that he does not know that any person who resides in these Spanish realms follows or professes the law of the Jews and its errors, neither other [errors] similar to them and
[Fol. 18v] opposed to our Holy Faith and that neither does he have any information that they have quarreled [?] and scandalized loyal Roman Catholics with their words and deeds.
Asked what cause he has for saying and asserting that he has been circumcised and not baptized. He said: that since he was born to Hebrew parents in whose company he lived until the age of nine years, and they do not baptize themselves, neither do they baptize their children, hence he can assure that he is not baptized, and because after coming out [from under] the authority of his parents he has not had himself baptized either; and to confirm this he says that he has heard his parents say many times that he was circumcised only. And having had this declaration read to him, which he has made in the presence of said Holy Inquisitor, he said: that it was well written according to what he had declared; and that he must only add that since he had come to Spain and resided in the Court of Madrid he worked there with Don Joseph Lopez, ebony-carpenter [or: fine wood carpenter] of the King Our Lord, who lives in the Calle del Horno de la Mata; and that in the ten years that
[Fol. 19r] he resided in Galicia, as he has said, he worked for most of that time on account [= as a freelancer, journeyman] and that he does not remember the people on whose account he worked for a brief time; and that since he came to this city he has worked in the houses of Bernardo Alvarez, who lives in the Plazuela de la Ropería Vieja, and in that of Yetro Cat, a Frenchman by nation, who lives in the Calle de la Obra Prima. Both [men] are ebony-carpenters and carpenters; and that that is the truth, under the oath he has taken, and which he affirms and ratifies. And he signed it in his hand, which I, the Inquisitorial [?] secretary certify.
[Signatures]