LISBON MASSACRE OF MARRANOS 1506(5266)
(Nissan, 28, 29, 30, 5266---April 16, 17, 18, 2007)
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich, the only contemporary image
DESCRIPTION OF THE EVENT by Levi Fernandes of European Jewish Press (www.ejpress.org) (See contemporary version in Portuguese by Ibn Verga, below, and Samuel Usque)
...The violence erupted on April ..., 1506 after a man believed to be a "New Christian" suggested that a light emanating from a crucifix at a chapel was likely caused by natural causes instead of divine intervention as thought by many Christians. He was dragged from the church by a group of women who beat him to death, according to several historical accounts.
A priest then made a fiery sermon against "New Christians" while two other priests, crucifix in hand, marched through the cobblestoned streets of Lisbon inciting people to kill them. In the ensuing violence even Catholics who were thought to look like "New Chistians" were killed or saw their homes destroyed. King Manuel, who was outside of the Portuguese capital when the massacre began, ordered the ringleaders rounded up and hung while those convicted of murder or pillage received various corporal punishments....
Ibn Verga
...então, vimos surgir uma multidão de gente armada de espadas, e em trés dias, eles massacraram três mil almas. Eles faziam-nos sair à força para as ruas e os queimavam. Eles defenestravam as mulheres grávidas e recebiam-nas, em baixo, com as suas espadas de tal modo que o embrião era expelido logo depois. Sem falar de outras crueldades e abominações que é melhor silenciar.
Lisboa 1506, O Massacre Dos Judeus, Susana Bastos Mateus e Paulo Mendes Pinto, 2007, Alêtheia Editores, Lisboa
Samuel Usque
Among these were two Dominican friars, who went through the city of Lisbon with crucifixes on their shoulders, inciting the people...they attacked the weak and defenseless group of ill-baptized New Christians with spears and unsheathed swords. They killed four thousand of them, robbed them..they maimed them, dashed children against walls and disembered them, defiled women and girls and then killed them. They threw many pregnant women out of windows onto spearpoints awaiting them below...
Samuel Usque´s Consolation for the Tribulations of Israel, 1553, Ferrara, translated from the Portuguese by Martin A. Cohen, jewish Publication Society of America, 5737-1977
