From Lisbon to Venice: the Trials and Tribulations of the New Christian Duarte Gomes

Abstract

The humanist and polymath Duarte Gomes, born in 1510 to a prominent New-Christian family in Lisbon, underwent three processos by the Portuguese and Italian Inquisitions in his lifetime. His encounters and escapes from these tribunals are at once extraordinary and representative of the experience of many Portuguese Jews and suspected Judaizers who were compelled to flee abroad when the Inquisition initiated proceedings in their homeland. While their existence was precarious, it was made more bearable by a complex network of coreligionists and sympathizers in commercial, diplomatic, and humanist circles. In Gomes’s case, the Inquisition itself proved vulnerable to influences from these networks. This paper makes use of previously unstudied documents which reveal important information concerning when and how Gomes left Lisbon for Antwerp while the initial inquiry into his alleged marranismo was still taking place. The details of this and the subsequent processos against Gomes reveal, on the one hand, Inquisitions that wielded very real power to intimidate even those who, like Gomes, ostensibly enjoyed royal and episcopal favour; on the other hand, in comparison with Gomes’s own connections, the Inquisition’s manifest significant limitations of geographical reach and influence.