Note 787 — Chapter I · JEWS. (continued 2)

I see no reason to doubt that the “Noticias reconditas y posthumas del Procedimiento de las Inquisiciones de España y Portugal con sus presos. En Villafranca, 1722” is an elaborate statement drawn up by Vieira for Innocent XI. It appeared again under the title of “Relação exactissima.... do Procedimento das Inquisiçois de Portugal. Presentada a o Papa Ignocencio XI pello P. Antonio Vieira, Da Companhia de Jesus. En Veneza con Licença do Santo Officio MDCCL.” It is no more bitter than his other writings on the subject, and its somewhat florid style is natural to so popular a preacher.

The author of the “Authentic Memoirs concerning the Portuguese Inquisition” (London, 1761 and 1769) gives on p. 47 a translation of a passage of this work which he says he made from a well-attested MS. in Portugal. There were, he adds, several copies in the handwriting of Vieira, and also in that of a secretary of the Inquisition who fled to Venice.

The Venice edition contains also two shorter papers by Vieira, one entitled “Discurso Demonstrativo,” addressed to a friend, and the other “Discurso Segundo,” addressed to the Regent Dom Pedro. They bear internal evidence of genuineness and the latter is included in the list of De Backer (Bibliothèque des Ecrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus, V, 761-2), together with other MS. works of his in favor of the New Christians. A number of such MSS. are preserved in the Public Library of Evora.—Prof. Gottheil in Jewish Quarterly Review, October, 1901, p. 89.