Note 678 — Chapter I · JEWS.

Bulario de la Orden de Santiago, Lib. IV, fol. 130.

The district of Galicia would seem to be an exception to this, probably arising from the lateness of the organization of the tribunal of Santiago. Jews there had been quite numerous, wealthy and respected, and there had not been time to enforce their conversion or extermination. The severity of the tribunal earned for it the reputation of the most cruel in Spain and, pitiless as was that of Portugal, many Galician Conversos took refuge there. Towards the close of the century Inquisitor Pedro Pérez Gamarra acquired for himself an infamous distinction by his relentless activity, and the archbishop and chapter protested publicly against the proceedings of the tribunal. Its rapacity was rewarded with abundant confiscations. We hear of Méndez of Valdeorras, whose estate was reckoned at more than 40,000 ducats, of that of Antonia de Saravia at 233,707 reales and of Marcial Pereira at 363,444.—Benito F. Alonso, Los Judíos en Orense, pp. 8, 26, 28-30, 32 (Orense, 1904).