The story of a 16th century soldier who defaced a roadside cross with his sword and then, unbelievably, turned himself in to the Inqusition, has been discovered and tweeted by a medieval historian. Francois Soyer found the story in the trial records of the Inquisition in Lisbon, which have recently been digitized and put online by the Portuguese National Archives.
Bartholomeu Domingues, a 19 or 20 year-old Spanish soldier, was garrisoned in Portugal in the time of Philip II, the ‘Spanish Armada’ King of Spain. He was ‘an angry soldier and unlucky gambler’, says Soyer, and his trial by the religious police reveals ‘the very serious consequences of a moment of anger’. The tweets unfold the tale:
4/ Like many soldiers, Bartholomeu had a problem: a fondness for gambling with his counterparts, although he did not encounter much success. On 8 October 1589, he had lost all his money…
— Francois Soyer (@FJSoyer) November 20, 2018
5/… later whilst walking in the countryside with 2 other soldiers, he slashed at a cross positioned by the roadside with his sword. pic.twitter.com/7NTq1BCQ6L
— Francois Soyer (@FJSoyer) November 20, 2018
6/ Bartholomeu claimed that he was "angry and infuriated [by his gambling losses] out of his senses", "like mad" (como loco) and had cried out "Good God what had I done!".
— Francois Soyer (@FJSoyer) November 20, 2018
7/ Bartholomeu was right to be worried. In front of witnesses, he had committed an act of religious desecration. In a counter-reformation society that was ultra-sensitive to attacks on the Catholic Faith, this was no laughing matter.
— Francois Soyer (@FJSoyer) November 20, 2018
8/ He risked a death penalty or even a public lynching. He appears to have realized that his only hope was to go straight to the Inquisition and place himself at the mercy of the Holy Office.
— Francois Soyer (@FJSoyer) November 20, 2018
9/ Accordingly, he went to the inquisitorial commissioner of his garrison town (the port of Setubal), made a confession (in Spanish) that was officially notarized and forwarded to the inquisitorial tribunal in Lisbon. pic.twitter.com/XcYEvSZnYJ
— Francois Soyer (@FJSoyer) November 20, 2018
10/ It is moving at Bartholomeu himself wrote in his unsteady hand at the bottom of the confession to confirm he was asking for mercy and signed his own name: "Y esto lo pido por misericordia aquien toca y me firmo aqui em ni nombre, Bartolome Domingues" pic.twitter.com/iDnxGENWCA
— Francois Soyer (@FJSoyer) November 20, 2018
11/ This was a smart move on his part. He may well have been a devout Catholic horrified by his moment of angry madness but he had also effectively preempted any denunciations against him and made a show of contrition.
— Francois Soyer (@FJSoyer) November 20, 2018
16/ In the end, the inquisitors realized that this was not a particularly serious case. In consideration of his youth, repentance, and wish to confess his crime, they ordered him…
— Francois Soyer (@FJSoyer) November 20, 2018
17/ …to publicly confess his crime in the port of Setubal, to pray the rosary every day for a year, fast on Fridays in Lent and go to confession 3 times a year. He would also pay the costs of the Inquisition for his trial.
— Francois Soyer (@FJSoyer) November 20, 2018
‘The trial is interesting,’ says Soyer, ‘as it demonstrates the role that the Inquisition played in policing religious beliefs by its mere existence. Fearful of arrest, Bartholomeu had gone straight to the Inquisition.’
He also points out that if Bartholomeu had been a foreigner from France, or the regions of Europe where the Reformation was established, ‘things might not have been so easy for him’. The crime of sacrilege in Portugal at the time was frequently investigated using torture, and punished on a human bonfire.
Praying the rosary and doing some extra fasting and confession was an unusually happy ending for an encounter with the Inquisition.
Read the complete thread, by Francois Soyer, telling the whole story.
Photo of the Auto-da-fé in Madrid in 1683 by Wikimedia Commons
