Cartas… [A Series of Letters on Statecraft]

CUNHA, DON LUIZ DA.

c.1750

Autograph Manuscript, in Portuguese, 605pp., black/brown ink on paper.

Da Cunha, Portuguese Ambassador to France and England, became, as Minister of State, close to the Marquess of Pombal, the dynamic ruler of Portugal from 1750-1777. Influenced by the more enlightened countries of Europe, da Cunha believed that Portugal must ignore the directives of the Catholic Church and establish full civil and religious rights for Jews resident in Portugal. (viz. p.147v: “The Fourth Remedy (to the excesses of the Pope’s Inquisition) should be the primary one - to give the Jews liberty of conscience.”) Indeed, Pombol who transformed Portugal from a medieval to a modern State, abolished the distinction between Old and New Christians (i.e. Jews) and restricted the powers of the Inquisition. See C. Roth, A History of the Marranos (1932) p.349.