Dom José por graça de Deos, Rey de Portugal…Houve por bem abolir, e exitirpar a sediciosa distinção de Christão Novos, e Christãos Velhos…

(INQUISITION).

Regia Officina Typografica, December 20th

Lisbon

1774

Initial letter regally historiated.

Portuguese Royal Edict Erasing the Distinction between “New Christians” (i.e. Marranos) and “Old Christians.” Sebastião José de Carvalho ê Mello, Marques de Pombal put teeth into his policy seeking to end discrimination brought about by the years of Inquisition by ordering the destruction of the registers containing the names of the New Christian families, as well as instructing the heads of the “puritan” houses to marry their daughters to sons of “New Christian” families. See C. Roth, A History of the Marranos (1932) pp. 349-51; EJ, Vol. XIII, col. 924.