The visit of the Holly Inquisition to the northeast of Brazil between 1591 and 1595 would expose social conflicts and disputes of interests among old and new Christians. The last were the potential victims and the main accused of maintaining a crypto-judaic behavior, performing several heresies. Among the accused, there was an impressive number of women, center of Jewish resistence, transmitting the culture and the tradition to the new generations. After the prohibition of any other faith than Catholicism in the Portuguese world in 1497 and the stablishment of the Inquisition in 1536, women would become responsible for the diffusion of secret Judaism. Homes became a central place to the survival of Jewish traditions.
Inquisition; crypto-judaism; women