Inquisition by David Gibbins

Author:David Gibbins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

13

Pátio da Inquisição, Coimbra, Portugal

Jack Howard walked round the corner into the square in the center of Coimbra, with Rebecca and Jeremy close behind. A flock of pigeons erupted from the patio, disturbed by a group of students going between classes in the old buildings of the university that surrounded the square. It was a brilliant day, sunny and warm, the buildings white and stark against the blue of the sky, and Jack felt refreshed after their quick coffee in a bar on the way. He glanced at his watch, then saw a familiar figure with her arm raised hurrying through from a large colonnaded building to the right.

Maria had dark hair and eyes, features of her Mediterranean background that she shared with Rebecca, and was wearing jeans and a loose top. She came up to Jack and embraced him, and waved at Rebecca and Jeremy. “How nice to see you all. I hope the last-minute change from Lisbon to Coimbra for our meeting wasn’t too much of a problem. I’d finished at the archive, and wanted you to see this place. It’s part of our shared history, Jack, and yours too, Rebecca.”

Jack smiled, very pleased to see her for the first time in several months. “We’ve got a car picking us up in three hours to take us back to Porto to catch our flight to Jamaica. I thought that should give us enough time. Not enough for dinner, though.”

“Huh. You owe me, you know.”

“I promise. When this is all over.”

“When have we heard that before?” Rebecca said, eyeing them. “You two really should get your act together.”

Maria smiled at Jack, and then linked her arm through his. “One day you should listen to your daughter. Meanwhile, let’s have a little tour before we settle down. The rector of the university is an old friend of mine and I’ve managed to arrange for us to be alone inside, outside normal tourist hours. Come on.”

For the next half an hour Maria took them through the rooms and passages within the colonnade, the Casa of the Inquisition in Coimbra from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, and now part of the university. “So,” she said, as they came back into the audience chamber, a cavernous space with a tower on top. “This was where your Brandão ancestors were brought to trial, and my grandmother’s ancestors too, and Jason da Silva’s, and countless others around the world who are descended from Sephardic Jews. We’ve seen the cells where they were held, the probable torture chamber, the audience chamber here for the tribunals, and outside in that pretty square the place where the burnings took place.” She turned to Jack. “There’s something I have to tell you. I looked everywhere in the Archives for further records of your ancestor João. There’s nothing beyond his basic processo record, either in the Inquisition archive or elsewhere. If he’d been reprieved at his auto-da-fé, there’d be some record of him somewhere, given that he was such a prominent merchant.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.