Coimbra

City of Portugal, capital of the province of Beira, in which there was formerly a "Juderia," or Jewish quarter, now called "Corpo de Deus." In April, 1395, the prior of the church in Coimbra and several of the clergy broke into the Jewry in order to obtain eggs (for Easter) from the Jews. The local rabbi, Solomon Catalan, the elder Isaac Passacom, and other Jews intimated to the priests that they had no right to demand eggs of the Jews, who were living in the street set apart for them. Upon this the clericals resorted to force, and broke into the house of a Jew named Jacob Alfayate. The Jews resisted and drove the importunate clericals out of the ghetto. The king protected them from further annoyances at the hands of the clergy.

Coimbra, the seat of the only Portuguese university, at which many Maranos studied, had a tribunal of the Inquisition, which, during several centuries, instituted numerous autos da fé and sentenced many secret Jews to life imprisonment or to be burned alive. Coimbra was the birthplace of Moses ibn Danon, who in 1510 wrote a Talmudic work at Fez.

Bibliography: Kayserling, Gesch. der Juden in Portugal, pp. 24, 345 et seq.; Mendes dos Remedios, Os Jadeus em Portugal, p. 158. Compare Auto da Fé.

By Richard Gottheil, Meyer Kayserling.