AZEVEDO, FRANCISCO D':
Portuguese Marano of the seventeenth century. He was sent in 1673 to Rome to implore the papal curia to curb the inhumanity of the Inquisition. Well supplied with money, and seconded by the Jesuits—who were not in sympathy with the Inquisition—he succeeded in exposing the cruelties of its procedure. Clement X. thereupon issued a bull, dated Oct. 3, 1674, suspending the activity of the Portuguese Inquisition, and prohibiting any further accusations, condemnations, or confiscations until the grievances of the Maranos in that country should have been investigated by a Roman court of inquiry.
Bibliography:
- Grätz, Gesch. der Juden, x. 278;
- Kayserling, Geschichte der Juden in Portugal, p. 315.
