On 26 January 1531 an earthquake with epicentre underneath the Tagus valley to the south of Santarém caused the river and its estuary to fill with a rush of water which flooded the countryside on both banks and tossed boats into the air. Then, the recessive action divided the waters into two so that the riverbed was exposed with many vessels being grounded while some disappeared into exposed chasms. On land, the severity of the tremors caused the collapse of structures and landslides with the effects being felt as far north as Porto. One estimate of casualties in the Lisbon region speaks of thirty thousand being dead, injured or missing.

Astonishingly, contemporary details of this fearsome phenomenon were largely lost in the collective Portuguese memory until the early 20th century when several letters and official documents were unearthed in libraries and bookshops. With the introduction of analysis by computer these isolated fragments were gradually pieced together and enabled comparisons to be made to the great Lisbon earthquake of 1755 and lesser event of 1909. This led to the publication in 2012 of a comprehensive and comparative study by the University of Lisbon which provided estimates of intensity values experienced in continental Portugal.


The sociological repercussions of the 1531 were predictable; the Jews in their disguised role as New Christians were to blame for this demonstration of Godly Wrath and a repetition could only be prevented by the removal of secretly practiced Judaism. Inevitably, the Portuguese Inquisition was established in 1536 by the petition of King John III made to Pope Paul III.

In 1529, the kabbalist Solomon Molcho returned to Italy where he received a frosty reception from the leaders of Jewish community. However, his teachings and book of homilies “Derashot” (Sefer ha-Mefoár) had gained the attention of Pope Clement VII with whom he was granted an audience. During this, he prophesied that Rome was in imminent danger of flooding and when this duly occurred in October 1530 his esteem as a religious authority knew no bounds. He also made a prophecy that a Messianic redemption would occur between 1535 and 1540 and that this would be preceded within his homeland of Portugal by an apocalyptical disaster.

Credits: Wikipedia;

A letter containing this information was sent urgently to King John III. He well knew Molcho by the name of Diogo Pires whom he had appointed, at the age of twenty-two, as a judge and secretary of the state court. It was because of his association with David Reuveni in 1525 and subsequent “desertion” from Catholicism to Judaism that Molcho had been banished from the Portuguese realm.

One may be forgiven for speculating that, following the 1531 earthquake disaster, John III liaised with the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V to warn him of the dangerous rapprochement between Molcho, the Pope and his cardinals and that it was this that led, by order of the Emperor, to his execution by being burnt at the stake in late 1532.

The antipathy between Charles V and Clement VII was typical of the early 16th century schisms between monarchs and prelates which bedevilled the political framework of Europe and the variable positions in which Jewish communities found themselves.

Credits: Wikipedia;

Another link in this saga is to be found in the biography of Sephardic Rabbi Abraham ben Elizer Halevi who was born in Spain but emigrated to Jerusalem where he led the Yeshiva which hosted David Reuveni on his journey from Arabia to Italy. He, too, was a great kabbalist who spent many years searching the Talmud and Jewish literature. After the Spanish expulsions of 1492 he lived for a while in Portugal where he published “Masoret ha-Hokhmah” – a handbook of esoterism – in association with the mystics Isaac Abrabanel and Abraham Zacuto. All three held the Messianic beliefs which had inspired such fervour in Molcho and Reuveni and were ardent opponents of what they saw to be heretical Catholicism and its subsequent persecution of Marranos through the imposition of the Inquisition.

It should be said before ending that Kabbalism has plural forms ranging from the speculative (which seeks only spiritual understanding and obedience to what are believed to be sacred laws) to the opportunistic whereby dominion is sought over evil to exercise world-power over and protection from the activities of non-Jews.

Roberto Cavaleiro Tomar 02 August 2024