The Sabbatean Prophets

The Jewish Tradition 47
messianic trends, which was so noticeable in that episode, was found repeatedly
in both Jewish and non-Jewish movements. Other messianic cells appeared
among the crypto-Jews at different times. There was a group in Mexico
in the middle of the seventeenth century, shortly before the Sabbatean
outbreak, who believed one of their members would be the messiah and
would come to redeem the oppressed conversos. A particularly significant
group of prophetic messianists was discovered by the Inquisition in Portugal
in the 1530s and 1540s, whose central figure was one Luis Días, an unlettered
tailor from Setúbal. His teachings became central to an enormous Portuguese
millenarian movement.
Converso messianism was found not only among those who chose the path
of crypto-Judaism. Even those who became sincere Catholics were deeply
involved in prophetic messianic agitation. For example, the Franciscan spiritualist
movement of the prophetic alumbrados in early sixteenth-century
Spain contained a highly disproportionate number of conversos. This group
was convinced that the Second Coming would occur in the 1520s, and the
entire church would be reformed of its errors. The Bishop of Burgos, himself
a converted rabbi, announced that he and his son would be in a position to
lead a millenarian army at the Second Coming, because they were descendants
of the House of David and thus family members of the mother of
Jesus.
For our purposes the most significant trends in converso messianism were
those that involved practicing Jews close to the time of the Sabbatean outbreak.
Two fascinating and complex personalities deserve particular scrutiny:
Manoel Bocarro-Rosales, and, once again, Manasseh ben Israel. 26
To understand Bocarro-Rosales we must return to the converso prophetic
movement surrounding Luis Días, the unlettered tailor from Setúbal during
the 1530s and 1540s. A close associate of Días was a certain shoemaker from
the town of Trancoso named Gonçalo Anes, known as O Bandarra, who
may or may not have had New Christian ancestors. 27 In any case, it was under
Días’s influence that Bandarra composed a group of prophetic verses,
many connected with the messiah, called trovas. These contained both elements
of traditional Portuguese millenarianism and of Jewish messianism,
and they excited much interest among both Old and New Christians.
When a copy reached the Inquisition, however, the author was arrested for
Judaizing.
The trovas’ popularity continued through the sixteenth century without
placing an identity on their key figure, O Encoberto, the Hidden One. This