that the New Christians must be guilty, and the regent signed an edict banishing them all from Portugal--a measure opposed by the Inquisition, doubtless because its occupation would be gone. Before the expulsion could be enforced, however, it happened that a young thief near Coimbra, named Antonio Ferreira, was arrested, and in his possession was found the pyx with its contents. The most searching investigation failed to discover in him a trace of Jewish blood; he was duly burnt and the New Christians were saved.[784] After this narrow escape, there came a gleam of promise. Few members of the Society of Jesus, at that time, were more distinguished than Antonio Vieira, who had earned the name of the Apostle of Brazil. He had long regarded the New Christians with compassion and had urged João IV not only to abolish confiscation but to remove the distinctions between them and the Old Christians. He had made enemies and the Inquisition readily undertook his punishment; his writings in favor of the oppressed were condemned as rash, scandalous, erroneous, savoring of heresy and well adapted to pervert the ignorant.[785] After three years of incarceration, he was penanced in the audience-chamber of Coimbra, December 23, 1667, and his sympathy for the victims of the Holy Office was sharpened by his experience of its unwholesome prisons, where he tells us that five unfortunates were not uncommonly herded in a cell nine feet by eleven, where the only light came from a narrow opening near the ceiling, where the vessels were changed only once a week, and all spiritual consolation was denied.[786] Then, in the safe refuge of Rome, he raised his voice for the relief of the oppressed, in numerous writings in which he characterized the Holy Office of Portugal as a tribunal which served only to deprive men of their fortunes, their honor and their lives, while unable to discriminate between guilt and innocence; it was known to be holy only in name, while its works were cruelty and injustice, unworthy of rational beings, although it was always proclaiming its superior piety.[787] [Sidenote: _PORTUGUESE JEWS_]