Thread by @FJSoyer

1/ Stories from the Archives of the Portuguese Inquisition: the sad life of Jose Martins, the "she-man" (macho femea) of Ervedal (1725).

2/ The trial of Joseph Martins, an impoverished young shepherd residing in the village of Ervedal in south-central Portugal, offers a sad story of social ostracism and rape.

3/ The document that initiated the judicial proceedings against Joseph Martins was a letter from a concerned parish priest, which was forwarded to the Inquisition by his superior.

4/ The letter is, in itself, a striking document as the following excerpt demonstrates:
"In the parish of São Bernabeu of the village of Ervedal, there lives a certain Joseph Martins who, according to rumor, is a macho femea (“she-man”)".

5/ "This man, or woman, lives in the following manner: he almost never goes to Mass on holy days and told a man, who was admonishing him for this omission, that he did not wish to go and had an aversion for the Church. "

6/ "Furthermore,] some women with whom he lived claimed that he ate meat on festival days and other days when it is prohibited."

7/ "Father Silvestre Antunes Rato, holder of a benefice in the main church of Avis, heard it said by other people, who had themselves heard it from someone else, that [Joseph Martins] dresses as a man but commits carnal acts with men, behaving as a woman."

8/ The letter offers a fascinating glimpse into the process through which public rumors could affect an individual’s reputation and how rapidly ambiguous behaviour could lead to suspicions of witchcraft.

9/ The author of the letter certainly did not hide the fact that Joseph Martins had been branded a “she-man” in his community not through any physical or material evidence but rather only on the basis of “rumors” (fama).

10/ Moreover, these rumors were attributed to “some women” and to the vague third-hand information provided by a priest. The references in this excerpt and elsewhere in the letter to Joseph Martins’ alleged irreligious behavior, including claims that he avoided Communion...

11/ ... were indubitably no accident and, although not explicitly formulated in the letter, were almost certainly there to suggest that the case may have a religious dimension, involving sorcery and perhaps even demonic agency.

12/ Following the arrest and imprisonment of Joseph Martins, the inquisitors of the tribunal in Évora, which enjoyed jurisdiction over the case, ordered the interrogation of eleven witnesses who confirmed that their prisoner was indeed widely believed to be a “she-man”,

13/ ... known to engage in sexual intercourse with men “like a woman” and was highly impious to boot. Indeed, two witnesses stated that certain unnamed “young men” (moços) had publicly boasted in the village that they had heterosexual sex with Joseph.

14/ . Others reported rumors that, although he dressed in male clothing and possessed a thick beard “like a man”, Joseph had given birth twice “when he was a woman”. All the witnesses agreed that his religious conduct caused “great scandal” within the community...

15/ ... and one witness even stated that Joseph Martins had told him that he “hated the Church” (tinha odio a Igreja).

16/ One witnessed did admit under oath to having sexual intercourse with Joseph but was adamant that the latter was female:
"… two years ago more or less, he caught her outside of the village because he had been told that [Joseph Martins] was a machofemea...

17/ ...The witness had sexual intercourse with her and he did not see or find [any evidence] that [Joseph Martins] possessed any of the [physical] attributes of a man."

18/ A second male witness later also claimed to have “copulated four or five times with the aforesaid Joseph Martins during which he did not detect any signs that [Joseph Martins] was anything other than a woman”.

19/ The inquisitor in charge of the case ordered Joseph Martins to undergo a medical examination that revealed no trace of female genitalia.

20/ Even though none of the witnesses mentioned the Devil, the possibility of demonic intervention was one of the avenues of investigations that the inquisitors chose to pursue.

21/ In a report to their superiors in Lisbon, the inquisitors of Évora made sense of the contradiction between the medical evidence and the witness testimony by expressing the belief that Joseph Martins might be a hermaphrodite and that the Devil might be behind the case.

22/ The scenario outlined by the inquisitors makes it clear that they considered the possibility that the Devil could have allowed Joseph Martins to temporarily “hide” (occultar) his penis...

23/ ...and delude others into believing that he possessed a vagina without actually physically transforming or altering it.

24/ When Joseph Martins was questioned, he denied being a 'hermaphrodite' or making a pact with the Devil and attributed the rumors and ridicule to which he was subjected in his community.

25/ Eventually, after a second physical examination carried out by medical practitioners once more found no evidence of female genitalia, the inquisitors decided that the significance of the physical evidence outweighed that of the testimony against Joseph Martins.

26/ They decided that the two men who claimed to have had heterosexual intercourse with him must be perjurers and that Joseph’s impiety did no fall within the jurisdiction of the Inquisition but rather the local ecclesiastical authorities.

27/ Consequently, Joseph Martins was absolved of the charges against him and released from captivity in November 1725, after receiving a stern warning to amend his religious conduct or face grave punishments in the future.

28/ The testimony of the two male witnesses against Joseph Martins makes it clear that he had been raped by them. Interrogated by the Inquisition, they defended their actions by claiming that they believed him to be a woman.

29/ The fate of the perjurers/rapists is unclear although they were themselves now potentially open to the twin charges of "sodomy" and lying to the Inquisition whilst under oath (a very serious offence).

30 and final/ Unfortunately, the original trial dossier (A.N.T.T., Inquisição de Évora, processo no. 5,923) has not been digitized. For much more on this case see brill.com/abstract/book/… or
booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/books/…