Trial and Death

Abstract

In 1571 Damião de Gois stood before the High Tribunal; much had changed in Portugal since Simão Rodrigues’ previous denunciation in 1550.¹ Now, almost a quarter of century later, this small country seemed to be exhausted from the immense struggle to continue the navigations, the conquests, and the overseas wars for so many long years. The fields, many of them deserted, did not yield enough grain to feed the nation, and famines were frequent. The king’s treasury was empty, and the economy was more unstable than ever.² But still a large number of the people lived in idle luxury. Clenardus, with a foreigner’s aloofness, had already noted the degeneration of Portugal’s middle and upper classes in the 1530’s. With his flair for irony, he painted an amusing but depressing picture of the widespread contempt for labor. People of means owned so many slaves that even the simplest manual task was taken care of for them.³