With the inquisition having arrived on American shores, twelve Jews were burnt in an auto de fe in Lima, Peru, on the 18th of Shevat 5399 (1639). Of the 63 Jews who were condemned at the time to various punishments, eleven were burnt alive at the stake, along with the body of a twelfth, who had committed suicide during the trial.
Amongst those burnt was Manuel Bautista Perez, reported to have been the richest man in Peru at the time, as well as Francisco Maldonado de Silva, a surgeon, poet, and philosopher who was seized in Chile in 1627, and remained in the dungeons of the Inquisition for nearly twelve years. His devotion to his faith never wavered; while in prison he even converted two Catholics to Judaism!
Links:
The Spanish Inquisition
Expulsion
Your soul is full of words, some inscribed, some engraved.
The words inscribed on your soul are not of its essence. Like ink upon a page, they came to you from the outside, from life and its experiences. Eventually, they may fade and fall away, to be replaced by other words.
The words engraved are of the soul itself—just as engravings are no more than the form of the stone. When the soul finds quietude, those words are there. If the soul is in turmoil, or soiled by experience, those engravings need only be cleaned and uncovered. But they can never be torn away.
Those same words that engraved within the fabric of your soul are also engraved in a holy fire within the depths of the Soul of All Things. They are the words that Moses heard and inscribed on stone and on parchment.
So that at times, when you immerse yourself in the Torah and the words of its sages, when you allow them entry to touch your soul, you may hear those engravings resonating within your soul.