Huge, Inquisition-era Torah scroll found in Portugal

The scroll is an astonishing discovery because virtually all of Portugal's Jews were forcibly converted by King Manuel I in 1497 and, later, persecuted by the Inquisition. They and their descendants would have kept their Torahs and other religious books under great secrecy, and only worshipers in a very select circle would have been aware of the scroll's existence.

These converted Jews and their descendants were generally referred to as "New Christians" or "Conversos", or even "Marranos", meaning swine. They called themselves Anusim, however, meaning those who had been obliged to become Christians.

Anusim who wished to hold on to their Jewish beliefs and identities had to remain constantly on their guard because the Portuguese Inquisition - under the authority of the Catholic Church - was charged with arresting any of them who continued to practise Judaism.

A New Christian could be arrested for simply lighting candles on a Friday evening or whispering a word of Hebrew.

The Inqusition kept them in special prisons, often for years, and they were tortured in order to compel them to give up the names of other secret Jews. All their assets were confiscated by the church.

The Portuguese Inquisition lasted from 1536 until the 1770s, and those Anusim who wished to live openly as Jews fled the country whenever they could, establishing flourishing Portuguese-Jewish communities in North Africa, Italy, the Ottoman Empire and Holland. After the re-admission of Jews to England in the 1650s, they also started settling in London.

Richard Zimler is the author of 'The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon'