There was no Inquisition in Flanders, and the men of the local margrave and the burgomaster turned a blind eye to the affairs of the ‘Portuguese’, for without them Antwerp would be just another Flemish port. But the regent, the sister of Charles V, was eager to sniff out heresy and extort money from the Jews. As far as brother and sister were concerned, that’s what the New Christians were: Jews once, Jews now, Jews till they burned and the soot of their bones had been taken by the wind.
