Lope De Vera, Y Alarcan

Lope de Vera, Y Alarcan, a Christian convert to Judaism, suffered martyrdom for his apostasy by the hands of the inquisitors' tribunal of Spain. The descendant of a noble Spanish family, he had, while a student at Salamanca, interested himself in the study of Jewish literature and Judaism, and finally made a public confession of his belief in Judaism as the only revealed religion. He was imprisoned at Valladolid, and, persisting in his decision, was condemned to death at the stake, July 25,1644. He was at the time of his death only about twenty-five years old, and had suffered imprisonment for nearly five years. See Gratz, Gesch. der Juden, 10:101.