Miguel de Barrios

Miguel de Barrios was a poet, playwright, and historian, born in Montilla, Spain, to a Portuguese converso family. He eventually settled in Amsterdam in the Portuguese Jewish community. He was a prolific author, whose best known works are a memorialization of victims of the Inquisition, Contra la verdad no hay fuerza, and a laudatory portrayal of Amsterdam's Sephardic community, Triumpho del govierno popular (1683). He was one of several writers to focus on "the [Jewish] Law's perfection, eternity and superiority." In his work, Triumpho del govierno popular (1682) he gave an explanation for the permanent expulsion of Spinoza from the Amsterdam synagogue, saying it was Spinoza's defiance of rabbinic authority and declaration that "the Jews have no obligation to observe Mosaic Law."