Uriel da Costa

Uriel da Costa was born in Oporto, Portugal, the descendant of a New Christian family. Baptized as Gabriel da Costa, between 1604 and 1608 he studied at the University of Coimbra and considered an ecclesiastical career, but he began to doubt his faith. In March 1614, he left with his parents and three of his brothers and moved to Amsterdam, where he was circumcised. From there he moved to Hamburg. Discovering that the Judaism of his time differed from biblical Judaism, da Costa wrote a brief statement in 1616 criticizing rabbinic Judaism and was subsequently excommunicated. A later work, denying the immortality of the soul, was burned, although several copies survived. Da Costa, unhappy with his social isolation, retracted his statements. With the publication of his book Examination of the Pharisees in Portuguese, he was excommunicated for a second time. In 1640, he publicly recanted and underwent a humiliating ceremony of reconciliation in the synagogue. In the aftermath, da Costa wrote an account of the event and then killed himself. Although the details of his own beliefs are unclear, he may have tended toward deism or natural religion.