And when possible the church interfered to add the burden of bigotry to that of corruption.

An amusing example of this occurred when a supposed tooth of Buddha was brought to Goa, to redeem which the Rajah of Pegu offered a sum equal to half a million dollars.

While the government was inclined to sell, the archbishop forbade the acceptance of such tainted money and ordered the relic destroyed.
[Sidenote: 1521-80] Within Portugal itself other factors aided the decline.

From the accession of John III to the amalgamation with Spain sixty years later, the Cortes was rarely summoned.

The expulsion of many Jews in 1497, the massacre and subsequent exile of the New Christians or Marranos, [Sidenote: 1506-7] most of whom went to Holland, commenced an era of destructive bigotry completed by the Inquisition.