This article was downloaded by: [187.64.147.

155]
On: 27 September 2011, At: 19:39
Publisher: Routledge
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered
office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies

Publication details, including instructions for authors and
subscription information:
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ribs20

Christian kings and Jewish conversion

in the medieval Crown of Aragon
a
Paola Tartakoff
a
Departments of History and Jewish Studies, Rutgers University,
New Brunswick, NJ, USA

Available online: 22 Mar 2011

To cite this article: Paola Tartakoff (2011): Christian kings and Jewish conversion in the medieval
Crown of Aragon, Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies, 3:1, 27-39

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17546559.2011.556701

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-

conditions

This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any
substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan, sub-licensing,
systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.

The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation
that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any
instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary
sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings,
demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or
indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.
 Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies
Vol. 3, No. 1, March 2011, 27–39

Christian kings and Jewish conversion in the medieval Crown of Aragon

Paola Tartakoff∗

Departments of History and Jewish Studies, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

As Christian monarchs in the age of crusade and reconquista, the kings of the medieval Crown
of Aragon had no choice but to show public support for Jewish conversion to Christianity,
issuing legislation meant to encourage conversion and granting favors to individual
converts. However, this public position disguised a deep ambivalence toward the conversion
Downloaded by [187.64.147.155] at 19:39 27 September 2011

of Jews, whom kings considered personal property. This article explores the causes and
expressions of this ambivalence during the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It argues
that when kings acted at cross-purposes to conversionary efforts, it was not only because
these efforts threatened to thin the ranks of their Jewish subjects, who provided important
funding for the royal treasury, but also because kings benefited financially from practices
that discouraged Jewish conversion, such as the confiscation of converts’ property and the
sale to Jews of exemptions from compulsory conversionary sermons. These observations
underscore the complexity of Christian attitudes toward Jewish conversion during the
century and a half that preceded the pan-Iberian massacres and forced conversions of 1391.
Keywords: Jews; conversion; Middle Ages; Iberia; monarchy

Kings as champions of conversion

At the Council of Lleida on 12 March 1243, King Jaume I of the Crown of Aragon (r. 1213 –
76) gave voice to his “missionary zeal” and declared that no Jew or Muslim who sought to
become a Christian should encounter impediments of any kind.1 He ordered that converts be
allowed to retain their possessions, which normally would have devolved at least in part to
the royal treasury. He decreed that converts were not to be deprived of their inheritances.
He warned that anyone who ridiculed converts would be fined. And, in an effort to encourage
additional conversions, he commanded officials to compel Jews and Muslims to attend mis-
sionary sermons.2 During the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, several kings of the
Crown of Aragon followed in the footsteps of Jaume I. For example, Jaume II (r. 1291 –
1327) repeated that converts should be permitted to keep their property,3 again sanctioned
conversionary sermons,4 and granted employment and dispensed charity to several converts.5

∗
Email: tartakof@rci.rutgers.edu
1
Neuman, Jews in Spain, 2: 190.
2
The full text of these statutes is preserved in a bull by Pope Innocent III published in Grayzel, Church and
the Jews, 254– 6, no. 105.
3
See Alanya, Aureum, fol. xl, col. 1.
4
See Riera, “Les llicències,” 118 –20.
5
For example, in 1307, Jaume II appointed a convert named Joan Ferrand to the post of bailiff of Jews and
Muslims in Teruel (see Régné, History of the Jews in Aragon, 532, no. 2879; and Assis, Golden Age, 56).

ISSN 1754-6559 print/ISSN 1754-6567 online

# 2011 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/17546559.2011.556701
http://www.informaworld.com
 28 P. Tartakoff

Likewise, Pere III (IV in Aragon, r. 1336 – 87) served as a godfather and gave alms to a
handful of converts.6
It made sense for these kings to champion conversion. It was only natural, for instance, that a
Christian king and crusader such as Jaume I, who portrayed himself in speeches as God’s represen-
tative, should want to spread the “good news.”7 Moreover, the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
were a period of heightened Christian anxiety about Jews and Muslims,8 and conversionary fervor
ran high in ecclesiastical circles throughout Western Europe.9 Other kings of the period issued
similar legislation,10 and the missionary impulse presented itself with particular urgency in the
Crown of Aragon, as the Jewish and Muslim populations of this realm swelled as a result of the
reconquista.11 In addition, the advisers of Jaume I included outspoken advocates of the conversion
of infidels, such as the Catalan canonist and Dominican master general, Ramón de Penyafort
(1175 – 1275). Penyafort convinced Thomas Aquinas to write the Summa contra gentiles
(1258 – 64) for the doctrinal preparation of missionary preachers and moved to Barcelona
shortly before the Council of Lleida to devote himself to converting Jews and Muslims.12
Downloaded by [187.64.147.155] at 19:39 27 September 2011

For reasons symbolic and pragmatic, the conversion of Jews was a special Christian desidera-
tum. Jewish conversions represented the triumph of the Church over its archrival, and it was even
thought that they might hasten the final redemption.13 In addition, in so far as Jews were feared
to be intent on harming Christians – whether by corrupting them spiritually or through usury,
ritual murder, or well poisoning – conversions ostensibly reduced the perceived Jewish threat.
Thus, in explaining why it was more important to convert Jews than Muslims, Penyafort’s disciple

In 1303, he donated 63 Barcelona sous to a convert named Bonanat per vestir (González, Libros de tesorerı́a,
162, no. 719).
6
Pere III committed himself to supporting his goddaughter Caterina, the daughter of the deceased apostate
Andreu Çontigoc, for the duration of her life (Altisent, L’Almoina, 8, 122, 145, 159). Pere also granted
ongoing support to an adolescent named Joan who was baptized in Alcira (Valencia) during a visit by the
king. This convert is referred to also as Johan de Xàtiva, don Jhan, Jhanicó, and Johanet (Altisent,
L’Almoina, 253, 255, 257, 288, 290, 294, 297, 299, 301, 303, 308, 312, 314, 316, 319, 321, 323, 326,
328, 330). In addition, in 1378, Pere gave 5 Barcelona sous, 6 diners to a convert by the name of Johan
Ramón (Altisent, L’Almoina, 43), and in 1382, he gave 5 florins to one unnamed male convert (Altisent,
L’Almoina, 127), 11 Barcelona sous to another (Altisent, L’Almoina, 139), 11 Barcelona sous to a group
of converts from Castile (Altisent, L’Almoina, 144), and 11 Barcelona sous to a convert by the name of
Jacme Romeu (Altisent, L’Almoina, 146).
7
For discussion of royal speeches and constructions of royal identity in the medieval Crown of Aragon, see
Cawsey, Kingship and Propaganda, esp. 2–7, 65–6.
8
See Moore, Formation of a Persecuting Society.
9
For further discussion of thirteenth-century enthusiasm for the conversion of infidels, see Burns, “Chris-
tian –Islamic Confrontation;” Cohen, Friars and the Jews; Chazan, Daggers of Faith; Chazan, Barcelona
and Beyond; Kedar, Crusade and Mission; Berger, “Mission to the Jews;” and Altaner, Die
Dominikanermissionem.
10
In the Siete partidas, for example, King Alfonso X of Castile (1252– 84) decreed that converts should
retain their belongings and their rights of inheritance (Las siete partidas, 7.24.6). In 1280, Edward I of
England decided that converts who entered the London Domus conversorum (a home for converts
founded by his father, Henry III, in 1234) should keep half of their belongings (Stacey, “Conversion,”
279). In France, Louis IX (1214–70) offered converts pensions to compensate for their loss of property
(Jordan, French Monarchy and the Jews, 149 –50), and Charles VI outlawed the confiscation of converts’
property in 1392 (Grayzel, Church and the Jews, 19, n. 36). Before the end of the thirteenth century,
Jaume I’s counterparts in England and France would also authorize the preaching of conversionary
sermons to Jews (see Stacey, “Conversion,” 267 –8; Golb, Les juifs de Rouen, 373–8).
11
On the impact of the reconquista on Iberian Jewry, see Ray, Sephardic Frontier. On the experiences of
Muslims, see Catlos, Victors and the Vanquished.
12
See Vose, Dominicans, Muslims and Jews, 136 –7.
13
See Cohen, Friars and the Jews, 155 –6 and n. 63.
 Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 29

Ramón Martı́ noted in his Pugio fidei adversus Mauros et Iudaeos that there was “no enemy more
capable of inflicting injury than a familiar one, and there [was] no enemy of the Christian faith more
familiar and more unavoidable . . . than the Jew.”14 The relatively elevated socio-economic profile of
Jews (whose ranks included royal advisers, doctors, merchants, and craftsmen) in comparison with
Muslims, many of whom were slaves, also contributed to making Jews attractive as prospective
converts.15 Wealthy converts would not be suspected of converting for financial gain, and learned
converts would be a credit to the Christian flock. For all of these reasons, it was the pious duty of
the kings of the Crown of Aragon to show support for the conversion of Jews in particular.

Kings and the “royal treasure”

Yet, as Salo Wittmayer Baron – the great historian of European Jewry – put it, there existed on the
part of medieval rulers a, “perennial conflict between . . . the ideal quest for spreading the Gospel . . .
and economic self-interest.”16 This conflict was intense in the medieval Crown of Aragon, where
Downloaded by [187.64.147.155] at 19:39 27 September 2011

the transformations of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries meant that kings were in desperate
need of funds. Indeed, during much of the thirteenth century, extraordinary sums were required
to support the vast territorial expansion of the realm, and, by the second half of the fourteenth
century, the Crown faced economic crisis due to the effects of poor harvests, plague, and war.17
Confronted by the steep financial demands of their office, the kings of the medieval Crown
of Aragon jealously guarded their Jewish subjects. Although Jewish wealth was not vast and
diminished during the latter decades of the fourteenth century, it was often readily available to
the king. Jews depended on royal protection and support and could not easily resist royal
demands for loans and higher taxes. Thus, kings leaned upon Jews in times of financial need
and referred to them as their “coffer and treasure.”18
It followed that it was in kings’ economic interest to foster the stability and prosperity of
Jewish communities. Eager to encourage more Jews to settle in his territories, Jaume I granted
dozens of Jewish communities privileges, including the right to elect their own leaders, as well
as promises of protection and support.19 Pere II, Alfons II (III in Aragon, r. 1285 – 91), and
Jaume II followed in the footsteps of Jaume I,20 and, during the difficult last decades of the four-
teenth century, Pere III surrounded himself with Jewish advisers and granted Jewish communities
more privileges than any king since Jaume I.21 Jaume I, Pere II (III in Aragon, r. 1276– 85), and
Jaume II all forbade Jewish emigration,22 and royal charters granted to Valencia stressed that even
Jews who fled the Crown of Aragon remained the property of its king.23 In addition, kings

14
Quoted in Cohen, Friars and the Jews, 156.
15
For an overview of Jewish life in the Crown of Aragon from 1213 to 1327, see Assis, Golden Age. On the
status of Muslims in the medieval Crown of Aragon, see Catlos, Victors and the Vanquished, 123–324;
Lourie, “Anatomy of Ambivalence.”
16
Social and Religious History, 22.
17
For a concise overview of the political and economic history of the Crown of Aragon, see Bisson, Medieval
Crown of Aragon.
18
See Abulafia, “‘Nam iudei servi regis sunt;” Roth, “Civic Status of the Jew;” Sánchez, “La fiscalidad real;”
and Ray, “Jews between Church and State.”
19
Assis, Golden Age, 20– 3.
20
Assis, Golden Age, 34– 48.
21
See Motis, Los Judı́os en Aragón, 12 –17; Romano, “Els jueus en temps de Pere el Cerimoniós,” 123–9.
22
Assis, Golden Age, 10, n. 10, 11, 12.
23
Meyerson, Jews in an Iberian Frontier Kingdom, 99. For discussion on the less clear legal relationship
between king and Jews during the Crown’s early years, see Klein, Jews, Christian Society, and Royal
Power, 35 –45; and Ray, Sephardic Frontier, 75–97.
 30 P. Tartakoff

frequently intervened – if not always successfully – to protect Jews from popular violence and
from the machinations of municipal, seigniorial, and ecclesiastical officials. In 1320, for example,
when Jaume II heard that the French Pastoureaux were on their way to attack Jews, he and Prince
Alfons decreed that anyone who should strike a Jew would be hanged without mercy.24 During
the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, kings repeatedly demanded that local inquisitors –
who, in addition to prosecuting Christian heretics, prosecuted Jews suspected of attacking
Christians and the Christian faith – desist from prosecuting Jews.25 In 1379, upon hearing that
a Jew named Isaach Vidal Ravalla of Peratallada had been mistreated by inquisitors, Pere III
declared that he would not tolerate that Jews, “his treasure,” be unjustly oppressed and stressed
that the right to punish Jews belonged to the king and to no one else.26
In light of these circumstances, kings were bound to be wary of Jewish conversion to Chris-
tianity, which, for all of its alleged spiritual benefits, threatened to weaken Jewish communities
and deprive kings of valued personal property. In the pages that follow, I will examine the
complex ways in which Jewish conversions and Christian missionizing could affect the royal
Downloaded by [187.64.147.155] at 19:39 27 September 2011

fisc. I will suggest not only that kings feared that Jews, once converted, would contribute less
to the royal treasury but also that kings could benefit financially from undermining conversionary
efforts. This analysis of the ways in which the financial exigencies of governance were in tension
with kings’ religious ideals is an invitation to reconsider Robert I. Burns’ assertion that Jaume I
was “intensely interested in the spread of the Christian faith,”27 Yitzhak Baer’s claim that Jaume II
made great efforts to convert Jews,28 and Yom Tov Assis’s observation that Jaume II was “warm
and encouraging” toward Jewish converts.29 When it came to Jewish conversion, royal attitudes
were characterized by deep ambivalence.

Conversionary sermons as affront and opportunity

Thirteenth-century conversionary enthusiasts advocated using reason to win over souls. It was
their view that sermons, such as those sanctioned at the Council of Lleida, should be the prime
vehicle for spreading the Gospel. As a result, during the late thirteenth and early fourteenth cen-
turies, Mendicant friars preached to Jews and Muslims in the Crown of Aragon, and, later in the
fourteenth century, Jewish converts took over the task.30 Some of these converts genuinely
desired to convert their former co-religionists. In the preaching license that King Pere III gave
to a convert named Pere de Gràcia in 1352, for example, the king noted with approbation,
“you [have] instructed many Jews in the Catholic faith through salvific speeches and lessons,
such that . . . they converted to the said faith, having rejected . . . Jewish errors.”31 A document
from 1350 lists four converts – Joan Serra, Pere de Terre de Fraga, Bernat de Palaciolo de
Tarazona, and Ramón Esquert de Valadorit – who, thanks to Pere’s efforts, were “illuminated
by the spirit, fled the shadows of error, abandoned the perfidy of Jewish blindness, and were

24
Nirenberg, Communities of Violence, 71 –2.
25
On inquisitorial activity in the medieval Crown of Aragon, see Fort, Catalunya i la Inquisició and Vincke,
Zur Vorgeschichte der Spanischen Inquisition.
26
Baer, Die Juden im Christlichen Spanien, 1: 475, no. 322.
27
“Journey from Islam,” 353, n. 72.
28
History, 2: 6.
29
Assis, Golden Age, 55– 6.
30
See Vose, Dominicans, Muslims, and Jews, 133 –64; and Riera, “Llicències,” 113–43. For discussion on
convert preaching in fourteenth-century Castile and southern France, see Simonsohn, Apostolic See, 261–2.
31
Riera, “Llicències,” 136 –7, no. 5.
 Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 31

thoroughly converted to Christ, the true light.”32 A document from 1352 lists yet another of Pere’s
disciples, a convert from Saragossa named Francesc de Papiolo who was baptized in Barcelona.33
Unlike Pere de Gràcia, however, most convert preachers do not appear to have been intent on con-
verting Jews. Some preached in the company of Christian mobs that harassed and humiliated
Jewish audiences,34 and others did not deliver sermons at all. Instead, they approached Jewish
leaders and sought to extort money from them, promising to spare their communities their haran-
gues in exchange for payment.35
These abuses were cause for royal concern, for they injured Jews and thereby threatened harm
to the royal treasury. For instance, money that convert preachers extorted from Jews could no
longer be lent to or taxed by the king.36 Moreover, if missionary activities grew too oppressive,
disaffected Jews might flee the realm, permanently reducing the Jewish tax base. The emigration
of Jews was, in fact, a problem during this period. In 1323, for instance, Jaume II lamented that
many of the “most terrified” Jews of Lleida fled when inquisitors prosecuted the community.37
During the 1350s, King Pere III promised to punish Jews from Valencian aljamas (Jewish
Downloaded by [187.64.147.155] at 19:39 27 September 2011

communities) who left the Crown to escape new levies and then sought to attract new Jewish
immigrants to Valencia using the customary lure of tax exemptions.38
Royal approaches to these problematic sermons showcase the tension between kings’
commitment to promoting conversion and their desire to protect Jewish communities. The
history of the period is replete with instances of royal support for missionary activity. On 26
August 1263, for example, following the Barcelona Disputation,39 Jaume I again ordered officials
to assist preachers. He asked his representatives throughout the Crown to welcome Dominican
friars who wanted to preach to Jews and Muslims and to compel Jews and Muslims to listen
to their sermons. Infidels who failed to comply were to be fined.40 Following in the footsteps
of Jaume I, on 19 April 1279, Pere II (III in Aragon, r. 1276 – 85) commanded royal officials
to force Jews to listen to Franciscan sermons in their synagogues.41 Moreover, as Jaume Riera
i Sans has shown, kings throughout this period also authorized particular individuals to preach.
In 1263, for example, Jaume I asked the Jews of the realm to welcome Pablo Christiani, the
convert who had served as the Christian disputant at the Barcelona Disputation, and to listen
to his sermons “calmly and receptively.”42 In 1299 Jaume II gave the philosopher Ramon
Llull a preaching license,43 and in 1308 he gave a license to a Muslim convert named Jaume
Pere, in which he commanded his officials to facilitate Jaume’s preaching to Muslims and
Jews.44 In 1320, the Infant Alfons granted a similar license to a Jewish convert named Joan

32
Arxiu Diocesà de Girona (hereafter, ADG), Lletres Episcopals (hereafter, LE), U 16, fol. 37r –v.
33
ADG, LE, U21, fols. 73v– 74r.
34
See Moshe of Tordesillas’ description of convert preaching in Ávila in the 1370s in Loeb, “Polémistes
Chrétiens et Juifs,” 226 –9.
35
See Riera, “Llicències,” 125 –6.
36
See Assis, Jewish Economy, 19, 26–7, 60 –3; and Meyerson, Jews in an Iberian Frontier Kingdom, 176–
209.
37
Barcelona, Archivo de la Corona de Aragón (hereafter, ACA), Canc., Reg. 248, fol. 28r.
38
Meyerson, Jews in an Iberian Frontier Kingdom, 231–7.
39
For discussion on the Barcelona Disputation, see Chazan, Barcelona and Beyond; Vose, Dominicans,
Muslims, and Jews, 220 –41; and Caputo, Nahmanides in Medieval Catalonia, 91–128.
40
Full text in Colección diplomática 3: 196.
41
Full text in Colección de documentos Inéditos, 194.
42
Full text in Colección diplomática 3: 203 –4.
43
Full text in Documents per l’història de la cultura catalana, 13–14, no. 14. On this license, see Johnston,
“Ramon Llull,” 25 –8.
44
Full text in Riera, “Llicències,” 132, no. 1.
 32 P. Tartakoff

d’Osca.45 And, between the years 1339 and 1379, Pere III gave preaching licenses to at least
eleven more converts.46
At the same time as kings granted preaching licenses and compelled Jews to attend sermons,
however, they also restricted preachers’ activities and exempted individual Jewish communities
from the obligation to attend sermons. In August of 1263, for example, only one week after Jaume
I ordered officials throughout his kingdom to force Jews and Muslims to listen to Dominican
sermons, he decreed that Jews were not to be forced to leave the Jewish quarter to attend
sermons.47 In 1268, Jaume I commanded that preachers in Barcelona and Lleida were to deliver
sermons only within the confines of synagogues, since during sermons delivered “outside the
calls [or Jewish quarters], [Jews] often suffer[ed] insults and injuries from Christians.”48 In April
1279 Pere II wrote to the Dominican priors of Saragossa and Huesca, requesting that preachers
limit the size of their Christian entourage, and he commanded the sobrejunteros in Huesca and
Saragossa and the justices of Calatayud, Teruel, and Tarazona to allow no more than ten or
twenty Christians to be present at conversionary sermons.49 On 9 July of the same year, Pere
Downloaded by [187.64.147.155] at 19:39 27 September 2011

wrote to the bailiff of Girona and decreed that Jews who failed to attend sermons were not to be
fined,50 and on 8 October he told his officials that no more than three or four upstanding men
were to accompany friars into synagogues.51 Pere also wrote to twenty-three Franciscan convents,
asking them to avoid the violence that often accompanied conversionary sermons.52
Kings similarly restricted the activities of Jewish converts who preached to Jews. On 28 June
1309, for example, Jaume II forbade all converts from entering Jewish quarters in Majorca.53 In
November of 1328 Alfons III limited convert preaching in Girona and Barcelona to the confines
of synagogues.54 On 27 August 1343, Pere III went further and not only forbade converts from
entering synagogues and private homes in Manresa but also excused the Jews of Manresa from
attendance at converts’ sermons.55 In 1376, Pere III decreed that converts were to be allowed to
preach in Teruel only one day per year – at the bailiff’s home – before Jews whom the bailiff
would select.56 And finally, in 1383 Pere excused the Jews of Majorca from converts’ sermons
and extended this privilege to the most important aljamas of the realm, including Barcelona,
Lleida, Perpignan, Saragossa, Calatayud, Huesca, Exea, Barbastre, Alcanyis, Valencia, and Játiva.57
There is no question that by circumscribing conversionary sermons kings sought to protect
Jews and, by extension, the royal treasury. However, this was not the only reason they intervened.
Kings restricted preaching also because Jews requested that they do so, and these petitions
undoubtedly were accompanied by financial inducements. As Yom Tov Assis has noted: “no
[Jewish] community eager to obtain a privilege would turn to the king empty-handed.”58 Even
when kings agreed to cancel fines that inquisitors leveled on Jewish communities, for instance,

45
Full text in Riera “Llicències,” 132 –4, no. 2.
46
See Riera, “Llicències,” 119–26.
47
Full text in Colección diplomática, 3: 203–4. See Riera, “Llicències,” 117 and Johnston, “Ramon Llull,” 11.
48
Translation from Johnston, “Ramon Llull,” 12. Full text in Bofarull, Los judı́os en el territorio de
Barcelona, 76–7.
49
Riera, “Llicències,” 117–18.
50
Full text in Saldes, “Documentació franciscana,” 135.
51
Full text in Saldes, “La orden franciscana,” 2: 598 –9.
52
Saldes, “La orden franciscana,” 2: 598– 9.
53
Full text in Pons, “Los Judı́os del Reino de Mallorca,” 237.
54
Riera, “Llicències,” 121.
55
Riera, “Llicències,” 124.
56
Full text in Riera, “Llicències,” 137, no. 6.
57
Baer, Die Juden, 1: 541– 2.
58
Jewish Economy, 104.
 Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 33

they made these communities pay a considerable price. For example, in 1312 Jaume cancelled a
fine of 35,000 Barcelona sous that had been leveled on the Jews of Tarragona in exchange for
20,000 Barcelona sous.59 Similarly in 1313 he cancelled the fine of 20,000 Barcelona sous that
had been imposed upon the Jews of Montblanc in exchange for 8000 Barcelona sous.60 Although
smaller than the original fines, these fees were still exorbitant. Indeed, the Jews of Majorca were in
debt for years on account of the sum they paid Jaume II in 1315 in order to avoid the inquisitorial
confiscation of their property.61 In the 1320s, the king had to exempt the Jews of Calatayud from
major taxes for four years to allow the community to recover financially after purchasing a royal
remission for inquisitorial penalties.62 Kings would have appreciated handsome payments for limit-
ing missionary activity especially during the latter half of the fourteenth century, when overtaxed
aljamas struggled to meet royal demands for taxes and loans.
It is also possible that, in some cases, kings granted Jewish requests to regulate preaching as a
way of repaying the enormous debts they owed to Jewish communities. Indeed, although kings
generally promised to deduct debts due to Jews from Jews’ future tax obligations, this policy
Downloaded by [187.64.147.155] at 19:39 27 September 2011

often proved impracticable, and kings frequently granted privileges to communities to which
they were indebted. For instance, in 1275 Jaume I freed the Jews of Rosselló and Cerdanya
from the jurisdiction of ecclesiastical courts as partial repayment for a debt.63 It may be telling
that the specific communities that Jaume I, Pere II, Jaume II, Alfons II, and Pere III protected
from conversionary sermons all had lent these kings significant sums and never fully been repaid.64
The kings of the Crown of Aragon thus benefited financially by virtue of payments received or
loans forgiven in exchange for protection granted from conversionary sermons. By restricting
missionary activities, however, kings weakened conversionary efforts and, at least symbolically,
undermined ongoing Christian dedication to the conversion of infidels.

Individual conversions: their promise and their price

The same tension between religious enthusiasm for Jewish conversion and concern for the royal
fisc that is evident in kings’ approaches to conversionary sermons is apparent also in kings’ treat-
ment of individual converts – men and women who turned to baptism usually not on account of
preachers’ exhortations but, instead, in the face of difficult personal circumstances, such as Jewish
excommunication, condemnation for a crime, separation from a lover, physical abuse, or
poverty.65 This conflict is particularly evident in kings’ reluctance to prevent the confiscation

59
ACA, Canc., Reg. 209, fols. 236v–237r (¼ Baer, Die Juden, 1: 204– 5, no. 166; Régné, History of the
Jews in Aragon, 546, no. 2952).
60
ACA, Canc., Reg. 210, fols. 30v –31r (¼ Baer, Die Juden, 1: 207–8, no. 168).
61
Baer, History, 2: 10– 11.
62
ACA, Canc., Reg. 478, fol. 198r–v (¼ Vincke, Zur Vorgeschichte der Spanischen Inquisition, 75, no. 31).
63
See Assis, Jewish Economy, 120– 2.
64
See Assis, Jewish Economy, 118 –31.
65
To cite a few examples: A responsum of the religious and political leader of the Jews of Barcelona, Rabbi
Isaac ben Abraham Ishbili (1250 –1330, “Ritva”), tells of a Jewish mother named Jamila and her four chil-
dren who apostatized after they were banned from Daroca for five years “on account of many major and
minor [offenses they had committed against] all the people of the town” (Sheelot u-teshuvot, siman 159,
The Responsa Project). In addition, several Jewish couples who were not permitted to marry – whether
because the woman was already married and her husband refused to grant her a get, or bill of divorce, or
for some other reason pertaining to Jewish law – turned to baptism so that they might marry as Christians
(see, for example, Arxiu Diocesà de Barcelona [hereafter, ADB], Registra Communium [hereafter, RC] 42,
fol. 177v; Girbal, “Conversiones de Judı́os,” 35; and Rabbi Solomon ben Abraham ibn Aderet, Sheelot u-
teshuvot, sec. 5, siman 240, The Responsa Project). Around 1381, a Jew who had been assigned the
penalty of lashes converted to Christianity together with his wife and five children, taking the name
Jaume Romeu, and he consequently received a royal pardon (Guerson, “Seeking Remission,” 37).
 34 P. Tartakoff

of converts’ belongings and in their inconsistent responses to Jewish attempts to deprive apostates
of their inheritances.
In spite of the legislation issued by Jaume I and Jaume II,66 Jews continued to give up their
property upon conversion at least until 1391.67 In 1339, for instance, King Pere III described a
convert named Pere de la Mercè as having “completely relinquish[ed] all of his temporal
goods.”68 Similarly, in 1350, the bishop of Girona, Berenguer de Cruı̈lles (1348– 62), explained
that a convert named Guillem had “given up the resources that he had possessed as a Jew.”69 And
in 1371, the bishop of Barcelona, Berenguer d’Erill (1369 – 71), described a group of Jews as
having, “given up all of their belongings . . . [and brought] with them nothing but their
bodies.”70 Begging licenses issued by the bishops of Barcelona and Girona between the years
1326 and 1372 describe at least seventeen additional converts as having emerged from the bap-
tismal font each, “bringing nothing but his bare body.”71 And in the 1380s, a convert named Juan
Fernández told the leaders of the city of Girona that he too had “given up his temporal goods.”72
We lack records documenting the destination of these relinquished possessions. In the absence
Downloaded by [187.64.147.155] at 19:39 27 September 2011

of evidence indicating otherwise, however, it is probable that these converts’ belongings were
disposed of as had been the custom for generations: royal officials confiscated converts’
movable property, and converts’ relatives sometimes took their immovable property.73 In short,
kings were taking with their left hand what they were granting with their right.
Kings’ disregard for legislation that allowed converts to keep their property is highlighted
also by the fact that on the rare occasions when wealthy Jews converted – as when the
former Jewish doctor Vincenç Esteve was baptized around 1307, for example,74 or when
Assach Golluf, the son of the treasurer of Queen Violante, was baptized around 1389, taking
the name Juan Sánchez de Calatayud – kings allowed these converts to keep their property
and inherit their parents’ estates, presumably in exchange for very large sums.75 Thus, Juan
Sánchez de Calatayud remained in possession of “all of [his] goods, immovable and
movable, those that [he] now own[ed], as well as those that he was to inherit from his
father.”76 Yitzhak Baer described Juan Sánchez de Calatayud as “a new type of apostate,”
one for whom “a change of religion was prompted by political considerations, serving as an
‘admission ticket’ to a world that was wholly secular and to a career in the civil and political

66
See Grayzel, Church and the Jews, 254 –6, no. 105; and Alanya, Aureum, fol. xl, col. 1.
67
For discussion on the confiscation of converts’ goods in medieval Europe, see Baron, Social and Religious
History, 9: 20 –2; and Grayzel, Church and the Jews, 19, nn. 36 and 37.
68
Full text in Documents per l’història, 2: 59 –60, no. 63. Also see Riera, “Llicències,” 122.
69
ADG, LE, U16, fol. 37v.
70
ADB, Registra Gratiarum [hereafter, RG] 4, fol. 100r.
71
These converts included Daniel Verger (ADG, LE, U 22, fol. 149r– v), Francesc Papiolo (ADG, LE, U21,
fols. 73v –74r), Iomtov/Pere (ADG, LE, U11, fol. 86r), Joan, Pere and Bernat de Planils (ADG, LE, U2, fol.
2v), Joan Garcia (ADG, LE, U15, fol. 130r), Joan Serra, Pere de Terre de Fraga, Bernat de Palaciolo de
Tarazona, Ramón Esquert de Valadorit (ADG, LE, U16, fol. 37r –v), Martı́ Peralta (ADG, LE, U2, fol.
18r), Tomás of Girona (ADG, U33, fol. 187r), Margarida de Far (ADB, LE, U64, fol. 92v), Jucef
Cohen/Joan (ADG, LE, U10, fol. 91v), Guillem de Llinyola (ADG, LE, U16, fols. 37v– 38r), and
Guillem de Belloc (ADG, LE, U 3, fol. 181). For discussion on the issuing of begging licenses by the
bishops of Girona, also see Sierra, “Captivus de Sarraı̈ns.”
72
Full text in Girbal, Los Judı́os en Girona, 41, n. 2.
73
Pope Alexander III described this tradition in a bull from 1171 addressed to Iberian bishops (see Baron,
Social and Religious History, 9: 20).
74
See Régné, History of the Jews in Aragon, 532, no. 2881; and Cardoner, “Muestra de protección real,”
378.
75
On Juan Sánchez de Calatayud, see Baer, History, 2: 92–4; and Blasco, “Alatzar Golluf.”
76
Baer, Die Juden, 1: 610, no. 390.1.
 Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 35

bureaucracy.”77 By allowing him to pay to retain much of his wealth, then, King Joan I (r.
1387 – 96) not only benefited the royal fisc, but he also facilitated a conversion that promised
a productive future relationship. Such a relationship apparently did flourish, as the grandson
of Juan Sánchez de Calatayud, Gabriel Sánchez, became a high-ranking official under King
Ferdinand the Catholic.78 Moreover, by ignoring the legislation of Jaume I and Jaume II,
according to which converts were supposed to keep their possessions as a matter of course,
kings could act as though by allowing a few wealthy converts to keep their goods they were
stalwart enthusiasts of conversion. Indeed, upon agreeing to protect the belongings of Juan
Sánchez de Calatayud, Joan I waxed eloquent about his conversionary hopes, declaring: “we
. . . fervently aspire and devote our zealous efforts to the observance and growth [of the Catholic
faith], since through her we expect more surely to be saved by divine grace.”79 In light of kings’
demonstrated inclination to privilege the practical over the pious, however, it is likely that these
words were little more than a rhetorical flourish.
Although the kings of the Crown of Aragon officially forbade Jews from withholding the
Downloaded by [187.64.147.155] at 19:39 27 September 2011

inheritances of converts, this custom also persisted.80 Indeed, even when inheritance disputes
between converts and their Jewish relatives came before the king, the outcome was uncertain.
When the family of a convert from Saragossa named Solomon disinherited him around 1311,
Jaume II ordered that Solomon’s relatives be punished.81 And when a young woman convert
named Alienor de Palau, who was also from Saragossa, demanded her inheritance in the
1380s, Pere III did not dismiss her claim but forwarded the matter to the appropriate official.82
In 1383, however, King Pere III sided with Jews against converts: when the Jews of Calatayud
petitioned the king to revoke a promise that the Infant Joan had made to local converts, guaran-
teeing that their Jewish relatives would not be allowed to dispose of goods to which these
converts might someday lay a claim, King Pere acquiesced.83
It has been suggested that kings confiscated converts’ property to compensate for the loss of
future income.84 It is probable, however, that kings also simply saw in conversions the opportunity
for financial gain. Kings benefited directly when royal officials confiscated converts’ movable
property. Moreover, when vested in the hands of their Jewish relatives, converts’ real property
would continue to be subject to the special taxes that were levied on Jews.85 Kings likely also
received payments in exchange for acceding to Jews’ requests (for example, the 1383 request of
the Jews of Calatayud) to deprive converts of their inheritances, in contravention of royal statutes
to the contrary.
These observations about the financial consequences of conversionary efforts and individual
Jewish conversions suggest that in the medieval Crown of Aragon conversionary ideals were
often at odds with kings’ economic self-interest. The trouble was not only that kings feared

77
Baer, History, 2: 93– 4.
78
Baer, History, 2: 93.
79
Baer, Die Juden, 1: 610, no. 390.1.
80
For discussion on Jewish inheritance customs in medieval Catalonia, see Klein, “Splitting Heirs;” and
“Widow’s Portion.” On Muslim practices in medieval Valencia, see Burns, “Journey from Islam,” esp. 340.
81
Régné, History of the Jews in Aragon, 540, no. 2919.
82
Guerson, “Seeking Remission,” 42.
83
Guerson, “Seeking Remission,” 42.
84
Léon Bardinet likened the king’s treatment of Jewish converts to a lord’s treatment of rebellious serfs. See
“Condition Civile,” 14. The owners of Muslim slaves in this period exacted a manumission price when their
slaves were baptized – a move that technically entitled these slaves to freedom. On baptized Muslim slaves,
see Catlos, Victors and the Vanquished, 232 –4; and Burns, “Journey from Islam,” 342–5. Also see Abulafia,
“Servitude of Jews and Muslims.”
85
On Jewish property taxes, see Assis, Jewish Economy, 178–80.
 36 P. Tartakoff

that conversions would weaken Jewish communities and thereby deprive the royal treasury of
funds. It was also that kings realized that they could benefit financially by undermining conver-
sionary efforts. Kings accepted payments from Jews in order to restrict preachers’ activities and
exempt Jews from the obligation to attend sermons, and they also condoned the confiscation of
converts’ property and, on occasion, Jews’ withholding of converts’ inheritances. In sum,
kings’ straitened financial circumstances caused them to contravene the legislation they
promulgated in support of conversionary efforts and to act in ways that restricted missionary
activities and could render conversion unattractive to Jews.
The kings of the Crown of Aragon were not alone in their ambivalence toward Jewish
conversion. In fact, their Christian subjects were also ambivalent, if for different reasons.
Recognizing the religious value of Jewish conversion, Christians of all ranks took pride in
serving as godparents to converts in the fourteenth-century Crown of Aragon. The godparents
of a convert named Nicolau de Montsò, who was baptized in Barcelona around the turn of the
fourteenth century, for example, included a blacksmith,86 whereas the godparents of a convert
Downloaded by [187.64.147.155] at 19:39 27 September 2011

named Andreu d’Abella, who was baptized in Barcelona in 1380, included the squire Ferrer
d’Abella and Lady Constancia, the wife of the nobleman Francesc de Perallos.87 Yet Christians
often shunned converts after their baptisms, fearing – due not only to concerns about the
immutability of Jewishness but also to converts’ patent ulterior motives – that converts were
untrustworthy and essentially still Jews.88 Deprived of their property and inheritances and
scorned by Christians, many converts became wandering beggars.89 Some regretted their
baptisms so greatly that they sought to return to Judaism.90
Royal attitudes toward Jewish conversion in the medieval Crown of Aragon, then, form part
of a larger narrative that highlights the complexity of Christian perceptions of Jewish converts
during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries prior to 1391.91 Royal ambivalence toward
Jewish conversion was distinctive, however, in that it stemmed partly from a reluctance to lose
Jews through conversion. For most other Christians, by contrast, conversion was problematic
precisely because it seemed that converts actually did not cease to be Jews.

Acknowledgements
I am indebted to the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, the Center for Israel and Jewish Studies at
Columbia University, and the Fulbright Program for supporting my archival research in Spain. I am also
grateful to Pere Benito i Montclus, Adam J. Kosto, Jaume Riera i Sans, Steven Schoenig, S.J., and the
reviewers of The Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies for their advice.

86
ADB, RC 3, fol. 140v. See discussion in Baucells, Vivir en la Edad Media, 2: 1728.
87
ADB, RG 8, fol. 196r.
88
For discussion on the situation in the Crown of Aragon, see Tartakoff, Between Christian and Jew: Con-
version and Inquisition in the Medieval Crown of Aragon, forthcoming. On Christian views of Jewish con-
verts in medieval Europe generally, see Elukin, “Discovery of the Self;” and Elukin, “From Jew to
Christian?”
89
See Tartakoff, “Jewish Women and Apostasy,” 10 –11.
90
During the first quarter of the fourteenth century, for example, Jews referred to the repentant apostates Joan
Ferrand and Jean of Provence as baalei teshuva, or masters of repentance (see Baer, Die Juden, 1: 207–8, no.
168 [¼ Régné, History of the Jews in Aragon, 548, no. 2966] and Shatzmiller, “Converts and Judaizers,” 69).
See the discussions in Kriegel, “Prémarranisme et inquisition;” and Tartakoff, Between Christian and Jew.
91
For discussion on the massacres and forced conversions of 1391, see Benjamin Gampel’s forthcoming
1391 and Its Interpreters: The Transformation of Sephardic Jewry; Mitre, Los Judı́os de Castilla en
tiempo de Enrique III; Riera, “Els avalots del 1391 a Girona;” Riera, “Estrangers participants als
avalots;” Riera, “Los tumultos;” Riera, “El baptisme de Rabı́ Ishaq ben Seset Perfet;” Wolff, “1391
Pogrom in Spain: Social Crisis or Not?;” and Beinart, “Great Conversion.”
 Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 37

Bibliography
Abulafia, David. “‘Nam iudei servi regis sunt, et semper fisicos regio deputati,’ the Jews of the Municipal
Fuero of Teruel (1176 –7).” In Jews, Muslims and Christians in and around the Crown of Aragon, ed.
Harvey J. Hames, 97 –123. Leiden: Brill, 2004.
Abulafia, David. “The Servitude of Jews and Muslims in the Medieval Mediterranean: Origins and
Diffusion.” Mélanges de l’Ecole française de Rome (moyen âge-temps modernes) 112 (2000):
687 –714.
Alanya, Luis. Aureum Opus Regalium Privilegiorum Civitatis et Regni Valentie. Valencia: 1515. Republ.
Valencia: Editorial Anubar, 1972.
Altaner, Berthold. Die Dominikanermissionem des 13. Jahrhunderts. Breslauer Studien zur historischen
Theologie. Habelschwerdt: Franke, 1924.
Altisent, Augustı́. L’Almoina reial a la cort de Pere el Cerimoniós. Poblet: Abbey of Poblet, 1969.
Assis, Yom Tov. The Golden Age of Aragonese Jewry: Community and Society in the Crown of Aragon,
1213–1327. London: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 1997.
Assis, Yom Tov. Jewish Economy in the Medieval Crown of Aragon, 1213–1327. Leiden: Brill, 1997.
Baer, Yitzhak. A History of the Jews in Christian Spain. 2 vols. Trans. L. Schoffman. Philadelphia, PA:
Downloaded by [187.64.147.155] at 19:39 27 September 2011

Jewish Publication Society of America, 1961.

Baer, Yitzhak. Die Juden im Christlichen Spanien: Erster Teil Urkunden und Regesten. 2 vols. Berlin:
Schocken Verlag, 1929/1936.
Bardinet, Léon. “Condition Civile des Juifs de Comtat Venaissin.” Revue Historique 12 (1880): 1–40.
Baron, Salo Wittmayer. A Social and Religious History of the Jews. 2nd ed. 18 vols. New York: Jewish
Publication Society of America, 1952 –.
Baucells i Reig, Josep. Vivir en la Edad Media: Barcelona y su entorno en los siglos XIII y XIV (1200– 1344).
4 vols. Barcelona: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientı́ficas, 2004–07.
Beinart, Haim. “The Great Conversion: The Problem of the Anusim and Their Fate in the Fifteenth
Century” [in Hebrew]. In The Heritage of Spain, ed. Haim Beinart, 280–308. Jerusalem: Magnes
Press, 1992.
Berger, David. “Mission to the Jews and Jewish– Christian Contacts in the Polemical Literature of the High
Middle Ages.” American Historical Review 91 (1986): 576–91.
Bisson, Thomas N. The Medieval Crown of Aragon: A Short History. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1986.
Blasco, Asunción. “Alatzar Golluf, Regente de la tesorerı́a de la reina de Aragón y su entorno familiar (siglos
XIII– XIV).” In Cristianos y judı́os en contacto en la Edad Media: Polémica, conversión, dinero, y
convivencia, ed. Flocel Sabaté and Claude Denjean. Lleida: Milenio, 2009.
Bofarull y Sans, Francisco de. Los judı́os en el territorio de Barcelona (siglos X al XIII): Reinado de Jaime I,
1213–1276. Barcelona: F.J. Altés, 1910.
Burns, Robert Ignatius. “Christian –Islamic Confrontation in the West: The Thirteenth-Century Dream of
Conversion.” American Historical Review 76 (1971): 1386–434.
Burns, Robert Ignatius. “Journey from Islam: Incipient Cultural Transition in the Conquered Kingdom of
Valencia (1240–1280).” Speculum 35 (1960): 337 –56.
Caputo, Nina. Nahmanides in Medieval Catalonia. Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press, 2007.
Cardoner, Antoni. “Muestra de protección real a fı́sicos judı́os españoles conversos.” Sefarad 12 (1952):
378 –9.
Catlos, Brian. The Victors and the Vanquished: Christians and Muslims of Catalonia and Aragon, 1050–
1300. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Cawsey, Suzanne F. Kingship and Propaganda: Royal Eloquence and the Crown of Aragon c. 1200–1450.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Chazan, Robert. Barcelona and Beyond. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1992.
Chazan, Robert. Daggers of Faith: Thirteenth-Century Christian Missionizing and Jewish Response.
Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1989.
Cohen, Jeremy. The Friars and the Jews: The Evolution of Medieval Anti-Judaism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press, 1982.
Colección diplomática de Jaime I el Conquistador 3. Ed. Ambrosio Huici Miranda and Marı́a de los
Desamparados Cabanes Pecourt. Valencia: Hijos de F. Vives Mora, 1923.
Colección de documentos Inéditos del Archivo General de la Corona de Aragón 6. 17 vols. Ed. Próspero de
Bofarull y Mascaró. Barcelona: L. Benaiges, 1850.
Documents per l’història de la cultura catalana migeval 1. 2 vols. Ed. Antonı́ Rubió i Lluch. Barcelona,
1921.
 38 P. Tartakoff

Elukin, Jonathan. “The Discovery of the Self: Jews and Conversion in the Twelfth Century.” In Jews and
Christians in Twelfth-Century Europe, ed. Michael A. Signer and John VanEngen, 63– 76. Notre
Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2001.
Elukin, Jonathan. “From Jew to Christian? Conversion and Immutability in Medieval Europe.” In Varieties
of Religious Conversion in the Middle Ages, ed. James Muldoon, 171–89. Gainesville, FL: University
Press of Florida, 1997.
Fort i Cogul, Eufemià. Catalunya i la Inquisició. Barcelona: Editorial Aedos, 1973.
Gampel, Benjamin. 1391 and Its Interpreters: The Transformation of Sephardic Jewry. Forthcoming.
Girbal, Enrique Claudio. “Conversiones de Judı́os en Girona y su obispado.” Revista de Girona 18 (1894):
33– 7.
Girbal, Enrique Claudio. Los Judı́os en Girona. Girona, 1870.
Golb, Norman. Les juifs de Rouen au moyen âge: Portrait d’une culture oubliée. Rouen: University of
Rouen, 1985.
González Hurtebise, Eduardo. Libros de tesorerı́a de la Casa Real de Aragón. Barcelona, 1911.
Grayzel, Solomon. The Church and the Jews in the Thirteenth Century (1198–1254). 2nd ed. New York:
Hermon Press, 1966.
Guerson, Alexandra. “SeekingRemission: Jewish Conversion in the Crown of Aragon, c. 1378–1391.”
Downloaded by [187.64.147.155] at 19:39 27 September 2011

Jewish History 24 (2010): 33 –52.

Johnston, Mark D. “Ramon Llull and the Compulsory Evangelization of Jews and Muslims.” In Iberia and
the Mediterranean World of the Middle Ages, ed. Larry J. Simon, 5–28. Leiden: Brill, 1995.
Jordan, William Chester. The French Monarchy and the Jews: From Philip Augustus to the Last Capetians.
Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989.
Kedar, Benjamin. Crusade and Mission: European Approaches toward the Muslim. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1984.
Klein, Elka. Jews, Christian Society, and Royal Power in Medieval Barcelona. Ann Arbor, MI: University of
Michigan Press, 2006.
Klein, Elka. “Splitting Heirs: Patterns of Inheritance among Barcelona’s Jews.” Jewish History 16 (2002):
49– 71.
Klein, Elka. “TheWidow’s Portion: Law, Custom and Marital Property among Medieval Catalan Jews.”
Viator 31 (2000): 147 –63.
Kriegel, Maurice. “Prémarranisme et inquisition dans la Provence des XIIIe et XIVe siècles.” Provence
Historique 29 (1978): 313 –23.
Loeb, Isidore. “Polémistes Chrétiens et Juifs en France et en Espagne.” Revue des Etudes Juives 18 (1889):
219 –42.
Lourie, Elena. “Anatomy of Ambivalence: Muslims under the Crown of Aragon in the Late Thirteenth
Century.” In Crusade and Colonisation: Muslims, Christians and Jews in Medieval Aragon, 1–77.
Aldershot: Variorum, 1990.
Meyerson, Mark D. Jews in an Iberian Frontier Kingdom: Society, Economy, and Politics in Morvedre,
1248–1391. Leiden: Brill, 2004.
Mitre Fernández, Emilio. Los Judı́os de Castilla en tiempo de Enrique III: El pogrom de 1391. Valladolid:
Universidad de Valladolid, 1994.
Moore, Robert I. The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Authority and Deviance in Western Europe,
950 –1250. New York: Blackwell, 1987.
Motis Dolader, Miguel Angel. Los Judı́os en Aragón en la edad media (siglos XIII–XV). Zaragoza: Caja de
Ahorros de la Inmaculada, 1990.
Neuman, Abraham A. The Jews in Spain: Their Social, Political and Cultural Life during the Middle Ages. 2
vols. New York: Octagon, 1942.
Nirenberg, David. Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1996.
Pons, Antonio. “LosJudı́os del Reino de Mallorca durante los siglos XIII y XIV.” Hispania 16 (1956):
163 –255, 335 –426, 503 –94.
Ray, Jonathan. “The Jews between Church and State in Reconquest Iberia: The Evidence of the Ecclesiastical
Tithe.” Viator 38 (2007): 155 –65.
Ray, Jonathan. The Sephardic Frontier. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006.
Régné, Jean. comp. History of the Jews in Aragon: Regesta and Documents, 1213–1327. Ed. Yom Tov
Assis. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1978.
The Responsa Project 16.0. CD-ROM. Ramat Gan, Israel: Bar-Ilan University, 2008.
 Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 39

Riera i Sans, Jaume. “Els avalots del 1391 a Girona.” In Jornades d’història dels jueus a Catalunya,
95– 159. Girona: Ajuntament de Girona, 1987.
Riera i Sans, Jaume. “El baptisme de Rabı́ Ishaq ben Seset Perfet.” Calls 1 (1986): 43 –52.
Riera i Sans, Jaume. “Estrangers participants als avalots contra les jueries de la Corona d’Aragó en 1391.”
Anuario de estudios medievales 10 (1980): 577 –83.
Riera i Sans, Jaume. “Les llicències reials per predicar als jueus i als sarraı́ns (segles XIII –XIV).” Calls 2
(1987): 113–43.
Riera i Sans, Jaume. “Los tumultos contra las juderı́as de la Corona de Aragón en 1391.” Cuadernos de
historia: Anejos de la revista Hispania 8 (1977): 213– 25.
Romano, David. “Els jueus en temps de Pere el Cerimoniós.” In Pere el Cerimoniós i la seva època, 123–9.
Barcelona: Consell Superior d’Investigacions Cientifiques, 1989.
Roth, Norman. “The Civic Status of the Jew in Medieval Spain.” In Iberia and the Mediterranean World of
the Middle Ages, ed. Larry J. Simon, 139 –61. Leiden: Brill, 1995–96.
Saldes, Ambròs de. “Documentació franciscana (1267–1285).” Estudis Franciscans 45 (1933): 130–49.
Saldes, Ambròs de. “La orden franciscana en el antiguo reino de Aragón: Colección diplomática.” Estudios
Franciscanos 2 (1908): 26 –30, 94 –96, 148 –51, 219–22, 290– 4, 357– 60, 402–7, 472–5, 542– 5,
596 –9, 668 –72, 727 –30.
Downloaded by [187.64.147.155] at 19:39 27 September 2011

Sánchez Martı́nez, Manuel. “La fiscalidad real y las aljamas catalo-aragonesas en el primer tercio del siglo
XIV.” Acta Historica et Archaeologica Mediaevalia 3 (1982): 93– 142.
Shatzmiller, Joseph. “Converts and Judaizers in the Early Fourteenth Century.” Harvard Theological Review
74 (1981): 63 –77.
Sierra Valentı́, Eduard. “Captivus de Sarraı̈ns: Llicències per a demanar caritat dels bisbes de Girona
(1376–1415).” Anuario de estudios medievales 38 (2008): 385–428.
Las siete partidas del Rey Don Alfonso el Sabio. Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia, 1807.
Simonsohn, Shlomo. The Apostolic See and the Jews. Documents: 492–1404. 7 vols. Toronto: Pontifical
Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1988.
Stacey, Robert C. “The Conversion of Jews in Thirteenth-Century England.” Speculum 67 (1992): 263–83.
Tartakoff, Paola. Between Christian and Jew: Conversion and Inquisition in the Medieval Crown of Aragon.
Philadelphia, PA: The University of Pennsylvania Press, forthcoming.
Tartakoff, Paola. “Jewish Women and Apostasy in the Medieval Crown of Aragon, c.1300– 1391.” Jewish
History 24 (2010): 7–32.
Vincke, Johannes. Zur Vorgeschichte der Spanischen Inquisition: Die Inquisition in Aragon, Katalonien,
Mallorca und Valencia während des 13. und 14. Jahrhunderts. Bonn: Peter Hanstein
Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1941.
Vose, Robin. Dominicans, Muslims and Jews in the Medieval Crown of Aragon. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2009.
Wolff, Philippe. “The 1391 Pogrom in Spain: Social Crisis or Not?” Past and Present 50 (1971): 4– 18.