The Sixteenth Century Journal

Jewish Conversion, the Spanish Pure Blood Laws and Reformation: A Revisionist View of
Racial and Religious Antisemitism

Author(s): Jerome Friedman
Source: The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Spring, 1987), pp. 3-30
Published by: The Sixteenth Century Journal
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The Sixteenth Century Journal
VolumeXVIII, No. 1, Spring 1987
Jewish Conversion,
the Spanish Pure Blood Laws and Reformation:
A Revisionist View of Racial
and Religious Antisemitism
JeromeFriedman
Kent State University
The sixteenth century witnessed the transitionof medieval religious

anti-Judaisminto a racial antisemitism laying the foundation for
modern hatred of Jews. This change resulted from the institutionof
the "pureblood laws" by the Spanish courts of Inquisitionto deter-
mine who was and who was not Jewish. Such racialdefinitionswere
necessary because hundreds of thousands of Jews voluntarilycon-
verted to Christianity,indeed, even attemptedto make religiouscon-
tributionsto theirnew religion,as the effortsof St. Theresa,Alphonso
and Juan de Valdes, Luis Vives, Luis de Leon, and the Jesuits Sal-
meron and Laynez and JuanAlonso de Polanco, among many many
others, must demonstrate. Indeed, even Protestantlearning of He-
brew was predicated upon the efforts of Jewish converts such as
Matthew Adrian, Cornelius Adelkind, and others. It was precisely
this wholesale swallowing of formerJews and much Jewishlinguistic
and exegetical expertise that brought about Christian revulsion
against "Jewishcontamination"and the use of a biologicalstandard
for determining religious identification. This process was com-
plicatedby the active complicityof New Christianauthorities,wish-
ing to distance themselves from their former co-religionists, in the
development of racial categories. While generations of historians
have sought to explain Luther'santisemitismresulting from a frus-
tration with Jewish unwillingness to convert to Christianity,all the
evidence points in the other direction.Lutherand others developed
a more defined sense of antisemitismpreciselybecause they believed
they saw "Jewish"-i.e. New Christian,-influence, everywhere
about them.
A VARIETYOFFACTORSHAVECONTRIBUTEDto the recent interest in the de-

velopment of European antisemitism. First, the Holocaust is now suffi-
ciently distant for scholars of all backgrounds to appreciate the dimen-
sions of the horror involved and search for the deep historical roots of so
gruesome a nightmare. Second, because Luther's anti-Jewish writings
allegedly contributed to the Holocaust in some fashion, many Jewish
and Christian historians used the 500th anniversary of Luther's birth in

4 The Sixteenth Century Journal
1983 as an opportunity to take yet another look at the perennial theme

"Luther and the Jews."'
Luther's writings, and the use made of them by the Third Reich,
qualify him as an important influence on subsequent German senti-
ment. But identifying Luther as the most important foundation of mod-
ern antisemitism is unfortunate and, despite his importance, too many
Jewish historians have concentrated upon Luther as a most important
intellectual and religious foundation for twentieth-century German rac-
ism. Marxist historians too have been happy to place blame on Luther's
shoulders if only to demonstrate how religion can play a socially destruc-
tive role. On the other hand, too many German historians have at-
tempted to exonerate Luther from any responsibility at all. While claim-
ing, like Karl Holl, that Luther was the molder, creator, and spirit of
sixteenth-century German culture, indeed, the first modern man accord-
ing to Ebeling, many scholars reverse themselves when discussing Jews,
claiming that Luther was not an antisemite and if he was, that-in this
one area alone-he had no influence. Yet other apologist-scholars re-
peatedly point to the origins of racial antisemitism in the ninteenth cen-
tury. If true, the post-enlightenment modern state and secular culture
must bear great responsibility for recent events and, as a result, this
might exonerate Luther and the Reformation entirely. Such views are in-
correct; but worse, they obscure the true issues involved.
There can be no doubt that Luther expressed antisemitic views and
no doubt that Luther exerted an enormous influence both in his own
generation and later. But Luther was not the main culprit in this matter
and the concentration upon his influence as the prime foundation for
modern antisemitism obscures a more fundamental predicate of modern
racial antisemitism; the pure blood laws instituted by the Spanish courts
of Inquisition. While one should not, indeed cannot, deny Luther's im-
portance to many aspects of sixteenth-century life, sixteenth century rac-
ial antisemitism was firmly anchored upon an Hispanic and not a Ger-
man foundation.
In this article I hope to place the pure blood laws into their proper
perspective and also explain how racial antisemitism might develop
'See for instance, Heiko A. Oberman, Wurzelndes Antisemitismus. Christenangstund Ju-

denplage im Zeitalter von Humanismus und Reformation.(Berlin: Severin und Siedler, 1981),
recently translated as The Roots of Antisemitism. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984). See
footnote 40 for an evaluation of this volume. Mark U. Edwards, Luther'sLast Battles: Politics
and Polemics, 1531-1546. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983); Jeremy Cohen, The Friars
and the Jews: The Evolutionof medievalAnti-semitism. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982).
Additionally, the reader might consult several recent articles, including Steven Rowan,
"Luther, Bucer, and Eck on the Jews," The Sixteenth Century Journal 16, no. 1, (Spring,
1985): 79-90; Jerome Friedman, "The Reformation in Alien Eyes: Jewish Perceptions of
Christian Troubles," The Sixteenth Century Journal 14, no. 1 (1983): 23-40.

Racial & Religious Antisemitism 5
from this foundation. This, in turn, will provide a better basis for under-
standing Luther's unfortunate views. The conclusions arrived at in this
article will force the revision of many common views of antisemitism. It
will demonstrate that sixteenth-century antisemitism was not the result
of Jewish unwillingness to convert and assimilate into general society-
the argument often used to account for Luther's antisemitism-but de-
veloped precisely because tens and hundreds of thousands of Jews had
converted and were living normal Christian lives, indeed, were making
an enormous Christian spiritual contribution to both Catholic and Prot-
estant religious development. An examination of the pure blood laws
and their role in sixteenth-century Spain and Europe will demonstrate
that only a test of blood and ancestry could provide a distinction be-
tween one Christian and another now that so many Jews had converted
and were no longer subject to traditional forms of repressive legislation.
The Problem
One would think that so Christian a society as fifteenth- and six-

teenth-century Spain could determine who was a Christian and who
was not. Yet, in the case of the mass of Jewish converts to Christianity,
Christian authorities were at a loss.2 Who these converts were, what role
they played in Spanish life, and their relationship to both Christianity
and Judaism are just several questions among many that historians of
early modern Europe have not been able to answer with confidence. In-
deed, even proper appelation of these individuals has proven difficult.
Conversos, Confesos, Marranos [literally, 'pigs'], Portuguese Chris-
tians, and New Christians are just a few of the terms contemporaries
and subsequent historians use to refer to these former Jews. It has be-
come convention to refer to those converts secretly adhering to Judaism
in private as Marranos, with the terms New Christians or Conversos used
to refer to those who voluntarily converted out of sincerity or those who
were forcibly converted but would willingly live as true Christians. Even
this is not really satisfactory, however, because the Spanish Inquisition
considered all Jewish converts true Marranos and crypto-Jews while rab-
2The literature concerning the Jews in Spain and Portugal is vast. The most complete
and recent bibliography is Robert Singerman, TheJews in Spain and Portugal:A Bibliography.
(New York and London: Garland, 1975). For general histories of Iberian Jewry see A. A.
Neuman, The Jews in Spain. 2 vols. (Philadelphia: Jewish Pub. Soc., 1942); Y. Baer, A
History of the Jews in Christian Spain. 2 vols. (Philadelphia: Jewish Pub. Soc., 1961, 1966).
Concerning Jewish life in Moslem Spain, the reader might consult Eliyahu Ashtor, The
Jews of Moslem Spain. (Philadelphia: Jewish Pub. Soc., 1973). Very seminal is the short but
important work by Yosef H. Yerushalmi, Assimilation and Racial Antisemitism. (New York:
Leo Baeck Institute, 1982).

6 TheSixteenthCenturyJournal
binic authoritiesalso consideredthem as such at firstonly to change opin-

ion rather abruptly to consider all converts as fully Christian. This is
hardly a minor issue as large numbers of people were involved, possibly
as many as one million, and one must rememberthe most outstanding
Spanish achievement of this age, the Spanish Inquisition,was createdto
deal with the Marrano/New Christianproblem.3
A New Christianproblem affectednot only Spain, but all of Europe
and had a majorimpactupon trans-Europeantradeand commerceas well
as religious institutions in Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands and, as we
shall see, even aided the progress of German Reformation.Conversion
was a heated topic of controversyin contemporarySpain and identifying
who the Marranowas may well have been the single most important
question affecting family fortunes and intriguing Spaniards. Historians
wrestling with these concerns have differed greatly and have generally
provided answers by relying upon either Inquisitional,rabbinic,or po-
litical sources to the exclusion of the others. This in turn has often led to
unbalanced or unrealistic conclusions which might satisfy ethnic, reli-
gious, or nationalisticneeds but which are historicallyinaccurate.This
articlewill attempt some measure of analysis of the enormously varied
sorts of materials availableto answer the question of who the convert
really was. We must inquire whether the New Christianwas a genuine
convert or a Marranocrypto-Jewand in what ways New Christiansdif-
fered from Old Christians.Why, if the Marranowas not Christian,Jew-
ish authoritiesconsidered them Christianand lost to the Jewish people.
Last, how a person might be considered both Jewish and Christianat the
very same time.
The Originof the Problem:
Historically,the Jewish converts to Christianity,known as Marranos

or New Christians, were the creation of two separate factors: the reli-
gious fanaticismrelated to the reconquest of Spain from the Moors and
the alleged Jewish culpabilityfor the plagues of the fourteenth century.
The reconquest was completed in 1492with the fall of Granada,but for
the previous two centuries increasing Christian domination of the pe-
ninsula brought large numbers of Jews and Arabs into Christiansociety.
3Here again the literature concerning the Inquisition in Europe as well as in the New
World, Asia, and India is extremely extensive. The best bibliography is Emile van der
Vekene, Bibliographieder Inquisition: ein Versuch. (Hildesheim: Olms, 1963). The standard
secondary source on the subject is H. Lea, A History of the Inquisition of Spanish. 4 vols.
(New York & London: Macmillan, 1906-7). More general treatments include, from a
general perspective, H. Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition. (New York: New American
Library, 1965) and from a Jewish perspective, Cecil Roth, The Spanish Inquisition. (London:
R. Hale, 1937; reprinted by Norton, New York, 1964). Also, Antonio J. Saraiva, Inquisicdoe
critdos-Novos. (Porto: Editorial Inova, 1969).

The latter lived primarily in the south, were agrarian, and posed no
threat to governing authorities once Moorish military might had been
broken. Jews, however, were urban, played a major role in international
trade, and had provided the backbone of the administrative class in
Moslem Spain. With the progress of the reconquest, Jewish talents were
soon put to Christian use with many providing financial, technical, and
administrative services to their new Christian lords much as they had
previously provided the same services to Moslem rulers. In both in-
stances Jews played an administrative role in societies valuing military
and feudal skills above administrative ones. As the reconquest pro-
gressed, however, Christian religious fanaticism saw little reason to tol-
erate either Jews or Moors and by the fourteenth century both communi-
ties found themselves increasingly isolated.
However these minority-majority group relations might have worked
themselves out, the plague further aggravated Christian-Jewish ten-
sions.4 In Spain, as in the rest of Europe, Jews were blamed for the
plagues and the resulting European-wide massacres took a serious toll
in Jewish life. Alleged Jewish demoniacal power, combined with their
importance as servants to the governing authorities, led to widespread
fear that the plagues were but a first step in a Jewish plot to take control
of the world. As a result, widespread anti-Jewish rioting in 1391 led to
renewed massacres and often to the forced conversion of many Jews as
they learned that death might be avoided through baptism.
The forced conversion of Jews was not a new phenomenon in Euro-
pean history. Since the time of the population explosion about the year
1000 and the widespread arming of the population in the crusades,
many Jews escaped death at the baptismal font during Easter-time riot-
ing and other times of difficulty. Most eventually found their way back
into the Jewish fold once the rioting abated. But events in Spain were
unique; while large numbers of Jews were forcibly converted at sword's
point in some locations, an equal number, perhaps even more, volun-
tarily converted in other areas where no external pressure was present.
Massacres in 1415 again led many to save their lives through conversion
4Though a great many books have been written about medieval Christian-Jewish rela-
tions most are very general. The best starting point is the seventeen volume work by Salo
W. Baron, A Social and Religious History of the Jews. (New York: Columbia University Press,
1969-). For the time period under discussion in this article, see especially vols. 13, 14, 15.
Baron's exhaustive and voluminous footnotes are a mine of information. The best treat-
ment of the most salient feature of medieval Jewish-Christian relations, the development
of anti-semitism is J. Trachtenberg, The Devil and the Jews. (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1943) with another edition by Meridian Books of New York City in 1961. Also, for an
important turning point in these relations, see Solomon Grayzel, The Churchand the Jewsin
the XIIIth Century. Rev. ed. (New York, Hermon Press, 1966). See also Jeremy Cohen, cited
in note 1.

and again an equally large group of Jews determined voluntary conver-

sion a prudent course of action. What is more, while some did return to
the Jewish fold either in Spain or more usually outside of Spain, the ma-
jority of forced and voluntary converts remained within the church even
when crisis conditions passed. Estimates of the numbers involved vary.
Some historians claim that by 1492, a century after the first wave of mass
conversions, there were at. least six hundred thousand Conversos and
possibly as many as one million when contemporary birthrates are con-
sidered.5 Other historians have argued that these figures are too high
with a general consensus resting at approximately two hundred fifty
thousand Marranos and an equal number of Jews for the period ending
in 1492. Either way, the numbers are great indeed.
ConversionResults:
Oddly enough, these forced and voluntary conversions had curious

and unanticipated results. As Christians, these former Jews found little
to hamper any ambitious energies hitherto frustrated by repressive ex-
clusionary legislation. Certainly existing statutes limiting Jewish partici-
pation in many aspects of life and property ownership no longer ap-
plied. Indeed, it is likely that one reason so many Jews either voluntarily
converted or remained Christian after having been forcibly converted
may have been that only their formal identification as Jews kept them
from greater wealth, position, and status. Whole new areas of achieve-
ment now lay open to converts, including city government, membership
in the land-owning hidalgo class, and of course, the church. The conver-
sion of large numbers of Jews brought about their continued assimila-
tion into Christian society where so many had already gained fame, for-
tune, status, and respect. As a result, in the century between 1391 and
1492, New Christians came to exert great influence in Spain's economic,
institutional, and cultural life, and played a significant role in the urban
communeromovement. In 1506 Vicenzo Quirini, the Venetian ambassa-
5Though many general histories present some information on New Christians/Marran-

os, the best specific studies of this topic are the following: B. Netanyahu, The Marranosof
Spain. (New York: American Academy of Jewish Research, 1966) see esp. 235-45 concern-
ing the number of Marranos. Also by the same author, Don Isaac Abravanel, Statesmanand
Philosopher. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Soc., 1953); Cecil Roth, A History of the Mar-
ranos. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Soc., 1932); A. D. Ortiz, Los Judeoconversosen
Espanya y America. (Madrid: Ediciones ISTMO, 1971); I. S. Revah, "Les Marranos," Revue
des etudesjuives, 118. A new and excellent treatment of the Marrano problem in Italy is by
Brian Pullan, The Jews of Europeand the Inquisition of Venice, 1550-1670. (Totowa, N.J.: Rut-
gers University Press, 1983); See Yosef H. Yerushalmi's short but seminal Assimilation and
Racial Antisemitism. (New York: Leo Baeck Inst., 1982) Also, see Singerman and Vekene
and subsequent notes.

'Racial& Religious Antisemitism 9
dor to Castile, wrote home to a very interested audience "it is esti-

mated that in Castile and other Spanish provinces one-third consists of
Marranos, that is, one-third of those who are burghers and merchants."6
During the century of troubles, converts sought refuge outside
Spain although their emigration was legally forbidden. Converts seek-
ing asylum in Moslem countries, especially Turkey, North Africa and
Turkish Greece, found a tolerant haven where many returned to Juda-
ism while others remained Christian. According to Ottoman records,
converts constituted the single largest ethnic group in Salonika, though
twenty thousand Jews resided in that city. Indeed, converts were made
so welcome that one rose to position of Grand Vizier to the Ottoman
Sultan and others became dukes and lords of important Mediterranean
trading areas. New Christians also sought refuge in Christian Europe
where they identified themselves as members of the "Portuguese Na-
tion." The same pattern of successful integration proved increasingly
true in many northern cities such as Hamburg, Antwerp, Amsterdam,
and Bordeaux where converts sought and found refuge. Existing chart-
ers from France, Italy, and England indicate great interest in New Chris-
tian skills with many "Portuguese" merchants gaining very favorable
trading status. Protestant Europe was certainly a good place to settle
since orthodox belief was in flux and possible converso anti-Catholic
sentiment may have been well appreciated by those only now discover-
ing Catholic limitations.
Successful New Christian integration into European life outside
Spain is important because it tells us much about the view these people
had of themselves and how others saw them as well. In France, for in-
stance, Jewish residence was largely forbidden but New Christians be-
gan arriving in Bordeaux at the end of the fifteenth century. Converts
received patent letters from Henry II in 1550 authorizing "the merchants
and other Portuguese called New Christians to reside in towns and lo-
calities of their choice."7
Perhaps because they had once been Jews, comprised a separate
Spanish-speaking ethnic community, or because of the increased eco-
nomic competition, they provided local merchants, there was a measure
of New Christian-Old Christian tension. The problem does not seem to
have been one of religious antagonism for the New Christians lived
thoroughly assimilated Roman Catholic lives. Baptisms, marriages,
burials, and all other church services were performed by local Catholic
6Eugene Alberi, editor. Relazionidegli ambasciatoriveneti al Sanato. First series. (Firenze,

1839) 1: 28f.
7Encyclopedia Judaica. (New York, Macmillan, 1971) 4: 1244.

priests "in accordancewith the customary rites of the Portuguese Na-

tion."8 Hence, in 1604 and in 1612, the Marechal d'Ornano, the
lieutenant-generalof Guienne, issued an ordinance forbidding persons
"to speak ill or do evil to the Portuguese merchants." Indeed, New
Christian economic strength continued to grow so rapidly throughout
the seventeenth century that in 1683 the French government in Paris
warned Bordeauxauthoritiesto accommodateNew Christianneeds, for
"if they are forced to leave Bordeaux,it would ruin the city's economy as
commerceis almost entirely in the hands of that sort of persons."9Simi-
larly, New Christians settled in Ireland, England, Brittany, India, the
Carribbean,in the Low Countries, and especially in Venice-indeed,
wherever shipping and internationaltrade were important.10
New Christianswere prominent in both the Dutch Eastand West In-
dies Companies and founded the equivalentPortuguese corporationsat-
tempting to compete with the former. They were also active in minting,
armaments and shipbuilding, and were strong participantsin the gold
monopoly. They were similarlyactive in the seventeenth century slave
trade and held prominent positions in coral, sugar, and tobacco import-
ing. Many New Christians were educated, sophisticated and skilled,
and represented an economic advantage to the communities they
adopted. Peter Stuyvesant understood this when a shipload of Portu-
guese Christiansappearedin New Amsterdamharborin 1654and so did
Queen Isabellamuch earlierwhen the ships sent off to the New World
with Columbus were filled with New Christiannavigators, translators,
and others whose skills were needed. Nowhere more than in Venice,
8Concerning New Christians in Bordeaux, the reader might consult Georges E. A.

sur les Juifsespagnolset portugaisa Bordeaux.(Bordeaux:Feret, 1908), and
Cirot, Recherches
by the same author, Les Juifs de Bordeaux. (Bordeaux: Feret, 1920). Also, Theophile Malve-
zin, Histoire des Juifs a'Bordeaux.(Bordeaux: C. Febvre, 1875) reprinted in Marseille in 1976
by Lafitte. The latest word on the subject is Armand Lunel, Juifs du Languedoc,de la Pro-
vence, et des etatsfrancais de Pape. (Paris: A. Michel, 1975). Also, see the listings in note 9 be-
low.
9Werner Sombart, Die Juden und das Wirtschaftsleben.(Munich: Duncker and Homblot,
1928), cited in Joachim Prinz, The Secret Jews. (New York: Random House, 1973), 129.
10Theeconomic life of Marranos has been dealt with by a great number of historians
who often include them within more general discussions of Jewish participation in the
economic life of early modern Europe. The following discuss New Christians as separate
from their more general Jewish discussion. Herbert Ivan Bloom, The EconomicActivity of the
AmsterdamJews. (Williamsport, Pa.: Bayard Press, 1937) reprinted by Bayard in 1976; Som-
bart, listed above, and The EncyclopediaJudaica,vol. 15: 1307. A new and very good book is
Portuguese Bankersat the Court of Spain, 1626-1650, by James C. Boyajian (New Brunswick:
Rutgers University Press, 1983). The volume deals with more than the title indicates. On
the same subject of "Portuguese" bankers, see Julio Caro Barojas, Inquisicion, Brujeriay
crypto judaismo. (Barcelona: Ariel, 1970). Also see, Zosa Szajkowski, "Trade relations of
Morranos in France with the Iberian Peninsula in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries," Jewish QuarterlyReview 50 (1959-60): 69-78.

Racial& ReligiousAntisemitism 11
and Amsterdamlater, were the New Christiansmore easily accepted in-

to the business and social life of the times. Existingrecords present am-
ple evidence that if they did not disturbthe social and religious peace of
the city accepting them, New Christianswould not be harrassedin their
new homes.
Suspicions of these former Jews existed in many countries but in
most instances New Christians melted into the local population. In
Spain, however, New Christiansconstituted a social problem. Many, if
not most, mixed freely in society and were evidently well enough ac-
cepted into the noble and wealthy merchantfamilies intermarryingwith
them. But, from the perspective of others, Spain was a mess. In the
minds of many Spaniards, many if not all Marranoswere crypto-Jews
performingJewish ceremonies at home while outwardly conforming to
Christiandemeanor. Beforethe turn of the sixteenth century there were
still hundreds of thousands of Jews and even worse, an even greater
number of crypto-Jewswho lived like New Christians.Worst of all, this
confusing situation had been created by the Christianpopulace itself.
Many people suspicious of Marranos,no doubt quite shocked to learn
that holy water was less powerful than they had believed, looked back
with nostalgia to the good old days when Christians were Christians
and Jews were Jews and everyone knew their place. Clearly,repressive
legislation aimed at eliminatinga non-ChristianJewish minorityhad not
succeeded. There were still Jews and, worse, Christianswho were Jews.
In short, while the "Portuguese"merchantsincreasinglyfound peaceful
domicile outside Spain and integrated into local populations, the same
social element engendered increasing anger and resentment within
Spain.
Responses:Spanish
Two series of events characterizedthe Spanish attemptto rationalize

what appeared to be social anarchy. First, all remaining Jews were
eventually expelled in 1492thereby adding Spain to the large number of
countriesforbiddingJewish domicile. Second, but more important,New
Christianswere increasinglyisolated from the Old Christiancommunity
and subjectto the same violence that had characterizedJewish-Christian
relations. Sporadic outbursts of rioting against converts occurred
throughout the fifteenth century. In 1435 in Majorca,in 1473 in Valla-
dolid and Cordoba, and a year later in Segovia, large numbers of New
Christianswere massacredby the rioting local population. In 1449 riot-
ing was so severe in Toledo that government troops were required to
suppress the rioters. Fresh outbursts in 1467 ended with nine days of
street fighting between armedcamps of Old and New Christians.Finally

in 1468Henry IV decreed that henceforth no conversocould hold office in

Toledo and Cuidad Real.11It is significantthat during these same years
in many of these centers, in Toledo in particular,there was much less
and often no rioting against Jews, indicating perhaps that Christianani-
mus was turned more against the Jew who was a Christianratherthan
against the Jew who remained an infidel and outside the social system.
Finally, in 1480, the monarchy created the Spanish Court of Inquisition
to meet the demands of Old and some New Christians. Old Christians
believed such an agency might eliminate Marranoinfluence altogether
while some New Christianshoped such a court might vindicate them as
good Catholics. Surely such an institution might help the monarchy in
other areas as well and historians have written about these at length.
Creating a super-provincialinstitution which might bridge the gaps in
Spanish royal centralismand eliminate many real and potential enemies
to monarchical ambitions certainly had its appeal. The powerful and
often very independent nobility might be humbled and coralledby such
an institution but even more important, the independent urban centers
of trade would have little recourse in their own efforts to remain free of
royal control. Still, it was a court of religious inquisition and the basic
premise was that at least some New Christians were judaizers and
crypto-Jews and that some procedure and method of investigation
might lead to their discovery. The hope was that remaining New Chris-
tians might then fully assimilateinto the general Christianpopulation. It
was to facilitatethis end that Jews were finally expelled from Spain in
1492 lest a continuing Jewish presence in the peninsula somehow abet
and enable Marranocrypto-Jewsto maintain clandestine bridges to the
Jewish community.
JewishResponses
Before looking into inquisitional records to determine what indeed

this courtof inquirydiscovered,we might digressfor a moment to investi-
gate contemporary rabbinic opinion of the New Christian condition.
Rabbinicthought, largely in the form of responsa literaturebetween rab-
binic authoritiesand community leaders, may indicate a great deal about
how these contemporary religious authorities came to grips with the
same questions being asked by the Spanish Inquisition.Liketheir Chris-
tian counterparts,rabbinicauthority had much at stake in determining
who was and who was no longer a Jew. We have alreadyobserved that
"F. Marquez Villanueva, "Conversos y Cargos concejiles en el siglo XV," RevistadeAr-

chivos,Bibliotecas
y Museos.5th series, 63: 503-40.

many New Christianswere being integrated into the Christianpopula-

tions of other countries. Not coincidentally, despite the difficulties in-
volved in making a blanket generalizationabout so large a group of indi-
viduals, general rabbinicopinion in 1480 confirmed that most converts
were true and sincere Christianswho had successfully assimilated into
their Christianenvironment.
After 1391, Spain's rabbishad to determine what to do with so large
a number of converts, some of whom might conceivablywish to contin-
ue a clandestineJewish existence.12This was not solely a question of reli-
gious identificationfor spiritualpurposes but a problem involving busi-
ness and contractual law, marriage and dowry rights, and inherited
property. One result of the increasing isolation of Jews from Christian
society during the previous centuries was that Jewish communities pos-
sessed great autonomy regarding marriageand property relations and
administered their own civil and domestic courts to adjudicate griev-
ances within the community. With so many converts still claimingfamil-
ial property rights, inheritances, dowries and the like within the Jewish
community, the rabbis were at a loss. Additionally, because enticing a
convert to returnto the old faith was a capitaloffense, relationsbetween
converts and Jews presented an element of danger to both communities.
Moreover,the two existing traditionsregardingconversion which might
guide the rabbis were only partiallyapplicable.
Tile Franco-Germantradition, largely a product of the terriblecru-
sade and plague years, understood forced conversion as unfortunatebut
perferableto death and considered such individuals anusim,or converts
by coercion. A forced convert need feel no guilt and must return to the
Jewish fold at the first opportunity. Because forced converts remained
fully Jewish, reminding such an individual of his trauma or taking any
action which might impede his eventual returnto the Jewish community
was considered a sin punishable by excommunication.If the forced con-
vert was not a sinner, however, neither was he a spiritualmartyrmerit-
ing special consideration. Overriding rabbinic sentiment appreciated
that Jewish-Christianintercommunity relations were such that forced
conversion was always a possibility and hence a returningJew would al-
ways be accepted back into the community. Since the Franco-German
experience generally involved lone individuals or small groups of peo-
ple, conversion did not threaten the integrity of the remainder of the
Jewish community or community authority. This assessment was made
12The only English language treatment of the Marrano problem from rabbinic sources
is Netanyahu above, The Marranosof Spain. Also see H. J. Zimmels, Die Marranenin der rab-
binischen Literatur. (Berlin: R. Mass, 1932); Simhah Assaf, "The Spanish and Portuguese
Conversos in Responsa Literature," (in Hebrew) Zion (o.s.) 5 (1933): 19-60. Also, see Sing-
erman, items 2554-61.

against the memory that during the crusades entire communities had
committed mass suicide rather than accept conversion. The individual,
however, was understood to be weak, and for this reason must be read-
mitted to the community. A sinning Jew was still a Jew, rabbinicdictum
asserted, and a forced convert to Christianitywas certainly still a Jew.
Diametricallyopposed to the traditionof medieval Christiansociety
was that of medieval Moslem Spain where entire Jewish communities
had been forcedinto a victoriousconqueringIslam. Here again the forced
convert was considered guiltless because it was often impossible to
return to normative Judaism. Unless one abandoned the community
and left Spain for a Jewish community elsewhere where conditions were
more favorable, always a precarious choice, the individual, and the
whole community, was expected to practicein secret what could not be
done in public. The formercommunity leadership often led in this nico-
demite faith and thus here too, the integrity of the community was not
challenged.
Events in late fourteenth century Spain were unique. Large num-
bers of Jews were forced converts while an equal number voluntarily
chose Christianity.A third group, probably no larger, remained Jews.
Rabbinicauthoritieswere in agreement that the generation of 1391, and
even that of 1415, consisted of anusimor forced converts who could still
claim full rights as Jews in rabbiniccourts in Spain and elsewhere. In the
parlance of this paper, these individuals were considered Marrano
secret Jews. But by 1450, it became increasingly obvious that many of
these earlier converts were in fact sincere converts to Christianity.By
1480, three generations after 1391 and the year the Spanish Inquisition
was created, it was clear to rabbinicauthoritiesthat those who had not
returnedto the Spanish Jewish community, or left Spain to returnto the
fold elsewhere, must be considered full and conscientious converts to
Christianity. Many rabbinic authorities, especially in Salonika where
converts outnumberedJews, were hesitant to cut away so many people
but general opinion was that those removed from the Jewish community
for three generations no longer knew enough about Judaismto choose
to return and therefore, perhaps regrettably,must be considered Chris-
tian in all senses. With the creation of the Inquisition, rabbinicauthori-
ties assumed all converts in Spain wishing to return to Judaism would
steal out of Spain. When all Jews were expelled in 1492, conceivably
leaving alleged crypto-JewishMarranoswith no possible support infra-
structure, rabbinic authorities were convinced that all remaining New
Christiansin Spain were Christianby choice and faith. In short, at the
very same time that rabbinicauthoritiesregretted writing off hundreds
of thousands of formerJews as lost to the faith, and at a time when this
opinion was corroboratedby large numbers of "Portuguese"Christians

settling into Christian communities outside Spain, Christian religious

authoritieswithin Spain determinedthat all New Christianswere in fact
Marrano crypto-Jews and created the court of Inquisition to expedite
that reality.
The Spanish Inquisition
If indeed the Marranoswere crypto-Jews,the records of the Inquisi-

tion should provide a rich source of evidence concerning the scope and
nature of Marranojudaization. Earliercourts of inquisition have pro-
vided us with what we know about Albigensians and other heresies,
and if officialsused distastefulpractices, such as torture, through which
informationwas gathered, they were nonetheless thorough and main-
tained good records of great benefit to the historian. But alleged crypto-
Jewish Marranoswere unlike earlierheretics. Unlike the Catharior oth-
ers, Marranos, as crypto-Jews, would deceitfully affirm any and all
tenets of orthodox faith and anything else required of them. It was as-
sumed Marranoswould say the expedient thing and hence Inquisition
authoritiesdismissed statements of faith in Christianityas meaningless.
In the confines of a short paper it is difficultto encompass the totality of
these materials,yet several general themes and concepts run through all
the records and give a fairly clear picture of what transpired. Most rec-
ords indicate that New Christians were convicted of being secret Jews
because they often abstained from pork, used olive oil ratherthan lard,
changed sheets every Friday, called their children by Old Testament
names, prayed standing rather than kneeling, or turned to face a wall
when hearing of a death. In short, the Inquisition took as its test for
crypto-Judaismadherence to a variety of ethnic practices common to
earliergenerations of Spanish Jews ratherthan actualbelief in Judaism.
The population at large seemed to accept that abstaining from pork or
using olive oil was tantamountto observance of Judaismand most sub-
sequent historians, ignorant of Judaism, have often not realized that
such practices were not religious in nature and were no more Jewish
than reading the New YorkTimes,eating bagels, or supportingthe Amer-
ican Civil LibertiesUnion.
A wise person would soon learn to alter personal behavior and
many New Christians did change earlier ethnic habits to those of the
general population. Moreover, with the passage of time, each genera-
tion of converts was that much more removed from a common ethnic
past. After 1530, it proved more difficultto condemn converts as secret
judaizing Marranosbecause of ethnic practicesand the objectiveobserv-
er might have concluded that New Christians not merely believed as
Catholics but lived as Catholics as well. Surely in 1530, 140 years after

the first wave of mass conversions, nearly five generations afterthese in-
dividuals' families accepted the true faith, it was reasonable to assume
they were Catholic. The Inquisition, however, was of another opinion.
The Pure Blood Laws
If it was impossible to determine true Christianfrom true Jew on the

basis of belief or accordingto definitions of lifestyle, there was still one
incontrovertiblemethod of discovery. It may seem a tautology to the
modern liberal mind but one could tell who was a Marranocrypto-Jew
by determiningwho had been a convert and obviously, all converseshad
originallybeen Jewish. In short, all descendants of converts were really
still Jews because they came from Jewish ancestors. The sixteenth-centu-
ry "purityof blood" laws stipulated that anyone with at least one Jewish
ancestor was himself still a conversoand therefore was not a real Chris-
tian. Even more, such an individual was still a Marranocrypto-Jew.13It
may seem fantastic that this standard for religious orthodoxy might be
maintained in 1530, 140 years after a family converted to Christianity.
Yet in 1628, one additional century later, one Grand Inquisitor noted
that "by conversowe commonly understand any person descended from
Jews," he explained, "be it in the most distant degree.... Similarly, a
New Christianis thus designated not because he has recently been con-
verted to the Christian faith but rather because he is a descendent of
those who first adopted the correctreligion."'14
These new exclusionarylegal conventions were called "pure blood
laws" because it was maintained that degenerate Jewish blood was im-
pervious to baptism and grace. If mixed with Christianblood, the Jewish
blood would contaminate subsequent generations and would continue
to do so indefinitely. Jewishness, then, was not a statement of faith or
even a series of ethnic practicesbut a biological consideration. This un-
derstanding of Jewishness was explained by Fray Prudencio de San-
doval, CharlesV's biographer, who wrote in 1604, "Who can deny that
in the descendants of the Jews there persists and endures the evil incli-
nation of their ancient ingratitude and lack of understanding, just as in
Negros [therepersists] the inseparabilityof theirblackness. Forif the lat-
ter should unite themselves a thousand times with white women, the
children are born with the dark color of the father. Similarly, it is not
enough for the Jew to be three parts aristocrator Old Christianfor one
13See AlbertA. Sicroff,LesControverses desStatutsde 'puritedesang'en Espafiadu XVeau

XVIIe Siecle. (Paris: Didier, 1960), and Ortiz, Las Judeoconversos,above. Sicroff presents a
complete bibliography on the subject. Also see Singerman, items 1550-79.
14JuanEscobara Corro, Tractatusbipartusde puritateet nobilitateprobanda.(Lugduni,
1628) and Sicroff, 223f.

family-line [i.e., one Jewish ancestor] alone defiles and corrupts him."'-,
Consequently, "it is not necessary to be of a Jewish father and
mother . . . half is enough and even if not that much, a quarter is suffi-
cient or even an eighth."1 For this source, and for other adherents of
blood laws, the Spanish Inquisition was responsible for saving Spain.
"The Holy Office has discovered in our times," one source indicated,
"that up to a distance of twenty-one degrees [i.e., generations?] they
[i.e., New Christians] have been known to judaize." Indeed, so potent
was the biological infection of Jewishness that under no circumstances
should Old Christian children "be suckled by Jewish vileness [of wet-
nurses] because that milk, being of infected persons, can only engender
perverse inclinations."17 In 1623 one Portuguese scholar must have pos-
tulated the last word on this subject when he declared that "a little Jew-
ish blood is enough to destroy the world!""8
Clearly, "judaizing" was less a description of religious deeds prac-
ticed than a theory of race and heredity. The social implications of this
physiological standard were obvious. One political treatise reasoned,
"We cannot deny that blood possesses great force nor that the ascen-
dants of the New Christians have therefore been disqualified from serv-
ing as judges," and one town statute read, "No New Christian or one of
their progeny shall be able to live, sojourn, or become a citizen in this
entire province. "19
The identification of Jewishness with biological infection enabled
some ignoble souls to turn events on their head and argue that Jewish
conversion had in fact been a pre-conceived Jewish plot to take over the
realm. The "Green Book" or the Libro Verdede Aragon of 1507 listed all
high-ranking officials of Jewish ancestry and many argued that New
Christians had attempted to infiltrate royal circles decades earlier be-
cause King Ferdinand's maternal great-grandmother had been Jewish.20
Another author explained that bad blood in his day resulted from bad
blood in the past and hence no New Christian could be admitted to an
office of public trust. "One cannot expect strict justice from one who
15FrayPrudencio de Sandoval. Historia de la vida y hechos del emperatorCarlos V. vol. 82,
Bibliotecade autores espafioles. (Madrid: Editiones Atlas, 1956) 319.
"6Franciscode Torrejoncillo, Centinelacontrajudeos, puesta en la torrede la Iglesia de Deos.
(Pamplona, 1691), 62.
17Vicente da Costa Mattos, Breve discurso contra a heretica perfidiado judaismo. (Lisbon,
1623) fol. 31v.
'8Fran. de Torrejoncillo, ibid., 214.
'9Nueva recopilacionde los fueros . . . de . . . Provincia de Guipuzcoa. (Tolosa, 1696) 13: 1
326.
20The Green Book was reprinted in Rivista de Espania,105-6, nos. 420, 422, 424. Also,
see Jose Cabezudo Astrain, "Nuevos datos sobre la paternidad del llamado Libro Verde de
Arag6n," Archivo defilologia Aragonesa, 6 (1956): 75-85; Rafael de Gil Gomez, Loshispano-he-
breosconversosen la genealogiay en la nobilariade Espania.El Libroverde de Aragon y El Tizon de
noblezade Espafia. (Madrid: Hidalguia, 1962).

does not adhere to the true faith," he explained about present-day

Christians of five generations, "but also because the Hebrew Repub-
lic . . . was on various occasions known to possess corrupt judges."21
There were some problems with this strict biological determinism be-
cause Jesus was Jewish and the most famous conversoin history was
Paul. Moreover, such an understanding of blood indicated that grace
was not always effective which in turn might indicate a weakness in
God. Various arguments explained that those ancient Jews acceptingJe-
sus, such as Paul, were biologically different from those rejectinghim.
The result of this racialist thinking was that the courts of Inquisition
were increasingly involved with determining if a given individual was
genealogically Y'6,Y32,or Y%4th part Jewish. The Toledo court of Inquisi-
tion for instance, devotedfourtimesmorespacein its recordsto this thantoac-
tualcourtprocedures involvingchargesofjudaization.22This statistictakes on
absurd meaning when we consider the following. As early as 1488, that
is, before the full implementation of the pure blood statues, the three
auto-de-feheld in Toledo involved the burning of forty living converses
but more than one hundred exhumed corpses. On the single day of May
25, 1490, the bones of over four hundred deceased Marranoswere ex-
humed and burnt.23Their descendants, also declared heretics, were re-
moved from office, from other positions of status, and from ownership
of landed property. Nor was this policy pursued only in Toledo. As ear-
ly as 1484 the Grand InquisitorTorquemadaattempted to establish the
pure blood laws as a national Inquisition standard when he declared in
Seville that "the children and grandchildrenof the condemned may not
hold public office or be promoted to holy orders."24In short, the Spanish
Inquisition was largely involved in determining who had been Jewish
generations before rather than who was a Christianin present times.
Even more incrediblethan the pursuit of ancient Jewish blood were
the social implicationsof this search which may well have been the fun-
damental motive involved. The condemned New Christian's children
and grandchildrenwere likewise condemned and hence, the best way to
remove a political or commercialopponent was to prove that his or her
21Juan Marquez, El Governador Christians. (Salamanca, 1612) excerpted by Antonio
Dominguez Ortiz, La ClaseSocialde los conversosen Castillaen la edadmoderna.(Madrid:
C.S.I.C., 1955). 222f.
22Baron,SocialandReligiousHistory,13:99. N. Lopez Martinez, "El Estatuto de limpieza
de sangre en la Catedral de Burgos," Hispania (Madrid) 74: 52-81; A. de Federico Fernan-
dez, "Inventario de expedientes sobre legitimidad y pureza de sangre," Hispania Sacra 15
(1955): 209-23.
23Baron,S.R.H. 13: 32; Matias Sangrador y Vitores, Historia de la . .. ciudadde Valladol-
id. (Valladolid: D. M. Aparicio, 1851-4), 1: 290.
24Steven H. Haliczer, "The Castilian Urban Patriciate and the Jewish Expulsions of
1480-1592." AmericanHistoricalReview 78, no. 1 (Feb. 1973): 43; and Kamen, Spanish Inquisi-
tion, 120.

ancestors had been Jewish. This was easier than competing through
trade or politics and might also result in the expropriation of wealth and
Inquisitional records give adequate testimony to the usefulness of such
investigations. How ironic that Torquemada did not realize that he had
Jewish ancestors; or did he?
The Gordian Knot
It would be intellectually comforting were we able to blame six-

teenth-century Spanish racial abuse upon the nasty officials of the Span-
ish Inquisition postulating the terribly evil pure blood laws. The modern
liberal temper condemns courts of Inquisition in general and after the
racism of the Holocaust, such sixteenth-century policies are not easily
defended. Moreover, because the Inquisition existed so many centuries
ago, it is easily condemned. This reading is too simplistic and while pin-
ning blame exclusively upon the shoulders of the Inquisition may be
fashionable from a liberal anti-authoritarian point of view, it is not his-
torically accurate because it does not consider the reality of New Chris-
tian complicity with Spanish racialism. In fact, it was a conversowho con-
tributed to pure blood theory and wrote the Green Bookof Aragon listing
prominent Spaniards of Jewish ancestry, and Torquemada, as we noted,
was also of converso origin. Torquemada argued for a three generation
exclusion of New Christians (which would have exonerated him for his
family had converted in the 1390s) rather than the more strict Old Chris-
tian version of the pure blood laws which absolutely excluded all New
Christians of any degree at all which, as we have seen, became the offi-
cial standard by 1628. The GreenBookwas written to provide a list of suc-
cessful converts in order to demonstrate how very many local ex-Jews
now served the crown. Only subsequent Old Christian antagonistic use
turned this into a demonstration of a Jewish attempt to take over the
realm. Similarly, the dangerous idea that those ancient Jews who ac-
cepted Jesus were biologically different from those who rejected him
was also of New Christian origin. By arguing that the Jews of apostolic
times accepting Jesus were biologically different than those who did not,
New Christians implied that those contemporary converses accepting
Christianity in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Spain were also biologi-
cally different than those Jews who did not and hence should not be
subject to the pure blood laws dividing all Jews from all Christians.
Quite simply, the pure blood laws could serve both Old Christian
and New Christian, and even Jewish, ends. The Inquisition's passion for
determining whether an individual was 1/16, Y32,or 164thpart Jewish re-
sulted from Old Christian fears of Jewish contamination and equally
from New Christian desires to prove how distant they were, after five or

six generations, from "full Jews." New Christians did not create the pure
blood laws nor did they generally instigate for their institution in
sixteenth-century Spain. But once instituted, they sought to use these
laws created for their exclusion to their own best advantage. If Old
Christians might use the pure blood laws to differentiate themselves
from New Christians, the latter might use the same standard to include
themselves within the Christian world by distinguishing themselves
from Jews. Indeed, as Brian Pullan's recent study of the Inquisition in
Venice indicates, even many New Christians outside Spain purposely
blurred questions of identification and often posed as Jews, as Chris-
tians who hated Jews, as both or neither and often used a variety of dif-
ferent names and aliases, depending upon political and economic cir-
cumstances and where their interests lay at the moment. In an age of
cynical faith, New Christians were often able practitioners.25
The pure blood laws had the additional effect of strengthening the
Jewish community and the hold rabbinic authorities exercised over com-
munity relations. Like their Christian clerical colleagues, the rabbis also
believed that a Jew always remained a Jew and many rabbinic authori-
ties were convinced the pure blood laws would have the beneficial effect
of forcing secret judaizing Marranos out of the Christian closet to rejoin
the Jewish community outside Spain. Hence, many converts were placed
in the complex situation of being considered Marrano crypto-Jews by
Christian authorities in Spain and sincere Christians by Jewish authori-
ties outside of Spain. Together with the expulsion of 1492, the pure
blood laws also had the effect of stifling religious innovation within the
Jewish community itself. The same crass institutions which might guar-
antee Christian freedom and integrity from the taint of Jewishness might
similarly guarantee Jewish isolation and integrity from Christian intel-
lectual influence through those converts returning to the old faith. The
sad tale of Uriel da Costa in Amsterdam is not unique and indicates how
both communities might penalize the same individual for the same rea-
son. Either both Christian and Jewish or perhaps neither or some combi-
nation of the two, da Costa attempted to find a place in either community
but was eventually rejected by both. Christians condemned his "judaiz-
ing" while the synagogue humbled and humiliated him as a "christian-
izer" and in the end this sensitive soul, unable to placate either Christian
or Jewish clerical needs, committed suicide.26 Others caught in the same
complex web such as Baruch [i.e., Benedict] Spinoza attempted to remain
25See Pullan, The Jews of Europeand the Inquisition of Venice, 201-313.

26Theliterature concerning da Costa is very large but the reader might consult Singer-
mann to begin with and see the following: I. S. Revah, "La religion d'Uriel da Costa, mar-
rane de Porto" Revue de l'histoiredes religion 161 (1962): 45-76.

free of both Christian and Jewish institutions. Montaigne, whose mother

was a converso, also understood the pitfalls, and fetish, of strict confes-
sional identification. It is perhaps not very coincidental that both Spinoza
and Montaigne championed religious systems and ideas which made
such classifications as Old and New Christian either useless or mean-
ingless.
In point of fact, both Christian and Jewish religious authorities used
the myth of the "insincere convert" -alternately viewed as a crypto-Jew
or crypto-Christian-to strengthen their own position within their re-
spective communities. Christian authorities used the fear of Marrano
contamination to build an institution which gave them extensive power
over other people's lives, property, and futures. Those historians who
have argued that the Spanish Inquisition was primarily intended to
meet the needs of royal centralism or nationalism and in fact had little
interest in true religious concerns, merely confirm how thorough the
fear of Jewish contamination must have been for such a secular institu-
tion to build great power upon this justification. Jewish authorities did
no less and the history of New Christian-Jewish contact outside of Spain
indicates a poor relationship that was often no better than the Old Chris-
tian-New Christian relationship within Spain. Outside Spain, rabbinic
authorities used fear of the Christian-influenced Jewish returnee as a
whip to guarantee religious conformity within the community much as
the Inquisition accomplished the same end within Spain. Indeed, just as
conservative Christian authorities saw reform ideas as "Jewish," Jewish
authorities understood all calls for reform within the Jewish community
as the result of Christian influence. As a result, many cities outside of
Spain had both large Jewish and New Christian communities. Even
when the latter could return to the Jewish fold, as in Moslem areas,
Orthodox Greece, Amsterdam and Hamburg, most chose not to and the
overwhelming number of New Christians remained Christian. In actual
fact, the pure blood laws and the courts of Inquisition affected only a
minority of converts in Spain in a quantitative sense with most New
Christians quietly passing from the Jewish community into the Christian
fold. Without the pure blood laws, nothing would have impeded whole-
sale Jewish conversion and one must wonder whether these statutes re-
sponded to the Christian fear that Jews would not really convert or the
fear that perhaps they really did.
The Authentic New Christian Religious Contribution
The New Christian played an important role in Spain despite the an-
tisemitic attitudes which soon transferred to New Christians earlier ha-
tred of Jews. Indeed, it is a measure of New Christian religious integrity

that despite the hatred of so many Old Christians, many made impor-
tant contributions to their new religion. Historians have long noted the
strong participation of New Christians in the Spanish religious awaken-
ing of the later fifteenth and sixteenth century. John Longhurst has writ-
ten about Spanish Illuminism that "one of the noteworthy things about
the Illuminist movement is that many of those involved in it were con-
versos or persons of Jewish ancestry," and George Williams has noted
the relations between Jews, actually New Christians, and antitrinitarian
radicals in Italy.27 St. Theresa may stand as a fine expression of Spanish
mysticism but contemporaries were more interested in her Jewish ances-
try and Christian authorities opposed to reform believed such terrible
spiritualist ideas reflected an alleged Jewish origin, or, at least believed
such ideas were best fought by identifying them as "Jewish." As an ex-
ample, Alphonso and Juan de Valdes faced continual harrassment in Ita-
ly because of their Jewish origins. In August of 1528, Baldassare Castigli-
one, that noted authority on good taste, wrote to Alphonso, "I would
think you would remember Hebrew things better than Roman ones," or
"do not think that by your hypocrisies you have deceived those who can
easily suspect in you the roots of the errors of your [Jewish] forbears."28
When Alphonso reacted with horror and requested of Castiglione sim-
ple human respect, decency, and civility in their intellectual disagree-
ment, Castiglione sneered, "I am surprised that you presumed I should
value your honor-which you lost before you were born." Similarly, the
great poet and mystic Luis de Leon did not know of a Jewish ancestry or
that his family had converted in 1415, but was charged with judaization
and dragged through the courts in 1572.29The great humanist and New
Christian Juan Luis Vives wrote to Erasmus about the no-win situation
he experienced, observing, "we have such difficult times that we can
neither speak nor be silent without peril."30 How ironic considering
Vives's many polemics against Judaism. It was the content of his writ-
ings, and those of other sincere anti-Judaistic New Christians, which
provided the grist for Inquisition courts and charges of judaization.
27See George Williams, "The Two Social Strands in Italian Anabaptism, ca. 1526-
1565." The Social History of the Reformation,ed. L. P. Buck and J. W. Zophy (Columbus:
Ohio State University Press, 1972), and John E. Longhurst, Luther's Ghost in Spain.
(Lawrence, Kan.: Coronado Press, 1969), 86.
28John E. Longhurst and Raymond R. MacCurday, Alfonso de Valde'sand the Sack of
Rome: Dialogue of Lactancioand the Archdeacon. (Albuquerque, N.M.: University of New
Mexico Press, 1952), 101f.
29See Adolph Coster, Luis de Leon, 1528-1591. (New York: Tours Imp. E. Arrault, 1922);
Karl A. Kottman, Law and Apocalypse; The Moral Thought of Luis de Leon. (The Hague: Ni-
jhoff, 1972); Aubrey F. G. Bell, Luis de Leon; A Study in the Spanish Renaissance (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1925).
30PercyStafford Allen, ed. Opus EpistolarumDes. ErasmiRoterdami.(Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1907-47) 10: 383f.

Despite the belief that illuminist spiritualism reflected some

"Jewish" religious orientation, there was no such illuminist or spiritual-
ist tendency within Spanish Jewish circles and it is far more likely that
such ideas represented a positive New Christian assessment of the true
meaning of Christ's message rather than a subversive transference of
Jewish ideas to a Christian setting. Such spiritualism, however troubling
to conservative Christian minds, in fact attested to New Christian Chris-
tianity, not Marrano judaization.
Many New Christians gravitated towards those religious institutions
with the most shallow historical roots, and hence, the least tradition of
antisemitism. It is not surprising that New Christians were important in
the founding of the Jesuit order. Historians have known that Laynez,
Salmeron, and other founding members of the Society of Jesus were of
Jewish ancestry and St. Ignatius was tireless in his campaign against the
pure blood laws. Indeed, his personal secretary, Juan Alonso de Polan-
co, was also of Jewish ancestry. Yet, as modern scholarship has
demonstrated, the order soon succumbed to these same ignoble sen-
timents and instituted a racial standard first to the holding of office and
later even to membership in the order itself. It was only in 1946 that the
Society of Jesus finally eliminated the "Aryan clause," its centuries' old
exclusion of converso descendants from membership candidacy.31
Outside of Spain and Italy, New Christian participation in the reli-
gious life of northern Europe was also apparent and here too New Chris-
tian contributions to their new faith were smeared and condemned as
"Jewish." Though every historian of the Reformation emphasizes Prot-
estant interest in the unvarnished truth of Scripture in its original
tongues, few in fact have wondered where most theologians and others
learned Hebrew. Because most of western Europe had expelled its an-
cient Jewish population by the fifteenth century, other than New Chris-
tians few teachers were available, as Reuchlin himself noted with
alarm.32 Many, possibly all, early teachers of Hebrew at German and
other north European universities during the early decades of the six-
teenth century were in fact New Christians. Similarly, the many Hebrew
Old Testament texts published for Christian use at the Bomberg, the
Aldine, Froben, and other Christian presses were produced largely
31See James Rietes S. J., "St. Ignatius Loyola and the Jews," Studiesin theSpirituality of
Jesuits. 13, no. 4 (1981): 31. I am indebted to the fine paper entitled "Jesuits of Jewish An-
cestry, 1540-1608" presented by John Patrick Donnelly, S. J., at the Sixteenth Century
Studies Conference, October, 1983. See his "Antonio Possevino, The Jewish Apostolate,
and the Jesuits of Jewish Ancestry," in the 1986 edition of the Archivum HistoricumSocietatis
Iesu.
32Johannes Reuchlin, Briefwechsel,ed. L. Geiger (Tiibingen, 1875), 140.

through the efforts of such sincere New Christians as Cornelius Adel-

kind.33 Here, too, conservative Catholic authorities soon condemned this
authentic and completely Christian linguistic interest in the Hebrew Old
Testament for Christian ends as "proto-Jewish"and heresy. All historians
know that Reuchlin championed the cause of humanism against the rigid
and closed minded Dominicans. In fact, Reuchlin's efforts were to protect
Jewish sources, especially the Talmud, for Christian use and it was for this,
and only this, that he was condemned by local bishops and finally by the
papacy itself. Reuchlin was convinced that Cabbalistic numerology
might be used to prove the trinity, a common argument used by sincere
converts against their Jewish brothers for over a century, and thereby
provided the Dominicans with a brush to color the entire humanistic
movement.34 For the modern historian Reuchlin stands as a victorious
cultural giant but in his own time he was broken on the familiar rack of
judaization. It was an effective charge and soon Luther too, perhaps be-
cause of his own interest in biblical studies, was blasted by Eck and oth-
ers as nothing more than a convenient front for Jews. Protestantism, un-
like earlier heresies such as the Cathari, which eschewed both the Old
Testament as well as Jews, was open to such charges because it, in fact,
did make extensive use of Hebrew language and Jewish exegetical
sources. Indeed, the fact was that Matthew Adrian, Werner Einhorn of
Bacharach, and other Hebrew teachers Luther brought to Wittenburg
were New Christians . Similarly, scholars such as Bucer, Zwingli,
Capito, and Oecolampadius, among a host of others, praised Jewish ex-
egetes and made use of their writings and language tools. But this open-
ness to New Christians was only true in the first years of the Reformation
when Hebrew language skills were still rare within the Old Christian
community.
Even formerly friendly Protestants condescended to play the same
game of identifying New Christian converts as Jews and condemning
their religious contributions as judaizing. Despite the fact that a fair
number of converted Jewish Hebraists were known to Luther and that
he did not meet more than half a dozen confessing Jews in his entire life,
he lamented that Jews never really converted and this is the explanation
usually offered by Luther's defenders to explain his antisemitism. This is
an unfortunate explanation because it tends to exonerate Luther from
what he actually wrote while it places responsibility back on Jewish
33See Jerome Friedman, The Most Ancient Testimony; Sixteenth-Century Christian-
Hebraicain the Age of RenaissanceNostalgia. (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1983).
See 36f.
34For a brief description of the lurid Dominican attack upon Reuchlin, see Ancient
Testimony, 26-28. The best treatment of this issue remains, J. H. Overfield's "A New Look
at the Reuchlin Affair," Studies in Medieval and RenaissanceHistory, vol. 8, ed. H. L. Adel-
son. (1971).

shoulders. It is doubly unfortunate for in reality Jews did convert but

few Old Christians were willing to accept them as Christians and Lu-
ther, like his more Catholic colleagues, demonstrated an increasing diffi-
culty differentiating Jewish converts to Christianity from Jews. Luther
continually referred to the Hebraist Matthew Adrian as a Jew and in one
treatise written against Sabbatarian Christianity, Luther's arguments
were actually an attack upon Jews.36 And while he condemned "Jewish"
Cabbalistic numerology, the examples of the detested science he pre-
sented were in fact taken from Reuchlin, usually considered a Christian,
who in turn took them from New Christians wishing to show anti-Chris-
tian Jews that Jewish numerology might prove Christ's divinity.37 In-
deed, Luther considered the "Jews"- really Christian converts - danger-
ous to Christian society because their deceptive and judaizing exegesis
was taken up by Christians and he believed that Jews had purposefully
created these New Christian exegetical views and skills in order to fool
Christians.38 Luther's criticism of "Jews," like Castiglione's condemna-
tion of Valdes's "Jewishness," was in fact also a condemnation of Jewish
conversion to Christianity. It was successful Jewish conversion, not Jew-
ish obdurancy, that motivated both.
It soon became fashionable within Protestant ranks to condemn all
Protestant religious deviation as "Jewish." Lutherans blasted Calvinist
covenantalism as the perverted fruit of their "Judaized" Hebraica and
even fully Old Christian Protestant Hebraists soon attacked each other
as being "too Jewish" when in fact most had studied with sincerely reli-
gious New Christians and not Jewish teachers.3 Much as Castiglione at-
tacked Valdes's spiritualism as "Jewish," and Luther attacked Reuchlin's
New Christian numerology as "Jewish," the Lutheran Hebraist Jo-
35Fora discussion of Luther's efforts to secure Hebrew teachers for Wittenberg and his
correspondence with Spalatin to that effect, see my Ancient Testimony, 33-35. Concerning
Luther's reaction to being called a Jew, see 190-93.
36Concerning the "Jew" Adrian, see my Ancient Testimony,34. The 1538 treatise Against
the Sabbatariansin fact deals only with arguments against the Jewish religion. As an exam-
ple, Luther devoted considerable time and space to the theme of Jesus as the messiah. Sab-
batarian Christians would have no need to be persuaded of this and Jews would not have
been persuaded. See vol. 47 of Luther Works(Philadelphia: Muhlenberg, 1955).
37Foran explanation of Reuchlin's views and uses of Cabbalistic numerology, see my
Ancient Theology, 71-95. For Luther's confusion see 205 of the same volume.
38Ibid., 204.
39Many Lutheran thinkers believed Calvinist Law orientation was a result of judaiza-
tion. The best expression of this might be found in Aegidius Hunnius, Calvinus judaizans.
(Wittembergae, 1593). Calvin in turn believed that Melanchthon suffered from judaization.
See his letter to Farel, Calvini Opera, eds. Baum, Cunitz, Reuss. (Braunschweig, 1863-
1900). Vol. 10, pt. 2, col. 340. Everyone considered Servetus both a product of judaization
as well as a purveyor and disseminator of judaized views, but Calvin was the most out-
spoken in this regard. See my volume, Michael Servetus; A Case Study in TotalHeresy. (Ge-
neva: Droz, 1978).

hannes Forster attacked Sebastian MUnster's Calvinist Hebraica and that

tradition's fondness for the Old Testament covenantalism as "Jewish"
and the result of having studied with Jews. Indeed, Johannes Forster
wrote that he hoped to expurgate the study of Hebrew from both con-
temporary as well as ancient Jewishness.40 In short, the more ardently
Jews sought acceptance as Christians, the more ardently Christians
identified them as Jews. The more Jews converted to Christianity, the
more necessary the fiction that Jews never converted. The more New
Christians assimilated into their new surroundings, the more biological
distinctions were needed to separate New Christian from Old Christian.
The more New Christians might contribute to their new faith, the more
necessary it became to expurgate the faith of "Jewish" influence. Indeed,
even northern Christian-Hebraists, usually quite friendly to Jews and
New Christians, were affected by this peculiar double-think syndrome.
The more extensive their use of Jewish sources, the more they felt the
need to write antisemitic treatises and deny the reality of Jewish conver-
sion.4'
The Marrano/New Christian phenomenon is extremely complex. It
cannot be explained simply as yet another manifestation of traditional
medieval antisemitism or resulting from the same illusive set of econom-
ic conditions it has become fashionable to parade every time unfortunate
Christian treatment of Jews, or New Christians, is discussed. In the me-
dieval world the Jew was hated because he refused to convert but those
who did would seem to have been assimilated into Christian society. In
Spain, Jews were hated because they did convert with even the descen-
dants of converts still considered Jews after many centuries of Christian
adherence. In Germany, where there were no more than a few hundred
Jews, sincere New Christians such as Matthew Adrian were, simply
stated, still Jews, both to Luther and his opponents. And yet, despite
the pure blood laws and the Spanish Inquisition, more Jews assimilated
more completely in Spain than in any other country. And despite the
strong antipathy of the Protestant variety of Old Christianity to "Jewish"
willingness to contribute to the faith, New Christians made linguistic
contributions to their new religion.
40Forster'shebraica was of an interesting sort because its only value lay in expurgating
anything "Jewish" from study of that language. Forster believed, for instance, that Ara-
maic was a Jewish invention created to fool Christians, as did Luther, and that Hebrew
three letter verb structure was predicated upon the trinity. For a complete discussion of
this unusual linguist, see my Ancient Testimony. 165-76.
41Thisis one of the dreariest stories of the sixteenth century. Such remarkable linguists
as Sebastian MUnster and Paul Fagius attempted to exonerate themselves from the taint of
Jewishness by attacking the very people who had taught them Hebrew and with whom
they had collaborated in publishing grammars for Christian use. See Ancient Testimony.
212-54.
42See Arthur Hertzberg, The French Enlightenmentand the Jews. (New York: Schocken,
1968), 354.

Spain's experience indicates that by the sixteenth century antisemi-

tism had undergone an important change. It had transcended traditional
medieval anti-Judaism towards a growing identification of Jewishness as
a biological fate and infection, both physiologically and spiritually, to be
cut out of society rather than incorporated into it. This form of antisemi-
tism may have had medieval roots but would lay the foundation for
modern racial hatred of Jews which would also demand the elimination
of both perverted Jewish blood as well as retrograde Jewish ideas.
Placing the pure blood laws in their proper racial/religious perspec-
tive enables us to understand how antisemitic ideas might even tran-
scend the religious concerns first bringing them about and, therefore,
might still be entertained by those for whom all religion, even Chris-
tianity, was distasteful. The "enlightened" luminaries of the French
Revolution, for instance, may have denuded the "superstitious" church
of its power, wealth, and prestige, and should have rejected any
religion-bred notions of antisemitism as well, but could still explain the
need to exclude Jews from all political reforms for reasons of race if not
religion. "I will admit, if you will, that the Jews are born like us," one
author conceded, but "one could argue against this view. The same law
of nature that ordains that animals transmit their characteristics from
generation to generation is also assuredly true of the human species,
even though it may be less obvious."42 In fact, Jews were excluded from
the benefits of the French Revolution until Napoleon's reign when,
despite a lack of biological fraternity, they were finally granted some
rights of liberty and some measure of equality.
It is impossible to separate the pure blood laws from the fact of large
scale Jewish conversion to Christianity, for these laws were applied only
to converts and only after there was a significant number of New Chris-
tians. The application of such laws to New Christians demonstrates the
poverty of the idea that sixteenth-century society was anti-Judaistic but
not racially antisemitic. Had there been no wholesale conversion to
Christianity, it is possible that antisemitic sentiment might not have be-
come racial in nature. As long as society clearly understood who was
Jewish and who was not, racial standards were unnecessary. Without
the pure blood laws supplementing medieval anti-Judaism and provid-
ing the foundation for a secular, biological conception of Jews, modern
racial antisemitism could not have developed. And yet, were racism the
only factor involved, most New Christians would not have quietly
assimilated into Christian society. It is likely that sixteenth century his-
torians will understand the New Christian phenomenon only through a
comparative study of other nicodemite churches including the Marran-
os, the Morsico Moor, Catholics in England, Protestants in France, and
radical churches, perhaps Mennonites, where there are records indicat-

ing their relationship with the larger community. Such a large study
might enable historians to appreciate the role of class, race, caste, minor-
ity status, as well as religious affiliation, in creating modern concepts of
social identification. It is clear, however, that religious affiliation alone,
the usual premise used by Reformation historians for understanding the
sixteenth century, may be more limited than we have realized. In the
case of New Christians, religion hardly ever played a role at all.
General historians of modern Europe have been timid in recogniz-
ing the importance of sixteenth-century pure blood laws as a prime
foundation for modern racial hatred of Jews. I believe there are many
different reasons for this. The fiction that sixteenth-century Christian
Europe was "anti-Judaistic" but not antisemitic must provide much so-
lace considering the number of Christian authors who continue to main-
tain, all evidence to the contrary, that racial antisemitism was the result
of the secular nineteenth century but not the religious sixteenth centu-
ry.43 Jewish historians have been too easily convinced of Christian re-
sponsibility with few willing to appreciate the measure of Jewish and
New Christian complicity involved.
43Themost recent work to continue in this line of thought is Heiko Oberman's new vol-
ume, The Roots of Antisemitism listed in footnote 1. Oberman's argument is curious in many
other respects as well. He attempts to convince the reader that Luther was no worse an an-
tisemite than either Reuchlin, who defended Jewish religious and civil rights, or Erasmus,
whose strident antisemitic sentiments have been explored in Harry S. May, The Tragedyof
Erasmus. (St. Charles, Mo.: Piraeus Publishers, 1975). The logic is that only Luther did not
hold all Jews categorically and collectively responsible for Jesus' death. In point of fact,
neither did Erasmus or Reuchlin, though one can certainly find unfortunate statements by
all three. On the other hand, of the three, only Luther believed in the Jewish blood libel
and only he, for instance, wrote the following when discussing alleged Jewish execution of
Jesus, alleged Jewish responsibility for the blood libel, the kidnapping of Christian chil-
dren so that their blood might be drained and used for rabbinic rituals. Luther wrote "So
we are even at fault in not avenging all this innocent blood of our Lord and of all the Chris-
tians which they shed . . . and the blood the children they have shed (which still shines
forth from their eyes and their skin) we are at fault in not slaying them." Ancient Testimony.
207, citing On the Jews and Their Lies. Luther Works. Vol. 47, (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg,
1955), 267.
Oberman makes other erroneous points. He argues that the urban Reformation of
South Germany and Switzerland eventually led to granting the Jews many civic rights and
a measure of social acceptance. In point of fact, the cities with the best track records were
Catholic Rome and Venice, Catholic pre-Protestant Amsterdam, and a host of other cities
for whom religious affiliation was second to other civic and financial considerations. Prot-
estant cities, in the first flush of enthusiasm for their new-found truth, often initiated their
civic programs by expelling Jews. As an example, one might consider the case of Stras-
bourg where, fortunately, Philip of Hesse disregarded Bucer's hard-hearted Cassel Ad-
vice, an important source for Luther's subsequent harsh ideas. Oberman also overlooks
the well noted fact that most other Protestant cities expelled their Jewish populations as
soon as possible, between 1556 and 1559, once Charles V retired and died. In point of fact,
the only Protestant cities which treated Jews with kindness were those cities which did so
earlier when still Catholic. In turn, the only Catholic cities which treated Jews with kind-
ness were those that understood the economic and political benefits of religious toleration.
In either case, whether Jews were tolerated was more a question of finances and economic
advantage and not one determined along confessional lines.

Scholarly specialization has also played an inadvertent role in mak-

ing antisemitism difficult to study. Because Reformation historians are
often unconcerned with events in very Catholic Spain, the debate con-
cerning Luther, the Jews, and modern antisemitism does not consider
Iberian events. For their part, most students of Hispanic affairs are often
unconcerned with the German Protestant Reformation and often view
the Spanish Inquisition from a nationalistic or administrative point of
view with few ever dealing with the pure blood laws at all. Luther, how-
ever, was aware of events in Spain and even quipped, "The Spaniards
are all Marranos," and Charles V was crafty indeed to support the In-
quisition in Spain but an opposite policy in Germany.44
Twentieth century events have also obscured study of sixteenth-cen-
tury racial thought and if the Holocaust has made discussion of Luther's
contribution to twentieth-century events painful, two generations of
Franco's nationalist rule contributed to a general unwillingness by many
Spanish historians to deal with anything smacking of antisemitism, es-
pecially racial antisemitism. Indeed, after all memory has faded, the de-
scendants of New Christians were, until recently, still subject to repres-
sive legislation in Spain and Portugal. In Majorca and elsewhere New
Christians are still derided as filthy Marrano swine. New Christians are
still held responsible for Spain's fate in the seventeenth century and one
current and widely-held explanation for General Franco's atrocious be-
havior during the 1930s was that he was a Marrano and that Jewish
blood must, after all, eventually show itself. How unfortunate for Spain.
44Martin Luther, Tischreden, Martin Luthers Werke. Kritische Gesamtausgabe.(Weimar,

1883- ) Vol. 5, 6145. Concerning Charles V's clever use of German Jewry against Luther,
see my Ancient Testimony. 203-12.

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Jewish Conversion, the Spanish Pure Blood Laws and Reformation: A Revisionist View of

Racial and Religious Antisemitism

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.60 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 02:05:45 AM

The sixteenth century witnessed the transitionof medieval religious

A VARIETYOFFACTORSHAVECONTRIBUTEDto the recent interest in the de-

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.60 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 02:05:45 AM

1983 as an opportunity to take yet another look at the perennial theme

'See for instance, Heiko A. Oberman, Wurzelndes Antisemitismus. Christenangstund Ju-

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One would think that so Christian a society as fifteenth- and six-

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.60 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 02:05:45 AM

binic authoritiesalso consideredthem as such at firstonly to change opin-

The Originof the Problem:

Historically,the Jewish converts to Christianity,known as Marranos

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.60 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 02:05:45 AM

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.60 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 02:05:45 AM

and again an equally large group of Jews determined voluntary conver-

Oddly enough, these forced and voluntary conversions had curious

5Though many general histories present some information on New Christians/Marran-

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.60 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 02:05:45 AM

dor to Castile, wrote home to a very interested audience "it is esti-

6Eugene Alberi, editor. Relazionidegli ambasciatoriveneti al Sanato. First series. (Firenze,

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priests "in accordancewith the customary rites of the Portuguese Na-

8Concerning New Christians in Bordeaux, the reader might consult Georges E. A.

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and Amsterdamlater, were the New Christiansmore easily accepted in-

Two series of events characterizedthe Spanish attemptto rationalize

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in 1468Henry IV decreed that henceforth no conversocould hold office in

Before looking into inquisitional records to determine what indeed

"F. Marquez Villanueva, "Conversos y Cargos concejiles en el siglo XV," RevistadeAr-

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many New Christianswere being integrated into the Christianpopula-

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.60 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 02:05:45 AM

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.60 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 02:05:45 AM

settling into Christian communities outside Spain, Christian religious

The Spanish Inquisition

If indeed the Marranoswere crypto-Jews,the records of the Inquisi-

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The Pure Blood Laws

If it was impossible to determine true Christianfrom true Jew on the

13See AlbertA. Sicroff,LesControverses desStatutsde 'puritedesang'en Espafiadu XVeau

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This content downloaded from 195.78.108.60 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 02:05:45 AM

does not adhere to the true faith," he explained about present-day

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.60 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 02:05:45 AM

The Gordian Knot

It would be intellectually comforting were we able to blame six-

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25See Pullan, The Jews of Europeand the Inquisition of Venice, 201-313.

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free of both Christian and Jewish institutions. Montaigne, whose mother

The Authentic New Christian Religious Contribution

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.60 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 02:05:45 AM

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.60 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 02:05:45 AM

Despite the belief that illuminist spiritualism reflected some

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.60 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 02:05:45 AM

through the efforts of such sincere New Christians as Cornelius Adel-

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.60 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 02:05:45 AM

shoulders. It is doubly unfortunate for in reality Jews did convert but

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.60 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 02:05:45 AM

hannes Forster attacked Sebastian MUnster's Calvinist Hebraica and that