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Aconverso (Spanish:[komˈbeɾso];Portuguese:[kõˈvɛɾsu]; feminine formconversa, from Latin conversus 'converted, turned around') was aJew who converted toCatholicism inSpain orPortugal, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries, or one of their descendants.
To safeguard theOld Christian population and ensure that theconversoNew Christians were true to their new faith, theHoly Office of the Inquisition was established in Spain in 1478. TheCatholic Monarchs of SpainFerdinand andIsabella expelled the remaining openly practising Jews by theAlhambra Decree of 1492 following the ChristianReconquista (reconquest) of Spain. However, a significant proportion of these remaining practising Jews chose to join the already largeconverso community rather than face exile.[1][verification needed]
Conversos who did not fully or genuinely embrace Catholicism but continued to practiseJudaism in secrecy were calledjudaizantes "Judaizers" and pejoratively asmarranos.
New Christian converts ofMuslim origin were known asmoriscos. Unlike Jewishconversos,moriscos were subject to an edict of expulsion even after their conversion to Catholicism, which was implemented severely inValencia and inAragón and less so in other parts of Spain.[2]
Conversos played a vital role[which?] in the 1520–1521Revolt of the Comuneros, a popular uprising in theCrown of Castile against the rule ofCharles V, Holy Roman Emperor.[3]
Ferrand Martínez, Archdeacon ofÉcija, directed a 13-yearanti-Jewish campaign that began in 1378. Martínez used a series of provocative sermons[4] through which he openly condemned the Jews with little to no opposition. He rallied non-Jews against the Jews, creating a constant state of fear through riots. Martínez's efforts led to a series of outbreaks of violence on 4 June 1391,[5] when several synagogues in Seville were burned to the ground and churches were erected in their place. Amidst this outbreak, many Jews fled the country, some converted to Christianity in fear and some were sold to Muslims. Martínez engineered the largestforced mass conversion of Jews in Spain.[5]
Both the church and the crown had not anticipated such a large-scale conversion stemming from Martínez's unplanned antisemitic campaign. The new converts represented a new problem, because although their conversion temporarily resolved the friction between the Christian and Jewish populations, it led to the creation of a new group that was neither completely Catholic nor Jewish, and new tensions resulted.[6]
Conversos, who were now fully privileged citizens, competed in all aspects of the economic sphere. This resulted in a new wave of racial antisemitism that targetedconversos. This antisemitism evolved into small and large riots inToledo in 1449 that now oppressed not Jews by Christians, butNew Christians (conversos) by the Old Christians. The crown established an office of the Inquisition in 1478 and monitored the religious loyalty of newly baptized Christianconversos. Such religious surveillance continued to the descendants of converts.[7] Faced with continued oppression, some Jews andconversos fled Spain to Portugal, but when the Portuguese crown instituted similar anti-Jewish policies, these Jews migrated primarily to theNetherlands. Others createdcrypto-Jewish communities to ensure the survival of Judaism in the Iberian peninsula, although outwardly practicing Christianity.[6]
In 1485,Pedro de Arbués, an inquisitor in theKingdom of Aragon, was assassinated while praying inZaragoza's cathedral.[8][9] The attack was attributed to a conspiracy involvingconversos.[8][9] Among those implicated were prominent figures, including a grandson of the well-known convertGerónimo de Santa Fe, who committed suicide in prison.[9] Others, including high-ranking officials andconverso elites, were arrested, tortured and executed. Their hands were nailed to the cathedral door before they were beheaded and quartered.[9] Some suspects fled toNavarre and escaped punishment, while others were condemned posthumously. Though contemporary accounts blamed theconversos as a group, records also indicate that “old Christians” were involved, although few faced prosecution.[9]
Conversos were subject to suspicion and harassment from their former and new communities alike.[10] Both Christians and Jews called themtornadizos (renegades).James I,Alfonso X andJohn I passed laws forbidding the use of this epithet. This was part of a larger pattern of royal oversight, as laws were promulgated to protect their property, forbid attempts to convert them back to Judaism or the Muslim faith and regulate their behaviour, preventing cohabitation or even dining with Jews to prevent their return to Judaism.
Conversos did not enjoy legal equality.Alfonso VII prohibited the "recently converted" from holding office inToledo. Although they had both supporters and bitter opponents in the Christian secular community, they became targets of occasional pogroms during times of social tension (as during an epidemic and after an earthquake).
While those considered to be of pure blood (calledlimpieza de sangre) with undisputed Christian lineage enjoyed privilege, particularly among the nobility, in a 15th-century defence ofconversos, BishopLope de Barrientos listed what historianNorman Roth calls "a veritable 'Who's Who' of Spanish nobility" includingconverso members or those ofconverso descent. Roth has also written that given the near-universal conversion of Iberian Jews duringVisigothic times, "[W]ho among the Christians of Spain could be certain that he is not a descendant of thoseconversos?"[11]
According to a widely publicised December 2008 study in theAmerican Journal of Human Genetics, geneticDNA tracing has revealed that modern Spaniards and Portuguese have an average admixture of 19.8% of ancestry originating in the Near East (Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Jews and Levantine Arabs) during historic times, compared to 10.6% of North African orBerber admixture.[12][13][14] This proportion could be as high as 23% forLatin Americans, according to a study published inNature Communications.[15][16] This potentially higher proportion of Jewish ancestry in the Latin American population could stem from increased emigration ofconversos to theNew World to avoid persecution by the Spanish Inquisition.[16]
Conversos played a prominent role in shaping Spanish intellectual and literary culture, particularly during the period commonly called theSpanish Golden Age.[17] Their influence began to emerge as early as the 15th century, well before the height of this cultural flourishing.[17] One of the most striking examples of this influence is the authorship ofLa Celestina, an 1499 book byFernando de Rojas that is considered the first modern play in any language.[18]Conversos were central contributors not only to poetry and fiction but also to historical chronicles, anti-Jewish polemics, philosophical texts,and other literary forms.[17]
According to historian Norman Roth, manyconversos possessed only limited knowledge of Jewish religious practice, particularly beyond the most visible customs known even to Old Christians.[19] While someconverso polemicists displayed varying degrees of familiarity with Jewish sources,converso poets generally lacked such religious knowledge.[19] Claims that Hebrew or Talmudic influences shapedconverso literature, such as in the works ofJuan de Mena or Juan Álvarez Gato, have been dismissed by scholars such as Roth as speculative and unsupported.[19]
Some prominentconverso figures exhibited notable ignorance regarding Jewish heritage. Pedro de la Caballería, for instance, mistakenly calledMaimonides "Moses the Egyptian," assuming that Maimonides had lived in Egypt rather than in Spain.[19] He also misattributed advice to the Catholic Monarchs toVicente Ferrer, who had died decades earlier.[19] Even thoseconversos with formal Jewish education, such as Pablo de Santa María, ultimately rejected Jewish sources in favor of Christian interpretations, sometimes based on misreadings.[20] In his writings, de Santa María presented biblical narratives through a Christian lens, depicting the serpent asLucifer andEve as the corruptor ofAdam, despite lacking textual basis in the Hebrew bible.[20]
InBurgos,conversos were generally regarded as devout Christians, especially those from the influential Santa María family, whose example was considered representative across Spain.[21] Allegations of religious insincerity, known as "infamy," existed in cities such asCalahorra,Osma andSalamanca, although more serious criminal accusations were recorded in Toledo and Seville.[21] Someconversos are known to have supported religious and charitable foundations, forming or joiningconfraternities (cofradías) such as Santa María la Blanca in Toledo, established in 1478.[22] Founding members of thiscofradía included physicians, merchants, craftsmen and officials, many of whom wereconversos.[23] In 1488, another group of Toledoconversos founded a chapel in the monastery of San Agustín.[23]
Someconversos retained messianic expectations traditionally associated with Judaism. In the 15th century, chroniclerAlonso de Palencia reported that manyconversos inAndalusia continued to believe in the coming of the messiah, interpreting unusual natural events (such as the sighting of a whale off the coast nearSetúbal, which they identified with the biblical sea monsterLeviathan) as signs of its imminent arrival.[21] However, it is unclear whether such beliefs referred to theJewish messiah or to Christ'ssecond coming.[21]
Conversas played a pivotal role in keeping Jewish traditions alive by observing many Jewish holidays such asShabbat. They prepared traditional Jewish dishes in honor of theSabbath (starting on Friday at sundown),Yom Kippur and other religious holidays. During festivals such asSukkot andPassover,conversas participated by giving clothing articles and ornaments to Jewish women, attending aseder or obtaining a bakingmatzah.Conversas ensured that their households maintained similar dietary regulations as their Jewish counterparts by consuming onlykosher flesh. These women also financially contributed to the growth of the combined Jewish/converso community and the synagogues.[6]
The Jewish community andconversos exchanged books and knowledge. Jews taughtconversos how to read to ensure constant growth of their Jewish heritage. To take a stance against the church and its principles, someconversos worked on Sundays in violation of church policy.[6]
The traditional JewishPurim was preserved byconversos still adhering to Jewish observances under the guise of a Christian holiday that they named theFestival of Santa Esterica.[24]
The Spanish Inquisition operated in close collaboration with secular authorities to impose a range of penalties on those accused of heresy.[25]Canon law prohibited the church from directly executing individuals; instead, those convicted were "relaxed to the secular arm," a euphemism for the transfer of alleged heretics to state authorities for administration of capital punishment.[25] One of the most infamous methods of execution was death byimmolation, a practice not found in traditional secular law but devised within ecclesiastical circles.[25] It was justified theologically as a way to save the heretic's soul from eternal damnation through worldly suffering. If the condemned repented just before execution, he would be allowed to be killed by garrote, a method that was believed to spare the soul.[25]
Public executions, known asautos-da-fé ("acts of faith"), were grand, theatrical events involving processions through city streets, public readings of sentences and long sermons.[25] These spectacles attracted large crowds and, by the 16th century, even royal attendance.[25] In Madrid, for example, the monarchs observed such a ceremony from a balcony overlooking thePlaza Mayor, reportedly enjoying refreshments during the spectacle.[25]
Those who confessed under torture or pressure were labeledreconciliados (reconciled to the church) and subjected to public humiliation. They were paraded in distinctive garments calledsambenitos, often with red crosses, and forced to endure public readings of their offenses. Theirsambenitos, bearing their names, were hung permanently in churches as a warning to others and a lasting mark of shame on their descendants.[26] Some people who had died or fled were condemnedin absentia and burned ineffigy, a practice known as sentencingin statue orin statute.[26] The bones of deceased heretics could be exhumed and burned publicly to enforce posthumous condemnation.[26]
TheChuetas are a current social group on theSpanish island ofMajorca, in theMediterranean Sea, who are descendants of Majorcan Jews that either wereconversos or werecrypto-Jews, forced to keep their religion hidden. They practiced strictendogamy by marrying only within their own group.
The Chuetas have beenstigmatized in theBalearic Islands. In the latter part of the 20th century, the spread of freedom of religion as well as secularism reduced both the social pressure and community ties. An estimated 18,000 people in the island carry Chueta surnames in the 21st century.[28] Traditionally, the church ofSaint Eulalia and the church of Montesión (Mount Zion) inPalma de Mallorca have been used by the families of Jewish converts (Xuetas).[29][27]
According to a survey conducted by theUniversity of the Balearic Islands in 2001, 30% of Majorcans stated that they would never marry a Chueta and 5% declared that they do not wish to have Chueta friends.[30]
Specific groups ofconversos left Spain and Portugal after theSpanish Inquisition in 1492 for other parts of Europe, especially Italy,[31] where they were often regarded with suspicion and harassment in both their former and new communities. Manyconversos who arrived in Italian cities did not openly embrace their Judaism, tempted by the advantages offered in the Christian world.[31]
The first three cities to acceptconversos who openly converted back to Judaism wereFlorence,Ferrara andAncona. Most of theseconversos appeared after 1536 from Portugal, and most lived in Florence. In 1549,Duke Cosimo I de' Medici allowed the Portugueseconversos to trade and reside within Florence. Most of theconversos who reverted to Judaism lived in the ghetto of Florence, and by 1705 there were 453 Jews in the city.[31]
Conversos arrived in Ferrara in 1535 and were able to assimilate with their neighbours, perform circumcisions and openly return to Judaism pursuant to a declaration issued byDuke Ercole I d'Este. After an occurrence ofplague in 1505 and the fall of Ferrara in 1551, many of these Jews relocated north toward the economically stable ports ofVenice. The city slowly became a center forconversos who either stopped temporarily on their way toTurkey or stayed permanently as residents in the ghetto. Fearful of losing theconversos' trade to Turkey, Venetian leaders permitted them to openly practice Judaism. Many of theconversos during this period struggled with their Christian and Jewish identities.[31]
Manyconversos in the city ofAncona faced difficult lives and fled to Ferrara in 1555. Portugueseconversos in Ancona were misled that they were welcome there and that they could openly revert to Judaism.Pope Paul IV imprisoned 102conversos who refused to reside in the Anconitan ghetto or to wear identification badges. In 1588, when the duke granted a charter of residence in return for the embitteredconversos' contributions to the city's economy, they refused.[31]
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