conversos

A ''converso'' (; ; feminine form ''conversa''), "convert" (), was a Jew who converted to Catholicism in Spain or Portugal, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries, or one of their descendants.

To safeguard the Old Christian population and make sure that the ''converso'' "New Christians" were true to their new faith, the Holy Office of the Inquisition was established in Spain in 1478. The Catholic Monarchs of Spain Ferdinand and Isabella expelled the remaining openly practising Jews by the Alhambra Decree of 1492, following the Christian ''Reconquista'' (reconquest) of Spain. However, a significant proportion of these remaining practising Jews chose to join the already large ''converso'' community rather than face exile.

''Conversos'' who did not fully or genuinely embrace Catholicism, but continued to practise Judaism in secrecy, were referred to as ''judaizantes'' " Judaizers" and pejoratively as '' marranos''.

New Christian converts of Muslim origin were known as '' moriscos''. Unlike Jewish ''conversos'', ''moriscos'' were subject to an edict of expulsion even after their conversion to Catholicism, which was implemented severely in Valencia and in Aragón and less so in other parts of Spain.

''Conversos'' played a vital role in the 1520–1521 Revolt of the Comuneros, a popular uprising in the Crown of Castile against the rule of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.

History

Ferrand Martínez, Archdeacon of Écija, directed a 13-year anti-Jewish campaign that began in 1378. Martínez used a series of provocative sermons, 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, where 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 set in motion the largest forced mass conversion of Jews in Spain.

Both the Church and the Crown had not anticipated such a large-scale conversion stemming from the unplanned anti-Semitic campaign led by Martínez. The new converts represented a new problem. Their conversion temporarily resolved the friction between the Christian and Jewish populations in Spain; however, it led to the creation of a new group that was neither completely Catholic nor Jewish and new tensions resulted.

''Conversos'', who were now fully privileged citizens, competed in all aspects of the economic sphere. This resulted in a new wave of racial anti-Semitism that targeted ''conversos''. This anti-Semitism evolved into small and large riots in Toledo, 1449, that now oppressed not Jews by Christians, but New Christians (''conversos'') by the Old Christians. Thus, the Crown established an office of the Inquisition in 1478, monitored the religious loyalty a newly-baptized Christian (''converso''). Such religious surveillance continued to the descendants of converts. Often due to continued oppression, some Jews and ''conversos'' fled Spain, going to Portugal, then when the Portuguese crown instituted similar anti-Jewish policies as Spain's, they migrated particularly for the Netherlands. Others created crypto-Jewish communities to ensure the survival of Judaism in the Iberian Peninsula, although outwardly practicing Christianity.

In 1485, Pedro de Arbués, an Inquisitor in the Kingdom of Aragon, was assassinated while praying in Zaragoza's cathedral. The attack was attributed to a conspiracy involving conversos; Among those implicated were prominent figures, including a grandson of the well-known convert Gerónimo de Santa Fe, who died by suicide in prison. Others, including high-ranking officials and converso elites, were arrested, tortured, and executed; their hands were nailed to the cathedral door before they were beheaded and quartered. Some suspects fled to Navarre and escaped punishment, while others were condemned posthumously. Though contemporary accounts blamed the conversos as a group, records also indicate that “old Christians” were involved, though few faced prosecution.

Description

''Conversos'' were subject to suspicion and harassment from both what was left of the community they were leaving and that which they were joining. Both Christians and Jews called them ''tornadizo'' (renegade). James I, Alfonso X and John 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 their cohabitation or even dining with Jews, lest they convert back.

Conversos did not enjoy legal equality. Alfonso VII prohibited the "recently converted" from holding office in Toledo. They had supporters and bitter opponents in the Christian secular of general acceptance, yet they became targets of occasional pogroms during times of social tension (as during an epidemic and after an earthquake). They were subject to the Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions.

While "pure blood" (so-called '' limpieza de sangre''), free of the "taint" of non-Christian lineage, would come to be placed at a premium, particularly among the nobility, in a 15th-century defence of ''conversos'', Bishop Lope de Barrientos would list what Roth calls "a veritable 'Who's Who' of Spanish nobility" as having ''converso'' members or being of ''converso'' descent. He pointed out that given the near-universal conversion of Iberian Jews during Visigothic times, (quoting Roth) " o among the Christians of Spain could be certain that he is not a descendant of those ''conversos''?"

With advances in science able to trace individuals' ancestry via their DNA, according to a widely publicised study (December 2008) in the ''American Journal of Human Genetics'', modern Spaniards (and Portuguese) have an average admixture of 19.8 percent from ancestors originating in the Near East during historic times (i.e. Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Jews and Levantine Arabs) – compared to 10.6 percent of North African – Berber admixture. This proportion could be as high as 23% in the case of Latin Americans, however, according to a study published in ''Nature Communications''. The possibly higher proportion of significant Jewish ancestry in the Latin American population could stem from increased emigration of Conversos to the New World to avoid persecution by the Spanish Inquisition.

Conversos and the Golden Age of Spanish Literature

Conversos played a prominent role in shaping Spanish intellectual and literary culture, particularly during the period commonly referred to as the "Spanish Golden Age". Their influence began to emerge as early as the fifteenth century, well before the height of this cultural flourishing. One of the most striking examples of this influence is the authorship of '' La Celestina'', an 1499 book by Fernando de Rojas considered the first modern play in any language. Conversos were central contributors not only to poetry and fiction but also to historical chronicles, anti-Jewish polemics, philosophical texts, and other literary forms.

Religious identity and assimilation

According to historian Norman Roth, many conversos had only limited knowledge of Jewish religious practice, particularly beyond the most visible customs known even to Old Christians. While some converso polemicists displayed varying degrees of familiarity with Jewish sources, converso poets generally lacked such religious knowledge. Claims that Hebrew or Talmudic influences shaped converso literature, such as in the works of Juan de Mena or Juan Álvarez Gato, have been dismissed by scholars such as Norman Roth as speculative and unsupported. In fact, Álvarez Gato, despite being the grandson of a convert, was raised without any exposure to Jewish tradition.

Some prominent converso figures exhibited notable ignorance regarding Jewish heritage. Pedro de la Caballería, for instance, mistakenly referred to Maimonides as "Moses the Egyptian," assuming he lived in a Cordoba located in Egypt rather than in Spain. He also misattributed advice to the Catholic Monarchs to Vicente Ferrer, who had died decades earlier. Even those conversos with formal Jewish education, like Pablo de Santa María, ultimately rejected Jewish sources in favor of Christian interpretations, sometimes based on misreadings. In his writings, Pablo presents biblical narratives through a Christian lens, depicting the serpent as Lucifer and Eve as the corruptor of Adam, despite lacking textual basis in the Hebrew Bible.

In Burgos, conversos were generally regarded as devout Christians, especially those from the influential Santa María family, whose example was considered representative across Spain. Allegations of religious insincerity, referred to as "infamy," existed in cities such as Calahorra, Osma, and Salamanca, though more serious criminal accusations were recorded in places like Toledo and Seville. Some conversos are known to have supported religious and charitable foundations, forming or joining confraternities (cofradías) such as Santa María la Blanca in Toledo, established in 1478. Founding members of this cofradía included physicians, merchants, craftsmen, and officials, many of whom were conversos. In 1488, another group of Toledo conversos founded a chapel in the Monastery of San Agustín.

Some conversos retained messianic expectations traditionally associated with Judaism. In the 15th century, chronicler Alonso de Palencia reported that many conversos in Andalusia continued to believe in the coming of the messiah, interpreting unusual natural events (such as the sighting of a whale off the coast near Setúbal, which they identified with the biblical sea monster Leviathan) as signs of its imminent arrival. However, it is unclear whether such beliefs referred to the Jewish messiah or to Christ's second coming.

Perpetuation of Jewish heritage

''Conversas'' played a pivotal role in keeping Jewish traditions alive by observing many Jewish holidays such as Shabbat. They prepared traditional Jewish dishes in honor of the Sabbath (starting on Friday sundown), Yom Kippur, and other religious holidays. During festivals such as Sukkot and Passover, ''Conversas'' participated by giving clothing articles and ornaments to Jewish women, attending a '' seder'', or obtaining a baking matzah. ''Conversas'' ensured that their household maintained similar dietary regulations as their Jewish counterparts, by eating only kosher birds and other animals. These women also financially contributed to the growth of the Jewish/Converso community and synagogue.

The Jewish community and ''conversos'' exchanged books and knowledge, Jews taught ''conversos'' how to read to ensure constant growth of their Jewish heritage. To take a stance against the church and its principles, some conversos performed professional work even on Sundays.

A Madrid doctor recited a phrase his family had always said when entering a church, unaware of its meaning. A visiting Israeli colleague recognized the words as a distorted form of a verse from ''Deuteronomy'' 7, commanding Jews to abhor idolatry. The phrase, probably passed down from ancestors who secretly maintained Jewish traditions after forced conversion, had lost its original meaning over centuries.

The traditional Jewish Purim was kept by ''conversos'' still adhering to Jewish observances in the disguise of a Christian holiday, they named it " Festival of Santa Esterica".

Inquisition Punishments and Public Spectacle for Judaizing Conversos

The Spanish Inquisition operated in close collaboration with secular authorities to impose a range of penalties on those accused of heresy. Canon law prohibited the Church from directly executing individuals; instead, those convicted were "relaxed to the secular arm," a euphemism for transferring them to state authorities who would carry out capital punishment. One of the most infamous methods of execution was death by burning, a practice not found in traditional secular law but devised within ecclesiastical circles. 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, they were granted the "mercy" of being garroted (strangled instead of burned) on the belief this spared their soul.

Public executions, known as '' autos-da-fé'' ("acts of faith"), were grand, theatrical events involving processions through city streets, public readings of sentences, and long sermons. These spectacles attracted large crowds and, by the sixteenth century, even royal attendance. In Madrid, for instance, the monarchs observed such a ceremony from a balcony overlooking the Plaza Mayor, reportedly enjoying refreshments during the spectacle.

Those who confessed under torture or pressure were labeled ''reconciliados'' (reconciled to the Church) and subjected to public humiliation. They were paraded in distinctive garments called '' sambenitos'', often with red crosses, and forced to endure public readings of their offenses. Their ''sambenitos'', bearing their names, were hung permanently in churches as a warning to others and a lasting mark of shame on their descendants. Some people who had died or fled were condemned ''in absentia'' and burned in effigy, a practice known as sentencing ''in statue'' or ''in statute''. Even the bones of deceased "heretics" could be exhumed and burned publicly to enforce posthumous condemnation.

By country

In Spain

The Chuetas are a current social group on the Spanish island of Majorca, in the Mediterranean Sea, who are descendants of Majorcan Jews that either were conversos (forcible converts to Christianity) or were Crypto-Jews, forced to keep their religion hidden. They practiced strict endogamy by marrying only within their own group.

The Chuetas has been stigmatized up until today in Balearic Islands. In the latter part of the 20th century, the spread of freedom of religion and laïcité reduced both the social pressure and community ties. An estimated 18,000 people in the island carry Chueta surnames in the 21st century. Traditionally, The church of Saint Eulalia and the church of Montesión (Mount Zion) in Palma de Mallorca have been used by the families of Jewish converts ( Xuetas).

All this, however, does not imply the complete elimination of rejection behaviors, as indicated by a survey carried out among Majorcans by the University of the Balearic Islands in 2001, in which 30% stated that they would never marry a Chueta and 5% declared that they do not even want to have Chueta friends.

In Italy

Specific groups of conversos left Spain and Portugal after the Spanish Inquisition in 1492, in search for a better life. They left for other parts of Europe, especially Italy, where they were inevitably looked at with suspicion and harassment, both in their old and new communities. Subsequently, many conversos who arrived in Italian cities did not openly embrace their Judaism, since they were tempted by the advantages they could seek in the Christian world.

The first three cities to accept the conversos who openly converted back to Judaism, were Florence, Ferrara, and Ancona. Most of these conversos appeared after 1536 from Portugal, and most lived in Florence. In 1549, Duke Cosimo de' Medici allowed the Portuguese conversos to trade and reside within Florence. Most of the re-converted Jews lived in the ghetto of Florence, and by 1705 there were 453 Jews in the city.

Conversos arrived to Ferrara in 1535, and were able to assimilate with their neighbours, perform circumcisions, and return openly to Judaism, due to the Lettres Patentes issued by Duke Ercole II. After the plague in 1505 and the eventual fall of Ferrara in 1551, many of these Jews relocated North towards the economically stable ports in Venice. Venice slowly became a center for conversos who either stopped temporarily on their way to Turkey or stayed permanently as residents in the ghetto Jewish community port. Venetian leaders were convinced to openly accept conversos to practice Judaism because they recognised that if conversos were not welcome in Venice, they would take their successful trades to the country's economic rival of Turkey. A Portuguese converso in Venice, named Abraham de Almeda, connected strongly with Christianity, however, turned to the Jewish members of his family when in need of financing for moral support. As a result, many of the conversos during this period struggled with their Christian and Jewish identities.

Conversos in the city of Ancona faced difficult lives living under the pope and eventually fled to Ferrara in 1555. Portuguese conversos in Ancona were falsely misled that they were welcome to Ancona and that they could openly convert back to Judaism. Their fate was overturned by the succeeding pope, Pope Paul IV. The conversos in Ancona faced traumatic emotional damage after the pope imprisoned 102 conversos who refused to reside in the ghetto and wear badges to distinguish themselves. In 1588, when the duke granted a charter of residence in return for the conversos building up the city's economy, they refused, due to accumulated scepticism.

Notable conversos and their descendants

First generation conversos

* Abraham Senior – Crown rabbi of Castille, late-life convert to Christianity (1412–1493)
* Alfonso de Cartagena – Bishop, diplomat, historian and writer (1384–1456)
* Paul of Burgos – Rabbi and later archbishop (c.1351–1435)
* Petrus Alphonsi – Physician and writer (d. after 1116)

Later generations

* António José da Silva – Dramatist (1705–1739)
* Fernando de Rojas – Dramatist (c.1465/73–1541)
* Hernán Pérez de Quesada – Conquistador (c. 1515–1544)
* Isaac Orobio de Castro – Philosopher and physician, returnee to Judaism (c.1617–1687)
* Luis de León – Poet, friar and scholar (1527–1591)
* Luis de Santángel – Finance minister of the Catholic Monarchs (c. 1435–1498)

* Teresa of Ávila – Catholic saint (1515–1582)

* Uriel da Costa – Philosopher, returnee to Judaism (1585–1640)

Possible/debated

* Christopher Colombus – Navigator and explorer (1451–1506)
* Joan Miró – Painter (1893–1983)
* Miguel de Cervantes – Writer (1547–1616)

See also

* Marrano
* Chuetas
* Dönmeh
* Allahdad
* Banu Israil
* Falash Mura
* Chala
* Neofiti
* Anusim
* Crypto-Judaism
* Judaism in Mexico

Further reading

*Alberro, Solange. ''Inquisición y sociedad en México, 1571–1700''. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica 1993.
*Alexy, T. ''The Marrano Legacy: A Contemporary Crypto-Jewish Priest Reveals Secrets of His Double Life''. University of New Mexico Press 2002. . .
*Amelang, James. ''Historias paralelas: Judeoconversos y moriscos en la España moderna''. Madrid: Ediciones Akal, 2011.
*Beinart, Haim. "The Conversos in Spain and Portugal in the 16th to 18th Centuries", in ''Moreshet Sepharad: TheSephardi Legacy'', ed. Haim Beinart. Jerusalem: The Magnes Press, 1992.
*Beinart, Haim. "The Records of the Inquisition: A Source of Jewish and Converso History", ''Proceedings of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities'' 2 (1968).
*Beinart, Haim. ''Conversos ante la inquisición''. Jerusalem: Hebrew University 1965.
*Bodian, Miriam. ''Hebrews of the Portuguese Nation: Conversos and Community in Early Modern Amsterdam''. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997.
*Bodian, Miriam. “'Men of the Nation': The Shaping of Converso Identity in Early Modern Europe". ''Past & Present'' 143 (1994): 48–76.
*Brooks, Andrée Aelion. ''The Woman who Defied Kings: the life and times of Dona Gracia Nasi'', Paragon House, 2002.
*Dirks, Doris A. "I will make the Inquisition burn you and your sisters: The role of gender and kindship in accusations against Conversas." ''Magistra'' 6.2 (2000): 28.
*Domínguez Ortiz, Antonio. ''Los judeoconversos en la España moderna''. Madrid: Editorial MAPFRE, 1992.
*Gerber, Jane S. ''The Jews of Spain: A History of the Sephardic Experience''. New York: The Free Press 1994. .
*Gitlitz, David. ''Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of the Crypto-Jews'', Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 2002.
*Gojman de Backal, Alicia. "Conversos" in ''Encyclopedia of Mexico''. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997, vol. 1, pp. 340–344.
*Gojman Goldberg, Alicia. ''Los conversos en la Nueva España''. Mexico City: Enep-Acatlan, UNAM 1984.
*Greenleaf, Richard E. ''The Mexican Inquisition in the Sixteenth Century''. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press 1969.
*Jacobs, J. ''Hidden Heritage: The Legacy of the Crypto-Jews''. University of California Press 2002. .
*Kamen, Henry. ''The Spanish Inquisition''. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1965.
*Lafaye, Jacques. ''Cruzadas y Utopias: El judeocristianismo en las sociedades Ibéricas''. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica 1984.
* Lanning, John Tate. "Legitimacy and ''Limpieza de Sangre'' in the Practice of Medicine in the Spanish Empire." ''Jahrbuch für Geschicte 4 (1967)
*Liebman, Seymour. ''Los Judíos en México y en América Central''. Mexico city: Siglo XXI 1971.
*Martínez, Maria Elena. "Limpieza de Sangre" in ''Encyclopedia of Mexico'', vol. 1, pp. 749–752. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997.
*Navarrete Peláez, María Cristina. "Judeoconversos en el Nuevo Reino de Granada." In ''Los judíos en Colombia: Una aproximación histórica'', edited by Adelaida Sourdis Nájera and Alfonso Velasco Rojas, 26–52. Madrid: Casa Sefarad Israel, 2011.
*Navarrete Peláez, María Cristina.. ''La diáspora judeoconversa en Colombia, siglos XVI y XVII: Incertidumbres de su arribo, establecimiento y persecución''. Cali: Universidad del Valle, 2010.
*
*Novoa, Nelson. ''Being the Nação in the Eternal City: New Christian Lives in Sixteenth-Century Rome''. Peterborough: Baywolf Press 2014
*Pulido Serrano, Juan Ignacio. "Converso Complicities in an Atlantic Monarchy: Political and Social Conflicts behind the Inquisitorial Persecutions". In ''The Conversos and Moriscos in Late Medieval Spain and Beyond'', Volume Three: Displaced Persons, edited by KevinIngram and Juan Ignacio Pulido Serrano, 117–128. Leiden: Brill, 2015.
*Pulido Serrano, Juan Ignacio. "Political Aspects of the Converso Problem: On the Portuguese Restauraçao of 1640". In ''The Conversos and Moriscos in Late Medieval Spain and Beyond'', Volume Two: The Morisco Issue, edited by Kevin Ingram, 219–246. Leiden: Brill, 2012.
*
*Saban, Mario Javier. ''Judíos Conversos: Los antepasados judíos de las familias tradicionales argentinas''. Buenos Aires: Editorial Distal, 1990.
*Seed, Patricia. ''To Love, Honor, and Obey in Colonial Mexico: Conflicts over Marriage Choices, 1574–1821''. Stanford: Stanford University Press 1988.
*Sicroff, Albert A. ''Los estatutos de limpieza de sangre''. Translated by Mauro Armiño. Madrid: Tauros 1985.
*Soyer, François. “'It is not possible to be both a Jew and a Christian': Converso Religious Identity and the Inquisitorial Trial of Custodio Nunes (1604–5).” ''Mediterranean Historical Review'' 26 (2011): 81–97.
*Tobias, H.J. ''A History of the Jews in New Mexico''. University of New Mexico Press 1992. . .
*Ventura, Maria da Graça A. "Los judeoconversos portugueses en el Perú del siglo XVII: Redes de complicidad". In ''Familia, Religión y Negocio: El sefardismo en las relaciones entre el mundo ibérico y los Países Bajos en la Edad Moderna'', edited by Jaime Contreras, Bernardo J. García García, e Ignacio Pulido, 391–406. Madrid: Fundación Carlos Amberes, 2002.

References

External links

[late 15th century">Ana Gómez-Bravo, "Conversos and identity in the poetry of the fifteenth century"  (poems of Comendador Román and Antón de Montoro, excerpts from Andrés Bernáldez's ''Memorias'' and the ''Libro de Alborayque'' [late 15th century
, in English and Spanish (pedagogical edition) with introduction, notes, and bibliography in ''Open Iberia/América'' (open access teaching anthology))]
Selections in English and Spanish of Ferrán Martínez's speech at the Tribunal del Alcázar in Seville, 19 February, 1388 (pedagogical edition) with introduction, notes, and bibliography in ''Open Iberia/América'' (open access teaching anthology)Out of Spain educational materialsConverso lectures and activitiesAlhambra Decree: 521 Years Later
a blog post on the Law Library of Congress's ''In Custodia Legis''
Song From a Withered Limb: Las Posadas and the Converso Crisis of the 16th Century

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Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism
History of the conversos
History of the Jews in South America
Jewish Mexican history
Jewish Spanish history
Judaism in Spain
Puerto Rican Jews
Sephardi Jews topics
Spanish Inquisition
Spanish people of Jewish descent