Conversion & suspicion · Spain · 1391–fifteenth century
Anti-Jewish preaching and violence produced converts whom society then accused of secretly remaining Jewish.
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1391–fifteenth century
Conversion & suspicion · Baptism does not close the accusation
Anti-Jewish preaching and violence produced converts whom society then accused of secretly remaining Jewish.
The attacks of 1391
In 1391, anti-Jewish violence spread through cities in Castile and Aragon. Preaching against Jews helped make neighbours into targets. Many Jews were killed or forced to convert. Baptism under the threat of violence was a survival response, not evidence that earlier Jewish life had been freely abandoned.
The convert becomes a new target
Converts and their descendants were called conversos or New Christians. Some continued Jewish practices; many did not. Hostility treated ancestry as a reason to suspect an entire group. The accusation could therefore survive the very conversion that Christian authorities had demanded.
Ancestry enters the rulebook
Blood-purity rules barred people with Jewish ancestry from particular institutions, while the Spanish Inquisition investigated alleged heresy among baptized Christians. These were different instruments of exclusion. Together they could turn a family’s origins into a lifelong obstacle, even when its members publicly practised Christianity.