Just wanted to bring up a point that the Spanish Inquistion was primarily aimed at the remnants of the Moorish empire in fact the grand inquistor Takamate (forgive spelling) was the son of “converso’s”. The Moors had a called to the Turks during a rebellion from a Spanish coastal city and the Turks rejected their offer much to the relief of the Spaniards.
This then kicked off a serious repressive inquisition, Jews were still allowed to hold offcie but could only rise to a certain level. Granted, things were still uncomfortable for the Semites but no where near as bad as the Moors got it. The King had installed the “pureza de sangre” laws which meant to hold any position within the courts one had to trace their blood line back and if you couldn’t well…you were stopped from advancing.
The Inquisiton was not aimed (at first) at Jews or Prodestants but directly at the Moors who had held Spain for 500 years. Also, this was a direct backlash at the Moors who after conquering large portions of Spain basically told the subjegated “Convert to Allah or become a slave”…I
No, the Spanish Inquisition was aimed at Jews from the beginning, under circumstances that are still not entirely understood. About a generation before the final expulsion of the Moors from Spain, a large number of Spanish Jews voluntarily converted to Christianity. We don’t know why, though we do know from both Christian and Jewish records that it wasn’t by force. But there then came to be some suspicions as to how sincere their conversion had been, and, at the same time, there arose a fear that the presence of both overt and covert Jews would put the sincere converts into danger of backsliding.
A lot were converted by force, though, during and in the aftermaths of the pogroms in 1391 (or at least because they feared violence if they didn’t). And from 1391 to 1492, Spain passed more and more restrictive anti-Jewish laws. So, I really would question the “voluntary” nature of most of these conversions.
I thought it was aimed at the Moops?
Which column was this about?
<violent choking AndrewT through the bubble>
IT’S THE MOORS! THE MOORS!!!