Maya Saltzman (Franquita) Señora Coron
The Spanish Inquisition 25, February 2013 In medieval times, religion played a big role in everyone’s life throughout the world. Christianity was thought to be the best and biggest religion and all other religions were looked down upon. Because of this, in Europe, there was an Inquisition forcing others to convert to Christianity and there were many killings being done. In Spain in the early 1400s, the Spaniards were fighting the Moors who were Muslim so they were unaware of the Inquisition going on in their surrounding areas. By the mid 1400s, the Moors were defeated but the Spanish people under the rule of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were unhappy. The Jews in Spain had very high rankings and were not Christian so this high ranking of the Jews bothered many Spanish peasants, they were no longer fighting the Moors so anti- Semitism quickly rose and so did pogroms and raids on Jewish houses and people. Village priests throughout Spain urged their congregants not to hurt the Jews and to be peaceful but some did the exact opposite. One Dominican man named Ferran Martinez began to stir up crowds and spread rumors about Jews saying they would crucify children and drink their blood. More and more people were becoming entranced by the speeches Martinez made and very much believed what he was saying. He began to organize riots against the Jews and many followed and raided the houses, took the women, and all the money they had. Before long, the death toll throughout Spain had gone up and the economy had gone down due to many high-ranking Jewish deaths. Many more Jews began to convert to Christianity when they began to see what would happen if they did not; if they did not convert Jews did not get the right to hold any job of authority, ride on a horse, eat or talk with Christians, wear fine clothes, and they had to grow their beards long and wear a large yellow patch on their clothes. Because of all of these restrictions many Jews began to convert. These “new Christians” became known as Conversos. The “old Christians” became unhappy again after a couple of months even though there were more Christians in the world and most of the Jews who remained with their religion fled from Spain. Why were the “old Christians” unhappy? They were upset because the Conversos still had a higher status than the “old Christians”; and now the Conversos were marrying Christian nobles and mingling with even higher-ranking people than before. Soon “old Christians” began to call the Conversos moranos, which is a Spanish term for pig. Soon, there were not only rumors about Jews drinking Christian blood but there were now rumors about Conversos drinking Christian blood. This new belief of anti- Semitism and feeling stepped upon led to “old Christians” to ask King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to let Spain in on the Inquisition that was already taking place throughout Europe in order to purify, and make the economy better. Now the esteemed King and Queen of Spain had to decide what they wanted to do with the Conversos in their land. Isabella and Ferdinand did not want to cut off ties and start an Inquisition with the Conversos because many of them were noble and were dear friends who would donate money to the government. But they were outnumbered; a lot of the people who courted to Isabella wanted he Inquisition to come to Spain so they began to pressure her but she stayed firm on her beliefs. One of the people who was pressing her to be pro Inquisition, was Tomás Torquemada; who was her spiritual advisor. Eventually, all of the “pro Inquistioners” realized they needed a new tactic; so they began to persuade Ferdinand instead. Ferdinand loved getting money for himself and the government so when he was told more money could be made from taken people’s property in the Inquisition, he was all for it. Next, Isabella had to be convinced to join the part and soon enough, she did. Once she agreed