(Foreign) Bodies: Stigmatizing New Christians in Early Modern Spain

Front matter

(Foreign) Bodies Stigmatizing New Christians in Early Modern Spain

Julia Gebke

UWF

Contents

Acknowledgments

Oreworc

1 Introduction LI A Master Narrative?

Foreword

Much too used

to shake with anger at the crimes

of the swastika times we forget to be just a little thankful to our predecessors that their deeds might still help us

to recognise in time

that we are planning

a far greater crime today

(Erich Fried: Debt of Gratitude)

It may be initially shocking to associate the word thankful with the history of National Socialism and thus inevitably the history of the Holocaust when reading Erich Fried’s poem (1921-1988). However, this is the only positive aspect that we can take from the atrocities of the Nazi regime, namely the hope that we will learn from them, that is, that we will recognize the warning signs in due time and do it better in the future.

To understand the mechanisms of exclusion, discrimination and persecution and to fight them soon enough, we must understand how they work. That is why it is worthwhile to take a look at history — and not just the history of the zoth century. My book should make a small contribution to our understanding of exclusion mechanisms.

One strategy seemed critical to me in the process: the excluding group’s propagation of the physical otherness of the group to be excluded. Therefore, the focus of my book is on the excluding perspective of the perpetrator and especially on the distinguishing characteristics that were ascribed to the body declared to be different. I chose the ideology of blood purity, limpieza de sangre, in early modern Spain during the 16th and 17th century as the subject to be studied. This book will examine and analyze how to understand the concept of limpieza de sangre and how this ideology was implemented. The translations of the citations in this work are from the German translations

1 Erich FreD: Love poems, trans. by Stuart Hoop, New York and London 1991, 49.

Foreword provided by the author, unless stated otherwise.

“May his blood be on us and on our children.” (Matt. 27.25)

This verse from the Gospel of Matthew is of immense importance in the history of anti-Judaism since it is the basis for the argument in the accusation of deicide. It refers to the blood of Christ because it is the cry of the people when they support the enforcement of his execution, and the prisoner Barabbas is released in return. It follows right after the famous scene when Pontius Pilate asserts his innocence by washing his hands.

This line also became a central argument for the ideology of blood purity H the limpieza de sangre, on the Iberian Peninsula. To understand its historical context, it is worth taking a short journey through time to the Iberian Peninsula in 1391. There, especially in Andalusia, severe pogroms were directed against the Jewish population and forced conversions, with the archdeacon of Seville, Ferrando Martinez de Ecija, making a considerable contribution to this with his inflammatory sermons. The years and decades that followed saw large-scale waves of conversions. Today, it is only possible to guess at the motives for such a conversion. Certainly, there were very different reasons fear of renewed pogroms, the opportunity to improve social status, the desire for a family reunion (ifa part of the family had already converted), but also religious conviction may have played a role.

Two schools have emerged in the research on the subject of the religious identity of this group of converts, also called Judeoconversos or simply Conversos. One school, among them Yitzhak Baer (1888-1980), holds the view that the majority of the Conversos were crypto-Jews who continued to secretly practice the Jewish faith. The other — with Benzion Netanyahu (1910-2012) to be mentioned in particular — attribute this view of the Conversos as crypto-Jews to the representation of them on the basis of the Inquisition records. They view the Conversos in a more differentiated manner H Now, scholars largely argue that the Conversos were by no means a group with a uniform identity. For example, David Gitlitz presents a model where he tries to classify the identities of Conversos into four groups and often additional subgroups. Furthermore, he makes an effort to take account of the syncretistic tendencies of some Conversos.4

In my opinion, it is difficult to make statements about the religious beliefs of the Conversos so I would like to refrain from such an attempt. Gitlitzs model is helpful in the sense that it shows the

2 See chapter 1 1 4 Master Narrative for a definition of the concept of ideology.

3 Angel Alcala, for example, tries to summarize them in five categories. Angel ALCALÁ: Tres cuestiones en busca de respuesta: Invalidez del bautismo “forzado,” “conversión” de judíos, trato “cristiano” al converso, in: Ip. (ed.): Judios. Sefarditas. Conversos: Ponencias del Congreso Internacional celebrado en Nueva York en noviembre de 1992, Valladolid 1995, 523-544, here 533-535.

4 532533. 5 David M. GrTLITZ: Secrecy and Deceit. The Religion of the Crypto-Jews, Albuquerque 2002, 85-90.

complexity of religious identities. At the same time, however, it is important to be aware that, when reading the sources, one can come across people who cannot be classified in any of the categories and who prove to be far more complex than could ever be represented in a model. Finally, we cannot eliminate the possibility that one's own understanding of identity may change over time. The model can provide easier access to possible identities and give us initial orientation, but we should not impose it on the historical persons under any circumstance since otherwise they would be rendered static, which is not suitable for them.

The complexity of the identity concept itself can be seen here Accordingly, it is necessary to differentiate between individual identity and a collective identity, the "T" and “We,” in regard to the question of identity. It is precisely this collective identity that is important in the attempt to understand the Conversos conceptualized as a group. Two components of identity formation should be taken into account here: definition “from outside” and simultaneously differentiation from others “from inside” — which are in conflict with each other. Definition by one's self and definition by others are in a permanent, mutual negotiation process and equally characterize the identity of a group. In regard to the zoth century and the Holocaust, Lutz Niethammer describes the formation of identity by force as follows:

“It was the definition by others on account of an enemy ethnicity's exclusive political claim to power that first reduced this diversity to a single category and pounded the the subjected group with their ethnicity as the most significant distinguishing feature [...]."H

In the case of the Conversos, their identity must be viewed in a thoroughly differentiated manner. Even before their conversion, they had a strong group identity that consisted equally of self-definition and definition by others, and was essentially religious, but also defined by ethnicity and genealogy. It would have been conceivable for the conversion to lead to assimilation or integration and thus a weakening of this group identity, but it turned out differently. In regard to the Conversos’ situation, Niethammer argues that it is possible to speak of a “collective identity obligation,”® which naturally did not remain without consequences for their self-definition. B

The Conversos soon formed a kind of new urban, up-and-coming bourgeoisie that gave rise to social envy. In 1449 the situation escalated in Toledo, with the Conversos on one side and the self-proclaimed Old Christians on the other. The latter evidently felt that the Conversos were displacing

6 In this regard, see Gernot Böhme: Identität, in: Christoph Wurr (ed.): Vom Menschen, Weinheim et al. 1997, 686— 697; Jan Assmann: Erinnern, um dazuzugehören: Kulturelles Gedächtnis, Zugehörigkeitsstruktur und normative Vergangenheit, in: Kristin PLarr/Mihran Dasac (eds.): Generation und Gedächtnis, Opladen 1995, 51-75.

7 Translation by Henry Whittlesey Schroeder; “Erst die Fremdzuschreibung durch den exklusiven politischen Anspruch einer feindlichen Ethnie an der Macht reduzierte diese Vielfalt auf eine einzige Kategorie und bleute den Unterworfenen ihre Ethnizität als bedeutsamstes Unterscheidungsmerkmal ein.” Lutz NIETHAMMER: Diesseits des “Floating Gap”: Das kollektive Gedächtnis und die Konstruktion von Identität im wissenschaftlichen Diskurs, in: Kristin PLarr/Mihran Dasac (eds.): Generation und Gedächtnis, Opladen 1995, 25-50, here 44.

8 “Verpflichtung zu kollektiver Identität,” 39.

9 In regard to New Christian constructions of identity in the Ashkenazic, German-speaking countries and the connections between conversion and body, see Maria DIEMLING: “Mit Leib und Seele?”: überlegungen zum Körperbild jüdischer Konvertiten in der Frühen Neuzeit, in: Aschkenas 15.2 (2005), 399-418.

them on the city council, which must have contributed greatly to defining the Old Christians’ perception of themselves and their newly gained feeling of solidarity. In addition to this, the city was supposed to levy an additional tax of one thousand maravedis, a considerable sum, in 1449. John II of Castile (1405-1454) wanted to use the revenue from this tax to finance his wars. He sent Alvaro de Luna (1388/90—1453), his supreme commander and also a scion of an influential Converso family, to Toledo in order to achieve this. The Old Christian faction on the city council was against the payment of the tax because it violated the privileges granted to the city; by contrast, the Conversos, who were loyal to the king, supported it. The fronts hardened and the dispute culminated in the Sentencia-Estatuté edited by Pedro Sarmiento, the leader of the Old Christian faction. Today, these statutes are considered the first purity of blood statutes — or at least the oldest ones on record. They stated in regard to the Conversos of Jewish descent:

“[...] they are to be treated as and held for — as the law treats and holds them — dishonorable, incapable, unfit and unworthy to occupy any public or private offices or honorable positions in the said city of Toledo, in its territory, within its borders or its jurisdiction where they could gain power over the Old Christians who believe in the holy Catholic faith of our Lord Jesus Christ and inflict damage or do harm to them. And [they shall] also be considered dishonorable, incapable and unfit to testify and certify as public scribes or witnesses, especially in this city "El

Thus, the statutes denied the Conversos access to the public offices and dignities of the city by declaring them unworthy. The authors of the Sentencia-Estatuto traced this loss of worthiness back to the tendency of Conversos to re-“Judaize.”E] They accused them of apostasy, specifically the dropping of the Christian faith and the return to Judaism, which the Old Christians considered to be heresy and a crime H It is also possible to clearly see the fronts that had been opened between New and Old Christians in the language used by the group around Pedro Sarmiento. In defining themselves, they characterized their group as "christianos viejos lindos," i.e., translated literally, the “beautiful Old Christians.” Especially at the beginning of the ideology of blood purity in the 15th century, the designation as “beautiful Christians,” cristianos lindos, can be found for Old Christians,

10 See in regard to the Se of the Sentencia—Estatuto: Eloy BENrro Ruano: Los orígenes del problema converso, Madrid, 2001, URL: 4 (visited on 27/02/2019); Eloy Benrro Ruano: El memorial contra los conversos del Bachiller Marcos en de Mora, in: Sefarad 17 (1957), 314-351 and Norman RoTH: Anti-Converso Riots of the Fifteenth Century, Pulgar, and the Inquisition, in: En la España Medieval 15 (1992), 367—394, URL:

II L1 sean habidos é tenidos como el derecho los há é tiene por infames, inhabiles, incapaces é indignos para haber todo oficio é beneficio público y privado en la dicha cibdad de Toledo, y en su tierra, término y jurisdicion, con el qual puedan tener señorío en los christianos viejos en la santa fe cathólica de nuestro Señor Jesuchristo creyentes, é facerles daños é injurias, é ansí mesmo ser infames, inhábiles, incapaces para dar testimonio é fé como escribanos públicos ó como testigos, y especialmente en esta cibdad [...].” Antonio Martin Gamero: Historia de la ciudad de Toledo, Toledo 1862, 1039.

12 1037.

13 1039.

with their “beauty” in this context being evidently a result of their purity. By contrast, the New Christians were declared “conversos del linaje de los judios” — that is, converts of Jewish ancestry. Furthermore, it is clearly emphasized at the end of the text that the statute indiscriminately covers past, present and future Conversos: “[...] extendiese y extienda contra los conversos pretéritos y presentes é por venir [...].”&9

The extension to all future generations became a particular concern of radical proponents of the ideology of blood purity such as the theologian Francisco de Torrejoncillo because their view was that the New Christian origin was a stigma that could not be eradicated. Accordingly, Torrenjoncillo writes in his anti-Converso treatise entitled Centinela contra judios which was first published in

1674:

“[...] as if it were an original sin to be an enemy of the Christians, of Christ and His divine Law. There is no need to be born of both a Jewish father and mother, only one is enough and it is not important if it is not the father. The mother by herself is sufficient, even if she is not herself wholly a Jew since a half, a quarter or even an eighth part is all that is required. In our times, the Holy Inquisition has uncovered judaizers even within twenty-one degrees of consanguinity. Many heretics become Catholics, many gentiles convert to our faith; but you will never, or only very rarely, see a Jew who has converted unless it is through fear of punishment.”

This example clearly reveals the dimensions in which Torrejoncillo thought. From his point of view, a single ancestor of Jewish descent already represented a potential threat to the solidity of Converso descendants’ Christian faith. It is almost irrelevant how many generations lie between the ancestors and descendants. In addition, both paternal and maternal lineages are considered equally by Torrejoncillo, resulting in a large number of ancestors with potentially Jewish roots.

Such an understanding of blood purity was also reflected in the practical implementation of the statutes. Institutions such as the Colegios MayoresA religious orders, orders of knights, cathedral

15 See also the definition of cristiano lindo in the glossary by Hering Torres. Max Sebastián HERING Torres: Rassismus in der Vormoderne: Die “Reinheit des Blutes” im Spanien der Frúhen Neuzeit, Frankfurt am Main 2006, 266.

16 MARTÍN GAMERO: (see n. [n], 1040.

17 On Watch against the Jews.

18 Translation by Francois Soyer, Francois Soyer: Popularizing Anti-Semitism in Early Modern Spain and its Empire: Francisco de Torrejoncillo and the *Centinela contra Judios” (1674), Leiden and Boston 2014, 157; “[...] como si fuera pecado original, à ser enemigos de Christianos, de Christo, y de su Ley Divina, no es necessario ser de padre, y madre Judios, uno solo basta: no importa que no lo sea el padre, basta la madre, y esta aun no entera, basta la mitad, y ni aun tanto, basta un quarto, y aun octavo: y la Inquisicion Santa ha descubierto en nuestros tiempos, que hasta distantes veinte y un grados se han conocido Judayzar. [...] muchos Gentiles se convierten à nuestra Fé; pero nunca, 6 raro se verá un Judio convertido [...]." Francisco de TORREJONCILLO: Centinela contra judíos, puesta en la torre de la Iglesia de Dios, Barcelona: Por Joseph Girált impressor, 1731, 62.

19 Colegios Mayores were boarding schools of the universities. They increasingly developed from a social institution for underprivileged students into an elite institution of the Spanish nobility. HERING Torres:

Wormoderng (see n. [ 65:

chapters, city councils, guilds and the Inquisition made extensive use of the statutes.2d Every candidate who wanted to become a member of one of these institutions was subjected to genealogical investigations and had to prove their Old Christian descent, for example by presenting a family tree P! The Holy Office of the Inquisition represents a special instance in the case of the statutes since genealogical investigations have certainly been handed down, but a formulation of the statutes is missing. Hering Torres even suspects that the statutes were never officially introduced £4

Although King Philip IV tried to limit the practice of the blood purity statutes in a decree, the Pragmática of 1623 he did not dare to address the unlimited application of the statutes to all future generations. Thus, in the genealogical examinations when a candidate applied for an office that excluded the New Christians on account of the purity of blood statutes, the ancestors on both the paternal and maternal side were examined as far back as the investigators — the informadores — thought to be appropriate.

The ideology of blood purity said that the blood of the New Christians was unclean due to their Jewish heritage, whereas that of the Old Christians was characterized by a particular purity. This postulated impurity of the New Christians in contrast to the purity of the Old Christians was reflected in the statutes, which officially remained on the books until their final abolition on March 20, 187024 The ideology was implemented practically in genealogical investigations. The ideology of blood purity, by the way, referred to New Christians — neophytes — in general. Essentially, three groups were addressed: the Conversos, i.e. Christian converts of Jewish descent and their descendants, the Moriscos, Christian converts of Muslim descent and their descendants, and lastly heretics and their descendants.

The Conversos represented the largest and most important target group for the proponents and apologists of the ideology of blood purity. The Moriscos were of secondary importance for them. By contrast, heretics were usually mentioned only in passing and frequently surfaced in the context of legal questions.24

Since I mainly study the treatises of the apologists in this book, I will analyze — according to this constellation — primarily the view held of the Conversos. I also examine the attitude toward the Moriscos, but inevitably to a lesser extent. One of the reasons for this thematic focus is the fact that the Moriscos were expelled from the Spanish Kingdom between 1609 and 1614.

20 64-81; in regard to the guilds, see Maria GHAZALI: Les métiers de Valence (Espagne): Identité collective et exclusions, in: Cahiers de la Méditerranée 66 (2003), 121-134, URL: (visited on 27/02/2019), here 121—134.

21 In regard to the genealogical investigations, see HERING TORRES: (see n. fis), 82-131.

22 75-

23 More detailed information on the Pragmática of 1623 can be found in chapter 3.4.3 The Special Case of Juan de Quiñones.

24 EL MINISTERIO DE GRACIA Y Justicia (ed.): Colección legislativa de España, 103,1 (1870), 366.

25 Ignacio del VILLAR MALDONADO: Sylva responsorum iuris, in duos libros divisa, Madrid 1614, 120r—135r; ESCOBAR DEL CORRO, Juan: Tractatus bipartitus de puritate et nobilitate probanda, Genevae [Geneva]: Excudebat Philippus Gamonetus, 1664, 10-11; in regard to Escobar del Corro, see also Rainer WALz: Die Entwicklung eines religiösen Rassismus in der Frühen Neuzeit: Die Exklusion der Conversos, in: Klaus HEnBERs/Nikolas JAsPERT (eds.): Integration — Segregation — Vertreibung, Berlin et al. 2011, 337-362, here 350-360.

As far as terminology is concerned, there are many different terms used, both in the sources and in contemporary research. In the literature of the time, we find, among others, the following names used to refer to the Conversos: confeso (confessed), converso (convert), cristiano nuevo (New Christian) and marrano (Marrano). The proponents of the ideology of blood purity often simply used the terms judío (Jew), israelita (Israelite) or hebreo (Hebrew). In this way, they could make it clear that they were by no means convinced by the conversion of the Conversos.

The word marrano is also a name for pigs. Yitzhak Baer refers to this association and stresses the insulting character of the term, which, according to Baer, was not used in the official language 24 The etymological roots of the word are not certain, however. Antonio Domínguez Ortiz provides a detailed overview on this subject #1 And even the early modern apologists of the ideology of blood purity identified various possibilities with regard to the original meaning of the word. For example, Francisco de Torrejoncillo attributed the word marrano initially to the Spanish term for pig, but also mentioned two alternatives found in Hebrew and in a mixture of Hebrew and Arabic. The Hebrew variant basically means “removed from the law, excommunicated and cursed” and the Hebrew-Arabic word means “our Lord will come."P3

A review of the research shows that all the names have certain problems. The adoption of historical names of groups also bears the risk of taking up their pejorative connotation. In principle, any name proves to be difficult since it is used to make reference to a group that existed in this form only from the perspective of the Old Christians, although the term Old Christians is no less problematic in this sense. While these terminological difficulties cannot be avoided, it is possible to be aware of their potential for conflict and to compensate for this to some extent by raising the topic. Consequently, I have tried to use the most neutral terms, which were first of all the most common ones adopted by critics of the ideology of blood purity, second, are found in research today, and, third, are best suited for my research perspective. I refer to the Jews who converted to Christianity and their descendants by using the term Conversos. I call the Muslims who converted to Christianity and their descendants Moriscos. When both groups are described collectively, I use the term New Christians.

Over the centuries, the focus of the arguments in the debate on blood purity has shifted time and again. Theological arguments generally formed the basis. At the end of the 15th century, both proponents and critics mainly used legal arguments to underline or refute the usefulness of the purity of blood statutes. In the 16th century, the legal debate faded into the background and was replaced by an abundant number of perspectives addressing the topic from socio-economic, genealogical or historical approaches, for example. An interesting overview of the arguments — of both critics and

26 Yitzhak Barr: A History of the Jews in Christian Spain II: From The Fourteenth Century to the Expulsion, trans. by Louis ScHOFFMANN, Philadelphia 1961, 270.

27 Antonio DomínGUEZ Ortiz: La clase social de los conversos en Castilla en la Edad Moderna, Granada 1991, 12.

28 Translation by François Soyer: “[...] in Hebrew marran atha means those who have deviated from the Law and have been placed under a ban and cursed. [...] Others [...] assert that marran atha means Dominus noster veniet: ‘our Lord will come.’ [...] which has its origin in Hebrew and Arabic [...].” Soyer: (see n. [8), 207; “[...] en el Hebreo marranathat, quiere decir apartaos de la ley descomulgados y malditos. [...] Otros [...] dicen, que marranathat quiere decir, Dominus noster veniet, nuestro Señor vendra, [...] que tiene su origen de el Hebreo, y del Arabigo [...].” ToRREJONCILLO: (see n. B) 127.

IO proponents — can be found in the work written by the Dominican Agustín Salucio (1523-1601) around 1599. He cannot be categorized as belonging to either group. Accordingly, he criticized the practice of the blood purity statutes, but did not call for their abolition; rather, he argued that the first step should be a limitation of the genealogical investigations.£4 The Dominican fundamentally pursued an extremely pragmatic approach bd He justified his proposal of a limitation, among others, by stating that political changes are only possible in very small steps:

“Changing the statutes quickly did not seem reasonable since you have to progress with a lead foot to make any changes in government [...] Bl

At the turn of the 16th century, it can be seen that arguments about physical otherness play a role in the texts. To this end, the authors not only draw on classical theological topoi, but also on aspects from the fields of medicine and natural philosophy.

However, not only did the arguments repeatedly change, but the intensity of the debate also fluctuated constantly. Decades would pass in which hardly any work was composed on the subject of the blood purity ideology. At other times, by contrast, the ideology of blood purity was again the subject of fierce discussion, which is also reflected in the production of apologies and critiques. At the beginning of the 17th century, for example, an immense amount of work was written on the topic.

In research, Albert Sicroff (1918-2013)& was one of the first scholars to document and analyze the limpieza de sangre on the basis of key texts and historic events. His study stretches from the first debate on the statutes in the second half of the 15th century to the debate in the first half of the 17th century when the critics’ discussion revolved around a possible abolition or limitation of the statutes. Against the backdrop of literary sources, whose allusions to the ideology of blood purity are hard for modern readers to understand without appropriate knowledge, Sicroff diagnosed early modern Spanish society as having a kind of obsession with the subject of blood purity and its statutes:

“The preoccupation with the limpieza de sangre had become so intertwined with Spanish life that we cannot exactly determine the limits of this obsession.”

Sicroff thus ascribed an eminent role to the ideology of blood purity in early modern Spanish society, claiming that this ideology was firmly anchored in people’s minds. By contrast, Henry

29 Agustin SaLucio: Discurso echo por fray Agustin de Salucio. Ms. Codex 1447, [17th century], URL: http://dla.

30 See Vincent TS Entre hona y dhonn: El Discurso de fray Agustin Salucio acerca de los estatutos de limpieza de sangre (1599), in: Criticón 80 (2000), 139—152, here 151.

31 “El mudar muy a priesa los estatutos no ha parecido combenir porque en el gobierno para hacer qualquiera mudança se ha de yr con pie de plomo [...].” SaLucio: (see n. Eg), 221.

32 Albert A. SicRorr: Les controverses des statuts de "pureté de sang” en Espagne du XVe au XVIIe siécle, Paris 1960.

33 “La préoccupation de la limpieza de sangre s'était si intimement mélée à l'existence espagnole que nous ne pouvons pas savoir exactement les limites atteintes par cette obsession.” [bidem| 297.