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Most people know about the expulsions that were initiated in Iberia both in 1492 in Spain and 1497 in Portugal, but few realize that activities of the 14th century, culminating with marked tragedies in 1391 and 1392, were the beginning of the end of Spanish and Portuguese Jewry. In actuality, 1391 was the culmination of a century of slaughter against the Jews. It was during this period of cruel persecutions that many thousands of Jewish families converted to Christianity under duress in order to save their lives, while others fled Spain for Europe and North Africa.
In 1492 when the Jewish population in Spain was expelled, the Inquisition in Spain had already been in effect for over a decade. Soon after the expulsion, the intensity in which the Church pursued secretly practicing Jews (Marranos) and New Christians (Conversos) accused of heretical crimes, increased. This Website serves as an educational resource for those wanting to learn more about what led up to the Inquisition itself. We suggest starting with the paper 'Ferrand Martinez and the Massacres of 1391'.
--INTERNATIONAL SEPHARDIC LEADERSHIP COUNCIL
Inquisition in Iberia (Spain and Portugal) Part 1.
Edited from the original printed in the Jewish Encyclopedia
Edited from the original printed in the Jewish EncyclopediaJews in Spain in the Second Half of the Fifteenth Century Auto-Da-Fe: The Sentencing Portion of the Inquisition
Edited from the original printed in the Jewish EncyclopediaOrigins and Stigma Of the Iberian Garment Of Shame: The San Benito
Courtesy of the International Sephardic JournalFerrand Martinez and the Massacres of 1391
By Henry Charles LeaEl Santo Niño de La Guardia: Paper on the alleged victim of a ritual murder by Jews in the north-western Spanish province of Pontevedra (Galicia) in 1491
By Henry Charles LeaConfiscation for Heresy in the Middle Ages
By Henry Charles LeaLucero the Inquisitor
By Henry Charles LeaThe First Castilian Inquistor
By Henry Charles LeaHidalgo and Morelos
By Henry Charles LeaCommerce and Industry in Spain During Ancient and Mediaeval Times
By Leon ArdzrooniThe Jews in Modern Palestine
By E. W. G. MastermanThe years 1492 and 1497 were not turning points by themselves, trouble had been simmering for over one hundred years on the Peninsula. In Spain the Jewish communities had been in chaos for 100 years even before the Expulsion. It should be noted that Spanish crypto-Judaism had its origins in 1391, not in 1492. To understand what the catalyst was that resulted in a large number of Jews converting, and it has been said anywhere from 100,000 to 250,000 Jews converted between 1391 and 1492, we need to look at some of the experiences that the Jewish community endured.Although large numbers of Jews did convert during the 1391-1492 interlude, a portion of the Spanish Jewry chose martyrdom or risked further persecution by their rejection of Christian idolatry. It was this surviving population of Sephardic Jews that was eventually expelled from Spain in 1492.
Professor Yosef Haim Yerushalmi, one of the most respected Jewish historians of our current generation, once said:
Will we ever know how many Jews were lost over the years? Amongst the Jews who were lost must be counted not only those who were the victims of massacres and martyrdoms, but equally those who went over to the other side or converted. And these Jews were lost not because-as the most simplistic explanation would have it-they were seduced by purely secular ambitions or material benefits; they were conquered by a real, a genuine despair: they feared that the Jewish people had no future."
