Christianisation strategies in Spain: the extirpation of “heresies”
The monotheist faiths have some traits in common but they developed partly in isolation and conflict. That was true of the advent of Christianity first and so it was, later, of Islam. Within the realm of al-Andalus, there was cohabitation, at times some shade of interpenetration (e.g. the spreading of Arabic within both Jewish and Christian learned society), the sharing of some ways of dressing and, infrequently, cooking. Meanwhile, differences in traditions that perpetuated the existence of clearly identifiable communities over the centuries, made it possible for this or that Almohad ruler pointedly to exclude non-Muslims. The Reconquista reversed the politico-military balance of power, at which point the management of religious and cultural diversity in the population under its authority becomes a problem for the Crown. Neither was this a narrowly Iberian issue since, on a Mediterranean scale, this coincided with the fall of the Byzantine Empire and the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, who took on the mantle of protector of Islam and of the Muslims.
One after another, the Catholic Monarchs exhibited the will to work towards the single and unadulterated faith that seemed essential to them, be it at a secular or spiritual level. In those days, it seemed impossible, as Fernand Braudel wrote, to part political power from religious power. So that instead of seeking religious conviviality, war was waged on “heresy”, be it Jewish, Muslim or Protestant. The first operation in which the State and the Catholic Church worked hand in glove was aimed at bringing back to Catholic doctrine and worship those whose forefathers had been converted to Islam. It was immediately followed, through an edict in 1502 by a campaign of evangelisation of the Muslims based on preaching and the sacrament of baptism. Further laws enforced in 1511 and 1526 confirmed this trend by adopting a culturally all-embracing line of attack whereby all sorts of written material and daily activities were targeted.
In an environment now dominated by the Christians, the strategies deployed by Jews and Muslims were diverse. One of them consisted in leaving Spain voluntarily for North Africa or the Eastern Mediterranean where the latter returned to a “Land of Islam”, while the former would benefit from a religious tolerance greater than in the Northern Mediterranean. However the disappointment could be great. Another approach consisted in practicing one's faith and keeping one's tradition in secret, baptism not withstanding ; this dissimulation which the Muslims know as taqiyya appears to have been more in use among the Jews who could not hope for the intervention of a foreign power liable militarily to repel the Christian power ensconced in the Peninsula. There is no want for polemics around “hypocrisy” and the “defence of the faith”. Pressures from the Old Christian[1] community, anxious not to mix with the others, are making themselves felt by way of harassment of the converts as well a of those who resist conversion. Those Marranos[2] who might have acceded high political or economic office were assailed from all quarters by rumeurs loaded with social implications.
The Inquisition tribunals were one of the main instruments in the fight against the “heretics”. Close on three centuries after the creation of an institution that had originally targeted Christians suspected of deviating from the “straight path”, under the rule of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, and with the approval of Pope Sixtus IV the Supreme Council of the Inquisition[3] was instituted in Spain. Its main role was to fight a range of political, religious or moral “crimes” outlawed by the Catholic Church or the Crown of Spain. Thus challenging the government, possessing works deemed anti-Christian, along with such matrimonial practices as polygamy were liable to proceedings, examinations possibly torture as codified (c.f. Bartolomé Bennassar) and to condemnation. If “guilt” was averred and if the accused refused to denounce their own error, a sentence was pronounced and left to the secular arm to carry out. On the ground, the Jewish or once Jewish community put up a fairly united front towards avoiding these courts. As for the Muslims, most of them rely in fatwa to leave the land of their fathers. In 1524, in Seville a signboard was fixed up that laid out the facts as seen by the authorities in charge.
The objectives of the Crown of Spain regarding the Jews and the Muslims were identical but the political instruments were different. The expulsion of the Jews followed directly on the fall of the kingdom of Granada. The attempts by some members of the Jewish community to forestall the implementation of the edict by offering money to King Ferdinand got a sharp reaction from the Catholic authorities who considered it a duplicitous bargain. Concerning the Muslims in general and the Moriscos in particular the measures were taken over a century and more. One of the reasons for this is to be found not in the religious but in the social configuration : the presence of high figures of Jewish persuasion or origins in the corridors of power had no equivalence in the Muslim community. The Moriscos were seen as more clearly aloof from the Catholic community. After the Alpujarras Revolt[4]. The Spanish authorities did try to break down this social division by the imposition of internal migrations; but they failed, merely shifting the problem from one place to another.
Claiming the role of champions of the Catholic cause, the Spanish monarchs adopted, with one century between them, radical measures towards their subjects with a Jewish or Muslim history. In the first instance, the decision was not novel and combined religious motivations with socio-economic ones : since the 13th century, the Jews had fallen prey to expulsion measures taken by the Monarchs of England, the Holy Roman Empire and France. The second instance has no precedents, bar in Malta. The crusaders who founded the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem or the County of Tripoli never took any such steps, any more than the post 1130 Norman rulers of Sicily upon the creation of a new kingdom. Religious antagonism is here combined with geopolitical considerations involving the Ottoman Empire and the Moroccan authorities, as well as heretical England, a France allied by treaty to the Sultan and German states given over to the Protestant reform.
