Between Christian and Jew: Conversion and Inquisition in the Crown of Aragon, 1250-1391

224 Pages·2012·1.75 MB·English

by  Paola Tartakoff

Between Christian and Jew
THE MIDDLE AGES SERIES
Ruth Mazo Karras, Series Editor
Edward Peters, Founding Editor
A complete list of books in the series is available from the publisher.
Between Christian and Jew
CONVERSION AND INQUISITION
IN THE CROWN OF ARAGON, 1250–1391
Paola Tartakoff
university of pennsylvania press
philadelphia
Copyright © 2012 University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for
purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book
may be reproduced in any form by any means without
written permission from the publisher.
Published by
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112
www.upenn.edu/pennpress
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tartakoff, Paola.
Between Christian and Jew : conversion and inquisition
in the crown of Aragon, 1250–1391 / Paola Tartakoff. —
1st ed.
p. cm. — (The Middle Ages series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8122-4421-2 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Jews—Spain—Aragon—History—To 1500.
2. Christian converts from Judaism—Spain—
Aragon—History—To 1500. 3. Judaism—Relations—
Christianity—History—To 1500. 4. Christianity and
other religions—Judaism—History—To 1500. 5. Aragon
(Spain)—Ethnic relations. I. Title.
DS135.S75A787 2012
305.892'40465509023—dc23
2011049639
For Daniel
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Contents
Note on Names, Money, Terminology, and Transliterations ix
Map 1 xi
Map 2 xii
Map 3 xiii
Introduction 1
PART I. BEFORE THE TRIBUNAL
Four Arrests 13
1.Defending the Faith: Medieval Inquisitors and the Prosecution
of Jews and Converts 16
2.From Resistance to Surrender: Jewish Responses to Inquisitorial
Prosecution 33
Four Condemnations 56
PART II. AT THE FONT OF NEW LIFE
Alatzar and Abadia, Baptized 61
3.Between Doubt and Desire: Jewish Conversion, Converts,
and Christian Society 63
4.Homeward Bound: The Fates of Jewish Converts 81
Two Converts, Repentant 96
viii Contents
PART III. BY THE FIRE
The Intervention 101
5.Apostasy as Scourge: Jews and the Repudiation of
Apostates 106
6.Recruiting Repentance: The Re-Judaization of Apostates 117
The Road to the Stake 132
Conclusion 135
List of Abbreviations 141
Notes 143
Glossary 173
Bibliography 175
Index 199
Acknowledgments 207
Note on Names, Money, Terminology,
and Transliterations
In the pages that follow, I have sought to preserve a sense of the linguistic di-
versity of the medieval Crown of Aragon. Thus, I have used the Catalan forms
of names of people from and towns in Catalonia and Valencia (Pere, for exam-
ple, instead of the English Peter, the Castilian Pedro, or the Latin Petrus) and
the Castilian forms of names of people from and towns in Aragon (Esteban,
for example, instead of Steven, Esteve, or Stephanus). For the sake of consis-
tency, however, I have used the Catalan titles of the rulers of the Crown of
Aragon (referring to King Peter the Ceremonious as Pere III, for example, and
not as the Aragonese Pedro IV or the Valencian Pere II). For the sake of clarity,
I have used the most commonly cited forms of the names of well-known in-
dividuals, such as the convert Pablo Christiani. In addition, to reduce confu-
sion stemming from the variable orthography of medieval sources—although
at the cost of obscuring data of interest to readers concerned with historical
linguistics—I have regularized the spelling of toponyms in accordance with
modern orthography (referring to Sant Pere de Riudebitlles, for example, in-
stead of Sant Pere de Riudebirles). I have regularized the spelling of Hebrew
names, as well, using the forms that most frequently appear in documents
(spelling the English name Joseph always as Jucef, for example, instead of
sometimes as Juceff or Josep).
The Crown of Aragon was home to three distinct coinages, all based on
silver: sous of Barcelona (the currency in Catalonia), sous of Jaca (the currency
in Aragon), and sous of Valencia, or reials (the currency in Valencia). All three
used the Carolingian ratio of one lliura (or pound or libra) to twenty sous (or
shillings or solidi), and one sou to twelve diners (or pennies or denarii). The
relative values of these three currencies were constantly in flux. Gold coins
circulated as well, and two types of these figure in this book. Morabetins were
struck after 1172. In 1293, one morabetin was worth nine Barcelona sous. The
florin of Aragon was first minted by command of King Pere III in 1346. In
1365, one florin was worth eleven Barcelona sous.