Table Of ContentPopularizing Anti-Semitism in Early Modern
Spain and its Empire
The Medieval and Early
Modern Iberian World
(Formerly Medieval Iberian Peninsula)
Edited by
Larry J. Simon (Western Michigan University)
Gerard Wiegers (University of Amsterdam)
Arie Schippers (University of Amsterdam)
Isidro J. Rivera (University of Kansas)
Mercedes García-Arenal (CCHS/CSIS)
VOLUME 54
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/memi
Popularizing Anti-Semitism in Early
Modern Spain and its Empire
Francisco de Torrejoncillo and the Centinela contra
Judíos (1674)
François Soyer
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2014
Cover illustration: Title page, Francisco de Torrejoncillo, Centinela contra Judíos (Madrid, 1728).
© Francois Soyer
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Soyer, François, author.
Popularizing Anti-Semitism in early modern Spain and its empire : Francisco de Torrejoncillo and
the Centinela contra Judios (1674) / edited by Francois Soyer.
pages cm. -- (The medieval and early modern Iberian world ; 54)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-25047-5 (hardback : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-90-04-26887-6 (e-book : alk. paper)
1. Torrejoncillo, Francisco de, active 1670--Translations into English. 2. Antisemitism--Spain--
History--17th century--Sources. 3. Antisemitism--Spain--History--17th century. I. Torrejoncillo,
Francisco de, active 1670. Centinela contra Judios. English. II. Title.
DS146.S7S69 2014
305.892’44609032--dc23
2014003186
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ISSN 1569-1934
ISBN 978-90-04-25047-5 (hardback)
ISBN 978-90-04-26887-6 (e-book)
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ................................................................................................vii
Abbreviations ............................................................................................................ix
List of Illustrations and Maps ...............................................................................xi
Maps ...........................................................................................................................xii
Illustrations ..............................................................................................................xv
Foreword ..................................................................................................................xxi
SECTION ONE
A HISTORY AND ANALYSIS OF THE CENTINELA CONTRA JUDÍOS
1. Seventeenth-Century Spain and its ‘Jewish Problem’:
The Centinela contra Judíos and its Historical Context ............................3
2. Religion and Blood: ‘Religious Anti-Semitism’ in Early
Modern Spain.....................................................................................................19
3. Authorship, History and Impact of the Centinela contra Judíos ...........47
4. Anti-Semitic Propaganda and Pedagogy:
Fear Mongering in the Centinela contra Judíos .........................................75
Conclusion ................................................................................................................99
SECTION TWO
TRANSLATION OF THE CENTINELA CONTRA JUDÍOS
Foreword to the Translation..............................................................................105
Introductory Poem ..............................................................................................107
Prologue..................................................................................................................109
1. How the Jews are, and always have been, arrogant
and liars ............................................................................................................111
2. That the Jews are, and have been, traitors ..............................................117
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vi contents
3. How the Jews came to be disdained and humbled ............................139
4. How the Jews are persecutors of our Holy Catholic Faith ...............145
5. That those who favour Jews because of the benefit
that they receive in return will never come to a
good end. Nor will they prosper with them .........................................161
6. Why the Jews should not be trusted, nor should
any faith be placed in their deeds ...........................................................175
7. Regarding the anxiety with which the Jews
await the coming of the Messiah ............................................................185
8. How the Jews, wherever they may be, stick
together and form a Mystical Body ........................................................197
9. Why they were called Hebrews, Israelites and
Jews and why and how, in ancient times, they
came to be called Marranos .....................................................................205
10. How the Jews, in addition to being opposed to our Holy
Faith, are our mortal enemies ..................................................................219
11. Regarding the signs by which Divine Providence
differentiates the Jews ................................................................................237
12. How the Jews are restless, vainglorious and
seditious and ordinarily sow discord wherever
they are ...........................................................................................................251
13. How the Hebrews do not presently possess any honour,
or nobility whatsoever, and they lost that which they
possessed with the death of Christ .........................................................263
14. Regarding the mercy with which our Mother
Church treats the Jews, and will continue to
treat them, and how far its obligations extend ...................................273
Appendix ................................................................................................................285
Bibliography ..........................................................................................................303
Index ........................................................................................................................315
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book began its life in early 2011 as a side-interest to my (then) main
research (and book) project on ambiguous gender in early modern Spain
and Portugal. Fortunately, the award of a research fellowship by the
Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of
Emotions allowed me to focus my research on anti-Semitic vernacular
hate literature in the early modern Iberian world and to complete this
book by the middle of 2013.
Travel to libraries and archives in Spain and Portugal was only made
possible by the generous funding offered to me by the Australian Research
Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions. In Spain, my
research was eagerly facilitated by the friendly staff and archivists of the
Archivo General de Indias in Seville and the Biblioteca Nacional de España
in Madrid. Similarly, I owe of considerable debt of gratitude in Portugal to
the staff of the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal in Lisbon and the Biblioteca
Central da Marinha in Belém. Finally, I must acknowledge the valuable
assistance of the inter-library loans departments of the Hartley Library
(University of Southampton) and Barr Smith Library (University of
Adelaide) who endeavoured to obtain copies of books and articles from
the four corners of the globe when I could not obtain them locally.
Over the past three years, I have discussed this project with innumera-
ble colleagues whose questions, or answers to my own questions, have
helped me to complete this work. At the University of Southampton,
I benefitted from the insights and queries of my officemates Dr Leonie
Hicks (now at Canterbury Christchurch University) and Dr Jonathan
Conlin as well my other colleagues in the department of History and the
Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations. Similarly,
I am grateful for the input of my colleagues in Adelaide: Professor David
Lemmings, Dr Claire Walker, Dr Merridee Bailey and Dr Katie Barclay as
well as my colleagues based in the other nodes of the Australian Research
Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions in Sydney,
Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. I would also like to thank Professor
Miriam Bodian (The University of Texas, Austin), Miri Rubin (Queen Mary,
University of London), Dr Clive Griffin (University of Oxford) and Dr Ana
Sapir Abulafia (University of Cambridge) for their enlightening answers to
complex queries that I addressed to them by email. In Portugal, I must
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viii acknowledgements
thank my colleagues Susana Bastos Mateus and James Nelson Novoa (both
of the University of Lisbon) and, in Brazil, Bruno Feitler (Federal University
of São Paulo), who all shared their own experience of Sephardic and
inquisitorial history with me. Likewise, in Spain, I am thankful to Ángel
Weruaga Prieto, who generously spared time to discuss his own fascinat-
ing research on book ownership in early modern Salamanca. All errors, of
course, are entirely my own.
Finally, I would like to express my love and gratitude to my family, who
have offered constant encouragement and welcome support during the
past few years, especially Katie and my children Abigail, Christian and Elsa.
They have tolerated the presence of Fray Francisco de Torrejoncillo and his
loathsome book in their own lives and offered welcome breaks from my
research into the dismal world of early modern anti-Semitic polemics.
Through her own religious tolerance and work as a historian, my spouse
and fellow historian Katie Chambers has always inspired me to focus my
research on the medieval and early modern roots of contemporary anti-
Semitic propaganda. My debt to her is beyond reckoning. Consequently, it
is with the greatest pleasure that I dedicate this book to Katie.
François Soyer
Adelaide, South Australia
Monday 23 September 2013
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