 Book 1, Chapter 2, Part 2 of History of the Inquisition of Spain, Volume 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. History of the Inquisition of Spain, Volume 1 by Henry Charles Lee. Book 1, Chapter 2, The Jews and the Moors, Part 2. The Saracens, long maintained the policy adopted in the conquest and made no attempt to convert their Christian subjects, just as in the Levantine provinces the Christians, though oppressed, were allowed to retain their religion, and in Persia after the fall of the Sassanids, Parsism continued to exist for centuries and only died out gradually. In fact, the condition of the Mozarabes or subject Christians under the caliphs of Cordova was, for the most part, preferable to what it had been under the Gothic kings. Mozarabes were frequently in command of the Muslim armies. They formed the royal bodyguard and were employed as secretaries in the highest offices of state. In time they so completely lost the Latin tongue that it became necessary to translate the scripture and the canons into Arabic. The church organization was maintained with its hierarchy of proletes, who at times assembled in councils. There was sufficient intellectual activity for occasional heresies to spring up and be condemned, like those of Ostahesis and Mijethio, in the 9th century, while half a century earlier the bull of Adrian I addressed to the Orthodox bishops of Spain and denouncing the Adoptionism of Felix of Urgal, which was upheld by Elepandus, Archbishop of Toledo, shows the freedom of intercourse existing between the Mozarabes and the rest of Christendom. We hear of San Ullojio of Cordova, whose two brothers, Alvar and Isidore, had left Spain and taken service with the Emperor Luis La Germanique. He set out in 850 to join them, but was stopped at Pampaluna by war and returned by way of Saragossa, bringing with him a number of books, including Virgil, Porus, Juvenal, Porphyry, the upper-grams of Aldenhelm, and the fables of Avienas. Mixed marriages seemed not to have been uncommon, and there were frequent instances of conversion from either faith, but Mozarabic zealots abused the Muslim tolerance by publicly decrying Islam and making proselytes, which was forbidden, and a sharp persecution arose under Abdurrahman II and Mahomet I, in which there were a number of victims, including San Ullojio, who was martyred in 859. This persecution gave rise to an incident which illustrates the friendly intercourse between Christian and Saracen. In 858, Hilduin, abbot of Saint Germain de Prey, under the auspices of Charles Lechov, sent two monks to Spain to procure the relics of Saint Vincent. On reaching Languedoc, they learned that his body had been carried to Benevento, but they also heard of the persecution at Cordova and were delighted, knowing that there must be plenty of relics to be obtained. They therefore kept on to Barcelona, where Sunafred, the next in command to the Count, commended them to Abdulavar, Prince of Saragossa, with whom he had intimate relations. From Saragossa they reached Cordova, where the Mozarabic bishop Saul received them kindly and assisted them in obtaining the bodies of Saint George and Saint Aurelius, except that, as the head of the latter was lacking, that of Saint Natalia was substituted. With these precious spoils they returned in safety to Paris by way of Toledo, Acala, Saragossa and Barcelona to the immense gratification we are told of King Charles. The persecution was but temporary, and a century later, in 956, we hear of Abdurrahman III sending Resamund, Bishop of Alvira, Granada, as his ambassador to Otho the Great at Frankfurt, where he persuaded Lutprand of Cremona to write one of his historical works. When the seed conquered Valencia in 1096, one of the conditions of surrender was that the garrison should be composed of Mozarabes, and the capitulation was signed by the principal Christian as well as Muslim citizens. The number of Mozarabes, of course, diminished rapidly in the progress of reconquest as the Christian territories expanded from Galicia to León and Castile. Early in the 12th century, Alfonso VI, in reducing to order his extensive acquisitions, experienced much trouble with them. They are described as being worse than moors, and he settled the matter by the decisive expedient of deporting multitudes of them to Africa. The rapid progress of his arms, however, had so alarmed the petty kings, among whom Andalusia was divided, that they had, about 1090, invited to their assistance the Berbers known as Amoravides, who drove back Alfonso on the bloody field of Salaca. Their leader, Hussuf ibn Techufin, was not content to fight for the benefit of his allies. He speedily overthrew their feeble dynasties and established himself as supreme in Muslim Spain. The Amoravides were savage and fanatical. They could not endure the sight of Christians enjoying freedom of worship, and bitter persecution speedily followed until, in 1125, the Mozarabes invited the aid of Alfonso el Batallador. They sent a roll of their best warriors, comprising 12,000 names, and promised that these and many more would join him. He came and spent 15 months on Moorish territory but made no permanent conquests, and on his departure the wretched Christians begged him to let them accompany him to escape the wrath of the Amoravides. Ten thousand of them did so, while of those who remained large numbers were deported to Africa where they mostly perished. The miserable remnant had a breathing spell, for the atmosphere of Spain seemed unpropitious to fanaticism and the ferocity of the Berbers speedily softened. We soon find them fraternizing with Christians. King Ali of Cordoba treated the latter well and even entrusted to a captive noble of Barcelona named Reverter the command of his armies. His son Techefin followed his example and was regarded as the special friend of the Christians who aided him in his African wars. But this interval of rest was short. In 1146 another Berber horde, known as Almuades, overthrew the Amoravides and brought a fresh accession of savage ferocity from the African deserts. Their caliph, Abdel Mouman, proclaimed that he would suffer none but true believers in his dominions. The alternatives offered were death, conversion, or expatriation. When he underwent pretended conversion, others went into voluntary exile and others were deported to Africa after which the Mozara base disappeared from view. Yet it was as impossible for the Almuades to retain their fanaticism as it had proved for their predecessors. When in 1228 on the deposition of the Almuad Miramamelin al-Abdel Nefu Yahya was raised to the throne, his brother Al-Memon al-Ola, who was in Spain, claimed the succession. To obtain the assistance of San Fernando III, who lent him 12,000 Christian troops, he agreed to surrender ten frontier strongholds to permit the erection of a Christian church in Morocco where the Christians should celebrate publicly with ringing of bells and to allow freedom of conversion from Islam to Christianity to the prohibition of the converse. This led to the foundation of an episcopate of Morocco, of which the first bishop was Fray Aguilo, succeeded by Fray Lopez, both Franciscans. Cooperation of this kind with the Christians meets us at every step in the annals of the Spanish Saracens. Abdel al-Amar, who founded the last dynasty of Granada, agreed to become a vassal of San Fernando III to pay him a tribute of 150,000 doblas per annum to furnish a certain number of troops whenever called upon and to appear in the Cortes when summoned, like any other rico-home. He aided Fernando greatly in the capture of Seville, and in the solemnities which followed the entry into the city, Fernando bestowed knighthood on him and granted him the bearing of the Castilian Guidan. Guilis a band or with two serpents and two crowned lions as supporters, a cognizance still to be seen in the Alhambra. The Mola Diez, or Christian converts to Islam, formed another important portion of the Moorish community. At the conquest, as we have seen, large numbers of Christians apostatized slaves to obtain freedom and freemen to escape taxation. They were looked upon, however, with suspicion by Arabs and Berbers, and were subjected to disabilities which led to frequent rebellions and murderous reprisals. On the suppression of a rising in Cordova in 814, 15,000 of them emigrated to Egypt, where they captured Alexandria and held it until 826, when they were forced to capitulate and transferred their arms to Candia, founding a dynasty which lasted for a century into half. 8,000 of them established themselves in Fez, where they held their own and even in the 14th century were distinguishable from the other Moslems. In Toledo, after several unsuccessful rebellions, the Mola Diez became dominant in 853 and remained independent for 80 years. Together with the Mosara base, they almost succeeded in founding a kingdom of their own in the mountains of Ronda under Omar Ben Hafsun, who embraced Christianity. Indeed, the facility of conversion from one faith to another was a marked feature of the period and shows how little firmness of religious conviction existed. The renegade Ibn Maruan, who founded an independent state in Merida, taught a mixed faith compounded of both the great religions. Everywhere the Mola Diez were striving for freedom and establishing petty principalities. In Algarve, in Priago, in Murcia, and especially in Aragon, where the Gothic family of the Benikasi became supreme. After the reduction of Toledo by starvation in 930, they became less prominent and gradually merged into the Moslem population. This was assisted by the fact that they made common cause with their conquerors against the fanatic Almoravides and Almuades. The leader of the Andalusians against the latter was a man of Christian descent, Ibn Mardanich, king of Valencia in Murcia. He wore Christian dress and arms, his language was Castilian, and his troops were mostly Castilians, Navarres, and Catalan. To the Christians he was commonly known as the King Don Lopez. Religious differences, in fact, were of much less importance than political aims, and everywhere, as we shall see, Christian and Moslem were intermingled in the interminable civil broils of that tumultuous time. In an attempt on Granada in 1162, the principal captains of Ibn Mardanich were two sons of the Count of Urkel and a grandson of Alvar Fanyes, the favorite lieutenant of the Seed. In these alternations of religious indifference and fanaticism, the position of the Jews under Moslem domination was necessarily exposed to severe vicissitudes. Their skill as physicians and their unrivaled talent in administration rendered them a necessity to the conquerors, whose favor they had gained by the assistance rendered in the invasion. But ever in Anand there would come a burst of intolerance which swept them into obscurity if not into massacre. When Mahomet I ascended the throne of Kordava about 850, we are told that one of his first acts was the dismissal of all Jewish officials, including presumably Rabbi Hastai Ben Issach, who had been physician and vizier to his father, Abdurrahman II. A century later their wealth was so great that when the Jew Peliag went to the country palace of Alakam, the Caliph of Kordava, it is related that he was accompanied by a retinue of 700 retainers of his race, all richly clad and riding in carriages. How insecure was their prosperity was proved in 1066 when Samuel Ha Levi and his son Joseph had been viziers and virtual rulers of Granada for 50 years. The latter chanced to exile Abu Issach of Alvira, a noted theologian and poet, who took revenge in a bitter fire which had immense popular success. Quote, the Jews reign in Granada, they have divided between them the city and the provinces, and everywhere one of this accursed race is in supreme power. They collect the taxes, they dress magnificently and fear sumptuously, while the true believers are in rags and wretchedness. The chief of these asses is a fatted ram, slay him and his kindred in allies and seize their immense treasures. They have broken the compact between us and are subject to punishment as perjurers, end quote. We shall see hereafter how ready was the Christian mob to respond to such appeals. The Muslim was no better. A rising took place in which Joseph was assassinated in the royal palace, where 4,000 Jews were massacred and their property pillaged. Again they recuperated themselves, but they suffered with the Christians under the fierce fanaticism of the almohades. Indeed they were exposed to a fiercer outburst of wrath for the robbery of the jewels of the Kaaba, which occurred about 1160, was attributed to Spanish Jews, and the obbed almuming was unsparing in enforcing his orders of conversion. Numbers were put to death and 48 synagogues were burned. The Sephardim, or Spanish Jews, lost their most conspicuous doctor when, in this persecution, Maimonides fled to Egypt. Still they continued to exist and to prosper, though exposed to destruction at any moment through the whims of the monarch or the passions of the people. Thus in 1375, in Granada, two men obstructed a street in a violent altercation and were vainly adjured to cease in the name of Mahomet, when Isaac Ammoni, the royal physician, who chanced to pass in his carriage, repeated the order and was obeyed, that a Jew should possess more influence than the name of the prophet was unendurable, the people rose and a massacre ensued. While Saracen Spain was thus a confused medley of races and faiths, subject to no guiding principle and swayed by the policy or the prejudices of the moment, the Christian kingdoms were much the same, except that, during the early Middle Ages, outbursts of fanaticism were lacking. Brave warriors learned to respect each other, and as usual it was the noncombatants, Christian priests and Muslim Fakis, who retained their virulence. In the fierce struggles of the reconquest, there is little trace of race or religious hatred. The early ballads show the Moors regarded as gallant antagonists, against whom there was no greater animosity than was aroused in the civil strife, which filled the intervals of Moorish warfare. When, in 1149, Ramon Berenger IV of Barcelona, after a laborious siege, captured the long coveted town of Lareda, the terms of surrender assumed the form of a peaceful agreement by which the Moorish al-Qaeda of Vifalet became a vassal of Ramon Berenger, and they mutually pledged each other fidelity. Afivolet gave up all his castles, retained certain rights in the territory, and Ramon Berenger promised him beefs in Barcelona and Girona. More than this, the ceaseless civil wars on both sides of the boundary caused each to have constant recourse to those of hostile faith for aid or shelter, and the relations which grew up, although transitory and shifting, became so intricate that little difference between Christian and Moor could often be recognized by statesmen. Thus mutual toleration could not fail to establish itself to the scandal of crusaders who came to help the one side and of the hordes of fresh fanatics who poured over from Africa to assist the other. This constant intermingling of Spaniard and Moor meets us at every step in Spanish history. Perhaps it would be too much to say with dosy that, quote, a Spanish knight of the Middle Ages fought neither for his country nor for his religion. He fought, like the seed, to get something to eat, whether under a Christian or a Musselman prince, end quote. And, quote, the seed himself was rather a Musselman than a Catholic, end quote, though Philip II endeavored to have him canonized. But there can be no question that religious zeal had little to do with the reconquest. In the adventurous career of the seed, Christians and Muslims were seen mingled in both contending armies, and it is for the most part impossible to detect in the struggle any interest either of race or religion. This had long been customary. Towards the end of the ninth century, Bermudo, brother of Alfonso III, for seven years held Astorga with the aid of the Moors, to whom he fled for refuge when finally dislodged. About 940 we find a king Aboyajia, a vassal of Abderaman of Córdoba, transferring allegiance to Ramiro II, and then returning to his former lord, and some fifteen years later, when Sancho I was ejected by a conspiracy, he took refuge with Abderaman, by whose aid he regained his kingdom, the usurper Ordonio, in turn flying to Córdoba, where he was hospitably received. About 990 Bermudo II gave his sister to wife to the Moorish king of Toledo, resulting in an unexpected miracle. In the terrible invasion of Almanzor in 997, which threatened destruction to the Christians, we are told that he was accompanied by numerous exiled Christian nobles. Alfonso IV of Castile when overcome by his brother, Sancho II, sought asylum until the death of the latter in Toledo, a hospitality which he subsequently repaid by conquering the city and kingdom. His court was semi-oriental. During his exile he had become familiar with Arabic. In his prosperity he gathered around him Seres and poets and sages, and among his numerous successive wives was Zaidah, daughter of El-Mutamid, king of Seville. His contemporary, Sancho I of Aragon, was equally given to Muslim culture and habitually signed his name with Arabic characters. The cooperation of Christian and Moor continued to the last, in 1270 when Alfonso X had rendered himself unpopular by releasing Portugal from Basilage to León. His brother, the Infante Felipe and a number of the more powerful Ricozomes conspired against him. Their first thought was to obtain an alliance with Abu Jusuf, king of Morocco, who gladly promised them assistance. The prelates of Castile fanned the name hoping in the confusion to gain enlarged privileges. Felipe and his Confederates renounced allegiance to Alfonso in accordance with the Fuero and betook themselves to Granada committing frightful devastations by the way. Everything promised a disastrous war with the Moors of both sides of the straits when, through the intervention of Queen Violante, concessions were made to the rebellious nobles and peace was restored. So when, in 1282, Sancho IV revolted against his father and was supported by all the cities except Seville and by all the Ricozomes saved the master of Calatrava and was recognized by the kings of Granada, Portugal, Aragon and Navarre, Alfonso X in his destitution sent his crown to Abu Jusuf and asked for a loan on it as a pledge. The chivalrous Muslim at once sent him 60,000 doblas and followed this by coming with a large force of horse and foot whereupon Sancho entered into alliance with Granada and a war ensued with Christians and Moors on both sides till the death of Alfonso settled the question of the succession. In 1324 Don Juan Manuel was adelantado de la Frontera conceiving some cause of quarrel with his cousin, Alfonso XI, he had once entered into an alliance with Granada then at war with Castile and in 1333 his turbulence rendered Alfonso unable to prevent the capture of Gibraltar or to recover it when he made the attempt. Pedro the Cruel in 1366 and again in 1368 had Moorish troops to aid him in his struggles with Henry of Trastamara. In the latter year the king of Granada came to his aid with a force of 87,000 men and in the final battle at Montiel Pedro had 1500 Moorish horsemen in his army. One of the complaints formulated against Henry IV in 1464 was that he was accompanied by a force of Moors who committed outrages upon Christians. It was the same in Aragon. No Knight of the Cross earned a more brilliant reputation for exploits against the Infidel than Jaime I who acquired by them his title of El Conquistador. Yet when in 1260 he gave his nobles permission to serve in a crusade under Alfonso X he accepted the king of Tunis and on Alfonso's remonstrating with him he explained that this was because of the love which the king of Tunis bore him and of the truce existing between them and of the number of his subjects who were in Tunis with much property all of whom would be imperiled. On the accession of Jaime II in 1291 envoys came to him from the kings of Granada and Tremacen to renew the treaties had with Alfonso III. To the latter Jaime replied promising freedom of trade demanding the annual tribute of 2000 doblas which had been customary and asking for the next summer a hundred light horse paid for three months to aid him against his Christian enemies. As late as 1405 the treaty between Martin of Aragon and his son Martin of Sicily on the one hand and Mahomet king of Granada on the other not only guarantees free intercourse and safety to the subjects of each and open trade in all ports and towns of their respective dominions but each party agrees when called upon to assist the other except against allies Aragon and Sicily with four or five galleys well armed in man and Granada with four or five hundred cavalry. All these alliances and treaties for freedom of trade and intercourse were in direct antagonism to the decrees of the church which in its councils ordered priests every Sunday to denounce as excommunicate or even liable to be reduced to slavery all who should sell to moors iron weapons timber fittings for ships bread wine animals to eat ride or till the ground or who should serve in their ships as pilots or in their armies in war upon Christians it was in vain that Gregory the 11th in 1372 ordered all fatours and receivers of Saracens were prosecuted as heretics by the Inquisition and equally vain was the deduction drawn by Amaric from this that anyone who lent aid or council or favor to the moors was a fatour of heresy to be punished as such by the Holy Office in spite of the thunders of the church the traders continued trading and the princes made offensive and defensive alliances with the infidel nor with the illustrious example that was read before them had Christian nobles the slightest hesitation to aid the moors by taking service with them when in 1279 Alonso Paris de Guzman the founder of the great house of Medina Sidonia was insulted in the court of Alfonso he promptly renounced his allegiance converted all his property into money and raised a troop with which he entered the service of Abu Jusuf of Morocco 11 years except a visit to Seville to Maridonia Maria Coronel whom he carried back to Morocco he was made captain of all the Christian troops in Abu Jusuf's employ and aided largely in the war which transferred the sovereignty of that portion of Africa from the Almawades to the Beni Marine he accumulated immense wealth which by a stratagem he transferred to Spain where it purchased the estates on which the greatness of the house was based the family historiographer writing in 1541 feels obliged to explain this readiness to serve the infidel so abhorrent to the convictions of the 16th century he tells us that at that period the moors both of Granada and Africa were unwarlike and were accustomed to rely upon Christian troops and that princes nobles and knights were constantly in their service his brother of Alfonso the 10th served the king of Tunis four years and amassed large wealth Garcin Martinez de Gallegos was already in the service of Abu Jusuf when Guzman went there Gonzalo de Aguilar became a vassal of the king of Granada and fought for him in 1352 when Pedro the Cruel began to reduce his turbulent nobles to order Don Juan de la Serda a prince of the blood went to Morocco for assistance and failing to obtain it remained there and won great renown by his knightly deeds till he was reconciled to Pedro and returned to Castile examples might be multiplied but these will suffice to indicate how few scruples of religion existed among the Spaniards of the Middle Ages as Barante says adventurous spirits in those days took service with the moors as in his time they sought their fortunes in the Indies end of book 1 chapter 2 part 2 book 1 chapter 2 part 3 of history of the Inquisition of Spain volume 1 this is the LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org history of the Inquisition of Spain volume 1 book 1 chapter 2 the Jews in the Moors part 3 it is thus easy to understand how in the progress of the Reconquest the Moors of the Territory acquired were treated with even greater forbearance than the Christians had been when Spain was first overrun when raids were made or cities were captured by force there was no hesitation in putting the inhabitants to the sword and carrying them off into slavery but when capitulations were made or provinces submitted the people were allowed to remain retaining their religion and property and becoming known under the name of Mudejales the enslaved Moor was his master's property like his cattle but entitled to some safeguards of life and limb even baptism did not manumit him unless the owner were a Jew or a Moor that he was frequently a man of trained skill education is seen in the provision that if his master invited to him a shop or a ship the former was bound to fulfill all contracts entered into by his slave thus the free Castilian whose business was war had his trade and commerce to a considerable extent as well as his agriculture carried on by slaves the rest was mostly in the hands of the Jews in the free Moors or Mudejales labor thus became the badge of races regarded as inferior it was beneath the dignity of the free man and when as we shall see hereafter the industrious population was expelled by bigotry the prosperity of Spain collapsed as for the Mudejales the practice of allowing them to remain in the reconquer territories began early even in Galicia they were to be found and in Leon documents of the 10th century contain many Moorish names to confirm or witness them the Fuero of Leon granted by Alfonso the 5th in 1020 alludes to Moors holding slaves in the Berber century contain many Moorish names among those who confirm or witness them in the Berber population there is still represented by the Marigatos to the southwest of Astorga a race perfectly distinct from the Spaniards retaining much of their African costume and speaking Castilian imperfectly their only language Fernando the 1st 1033-65 who rendered the kings of Toledo and Seville tributary and who was besieging Valencia when he died alternated in his policy towards the inhabitants of his extensive conquests in the early part of his reign he allowed them to remain then he adopted depopulation and finally he returned to his earlier methods Alfonso the 4th followed the more liberal system when he occupied Toledo in 1085 he granted a capitulation to the inhabitants which secured to them their property and religion with self government and the possession of their great mosque when during his absence the Frenchmen Bernard Abbot of Sahagun newly elected to the Archbishopric in concert with his queen Constance of Burgundy suddenly entered the mosque consecrated it and placed a bell on its highest minaret Alfonso was greatly angered he hastened to Toledo threatened to burn both the queen and the Archbishop and only pardoned them at the intercession of the Moors who dreaded possible reprisals after his death his policy in fact was to render his rule more attractive to the Muslim population than that of his tributaries the petty Reyes state Taifas who were obligated to oppress their subjects in order to satisfy his exigencies he even styled himself emperador de los cultos his tolerant wisdom justified itself for after coming to the Amorades in spite of the disastrous defeat of Zalaca and Ucles he was able to hold his own and even to extend his boundaries for the native Moors preferred his dominion to that of the savage Berbers his successors followed his example but it was not regarded with favor in the church during the centuries of mental Tupor which preceded the dawn of modern civilization there was little fanaticism with the opening of the 12th century various causes awoke the dormant spirit crusading enthusiasm brought increased religious ardor and the labors of the school men commenced the reconstruction of theology which was to render the church dominant over both worlds the intellectual and spiritual movement brought forth heresies which by the commencement of the 13th century aroused the church to the necessity of summoning all its resources to preserve its supremacy all this made itself felt not only in the Albegyncian crusades and the establishment of the Inquisition but in increased intolerance to Jew and Saracen in a more fiery antagonism to all who were not included in the pale of Christianity as seen in 1212 when after the brilliant victory of Las Navas de Tolosa Alfonso IX advanced to Ubeda where 70,000 men had collected and they offered to become Mudejaris and to pay him a million of doblas these terms were acceptable and he agreed to them but the clerical chiefs of the crusade the two archbishops were Rago of Toledo and Arnaud of Narbonne and forced him to withdraw his assent he offered the besieged to let them depart on the payment of the sum but they were unable to collect so large an amount on the spot and they were put to the sword except those reserved as slaves in the same spirit, Innocent IV in 1248 ordered Jaime I of Aragon to allow no Saracens to reside in his recently conquered Balearic islands except as slaves and instead of the opposition of the church the policy of the Mudejarato was continued until the work of the reconquest seemed on the point of completion under San Fernando III the kings of Granada was his vassal like any other Christian noble he subdued the rest of the land giving the local chiefs advantageous terms and allowing them to assume the title of kings the Spanish moors were thus reduced to submission and he was preparing his arms to Africa at the time of his death in 1252 that Moorish rule, more or less independent continued in the peninsula for yet two centuries and a half is attributable solely to the inveterate turbulence of the Castilian magnates aided by the disorderly ambition of members of the royal family during this interval successive fragments were added to Christian territory when internal convulsions allowed opportunities of conquest and in these the system which had proved so advantageous was followed Moor and Jew were citizens of the realm regarded as a desirable class of the population and entitled to the public peace and security for their property under the same sanctions as the Catholic they are enumerated with Christians and charters granting special exemptions and privileges to cities safeguards for fares and for general trade numerous furos placed us, placed all races on the same level and a charter of Alfonso the 10th in 1272 to the city of Mercia in its regulations as to the cleansing of irrigating canals shows that even in petty details such as these there is no distinction recognized between Christian and Moor the safeguards thrown around them are seen in the charter of 1101 granted to the Mosaura base of Toledo by Alfonso the 6th permitting them the use of their ancestral but penalties under it are only to be one fifth as in the Fuero of Castile except in the cases of theft and the murder of Jews and Moors and in the Fuero of Granted by Alfonso and 1131 the weregold for Jew or Moor is 300 sueldos the same as for a Christian yet the practice as to this was not strictly uniform and the conquering race naturally sought to establish distinctions which should recognize its superiority the Fuero of Madrid in 1202 imposes various disabilities on the Moors a law of Alfonso the 10th who throughout his reign showed himself favorable to the subject races emphatically says that if a Jew strikes a Christian he is not to be punished according to the privileges of the Jews but much more severely as a Christian is better than a Jew so if a Christian slays a Jew or a Moor he is to be punished according to the Fuero of the place and if there is no provision for the case then he is to suffer the death or banishment or other penalty as the king may see fit but the Moor who slays a Christian is to suffer more severely than a Christian who slays a Moor or a Jew in an age of class distinctions there was an inevitable tendency and it is credible to Spanish tolerance and humanity that its progress was so slow in the violence of the time there was doubtless much arbitrary oppression but the Mudejaris knew their rights and had no hesitation in asserting them nor does there seem to have been a disposition to deny them thus in 1387 those of Bustiaia complained to Juan first that the royal tax collectors were endeavoring to collect from them the reputation tax to which they were not subject having in lieu thereof from ancient times paid to the lords of Biscay 1200 Mar Avedes per atom and being entitled to enjoy all the franchises and liberties of Biscay whereupon the lord issued an order to the assessors to demand from them only the agreed sum and no other taxes and to guarantee them all the franchises and liberties uses in customs of the lordship of Biscay even more suggestive is a celebrated case occurring as late as the reign of Henry IV in 1455 the chaplains of La Capella de la Cruz de Toledo complained to the king that the tax on all meats slaughtered in the town had been assigned to the chapel for its maintenance but that the Moors had established their own slaughter house and refused to pay the tax elsewhere than in Spain they were referred to an ecclesiastical court with the consequent decision in favor of the faith but here went to the civil court with the result that after elaborate argument on both sides in 1462 the great jurist Alfonso Diaz de Montalvan rendered a decision recognizing that the Moors could not eat meat slaughtered in the Christian fashion that they were entitled to a slaughter house of their own free of tax and not sell meat to Christians and must pay the tax on all that they might thus have sold trivial as is this case it gives us a clear insight into the independence and self assertion of the Moorish communities and the readiness of the courts to protect them in their rights the Mudejaris were guaranteed the enjoyment of their own religion and laws they had their mosques and schools and in the earlier times magistrates of their own race provided all questions between themselves according to their own Zuna or law but suits between Christian and Moor were sometimes heard by a Christian judge and sometimes by a mixed bench of both faiths in the capitulations it was generally provided that they should be subject only to the taxes exacted by their previous sovereigns though in time this was apt to be disregarded a privilege granted in 1254 by Alfonso X the inhabitants of Seville authorizing them to purchase land of the Moors throughout their district shows that the paternal possessions of the latter had been undisturbed they were free to buy and sell real estate and although when the reactionary period commenced towards the close of the 13th century Sancho IV granted the petition of Cortes of Valladolid in 1293 forbidding Jews and Moors to purchase the land of the Christians they became obsolete not only was there no prohibition of their bearing arms but they were liable to military service exemption from this was a special privilege accorded in 1115 at the capitulation of Tudela in 1263 Jaime I of Aragon released the Moors of Masones from Tribute and military service in consideration of an annual payment of 1500 Sueldos Yaquenses in 1283 his son Pedro III when preparing to assist the invasion of Falipe Lajarde summoned his faithful Moors of Valencia to join his armies and in the levees made in Marcia in 1385 for the war with Portugal each Alhama had its assigned quota a wise policy would have dictated the mingling of the races as much as possible so as to encourage unification and facilitate the efforts at conversion which were never lost to sight the Converso or baptize Moor or Jew was the special favorite of the legislator the Moorish law which disinherited an apostate was set aside and he was assured of his share in his paternal estate the popular tendency to stigmatize him as a Toranideso or renegade was severely repressed the church insisted that a Moorish captive who sincerely sought baptism should be set free Dominicans and Franciscans were empowered to enter all places where Jews and Moors dwelt to assemble them to listen to sermons while royal officials were directed to compel the attendants of those who would not come voluntarily it is easy now to see that this policy which resulted in winning over multitudes to the faith would have been vastly more fruitful if the races had been compelled to associate together and infinite subsequent misery would have been exerted but this was a stretch of tolerant humanity virtually impossible at the time the church as will be seen exerted every effort to keep them apart on the humiliating pretext that she would lose more souls than she would gain and there was moreover sufficient mutual distrust to render separation desired on both sides in a very early period of the reconquest the policy was adopted of assigning a special quarter to the Moors and thus the habit was established of providing a more area in the larger cities to which the Mudejaris were confined the process is well illustrated by what occurred at Mercia when in 1266 it was definitely reconquered for Alfonso the 10th by Jaime I of Aragon he gave half the houses to Aragonese and Catalans and restricted the Moors to the quarter of the Arejaca Alfonso confirmed the arrangement dislodging the Christians from among the Moors and building a wall between them his decree on the subject recites that this was done at the prayer of the Moors who were dispoiled and ill-treated by the Christians and who desired the protection of a wall to the construction of which he devoted one half of the revenues levied for the repair of the city walls it was the same with the Jews who were not to dwell among the Christians but to have their own Hudeira set apart for them near the Orihuela Gate besides the segregation from the Christians in the cities there were smaller towns in which the population was purely Moorish where Christians were not allowed to dwell that this was regarded as a privilege we can readily imagine and it is shown by the confirmation in 1255 by Alfonso the 10th of an agreement with the Mudejaris of Moran under which they are to sell their properties to Christians and remove to Silebar where they are to build a castle and houses and to be free of all taxes for three years their law is to be administered by their own Alcadi and no Christian is to reside there except the Amore Harif or tax-gatherer and his men all this was tended to perpetuate the separation between the Christian and the Moor and a further potent cause is to be found in the horror where the segregation was regarded at least when the male offender was a Moor intermarriage of course was impossible between those of different faiths and illicit connections were punished in the most savage manner in spite of this natural but impolitic segregation the Mudejaris gradually became denationalized and assimilated themselves in many ways to the population by which they were surrounded in time they forgot their native language and necessary for their learned men to compile law books in Castilian for the guidance of their Alcadis quite a literature of this kind arose and even after the final expulsion is late as the middle of the 17th century among the refugees in Tunis a manual of religious observances which composed in Spanish the author of which lamented that even the sacred characters in which the Koran was written were almost unknown and that they were forgotten or mingled with usages and customs borrowed from the Christians the Mudejaris even sympathized with the patriotic aspirations of their Castilian neighbors as against their independent brethren when in 1340 Alfonso XI returned in triumph to Seville after the overwhelming victory of the Rio Salado we are told how the Moors and their women united with the Jews even more practical was the response to the appeal of the Infante Fernando in 1410 when he was besieging Antequera one of the ball works of Granada and was in great straits for money he wrote Mui Afectuosamente de Seville and Cordova not only to the Christians but to the Moorish and Jewish Alejamas and as he was popular with them they advanced him what sums they could the process of denationalization and fusion with the Christian community was necessarily slow but its progress gave gratifying promise to a result requiring only wise patience and sympathy which could have averted incalculable misfortunes in a financial and industrial point of view the Mudejaris formed a most valuable portion of the population the revenues derived from them were among the most reliable resources of the state assignments on them were frequently used the safest and most convenient form of securing uponages and dowries and incomes for prelates and religious establishments to the nobles on whose lands they were settled they were almost indispensable for their skillful agriculturalists and the results of their indefatigable labors brought returns which could be realized in no other way that they should be relentlessly exploited was a matter of course Afuero granted in 1371 by the Amorante Ambrosio a boconegra to his Mudejaris of Palma del Rio not only specifies their duties and taxes but prescribes that they should bake in the Segneunial oven and bathe in the Segneunial baths and perches their necessaries in the Segneunial shops they are not only admirable husbandmen and artificers but distinguish themselves in the highest regions of science and art as physicians they ranked with the Jews in 1345 Ferrant Rodriguez prior of the Order of Santiago built the church of Our Lady of Oakles he assembled Moorish masters and good Christian stone masons who constructed it of stone and mortar the industry of Spain was to a great extent in their hands to them the land owed the introduction of the sugar cane cotton, silk the fig, the orange and the almond their system of irrigation still maintained at the present time was elaborately perfect and they had built highways and canals to facilitate intercourse and transportation Valencia which was densely populated by Mudejaris was regarded as one of the richest provinces in Europe producing largely of sugar oil and wine in the manufacture of Europe their leatherwork was unsuppassed their manufacturers of metal was eagerly sold out in distant lands while their architecture manifests their delicate skill and artistic taste marriages were arranged for girls at eleven and boys at twelve dowries were of little account for a bed and a few coins were deemed sufficient where all were industrious and self-supporting and their rapid increase like evil weeds was a subject of complaint to their Christian detractors In genius and laborious sober and thrifty a dense population found livelihood in innumerable trades in which men women and children all labored producing wealth for themselves and prosperity for the land in commerce they were equally successful they were slaves to their word their reputation for probity and honor was universal and their standing as merchants was proverbial there was no beggary among them and quarrels were rare differences being for the most part amicably settled without recourse to their judges it is not easy to set limits to the prosperity attainable by the peninsula with its natural resources developed by a population combining the vigor of the Castilian with the industrial capacity of the Moor all that was needed was Christian patience and goodwill to kindle and encourage kindly feeling between the conquering and the subject race time would have done the rest the infidel, one over to Christianity would have become fused with the faithful and the united people blessed with the characteristics of both races would have been ready to take the foremost place in the wonderful era of industrial civilization which was about to open unhappily for Spain this was not to be to the conscientious churchmen of the middle ages any compact with the infidel was a league with satan he could not be forcibly brought into the fold but it was the plainest of duties to render his position outside so insupportable that he would take refuge in conversion end of book one, chapter two part three book one, chapter two, part four of the history of the inquisition of Spain, volume one this is the LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org history of the inquisition of Spain, volume one by Henry Charles Lea book one, chapter two the Jews and the Moors, part four the church accordingly viewed with repugnance the policy of conciliation and toleration which had so greatly facilitated the work of the reconquest and it lost no opportunity of exciting popular distrust and contempt of the Mudejaris we shall see how great was its success with respect to the Jews whose position offered better opportunity for attack but it was not without results respects the Moors it discouraged all intercourse between the races and endeavored to keep them separate even the indispensable freedom of ordinary commercial dealings which was provided for by the secular rulers was frowned upon and in 1250 the order of Santiago was obliged to represent to innocent the fourth that it had Moorish vassals and to supplicate him for license and to sell with them which he graciously permitted the most efficacious means however of establishing and perpetrating the distinction between the races was that Moors and Jews should wear some peculiar garment or badge by which they should be recognized by sight it was not only a mark of inferiority and a stigma but it exposed the wearer to insults and outrages rendering it both humiliating and dangerous especially to those such as the mulleteers or merchants whose avocations rendered travel on the unsafe highways indispensable when the church was aroused from its torpor to combat infidelity in all its forms it was one of the measures adopted by the Great Council of Lateran in 1216 in a regulation carried into canon law the reason alleged being it was necessary to prevent miscegenation in 1217 the Third preemptively ordered the enforcement of this decree in Castile but two years later consented to suspend it on the remonstrance of San Fernando III backed by Rodrigo Archbishop of Toledo the king represented that many Jews would abandon his kingdom rather than wear badges while the rest would be driven to plots and conspiracies and as the greater part of his revenues were derived from them he would be unable to carry out his pursuits it was difficult to arouse intolerance and race hatred in Spain and when Gregory IX about 1233 in Innocent IV in 1250 ordered the Castilian prelates to enforce the Lateran cannons San Fernando quietly disregarded the injunction his son Alfonso X so far yielded obedience that in the partitas he ordered under a penalty called Meravides or Ten Lashes all Jews male and female to wear a badge on the cap alleging the same reason as the Lateran council but he did not extend this to the Moors and his code was not confirmed by the Cortes for nearly a century the regulation may be regarded as inoperative the Council of Zamora which did so much to stimulate intolerance in January 1313 ordered the badge to be worn as it was in other lands and later in the year the Cortes of Placencia proposed to obey but were told by the Infante Juan who presided as guardian of Alfonso XI that he would after consultation do what was for the advantage of the land in Aragon the Councils of Tarragona in 1238 and 1282 vainly ordered the canon to be obeyed and it was not until 1300 that the attempt was made with an ordinance requiring the Mudejaris to wear the hair cut in peculiar fashion that should be distinctive in Castile at length Henry II in pursuance of the request of the Cortes of Toro in 1371 ordered all Jews and Moors to wear the badge a red circle on the left shoulder but the abjunction had to be frequently repeated as slenderly obeyed even so may be attributed the frequent murders which followed of Jews on the highways the perpetrators of which were rarely identified what was the spirit which the church thus persistently endeavored to arouse in Spain may be gathered from a brief of Clement IV in 1266 to Jaime I of Aragon urging him to expel all Mudejaris from his dominions as the king that his reputation will suffer greatly if for temporal advantage he'd longer permit such approbrium of God such an infection of Christendom as proceeds indubitably from the horrible cohabitation of the Moors with its detestable horrors and horrid foulness by expelling them he will fulfill his vow to God stop the mouths of his detractors and prove himself zealous as he was known in 1278 by Nicholas III when he scolded Alfonso X for entering in the truces with the Moors and by threatening to deprive him of the share granted to him of the church revenues incited him to the disastrous siege of the Algeseris the failure of which led him to form an alliance with the king of Morocco fortunately this Papal zeal for the faith found in the Moors of Intolerance the Spanish church of the period appears to have been wholly quiescent the only action on record is the trivial one of Arnado de Peralta Bishop of Valencia from 1261 to 1273 who forbade under the pain of excommunication his clergy from drinking wine in the house of a Jew provided that they should have heard of or should remember the prohibition and he further vaguely threatened with his displeasure any cleric who should knowingly buy the wine of a Jew except in the case of necessity that in the confusion which followed the rebellion of Sancho IV against his father there may have arisen a desire to limit somewhat the privileges of Jews and Moors is rendered probable by the legislation of the Cortes of Valladolid in 1293 to which illusion has already been made but the decisive impulse which aroused the Spanish church from its indolent indifference and set it earnestly to work in the exciting popular hatred and intolerance would seem to be traceable to the Council of Vienna in 1311 and 12 among the published cannons of the Council the only one related to Moors is the complaint that those dwelling in Christian lands have their priests called Zabazala who from the minarets of their mosques at certain hours of invoked invoke Muhammad and sound his praises and a loud voice and also that they are accustomed to gather around the grave of one whom they worship as a saint these practices are denounced as unendurable and the princes are ordered to suppress them with the alternative of gaining salvation or of enduring punishment which shall make them serve as a terrifying example this threat fell upon deaf ears in 1329 the Council of Terragana complains of its in-observance and orders all temporal lords to enforce it within two months under pain of interdict and excommunication and a hundred years later the Council of Tortosa in 1429 supplicated the king of Aragon and all prelates and nobles by the bowels of divine mercy to enforce the cannon and all other councilor decrees for the exaltation of the faith and the humiliation of Jews and Moors and to cause their observance by their subjects if they wish to escape the vengeance of God and of the holy sea this was entirely ineffectual and it was reserved for Ferdinand and Isabella about 1482 to enforce the cannon of Vienna with a vigor which brought a remonstrance from the great Turk more serious was the effect upon the Jews of the spirit awakened at Vienna that council the sides enacting very severe laws against usury denounced the privilege accorded in Spain to Jews whereby Jewish witnesses were requisite for the conviction of Jewish defendants it did not presume to annul this privilege but forbade all intercourse between the races whenever it was in force the Spanish prelates in returning from the council in 1312 brought with them these cannons and the spirit of intolerance that dictated them is to give expression to it in the council of Zamora in January 1313 in a number of cannons the temper of which is so different from the previous utterances of the Spanish church that it shows the revolution wrought in their mode of thinking by intercourse with their brethren from other lands henceforth in this respect the Spanish church emerges from its isolation and distinguishes itself by even greater ferocity than that of the the father's of Zamora invoked the curse of God and of Saint Peter on all who should endeavor to enforce the existing laws requiring the evidence of Jews to convict Jews they denounced the Jews as serpents who were only to be endured by Christians because they were human beings but were to be kept in strict subjugation and servitude and they sought to reduce the principle to practice by a series of cannons restricting the Jews in every way and putting an end to all social intercoursees between them and Christians the friendly mingling of the races which shows how little the prejudices of the churchmen were shared by the people at this period became a favorite subject of objugation and required a long series of efforts to eradicate but the church triumphed at last and the seeds of envy, hatred and all uncharitableness which it so assiduously planted and cultivated yielded in the end an abundant harvest of evil what prepossessions of Christian kindness the prelates of Zamora felt that they had to overcome are indicated in the final command that these constitutions should be read publicly in all churches annually and that the bishops should compel by excommunication all secular magistrates to enforce them the Spanish church thus fairly started in this deplorable direction pursued its course with characteristic energy in 1322 the utterances of the council of Valladolid reveal how intimate were the customary relations between Christian and infidel and how the church in place of taking advantage of this labored to keep the races asunder the council recites that scandals arise and churches are profaned by the prevailing custom of moors and Jews attending divine surface wherefore they are to be expelled before the ceremonies of the mass begin and all those who endeavor to prevent it are to be excommunicated the habit of an eternal devotional vigils in churches is also said probably with truth to be the source of much evil and all who bring moors and Jews to take part with their voices and instruments are to be expelled to preserve the faithful from collusion by Moorish and Jewish superstitions commanded no more to frequent the weddings and funerals of the infidels the absurd and irrational abuse whereby Jews and Moors are placed in office over Christians is to be extirpated and all prelates should punish it with excommunication as the malice of the Moors and Jews leads them craftily to put Christians to death under the pretext of curing them by medicine and surgery and as the cannons forbid Christians from employing them in positions and as these cannons are not observed in consequence of the negligence of the prelates the latter are ordered to enforce them strictly with the free use of excommunication these last two clauses point to matters which had long been special grievances of the faithful in which demand a moment's attention the superior administrative abilities of the Jews cause them to be constantly sought for executive positions to the scandal of all good Christians we have seen that under the Goths it was an abuse calling for constant amiadversion it was one of the leading complaints of Innocent the Third against Raymond the Sixth of Toulouse which he expiated so cruelly in the Albergensi and Crusades and one of the decrees of the Lateran Council was directed against its continuance in Spain the sovereigns could not do without them and we shall have occasion to see that it became a popular dislike of the unfortunate race for the Christian found it hard to bear with equanimity the dominion of the Jew especially in his ordinary character of the Amor Harife or tax collector as early as 1118 Alfonso the 8th in the Fuero granted to Toledo promised that no Jew or recent convert should be placed over the Christians Alfonso the 10th made the same concession in the Fuero of Alicante except that he reserved the office of Amor Harife and in the Partiras he endeavored to make the rule general the same necessity made itself felt in regard to the function of the physician for which during the Dark Ages the learning of Jew and Saracen rendered them almost exclusively fitted Zacodius the Jewish physician of Emperor Charles the Bald was renowned and tradition handed down his name as that of a skillful magician Prince and Prelate alike sought comfort in their curative administrations and as the church looked to scans on the practice of medicine and surgery by Ecclesiastics unless it were through prayer and exorcism they had the field almost to themselves this had always been regarded with disfavor by the church as early as 706 the Council of Constantinople had ordered the faithful not to take medicine from a Jew and this command had been incorporated in the canon law another rule adopted from the Lateran Council of 1216 was that the first duty of a physician was to care for the soul of the patient rather than for the body and to see that he was provided with a confessor a duty which the infidel could scarce be expected to recognize it was therefore easy to understand why the general abhorrence of the church for more and Jew should be sharpened with particular acerbity in regard to their functions as physicians why the Council of Valladolid should endeavor to alarm the people with the assertion that they utilize the position to slay the faithful and the Council of Salamanca in 1335 should renew the sentence of excommunication on all who should employ them in sickness nominally the church carried its point and in the prescriptive laws of 1412 there was embodied a provision using a fine of 300 maravetes on any more or Jew who should visit a Christian in sickness or administer medicine to him but the prohibition was impossible of enforcement about 1462 the Franciscan Alonzo de Espina bitterly complains that there was not a noble or apprelet but keeps a Jewish devil as a physician although the zeal of the Jews in studying medicine is simply to obtain an opportunity of exercising their malignity upon Christians for one whom they cure they slay fifty and when they are gathered together they boast of as to which has caused the most deaths for their law commands them to spoil and to slay the faithful it was but a few years after this that Abitar Aben Karekas chief physician of Juan II of Aragon the father of Ferdinand vindicated Jewish science fully relieving his royal patient of a double cataract in restoring his sight on September 11th 1469 pronouncing the aspect of the stars to be favorable he operated on the right eye the king delighted with his recovered vision ordered him to proceed with the left but Abitar refused alleging that the stars had become unfavorable and it was not until October 12th that he consented to complete the cure the friars themselves believed as little as royalty in the stories which they invented to frighten the people and create abhorrence of the Jewish physicians in spite of the fact that Ferdinand and Isabella in the Ordinaces of 1480 repeated the prohibition of their attending Christians the Dominicans in 1489 obtained from Innocent IV permission to employ them not withstanding all ecclesiastical censures the reason alleged being that in Spain there were few others the prescriptive spirit which dominated the councils of Zamora and Valladolid was not allowed to die out that of Terragana in 1329 expressed its horror at the friendly companionship with which Christians are in the habit of attending the marriages funerals and circumcision of Jews and Moors and even of entering into the bonds of compaternity with the parents all of which it strictly forbade for the future a few years later in 1337 Arnado Archbishop of Terragana addressed to Benedict XII a letter which is significant expression of all the objects and methods of the church in spite, he says of the vow taken by Hamei I when about to reconquer Valencia that he would not permit any Moors to remain there the Christians led by blind and impidity allowed them to occupy the land believing that thus they derive larger revenues which is an error as the habit of Poblitt has recently demonstrated by expelling the Mudejaris for the possessions of the Abbey they are said to be 40 or 50,000 Moorish fighting men in Valencia which is the source of the greatest danger especially now when the emperor of Morocco is preparing to aid the king of Granado besides many enormous crimes taken by Christians in consequence of their damnable familiarity in intercourse with the Moors who blaspheme the name of Christ and exalt that of Muhammad I have heard, he pursues the late bishop of Valencia declare in a public sermon that in that province the mosques are more numerous than the churches and that half or more than half the people are ignorant of the Lord's prayer and speak only in Moorish therefore pray your clemency to provide an appropriate remedy which would seem impossible unless the Moors are wholly expelled and unless the king of Aragon lends his aid in favor the nobles would be more readily brought to assent to this if they were allowed to seize and sell the persons and property of the Mudejaris as public enemies in infidels and the money thus obtained would be of no small service and, correctly asking the Pope to adopt this inhuman proposition sent a copy of his letter to Jean de Comingue Cardinal of Porto and begged him to urge the matter with Benedict and in a second letter to the Cardinal he explained that it would be necessary for the Pope to order the king to expel the Moors that he would willingly obey as to the crown lands but that a papal command was indispensable as to the lands of others of the Christians which kept the Moors there we shall see how 270 years later an archbishop of Valencia aided in bringing about the final catastrophe by a still greater display of saintly zeal backed by precisely the same arguments this constant pressure on the part of their spiritual guides began to make an impression on the ruling classes and repressive legislation became frequent in the Cortes in those of Soria in 1380 the obnoxious prayer against Christians was ordered to be removed from Jewish prayer books and its recitation was forbidden under heavy penalties while the rabbis were deprived of jurisdiction in criminal cases between their people in those of Valladolid in 1385 Christians were forbidden to live among Jews Jews were prohibited to serve as tax collectors their judges were inhibited to act in civil cases between them and Christians and numerous regulations were adopted to restrain their oppression of debtors in 1387 at the Cortes of Breviesca won the first and acted that no Christian should keep in his house a Jew or more except as a slave nor converse with one beyond what the law allowed under heavy penalty of 6,000 Maravedes and no Jew or more should keep Christians in his house under confiscation of all property and temporal punishment at the king's pleasure it seemed impossible to enforce these laws and the church intervened by assuming jurisdiction over the matter in 1388 the Council of Valencia required the suspension of labor on Sundays and feast days and it deplored the injury to the bodies and souls of the faithful and the scandals arising from the habitual intercourse between them and the infidels that were ordered to be strictly separated from those of the former where special quarters had not been assigned to them and it was ordered to be done forthwith and within two months no Christian should be found dwelling with them nor they with the Christians if they had trades to work at or merchandise to sell they should come out during the day or occupy booths or shops along the street but at night they must return to the place where they kept their wives and children this segregation of the Jews and the Moors in their strict confinement to the Morehius and Hudaeras were a practical method of separating the races which was difficult of enforcement the massacres of 1391 showed that there were such quarters generally in the larger cities but residents therein seems not to have been obligatory and Jews and Moors who desired it lived among the Christians in the restrictive laws of 1412 the first place is given to this matter Morehius and Hudaeras are ordered to be established everywhere, surrounded with a wall having only one gate any who shall not in eight days after notice have settled therein forfeits all his property and is liable to punishment at the king's pleasure and severe penalties are provided for Christian women who enter them an effort was made to enforce these regulations but it seemed impossible to keep the races apart in 1480 Ferdinand and Isabella state that the law had not been observed and order its enforcement allowing two years for the establishment of the ghettos after which no Jew or Moor shall dwell outside of them under the established penalties and no Christian woman be found within them the time had passed for laws to be disregarded and this was carried into effect with the customary vigor of the sovereigns in Segovia for instance on October 29 1481 Rodrigo Alvarez Modano commissioner for the purpose summoned the representatives of the Jewish Alhama read to them the Ordenza and designated to them the limits of their Huderia all Christian residents therein were warned to vacate within the period designated by the law all Jews of the district were required to make their abode there within the same time doors and windows of houses contiguous to the boundaries on either side whether of Jews or Christians were ordered to be walled up or rendered impassable the segregation of the Jews was to be absolute we shall see in the next chapter how successful were the efforts of the church in arousing the greed and fanaticism of the people and in repressing the kindly fellowship which had so long existed from this the Jews were the earliest and it is necessary here to say only that in the cruel laws which marked the commencement of the 15th century both more and Jew were included in the restrictions designed to humiliate them to the utmost to render their lives a burden and to deprive them of the means of livelihood and to diminish their usefulness to the state these laws were too severe for strict and continuous enforcement but they answered the purpose of preventing an ineffacable stigma upon their victims and of keeping up a wholesome feeling of antagonism on the part of the population at large this was directed principally against the Jews who were the chief objects of clerical malignity and it will be our business to examine how this was skillfully developed until it became the proximate cause of the introduction of the Inquisition and created for it during its earliest and busiest years the sole field of its activity meanwhile they may be observed that in the closing triumph over Granada the capitulations accorded by Ferdinand and Isabella were even more liberal to Jews and Moors than those granted from the 11th to the 13th century by such monarchs as Alfonso the 6th Ferdinand the 3rd Alfonso the 10th and Jaime the 1st unless they were deliberately designed they show how little real conscientious conviction lay behind the elaborately simulated fanaticism which destroyed the Jews and Mudeis end of book 1 chapter 2 part 4 book 1 chapter 3 part 1 of history of the Inquisition of Spain volume 1 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Sue Anderson history of the Inquisition of Spain volume 1 by Henry Charles Lee book 1 chapter 3 the Jews and the Conversals part 1 to appreciate properly the position of the Jews in Spain it is requisite first to understand the light in which they were regarded elsewhere throughout Christendom during the medieval period it has already been seen that the church held the Jew to be a being deprived by the guilt of his ancestors of all natural rights save that of existence the privileges accorded to the Jews and the social equality to which they were admitted the that he has heard with mortal anxiety that these enemies of God are allowed to hold land and that Christians dealt with these dogs and even rendered service to them it is true that Alexander III maintained the ancient rule that they could repair their existing Sinhala but not build new ones and Clement III honored himself by one of the rare human utterances in their favor prohibiting their forced conversion their murder or wounding or spoliation their deprivation of religious observances the exaction of forced service unless such was customary or the violation of their cemeteries in search of treasure and moreover both of these decrees were embodied by Gregory IX in the canon law yet these prohibitions only point out to us the manner in which popular zeal applied the principles enunciated by the church and when the Council of Paris in 1212 forbade underpaint of excommunication Christian midwives to attend a Jewess in labor it shows that they were authoritatively regarded as less entitled than beasts to human sympathy how popular hostility was aroused and strengthened is illustrated in a letter addressed in 1208 by Innocent III to the Count of Nevae although he says the Jews against whom the blood of Jesus Christ cries aloud are not to be slain less Christians should forget the divine law yet are they to be scattered as wanderers over the earth that their faces may be filled with ignomy and they may seek the name of Jesus Christ blasphemers of the Christian name are not to be cherished by princes in oppression of the servants of the Lord but are rather to be repressed with servitude of which they rendered themselves worthy when they laid sacrilegious hands on him who had come to give them true freedom and they cried that his blood should be upon them and their children yet when prelates and priests intervene to crush their malice they laugh at excommunication and nobles are found who protect them the Count of Nevae is said to be a defender of the Jews if he does not dread the divine wrath innocent threatens to lay hands on him and punish his disobedience the Cistercian Cacerius of Hesterbach in his dialogues for the moral instruction of his fellow monks tells several stories which illustrate the utter contempt felt for the feelings and rights of Jews and in one of them there is an allusion to the curious popular belief that Jews had a vile odor which they lost in baptism a belief prolonged at least in Spain until the 17th century was well advanced even so enlightened a prelate as Cardinal Pierre de Ali in 1416 reproves the sovereigns of Christendom for their liberality towards the Jews which he can attribute only to the vile love of gain if Jews are allowed to remain it should be only as servants to Christians general prohibitions of maltreatment availed little when prelate and priests were busy in inflaming popular aversion and popes were found to threaten any prince hardy enough to interpose and protect the unfortunate race of course under such impulsion there was scant ceremony in dealing with these outcasts in any way that religious ardor might suggest when in 1009 the Saracens captured Jerusalem and destroyed the church of the Holy Sepulcher the rage and indignation of Europe assumed so threatening a form that multitudes of Jews took refuge in baptism when religious exaltation culminated in the crusades it seemed to those who assumed the cross a folly to redeem Palestine while leaving behind the impious race that had crucified the Lord and everywhere in 1096 the assembling of crusaders was a signal for Jewish massacre it would be superfluous to recount in detail the dreary catalog of wholesale slaughters which for centuries disgraced Europe whenever fanaticism or the disappearance of a child gave rise to stories of the murder right or a blood stained host suggested sacrilege committed on the sacrament or some passing evil such as an epidemic aroused the populace to bloodshed and rapine the medieval chronicles are full of such terrible scenes in which cruelty and greed assumed the cloak of zeal to avenge God and when in rare instances the authorities protected the defenseless it was ascribed to unworthy motives as in the case of Johann von Kreibach Bishop of Speyer who in 1096 not only saved some Jews but beheaded their assailants and was accused of being heavily bribed nor did Frederick Barbarossa and Ludwig of Bavaria escape similar imputations it was safer and more profitable to combine piety and plunder as when in April 1182 Philip Augustus ordered all Jews to leave France by St. John's day confiscating their landed property and allowing them to take their personal effects his grandson the saintly Louis resorted without scruple to replenishing his treasury by ransoming the Jews and the latter's grandson Philippe Lebel was still more unscrupulous in 1306 when by a concerted movement he seized all the Jews in his dominions stripped them of property and banished them under pain of death in England King John in 1210 he cast Jews into prison and tortured them for ransom and his grandson Edward I followed the example of Philip Augustus so effectually that Jews were not allowed to return until the time of Cromwell Spain remained so long isolated from the movements which agitated the rest of Christendom that the abhorrence for the Jew taught by the church and reduced to practice in so many ways that the people was late in development in the deluge of the Saracen conquest and in the fierce struggles of the early reconquest the antipathy so savagely expressed in the Gothic legislation seemed to pass away possibly because there could have been but few Jews among the rude mountaineers of Galicia and Asturias it is true that the Visigothic laws in the romance version known as the Fuero Husco remained nominally in force it is also true that a law was interpolated in the Fuero which seems to indicate a sudden recudescence of fanaticism after a long interval of comparative toleration it provides that if a Jew loyally embraces the faith of Christ he shall have license to trade in all things with Christians but if he subsequently taxes into Judaism his person and property are forfeit to the king Jews persisting in their faith shall not consort with Christians but may trade with each other and pay taxes to the king their houses and slaves and lands and orchards and vineyards which they may have bought from Christians even though the purchase be of old date are declared confiscated to the king or to them on whom he pleases if any Jew trades in violation of this law he shall become a slave of the king with all his property Christians shall not trade with Jews if a noble does so he shall forfeit three pounds of gold to the king on transactions of more than two pounds the excess is forfeit to the king together with three doblas if the offender is a commoner he shall receive three hundred lashes the date of this law is uncertain but it presupposes a considerable anterior period of toleration during which Jews had multiplied and had become possessed of landed wealth to what extent it may have been enforced we have no means of knowing but its observance must only have been temporary for such glimpses as we get from the condition of the Jews up to the fourteenth century are wholly incompatible with the fierce prescription of the Gothic laws as the Spanish kingdoms organized themselves the Fuero Husco for the most part was superseded by a crowd of local Fueros Cartas Pueblas and customs defining the franchises of each community and we have seen in the centuries both Moore and Jew were recognized as sharing in the common rights of citizenship and how fully the freedom of trade between all classes was permitted in 1251 the Fuero Husco was formally abrogated in Aragon by Jaime I who forbade it to be cited in the courts a measure which infers that it had practically become obsolete in Castile it lingered and traces of its existence are to be found in some places until the end of the 13th century these however are not to be construed as referring to the provisions respecting Jews which had long been superseded in fact the Jews formed too large and important a portion of the population to be treated without consideration the sovereigns involved permanently in struggles with the and with mutinous nobles found it necessary to utilize all the resources at their command whether in money intelligence or military service in the first two of these the Jews stood preeminent nor were they remiss in the latter on the disastrous field of Zalaca in 1086 40,000 Jews are said to have followed the banner of Alfonso VI how do they endured prove their devotion while at the defeat of Euclase in 1108 they composed nearly the whole left wing of the Castilian host in 1285 we hear of Jews and Moors aiding the Aragonese in their assaults on the retreating forces of Philippe Le Ardi as regards money the traffic and finances Spain were largely in their hands the Moors the readiest source from which to derive revenue every male who had married or who had reached the age of 20 paid an annual poll tax of three gold Maravedes there were also a number of impulse peculiar to them and in addition they shared with the rest of the population in the complicated and ruinous system of taxation the ordinary and extraordinary Servicios Medidas and the Ayudas the Sacos and Pastos and the Alcavalas besides this they assisted in supporting the municipalities or the lordships and prelacies under which they lived with the Tias, the Pastos the 9th or 11th of merchandise and the Peajes and the Barcajes the Pontazgos and the Portazgos or tolls of various kinds which were heavier on them and moreover the church received from them the customary ties, oblations and first fruits the revenues of the Jewish Alhamas or communities were always regarded as among the surest resources of the Crown the shrewd intelligence and practical ability of the Jews moreover rendered their services in public affairs almost indispensable it was in vain that the Council of Rome in 1078 renewed the old prohibitions to confide to them functions which would place them in command over Christians and equally in vain that in 1081 Gregory VII addressed to Alfonso VI a vehement remonstrance on the subject assuring him that to do so was to oppress the church of God and exalt the synagogue of Satan in seeking to please the enemies of Christ he was condemning Christ himself in fact the most glorious centuries of the reconquest were those in which the Jews enjoyed the greatest power in the courts of kings prelates and nobles in Castile and Aragon the treasuries of the kingdoms were virtually in their hands and it was their skill in organizing the supplies that rendered practicable the enterprises of such monarchs as Alfonso VI and VII Fernando III and Jaime I to treat them as the Goths had done or as the church prescribed had become a manifest impossibility under such circumstances it was natural that the numbers should increase until they formed a notable portion of the population of this an estimate can be made from a repartimento or assessment of taxes in 1284 which shows that in Castile they paid a poll tax of 2,561,855 gold Maravides which at 3 Maravides per head infers a total of 853,951 married or adult males this large aggregate was thoroughly organized each ahama or community had its rabbis with a rab mayor at its head then each district comprising one or more Christian bishoprics was presided over by a rab mayor and above all was the Gion or Nassi the prince whose duty it was to see that the laws of the race both civil and religious were observed in their purity as we have already seen all questions between themselves were settled before their own judges under their own code and even when a Jew was prosecuted criminally by the king he was punishable in accordance with his own law so complete was the respect paid to this that their sabbaths and other feasts were held in violet on these days they could not be summoned to court or be interfered with except by arrest for crime even polygamy was allowed to them while their religion and laws were thus respected they were required to respect Christianity they were not allowed to read or keep books contrary to their own law or to the Christian law proselytism from Christianity was punishable by death and confiscation and any insults offered to God the virgin or the saints were visited with a fine of Madavedes or a hundred lashes yet if we are to believe the indignant Lucas of Tui writing about 1230 these simple restraints were scarce enforced the heretic Kathare of Leon he tells us were want to circumcise themselves in order under the guise of Jews to propound heretical dogmas and dispute with Christians what they dared not utter as heretics they could freely disseminate as Jews the governors and judges of the cities listened approvingly to heresies put forth by Jews who were their friends and familiars and if anyone inflamed by pious seal angered these Jews he was treated as if he had touched the apple of the eye of the ruler they also taught other Jews to blaspheme Christ and thus the Catholic faith was perverted this represents a laxity of toleration impossible in any other land at the period yet the Spanish Jews were not wholly shielded from inroads of foreign fanaticism before the crusading spirit had been organized for the conquest of the Holy Land ardent knights sometimes came to wage war with the Spanish Saracens and their religious fervor was aggrieved by the freedom enjoyed by the Jews about 1068 bans of these strangers treated them as they had been want to do at home slaying and plundering them without mercy the Church of Spain was as yet uncontaminated by race hatred and the bishops interposed to save the victims for this they were warmly praised by Alexander II who denounced the crusaders as acting either from foolish ignorance or blind cupidity they would slay he said were perhaps predestined by God to salvation he cited Gregory I to the same effect and pointed out the difference between Jews and Saracens the latter of whom make war on Christians and could justly be assailed had the Chair of St. Peter always been so worthily filled infinite misery might have been averted and the history of Christendom been spared repulsive pages when the crusading spirit extended to Spain it sometimes aroused similar tendencies in 1108 Archbishop Bernardo of Toledo took the cross and religious exultation was ardent the disastrous route of Euclase came and was popularly ascribed to the Jews in the Castilian army arousing indignation which manifested itself in a massacre at Toledo and the burning of synagogues Alfonso VI vainly endeavored to detect and punish those responsible and his death in 1109 was followed by similar outrages which remained un-avanged this was a sporadic outburst which soon exhausted itself a severer trial came from abroad when in 1210 the legate Arnaud of Narbonne led his crusading host to the assistance of Alfonso IX although their zeal for the faith was exhausted by the capture of Calatrava and few of them remained to share in the crowning glories of Las Navas de Tolosa their ardor was sufficient to prompt an onslaught on the unoffending Jews the native nobles sought in vain to protect the victims who were massacred without mercy so that Abravanel declares this to have been one of the bloodiest persecutions that they had suffered and that more Jews fled from Spain than Moses led out of Egypt this had no permanent influence on the condition of the Spanish Hebrews during the long reigns of San Fernando III and Alfonso X of Castile and Jaime I of Aragon covering the greater part of the 13th century services which they rendered to the monarchs were repaid with increasing favor and protection after Jaime had conquered Menorca he took in 1247 all Jews settling there under the royal safeguard and threatened a fine of a thousand gold pieces for wrong inflicted on any of them and in 1250 he required that Jewish as well as Christian testimony be furnished in all actions civil or criminal brought by Christians against Jews so when in 1306 Philippe Lebel expelled the Jews from France and those of Mallorca feared the same fate Jaime II reassured them by pledging the royal faith that they should remain forever in the land with full security for person and property a pledge confirmed in 1311 by the son and successor Sancho in Castile when San Fernando conquered Seville in 1244 he gave to the Jews a large space in the city and in defiance of the cannons he allotted to them four Moorish mosques to be converted into synagogues thus founding the Alhama of Seville destined to a history so deplorable whole reign patronized Jewish men of learning whom he employed in translating works of value from Arabic and Hebrew he built for them an observatory in Seville where were made the records embodied in the Alphonseen tables he permitted those of Toledo to erect the magnificent synagogue now known as Santa Maria La Blanca and Jews fondly relate that the Hebrew school transferred from Cordova to Toledo numbered 12000 students he was prompt to maintain their privileges and when the Jews of Burgos complained that in mixed suits the Alcalde's would grant appeals to him when the Christian suitor was defeated or refusing them to defeated Jews he at once put an end to the discrimination a decree which Sancho the fourth enforced with a penalty of 100 Maravadis when in 1295 the complaint was repeated yet Alfonso in his systematic code known as the Partidas which was not confirmed by the Cortes until 1348 allowed himself to be influenced by the teachings of the church and the maxims of the imperial jurisprudence he accepted the doctrine of the cannons that the Jew was merely suffered to live in captivity among Christians he was forbidden to speak ill of the Christian faith and any attempt at proselytism was punished with death and confiscation the murder right was alluded to as a rumor but in case it was practiced it was a capital offense and the culprits were to be tried before the king himself Jews were ineligible to any office in which they could oppress Christians they were forbidden to have servants and the purchase of a Christian slave involved the death punishment they were not to associate with Christians in eating drinking and bathing and the amour of a Jew with a Christian woman incurred death while Jewish physicians might prescribe for Christian patients the medicine must be compounded by a Christian and the wearing of the hateful distinctive badge was ordered under penalty of ten gold maravides or of ten lashes at the same time Christians were strictly forbidden to commit any wrong on the person or property of Jews or to interfere in any way with their religious observances and no coercion was to be used to induce them to baptism for Christ wishes only willing service this was prophetic of evil days in the future and the reign of Alfonso proved to be the culminating point of Jewish prosperity the capital and commerce of the land were to a great extent in their hands they managed its finances and collected its revenues king, noble and prelate entrusted their affairs to Jews whose influence consequently was felt everywhere to precipitate them from this position to the servitude prescribed by the cannons required a prolonged struggle and may be said to have taken its remote origin in an attempt at their conversion in 1263 the Dominican Frey Pablo Christian a converted Jew challenged the greatest rabbi of the day Moshe Ben Nachman to a disputation which was presided over by Jaime I in his Barcelona palace each champion of course boasted a victory the king dismissed Nachmanides not only with honor but with a handsome reward of 300 pieces of gold but he ordered certain Jewish books to be burnt and blasphemous passages in the Talmud to be expunged he further issued a decree ordering all his faithful Jews to assemble and listen reverently to Frey Pablo whenever he desired to dispute with them to furnish him with what books he desired and to defray his expenses which they could deduct from their tribute two years later Frey Pablo challenged another prominent Hebrew the rabbi Ben Astrick chief of the synagogue of Herona who refused until he had the pledge of King Jaime and of the great Dominican Saint Bermond de Peña Fort that he should not be held accountable for what he might utter in debate but when at the request of the bishop of Herona Ben Astrick wrote out his argument the Freyles, Pablo and Ramon accused him of blasphemy for it was manifestly impossible that a Jew could defend his strict monotheism and messianic belief without a course of reasoning that would appear blasphemous to susceptible theologians the rabbi alleged the royal pledge Jaime proposed that he should be banished for two years and his book be burnt but this did not satisfy the Dominican Freyles and he dismissed the matter forbidding the prosecution of the rabbi except before himself appeal seems to have been made to Clement IV who addressed King Jaime in wrathful mood blaming him for the favor shown to Jews and ordering him to deprive them of office and to depress and trample on them Ben Astrick especially he said should be made an example without however mutilating or slaying him this explosion of papal indignation fell harmless but the zeal of the Dominicans had been inflamed and in laboring for the conversion of the Jews they not unnaturally aroused antagonism towards those who refused to abandon their faith so long before as 1242 Jaime had issued an edict confirmed by Innocent IV in 1245 empowering the mendicant Freyles to have free access to judorias and morerias to assemble the inhabitants and compel them to listen to sermons intended for their conversion the Dominicans now availed themselves of this with such vigor and excited such hostility to the Jews that Jaime obliged to step forward for their protection he assured the Alhamas that they were not accountable for what was contained in their books unless it was to the dishonor of Christ the Virgin and the Saints and all accusations must be submitted to him in person their freedom of trade was not to be curtailed meat slaughtered by them could be freely exposed for sale in the judorias but not elsewhere dealing in skins was not to be interfered with their synagogues and cemeteries were to be subject to their exclusive control their right to receive interest on loans was not to be impaired nor their power to collect debts they were not to be compelled to listen to the friars outside of their judorias because otherwise they were liable to insult and dishonor nor were the friars when preaching in the synagogues to be accompanied by disorderly mobs but at most by 10 discrete Christians finally no novel limitations were to be imposed on them except by royal command after hearing them in opposition end of book 1 chapter 3 part 1