Expulsion of the Jews.
The hatred of the Christians for the Jews was so great that the time was ripe for the final step in the measures taken against them, and early in the reign of the Catholic Kings it was decided to expel them from the peninsula. While the religious motive was the principal one, Ferdinand and Isabella were also actuated, as indeed also in the case of the Mudéjares, by their ideal of a centralized absolutism, wherefore an element which was not in sympathy with the religion of the state seemed to them to constitute a political danger. Their action was hastened, no doubt, by popular fanaticism, which expressed itself in numerous acts of violence against the hated race. With Granada conquered the Catholic Kings lost no time in promulgating a decree, dated March 31, 1492, requiring conversion or expulsion, and applicable to both Castile and Aragon. The Jews were granted four months to dispose of their affairs and leave Spain. The blow to them financially was ruinous. Forced sales, especially when there was so much to be sold, could not be expected to yield a fair return, and this was aggravated by prohibitions against carrying away any gold, silver, coin, or other kinds of personalty, except what the laws ordinarily permitted to be exported. The full effect of this harsh legislation was avoided by some through a resort to the international banking agencies which the Jews had established. A number preferred to become Christians rather than go into exile, but thousands took the latter course. Some computations hold that as many as 2,000,000 left the country, but a more careful estimate by a Jewish historian gives the following figures: emigrants, 165,000; baptized, 50,000; those who lost their lives in course of the execution of the decree, 20,000. The exiles went to Portugal, North Africa, Italy, and France, but were so harshly treated, especially in the two first-named lands, that a great many preferred to return to Spain and accept baptism. Portugal and Navarre soon followed the action of Castile and Aragon, thus completing the cycle of anti-Jewish legislation in the peninsula. In law there were no more Jews; they had become Marranos.
Activities of the Inquisition in Castile.
Not a few of the converts, both Mudéjar and Jewish, became sincere Christians, and some of them attained to high rank in the church. Hernando de Talavera, for example, at one time confessor of the queen and one of the most influential men in the kingdom, had Jewish blood in his veins. A great many, very likely the majority, remained faithful at heart to the religion of their fathers, due partly to the lack of Christian instruction, and even when they did not, they were suspected of so doing, or maliciously accused of it by those who were envious of their wealth or social position. This had led the Catholic Kings to procure a papal bull, as early as 1478, granting the monarchs a right to name certain men, whom they should choose, as inquisitors, with power to exercise the usual authority of ecclesiastical judges. This was the beginning of the modern Spanish Inquisition. Leaving aside, for the present, its formal constitution and procedure, its activities against converts may here be traced. The Inquisition began its work in Seville in 1480, with the object of uprooting heresy, especially among the Marranos. Afraid of being accused many fled, but enough remained for scores to be apprehended. In 1481 the first auto de fe (decision of the faith) was held, and sixteen persons were burned to death. From Seville the institution spread to other cities, and the terror became general. There is no doubt that the inquisitors displayed an excess of zeal, of which various papal documents themselves furnish ample proof. A great many were put to death, especially while Juan de Torquemada was at the head of the institution, 1485 to 1494. Some charge his inquisitorial reign with the death of 8000 persons, but more dispassionate estimates reduce the figures greatly, calculating the number to be 2000 for the reign of Isabella, ending in 1504. Very many more were either burned in effigy or put in prison, while confiscation of goods was one of the usual concomitants of a sentence involving loss of life or liberty. Books were also examined and burned or their publication or circulation forbidden, and in every way efforts were made to prevent heresy as well as to stamp it out. By far the greatest number of sufferers were the Judaizantes, or those Marranos who practised the Jewish faith in secret. It must be said that public opinion was not by any means on the side of the Inquisition; in course of time it became universally hated, as also feared, for nobody was entirely safe from accusation before the dread tribunal.
The Inquisition in Aragon.
The Inquisition had existed in the kingdom of Aragon since the thirteenth century, but Ferdinand now introduced the Castilian body. In 1485 the Inquisition became a single institution for all Spain, although it was not until 1518 that this became definitive. The new organization had not been welcomed in Castile, but it found even less favor in Aragon, not only because of its excessive pretensions and rigors, but also because it superseded the traditional Aragonese Inquisition, was in the hands of Castilian “foreigners,” and interfered with business. The city of Barcelona was especially resentful on this last account, because its prosperity depended not a little on the trade in the hands of Jewish converts, whom fear was driving away. On the first occasion of their appearance, in 1486, the inquisitors were obliged to leave Barcelona, and no less a personage than the bishop joined in the act of ejecting them, but in 1487 they returned to stay. The fear of the Inquisition and certain social and political disadvantages of being regarded as of Jewish or Moslem descent occasioned the introduction of documents of limpieza de sangre (purity of blood), attesting the Catholic ancestry of the possessors, although the development of this custom was more marked in the reign of Charles I.
Reform of the Castilian church.
One of the most signal reforms of the period, to which the pious Isabella, aided by Ximénez, gave her attention, was the purification of the Castilian clergy. The church, like the great nobles, had suffered from the revocation of land grants it had gained in times of stress, and was obliged, furthermore, to restore the financial rights, such as the alcabala and certain rents, it had usurped from the crown. Nevertheless, its wealth was enormous. The rents of the secular church in all Spain are said to have amounted to some 4,000,000 ducats ($60,000,000), of which the archbishop of Toledo alone received 80,000 ($1,200,000). The regular clergy were equally wealthy. Vast as these sums appear, even today, their real value should be considered from the standpoint of the far greater purchasing power of money in that age than now. Whether or not the members of the clergy were softened by this wealth and by the favors they received as representatives of the church at a time of great religious zeal on the part of the Spanish people, it is certain that ignorance and immorality were prevalent among them. Despite the centuries of conflict against it, the institution of barraganía still had its followers, among others, Alfonso de Aragón, archbishop of Saragossa, and Cardinal Pedro de Mendoza. Laws were passed imposing fines, banishment, and the lash,—without avail. Church councils met to discuss the various evils within the church. Ximénez at length applied to the church of Castile the methods Isabella had used in suppressing seigniorial anarchy. A Franciscan himself, he proceeded to visit the convents of the order and to administer correction with a heavy hand, expelling the more recalcitrant. It is said that some four hundred friars emigrated to Africa, and became Mohammedans, rather than submit to his rulings. From the Franciscan order the reforms passed on to others. Isabella intervened more particularly in the case of the secular clergy, exercising great care in the choice of candidates for the higher dignities, selecting them from the lower nobility or the middle class instead of from the families of great nobles as had formerly been the practice. At the same time, she took steps with considerable success to prevent the appointment of foreigners by the popes to Castilian benefices. In Aragon the same evils existed as in Castile, but the reforms did not come at this time to modify them.
Triumph of Roman principles in Castilian private law.
In private law, especially as regards the family, the long struggle of the Roman principles to gain a predominant place in Castilian jurisprudence ended in triumph. The victory came with the legislation of the Cortes of Toledo in 1502, but as it was not published until the time of the Cortes of Toro in 1505 it became known as the Leyes de Toro (Laws of Toro). For example, the complete emancipation of children after marriage, the prohibition of the gift of all one’s possessions to other than the heirs, the increase in the formalities required in the case of wills, and the lengthening of terms of years on which to base claims by prescription were all recognized in the new laws.