Jews and Moors in Spain

by Joseph Krauskopf

It was born in the early part of the thirteenth century. Fanaticism was its mother; its father was St. Dominic, who also was the father of the Dominican Order, and so the Inquisition and the Dominican friars were natural brothers, and "par nobile fratrum," a noble pair of brothers they were. Pope Innocent III. stood godfather to it. I fully sympathize with all past and present humanitarians in their efforts to wean men from the pernicious belief in the existence of Hell, but I can not accept their claims that Hell never existed. Hell did exist, not 10,000 leagues beneath the earth, but on its very face. Hell existed wherever the Inquisition lived. And Devils there were, too, and their names were "Dominican Monks." This ferocious beast-child came into this world with a mission: to detect, punish and suppress Heresy, Free Thought, and every Religious belief save that of the Church of St. Peter. Under Dominican nursing and training, it grew and prospered, and rapidly acquired a relentless exercise of its mission. Its heart was killed, its conscience stifled. It was never taught the meaning of the words pity and mercy.

Scarcely was it full grown when it initiated its bloody career of 600 years of accursed life by a most cruel reign of terror in the southern provinces of France, where the presence and strength of the heretical Albigenses and where the Moorish and Jewish civilization from across the Pyrenees had made themselves felt. The reign of terror ceased with the extermination of almost the entire population.

At last it found its way into Spain, and in that country it entered upon a career so infamous that its deeds of ferocity, recorded upon the annals of History in letters of blood and fire, are not eclipsed by the combined cruelties of all mankind. Here lived and prospered thousands and thousands of Jews. When a holy war is waged against the infidel Moors shall the infidel Jews escape unscathed? When the Blessed Virgin crowns their zeal to their faith by giving them victory after victory over the Moors, will she not be wroth if the Jews escape? When the Moors are put to the edge of the sword, shall the Jews not be committed to the flames?

The cruelties of the Inquisition were not the first which were visited upon the Jews. Their second series of suffering in Spain began on the day when the Christian forces defeated the Moorish army upon the battle-field. The tolerance the Moor could afford to offer to the Jew, the Religion of Christ could not. In Aragon and Castile it was not a rare sight to see the fanatical populace, stimulated by the no less fanatical clergy, to make a fierce assault upon this unfortunate people—guilty of no other crime than that of promoting the prosperity of Spain and of adhering to their inherited belief,—breaking into their houses, violating their most private sanctuaries, and consigning them by the thousands to indiscriminate massacre, without regard to sex or age. Hatred of the Jews was for many centuries a faithful index of the piety of the Christians. Cruel laws were enacted against them. They were prohibited from mingling freely with the Christians, from following the trades and professions for which they were best suited by virtue of their high intelligence and thrift. Their residence was restricted within certain prescribed limits of the cities which they inhabited. They were held up to continuous public scorn, by being compelled to wear a peculiar dress, on which was sewed their badge of shame. Even in their executions they were branded, for a long time they were hanged between two dogs, and with the head downwards.

A choice was given them to escape these sufferings and degradations by entering "the religion of love unto all men." Thousands upon thousands of Jews availed themselves of this only alternative, and became feigned converts, or "new Christians," as they were called. They amply regretted the change later, but at present it seemed to them an almost justifiable step. The preceding chapters have acquainted us with the character of the Spanish Jews, with their high intellectual attainments, with their lofty demeanor, with their high social and political and industrial and commercial standing. Think of them now asked to sacrifice all these advantages, because the iron-handed and iron-hearted brute force of the priests so wanted it. Feel as they must have felt, when they were asked to exchange their mansions of elegance and refinement for the wretched hovels of the Ghetto; to lay aside their garments of silk, and their ornaments of grace and beauty and costliness, and don the gaberdine of disgrace; to drop the reins of the world's commerce which they held in their hands, and, instead, take a pack upon their back and wander from house to house, an object of ridicule and shame, and jeers and maltreatment. Think as they must have felt and thought and you will think less harshly of their feigned change of faith.

For a time all seemed bright. The "converts" were especially honored. They were appointed even to high ecclesiastical and municipal offices; their sons and daughters married into noble, and even royal families.

The few drops of baptismal water did not, however, change the character of the Jews. Their prosperity was as great as before, and, unlike the credulous and superstitious Spaniards, they failed to see any reason why they should lavish their worldly goods upon the Church. They preferred to do their own "taking care of," and their own "praying for" their soul. This was their crime. Their superior skill and industry, and the superior riches which these qualities secured, and their high standing in the community, aroused the priesthood's envy and covetousness. Thus the charge arose that the converts had relapsed into their old faith.

The charge was not unfounded. The allegiance to the Church was that of compulsion, and it never was anything else, except a masked external allegiance. The heart, soul, conscience, mind, continued Jewish, and as fervently so as ever before. This "scandalous spectacle of apostates returning to wallow in the ancient mire of Judaism," was the pretext by means of which the Dominicans sounded the alarm. And the Inquisition came to cure them of their back-sliding.

Castile, the kingdom of Isabella, had till then refused admission to the Inquisition. At one time its introduction was recommended, and the whole populace arose in rebellion. Isabella herself trembled at the very mention of it. But in an evil hour Thomas de Torquemada, "condemned to infamous immortality by the signal part which he performed in the tragedy of the Inquisition," became her confessor. That man—if "man" I may name him—that vilest blot upon the history of religion, of Spain, of civilization, was the fiend incarnate. His very name still represents the superlative of maniacal fanaticism. He labored hard to infuse into the pure mind of the noble hearted Isabella a fanaticism as fiendish as was his. And still she recoiled from the thought of introducing the monstrous slaughtering institution in her domains. Torquemada brought the weight of the entire church to bear upon her conscience, and still she refused. The fiend was not yet baffled. He influenced her husband, the crafty and greedy Ferdinand of Aragon, to advocate his cause. The husband prevailed.