Forced conversion imposed a permanent, unreversible religious status change.
Evidence
Prior to 1492–98, Jews had been a distinguishable section of the Iberian population. In both Spain and Portugal, they were legally forced to reside in segregated areas, compelled to display prominent symbols on their clothing and subject to sumptuary legislation (banning them from riding horses or bearing swords). Although some wealthy Jews could purchase exemptions from the Crown, these restrictions marked out the Jews. Apart from the shortage of trained doctors in many areas, there was no reason why a Christian seeking to avoid treatment by a Jewish medical practitioner could not do so. After their baptism in 1492–98 (or even before in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries), however, the judeoconversos became part of Catholic society and were no longer subject to segregationist legislation. Many patients, therefore, could no longer be certain of whether or not the medical practitioner tending to their needs was an ‘Old’ or a ‘New’ Christian. Given the widely held perception of the majority of the judeoconversos as secretly judaising heretics, this new state of affairs created a situation in which the wildest antisemitic fantasies could be unleashed. — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 383 (
#complicates, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Expulsion decrees forcibly retained children to convert them; Forced conversion campaigns banned whole cultural practices, not just religion — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 522; Forced conversion drove formerly public Islam underground and clandestine — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 272 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Forced conversion made Jews undetectable, unleashing antisemitic fantasy
#complicates(0.74) — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 383 - Ancestry-based purity laws displaced religious conversion as a path to inclusion
#complicates(0.73)