A converso (; ; feminine form conversa, ) was a Jew who converted to Catholicism in Spain or Portugal, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries, or one of their descendants.
To safeguard the Old Christian population and ensure that the converso New Christians were true to their new faith, the Holy Office of the Inquisition was established in Spain in 1478. The Catholic Monarchs of Spain Ferdinand and Isabella expelled the remaining openly practising Jews by the Alhambra Decree of 1492 following the Christian Reconquista (reconquest) of Spain. However, a significant proportion of these remaining practising Jews chose to join the already large converso community rather than face exile. As a result of the Alhambra Decree, over 200,000 Jews converted to Catholicism and between 40,000 and 100,000 were expelled.
Conversos who did not fully or genuinely embrace Catholicism but continued to practise Judaism in secrecy were called judaizantes "Judaizers" and pejoratively as marranos.
New Christian converts of Muslim origin were known as moriscos. Unlike Jewish conversos, moriscos were subject to an edict of expulsion even after their conversion to Catholicism, which was implemented severely in Valencia and in Aragón and less so in other parts of Spain.
Conversos played a vital role in the 1520–1521 Revolt of the Comuneros, a popular uprising in the Crown of Castile against the rule of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
History
Ferrand Martínez, Archdeacon of Écija, directed a 13-year anti-Jewish campaign that began in 1378. Martínez used a series of provocative sermons through which he openly condemned the Jews with little to no opposition. He rallied non-Jews against the Jews, creating a constant state of fear through riots. Martínez's efforts led to a series of outbreaks of violence on 4 June 1391, when several synagogues in Seville were burned to the ground and churches were erected in their place. Amidst this outbreak, many Jews fled the country, some converted to Christianity in fear and some were sold to Muslims. Martínez engineered the largest forced mass conversion of Jews in Spain.
Conversos, who were now fully privileged citizens, competed in all aspects of the economic sphere. This resulted in a new wave of racial antisemitism that targeted conversos. This antisemitism evolved into small and large riots in Toledo in 1449 that now oppressed not Jews by Christians, but New Christians (conversos) by the Old Christians. The crown established an office of the Inquisition in 1478 and monitored the religious loyalty of newly baptized Christian conversos. Such religious surveillance continued to the descendants of converts. Faced with continued oppression, some Jews and conversos fled Spain to Portugal, but when the Portuguese crown instituted similar anti-Jewish policies, these Jews migrated primarily to the Netherlands. Others created crypto-Jewish communities to ensure the survival of Judaism in the Iberian peninsula, although outwardly practicing Christianity. Both Christians and Jews called them tornadizos (renegades). James I, Alfonso X and John I passed laws forbidding the use of this epithet. This was part of a larger pattern of royal oversight, as laws were promulgated to protect their property, forbid attempts to convert them back to Judaism or the Muslim faith and regulate their behaviour, preventing cohabitation or even dining with Jews to prevent their return to Judaism.
Conversos did not enjoy legal equality. Alfonso VII prohibited the "recently converted" from holding office in Toledo. Although they had both supporters and bitter opponents in the Christian secular community, they became targets of occasional pogroms during times of social tension (as during an epidemic and after an earthquake).
While those considered to be of pure blood (called limpieza de sangre) with undisputed Christian lineage enjoyed privilege, particularly among the nobility, in a 15th-century defence of conversos, Bishop Lope de Barrientos listed what historian Norman Roth calls "a veritable 'Who's Who' of Spanish nobility" including converso members or those of converso descent. Roth has also written that given the near-universal conversion of Iberian Jews during Visigothic times, "[W]ho among the Christians of Spain could be certain that he is not a descendant of those conversos?"
According to a widely publicised December 2008 study in the American Journal of Human Genetics, genetic DNA tracing has revealed that modern Spaniards and Portuguese have an average admixture of 19.8% of ancestry originating in the Near East (Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Jews and Levantine Arabs) during historic times, compared to 10.6% of North African or Berber admixture. This proportion could be as high as 23% for Latin Americans, according to a study published in Nature Communications. This potentially higher proportion of Jewish ancestry in the Latin American population could stem from increased emigration of conversos to the New World to avoid persecution by the Spanish Inquisition.
Spanish Inquisition discipline
The Spanish Inquisition operated in close collaboration with secular authorities to impose a range of penalties on those accused of heresy. Canon law prohibited the church from directly executing individuals; instead, those convicted were "relaxed to the secular arm," a euphemism for the transfer of alleged heretics to state authorities for administration of capital punishment. One of the most infamous methods of execution was death by immolation, a practice not found in traditional secular law but devised within ecclesiastical circles. It was justified theologically as a way to save the heretic's soul from eternal damnation through worldly suffering. If the condemned repented just before execution, he would be allowed to be killed by garrote, a method that was believed to spare the soul.
Public executions, known as autos-da-fé ("acts of faith"), were grand, theatrical events involving processions through city streets, public readings of sentences and long sermons. These spectacles attracted large crowds and, by the 16th century, even royal attendance. In Madrid, for example, the monarchs observed such a ceremony from a balcony overlooking the Plaza Mayor, reportedly enjoying refreshments during the spectacle.
Those who confessed under torture or pressure were labeled reconciliados (reconciled to the church) and subjected to public humiliation. They were paraded in distinctive garments called sambenitos, often with red crosses, and forced to endure public readings of their offenses. Their sambenitos, bearing their names, were hung permanently in churches as a warning to others and a lasting mark of shame on their descendants. Some people who had died or fled were condemned in absentia and burned in effigy, a practice known as sentencing in statue or in statute. The bones of deceased heretics could be exhumed and burned publicly to enforce posthumous condemnation.
By country
In Spain
thumb|Church of Montesión (Mount Zion) in [[Palma de Mallorca, the main church of Xuetas of Mallorca.]]
The Chuetas are a current social group on the Spanish island of Mallorca, in the Mediterranean Sea, who are descendants of Mallorcan Jews that either were conversos or were crypto-Jews, forced to keep their religion hidden. They practiced strict endogamy by marrying only within their own group.
The Chuetas have been stigmatized in the Balearic Islands. In the latter part of the 20th century, the spread of freedom of religion as well as secularism reduced both the social pressure and community ties. An estimated 18,000 people in the island carry Chueta surnames in the 21st century. Traditionally, the church of Saint Eulalia and the church of Montesión (Mount Zion) in Palma de Mallorca have been used by the families of Jewish converts (Xuetas).
In Italy
Specific groups of conversos left Spain and Portugal after the Spanish Inquisition in 1492 for other parts of Europe, especially Italy, where they were often regarded with suspicion and harassment in both their former and new communities. Many conversos who arrived in Italian cities did not openly embrace their Judaism, tempted by the advantages offered in the Christian world.