Edict the Expulsion of Jews (1492) - Essay Example

The edict was issued to all Spanish people so that Jews would be evicted from Spain and all its kingdoms. The edict applies to all types of people, whether commoner or noblemen. No one should be defending or keeping Jews. The reason for this edict is the reason that Muslims and Jews were suspected to connive against the Catholic faith in those times. Persecutions and violence against the Jews pervaded,episodes of brutal violence and oppression against the Jews became rampant that led thousands of them to convert to the Catholic faith to escape from these brutalities.

Some conversos—Jews who converted to Catholicism—flourished in places of learning and commerce. However, many ruling Spanish—both secular and religious—viewed these Jews with deep suspicion heightened by the fact that some conversos were insincere. Some chose to save their social and commercial status by embracing the Catholic faith, but privately adhering to their Jewish practice and faith. The Alhambra Decree, or the Edict of Expulsion, was issued on March 31, 1492 by the joint Catholic Monarchs of Spain—King Ferdinand II of Aragon, and Queen Isabella I of Castile.

Ferdinand and Isabella took seriously the reports that some crypto-Jews who were not only privately practicing their former faith, but were secretly trying to draw other conversos back into the Jewish fold. In 1480, the king and queen created the Spanish Inquisition to investigate these suspicions; under the authority of this new institution, thousands of converted Jews were killed within 12 years. It is not known how many, if any, had lapsed from their new Christianity, or were trying to convince others to do the same.

The said decree was issued less than three months after the surrender of Granada—a vassal state to Spanish royals for more than two centuries. It was Juan de Coloma, secretary of the king and queen, who wrote it at the royalties’ command. Under the edict, Jews were only given four months and ordered to convert to Christianity or leave the country. However, Jews were promised royal "protection and security" for the effective three-month window before the deadline. They were permitted to take their belongings with them - except "gold or silver or minted money".

In the edict, Jews were accused of trying "to subvert their holy Catholic faith and trying to draw faithful Christians away from their beliefs." The punishment for any Jew who did not convert or leave by the deadline was death. The punishment for a non-Jew who sheltered or hid Jews was the confiscation of all belongings and hereditary privileges.An estimated number of 50,000 to 70,000 Spanish Jews chose to avoid expulsion by converting to Christianity. This conversion did not protect them from church hostility after the Spanish Inquisition came into full effect.

As a result, persecution and expulsion were common. This forced many of the “New Christians” were either forced to leave the country or intermarry with the local populace by the dual Inquisitions of Portugal and Spain. Many of those who chose to leave settled in North Africa or elsewhere in Europe, most notably in the Netherlands and England.