Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain by Matthew Carr Page B

fabricated crime. The case of the “Holy Infant of La Guardia” appeared to bear out the worst fantasies of a Jewish conspiracy to undermine Christian Spain, and Torquemada personally ensured that it received maximum publicity. It may also have persuaded the Catholic Monarchs to undertake the radical solution to the Converso problem that followed the surrender of Granada.
     
    The physical removal of unwanted populations was not a new phenomenon in Renaissance Europe. In the ancient world, Rome frequently deported rebellious populations as a form of collective punishment or security measure; the Jewish diaspora was itself the result of one of these punitive deportations, which followed the Jewish revolt against Roman occupation of Judea and the destruction of the second temple of Jerusalem. During the Middle Ages, Jews were expelled by various Christian rulers, beginning with the expulsion of the Jewish population from England by Edward I in 1290. Partial expulsions of Muslims were also carried out or attempted within Spain’s Christian kingdoms in the course of the Reconquista. But all these events were superseded by the calamity that overtook Spanish Jewry in 1492, when Ferdinand and Isabella signed an edict at the Alhambra on March 31 that condemned the continued interaction between Christians and Jews “who, it seems, seek always and by whatever means and ways they can to subvert and to steal faithful Christians from our holy Catholic faith and to separate them from it.” 8
    Declaring that their decision had been reached after careful consultation with “prelates, great noblemen . . . and other persons of learning and wisdom,” the Catholic Monarchs ordered all Jews in their kingdoms, whatever their station, to convert to Christianity or leave Spanish territory within a period of three months and forty days. In that time, they were expected to sell their property, pay their debts, and conclude their business affairs. The proclamation of this edict in April caused consternation and despair among the Jewish population of Castile and Aragon. As many as 50,000 Jews chose to convert, including the leading Jewish rabbi and royal treasurer Abraham Senior. Between 100,000 and 150,000 Jews preferred to go into exile rather than abandon their faith. Throughout the summer of 1492, Jews made their way to Spain’s borders and ports in an exodus that was described by the priest and chronicler Andrés Bernáldez:
    All of them confiding in their blind hopes left the lands of their birth, children and adults, old and young, on foot and in wagons, and the caballeros on asses and other beasts, and each journeyed to a port of embarkation. They went through roads and fields with many travails and fortunes, some falling, others rising, others dying, others being born, others falling sick, so that there was no Christian who did not feel sorry for them and always invite them to be baptized. And some sorrowfully converted and stayed, but very few. And on the way the rabbis heartened them, and had the women and youths sing and play tambourines to cheer the people, and so they went through Castille and arrived at the ports. 9
     
    Virulently anti-Semitic and an Inquisition official himself, Bernáldez, like many Christians, blamed these sufferings on the Jews, whose obstinate adherence to “the depraved Mosaic heresy” had led them to “deny the Savior and true Messiah, our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ, whose arms are always open to receive them.” The fate of these exiles was often terrible. Some were murdered on the ships that were supposed to transport them or drowned in storms or died of cold and starvation. One shipload of Jewish passengers bound for Naples was decimated by cholera and dysentery and generated an epidemic among the local population. Many Jews were transported to North Africa. Though some found safe haven in ports and cities, many were dumped on isolated coasts and beaches, where they were robbed, killed, or raped