Language:
English
Year of publication:
1989
Titel der Quelle:
Social History
Angaben zur Quelle:
14,1 (1989) 59-82
Keywords:
Crypto-Jews
;
Crypto-Jews
;
Crypto-Jews
Abstract:
Despite repeated bans, large-scale emigration of Conversos from Portugal began in the 1530s. While most headed for Italy or the Levant, some settled in Antwerp, a major center of Portuguese trade. The Habsburg authorities appointed officials to investigate charges that the Conversos were Judaizing and cooperating with the Turkish enemy. Three groups of Portuguese Conversos who had passed through Antwerp and were wandering southwards were arrested near Colmar, Germany in 1547 and interrogated. The imperial agent wanted them tortured and punished, but the city authorities hesitated. Eventually they were freed on the instructions of the Augsburg Diet, after swearing that they were Christians and not going to Turkey. Analyzes the evidence of the interrogation documents with reference to the groups' origins, socioeconomic background, and religious identity. Concludes that the evidence for a religious sub-culture of Marranos is uncertain, but they definitely belonged to a social sub-culture regarded as deviant by both Jews and Christians.
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