Jewish Inquisition Dbq

Shortly after the Spanish reconquering of the Iberian Peninsula, they had ambitious visions of unifying the country, namely in the light of religion. The Spanish felt that they needed to be unified entirely under one religion in order to progress: Christianity. Inquisitors only had power over Christians, and so the forced conversions brought all men under the domain of The Church. Jews were viewed as religious enemies, while Moors seen as political ones. Though different, the spaniards still had a deep mistrust for both of the peoples, and thusly, thousands were brought to trial under the Inquisition to be tried as heretics and brought to Christian justice. The process was not always fair, and in most cases seemed as though men were trying

It would be hard for people that knew only one religion their whole life to suddenly and so uniformly practice a religion so foreign to them. It is said in The proceedings against Isabel, wife of Higuera, that there were 3 types of jews (Homza Doc. 3 p. 13), all of which portray a Converso who has not really let go of the Jewish culture, but really just use their old roots to justify a conversion. Due to this failure to practice Christianity the correct way, the inquisition would move swiftly on such people in an attempt to do away with those who would wish to hurt the Spanish Christian

3 p. 14). This meant that they not only thought very highly of themselves as christians, but also that they were educated men of influence that might have already gone to a trial with biases to their religion. Consequentially, that for all brought to the Inquisition as Isabel and other Conversos and Moriscos, he/she would be guilty until proven innocent, imprisoned until he/she could show himself to be an upstanding christians who committed no heresy. In the case of Isabel, conversion was a means to get the Spanish off of her back. As far as was understood, she was only Christian in name, but Jewish in practice because she still kept sacred all of the rituals she performed as a Jew. Inquisitors issued a summons of Isabel made public and posted on the church door (Homza Doc. 3 p. 16). However, if what people say is true, she would never be able to see the church summons and so never would actually be justly notified. By the inquisitions standards, this was all her fault, and shortly after, she was