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106-703: Because these conversions were achieved in part through coercion and also with the threat of expulsion, especially when it came to the Jews, the Catholic Inquisition and Iberian monarchs suspected a number of the "New Christians" of being crypto-Jews . Subsequently, the Spanish Inquisition and then the Portuguese Inquisition was created to enforce Catholic orthodoxy and to investigate allegations of heresy . This became

212-434: A New Christian included restrictions of civil and political rights , abuses of those already-limited civil rights, social and sometimes legal restrictions on whom one could marry ( anti-miscegenation laws ), social restrictions on where one could live, legal restrictions of entry into the professions and the clergy, legal restrictions and prohibition of immigration to and settlement in the newly colonized Spanish territories in

318-724: A Portuguese literature teacher and historian, "The reality of the dichotomy between Old and New Christian only existed in the Inquisitorial taxonomy. The religious or ethnic definition of the New Christians was, in the last analysis, merely formal and bureaucratic. Also, the label of the New Christian can be based on rumors originating from dubious genealogies, slander and intrigue." By law, the category of New Christians included recent converts and their known baptized descendants with any fraction New Christian blood up to

424-503: A complete turning from an old to a totally new life. While it entailed the acceptance of new religious beliefs and membership in a new religious community, most converts retained a deep attachment to the cultures and communities from which they came. Muslim scholars like Abu Hanifa and Abu Yusuf stated that the jizya tax should be paid by Non-Muslims ( Kuffar ) regardless of their religion, some later and also earlier Muslim jurists did not permit Non-Muslims who are not People of

530-483: A decree allowed children born out of wedlock, for whom ancestry could not be verified, to be able to enter into religious higher education (canons). On 26 October 1866, the test of blood purity was outlawed for the purposes of determining who might be admitted to college education. On 20 March 1870, a decree suppressed all use of blood purity standards in determining eligibility for any government position or any licensed profession. The belief among Basque intellectuals of

636-481: A different religion or irreligion may continue, covertly, to adhere to the beliefs and practices which were originally held, while outwardly behaving as a convert. Crypto-Jews , Crypto-Christians , Crypto-Muslims and Crypto-Pagans are historical examples of the latter. The religions of the world are divided into two groups: those that actively seek new followers (missionary religions) and those that do not (non-missionary religions). This classification dates back to

742-587: A handful of them were allowed to leave and the rest of them were forced to convert. Muslims were expelled from Portugal in 1497, and they were gradually forced to convert in the constituent kingdoms of Spain. The forced conversion of Muslims was implemented in the Crown of Castile from 1500 to 1502 and it was implemented in the Crown of Aragon in the 1520s. After the conversions, the so-called " New Christians " were those inhabitants ( Sephardic Jews or Mudéjar Muslims) who were baptized under coercion as well as in

848-563: A large majority of the Spanish civil service in the sixteenth century. Access to these elite positions was then passed down from generation to generation of graduates from these universities, thus perpetuating an anti-converso mindset. One example of how limpieza de sangre laws were applied is found in a legal brief composed on behalf of Pedro Francisco Molines concerning his betrothal to Maria Aguiló. This brief argues that he cannot, should not, and will not, marry Maria. It claims that Maria

954-472: A lecture given by Max Müller in 1873, and is based on whether or not a religion seeks to gain new converts. The three main religions classified as missionary religions are Christianity , Islam , and Buddhism , while the non-missionary religions include Judaism , Hinduism , and Zoroastrianism . Other religions, such as Primal Religions, Confucianism , and Taoism , may also be considered non-missionary religions. In general, anthropologists have shown that

1060-403: A more suitable woman of "pure blood" to marry. The brief then closes with the signatures of 15 men agreeing with the clauses and arguments found in it. Many of the signatories are either friars or scholars of canon law, which demonstrates the staunch religious support the limpieza de sangre statutes found. These statutes were closely related to the Spanish Inquisition . Together they formed

1166-455: A place where they had no liberty, and were liable to imprisonment, torture and death if they worshiped after their own fashion the gods of their fathers", wrote Filippo Sassetti , who was in India from 1578 to 1588. In 1858, Edgardo Mortara was taken from his Jewish parents and raised as a Catholic, because he had been baptized by a maid without his parents' consent or knowledge. This incident

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1272-819: A political issue in the kingdoms of the Portuguese-Spanish Union itself and their respective empires abroad, particularly in Spanish America , Portuguese America , and the Caribbean . Sometimes "New Christians" travelled to territories controlled by Protestant enemies of Spain , such as the Dutch Empire , the early English Empire , or Huguenot -influenced areas of the Kingdom of France such as Bordeaux , and openly practiced Judaism, which furthered suspicion of Jewish crypsis. Nevertheless,

1378-401: A pure bloodline or there was suspicion that the individual was lying, investigations and trials would begin. Tests of limpieza de sangre had begun to lose their utility by the 18th century; by then only rarely did persons have to endure the gruelling inquisitions into distant parentage through birth records. However, laws requiring limpieza de sangre were sometimes maintained even into

1484-678: A result of pogroms in 1391 . Those remaining practicing Jews were expelled by the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella in the Alhambra Decree in 1492, following the Catholic Reconquest of Spain. As a result of the Alhambra Decree and persecution in prior years, over 200,000 Jews converted to Catholicism and between 40,000 and 100,000 were expelled. Following the Catholic Reconquest of Spain, 200,000 of

1590-591: A significant number of those "New Christians" of converso ancestry were deemed by Spanish society as sincerely Catholic and they still managed to attain prominence, whether religious (St. John of the Cross , St. Teresa of Ávila , St. John of Ávila , St. Joseph of Anchieta , Tomás de Torquemada , Diego Laynez , Francisco de Vitoria , Francisco Suárez , and others) or political ( Juan de Oñate , Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva , Hernán Pérez de Quesada , Luis de Santángel , and others). According to António José Saraiva,

1696-557: A significant proportion of income to the Islamic states while conversely reducing many Christians to poverty, and these financial and social hardships forced many Christians to convert to Islam. Christians unable to pay these taxes were forced to surrender their children to the Muslim rulers as payment who would sell them as slaves to Muslim households where they were forced to convert to Islam . Many Christian martyrs were executed under

1802-604: A similar Portuguese decree in 1497, the remaining Jewish population in Iberia became officially Christian by default. The New Christians, especially those of Jewish origin, were always under suspicion of being judaizantes ("judaizers"); that is, apostatizing from the Christian religion and being active crypto-Jews . Despite the discrimination and legal restrictions, many Jewish-origin New Christians found ways of circumventing these restrictions for emigration and settlement in

1908-619: A special grace from our Lord to come from Jewish lineage". In the first 30 years of the Society of Jesus, many Jesuits were conversos . However, an anti- converso faction led to the Decree de genere (1593), which proclaimed that either Jewish or Muslim ancestry, no matter how distant, was an insurmountable impediment for admission to the Society of Jesus - effectively applying the Spanish principle of Limpieza de sangre to Jesuits Europe-wide and world-wide. Aleksander Maryks interprets

2014-428: A system that bred fear and encouraged hostile witnesses and even perjury, a system under which the discovery of an ancestor with Jewish blood could result in a person's entire familial line losing everything. This practice set the foundations of "race"-based antisemitism . The limpieza de sangre statutes were not without their dissenters, however, as they potentially challenged the social status of every segment of

2120-424: A type of fraternity which included scholarships, tutorial services, and in some cases even chairs within the university structure. This hyper-focus on the purity of blood among individuals with any level of power promoted the elite and exclusive nature of these positions, which were also imbued in and promoted by the letrado bureaucracy, professional civil servants usually with degrees in law as well as churchmen formed

2226-468: A variety of circumstances in both Spain and its overseas territories. Candidates for office and their spouses had to obtain a certificate of purity that proved that they had no Jewish or Muslim ancestors and in New Spain, proof of whiteness and absence of any in the lineage who had engaged in work with their hands. Additionally, as early as the sixteenth century, shortly after the Spanish colonization of

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2332-429: A way of dealing with social tensions, supposedly justified by the need to fight heresy. Communities believed correctly that many New Christians were secretly practising their former religions to any extent possible, becoming crypto-Jews and crypto-Muslims . Forced conversion#Christianity Forced conversion is the adoption of a religion or irreligion under duress . Someone who has been forced to convert to

2438-417: A wide range of driving values, from compassion , which is aimed at alleviating current suffering, to brutal change, which is aimed at achieving long-term goals, for the benefit of groups which have ranged from small cliques to all of humanity. The relationship is far from simple. But religion has frequently been used in a coercive manner, and it has also used coercion. People may express their faith through

2544-597: Is not of "pure blood," and because of this Pedro has no legal obligation to marry her, and can refuse to do so as not to dirty his clean blood, "being that the aforementioned Aguiló has proven to be the descendant of Jews, and these being disgraced, by said infamy, even if they had been engaged, said Molines should not marry her; because he is of clean blood…" This insistence of the purity of blood not only squelched many familial lines that were established over centuries but also prevented many upward-moving Spaniards of "dirty lineage" from establishing themselves and their families in

2650-611: Is not the homeland of Muslims and Christians. Hindu extremist groups like the Hindu Mahasabha , have gone so far as to call for massacres and forced sterilisations , of religious minorities, particularly the Muslims, that have not done ghar wapsi ("returned home") to Hinduism. After the Arab conquests, a number of Christian Arab tribes suffered enslavement and forced conversion. The Teaching of Jacob (written soon after

2756-614: The Baltic Sea forced conversions were a widely used tactic, which received papal sanction. These tactics were first adopted during the Wendish Crusade and became more widespread during the Livonian Crusade and Prussian Crusade , in which tactics included killing hostages, massacre, and devastation of the lands of tribes that had not yet submitted. Most of the populations of these regions were converted only after

2862-562: The Basques was justified by intellectuals such as Manuel Larramendi (1690–1766). Because the Umayyad conquest of Hispania had not reached the Basque territories, it was believed that Basques had maintained their original purity, while the rest of Spain was suspect of miscegenation . The universal hidalguía of Basques helped many of them to positions of power in the administration. This idea

2968-587: The Iberian colonies of the New World by falsifying or buying limpieza de sangre ("cleanliness of blood") documentation or attaining perjured affidavit attesting to untainted Old Christian pedigrees. The descendants of these, who could not return to Judaism, became the modern-day Christian-professing Sephardic Bnei Anusim of Latin America . Also as a result of the unceasing trials and persecutions by

3074-579: The Levant or in Egypt . He was later denounced as an apostate and tried in an Islamic court. Limpieza de sangre Limpieza de sangre ( Spanish: [limˈpjeθa ðe ˈsaŋɡɾe] ), also known as limpeza de sangue ( Portuguese: [lĩˈpezɐ ðɨ ˈsɐ̃ɡɨ] , Galician: [limˈpeθɐ ðɪ ˈsaŋɡɪ] ) or neteja de sang ( Catalan: [nəˈtɛʒə ðə ˈsaŋ] ), literally 'cleanliness of blood' and meaning 'blood purity',

3180-522: The Massacre of Verden in 782, when Charlemagne reportedly had 4,500 captive Saxons massacred for rebelling, and the Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae , a law imposed on conquered Saxons in 785, after another rebellion and destruction of churches and killing of missionary priests and monks, that prescribed death to those who refused to convert to Christianity. Forced conversion that occurred after

3286-579: The Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition , other Jewish-origin New Christians opted to migrate out of the Iberian Peninsula in a continuous flow between the 1600s to 1800s towards Amsterdam , and also London , whereupon in their new tolerant environment of refuge outside the Iberian cultural sphere they eventually returned to Judaism . The descendants of these became the Spanish and Portuguese Jews . Although Iberian Muslims were protected in

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3392-674: The Vandals attempted to force all Spanish Catholics to become Arian Christians during their rule in Spain. Gregory also recounted episodes of forced conversion of Jews by Chilperic I and Avitus of Clermont . During the Saxon Wars , Charlemagne , King of the Franks , forcibly converted the Saxons from their native Germanic paganism by way of warfare, and law upon conquest. Examples are

3498-466: The dhimmi category. Wael Hallaq states that in theory, Islamic religious tolerance only applied to those religious groups that Islamic jurisprudence considered to be monotheistic "People of the Book", i.e. Christians, Jews, and Sabians if they paid the jizya tax, while to those excluded from the "People of the Book" were only offered two choices: convert to Islam or fight to the death. In practice,

3604-481: The "Old Christians". The Spanish Inquisition generated much wealth and income for the church and individual inquisitors by confiscating the property of the persecuted. The end of Al-Andalus and the expulsion of the Sephardic Jews from the Iberian Peninsula went hand in hand with the increasing amount of Spanish and Portuguese influence in the world, influence which was exemplified by the Christian conquest of

3710-488: The "People of the Book" designation and dhimmi status were even extended to the non-monotheistic religions of the conquered peoples, such as Hindus , Jains , Buddhists , and other non-monotheists. The Druze have frequently experienced persecution by different Muslim regimes such as the Shia Ismaili Fatimid State , Mamluk , Sunni Ottoman Empire , and Egypt Eyalet . The persecution of

3816-782: The 10th century, Vladimir the Great , the ruler of Kievan Rus' , ordered Kiev's citizens to undergo a mass baptism in the Dnieper river. In the 13th century the pagan populations of the Baltics faced campaigns of forcible conversion by crusading knight corps such as the Livonian Brothers of the Sword and the Teutonic Order , which often meant simply dispossessing these populations of their lands and property. After Ivan

3922-403: The 1593 decree as preventing, despite Ignatius's desires, any Jewish or Muslim Conversos and, by extension, any person with Jewish or Muslim ancestry, no matter how distant, from admission to the Society of Jesus. Jesuit scholar John Padberg states that the restriction on Jewish/Muslim converts was only limited to the degree of parentage. Fourteen years later, this restriction was extended back to

4028-597: The 19th century that the " Basque race " was free of foreign miscegenation became one of the bases of the racism in Sabino Arana 's Basque nationalism . The discrimination was still present into the 20th century in some places such as Majorca, where no Xueta (descendants of the Majorcan conversos) priests were allowed to say Mass in a cathedral until the 1960s. During the Spanish Civil War , Majorca

4134-453: The 19th century. For example, an edict of 8 March 1804 by King Ferdinand VII resolved that no knight of the military orders might wed without having a council vouch for the limpieza de sangre of his spouse. Official suppression of such entry requirements for the Army was enacted into law on 16 May 1865, and extended to naval appointments on 31 August of the same year. On 5 November 1865,

4240-492: The 500,000 Muslims had been converted to Christianity . There is no universally agreed figure of Morisco population, but Christiane Stallaert put the number at around one million Moriscos (New Christians and their descendants) at the beginning of the 16th century. The governments of Spain and Portugal created the Spanish Inquisition in 1478 and the Portuguese Inquisition , including the Goa Inquisition , in 1536 as

4346-644: The Almohad persecution, the medieval Jewish philosopher and rabbi Moses Maimonides (1135–1204), one of the leading exponents of the Golden Age of Jewish culture in the Iberian Peninsula , wrote his Epistle on Apostasy , in which he permitted Jews to feign apostasy under duress, though strongly recommending leaving the country instead. There is dispute amongst scholars as to whether Maimonides himself converted to Islam in order to freely escape from Almohad territory, and then reconverted back to Judaism in either

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4452-589: The Americas , deportation from the colonies. In addition to the above restrictions and discrimination endured by New Christians, the Spanish Crown and Church authorities also subjected New Christians to persecution , prosecution , and capital punishment for actual or alleged practice of the family's former religion. After the Alhambra Decree of the expulsion of the Jewish population from Spain in 1492 and

4558-507: The Americas was initiated, several regulations were enacted in the Laws of the Indies to prevent Jews and Muslims and their descendants from emigrating to and settling in the overseas colonies. There was a thriving business in creating false documentation to allow conversos to emigrate to Spain's overseas territories. The provisions banning emigration were repeatedly stressed in later editions of

4664-432: The Book , Christians under Muslim rule were subjected to dhimmi status (along with Jews , Samaritans , Gnostics , Mandeans , and Zoroastrians ), which was inferior to the status of Muslims. Christians and other religious minorities thus faced religious discrimination and religious persecution in that they were banned from proselytising (for Christians, it was forbidden to evangelize or spread Christianity ) in

4770-564: The Book or Ahle-Kitab (Jews, Christians, Sabians) pay the jizya . Instead, they only allowed them (non- Ahle-Kitab ) to avoid death by choosing to convert to Islam. Of the four schools of Islamic jurisprudence , the Hanafi and Maliki schools allow polytheists to be granted dhimmi status, except Arab polytheists . However, the Shafi'i , Hanbali and Zahiri schools only consider Christians , Jews , and Sabians to be eligible to belong to

4876-616: The Church of Cordoba was able to prove his ancestry was free of Jewish or Muslim blood. The concept of limpieza de sangre was a significant barrier for many Spaniards to emigrate to the Americas, since some form of proof of not having recent Muslim or Jewish ancestors was required to emigrate to the Spanish Empire . However, within Spain's overseas territories the concept evolved to be linked with racial purity for both Spaniards and indigenous. Proofs of racial purity were required in

4982-877: The Crusaders in Lorraine, on the Lower Rhine, in Bavaria and Bohemia, in Mainz and in Worms (see Rhineland massacres , Worms massacre (1096) ). Though he strongly condemned and prohibited forced conversion and baptism by decree, Pope Innocent III suggested in a private letter to a bishop in 1201 that those who agreed to be baptized to avoid torture and intimidation might be compelled to outwardly observe Christianity: [T]hose who are immersed even though reluctant, do belong to ecclesiastical jurisdiction at least by reason of

5088-775: The Druze included massacres , demolishing Druze prayer houses and holy places and forced conversion to Islam. Those were no ordinary killings and massacres in the Druze's narrative, they were meant to eradicate the whole community according to the Druze narrative. The wars of the Ridda (lit. apostasy ) undertaken by Abu Bakr , the first caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate , against Arab tribes who had accepted Islam but refused to pay Zakat and Jizya Tax, have been described by some historians as an instance of forced conversion or "reconversion". The rebellion of these Arab tribes

5194-485: The Islamic death penalty for defending their Christian faith through dramatic acts of resistance such as refusing to convert to Islam, repudiation of the Islamic religion and subsequent reconversion to Christianity , and blasphemy towards Muslim beliefs . After the Arab conquests a number of Christian Arab tribes suffered enslavement and forced conversion. During the rise of the Islamic Caliphates, it

5300-728: The Jewish dhimmi s living under the Caliphate, while allowed fewer rights than Muslims, were still better off than in Christian Europe . Many Jews migrated to al-Andalus , where they were not just tolerated but allowed to practice their faith openly. Christians had also practiced their religion openly in Córdoba, and both Jews and Christians lived openly in Morocco as well. The first Almohad ruler, Abd al-Mumin, allowed an initial seven-month grace period . Then he forced most of

5406-452: The Laws, which provides an indication that the regulations were often ignored, most likely because colonial authorities at the time looked the other way as the skills of those immigrants were badly needed. During the period when Portugal and Spain were ruled by the same monarch (1580–1640), Portuguese merchants, many of whom were crypto-Jews , passing as Christians, became important members of

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5512-485: The New World, many professions—regardless of their sincerity as converts. Other derogatory terms applied to each of the converting groups included marranos (i.e. "pigs") for New Christians of Jewish origin, and moriscos (a term which carried pejorative connotations) for New Christians of Andalusian origin . Aside from social stigma and ostracism , the consequences of legal or social categorization as

5618-537: The Portuguese army after the majority of the native villagers there had also converted to Christianity. "The fathers of the Church forbade the Hindus under terrible penalties the use of their own sacred books, and prevented them from all exercise of their religion. They destroyed their temples, and so harassed and interfered with the people that they abandoned the city in large numbers, refusing to remain any longer in

5724-596: The Terrible 's conquest of the Khanate of Kazan , the Muslim population faced slaughter, expulsion, forced resettlement and conversion to Christianity. In the 18th century, Elizabeth of Russia launched a campaign of forced conversion of Russia's non-Orthodox subjects, including Muslims and Jews. The Portuguese carried out the Christianisation of Goa in India in the 16th and 17th centuries. The majority of

5830-536: The aboriginal Indian populations of the Americas. The Ottoman Empire and Morocco absorbed most of the Jewish and Muslim refugees, but a large majority of them remained in Spain and Portugal by choosing to be Conversos. During the European colonization of the Americas , forced conversion of the continents' indigenous, non-Christian population was common, especially in South America and Mesoamerica , where

5936-663: The act of taking refuge , and conversions usually require people to recite their acceptance of the Triple Gems of Buddhism . However, they may always practice Buddhism without fully abandoning their own religion. According to Chin Human Rights Organisation (CHRO), Christians from the Chin ethnic minority group in Myanmar are facing coercion to convert to Buddhism by state actors and programme. Christianity

6042-403: The choice between conversion, exile, and being executed. The treatment and persecution of Jews under Almohad rule was a drastic change. Prior to Almohad rule during the Caliphate of Córdoba , Jewish culture experienced a Golden Age . María Rosa Menocal , a specialist in Iberian literature at Yale University , has argued that "tolerance was an inherent aspect of Andalusian society", and that

6148-468: The compilation was published by a constitution of 15 February 438. It went into force in the eastern and western parts of the empire on 1 January 439. It is Our will that all the peoples who are ruled by the administration of Our Clemency shall practice that religion which the divine Peter the Apostle transmitted to the Romans.... The rest, whom We adjudge demented and insane, shall sustain the infamy of heretical dogmas, their meeting places shall not receive

6254-553: The concept of New Christian was a legal mechanism and manifestation of racial antisemitism rather than Judaism as a religion. For those of Moorish origin, it was a manifestation of racial anti-Berberism and/or anti-Arabism . Portuguese New Christians were alleged to have been partners with an English factor in Italy in a notable 17th century marine insurance swindle. The related Spanish development of an ideology of limpieza de sangre ("cleanliness of blood") also excluded New Christians from society—universities, emigration to

6360-472: The conquest of large indigenous polities like the Inca and Aztec Empires placed colonizers in control of large non-Christian populations. According to some South American leaders and indigenous groups, there were cases among native populations of conversion under the threat of violence, often because they were compelled to after being conquered, and that the Catholic Church cooperated with civil authority to achieve this end. Upon converting to Christianity in

6466-401: The conversions were superficial. Maimonides urged Jews to choose the superficial conversion over martyrdom and argued, "Muslims know very well that we do not mean what we say, and that what we say is only to escape the ruler's punishment and to satisfy him with this simple confession." Abraham Ibn Ezra (1089–1164), who himself fled the persecutions of the Almohads, composed an elegy mourning

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6572-449: The death of Muhammad), is one of the earliest records on Islam and "implies that Muslims tried, on threat of death to make Christians abjure Christianity and accept Islam.” Non-Muslims were required to pay the jizya while pagans were either required to accept Islam, pay the jizya, be exiled, or be killed, depending on which of the four main schools of Islamic law their conqueror followed. Some historians believe that forced conversion

6678-400: The destruction of many Jewish communities throughout Spain and the Maghreb under the Almohads. Many Jews fled from territories ruled by the Almohads to Christian lands, and others, like the family of Maimonides, fled east to more tolerant Muslim lands. However, a few Jewish traders still working in North Africa are recorded. The treatment and persecution of Christians under Almohad rule

6784-543: The end of the Christian reconquest of Iberia and the forced conversion or expulsion of Muslim mudéjars and Sephardi Jews in Spain, the populations of Portugal and Spain were all nominally Christian. Spain's population of 7 million included up to a million recent converts from Islam and 200,000 converts from Judaism, who were collectively referred to as " New Christians ". Converts from Judaism were referred to as conversos or Marranos and converts from Islam were known as Moriscos . A commonly leveled accusation

6890-653: The face of execution, becoming forced converts from Islam ( Moriscos , Conversos and "secret Moors") or converts from Judaism ( Conversos , Crypto-Jews and Marranos ). After the forced conversions, when all former Muslims and Jews had ostensibly become Catholic, the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions primarily targeted forced converts from Judaism and Islam, who came under suspicion, because they were either accused of continuing to adhere to their old religion, or they were accused of falling back into it. Jewish conversos who still resided in Spain and frequently practiced Judaism in secret were suspected of being Crypto-Jews by

6996-407: The fifth degree. This 16th-century Decree de genere remained in force among the Jesuits far longer than it remained in force in the Spanish state, but over time, the restriction which was related to Muslim ancestry was dropped only leaving people of Jewish ancestry to be excluded. In 1923, the 27th Jesuit General Congregation reiterated, "The impediment of origin extends to all who are descended from

7102-460: The hands of the rebel leader ibn Firāsa, against whom they were defended by Abbasid caliphal troops. Historians recognize that during the Early Middle Ages , the Christian populations living in the lands invaded by the Arab Muslim armies between the 7th and 10th centuries suffered religious discrimination , religious persecution , religious violence , and martyrdom multiple times at the hands of Arab Muslim officials and rulers. As People of

7208-454: The image of a crucifix on a Bible, the candidates confirmed themselves as being of neither Jewish or Moorish extraction. The process of investigation is as follows: commissioners and secretaries with notaries would be sent to the tribunals that the individual under investigation claimed to originated from. They would then gather eight to twelve elders from the tribunal as witnesses and have them testify. The information would then be sent back while

7314-400: The incidents in Chhattisgarh, there are other reports of forced conversions of Christians and Muslims in India to Hinduism . Some of them were converted under duress or against their will, specifically through the ghar wapsi scheme by Hindu extremists , such as Shiv Sena , the VHP & also by the political party of the BJP . The Shiv Sena has said that India or Hindustan

7420-449: The individual awaited trial. Having collected all the reports, the secretary or the notary had to read them all to the council, and a simple majority vote would decide whether the candidate was approved; after approval the candidate had to promise to obey all the laws and customs of the Church. If they were identified by the court as of Jewish descent, the individual and their children would be socially outcast and labeled impure The man from

7526-449: The lands invaded by the Arab Muslims on pain of death, they were banned from bearing arms, undertaking certain professions, and were obligated to dress differently in order to distinguish themselves from Arabs. Under sharia , Non-Muslims were obligated to pay jizya and kharaj taxes, together with periodic heavy ransom levied upon Christian communities by Muslim rulers in order to fund military campaigns, all of which contributed

7632-629: The laws, such as Pope Nicholas V in 1451, the Bishop of Cuenca after the initial laws in 1449, Archbishop Carrillo of Toledo, Pope Paul IV of Rome, and many others. However, there were just as many voices who supported the statutes. By 1530, tribunals of the Inquisition were urged to make registers of genealogies for each town. Every married man had to submit their genealogies which registered them and their family as Old Christian or New Christian, as pure or impure. If one could not submit proof of

7738-529: The lifetime of Muhammad. Their exclusion therefore had little practical significance after his death in 632. Arab historian Al-Baladhuri says that Caliph Umar deported Christians who refused to apostatize and convert to Islam, and that he obeyed the order of the prophet who advised: “there shall not remain two religions in the land of Arabia.” In the 9th century, the Samaritan population of Palestine faced persecution and attempts at forced conversion at

7844-453: The mayor Mateo Zaforteza Musoles certificates of not having Jewish ancestry. Although all laws were suspended in end of the 19th century, the laws set a precedent which allowed for a new form of religious discrimination based on blood. The earliest known case judging limpieza de sangre comes from the Church of Cordoba, that explained the procedure to judge the purity of blood of candidates as follows: kneeling, with right hand placed over

7950-589: The merchant communities in the viceregal capitals of Mexico City and Lima. When Portugal successfully revolted in 1640 from Spain, the Holy Office of the Inquisition in both capitals initiated intensive investigations to identify and prosecute crypto-Jews, resulting in spectacular autos-da-fé in the mid-seventeenth century. Ignatius of Loyola , the founder of the Jesuits , said that "he would take it as

8056-519: The name of churches, and they shall be smitten first by divine vengeance and secondly by the retribution of Our own initiative (Codex Theodosianus XVI 1.2.). Forced conversions of Jews were carried out with the support of rulers during Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages in Gaul , the Iberian peninsula and in the Byzantine Empire . In Gregory of Tours ' writing, he claimed that

8162-503: The native villagers to Christianity allowed the Portuguese to destroy temples in Bardez , with 300 Hindu temples destroyed. Prohibitions were then declared from December 4, 1567, on public performances of Hindu marriages, sacred thread wearing and cremation. All persons above 15 years of age were compelled to listen to Christian preaching, failing which they were punished. In 1583, Hindu temples at Assolna and Cuncolim were also destroyed by

8268-455: The natives of Goa had converted to Christianity by the end of the 16th century. The Portuguese rulers had implemented state policies encouraging and even rewarding conversions among Hindu subjects. The rapid rise of converts in Goa was mostly the result of Portuguese economic and political control over the Hindus, who were vassals of the Portuguese crown. In 1567, the conversion of the majority of

8374-609: The only legitimate imperial religion and the only one entitled to call itself Catholic . Other Christians he described as "foolish madmen". He also ended official state support for the traditional polytheist religions and customs. The Codex Theodosianus (Eng. Theodosian Code) was a compilation of the laws of the Roman Empire under the Christian emperors since 312. A commission was established by Theodosius II and his co-emperor Valentinian III on 26 March 429 and

8480-475: The order was carried out: Walid's servants "cut off a slice from Shamala's thigh and roasted it in the fire, and they thrust it into his mouth" and he was blinded during this as well. This event is confirmed by the Muslim historian Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani In the early eighth century under the Umayyads, 63 out of a group of 70 Christian pilgrims from Iconium were captured, tortured, and executed under

8586-588: The orders of the Arab Governor of Ceaserea for refusing to convert to Islam (seven were forcibly converted to Islam under torture). Soon afterwards, sixty more Christian pilgrims from Amorium were crucified in Jerusalem. There were forced conversions in the 12th century under the Almohad dynasty of North Africa and al-Andalus , who suppressed the dhimmi status of Jews and Christians and gave them

8692-455: The point of the sword, and that conquered peoples were given the choice of conversion or death. It is now apparent that conversion by force, while not unknown in Muslim countries, was, in fact, rare. Muslim conquerors ordinarily wished to dominate rather than convert, and most conversions to Islam were voluntary. (...) In most cases, worldly and spiritual motives for conversion blended together. Moreover, conversion to Islam did not necessarily imply

8798-470: The population, including conversos and moriscos , the aristocracy who stood to lose standing, the agricultural workers who farmed their lands, and Catholic reformers who saw it as a challenge to the efficacy of baptism and a perversion of Christ’s Millennialism . While these statutes were broadly supported by the highest echelons of power, some of the Spanish population was not in favor of legislated segregation by blood. Many religious leaders condemned

8904-862: The precedent on what it meant to be a true Christian. Initially, these statutes were condemned by the monarchy and the Church; however, in 1496, Pope Alexander VI approved a purity statute for the Hieronymites . This stratification meant that the Old Christian commoners might assert a right to honor even if they were not in the nobility . The religious and military orders , guilds and other organizations incorporated in their by-laws clauses demanding proof of cleanliness of blood. Upwardly mobile New Christian families had to either contend with discrimination, or bribe officials and falsify documents attesting to generations of Christian ancestry. The claim to universal hidalguía (lowest nobility) of

9010-521: The relationship between religion and politics is complex, especially when it is viewed over the expanse of human history . While religious leaders and the state generally have different aims, both are concerned about power and order; both use reason and emotion to motivate behavior. Throughout history, leaders of religious and political institutions have cooperated, opposed one another, and/or attempted to co-opt each other, for purposes which are both noble and base, and they have implemented programs with

9116-547: The repeated rebellion of native populations that did not want to accept Christianity even after initial forced conversion; in Old Prussia, the tactics employed in the initial conquest and subsequent conversion of the territory resulted in the death of most of the native population, whose language consequently became extinct. After the end of Islamic control of Spain , Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492. In Portugal , following an order for their expulsion in 1496, only

9222-474: The sacrament of Baptism in order to avoid loss, he (like one who comes to Baptism in dissimulation) does receive the impress of Christianity, and may be forced to observe the Christian Faith as one who expressed a conditional willingness though, absolutely speaking, he was unwilling ... During the 12th–13th century Northern Crusades against the pagan Finnic , Baltic , and West Slavic peoples around

9328-474: The sacrament, and might therefore be reasonably compelled to observe the rules of the Christian Faith. It is, to be sure, contrary to the Christian Faith that anyone who is unwilling and wholly opposed to it should be compelled to adopt and observe Christianity. For this reason a valid distinction is made by some between kinds of unwilling ones and kinds of compelled ones. Thus one who is drawn to Christianity by violence, through fear and through torture, and receives

9434-480: The seventh century generally took place during riots and massacres carried out by mobs and clergy without support of the rulers. In contrast, royal persecutions of Jews from the late eleventh century onward generally took the form of expulsions, with some exceptions, such as conversions of Jews in southern Italy of the 13th century, which were carried out by Dominican Inquisitors but instigated by King Charles II of Naples . Jews were forced to convert to Christianity by

9540-409: The socio-economic system of the times. These families were thus pushed to the sidelines of society due to a perceived impurity. This cultivated a connection between ancestry and impurity, values that would consolidate into racism as we understand it today, which was only beginning to form at this time. The last page of the brief also notes that the judge has the right even to imprison Pedro until he finds

9646-442: The third generation, the fourth generation being exempted. In Phillip II 's reign, it included any person with any fraction of New Christian blood "from time immemorial". In Portugal, in 1772, Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquess of Pombal decreed an end to the legal distinction between New Christians and Old Christians . Although the category of New Christian is meaningless in Christian theology and ecclesiology , it

9752-493: The treaty signed at the fall of Granada , and the New Christian descendants of former Muslims weren't expelled until over a century later. Even so, in the meantime, different waves of Andalusian Muslims and New Christians of Moorish origin left the Iberian Peninsula and settled across North Africa and in the provinces of the Ottoman Empire . Over a hundred thousand of Iberian Jews converted to Catholicism in Spain as

9858-573: The urban dhimmi population in Morocco, both Jewish and Christian, to convert to Islam. In 1198, the Almohad emir Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur decreed that Jews must wear a dark blue garb, with very large sleeves and a grotesquely oversized hat; his son altered the colour to yellow , a change that may have influenced Catholic ordinances some time later. Those who converted had to wear clothing that identified them as Jews since they were not regarded as sincere Muslims. Cases of mass martyrdom of Jews who refused to convert to Islam are recorded. Many of

9964-578: The view of many historians, the Constantinian shift turned Christianity from a persecuted religion into a religion which was capable of persecuting and sometimes eager to persecute. On 27 February 380, together with Gratian and Valentinian II , Theodosius I issued the decree Cunctos populos , the so-called Edict of Thessalonica , recorded in the Codex Theodosianus xvi.1.2 . This declared Trinitarian Nicene Christianity to be

10070-504: Was a minority religion during much of the middle Roman Classical Period , and the early Christians were persecuted during that time . When Constantine I converted to Christianity , it had already grown to be the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. Already under the reign of Constantine I, Christian heretics were being persecuted; beginning in the late 4th century, the ancient pagan religions were also actively suppressed . In

10176-481: Was a racially discriminatory term used in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires during the early modern period to refer to those who were considered to be Old Christians by virtue of not having Muslim , Jewish , Romani , or Agote ancestors. In both empires, the term played a major role in discrimination against suspected crypto-Jews or crypto-Muslims . Over the years it manifested into law which excluded New Christians from almost every part of society. By

10282-691: Was a drastic change as well. Many Christians were killed, forced to convert, or forced to flee. Some Christians fled to the Christian kingdoms in the north and west and helped fuel the Reconquista . Christians under the Almohad rule generally chose to relocate to the Christian principalities (most notably the Kingdom of Asturias ) in the north of the Iberian Peninsula , whereas Jews decided to stay in order to keep their properties, and many of them feigned conversion to Islam, while continuing to believe and practice Judaism in secrecy . During

10388-801: Was called the Mortara case . During World War II in Yugoslavia , Orthodox Serbs were forcibly converted to Catholicism by the Ustashe . Indian Christians have alleged that Hindu groups in southern Chhattisgarh have forced Christian converts from Hinduism to revert to Hinduism. In the aftermath of the violence, American Christian evangelical groups have claimed that Hindu groups are forcibly reverting Christian converts from Hinduism back to Hinduism. It has also been alleged that these same Hindu groups have used allurements to convert poor Muslims and Christians to Hinduism against their will. Apart from

10494-575: Was enacted in Toledo, Spain in 1449 by Governor Pedro Sermiento following the Converso riots . This text stated that all Conversos or individuals whose parents or grandparents had converted to Christianity may not hold public or private office and cannot testify in a court of law. Although this was not an official law, many institutions in Toledo started to enforce the practice of blood purity tests and set

10600-820: Was increasingly expected for all Arabs to be Muslims and pressure was put on many to convert. The Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I said to Shamala, the Christian Arab leader of the Banu Taghlib : "As you are a chief of the Arabs you shame them all by worshipping the cross; obey my wish and turn Muslim." He replied, 'How so? I am chief of Taghlib, and I fear lest I become a cause of destruction to them all if I and they cease to believe in christ" Enraged Al-Walid had him dragged away on his face and tortured; afterward he commanded him again to convert to Islam or else prepare to "eat his own flesh." The Christian Arab again refused, and

10706-656: Was introduced by the Old Christians who claimed that "pure unmixed" Christian bloodlines distinguish them as a unique group, separated from ethnic Jews and Iberian Muslims. The Old Christians wanted to legally and socially distinguish themselves from the conversos (converts to Christianity) whom they considered being tainted by their non-Spanish bloodlines-even though the overwhelming majority of Spain's Muslims were also indigenous Iberians, descendants of native Iberians who earlier converted to Islam under Muslim rule . In practice, for New Christians of Jewish origin,

10812-646: Was less a relapse to the pre-Islamic Arabian religion than termination of a political contract they had made with Muhammad . Some of these tribal leaders claimed prophethood, bringing themselves in direct conflict with the Muslim Caliphate. Two out of the four schools of Islamic law, i.e. Hanafi and Maliki schools, accepted non-Arab polytheists to be eligible for the dhimmi status. Under this doctrine, Arab polytheists were forced to choose between conversion and death. However, according to perception of most Muslim jurists, all Arabs had embraced Islam during

10918-496: Was rare in Islamic history, and most conversions to Islam were voluntary. Muslim rulers were often more interested in conquest than conversion. Ira Lapidus points towards "interwoven terms of political and economic benefits and of a sophisticated culture and religion" as appealing to the masses. He writes that: The question of why people convert to Islam has always generated the intense feeling. Earlier generations of European scholars believed that conversions to Islam were made at

11024-465: Was reinforced by the fact that, as a result of the Reconquista, numerous Spanish noble lineages were already of Basque origin. By the sixteenth century, the limpieza de sangre statutes coalesced to become a systematic effort to exclude conversos from offices in Church and state. They multiplied rapidly due to strong support by cathedral chapters and the colegios mayores (senior colleges),

11130-541: Was ruled by Fascist Italy in alliance with the Spanish Nationalist side. Nazi authorities requested lists of persons with Jewish ancestry, planning to deport them to camps as in France and Italy but the intervention of the bishop of Majorca Josep Miralles blocked their delivery. The mixing of German and Italian troops with locals led some Palma women intending to marry foreign soldiers to obtain from

11236-655: Was that the New Christians were false converts, secretly practicing their former religion as Crypto-Jews or Crypto-Muslims . After the Expulsion of the Jews in March 1492, with the Alhambra Decree , the charge of insincere conversion against Jews brought before the Spanish Inquisition only grew. The concept of purity of blood came to be focused more on ancestry and "blood" (lineage), rather than on personal religion and beliefs. The first statute of purity of blood

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