New Christian

New Christian ( ; ; ; ) was a term used to refer to Iberian Jews and Muslims who converted to Roman Catholicism , and their known baptized descendants. The term was introduced by the Old Christians of Iberia who wanted to distinguish themselves from the conversos (converts). They sometimes used other derogatory terms to apply to each of the converting groups such as Moriscos for Moors and Marranos for Jews. Throughout the Middle Ages , Jews and Muslims sometimes converted to Christianity, generally the result of physical, economic, and social pressures or coercion. In the 14th century there was increasing pressure against Jews that culminated in the riots of 1391 in Seville and other cities. These riots caused the destruction of the Jewish courts and sparked many conversions, a trend that continued through the 15th century. Unlike the other Iberian kingdoms, Portugal was not much affected by the waves of riots. There, the population of New Christians became numerous after the forced conversions of 1497. After the expulsion of the Jewish population from Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1497, the remaining Jewish population in Iberia became officially Christian. The New Christians were always under suspicion of apostasy . The governments created the Spanish Inquisition in 1478 and Portuguese Inquisition in 1536 as a way of dealing with social tensions, supposedly justified by the need to fight heresy. Communities believed that many New Christians were secretly reverting to the practices of their former religion and that numerous conversos had become crypto-Jews and crypto-Muslims . Spanish development of an ideology of cleanliness of blood or descent excluded New Christians from society, regardless of their sincerity as converts. In Portugal, Marquis of Pombal in 1772 decreed an end to the legal distinction between New Christians and Old Christians. Eventually, all Old Christian names were used by New Christians.

New Christian ( ; ; ) was a law-effective and social category developed from the 15th century onwards, and used in what is today Spain and Portugal , and their New World colonies, to refer to Sephardim (Iberian Jews) and Moors (Iberian Muslims) who had converted to Roman Catholicism . It was developed and employed after the successful reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula by the Catholic Monarchs . By law, the category of New Christian included not only recent converts, but also all their known baptized descendants with any fraction or quantum of New Christian blood up to the fourth generation, and then in Phillip II 's reign it included any person with any fraction of New Christian blood "from time immemorial". In Portugal, it was only in 1772 that Marquis of Pombal finally decreed an end to the legal distinction between New Christians and Old Christians .

New Christian ( ; ; ) was a theocratic strategy and a policy of intra-religious and social segregation , devised through edicts from Spanish and Portuguese monarchs from the 15th century onwards. The New Christian social category was made to refer to and deal with Sephardic and Bene Israel Jews, and the Muslim Moors who converted whether willfully or forcefully to Roman Catholicism . It was used in Spain and Portugal as well as in the colonies of the Spanish and Portuguese empires . According to António José Saraiva, a famous or "Emeritus" 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. In addition, 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 not only recent converts but also all their known baptized descendants with any fraction or quantum of New Christian blood up to 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, it was only in 1772 that Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquess of Pombal , finally decreed an end to the legal distinction between New Christians and Old Christians .

Jewish and Muslim converts to Catholicism in Spain and Portugal starting in the 15th century For other uses, see New Christian (disambiguation) . New Christian ( ; ; ; ) was a socio-religious designation and legal distinction in the Spanish Empire and the Portuguese Empire . The term was used from the 15th century onwards primarily to describe the descendants of the Sephardic Jews and Moors baptised into the Catholic Church following the Alhambra Decree . The Alhambra Decree of 1492, also known as the Edict of Expulsion, was an anti-Jewish law made by the Catholic Monarchs upon the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula. It required Jews to convert to Catholicism or be expelled from Spain. Most of the history of the "New Christians" refers to the Jewish converts, who were generally known as Conversos (or in a more derogatory fashion Marranos ) while the Muslim converts were known as Moriscos . Because the conversions were achieved in part through coercion and also with the threat of expulsion, especially when it came to the Jews, the Inquisitions 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 a political issue in Spain and Portugal 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 France such as Bordeaux , and openly practiced Judaism, which furthered suspicion of Jewish crypsis. Nevertheless, 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, 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 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 . The Spanish Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia . Those Jews forcibly convetred to Christianity were knows as new Christians António José Saraiva.

Jewish and Muslim converts to Catholicism in Spain and Portugal starting in the 15th century For other uses, see New Christian (disambiguation) . John of the Cross (1542–1591), a notable Carmelite friar , Christian mystic , and New Christian of Converso ancestry. New Christian ( Latin : Novus Christianus ; Spanish : Cristiano Nuevo ; Portuguese : Cristão-Novo ; Catalan : Cristià Nou ; Ladino : Kristiano muevo ; Arabic : مسيحي جديد ) was a socio-religious designation and legal distinction referring to the population of former Jewish and Muslim converts to Christianity in the Spanish and Portuguese empires, and their respective colonies in the New World . The term was used from the 15th century onwards primarily to describe the descendants of the Sephardic Jews and Moors that were baptized into the Catholic Church following the Alhambra Decree of 1492. The Alhambra Decree, also known as the Edict of Expulsion, was an anti-Jewish law made by the Catholic Monarchs upon the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula . It required Jews to convert to Roman Catholicism or be expelled from Spain . Most of the history of the "New Christians" refers to the Jewish converts, who were generally known as Conversos (or in a more derogatory fashion Marranos ), while the Muslim converts were called Moriscos . 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 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, 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 Luis de Victoria , 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, 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 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 . Jews and New Christians in the Making of the Atlantic World in the 16th–17th Centuries: A Survey . The Spanish Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia . Those Jews forcibly converted to Christianity were knows as new Christians António José Saraiva.