Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
Page 137 ENMITY AND ASSIMILATION Jews, Christians, and Converts in Medieval Spain David In the year 1391, Christians in the lands we now call Spain witnessed a miracle so great that it seemed to some a harbinger of the messiah.1 In town after town across the peninsula, mobs of rioters attacked the Jews. This was not in itself miraculous. The miracle resided in the fact that, although thousands of Jews were killed, many thousands more converted to Christianity. Their conversion, long a dream of Spanish Christians, had been equally long despaired of â and its miraculous nature was abundantly clear. In the city of Valencia, for example, so many Jews sought baptism that the clergy feared running out of chrism; then suddenly, the priests found their vessels so overï¬owing that they were able to resume their work. âConsider for yourself,â the town council of Valencia wrote the king, âwhether these things can have a natural cause. We believe that they cannot, but can only be the work of the Almighty.â2 If in the 1390s these conversions (the most extensive in the Middle Ages) were seen as miraculous, by the 1450s many Christians were beginning to consider them a
Common Knowledge – Duke University Press
Published: Jan 1, 2003
Read and print from thousands of top scholarly journals.
Already have an account? Log in
Bookmark this article. You can see your Bookmarks on your DeepDyve Library.
To save an article, log in first, or sign up for a DeepDyve account if you don’t already have one.
Copy and paste the desired citation format or use the link below to download a file formatted for EndNote
Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
All DeepDyve websites use cookies to improve your online experience. They were placed on your computer when you launched this website. You can change your cookie settings through your browser.