His Mother Was a Saint

Count Bernard I de Montbard (1040–1103) of Burgundy and his wife Humberto de Roucy had several children. Sadly, most of them died very young—not uncommon at the time—but a son and daughter, Andre and Alèthe, survived past childhood. Originally intending to enter a convent, Alèthe (1070 - 1107) was married at the age of 15 to a Burgundian knight, Tescelin le Roux (c.1070 - 1117).

Alèthe and Tescelin had several children: Guy, Gerard, Bernard, André, Barthélémy, Nivard, and Ombelien. Tescelin's rank was not as high as his wife's, but (perhaps through her father's influence), the couple lived very well, able to give their several children good educations while living at the Château de Fontaine-lès-Dijon. The couple were considered by later chroniclers to be notably virtuous. (The illustration shows them both in a stained glass window made for Mariawald Abbey; the whole shows them above their son, St. Bernard of Clairvaux.)

Alèthe built a chapel in 1102 near their castle dedicated to St. Ambrose. Her piety strongly influenced her children. When she died at the age of 37, we are told her son Bernard was deeply affected (as I am sure the whole family was). Bernard made the decision to become a monk. Looking for a proper venue, he chose the Abbey at Cîteaux. Legend says that he had a vision of his mother, dressed in white, telling him that God had great plans for him and that he should persuade his brothers to join him.

Bernard and all his brothers went to Cîteaux. All became saints, Bernard of Clairvaux (named for the monastery he himself founded a few years after entering Cîteaux) becoming one of the most celebrated of them. Their sister, Ombeline, entered Holy Orders in 1132 and became abbess at Jully Les Nonains after Bernard demanded the building (a 10th-century castle) to become a convent linked to Molesme.

Alèthe's body was originally interred in the chapel she had built, and she was already considered a saint by the locals. In 1250 the abbot of Clairvaux had the remains brought to Cîteaux to be entombed next to her son, Bernard. At the end of his life, Tescelin joined Cîteaux.

Alèthe had a brother, Andre, who also followed Bernard into Holy Orders, but his life took a slightly different direction from the contemplative: a familiar one. We'll tell the story of André de Montbard tomorrow.

Bernard Comes and Goes

In 1107, a Burgundian woman from a noble family died. Her name was Alèthe de Montbard, and she had several children, one of whom was named Bernard. Bernard—who had been educated by priests and thought of becoming one—in 1113 led 30 members of his friends and family to Cîteaux Abbey to join the order.

Bernard's dedication and fervor drew even more of his acquaintances and family to join later, including Tescelin de Fontaine, his own father. Cîteaux's membership expanded so rapidly that they outgrew the current abbey.

In 1115, Bernard and 12 monks left to found a new abbey which he named the Claire Vallée, or Clairvaux. Bernard's reputation was so connected to this new abbey that, although he traveled widely, he is now known as Bernard of Clairvaux.

Bernard (seen preaching in the illustration) was as strict a follower of Cistercian austerity as anyone, if not more so: extreme fasting made him often ill. Despite the strictness, followers were drawn to Clairvaux, so many that from Clairvaux there were several new communities founded. Before Bernard died in 1153 there were 60 additional Cistercian abbeys. Not all were founded from scratch: many were converted to Cistercian from Benedictine. (Despite the reputation of the Rule of St. Benedict for austerity, the Cistercians gained a reputation for being more disciplined.)

Bernard was a great motivator and inspiration for the growth of the Cistercian Order, and involved in many other important events, some of which you can read about here.

"Behind every successful man there's a woman." We can account for his religious dedication by looking at his upbringing, and especially the influence of his mother. Tomorrow we'll talk about Alèthe de Montbard, mother of a saint who became a saint herself.

The Road to the Cistercians

After Robert of Molesme returned to Molesme monastery to restore strict adherence to the Benedictine Rule, Alberic of Cîteaux was elected abbot of the abbey at Cîteaux. Alberic was a planner, and considered the physical needs of the abbey.

He first moved it a mile north to be near a better source of water. He then made what some might think a more radical change. Benedictines wore black garments. Alberic abandoned black for undyed wool, giving the monks a much lighter look. For this reason they are sometimes called the White Monks.

He also made agreements with temporal forces. He managed to get a donation of a vineyard from Duke Odo I of Burgundy, as well as materials for building a church. (The illustration is of the current abbey.) Alberic is given credit for getting their new order recognized by Pope Paschal II.

Alberic died on 26 January 1109, and the English monk Stephen Harding (c.1060 - 28 March 1134), one of Robert's original followers, became abbot. Prior to joining Molesme, Stephen had experienced life with both the Camaldolese and Vallombrosians. Stephen knew that it was important to codify the practices of this new order, and he wrote the Carta Caritatis (Charter of Charity), the Cistercian constitution that outlined a life of work, prayer, and austerity.

Stephen gained more land for the abbey, only accepting donations of undeveloped land that the monks would then cultivate. At Cîteaux they followed the strict observance of the Rule of Benedict in regard to the Divine Office, which meant praying every few hours throughout the day and night. Because of the wakefulness demands of the Divine Office, they took on lay brothers for help in working the land to support the abbey.

In 1113, Cîteaux was joined by a charismatic young man in his 20s named Bernard, and the Cistercian Order really started to grow. We'll see his influence tomorrow.

Who Were the Cistercians?

In 1098, some Benedictine monks from the monastery of Molesme in France (Duchy of Burgundy) founded a new abbey at Cîteaux. Molesme was only a quarter-century old, having been founded in 1075 by Robert of Molesme. Robert had been a prior at another abbey, then abbot at Saint-Michel in Tonnerre, but the lax attention to the Benedictine Rule bothered him.

Therefore, when a group of six hermits asked him to lead them in a new community, he founded Molesme. They built an extremely primitive abbey, but a visiting bishop saw their situation and provided them with food and clothing. Word spread of this holy situation, but their membership grew too quickly with too many people who did not want the level of austerity and manual labor Molesme demanded.

Disillusioned with this new abbey, in 1098 Robert of Molesme, an English monk named Stephen Harding, and only the most rigorous members of Molesme followed Robert to Cîteaux where they founded a new Benedictine abbey. They were determined to live in austerity and to support themselves with manual labor, largely agricultural.

Cîteaux will be the birthplace of the Cistercian Order, but I don't wish to neglect Molesme. The monks there realized what they had caused by their laziness, and wished to return to the rigor they had under the inspirational and disciplined Robert of Molesme. They appealed to Pope Urban II to convince Robert to return to Molesme and lead them. In 1099 he returned to Molesme, leading them until his death in 1111.

Meanwhile, at Cîteaux, one of the original hermits that asked Robert to lead them, Alberic of Cîteaux, became abbot. He had been Robert's prior at Molesme and Cîteaux, and was very strict about the Benedictine Rule. It was Alberic who would get the Cistercian Order officially recognized by the pope. For that next step, however, you will have to wait until tomorrow.

Medieval Dyes, Part 2

 

Part 1 covered blue, black, red, yellow, and green. Let's look at some others.

Gray was a humble color, and could be had by using leftover dye from making black. Cistercians and the Friars Minor of the Franciscans wore gray habits.

Pink was easy to make, since madder root used for red or brazilwood could be used in a lesser strength or by soaking the cloth for a shorter duration. Medieval illustrations often show ladies wearing pink dresses, which makes one wonder if pink was considered a feminine color centuries ago. Men also could be painted in pink, but their hosiery, not upper/outer wear. (By the way, the name brazilwood comes from a Portuguese word, pau-brasil, a flowering plant in the Old World. When Portuguese sailors found a related species growing all over the coast of South America, they named the place Terra do Brasil, "land of brazilwood." That's right: the country was named for the plant, not the other way around!)

If you wanted to suggest purity or innocence, you went for white. This was not always a bright white, but linen looked white enough prior to dyeing that it qualified as white. You could also soak linen in lye made from wood ashes, and throw in some lime. Since clothes could get dirty, wearing white was a sign that you afford to not get "down in the dirt" as a farmer. In the 14th century poem Piers Plowman—in which we happened to find the earliest reference to a "Robin Hood"—of all the characters introduced, there are few descriptions of their appearance, except when white clothing is mentioned; it always indicates a person of purity or innocence.*

Brown or russet/orange came in many shades and can be produced by anyone with access to boiling water and walnut shells or bark.

And so we come to purple, the color of royalty; so much so, that the phrase "born to the purple" indicated royalty, and porphyrogenitus was used in Byzantium as a title. Expensive purple candles were reserved for Advent, the "coming of Christ the King." Dressing a king's favorite in purple, as Edward II did for Piers Gaveston, was a clear indication to all the court of the king's favor. A species of sea snail (Murex) was an ancient source of the color, but it took thousands to make 1 gram of purple dye. Its expense made it rare, and its rarity gave it value, and its value made it reserved to the wealthy and ultimately limited to emperors and the highest classes.

There has been lots of research into the history of dyes. Although I do not quote from it, the Innsbruck Manuscript of 1330 (translated here) has instructions on dying. Vassar has a bibliography on works on dyeing. And there are many websites devoted to medieval times that instruct on dyeing the old-fashioned way. For instance, the illustration above is found on one such site.

In the paragraph on gray, I looked for a link to explain the Cistercians, and discovered that I have mentioned them many, many times, but there's no "introduction" to them. Let me correct that next time.

*A little trivia about me: "Clothing Imagery in Piers Plowman" was one of the first papers I ever wrote in grad school in the Medieval Studies program at UConn-Storrs.

Medieval Dyes, Part 1

Yesterday's post about "blue" jeans from Genoa mentioned indigo, a color dye that had to come from plantations in India until other sources of blue were found. Western Europe found a substitute in woad.

Woad was a plant in the mustard family, and ancient burials in Germany and the UK have found evidence of woad being used thousands of years ago. It was not a consistent blue, however, and its result ranged from a grayish-blue to black. It also took several months to produce properly. Indigo was a more reliable blue, though expensive.

Madder root was used to make red, and gave its name to the color rose madder. A darker red could be unstained by repeated dying, or from an import from India called dragonsblood.

Green was a popular color for interior walls of a house apparently, but for clothing it had different connotations. It could be considered unlucky to wear because it symbolized the decay after death. Chaucer's Yeoman, however, wore green because of its rustic connotation. Bright green clothes were associated with the rich, just as emeralds were the most sought-after gemstone.

To produce yellow there was a plant native to Europe and Western Asia called by many names such as dyer's rocket or weld. When picked before the flowers became too mature, it produced a bright yellow that worked well on linen, silk, and wool.

Black was a difficult color to produce in fabric, but had strong symbolism that made it desirable for different classes. It required a mixture of madder, woad, and weld, and it needed lots of alum. "Alum" refers to a salt (potassium alum, or sodium alum, or ammonium alum), known to Pliny and earlier as an astringent substance helpful in dyeing (and medicine). Black was considered a "humble" color and used for clerical garb. The complexity which its manufacture required also made it desirable by the upper classes. Along with red and purple, black is most often listed as one of the colors restricted to the elite.

I'll share the sources of more colors tomorrow.

Genoese Blue Jeans

Mention "jeans" or "blue jeans" and someone will comment that they were patented in the 1870s by Levis Strauss and Jacob Davis after Davis put rivets on the pockets to make them strong enough to be worn by miners who wanted to stuff rocks in their pockets. They have become a universal symbol of modern Western culture. But why are they called "jeans"?

They were around before Davis stuck the rivets on the pockets, and there is a theory that the name comes from Gênes, the French word for Genoa. Could the fabric be named for a city? Why not? After all, denim certainly is derived from de Nîmes—"from Nîmes"—because the material comes from the twill fabric first made in Nîmes, France.

Genoa produced a fustian cloth referred to as being of "medium quality and of reasonable cost." "Fustian" was a Latin word (fustaneum) for this type of heavy cotton cloth; originally with a linen warp (the vertical threads held together in the loom) and a cotton weft (the threads passed back and forth by the shuttle). "Fustian" can be applied to corduroy, velvet, or moleskin. 

The Genoese navy used this material for trousers because it was durable and wore well even when wet, unlike wool. Denim was higher quality and used for overgarments.

Were they "blue" jeans? This jeans development was in the 14th century, and the blue would have had to come from indigo. The word "indigo" as a color is first used in 1289 (that we know of, in English), and the Genoese may have used it, but indigo could be expensive because it had to come from India (hence its name) until the late 19th century, and we don't know that they bothered to dye their jeans material blue.

I think we should talk more about medieval dyes next

Genoa Grows

After the sack of Genoa by the Fatimids, the city started to recover. One avenue for commercial growth was the Crusades, and the First Crusade gave Genoa opportunities to find goods in the East worth trading.

Genoa contributed a dozen ships and 1200 soldiers (a little over a tenth of it population) to the Crusade, setting out in July 1097. The Genoese provided naval support and supplies to the main army. Theirs were the ships that blockaded Antioch during the Siege of Antioch. In 1099, Genoese bowmen were important during the Siege of Jerusalem.

Joining the Crusade also brought them into more contact with the Eastern Roman Empire. The city made treaties for trading rights with the Byzantines, Tripoli (Libya), Antioch, Armenia, and Egypt.

This was challenged by the other strong naval port on the other side of the Italian peninsula: Venice. The role Venice played in the Fourth Crusade—frequently discussed in this blog, but see here for a start—saw Venice gain control over most of the maritime trade in the Eastern Mediterranean.

On the other hand, when Michael VIII Paleologos in Nicaea wanted to recapture Constantinople he turned to Genoa for help, since Venice was helping the current emperor. This was in 1261, and on 25 July they were successful. Genoa was granted free trade rights in the Nicene Empire, and it used the islands of Chios and Lesbos and the city of Smyrna as local headquarters. Genoa now surpassed Venice as the major trading power on the Mediterranean Sea.

...and then they invented blue jeans, but we'll save that story for tomorrow.

The Fatimids Sack Genoa

In the 10th century, Genoa was becoming an important port on the Ligurian Coast in far northwest Italy. Their ships were trading with much of the Western Mediterranean. This made them a target for competition, and additionally a target for the Fatimid Caliphate in 934CE. The Fatimid Caliphate had conquered Ifriqiya (Northern Africa), and wished to dominate the Mediterranean. (The illustration shows the extent of the Fatimids in the 10th century; the red star represents Genoa.)

Although there are no eyewitness accounts of the Fatimid navy attacking Genoa, it was a well-known event to both Christian and Muslim writers not long after. Bishop Liudprand of Cremona (c.920 - 972), writing in 960CE (samples of his chronicling were mentioned here and here), wrote about the Muslims first attacking the city of Acqui, not far from Genoa, and then says:

At the same time, in the Genoese city, which has been built in the Cottian Alps, overlooking the African sea, eighty miles distant from Pavia, a spring flowed most copiously with blood, clearly suggesting to all a coming calamity. Indeed, in the same year, the Phoenicians [North Africans] arrived there with a multitude of fleets, and while the citizens were unaware, they entered the city, killing all except women and children. Then, placing all the treasures of the city and the churches of God in their ships, they returned to Africa.

Liudprand mentions, among the treasures taken away from Genoa, linen and silk. This would have been too early for the West to be developing silk production, and so it suggests that Genoa was prosperous enough to be trading in such valuable materials with the East.

The first Arabic source is from even later, and names the caliph who ordered the attack. Other Arabic sources get very specific in details, although they don't always agree on things like the number of ships (20 or 30). As they approached, the Muslim ships encountered merchant ships, attacking and appropriating their goods and taking prisoners.

Genoa is described here as a well-fortified city, and although other cities would have been attacked, Genoa is the only one named. Unlike Liudprand's report, the Arabic source says the Genoese fought outside the city walls and then on the streets. The city was plundered and burned on 16 August 935. Because of the medieval tendency to exaggerate, we have to consider carefully whether we believe the report of 8000 prisoners taken, including 1000 women sold into slavery.

The fact that Genoese records don't exist in any large numbers before the second half of the 10th century gives further evidence that there was destruction prior to that. The author of the Golden Legend, Jacobus de Voragine, writing 300 years later, claims the attack was successful because the Genoese fleet was away at the time, but they pursued the Fatimid fleet and rescued the captives. (Not very likely, Jacob.)

Genoa slowly recovered, however, and we'll look at its rise to commercial powerhouse starting tomorrow.

Genoa the Superb

Actually, when Petrarch referred to Genoa as "la Superba" he meant "the proud one." Genoa, on the northwest coast of the Italian peninsula, was a powerhouse of commerce from the 11th century until the end of the 18th. It was one of the wealthiest cities in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and one of the largest naval powers in Europe.

The origin of the name is uncertain. The Latin genu/genua means "knee," which could refer to its placement in relation to the "boot" of Italy. Because it has mountains on one side and the sea on the other, some say it comes from Latin ianua, "door," because like the derivative that gives us Janus, the two-headed god of the Romans (and January), it faces two ways. Pliny the Elder called it oppidum Genua, "Genoa town."

It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, with evidence of occupation from at least the 4th millennium BCE. In the 1st century BCE it traded in honey, skins, and timber. Its alliance with Rome made it a target of the Carthaginians during the Punic wars, and Genoa was destroyed by Carthaginians during the Second Punic War in 209BCE. After the Punic Wars ended in 146BCE, Rome granted it Roman municipal rights.

It was occupied by the Ostrogoths after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476CE. After the Byzantine Empire under Justinian I defeated the Ostrogoths, Byzantium made Genoa the seat of its vicar in the West. For awhile, Genoa grew slowly, building ships and making commercial connections to the Western Mediterranean.

There was another power—not Ostrogoth, Roman, or Carthaginian—that was making a name for itself in the 10th century, and that was the Fatimid Caliphate. Operating out of North Africa, they wanted to control trade (and destroy infidels). Tomorrow we will see what they did to Genoa.

Valencia Later

After all the political turmoil, Valencia was possessed by James I of Aragon. He forced tens of thousands of Muslims to leave. There were Jews in Valencia, and in 1239 they were given their own quarter in which to live, with a cemetery for Jews on the outskirts. In 1390, this quarter had a high wall erected around its perimeter, with the cemetery still outside. The wall had three gates which were closed each night.

The wall, designed to help Christians feel "safe" from Jewish presence, did not prevent a pogrom in 1391. A parade of Christian youths marched to the Jewish quarter, claiming that Jews should be baptized or die. Thousands of Jews were murdered by the crowd; some converted; the Jewish quarter was destroyed.

Of course, no matter how wealthy or poor, free or conquered, Christian or Muslim or Jewish a European or Mediterranean country could be, sooner or later in the Middle Ages the Bubonic Plague came along. Plague came to the Iberian Peninsula in the spring of 1348, reducing the population of Spain (it is estimated) from 6,000,000 to under 2,500,000.

The Plague returned in waves. It was back again in March 1395; on 6 July the city council of Valencia met to determine how to combat the problem. Charitable donations were suggested to please God (whose anger was the ultimate source of their distress), and a procession to the chapel of Our Lady of Mercy was organized to ask for divine mercy. Funds were authorized for the removal of dead animals that had been thrown into the streets.

Something entirely different was also happening in Valencia that decade. Genoese traders realized that the Valencian climate was good for the growing of white mulberry, a fast-growing tree native to China and India. The important thing about white mulberry is that its leaves are the preferred food of a moth whose scientific name is Bombyx mori, and whose importance is their larvae, which we know as silkworms.

Silk as highly prized, and production had been controlled and kept secret for centuries by China. Once Mediterranean cultures discovered the secret, they worked hard to free themselves from dependence on the Far East. For a time, thanks to the Genoese merchants in Valencia, the area was a major center of silk production. Valencia became an economic powerhouse and entered into a Golden Age of expansion and building.

Unfortunately, a civil war in the 1520s created many internal problems. The city's prominence continued to slide until in the early 18th century the War of Spanish Succession marked the end of its independence.

Now, about the Genoese merchants who started silk production in Valencia. They traded in more than silk. I'll tell you more about them tomorrow, and the medieval slave trade.

Valencia Changing Hands

The takeover of the Taifa (Kingdom) of Valencia by the Almoravids lasted for a couple generations, and then there was swiftly shifting chaos.

In the 1140s, the Almoravid dynasty was losing respect and control, so the surrounding areas started forming their own independent small states again. One problem with the Almoravids was difficulty paying their Andalusian military. In March 1145, a local qadi ("judge"), Marwan ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz, tried to manage the increasing mistrust, but the soldiers would not change their attitude about the political leadership and pressured Marwan to take control of the city.

Marwan still did not have the resources to pay the soldiers, so they replaced him with one of their own leaders, Ibn 'Iyad. Months later, in January 1146, Ibn 'Iyad called for a son of the ruler of Zaragoza to come and take control of Valencia. This was Sayf al-Dawla ibn Hud, who took the title of Caliph but was killed within days during a battle with Christians. Ibn 'Iyad then asked Muhammad ibn Sa'd ibn Mardanish to take over. Ibn 'Iyad was killed in battle in August 1147.

Christians weren't the only problem for Mardanish. The Almohads were replacing the Almoravids and becoming the dominant force in northwestern Africa, and were crossing the Strait of Gibraltar to Iberia. Mardanish allied himself with Castile to defend against the Almohads, but he died in 1172 and the Almohads had no trouble conquering the Kingdom of Valencia.

The Almohads in Valencia also lasted just a couple generations, weakening so much that the last Almohad ruler, Zayd Abu Zayd, in 1226 agreed to pay tribute to James I of Aragon to avoid war. Abu Zayd's people resented this and rebelled a couple years later. Zayd Abu Zayd and the Almohads abandoned Valencia and a descendant of Mardanish, Zayyan ibn Mardanish, was put in charge.* It was Mardanish who failed to keep Valencia when James I reconquered it after a months-long siege, told about here.

The story of Valencia does not end there. Let's look tomorrow at the later Middle Ages, the Black Death, and that Valencia had a good climate for growing white mulberry.

* Zayd Abu Zayd stayed friendly with James I and even converted to Christianity in 1236, changing his name to Vicent Bellvis. He married a "local girl," Isabella Roldán, and was gifted some localities to rule in Spain.

El Cid and the Almoravids

After the Almoravids were invited to help control Valencia by a usurping judge and were ultimately driven from the city by El Cid—Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (c. 1043 – 10 July 1099)—they continued to consider Valencia a goal. There were two different attempts in 1097 to defeat El Cid and take the taifa (Kingdom) of Valencia. The first attempt came to naught. In the second, the ruler of the Almoravids decided to take matters into his own hands.

Yusuf ibn Tashfin was an Almoravid ruler of Maghreb and the co-founder of Marrakesh. He had, a few years earlier, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar at the request of various Muslim groups in the Iberian Peninsula to help them fight against Christians. In 1090 he deposed the king of Granada, defeated Córdova, and drove the ruler of Seville into exile. Now, in 1097, he set out from Córdova on a mission of conquest. El Cid sent troops to counter him, but did not go himself. Although Tashfin did not capture any fortresses that were part of the Taifa of Valencia, he caused great damage to the land, and El Cid's son Diego was killed in one of the battles.

That same year, Tashfin's son, Muhammad ibn 'A'isha, succeeded in defending against El Cid's military at the city of Alcira. Tashfin was sufficiently confident of their dominance that he went back to Marrakesh, only to return two years later to continue assaults on the eastern provinces. That was in 1099, the same year El Cid died. El Cid's widow, Jimena Diaz, continued ruling Valencia, but in late 1100 an Almoravid force besieged Valencia against. After seven months, afraid of starvation, Jimena ordered the mosque to be set on fire (although her husband had converted it to a church), and fled.

Yusuf ibn Tashfin's Almoravid forces now took control of Valencia, as well as southern Iberia and Western Africa. This empire didn't last, however: in a couple generations it would break up due to civil war. What happened to Valencia then? We'll see tomorrow.

Valēntia

In 138 BCE, Rome founded a colony on the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The name means "strength" or "valor," and according to Livy was given due to the valor of soldiers who had fought against a Lusitania rebel. After Rome fell, the city became part of the Visigothic Empire. Moorish invasions caused it to change hands in 714. Abd al-Rahman I (731 - 788) ravaged the city, after which it is referred to as Balânsia or Balansiyya, and also called Medina at-Tarab ("City of Joy"). It was controlled by the Caliphate of Cordova, until a civil war that broke up the caliphate and created the opportunity for Valencia to become its own kingdom, called the Taifa of Valencia.

In the last decade of the 11th century, a Castilian noble named Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar—but better known today as "El Cid" (c.1043 - 10 July 1099)—was in change of the garrison. While he was temporarily away, a coup d'état took place by a local judge. The judge called for help from the Almoravids, who not only forced out the rest of the Castilian garrison but also killed Valencia's ruler.

When he learned of this, El Cid returned with a combined Christian-Muslim army much larger than the Almoravids, setting up a siege and denying the city any food. The judge agreed to end the siege, and the Almoravids were escorted out of the city. This was in 1092. Negotiations with the judge continued. Another Almoravid force approached the city in 1093, but declined to fight El Cid and turned away.

With the city starving in April 1094, the judge surrendered. El Cid re-entered Valencia on 15 June, taking control as king. The Almoravids later that year returned, starting their own siege. El Cid took a two-pronged approach, sending a force out of the main gates to directly attack, then himself leading a smaller force from a different gate to attack their base camp. Realizing that the judge's existence might be motivation for another attempt to attack the city, El Cid executed the judge by a public burning. (see illustration)

El Cid set about shoring up defenses with a chain of fortresses, and none too soon. An Almoravid army of 30,000 besieged one of these fortresses in 1096. El Cid managed to break up the siege, but the enemy set a trap, ambushing he Christians in a narrow valley. El Cid managed to escape the trap, however.

Hostility between the Almoravids and El Cid continued for the rest of his life, as I'll describe tomorrow.

The (Re)Conquest of Valencia

James I of Aragon worked tirelessly to expand his control over regions of the Iberian Peninsula (and north into Languedoc). Stories from two knights (one a Hospitaller) of the riches in the Muslim-held coastal city of Valencia (Arabic Balânsia) got him thinking about adding it to his possessions. His plans for Valencia started out gradually, first going after places around it.

James started in 1233 by capturing the town of Burriana, 40 miles north of Valencia along the coast. He spent the next three years expanding from Burriana until, in 1236/7, James' uncle Bernat Guillem de Montpeller captured the town of El Puig, just 15 miles away from Valencia. Legend says that James rode up the highest hill in El Puig and saw Valencia in the distance. Supposedly, his horse reared up and brought its feet down so hard that one of its horseshoes became embedded in the hill and water sprang out of the ground. Another legend says that James had a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and that granted him the ability to take Valencia from the Muslims.

James' forces reached a suburb of Valencia on 22 April 1238, establishing a command post. Because Pope Gregory IX had authorized a Crusade, James was joined by soldiers from Catalonia, England, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and Provence.

Valencia's current ruler, the Tunisian Zayyan ibn Mardanish, called for help from other Muslim allies. Only Tunisia sent help in the form of 12 ships, but they arrived too late. The siege of Valencia made food scarce, and negotiations for handing the city over to James began. On 22 September, the agreement was signed, allowing Muslims in Valencia to either leave and go far south or stay and submit to Christian rule. An estimated 50,000 Muslims left, replaced by about 30,000 Catalan settlers, who were still outnumbered by Muslims.

James officially entered the city as its ruler on 9 October (shown in the illustration above by a 19th-century artist), a day that is still celebrated as the Dia de la Comunitat Valenciana, the "Day of the (Autonomous) Community of Valencia."

The mosque was consecrated as a Christian Church. The Virgin Mary became the patron saint of Valencia due to James' vision. For the next several years, James continued to conquer more lands, advancing farther south.

What was it like from the other side of history? What about Valencia and Zayyan ibn Mardanish, seeing a half-millennium occupation of the city being threatened? Let's look at the changing history of Valencia, starting tomorrow.

James I of Aragon, Conqueridor

King James I of Aragon (2 February 1208 - 27 July 1276) was also called Jaume el Conqueridor, the "Conqueror," because he expanded Aragon's influence to Valencia in the south, Languedoc to the north, and the Balearic Islands (in the western Mediterranean).

He took over the Balearic Islands at the end of 1229 with 155 ships after a three-month siege, the capital of Palma first, followed by Mallorca and Menorca and Ibiza over the next few years.

He used the islands for barter later. The Catalan County of Urgell had been inherited by Aurembiax, only child of Ermengol VIII. Because Aurembiax was a woman, an uncle of hers (and vassal to James), Guerau de Cabrera, claimed she was unable to rule due to her sex and usurped control. Aurembiax's mother, Elvira of Subirats, had been a ward/protege of James' father, and James felt he owed her his support. Rather than fight, he bought Guerau off and restored Aurembiax to her land. (It is also thought by some that part of his deal was that she would become his mistress.) She married Peter of Portugal. In 1231, after her death, James gave Peter control of the Balearics in exchange for James controlling Urgell.

France to the north was very powerful, and James hoped to control the Pyrenees, the mountains separating France from the Iberian Peninsula. The geography of the area made this difficult, especially since the mountainous region created different areas with different cultures and politics. The Pyrenees were home to peoples who could consider themselves part of Andorra, Aragon, Ariège, Basque Country, Béarn, Catalonia, Navarre, or Roussillon. Languages included Aragonese, Spanish, French, Basque, Catalan, and Gascon and Languedoc dialects of the Occitan language. (The Visigoths centuries earlier had tried and failed to control the Pyrenees.)

Although his control of the Languedoc in southeastern France must have annoyed French kings, he managed to get Louis IX of France to renounce historical French claims to Barcelona on the Iberian Peninsula.

Part of his efforts to expand his rule meant forcing Muslims out of long-held territories. Valencia had been under Islamic rule for 500 years, but that did not deter James. Tomorrow we'll go over the Conquest of Valencia in 1238.

Teresa Gil de Vidaure

After James I of Aragon's first wife was annulled and second wife died, it seems he did not seek a third marriage. He had been, however, in a long-term relationship with someone else already.

Teresa Gil de Vidaure was the daughter of a Navarre nobleman and considered to be very beautiful. He promised to marry her after the annulment of his first wife, but instead he married Violant of Hungary in 1355. Teresa married Sancho Pérez de Lodosa. Despite these two marriages, the king and Teresa continued their relationship.

Violant died in 1251, by which time Sancho Pérez de Lodosa had died. Rather than try to legitimize a relationship, James ignored the policies of the Roman Catholic Church and treated their relationship as a common law marriage. He gave her gifts: a castle in Valencia called Jérica (an early map of the town is shown here), to go to her descendants upon her death (they had a son, James, who was given Jérica in 1276), and some villages.

Was she his wife? The contracts granting these possessions to her use legal language used for concubinage contracts, but James told Pope Clement IV in 1265 that the two were married and he wanted an annulment because Teresa (he claimed) had leprosy. The truth is that James' eyes were wandering and he started another relationship with his cousin, Berenguela Alfonso. Pope Clement was appalled, especially since this was improper even if it were not incestuous, and refused the annulment.

After Clement's death in 1268, the bishop of Valencia gave James his wish, annulling the "marriage"; Pope Gregory X, however, when he came to the papacy, affirmed Clement's decision. James tried for an annulment again in 1275, claiming that he had sexual relations with Teresa's cousin before the marriage, but Gregory was not moved.

Whether he were officially linked in a relationship to Teresa, he chose not to have her by his side. She was sent to a Cistercian monastery for the rest of her life and buried there when she died on 15 July 1285.

Tomorrow we will conclude the life of James I of Aragon, and then decide where to go after that.

The Marriages of James I

The first marriage of James I of Aragon was to Eleanor of Castile. She was the daughter of King Alfonso VIII of Castile and Eleanor of England, who was a daughter of Henry II of England. The marriage was annulled in 1229 after only eight years of marriage and a single son, Alfonso. The reason was consanguinity. Their agreement was that Eleanor would not wed again.

Eleanor retired to the Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas where her sisters Berengaria and Constance were living. She died in 1244, aged 44. Her son, Alfonso, was married to Constance of Béarn on 23 March 1260, but he died three days later, leaving Constance to wed two more times.

In 1235, after seeking advice from Pope Gregory IX, James wed Violant of Hungary (c.1215 - 1251), who was a valuable advisor to her husband until her death. She would even ride out on horseback with him and the army, and would speak encouragingly to the soldiers. She and James had ten children, including a later queen of Castile, a king of Aragon, a queen of France (she married Philip III), and an archbishop of Toledo.

When she died, her body went to the Monastery of Santa Maria de Vallbona in Spain, where she was a benefactor, in 1275 (seen in the illustration). Her memory is still honored in street names and a celebration on 9 October in Valencia, the date she and James entered Valencia.

James was not interested in pursuing another marriage, but he did not become celibate. Instead, he essentially took a concubine, Teresa Gil de Vidaure. In fact, he had been carrying on an affair with her for a long time, even during his marriage to Violant. We will go into that story tomorrow!

James the Pawn

James I of Aragon (2 February 1208 – 27 July 1276) was used by his father as a political tool. He was the only child of Peter II of Aragon (shown here in the only contemporary image of him), and therefore was Peter's only opportunity to make a political alliance with someone through marrying off a child.

In the case of James, the marriage was supposed to be with Amicie de Montfort, the daughter of Simon IV de Montfort, the 5th Earl of Leicester. This was not a simple alliance, though. Simon was leading the Albigensian Crusade in an attempt to exterminate Catharism. Peter, on the other hand, was supporting the Cathars, who believed in leading a "pure" life, rejecting materialism. Unfortunately for the Catholic Church, they also rejected the idea of the Trinity.

Peter hoped that making a marriage between his son and Simon's daughter could give Peter an edge to hold off Simon's crusade. It should be noted that both children were less than two years old at the time of the discussions. Peter even sent James to Montfort's care in 1211, to be raised in his household.

Simon and the Albigensian Crusade did not falter, however, and the two sides met in battle. On 12 September 1213, Peter and Simon's forces met in the Battle of Muret, in which Simon's smaller force defeated the much larger alliance of Peter II and Raymond IV of Toulouse. Peter II was killed in this battle.

Simon now had the next king of Aragon—who was only a few years old—in his possession. He could have turned this into a huge political advantage and managed to possess Aragon, or at least force himself onto the country as Regent for James. The Aragonese, however, would not have it. They appealed to Pope Innocent III, who demanded that Simon relinquish custody of James, which he did in 1214 to the papal legate Peter of Benevento.

The six-year-old James was handed over to the head of the Knights Templar in Aragon, one Guillem de Montredó. Aragon was being managed by James' great-uncle Sancho and cousin Nuño, respectively Counts of Provence and Cerdanya. They were not doing a good job, supposedly, and in 1217 the Templars brought James back to the capital and enlisted the aid of loyal nobles to help him rule.

In 1221, at the age of 14, he was married to the 19-year-old Eleanor of Castile, the daughter of Alfonso VIII of Castile (mentioned here and here). The next half-dozen years were tumultuous for him. We'll take a look at his troubles next time.

Jews in Aragon

The subject of Jews and their treatment in the Iberian Peninsula has cropped up several times in this blog, regarding individuals like Isaac Abrabanel, or how Portugal was a safe place until Ferdinand and Isabella's Alhambra Decree of 1492. Jews in several European countries were protected by the rulers because of their learning, their hard-working natures, and their ability to generate large amounts of wealth from which a ruler could borrow or which a ruler could unfairly tax.

Aragon was no exception. James I of Aragon (1208 - 1276) issued a decree:

All Jews and Saracens dwelling in our domains belong to the king and are, with all their possessions, under the king's especial protection. Any one of them who shall place himself under the protection of a nobleman shall lose his head; and all his possessions, wherever they be, shall be forfeited to the king.

This ensured that no non-Christian would place themselves in a feudal relationship with anyone else. It also meant that no Jew or Saracen could be made a prisoner of anyone but the king. Jews and Muslims had complete freedom of movement in the kingdom of Aragon; no one should harm the king's "property."

This did not give them complete social equality, of course. Jews lived in special areas of the cities unless they had the king's permission. They could not move to another city without permission. Trade with Christians needed special permission. Without the king's permission (yes, that word is being used a lot), they could not build a synagogue, create a cemetery or a school, or even buy wheat to make their bread.

James also tried to determine the rightness of Christianity by arranging the Disputation of Barcelona, pitting a converted Jew, the Dominican Friar Pablo Christiani, against the leading Jewish scholar Moshe ben Nachman, called Nachmanides. The debate was chiefly on the question "Was Jesus the Messiah?" (Christianity was declared the winner, but James gave Nachmanides 300 gold coins for his performance.)

James valued Jews for their knowledge and work ethic. A confident and close member of James' administration was his head bailiff and royal treasurer, Jehudano de Cavallería (1227 - 1286). James also had two Jews as his personal physicians, Masters David and Solomon, and the Jew Master Samson was physician to his queen.

Pope Clement IV tried to stop this tolerance of the Jews, but James was immune. His son, Pedro III, eventually relented and went so far as to agree to prohibit Jews from the position of bailiff. Jews had been too generous in their financial support of Aragonese wars and its navy to treat them too harshly; in fact, they were forgiven taxes for several years because of their donations to ship-building needs.

James I has been mentioned before, but there was more to his reign than arranging the Disputation of Barcelona. I'll tell you more about him (and maybe about his three wives) next time.

Medieval Cataracts and Couching

A cataract is a medical condition where the lens of the eye becomes increasingly cloudy, leading to blindness. You would think that the Middle Ages had no way to treat this condition, but you'd be wrong. There was a method used that was actually developed thousands of years ago and described in medical texts. It was called "couching."

Couching is described in Greek and Sanskrit documents. It involves pushing the cloudy lens away from the pupil and into the interior of the eyeball, allowing more light to enter. This was done by inserting a thin sharp needle into the eye through the pupil and, well, simply pushing the lens until it is no longer blocking the light. This was done, of course, without access to anesthetics.

The result was more light, but the light was no longer being focused. The client's world was blurry—assuming the client was not rendered completely blind by damage to the eyes or killed by infection.

Roman artifacts found in the British Isles suggest that the technique was introduced there during the Roman occupation, and perhaps survived throughout the early Middle Ages, although we know of no cases prior to the 1560s.

Physicians and surgeons elsewhere knew of it. John II of Aragon went blind from cataracts by the time he was 70. A physician in his employ, a Jew named Abiathar Crescas, performed couching in September 1468 and restored his sight—or what there was available considering the lack of a functioning lens. John lived until the age of 80.

John's son, Ferdinand, would later, along with his wife, Isabella of Castile, expel all Jews from Spain. This was a major change in policy, since Jews had been prominent in the Court of Aragon. Tomorrow we'll look at the relationship between Aragon and Jews.

The End of John II of Aragon

John II of Aragon lived to the age of 80. He had been married twice, had a few children (one whom he treated poorly, a few who had better careers), including a few illegitimate ones who did all right for themselves (one became a Duke of Villahermosa, one became the Archbishop of Zaragoza).

He caused the Navarrese Civil War (1451-1455) because he refused to allow his son Charles, Prince of Viana, to inherit Navarre. That war could be said to have stretched out with periods of civil unrest until 1461, when Charles died, possibly poisoned by John's second wife.

Because of John's mistreatment of Charles and the Navarre succession, he also had to deal with a Catalan Civil War, also called quite specifically the "War Against John II." Some in the Principality of Catalonia wished to support Charles' rightful claim to Navarre, some were willing to back John's actions. 

After a lot of back-and-forth (the French weighed in on John's side as well), including Catalans bringing in pretenders to the throne to try to push John out, and lawyers enumerating the violations of the constitution of which John was guilty, it all ended when Charles died in 1461. Navarre went to John's daughter Eleanor  for about two weeks in 1479 and then passed to Francis Phoebus, another Prince of Viana.

At the end of John's life he suffered from cataracts and was blind by the age of 70. Fortunately for him, he had a surgeon who restored his eyesight through surgery. That surgeon was a Jew named Abiathar Crescas, who was also a leader among Jews of Aragon. When John died, Abiathar preached a memorial sermon at the funeral service.

Tomorrow we'll look into the medieval surgical technique for cataract removal.

John II of Aragon

The father of Ferdinand II of Aragon was John II of Aragon (1398 - 1479, pictured here). He had other titles as well, including King of Sicily and King of Navarre, which he gained from marrying Blanche I of Navarre, daughter of King Charles II of Navarre.

Their eldest son was Charles, who was made Prince of Viana by his maternal grandfather. He was also named the successor to Navarre after his grandfather and mother, a decision by them which angered John.

When Blanche died in 1441, John refused to allow Charles to rule, retaining control of Navarre, even though Charles was referred to as king by the people of Navarre.

John decided that, instead of naming Charles as the successor to his own possessions of Sicily and Aragon (as well as Navarre), John would seek another heir. He therefore married Juana Enriquez in 1447. She bore him two children, Ferdinand and Joanna. Charles saw this (correctly) as an attempt to disinherit him from Aragon. John named Ferdinand his successor when Ferdinand was nine years old.

In 1451, Charles rebelled against his father's possession of Navarre and the Navarrese Civil War began, a period of unrest and fighting until Charles was captured in 1452, the same year Ferdinand was born. Charles was released if he promised not to seek the throne of Navarre until after John's death.

All this actually took place while John was still a prince; the current king in Aragon while John was growing up was Alfonso V. Alfonso died in 1458, and Prince John became King John II of Aragon, offering Charles Naples and Sicily. Charles declined, and returned to Navarre in 1459, with a plan to marry Isabella of Castile. That fell through (she later married Ferdinand, of course). Charles died in Barcelona in 1461; the suspicion was poison, administered by his stepmother Juana.

John had several more years in him, however, and we'll wrap him up in a few paragraphs next time.

Aragon and Castile

Although Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile were married, their two kingdoms did not become one. Sure, they worked in concert and agreed on many policies, but when Isabella died on 26 November 1504, her will did not leave Castile to her husband. Instead, it went (in proper succession, one would say), to their daughter Joanna, later called "the Mad."

Ferdinand and Isabella had son born before Joanna, John, but he had died a few years earlier. Joanna was next in line, although Isabella was concerned that despite her extensive education she might not be suited to the task, nor would her husband, Philip the Handsome, Duke of Burgundy and Archduke of the Netherlands. (The illustration is their marriage contract.) Philip was happy to become King of Castile, but his father-in-law took issue with that.

Ferdinand had been named in Isabella's will as potential regent for Castile if ever Joanna were absent from the country or unable to rule, or if she decided she did not want to be queen. Ferdinand, however, wanted more. He minted coins in Castile imprinted with "Ferdinand and Joanna, King and Queen of Castile, León and Aragon." In 1505 he convinced the Castilian Court that Joanna was unable to govern due to infirmities, and they named Ferdinand her guardian and the governor of the kingdom. Joanna's husband took umbrage at this, and so he minted coins imprinted with "Philip and Joanna, King and Queen of Castile, Léon and Archdukes of Austria."

Philip agreed that Ferdinand would be regent of Castile during the times when Philip and his queen traveled to Philip's Netherlands.

Ferdinand, concerned that without another heir he might see Aragon go to Joanna and Philip,  decided he needed a second wife who might produce an heir who could inherit both kingdoms. He married the 17-year-old Ursula Germaine of Foix by proxy on 19 October 1505. Ferdinand was 53. They did not meet until 18 March 1506, where (we are told) the marriage was consummated.

This made France and Aragon closer politically, but Castile saw Ferdinand's re-marriage as a betrayal of the beloved Isabella.

Philip died on 25 September 1506, and Ferdinand was named regent, since Joanna was deemed unfit to rule.

Germaine bore a son on 3 May 1509, but he died shortly after.

Ferdinand died on 23 January 1516, leaving Syracuse, Sicily, several towns in Catalonia, and a town in Naples to his widow, and leaving her in the care of his grandson by Joanna and Philip, Archduke Charles of the Netherlands. Charles moved to Castile in 1517, and Germaine moved to Castile from Aragon to be near him. Germaine went with Charles in 1519 to Aragon where he was crowned as Ferdinand's successor.

In the original post on Ferdinand I mentioned that there was some controversy over his father naming him the heir when Ferdinand was only nine years old. Let's get back to that story (and an earlier time; stretching into 16th-century affairs seems strange to me, given the name of this blog), and see what that was about.

Ferdinand II of Aragon

Ferdinand II of Aragon had many more titles. Throughout his 63 years (10 March 1452 - 23 January 1516) he was not only king of Aragon, Majorca, Sardinia, Valencia, and Count of Barcelona, he also gained the titles King of Castile and León (as Ferdinand V), King of Sicily, King of Naples (as Ferdinand III), and King of Navarre (as Ferdinand I)!

He was the son of John II of Aragon and his second wife, Juana Enríquez, who was Castilian. When Ferdinand was nine years old, his father named him his heir apparent and governor of all John's lands and kingdoms. (This was despite an older son Charles, but that's another story.)

In October 1469 he married his second cousin, Isabella I of Castile, with a prenuptial agreement, (allegedly) the motto tanto monta, monta tanto, translated as "They amount to the same, the same they amount to." The point was that they treated each other as equals. The truth is that this was a purely political arrangement. Aragon longed to reconnect to Castile, and Isabella needed strong support to gain the throne of Castile when its ruler, her half-brother Henry IV of Castile (called "the Impotent") eventually died (which he did in 1474).

They did have several children, however, including Catalina, born in 1485 and later known as Catherine of Aragon, first wife of King Henry VIII of England. Other of their children became Queens of Portugal, Prince of Asturia, Archbishop of Zaragoza, and Queen of Castile and Aragon.

Ferdinand's father died in 1479, and Castile and Aragon were now united in some measure (the legal merging of the two into "Spain" took place in the early 18th century). The couple set about starting to Christianize the parts of the Iberian Peninsula over which they had any influence. The goal was to eliminate Muslims and Jews, leading to what was called the Reconquista. The conversion of Jews and Muslims in this part of the world has been recently discussed.

The final step in making their territory solely Christian was The Alhambra Decree in 1492, ordering all Jews to depart, convert, or be executed.

When Isabella died, Ferdinand lost all influence on Castile, because it passed into other hands. I'll explain that tomorrow.

The Moriscos of Spain

Twelfth-century Castilian texts see the word morisco as an adjective for Moorish people, and used it to refer to Muslims in general. Medieval Castilians used it to mean a Muslim or an Arabic speaker when talking about a Muslim convert to Christianity, as opposed to a Jewish convert. This was more convenient than the other way we see them described: nuevos christianos convertidos de moros, "new Christians, converted from Moors."

(In early—and perhaps still—Spanish-speakers such as the slavery-era southeastern United States, Morisco was a pejorative term used for the offspring of a Spaniard and a mulatto, the offspring of a Spaniard and a person with at least some African ancestry.)

1492 was a turning point for the Iberian Peninsula. It was the year Ferdinand and Isabella expelled all Jews from their kingdoms. It was also the year that the last Muslim kingdom on the peninsula, the Emirate of Granada, surrendered and was annexed to Castile. Although the Treaty of Granada allowed them to remain Muslim, efforts to convert the Muslim population to Christianity led to rebellions. The rebellions, in turn, led to suppression and the usual choice: accept conversion, leave the country, or be killed. Departure from the country was not economically feasible for many, and the former population of Granada essentially became Christian en masse in 1502. (The illustration is from the 1520s, showing conversion of Muslims in Granada.)

As we saw in yesterday's post, conversion to Christianity did not mean cultural parity with those born Christian. The Moriscos maintained the same clothing, cuisine, and culture, and of course secretly practiced their original Faith. This lasted for a couple generations, until in 1567 the Pragmatica of King Philip II of Spain ordered them to abandon their clothing and customs and language. This led to revolts, which led to expelling all Moriscos from Granada, forcing 80,000-90,000 people to spread out to other towns across Castile.

Granada had been the largest Muslim population on the peninsula. With their mass conversion, the new largest Muslim population was that of the Kingdom of Valencia, part of Aragon (Ferdinand II's domain). Valencia allowed Muslims to practice their religion and follow their own legal system. Unfortunately, a 1520s Revolt of the Brotherhoods that originally had nothing to do with religion affected them and took on an anti-Islam facet, with killings and forced conversions to follow.

One of the rulers heavily involved in forcing the Iberian Peninsula to become wholly Christian was Ferdinand II of Aragon. It is usually his queen, Isabella, who gets all the attention, but we should give him his due and take a look at his career. We'll start that tomorrow.

Conversos and Marranos

The Spanish Inquisition had more concerns about converts than the regular Roman Inquisition, because the Iberian Peninsula had a larger percentage of Jews and Muslims. When members of those groups converted, there was concern that they simply converted publicly to avoid oppression but secretly practiced their faiths. There were special terms for these converts. Conversos were Jews who converted to Christianity. Moriscos ("Moorish") were converted Muslims.

Suspicion of conversos remaining true to Judaism could simply be because the conversions were motivated by fear, not a willingness to change. The Archdeacon of Écija, Ferrand Martinez, started preaching loudly against Jews in 1378, advocating violence against them. In June 1391, his efforts led to the destruction of several synagogues in Seville and mass murders of Jews, causing many Jews to flee the country or convert to save their lives.

Even if there were no evidence of secretly practicing your previous faith, converts were not automatically accepted into Christian society, especially since they were forced to convert by fear. Conversos were distrusted by their new Christian community and reviled by their former Jewish community. Long before Martinez, a new term for conversos entered common parlance: tornadizo, "renegade."

Rulers such as James I of Aragon, Alfonso X of Castile, and John I of Castile tried to protect the converted, and forbade the use of the pejorative tornadizo. Although the rulers wanted all citizens protected, there were restrictions placed on conversos: they could not associate with Jews (lest they backslide), there were some offices they were not allowed to hold, and it was illegal to try to convert them back to Judaism.

Another term used in Spain and Portugal for converted Jews who continued to follow Judaism is Marranos. It is an insult, meaning "pig," and became a common word after the Alhambra Decree. Our modern term for these conversos is "Crypto-Jews." (The illustration is an 1893 painting by Moshe Maimon called "Marranos: A secret Passover Seder in Spain during the times of Inquisition.")

Tomorrow we will look at the plight of the morisco in Spain and Portugal.

The Spanish Inquisition

While the Roman Catholic Church established the Inquisition in the 12th century to root out heresy, etc., some countries felt the need to create their own versions. In 1478, Isabella I of Castile and her husband, Ferdinand II of Aragon, created their own that would not be controlled by the popes: the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition. We know it as the Spanish Inquisition.

Spain had a slightly different situation than much of Western Europe, because historically it had a large Muslim and Jewish population. Ferdinand and Isabella would eventually release the Alhambra Decree in 1492 (yes, the same year Isabella financed Columbus' travels), requiring all non-Christians to convert or leave the country on pain of death. There were two terms for these converts. Conversos were Jews who converted to Christianity. Moriscos, from the word for "Moorish," were converted Muslims.

Prior to 1492, however, there was still a desire to ensure that converts from Judaism and Islam to Christianity were sincere, but after 1492 the job of the Spanish Inquisition became more widespread and intense, since so many who could not afford to leave the country converted under duress.

Besides heresy and apostasy ("backsliding" to your previous beliefs), the Spanish Inquisition went after witchcraft, blasphemy, bigamy, sodomy, Protestantism (when it came along later), and even Christian mystics (called alumbrados, "illuminati").

It was a Dominican, Fray Alonso de Ojeda, who convinced Isabella that there were "Crypto-Jews" in Andalusia: Jews who had converted but practiced Judaism in secret. This was confirmed by Isabella and Ferdinand's confessor, Tomás de Torquemada (a name that became synonymous with torture). The Spanish Inquisition held its first investigations in late 1480, and had a result by 6 February 1481, when six people were burned alive in public, a practice known as auto da fé, a Portuguese phrase meaning "act of faith." (The illustration shows an auto da fé in the public marketplace.)

Not all subjects were executed. Public flogging, imprisonment, and exile were also used, as well as being force to serve as a galley-slave, forced to row on the royal ships. There were also monetary fines. "Surviving" the investigation did not mean resuming life as you knew it: you and your descendants were prohibited from certain high-level professions like doctor and tax-collector.

If you were a good and faithful converso or a morisco, however, you were probably safe, right? Hmm, tomorrow let's see how converts were actually treated by society.

(By the way, everybody expected the Spanish Inquisition! The Inquisition protocol was to send you a message saying to be available for interrogation.)

What Started the Inquisition?

As Christianity expanded to different regions and with different authorities, philosophical discussions and policies and practices developed in isolation from each other. Councils and Synods were held to bring the various regional groups together to form consistent understanding of their message.

Once you have an approved message, however, you have to guard it, and therefore you have to find ways to stamp out dissent, disagreement, and maybe even simple debate. This need to drag dissenters back into the community of the faithful—or else—led to inquisitions, when the subject was questioned at length to determine whether they were truly UN"faith"ful or were simply misunderstood, and perhaps needed re-education.

This process, too, needed to be made consistent across the Christian world, and therefore the (upper-case) Inquisition was formed, with rules and regulations. The Catholic Encyclopedia website describes the Inquisition thusly:

Its characteristic mark seems to be the bestowal on special judges of judicial powers in matters of faith, and this by supreme ecclesiastical authority, not temporal or for individual cases, but as a universal and permanent office. Moderns experience difficulty in understanding this institution, because they have, to no small extent, lost sight of two facts.

On the one hand they have ceased to grasp religious belief as something objective, as the gift of God, and therefore outside the realm of free private judgment; on the other they no longer see in the Church a society perfect and sovereign, based substantially on a pure and authentic Revelation, whose first most important duty must naturally be to retain unsullied this original deposit of faith.

The period known as the Medieval Inquisition ranged from the 12th to 15th centuries, and started in France to deal with Cathars and Waldensians. It quickly expanded to other countries, looking into the Hussites, the Spiritual Franciscans ("Spirituals"), and the Beguines.

In 1250, Pope Alexander IV appointed Dominicans as the official Inquisitors. (The illustration is by 15th-century artist Pedro Berrugete of St. Dominic presiding over the burning of a heretic, called an auto-da-fé.)

When "moderns" think of the Inquisition, what often comes to mind is the Spanish Inquisition. Let's see what made them special next time.

Heinrich and the Hammer of Witches

I've touched on the Malleus Maleficarum ("Hammer of Witches") briefly before. It was written by a Dominican who was frustrated because he wasn't allowed to do everything he wanted as part of the Inquisition.

It was first printed in 1486 in Germany and also known as Hexenhammer. It offers proof that witches exist, explains their powers, and explains how to properly conduct a trial of a witch. It recommends torture to gain confessions.

The Inquisition of the Catholic Church also used torture to extract confessions out of suspected heretics, but officially condemned the Malleus Maleficarum as unethical in 1489. That did not prevent its massive popularity, however. Here is how the book came about.

In 1485, after urging Pope Innocent VIII to make a statement against witches, which led to a papal bull, Heinrich Kramer (c.1430 - 1505) went to Innsbruck to root out witchcraft. Its bishop, Georg Golser, gave him permission to operate in the diocese. He and his personal crusade were well-known, and a woman by the name of Helena Scheuberin, the wife of a prominent burgher, seeing him in the street, spat and said "Fie on you, you bad monk, may the falling evil take you."

Kramer found out that she never attended any of his sermons, and moreover that she was telling others to avoid him, so he accused her of laying a curse and had her arrested. Bishop Golser urged Kraner to drop the investigation, since his accusations of witchcraft had no evidence to support them, but Kramer persisted until Golser demanded that Kramer leave the diocese.

That is when he decided to turn his focus on educating others of the dangers of witches among us, and so wrote his book. He included a forward with Innocent's bull, lending an air of legitimacy to his stance. It was reprinted 13 times up until 1520, and then had a revival between the 1570s and 1660s when it was reprinted 16 times. Its popularity finally started to fade during the Age of Enlightenment, although it is still published as a curiosity today, and paperback copies can be found from several booksellers.

Next time, let's go back to the beginning of the Inquisition, and see how it all started.