Between Christian and Jew: Conversion and Inquisition in the Crown of Aragon, 1250-1391

4.Homeward Bound: The Fates of Jewish Converts

C h a p t e r 4 Homeward Bound: The Fates of Jewish Converts If you accept baptism, you will be called a dog, a son of a dog, both by Christians and also by Jews. You will live in poverty, and he who today will not give you a coin will not give you another in an entire year. And so you will suffer great privation and, out of despair, you may soon beg to die. —Inghetto Contardo, 12861 In the environs of the medieval Crown of Aragon, a handful of Jewish converts fared well after baptism, including several individuals who had been wealthy or learned as Jews. At least two converts rose in the ranks of the Dominican order. Pablo Christiani served as the Christian disputant at the Barcelona Disputation of 1263, and Ramon of Tàrrega, who converted in 1346 or 1347 at the age of eleven, became a theologian.2 Others received royal privileges. For example, the physician Vincenç Esteve and the son of the queen’s treasurer , Juan Sánchez de Calatayud, were exempted, by Jaume II and Joan I, respectively, from having to renounce their material possessions.3 In addition, several converts were granted lucrative employment—often pertaining to Jewish affairs—by members of the royal family. In 1305, for instance, the convert Bertran of Jorba was granted a monopoly over the sale of meat to the Jews of Montblanc by Queen Blanca. This probably meant that Bertran received the earnings from the sale of meat to Jews and that he appointed the local shohet, or ritual slaughterer. In 1307, a convert named Joan Ferrand was appointed bailiff of Jews and Muslims in Teruel by Jaume II. The convert Romeu de Pal of Tàrrega served as a royal surgeon. In 1331, he was granted a monopoly 82 At the Font of New Life over the sale of meat to the Jews of Cervera by King Alfons III and, in 1343, he accompanied Pere III on his campaign in Mallorca and received four hundred Barcelona sous as compensation. In 1388, the convert Jaume Romeu was granted a franchise to operate the tafureria, or gambling house, of the Jewish aljama of Valencia by King Pere III.4 Given Christians’ deep suspicion of Jewish converts, however, it is not surprising that, unlike the exceptional converts listed above, many converts did not fare well. In fact, even some of those who received royal assistance encountered obstacles to prosperity as Christians. Only one year after Bertran de Jorba was granted a monopoly over the sale of meat to the Jews of Montblanc , for example, Jewish and Christian protests led Queen Blanca to remove Bertran from this post, and King Jaume II informed Rashba that the Jewish aljama of Montblanc would have to pay Bertran one thousand Barcelona sous in order to settle the affair. Christians, who had supplied local Jews with meat until the appointment of Bertran, must have resented the fact that a convert had taken part of their business, and Jews presumably recoiled from the idea that an apostate should profit from their patronage. In Mallorca in 1308, Jews also objected to buying meat from apostates, and the concession to Romeu de Pal of the meat stand of the Jews of Cervera in 1331 generated further controversy.5 In addition, Ramon of Tàrrega, the Jew turned Dominican theologian, was eventually arrested by inquisitors for heretical theological opinions, and he died in prison in 1371. The records of Ramon’s inquisitorial trial are no longer extant, and we do not know whether Ramon’s identity as a Jewish convert was a focus of his trial. However, even though Ramon’s objectionable teachings lacked any obvious relation to Judaism, the sixteenth-century commentator on the Directorium inquisitorum of Nicolau Eimeric, Francisco Peña, remarked that Ramon’s fate demonstrated that “even though [Ramon] had changed his religion, he had not changed his habits.”6 In this chapter, we shall examine the difficult circumstances that the majority of Jewish converts faced following their baptisms. In so doing, we shall see that, as a result of poverty, Christian rejection, and personal grievances against Jews, many converts continued to interact with Jews, often in antagonistic ways. In some cases, however, poverty and Christian rejection led disaffected converts to seek to return to Judaism. Homeward Bound 83 Converts as Wandering Beggars Unlike Vincenç Esteve and Juan Sánchez...