In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

13 Chapter 1 From Teresa de Ahumada to Saint Teresa T he woman who spearheaded the movement known as the Carmelite reform was an unlikely hero. Teresa Sánchez Cepeda y Ahumada was born in Ávila in 1515, the daughter of a converso silk and woolens merchant. Conversos, or New Christians, were Jews who had converted to Catholicism, often due to intense pressure from the crown. Teresa’s Jewish ancestry is of more than anecdotal interest. The position of conversos in early sixteenth-century Spain made it likely that many of them would become proficient at filing petitions, managing legal documents , and writing letters. Learning to Write: Converso Spain In spite of portrayals of medieval Spain as a tolerant society in which Christians, Jews, and Muslims lived in harmony, anti-Semitism has deep roots on the peninsula.1 Periods of peaceful cohabitation, cultural intermingling , cross-fertilization, and interethnic cooperation did exist from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries, as María Rosa Menocal has demonstrated , and these phenomena contributed to the creation of a rich, vibrant intellectual climate in medieval Spain. However, Joseph Pérez argues that true open-mindedness did not exist: “Tolerance presupposes an absence of discrimination against minorities and respect for the points of view of others. In the Iberia of the eighth century to the fifteenth, such tolerance was nowhere to be found” (1). Similarly, Kamen writes, “The communities of Christians, Jews, and Muslims never lived together on equal terms; so-called convivencia was always a relationship among unequals” (Spanish Inquisition 4). Rather, the three predominant cultures coexisted, each as a separate community. In spite of periods of peaceful convivencia, or coexistence, Jonathan Ray notes that scholars in the field of Jewish studies have challenged the idealized view of Spain as a multicultural utopia, “pointing out the persecutions against Jewish populations under the Muslim Almoravid and Almohad dynasties of the eleventh and twelfth centuries , the widespread Christian pogroms and forced conversions of Jews in 1391, and the cycle of forced conversions, expulsions, and inquisitorial ha- 14 Teresa de Ávila: Lettered Woman rassment of Jewish and Muslim communities throughout the late medieval and early modern periods” (“Beyond Tolerance” 2). Ray challenges oversimplifications that portray medieval Spain as either a period of tolerance or persecution for Jews, arguing that most studies are based on attitudes of non-Jews toward Jews. By examining the writings of medieval Sephardim themselves, Ray shows that during periods when Spanish authorities adopted a laissez-faire policy toward intercultural intermingling, Jewish moralists themselves argued for greater Jewish isolation because they feared that contact with non-Jews, particularly Christians, was leading to acculturation, moral laxity, and conversions to Christianity. The lure of social and economic advancement, the practice of taking Christian lovers, and the predilection for taking legal complaints to Christian—and even ecclesiastical—courts threatened to undermine the integrity of Jewish communities, argued these Jewish thinkers, who complained that Jews were putting their personal advancement above their loyalty to their own group. Ray points out that “Christian legislation aimed at regulating Jewish dress was only loosely enforced, and decrees such as the one issued at the Castilian Cortes of 1268 that prohibited Jews from assuming Christian names reflects Jewish interests in acculturation and integration as much as it does a Christian campaign to exclude them” (“Beyond Tolerance” 10). In response to this tendency, Jewish leaders chided the members of their communities for adopting Christian garb and customs, and for settling outside of established juderías (Jewish neighborhoods), even acquiring lands in rural areas. Ray points out that medieval Sephardim do not comprise a fixed, monolithic group, but rather a fluid one that varies from place to place and from one set of circumstances to another. Jews were part of a rich, complex , cultural weave that was influenced by autochthonous as well as external pressures. Ray concludes that “if . . . Spanish Jews continually pursued associations and social positions that closely resembled those of their Christian counterparts, then perhaps we have to revise our notion of convivencia as merely a measurement of tolerance” (“Beyond Tolerance” 13). The tension within Sephardic communities between the forces of assimilation and cultural preservation is a significant factor in Teresa’s family history and helps to explain the Sánchez-Cepeda conversion to Christianity. Convivencia might be affected by countless variables. In general, as long as the economy was strong and Christians, Muslims, and Jews did not have to compete with each other, they could live side by side, but downward swings...

Share