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  • Between Christian and Jew: Conversion and Inquisition in the Crown of Aragon, 1250–1391
  • Brian A. Catlos
Between Christian and Jew: Conversion and Inquisition in the Crown of Aragon, 1250–1391. By Paola Tartakoff. [The Middle Ages Series.] (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2012. Pp. xiv, 209. $55.00. ISBN 978-0-8122-4421-2.)

This engaging, lively, and well-written study focuses on a single inquisition trial, the record of which is preserved in the archive of the Cathedral of Barcelona. The case in question is related to a sensational occurrence of 1341 in Calatayud, a town in the Kingdom of Aragon, wherein a converted Jew, Pere (Peter), was sentenced to death as a relapsed heretic and sent to the stake. Pulled from the flames as they lapped around him by a local inquisitor, the story he told gave rise to a complex investigation into an alleged network of Jews who were pressuring converts not only to return to Judaism but also to openly blaspheme, so that they might be condemned to death and die as Jews. The kingdom was part of the dynastic aggregate known as the Crown of Aragon, whose realms were home to a numerous, wealthy, dynamic, and well-connected Jewish community that had close relations to the ruling Barcelona dynasty.

The study plays out in three parts—“Before the Tribunal,” “At the Font of a New Life,” and “By the Fire”—each consisting of two chapters. The first two chapters, “Defending the Faith: Medieval Inquisitors and the Prosecution of Jews and Converts” and “From Resistance to Surrender: Jewish Responses to Inquisitorial Prosecution,” recount in detail the narratives that emerge from the interrogations under torture and the trials of the principal accused—Pere and three other Jews of Calatayud (Jucef de Qatorze, Janto Almuli, and Jamila Almuli) who were hunted down and arrested. With single-minded determination, and using the techniques and approaches perfected over the previous century, the inquisitor Bernat de Puigcercós set out to secure guilty verdicts, glibly trampling legal procedure and undermining the attempts of the [End Page 797] accused to use royal influence (and bribes) to secure their freedom. All four were convicted—de Qatorze was sent to the stake, and the others were sentenced to life in prison.

The third chapter, “Between Doubt and Desire: Jewish Conversion, Converts and Christian Society,” delves into the pressures—personal, social, economic, and cultural—that could lead to conversion and the anxieties it generated among both Christians and Muslims in its wake. However, many may have converted out of inspiration; others were led to the font to keep marriages (to converts) intact, to escape marriages (to Jews), and to pursue a host of economic motives. Next, “Homeward Bound: The Fates of Jewish Converts” surveys the fates that commonly awaited new Christians. Shunned by their former communities and distrusted by their new one, many were reduced to indigence, and forced to live from alms. Others became preachers, and turned their knowledge of Judaism against the faith of their former community.

Finally, “Apostasy as Scourge: Jews and the Repudiation of Apostates” and “Recruiting Repentance: The Re-Judaizing of Apostates” investigates the action taken by Jews to preserve their community in the face of conversion. Jews vilified and ostracized former Jews because the latter were seen as traitors and a danger to the Jewish faith or instruments of divine punishment; in addition, associating with apostates, particularly those who wavered, could bring charges of Judaizing. Hence, it was Jews themselves who frequently reported backsliders to Christian authorities. On the other hand, some Jews clearly did encourage converts to return to the fold. This gave rise to a discrete but vitriolic current of anti-Christian polemic as well as the development of rites and strategies for the reconversion of former Jews. A brief conclusion recapitulates and summarizes the body of the book.

In sum, this is a tight, document-driven study, which draws on a range of archival and secondary material not only to analyze in detail the case study that acts as the frame of the book but also a series of illuminating contextual studies. The book is well researched both in terms of local studies...

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