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5 zyxwvutsrqpo Conversos in Service of Church and State Jews already held positions of increasing power jn the government of Spain under the Muslims, becoming even prime ministers of the independent citykingdoms . Some of those, also, were converts to Islam, while others retained their Jewish loyalty. Almost immediately with the beginnings of the Christian kingdoms both in Aragon and in Castile, from the eleventh century on, Jews are found in prominent positions. By the thirteenth century, Jews were no longer mere tax officials but had risen to the highest ranks of royal counsellors and administrators, heads of the king's chancelleries, chief treasurer, and other positions. It is important to stress this, although not properly belonging to our topic, precisely to point out that it certainly was not necessary for Jews to convert in order to attain high office and political power. That many conversos did so is, therefore, a mere coincidence. Except for the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, and even they were also served by Jewish officials, the number of conversos in the service of the kings never came close to the number of Jews. We already find isolated instances, perhaps, of such converts in the thirteenth century. Of the nine or ten most important Jewish officials of Sancho IV of Castile, son of the renowned Alfonso X against whom he rebelled to seize the crown, one, Fernan Perez Maimon, who was holder of the privy seal, may have been a converso.1 However, I am somewhat skeptical of this claim, and suspect that he was a Mozarab or descendant of Mozarabic Christians (Maimon, correctly Maimun, is an Arabic name, common to Muslims, Jews, and Mozarabic Christians). Note that he was also the admiral of Castile, a position unlikely to have been held by a converso at that time. Whether or not Juan Gato, an official of Fernando IV, certainly a member 117 118 Conversos in Service of Church and State of the prominent Jewish Gato family of Toledo, was a Jew or a converso is uncertain (for Jews to have so-called Christian first names was unusual, but not impossible). As previously mentioned, Francisco Fernandez de Marmolejo of Seville, zyxwvutsrq tesorero mayor (chief treasurer) of Pedro I of Castile in 1369 and after, was a converso. Later in the years 1387 to 1390, he was contador mayor (approximately the same position, but more important) for Juan I, and also mayor domo, or head, of the council of Seville and representative of that city at the Cortes of Guadalajara in 1390. A relative (son?), Alfonso Fernandez de Marmolejo, was also a member of the council of Seville and judge of the Genoese quarter of the city (1376-90), and also tesorero mayor of Juan I.2 In 1396, his widow, Juana Dorta, sold an annuity of 5,000 mrs. annually from the taxes of the Jews of Seville to the Christian mayordomo mayor of Queen Catalina.3 Samuel Abravanel was one of the members of that famous family who was in the service of the kings. In 1379, as a "citizen of Seville," he was named almoxarife, or chief tax officer, for the entire kingdom (nevertheless, he was ultimately outbid in this office by another Jew of Seville, and then a second time by that man's son). This Samuel was the grandfather of Isaac Abravanel, the famous author. Samuel eventually obtained the position of contador mayor of Enrique III. Very problematic is a poem in the Cancionero de Baena attributed to Alfonso Alvarez de Villasandino, a hanger-on at court, who is the most frequently represented poet in that collection. The poem was written around 1391 when the king, Enrique III, was still under the tutelage of his council, and is a criticism of the chaos caused by various avaricious officials, etc. The poet reminds the young king that his late father had always sought out worthy officials, not those who would sell their offices "like a renegade Jew" (converso). Further, the poet refers to an office granted to a "prelate of Osma," who because of his learning became contador (a tax official, but hardly contador mayor), with the accusation that he apparently purchased his office for 6,000 Aragonese florins. He is said to have been "governor of Aragon and Sicily" and to have "conquered" Seville, and thus was worthy to extend his powers as far as Fez. The suggestion was early made, and accepted without question both by the editor of the Cancionero and Cantera...

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