From the Expulsion of the Jews to the Integration of the Conversos: A Failed Evangelizing Process during the Dispute of Tortosa (Valencia, 1413)

Abstract

The Dispute of Tortosa (1413-1414) had a profound impact on the Jewish communities of the Crown of Aragon. The approval of local and conciliar laws, preaching campaigns, and the overall pressure exerted on the Jews led to a considerable number of baptisms that demographically weakened most of the Jewish communities (aljamas) especially in the kingdom of Aragon. However, a quarter of a century after the forced conversions of 1391, numerous Jewish communities in Catalonia and the kingdoms of Valencia and Mallorca had transformed into groups of conversos, whose degree of Christianization was still superficial. In Valencia, where Jews were no longer permitted to reside in 1403, the favourable climate for evangelization crystallized in a pioneering project: the failed distribution of local conversos among their old-Christian neighbours. In this article, we will observe how the city council managed to prevent the reestablishment of a Jewish community in the city for over a decade, while integrating the conversos into its financial and political structures. Next, we will analyse both the failed project of effective evangelization in 1413 and the rhetoric of the municipal government in justifying it, which had a markedly anti-Jewish tone. Finally, we will consider the political and religious reasons that led the city council of Valencia to propose an ambitious plan without, however, investing any real effort in implementing it.