Knowra Converso Converso A converso was a person who converted from Judaism to Christianity, or a descendant of such converts, in Iberian history. Many conversions occurred under coercion, and converts remained subject to suspicion about their religious practice.
Anti-Jewish pogroms of 1391 : A wave of attacks on Jewish communities across Castile and Aragon in 1391, followed by killings, displacement, and conversions. The violence drove many Iberian Jews to accept baptism, creating early converso communities.
Spanish Inquisition : A tribunal established by the Spanish Crown in 1478 to investigate and punish heresy among baptized Christians. Its prosecutions targeted conversos accused of secretly practicing Judaism.
León Hebreo : A Jewish-born physician and philosopher, born Judah Abravanel, who wrote the Renaissance dialogue Dialogues of Love. His life in exile followed the 1492 expulsion, though he did not become a converso.
New Christians : A historical label for Jews and Muslims who converted to Christianity, and for their descendants, in Iberian societies. This broader social category included conversos and Muslim converts alike.
Jewish diaspora : The dispersion of Jewish communities beyond the land of Israel across many regions and historical periods. Converso migration became one strand in the wider dispersal of Jewish populations.
Expulsion of the Jews from Spain : The 1492 decree ordering Jews in the Crown of Castile and Crown of Aragon to convert or leave their territories. The decree forced remaining Jews to choose between exile and conversion.
Crypto-Judaism : The private observance of Jewish beliefs or practices by people who publicly identify as Christians. Inquisitors treated alleged secret Jewish practice as heresy among conversos.
Teresa of Ávila : A sixteenth-century Spanish Carmelite nun, mystic, and religious reformer from a family of converso ancestry. Her ancestry made lineage a subject of scrutiny despite her Catholic standing.
Portuguese New Christians : Portuguese Jews and their descendants who were baptized as Christians, especially after the forced conversions of 1497. The Portuguese experience developed its own institutions, migration routes, and inquisitorial history.
Crypto-Jews in New Spain : People in colonial New Spain who were accused of secretly practicing Judaism while publicly professing Christianity. Their prosecutions show a colonial consequence of converso migration and inquisitorial surveillance.
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