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Hellenism and Judaism Mistrusted One Another

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Hellenism and Judaism Mistrusted One Another INTRODUCTION I THE IBERIAN INQUISITIONS AND THE JUDAIC HERESY 1. Christianity and Judaism To start at the beginning - Hellenism and Judaism mistrusted one another. The Book of Acts recounts a confrontation of two tendencies: Judeo-Christianity and Helleno-Christianity. The second, which most distanced itselffrom J udaism, won out. Both J udaism and Christianity were then universal and proselytizing religions, competing for souls. An important detail is that the nascent Church during its beginnings recruited preferentially among Jews. This was true even of Paul, who proclaimed himself Apostle to the Gentiles. After the Roman suppression of the Jews' two bids for indepen­ dence (66-70 and 132-135) and the dispersion throughout the Roman Empire of much of the Judean population, Judaism - in spite of its opposition to the Emperor cult and its annoying requirement of Sabbath observance by Roman Jewish soldiers - remained a religion officially recognized by the Roman authorities, who respected its hoary antiquity. As long as the Jewish Christian squabble remained "in the family" Christianity was another Jewish sect to the uninitiated outside world. But once the umbilical cord was severed the Church ceased to enjoy the licit status of the mother religion. Christianity was now judged in her own right and her youth did not help in Roman reck­ oning. Some emperors resented the Christian disdain for their pagan institutions and took it for anti-Romanism and even betrayal. More than one emperor actively persecuted the Christian minority - for the I This Introduction, partially revised and updated by the translators, is principally indebted to Henry Charles Lea, A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, New York, 1887, 3 vols. and A History of the Inquisition of Spain, New York, 1894-1895, 4 vols.; Joaquim Mendes dos Remedios, Os Judeus em Portugal, I, Coimbra, 1895; Abraham A. Neuman, The Jews in Spain, Their Social, Political and Cultural Life During the Middle Ages, Philadelphia, 1942,2 vols.; Bernhard Blumenkranz,JuijS et Ch~-etiens dans le monde accidental, 430-1096, The Hague, 1960; Marcel Simon, l1?rus Israel, Etude sur les relations entre Chretiens etJuijS dans l'Empire ramain (135-425), Paris, 19642 ; Benzion Netanyahu, The Marranos of Spain, from the Late 14th to the Early 16th Century According to Contemporary Hebrew Sources, Millwood, N. Y, 19732 ; id., The Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth Century Spain, New York, 1995; Leon Poliakov, The History ofAnti-Semitism, From Mohammed to the Marranos, New York, 1973; Luis Garcia Iglesias, Los Judios en la E.lparla Antigua, Madrid, 1978. António José Saraiva - 9789047400868 Downloaded from Brill.com10/06/2021 09:44:57AM via free access XXIV INTRODUCTION same kind of unsubstantiated charges that Christian rulers were later to impute to their Jewish populations. But between Church and Synagogue the discordant feelings - even when fratricidal- were for the most part confined to verbal or written polemics, since politically both were equally disenfranchised - that is, up until the year 313. In 313 Constantine converted to Christianity and legitimized it as the official religion of the Empire. Restrictive laws were soon being enacted. The rule of Theodosius I (379-395) marked the first imperial interference in the synagogues' internal affairs. Though restricting them in a myriad niggling ways, official Church policy was that the "former" chosen people must endure, to bear witness to their rejection of proffered salvation. The Church decided it was henceforth the "true Israel." Accordingly, it appropriated the Jewish Scriptures - demoted to "Old Testament" in opposition to the "New" Christian one - and arrogated a monopoly on "correct" interpretation and harmonization. 2 . Jews and Judaism in the Iberian Peninsula until the Moslem Invasion (711) The Jewish presence in the Iberian Peninsula predates the Chris­ tian era, perhaps by several centuries. Paul intended to preach in Spain, probably to Jewish communities. During the 4th century Gregory, Bishop of Elvira in Southern Spain, expressed alarm at growing Jewish doctrinal inroads into his flock, who were allegedly adopting circumcision and the Sabbath. The Council of Elvira (306- 309) was the first to canonize laws prohibiting fraternization of Chris­ tians with Jews. In 409 the "barbarian" tribes overran the Iberian Peninsula - the Germanic Swabians, Vandals and Iranian Alanes followed by the Visig­ oths, who were allied to the Romans - and established the Hispano­ Visigothic kingdom. The Visigothic kings were Arian.2 Their regime in Spain was distinguished by internecine strife and tolerance towards both the Jewish population and the Catholic Romans. Alarico 11 (c. 370-410), the first Germanic (Arian Visigoth) Roman Emperor, codified laws upholding the legality ofJudaism in the Roman Empire, but introduced clauses prohibiting- .T ews from molesting- .T ewish 2 Arianism was a non-Trinitarian branch of Christianity that goes back to the Alexan­ drian priest Arius (died Constantinople, 336) and holds the Messiah to be subordinate to the Father. António José Saraiva - 9789047400868 Downloaded from Brill.com10/06/2021 09:44:57AM via free access INTRODUCTION xxv converts to Christianity and forbidding such converts to revert to Judaism.3 The Visigothic attitude of relative benevolence was reversed when Recared converted to Catholicism in 589. Whereas his Arian anteces­ sors had striven for and attained a certain national and territorial unity, Recared and his Catholic successors, until the Moslem invasion of 711, were obsessed with the religious homogeneity of the Iberian Peninsula, pursuing a policy of harsh repression of what was now considered the Arian heresy and Jewish dissidence. King Sisebut's reign (from 612) marked an alliance - which was to last a full century - of Catholic Church and Visigothic State against Judaism. In 616 Sisebut ordered the compulsory baptism of all Jews in his kingdom, triggering a mass exodus of Jews to Gaul. This decree was protested by the bishop of Seville Isidore, the only Catholic voice ever heard in protest against the anti-Jewish Visigothic policies. Not that Isidore disagreed as to the necessity of wiping out Spanish Judaism, but only with Sisebut's coercive methods. His successor Swintila apparently permitted (some?) Jewish fugi­ tives to return to Spain and (some?) converts to return to Judaism. Under King Sisenand, in 633, the 4th Council of Toledo moved to stop Christian converts from J udaism continuing to observe Jewish rites or customs. Measures were ordered to ensure that children of converts received a Christian education and also to prevent converts and their descendants fraternizing with Jews. Furthermore strict super­ vision by the clergy over the life and movements of "New Christians" was imposed. Sisenand was thus the first to categorize Catholics into two casts: "Old Christians" (clean) and "New Christians" (polluted) - cladistics as specious as they were obliging to the machinations of future Spanish and Portuguese "clean blood laws." At the 6th Council of Toledo, in 638, under King Chintila, the ban on Jews residing in Spain became canon law. Moreover, Chintila imposed on his successors, for all time, an oath to be sworn at their coronation to uphold this ban on pain of anathema. The New Chris­ tians of Toledo were summoned to send representatives to the Council's synod in the basilica of St. Laocadia. There they were made to si~n a manifesto known as Chintila's placitum, that they voluntarily :1 The Swabians occupied the region now called Galicia and Northern Portugal. The Swabian king Rechiarius, whose capital was Braga, adopted Catholicism, c. 450. However, his successor Remismund reverted to Arianism in 464.Except for its military confrontations with the Visigoths, little is known about the vicissitudes of the Swabian kingdom during the next few centuries and nothing at all about its policies toward the Jews. António José Saraiva - 9789047400868 Downloaded from Brill.com10/06/2021 09:44:57AM via free access XXVI INTRODUCTION converted to Catholicism and rejected all the rites and practices of J udaism, above all circumcision, dietary laws, the Sabbath and all Mosaic festivals. In respect to foods forbidden by Mosaic Law, they vowed to eat them all unless constrained by physical, non-religious revulsion. They further promised to eschew all social contact with Jews, never to attend a synagogue or keep any Jewish books (this implied thatJews were still authorized to reside in Spain). The converts further undertook to execute any transgressor by stoning. Here the placitum was breaking new ground. From its inception in the time of Paul, as recounted in Acts, Christianity seems to have grappled with the dietary laws and their significance for the Church. Justin (martyred c. 165) theorized that they were but means to prevent gluttony. Other Church Fathers interpreted these laws allegorically. Origen (185-254) insisted that from the religious viewpoint "there is no distinction between foods." 4 But prior to the placitum never did abstention from meats proscribed by Moses count as a crime - let alone a capital crime. This was also the first time that converts from J udaism to Catholicism were collectively suspected of observing or relapsing into J udaic practices. It was also the first time that canon law imposed the death penalty for a Christian's observance of any Mosaic law or custom not shared by Catholics. The death penalty was theoretical, because obviously lapidation (Deuteronomy 13, 11) was inapplicable in Spain and the converts did not have juridical autonomy to sentence and chastise their own.S With Chintila's great-grandson Receswinth and the 8th Council of Toledo (653) a new phase of anti-Judaic legislation is inaugurated, notably affecting the descendants of the converts. Their representa­ tives were summoned to sign a revised placitum, in which they promise never to socialize with Jews, never to marry anyone related to Jews, to the 6th degree of consanguinity, never to circumcise, never to celebrate the Passover, the Sabbath or any other Mosaic holy day, never to be fussy about foods.
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