A converso confraternity in Majorca: La Novella Confraria de Sant Miquel

Jewish History (2010) 24: 53–85 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010DOI: 10.1007/s10835-009-9096-9

A converso confraternity in Majorca: La Novella Confrariade Sant Miquel

NATALIE OELTJENCentre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto, CanadaE-mail: [email protected]

Abstract After their forced conversion during the anti-Jewish violence of August 1391, Ma-jorcan conversos could no longer avail themselves of the social structures that provided fortheir welfare as members of the aljama. Rather than joining existing confraternities, whichwere the main purveyors of social welfare in Christian society, in 1404, conversos formallyestablished a confraternity of their own. Its statutes, translated here in an Appendix, revealboth Jewish and Christian precedents in provision for the poor, the sick and for burial. Theseapplied not only to members, but to all Majoran conversos. While the suspicions or hostilityof Old Christians may have deterred conversos from seeking membership in their institutions,the converso confraternity was essentially a formalization of a community that was alreadybound together by pre-baptismal networks and relationships and which was addressed as acorporate entity by the Crown and creditors of the former aljama. The very establishmentof Sant Miquel, as the converso confraternity was called, coupled with an absence of ritualinjunctions among its statutes, supports the hypothesis that the first generations of conversoscontinued in the same relationships and customs as when they were Jewish. The confraternityoffered a space in which these conversos could retain vestiges of their Jewish identity whilesituating themselves in the ambit of Christian culture, thus setting a new social referent forfuture generations.

AbbreviationsACA: Arxiu de la Corona d’AragóACM: Arxiu Capitular de MallorcaARM: Arxiu del Regne de MallorcaBSAL: Bolletí de la Societat Arqueològica Lulliana

One Sunday in February 1401, prominent members of the Majorcan commu-nity of conversos gathered in the city’s Franciscan monastery, in the presenceof a notary, in order to discuss “certain matters affecting the conversos.”1

During this meeting they elected four deputies to guide conversos in “therule and way of orthodox faith.” The following year they nominated an almscollector and elected another four individuals to administer a tax among con-versos in order to raise funds for “good works for the community of conver-sos,” particularly for care of the sick and the burial of the dead.2 In 1404,

I would like to thank Kenneth Stow, Editor of Jewish History and Alyssa Quint, ManagingEditor of Jewish Studies Quarterly for their valuable guidance with this paper, and ManelFrau for his help with Catalan terminology.

mailto:[email protected]

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they formally created a confraternity, issuing statutes that defined the group’smembership and governance, and officially named it the Confraria Novellade Sant Miquel with the revision and expansion of its statutes in 14103 (seealso Appendix). By that time the confraternity had also moved out of thelocal Franciscan monastery, possessing its own separate meeting and burialspace.4

Confraternities were the main purveyors of social welfare in the late me-dieval period, taking on much of the work previously relegated to hospitalsand institutional charities administered by urban or ecclesiastical authori-ties. At least four Jewish confraternities operated in the aljama of Majorcain the late fourteenth century, devoted to the sick, the poor, burial of thedead, and education of young boys.5 Before the conversos’ baptism dur-ing the anti-Jewish violence that erupted throughout the kingdom of Castileand the Crown of Aragon during the summer of 1391, Jewish confraterni-ties and aljama charities provided a welfare support system that looked afterthe needs and needy of their community. As Christians, the new convertscould no longer legitimately utilize Jewish support systems. Besides, evenif Christian and Jewish authorities would have turned a blind eye, conversoscould not have resorted to Jewish charities, which appear to have ceased, atleast officially, after 1391. In the wake of the violence, King Joan (1387 to1396) appropriated all communal assets of the aljama, including annuitiesand any properties relating to charities or schools and ceded them to his trea-surer, Berenguer de Cortilles, as payment for debts owed to the latter by theroyal couple.6 Joan acted upon the convenient assumption that there wouldbe no one fit to manage these assets after such a major demographic andeconomic disruption, while “ownerless” Jewish assets reverted to the Crown.The king also planned to auction off the Jewish cemetery, generating anxi-eties among conversos and Jews about where they could be buried. Ironically,it was precisely at a time when they most needed it that Jews and conversoswere deprived of their former charities and welfare system.

In theory, conversos could have had access to social support by joiningthe Old Christian confraternities that already existed in the city, but, instead,at least a sizeable portion of the converso community felt that it was nec-essary to create its own separate welfare institution and pious community.Could the creation of Sant Miquel indicate a reluctance to assimilate or beChristianized? Even if belonging to a separate confraternity on some levelinhibited their assimilation, on another level it brought conversos (or theiroffspring) closer to Christianity—regardless of whether this was their realintention—simply by situating them within a Christian context. At the sametime, a distinct confraternity offered conversos a safe place to continue cer-tain Jewish customs under the smokescreen of a Catholic pious society. Thispaper will explore issues of converso identity by looking closely at the con-fraternity of Sant Miquel itself, primarily through its governing statutes and

A CONVERSO CONFRATERNITY IN MAJORCA 55

the context within which it was created. The experiences of the first and sec-ond generations of the converts of 1391who founded and participated in SantMiquel are especially relevant because the social dynamics that materializedduring their time had a decisive bearing on the trajectory, and identity, ofwhat essentially became a new ethnic group.

A large body of historical literature wrestles with the question of howconversos identified themselves religiously.7 For a long time, this identitywas viewed in polarized terms, rendering conversos either sincere Christiansor crypto-Jews. Later studies likened them to modern agnostics or sceptics.Over the past two decades, studies have emerged that recognize that identityis less fixed, less categorical, and more complex than earlier scholars wishedreaders to believe. Moreover, because the anti-converso rhetoric that prolif-erated in Castile from the mid-fifteenth century produced such a substantialbody of documentation for modern scholars to work with, not to mention therecords of the Inquisition, it has been more convenient for scholars to focuson Castile during the latter fifteenth through seventeenth centuries. Relyingon such polemical sources, of course, can, and has, yielded an effectively bi-nary narrative. Less scholarly attention has been devoted to conversos in theCrown of Aragon, where anti-converso sentiment does not appear to haveerupted as quickly or as violently. Even less work has been done to assess therepercussions of the 1391 violence and conversions on the daily lives of Jewsand conversos—not simply in terms of religion, but also in terms of economy,social and familial networks, legal status, political associations, or relationswith Old Christians and other Jews. Fleshing out these aspects of early con-verso society requires a shift in the sources traditionally examined to includenotarial documents and royal chancery records that reveal, for instance, eco-nomic policies and transactions that were, in fact, critical to establishing therelationships that influenced converso identity.8

Although my interest extends beyond simply defining religious affiliation,it is impossible to circumvent this issue entirely; the anxiety over conversosreturning to Judaism so visible in royal letters is impossible to ignore. KingsJoan and Martí complained of conversos leaving Majorca and returning toJudaism in North Africa, and occasionally of individuals practising Judaismon the island itself.9 Proclamations instructing conversos to kneel at certaintimes during mass or prohibiting them, together with Old Christians, frombuying kosher wine, are other potential signs of adherence to Jewish tradi-tion, but could also be formulaic legal repetitions.10 More explicit documen-tation of the religious behaviour or beliefs of conversos does not exist forMajorca before the time of the Spanish Inquisition at the end of the fifteenthcentury; there are references to an Episcopal Inquisition pursuing conversos,but its records have not surfaced.11 In Valencia, on the other hand, exten-sive documentation from the Episcopal Inquisition there paints a more vividpicture of Judaizing among conversos early in the fifteenth century.12

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Indications of conversos practising or receiving instruction in Catholicismin Majorca are also sparse. There is no evidence to suggest that Sant Miquel,started by conversos ostensibly to educate themselves in Catholicism, actu-ally achieved anything in that regard. In 1393, the bishop ordered all con-versos to attend mass, and issued ordinances intended to draw them awayfrom the Jewish practices “in which they persist,” to “instruct” them in or-thodox observance, and to stop “natural” Christians from aiding conversosto continue their old ways.13 On the whole, however, the Crown and Churchwere less concerned about instruction than preventing New Christians fromreverting to Jewish practise.

Given that their conversion was forced, it is likely that most conversoshad little natural incentive to become practising Catholics. Many, most, per-haps, continued Jewish religious observance more or less secretly, dependingon their audience, or without much thought. Nonetheless, it is also probablethat many daily habits, especially surrounding food and domestic life, wereseen as ritually “Jewish” by outsiders, but were viewed by conversos them-selves more as a matter of “what one did,” without any religious sentiment orintention.14 After some time, however, conversos may have developed a tacitacceptance of being Catholic. Modern scholars would do well, therefore, toquestion whether persistence in Jewish behaviour necessarily signalled a de-liberate resistance to Catholicism as a faith; or was it a product, as often asnot, of inertia. In any event, and regardless of internal convictions, conver-sos did endeavour to participate in Christian society. They also sought publicrecognition as equal players in the competition for status with Old Christians,and that was not necessarily obtained through spiritual authenticity. A moredirect route was through performance or association with what was alreadyconsidered honourable, for instance, by belonging to a confraternity.

If conversos displayed a range of continued fidelity to their former Jew-ish identity, it would be almost anachronistic—projecting from conclusionsmore applicable to conversos elsewhere and in later periods—to attribute thisfidelity, certainly as a whole, to an intellectual, theological, self-consciousdecision made by individuals to remain faithful to Judaism as a religion. Asmuch as the violence and conversions signalled a decisive break with theirpast, once the dust settled, the fact is that daily life fell swiftly back intoearlier patterns, and conversos remained entrenched in the same behaviouraldynamics and relationships as when they were Jews. Both conversos and theOld Christians with whom they interacted observed these patterns, and thelatter did not always conform to official policies that prescribed a welcomingattitude towards new converts to enable their transition into the Catholic fold.What is more, an analysis of the more mundane kinds of archival sourcessuggests that economic exigencies, to a large extent, dictated the nature of


converso relationships, both with each other and also with Old Christians—relationships that had a formative impact on collective and individual identi-ties alike.

* * *

Converso leaders would have seen a number of advantages in proposing thattheir community establish a confraternity. These had to do with the natureof confraternities themselves—which we shall see in examining the maincharacteristics of Christian and Jewish confraternities that would have servedas models for Sant Miquel, which indeed were adopted, although in part, andwith subtle differences. In the face of Old Christian antipathy, it appearedthat in order truly to benefit from a confraternity, conversos would have tohave an organization of their own. They would also have had practical andfiscal incentives. A confraternal body protected collective interests besidesits being a natural progression from the treatment of conversos as separate bymost of Christian society.

* * *

The confraternity of Sant Miquel shared many common features with the nu-merous Old Christian confraternities in the city of Majorca at the time of itscreation.15 Most of them were trade-based associations, or guilds, open onlyto members of a given occupation and which regulated labour in addition toproviding social support. Sant Miquel was one of the first confraternities (ifnot the first) in Majorca whose members came from various occupations andclasses, and in this respect it anticipated the devotional confraternities thatbecame more prominent later in the fifteenth century.16 However, whereasdevotional confraternities emphasized prayer and other liturgical practices,Sant Miquel, to the contrary, omitted them, more in the vein of trade confra-ternities.

All confraternities laid out their administrative framework, charitable ac-tivities and members’ obligations in statutes. Responsibilities typically in-cluded assisting the sick and poor, burying and praying for the dead, payingfees, and showing deference to the annually elected leaders. Some confrater-nities also offered legal assistance for those who could not afford it, dowriesfor poor young women to marry, or ransom for captives. Support was ex-tended primarily to members in need, and in some cases to “deserving” poornon-members, and was administered either directly by members of the so-ciety or bestowed as cash, using confraternal funds.17 Members might alsobe obligated to attend each other’s weddings and, more commonly, funer-als. Additionally, confraternal statutes detailed various religious obligations;standard practise included celebrating the feast day of the society’s patronsaint(s), collectively marching in citywide processions, or reciting massesfor deceased members. Devotional confraternities usually specified further

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religious observances, whereas trade confraternities prescribed few. Someconfraternities possessed their own buildings, even churches, in which theyheld meetings, and, if it was part of their mandate, celebrated religious rites;others simply used the space of monasteries or churches with which theywere loosely affiliated.18 Early licenses suggest that during the first years ofthe fifteenth century, before it was able to acquire its own meeting house, theincipient converso confraternity congregated in the Franciscan monastery.

Sant Miquel’s statutes largely resemble those of contemporary, local OldChristian confraternities. At the same time, they also point to much com-mon ground with Jewish confraternities that existed on the peninsula andin Majorca prior to 1391. This presents no mystery, however, for the latterwere devoted to the same types of causes and were administered in similarways as their Old Christian counterparts.19 Throughout the fourteenth cen-tury, newly established Jewish confraternities or havurot took on the role ofdistributing charity, with specific aims such as raising money for ransomingJewish captives, providing dowries for poor girls and the religious instructionof children.20 Sant Miquel adopted the same roles, except for children’s reli-gious education—again, roles which were typical of both Jewish and Chris-tian confraternities. Its leaders could draw from a charity fund comprised ofmembership fees, fines, and weekly alms to help any poor converso in Ma-jorca, even if they were not a member of the confraternity. These funds couldalso be used to pay the redemption fee of up to five pounds for any conversocaptive or provide dowries to poor female relatives of members who wouldotherwise not be able to find a husband.

Attending to the deceased was a basic service provided by almost all Jew-ish and Christian confraternities. Jews and Christians harboured anxietiesabout the spiritual repercussions of improper treatment and burial of theircorpses or as a result of insufficient prayer for their soul. Confraternitiescould guarantee that deceased members would be treated according to reli-gious custom and—just as importantly—be shown respect in public. Jewishburial societies, which ensured proper burial for its members as well as forpoor non-members, existed long before other confraternities came into being,and set governing precedents:21 they were run by officers who selected a trea-surer to administer and invest their funds comprised of mostly membershipfees and bequests; members had to pay entry fees and make promises of loy-alty; mutual aid was formally organized through regulations which obligatedmembers to perform pious tasks such as accompanying a body to its grave orvisiting the house of mourners and attending the prayer services held at theirhome for the week of mourning.22 Jews typically made charitable donationsat the time of prayers for the dead and in their own wills, echoing the linkbetween charity and death that was so prominent in Christian culture.23


Majorcan Christian confraternities similarly required members to showdue respect for the remains of members by accompanying them to the ceme-tery, and sometimes specified masses for their souls. Sant Miquel likewisemade provisions for the deceased, regardless of whether they were membersof the confraternity or even lived in Majorca, but did not specify any kind ofprayers. Members had to “do honour” to deceased fellows or their relativesby accompanying their bodies from the home to the church and from thechurch to the cemetery, until burial was complete. That any converso couldbe buried in the confraternity’s cemetery is one example of how the confra-ternity served the needs of the community as a whole.

Fraternities, as a rule, cared for the sick. Jewish communities traditionallyhad a Bikur Holim society devoted to this purpose, and occasionally, theypossessed a hospital.24 In his testament of 1377, for instance, the wealthyMajorcan merchant, Sayt Mili, bequeathed annuities to found and fund a hos-pital for his aljama.25 The regulations of Majorcan trade associations usuallycontained at least one clause pertaining to care of the sick. In contrast, BikurHolim societies offered more extensive care, such as constant vigil in seri-ous cases, assigned to members by rotation.26 Sant Miquel’s statutes includemany clauses dealing with sickness, in which the Jewish precedent is mostvisible, certainly more than in the rules of trade associations. If a member ofSant Miquel or anyone in his immediate family was sick, the officers wouldvisit that person and arrange for constant vigils through a rotation of confra-ternity fellows if necessary. They would also provide an interest-free loan,from confraternal funds, secured on a pawn; in the event that the sick per-son recovered and was deemed solvent enough to repay the loan, the officerswould have him redeem the pledge, or they would auction it off, should theperson refuse.

The extent of religious obligations Jewish confraternities imposed upontheir members varied. Some Jewish confraternities possessed their ownsynagogue, in which they held regular prayer services limited to theircommunity.27 By 1410, members of Sant Miguel had obtained their own“casa” in which to congregate, although the statutes make no mention ofreligious practices to be held there, or anywhere. Still, having their ownspace appears to have been a priority for conversos from early on, possi-bly to escape the gaze of Franciscan monks or the need constantly to requestlicenses from royal administrators to permit meetings. According to reportsthat reached King Martí in 1402, prior to the formal establishment of theirconfraternity, funds collected from conversos to build a so-called “temple”for religious worship had been misdirected to more worldly projects—or asthe king phrased it, “put to vile and sensual uses.”28 Although the king de-manded that the culprits restore the funds to their original purpose, the pro-posed “temple,” as such, was not built.

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* * *

In essence, Sant Miquel offered conversos the social support and welfare thathad previously been available to them as Jews through the aljama or otherJewish organizations. The specific ways in which the confraternity was ad-ministered were, as we shall soon see, also consonant with Jewish custom.Sant Miquel thus provided its members with a sense of continuity with theirJewish past, even while, because of archetypal similarities, its activities repli-cated those of the Christian confraternity. Yet, maintaining old ways was notthe only reason for a separate confraternity. There was also, and notably, thereluctance of Christian bodies to fully accept the former Jews.

When King Martí chastised the local inquisitor for harassing conversosin 1409, he also complained that Old Christians were insulting them, callingthem “cans retallats,” meaning “circumcised dogs.”29 Such attitudes werelikely brewing at the time of Sant Miquel’s inception eight years earlier, and,regardless of the willingness of Old Christians to accept conversos into theirfraternities, these attitudes must have put conversos off, imagining the OldChristians would abandon them in times of need.

The eventual ostracism of conversos, whether socially or in such ar-eas as the holding of public office, is well known, as is also their exclu-sion, arguably at the instigation of the Inquisition, from certain Majorcanconfraternities.30 However, the early development of anti-converso attitudesduring the decades following 1391, both in Majorca and on the peninsula,remains mostly uncharted.31 In Majorca, at least, the attitude of trade con-fraternities, as expressed in their statutes, was ambivalent: some societiesspecifically included conversos, a few excluded them, but in most cases theirstatus was unclear.32

The problem was lineage, and the question was whether conversos hadindeed shed the “dishonour” they bore as Jews. The confraternity of weaversclarified this ambiguity in 1391 by explicitly ruling that conversos could join,“notwithstanding that they are from a lineage of infidels.”33 There was alsofear of contamination on a professional level. The regulations of the carders’guild, for instance, state that if infidels or their descendants were included,“the said trade would deteriorate and be damaged.”34 This proscription mayhave been an attempt on the part of Christian carders to limit competition,to prevent oversaturation, or to exclude social classes deemed professionallyinept. More vaguely, it was feared that should the association accept thoselacking honour, which potentially meant former Jews, the confraternity as awhole would lose respect in the public eye.35

On the other hand, when the goal was to regulate labour, certain trade con-fraternities did include non-Christians, or even made membership mandatory.This was so with tailors, a trade in which Jews, as well as conversos, wereprominent.36 The statutes of the confraternity of tailors stipulated that any


tailor in the city of Majorca, regardless of class or religion—“de qualsevolley estament o condicio”—must pay two diners to the confraternity everySaturday.37 At the same time, Jewish tailors were no doubt exempt, if notprohibited, from undertaking religious obligations such as burial, prayer ormarching in processions on feast days. For their part, and for obvious reasonsof a similar life style and practices, Jews apprenticed with other Jews. Af-ter 1391, conversos did the same among themselves.38 The degree to whichOld Christians in the tailor’s confraternity encouraged this arrangement can-not be said of a certainty, but all other evidence would indicate they werepleased to keep conversos at a distance, whose new Christian identity andhonour were always in some doubt. Close association with them might putthe Old Christians’ own honour at risk.

Tensions between converso and Old Christian tailors at the beginning ofthe fifteenth century reveal the interplay of old honour codes and anti-Jewishattitudes, which baptism was not persuasively held to wash away, regardlessof theological teachings. A letter from the lieutenant governor of Majorca tothe bailiffs of rural parishes in 1416 requested all tailors, except conversos, tocome to the city and march in the procession of the Festa de L’Estandart.39

The governor was likely writing at the request of the confraternity of tai-lors, whose members may have felt they would be impugned were they seenmarching alongside individuals whom their audience still viewed as Jews or“cans retallats.” This ostracism, however, did not altogether dissuade con-versos from taking part in this Christian tradition, but rather—as with SantMiquel—to do so on their own terms. In 1425, Old Christian tailors peti-tioned against the desire of the conversos to march in the city-wide proces-sions of Corpus Christi and Festa de L’Estendard as a separate branch undertheir own banner.40 Whether the petition succeeded is not known, but its exis-tence reveals the conversos’ determination—resented by their Old Christiancounterparts—to participate in the Christian competition for honour that un-derlay civic processions, even if it was not as part of the tailors’ collectivetogether with Old Christians.

The conversos may well have preferred to be separate, seeking a collec-tive prestige that was distinctly New Christian. Later in the fifteenth cen-tury, Castilian conversos wrote apologetica not only defending themselvesas honourable Christians, but arguing that, on account of their Jewish lin-eage, they were inherently and ethnically superior to Old Christians.41 Theepisode of 1425 may have been an early version of this attitude and pride.The same pride was possibly an impetus for the conversos to establish theirown confraternity, regardless of their level of Christian belief or their per-sonal lifestyles that retained a strong Jewish imprint. This converso attitudewas not missed. In the years following the dispute of 1425, other confrater-nities excluded conversos from membership.42

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Nonetheless, when all is said and done, few confraternities establishedspecifically anti-converso statutes until the end of the fifteenth century, at thetime of the first wave of Inquisitional trials. At the time Sant Miquel wasestablished, conversos did have the option of joining Old Christian confra-ternities, especially when they worked in a trade that was regulated throughone. Yet wary of an unwelcoming Old Christian attitude, the conversos feltmore secure in keeping themselves distinct.43

* * *

As tricky as it is to make psychological conjectures concerning the observa-tions I have made thus far, let us pause to reiterate what a confraternity mayhave offered to conversos on an emotional level. After the trauma of 1391and when confronted with Old Christian antagonism, most conversos proba-bly sought the comfort and reliability of familiar, habitual relationships, withpeople they knew and could trust to help them in times of need. Entrenchedloyalties were difficult to break. Even if abandoning their community afterbaptism presented a tempting new beginning for some individuals, they werebound to other conversos and Jews by economic ties that were not so easilysevered, such as common business investments, or financial obligations re-lated to debts and inheritances, not to mention ties of family, or even friend-ship. Archival evidence shows that conversos continued to forge allianceswith one another through marriage, trade and apprenticeship. Confraternalbonds cemented already existing networks, and reinforced a sense of groupresponsibility. For the first generation of converts and their children, baptismadministered under threat of death would not have changed the way theythought, behaved and related with their neighbours, whether they were Jew-ish, converso or Old Christian. For the most part, as we have seen, baptismdid not significantly alter the way Old Christians approached them either.What is more, and most important in determining converso behaviour as agroup, is that from the outset, conversos were treated by both Crown andcreditors as a single collective entity, continuous with the former aljama,particularly for purposes of fiscal administration.

The disappearance of so many Jews throughout the kingdom, and specifi-cally the dissolution of the Majorcan aljama, entailed a major loss of tax rev-enue and subsidies for King Joan, who could not legitimately make as manyfiscal demands upon New Christians as he could on Jews. He no doubt en-couraged the conversos of Majorca to grant him a hefty “donation” of 24,000pounds in order to recoup some of his losses.44 On top of this, conversos wereindividually obligated to relinquish over half of their assets in order repay aconglomerate debt that the former aljama had incurred from various creditorsover the decade preceding their conversion.45 Collecting the donation and re-paying the aljama’s creditors required the converosos to organize themselves


as a group time and time again for well over two decades, to elect leaderswho would represent them in negotiations with royal officials and with credi-tors, and to manage the difficult and complicated task of assessing, collectingand redistributing funds. The donation and debt-tax proved so hard to collect(from both evasive conversos and their debtors) that it was still not completeat the time Sant Miquel was founded in 1404.46 One cannot over-emphasizethe weight of these financial burdens upon conversos, particularly at this vul-nerable juncture, when they lacked a social support net to catch those whocould not keep their head above water.47 The important point, however, isthat these dynamics solidified a mode of thinking about conversos that wouldcontinue.

By the time of the first meeting to establish a converso confraternity, theconversos already had been grouped together and treated as a single fiscaland social entity for a decade, not only from within but from without, inparticular by the Crown and by creditors of the former aljama.48 A collectiveapproach to conversos is evident in royal ordinances as well, which wereaimed specifically at conversos as a group dealing with special protection,exemptions, tax obligations, licenses required for maritime travel, and othermatters that had been affected by the events of 1391. Royal letters even go sofar as to refer to or address the comunitas of conversos.49 Creating a conversoconfraternity simply gave formal shape and rules, although de facto, or bydefault (which view one prefers), to the existing converso community.

Conversos, from their point of view, had reason to favour this distinct,collective status. Possessing their own cemetery and being buried separatelyfrom Old Christians had been a concern from the moment they had beenbaptised.50 Their own forced conversion, anxiety over their own “salvation,”and persisting superstitions that encouraged burial together with their com-munity must have persuaded many to avoid Christian cemeteries—albeit atthe other end of the line, Old Christians were probably reluctant to risk con-taminating their cemeteries with bodies they still considered to be Jewish.At this early stage, it was also natural for conversos to consider themselvesa single community, not to mention that the links with their former Jewishcommunal selves—in this case, with Jewish communal space—had not beencompletely severed. In 1393, conversos protested the king’s sale of the Jewishcemetery on the grounds that they had been using it and were too poor to pur-chase another space. King Joan acquiesced in their request, and ordered thatthe cemetery not be sold.51 It is noteworthy that the king did not simply orderconversos to use existing Christian cemeteries; perhaps he was aware of theresistance such a suggestion would meet on both sides. By 1399, however,the situation had changed, but not toward inclusion. As the testament of theconverso Gerau Tarragona stipulated, he was “to be buried in the cemetery ofthe Franciscan monastery of the city of Majorca”; nonetheless, the burial was

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to be “in that section in which the bodies of conversos are buried.”52 If by theturn of the fifteenth century, conversos were using the Franciscan monasteryas a communal space, not only to hold meetings but also for burial, they weredoing it as a separate converso body, not as one integrated into the overall“Christian corpus.”53

A critical advantage to establishing a confraternity was that while the ef-fective communal status was de facto, the recognition of the confraternityprovided conversos with the corporate, legal standing, de iure, comparableto, if not even technically greater than that once possessed by the Jewish al-jama. Among other things, it made the confraternity eligible for the creditnecessary to purchase a distinct cemetery and meeting place. In addition,as the confraternity collected and invested membership dues, it would haveacquired assets with which to secure loans, the way the aljama could se-cure loans on the taxes it collected, or other properties and investments. Theconfraternity was also made up of members who could be identified and col-lectively held responsible for payments. A royal letter issued just after theconfirmation of the confraternity’s statutes, in February 1410, instructs thegovernor to support its officers in their collection of a tax from all membersof the confraternity, as well as from all conversos. This tax was intended topay for various expenditures made by the confraternity for the “public bene-fit and good” of conversos, including the purchase of land for a cemetery.54

Here, the expenses and credit incurred by the legal entity of the confraternitywere for the benefit of all the conversos of Majorca, regardless of their mem-bership, and they were all expected to share the burden, thus blurring the linebetween the normal activities of a confraternity and a community.

* * *

It is in this context, of Sant Miquel assuming the place of the comunitasconversorum, that the Majorcan historian Álvaro Santamaría refers to theconfraternity as “a society within another society,” modelled on the formerJewish aljama.55 He highlights the parallels between the responsibilities ofthe confraternity’s officers, as defined in its statutes, and the former aljama’ssecretaries, especially with reference to their judicial and peace-making re-sponsibilities, as well as their fiscal capacities, including their authority to taxmembers in order to cover extraordinary costs. On this basis, Santamaría con-cludes that the founders of Sant Miquel were harking back, trying to recreatetheir former aljama inasmuch as they could within the confines of a Chris-tian confraternity. He neglects, however, that its leadership operated in waysthat reflected the more likely precedent of pre-existing Christian, as well asJewish, confraternities. Indeed, there was much common ground between thegovernance of confraternities, be they Jewish or Christian, and the former al-jama, as the 1410 statutes make eminently clear.


The statutes of Sant Miquel stipulate that four officers, called sobreposats,be elected annually on the day after the feast of Saint Michael, which fell onthe 29th of September. As the governing body they made most decisions,such as how much and to whom charity or other services would be distrib-uted, while certain issues required the input of six additional advisors, forinstance, when approving new members. Confraternal funds were stored ina cash box which remained with one of the sobreposats. Each of the othersguarded one of the three keys used to unlock it. Account books detailing howfunds were administered were to be reconciled and transferred annually tothe newly elected leaders. The sobreposats also were expected to enforce therule of peace among members and mediate intra-member disputes. Memberswho did not comply with judgements of the sobreposats or showed themdisrespect were fined. The penalty was harsher if the disrespect occurred inpublic. In extreme cases where members “falsely accused” or “dealt badly”with other members, or with the sobreposats themselves, the latter could ex-pel them from the confraternity with the approval of six advisors.

It would have been difficult for Santamaría or any scholar to ignore the re-semblance to the former aljama’s secretariats, which, too, had four annuallyelected members, and whose responsibilities included distributing charity,judging disputes, and keeping accounts, which were then presented publiclyto successors at the end of the year-long term. Like the sobreposats, aljamasecretaries, too, lacked the authority to make decisions in difficult cases with-out the collaboration and vote of supplementary councillors. Moreover, thedeference owed to the sobreposats is reminiscent of the treatment accordedto the secretaries, and the seriousness with which false accusations were dealtrecalls the aljama’s stance against malsinim, or talebearers.56 Of special noteis the preoccupation in both the confraternity and the aljama with avoidingintra-communal conflict. Here, the continuity with the Jewish past stands outsharply. Whereas most confraternities often had one statute devoted to thisproblem, Sant Miquel had six, including numerous rules pertaining to respectof leaders and other members during meetings. The memory of bad bloodwithin the community and its destructive potential was especially strong forRabbi Simon ben Zemah Duran (the “Rashbaz”), who himself had fled Ma-jorca in 1391. A responsum he wrote from his exile in North Africa, shortlybefore the conversion of the entire community in 1435, blames communalfeuds and factionalism for the disaster of 1391.57 Continual wrangling andrecrimination, he said, made the island’s Jews more vulnerable. This asser-tion, to be sure, was not new—to some extent, it was traditional rabbinicmoralizing—but it was clearly an issue that concerned Majorca’s conversosin their confraternity as much, if not more, than it had concerned the aljamain the past.

However, none of this should obscure that much of the material in SantMiquel’s statutes is also common to that found in Christian confraternities,

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as well as Jewish ones, too.58 This common ground created a level field ofplay on which conversos could retain defining elements of ancestral customswhile still exchanging their social referent from a Jewish to a Christian one.It was a locus for linking the past to the present, and even the future, andin which conversos could take a subtle yet critical step on the path towardsChristianization without being forced into a traumatic break with their ha-bitual way of life. They could, while retaining a group identity as conver-sos (read, those conscious of having once been, if not, in many ways, still,Jews), nonetheless, be part of an institution that was identifiably Christian,anchored, furthermore, firmly within the ambit of Christian culture. Indeed,the confraternity was named after a Christian “saint,” even if—and notablyso—the angel Michael was also part of Jewish tradition.

At the same time, the 1410 statutes invoked the Virgin Mary and HolyTrinity, and members took oaths on the New Testament, revealing that thepresent, though possessing ties to the past, was no longer the past itself.These cues signalled a certain resignation, possibly subconscious, to acceptreligious change. No doubt, individual conversos passed through the stagesof transition each in his or her own way and speed, but members of the firstgeneration—that of 1391—did lay the groundwork, in spite of themselvesperhaps, for assimilation to Christianity in coming generations; to the extent,that is, that the unending tension between Old and New Christians wouldpermit it.59

In his study of the Sant Cristòfol confraternity in the city of Valencia, alsocomposed of conversos, Jaime Castillo-Sainz reaches similar conclusions.60

In particular, Castillo sees the confraternity as continuing the aljama’s roleof defending the common interests of Jews against an often hostile dominantculture while providing for the community’s welfare. Since Sant Cristòfollooked like any other Christian confraternity, theoretically it could serve asa protective curtain behind which conversos could maintain pre-baptismalsocial structures and celebrate life-cycle events together, preserving somesemblance of Jewish tradition.61 While it was necessary for their survival toshow an authentic Christian face, Castillo writes, for the most part the firstgeneration of converts could not separate themselves from their former com-munity, a “failure” he attributes, to a large extent, to economic exigenciescarried over from the former aljama, as well as new, collective fiscal obliga-tions to the king. Yet, as we shall suggest, Castillo also feels that the existenceand sentiment of belonging to a converso community eroded with time, andthat its members, especially in succeeding generations, were brought togetheronly when there was a need to address lingering economic problems. By the1420s, he claims, Valencia’s converso confraternity represented a fraction ofthe converso population, which was by then dispersed across the city; bythen, some conversos may have viewed association with the confraternity as


a social hindrance. It was only at the start of their experience that a specifi-cally converso confraternity was justified, at least in the sense that it provideda “mechanism by which to restructure according to Christian parameters”without the need to renounce social and cultural roots.62

Sant Miquel, too, may have faded in a short time. No documentation aboutit has surfaced that dates beyond 1416, so we cannot say exactly how longit lasted or whether it gradually became more and more “truly Catholic,” orto what extent its members wished to ally themselves more strongly withmainstream Christian culture.63 Hence, to gauge the extent to which SantMiquel played, or even fulfilled, a transition role in Christianizing conversosand for how long it continued to do this is difficult to surmise.64 Besides,and to complicate matters, integrating into mainstream society did not neces-sarily prevent one from maintaining Jewish customs or old social networks.There was also the difficult to measure ambivalence displayed by conversotailors, as we saw above, seeking to march under their own banner in urbanprocessions, yet demonstrably as Christians.

That the confraternities had their unique aspects must also be realized.Castillo’s analysis of the statutes of converso confraternities of Valencia, aswell as in Gandia and Barcelona, which led him to conclude that they werefundamentally the same in form as Old Christian confraternities, seems tobe going too far. Sant Miquel’s subtle yet significant divergences from thatnorm make clear the need to search out nuance, even uniqueness. As San-tamaría noted, members of Sant Miquel were expected to pay weekly almson Fridays, in contrast to the practise of most Christian confraternities to payon Saturdays, known as sabatizar: a practise adhered to by Santa Trinitat inBarcelona, some of whose members—perhaps the decisive factor— were OldChristians.65 Was this Friday contribution intended to replicate the custom,documented at least for Jews in Muslim countries, to give alms before theSabbath?66 We cannot know. But we do know that the exclusively conversoconfraternities of Sant Christòfol in Valencia and Sant Christòfol in Gandiaappear to have circumvented the practise of sabatizar by requiring paymentat quarterly meetings rather than weekly ones.67

A second and more critical feature that distinguishes Sant Miquel fromany other of the confraternities discussed until now is the absence of explic-itly religious directives in its statutes,68 which do not include, for instance,the typical regulations for masses or other religious celebrations to be heldon the feast day of the patron saint.69 Absent as well are standard instructionsto recite prayers for the dead at the time of a member’s interment or at otherauspicious times, and the somewhat less pervasive injunction to carry can-dles marked with a cross during funerary processions.70 The only Christianelement when it came to burial was the clause that “it should please the kingto have the bishop of Majorca or the pope order blessed and consecrated—as

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is necessary—the . . . place which the members purchased . . . as a cemetery.”Of course, it is tempting to attribute this lack of Christian religious elementsin Sant Miquel’s statutes to a reticence, on the part of Majorcan conversos,to engage in explicitly Christian worship. But potentially just as determi-nant were the statutes of local Christian trade confraternities that would haveserved as models for Sant Miquel; and these generally had little religiouscontent, save for the celebration of feast days, compared to that prescribed inthe statutes of the devotional confraternities that became popular later in thefifteenth century.

* * *

What does all this say about converso identity, or more precisely, collectiveconverso identity? Conversos desired to achieve a degree of honour and re-spect among Old Christians, perhaps both in reaction to, and in order finallyto possess, the honour, meaning the prestige, that the law and society had de-nied them as Jews. Possessing honour, however, entailed conformity, at leastin public, to Christian practice. Hence, conversos formed confraternities thatparadoxically facilitated on a social level, maintaining a separate, collectiveidentity whose structures rested largely on those of a shared Jewish past. Thiscollective identity within a formal body must also have allowed conversos toassociate with others of their ilk who thought as they did about the natureand ends of religious observance. Baptism, the Eucharist, and Christian con-cepts of the salvation of the soul were all foreign to Jews and Judaism. Onemay have become a Christian, and one may have gone through life actinglike one. But this does not mean the convert also thought like a Christian.The convert and his fellows organized like Christians and established confra-ternities. Yet by keeping ritual in Sant Miquel at a low pitch—which mightnot have been such cause for suspicion in Majorca given the example setby trade confrtaernities—the Majorcan conversos could, collectively, avoidconfronting the full consequences of conversion. Along with his fellows, ina setting of this kind, the former Jew would not be left alone to harbour hisdoubt, and perhaps, too, his sense of having betrayed his past.

Still, this point may be overplayed. It is, and has been, all too easily ro-manticized, and to be content with it alone is also to simplify that which, aswe know from other places to be highly complex:71 one thinks of reactions toexile, in which the exiled simultaneously cherish the old, yet distance them-selves from it, and pursue integration at some level with the new. Thus asmuch as religious concerns may have motivated the confraternity’s conver-sos, or pushed them to distance themselves from Old Christians in the moreintimate aspects of their lives, such as marriage, apprenticeship, burial or so-cial welfare—the fact is that “old habits” are not easily broken. Within andbeyond the confines of the confraternity, conversos continued to associate


with, and rely upon, the same people they had trusted as Jews. Most con-versos may have made peace with their fate, even seen it as a relief fromthe cauldron of staying Jewish in late medieval Spain. But as Carlos CarreteParrondo has written, surely they also felt “nostalgia for the past,” whichsomehow needed to be acted out.72 And we must not neglect inertia. To re-verse the image just presented, one may have persuaded himself to think likea Christian, but it was ever so difficult to stop acting, and conceptualizing,like a Jew. Sant Miquel is a case in point. It offers us a view of both sides ofthe fence.

Appendix: Translation of the 1410 statutes of the Novella Confraria deSant Miquel73

By Manel Frau and Natalie Oeltjen74

[LATIN TEXT; BSAL 361; ACA fol. 54r]

We, Martí, by the grace of God king of Aragon, Sicily, etc.75 Because fre-quent prayer and the distribution of alms extinguish the effrontery of vices,and because the vanity of the soul is cured by nothing better than the distri-bution of alms and the frequency of pious and charitable works, addressingyour humble request, respectable men [lit. prohoms] and conversos of theCity and Kingdom of Majorca, to establish and create a confraternity withour license and permission to the praise and glory of our omnipotent LordJesus Christ and his mother the most glorious Virgin Mary, and out of rever-ence and honor of the blessed Archangel Michael, and under the invocationof the same blessed Michael, we deign to confirm and concede once againthe following chapters:

[CATALAN TEXT BEGINS]

Since the destruction of the Jewish quarter [lit. call] of the City and Kingdomof Majorca, various seizures of their possessions and other circumstanceshave prevented the conversos from living according to a rule, until now, inthis blessed time, in which the Lord God has stirred the wills of the saidconversos to place themselves and some of their successors [under] the [reli-gious] rule and in the confraternity described below.

Therefore, we have decided to establish a certain confraternity in the cityof Majorca to the honor and reverence of our Lord God the father, son andholy spirit and of the humble Madonna Saint Mary and of all the celes-tial court, under the title and invocation of the most high prince Lord Saint

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Michael Archangel, such that the newly established confraternity will be acause and beginning of some pious work.

For this reason, the said conversos, having first requested, with devoutreverence, a license concerning these matters from the most high prince andvictorious Lord Martí, King of Aragon by the grace of God, and having al-ready obtained [such a license], now [BSAL 362] create, establish and ordaina confraternity under the rule, statutes and articles [lit. capitols] that follow.

[Article numbers do not appear in BSAL but do appear in the margins of theoriginal letter housed at the ACA]

1. First, since in the City of Majorca there exists a notable confraternityestablished under the invocation of the glorious lord Saint Michael, andthis newly established confraternity should [therefore] be called [instead]the New Confraternity of Saint Michael, we humbly beg and request thatthis confraternity be named New Confraternity of Saint Michael.

2. We beg and request that, once the king has granted all the articles thatwe are requesting, or at least the majority of them, [the conversos] maycongregate in the house which has been purchased and amortized for theuse of the said confraternity in order to conduct its affairs without incur-ring any penalty nor requesting a further license from any royal official.A notary [shall be] summoned, in the presence of whom the confrater-nity members, having sworn on the evangels, shall elect as officers [lit.sobreposats] four good men from the assembled, by majority vote andaccording to the “scrutiny” method,76 without any hate, undue affection,rancor, undue favor or malevolence towards anybody, according to theirconscience [fol. 54v]; the notary must faithfully record the votes and thefour elected [members] shall be installed as officers of the New Confra-ternity of Saint Michael in the City of Majorca;

3. the said four men thus elected must swear by God and by the four saintevangels, in the presence of the notary, to govern the confraternity welland loyally while in office, to the benefit and honour of the confraternityand its members, while maintaining divine honor and reverence and allloyalty and honor towards the king;

4. concerning the said election and all other activities of the confraternity,whose nature will be determined henceforth by the officers and the mem-bers, if they agree to it [by majority], they can have official records madeby a public notary of their choice, and that this notary may be changedat their will;

5. the officers are obligated to hold their office well and faithfully fromthe day they have been elected until the day after the next feast of SaintMichael;


6. within eight days after the feast has passed, the members, or the majorityof them, can meet in the said house of the confraternity, and elect fournew officers for the next year according to the rules described above;that every year henceforth four officers be elected and installed in thatsame manner to hold office, who are obligated to govern in the afore-mentioned manner, after swearing on the evangels in the said manner, inthe presence of the four exiting officers, and of the notary if they wish;

7. that the officers may meet at any time in the confraternity house with allor part of the members without having to obtain a license from any royalofficial, as many times as they want and as often as they wish, in orderto conduct the affairs of the confraternity;

8. the officers should have a cash-box with three different locks in whichthey must keep all the revenues of the confraternity, and three of theofficers should each have a key, and the fourth, who does not have akey, should have the cash-box in his possession, for the duration of theiroffice;

9. any converso man or woman deemed fit by the four officers, or by amajority of them, may be admitted into the said confraternity with thecounsel of six other members selected by the officers for that end;

10. upon joining the confraternity, the said [new] members must promiseand swear in [fol. 55r] the hands of the officers that, with all their ability,they will act according the current or future statutes of the confraternity,and that they will obey these rules according to their form and content;

11. before a member is admitted to the confraternity they must pay the offi-cers whatever they agree upon with them, or with the majority of them,and that each [new member] will pay the messenger [lit. missatge] ormanefle77 one sou for the entry;

12. the members must love and honour [amar e honrar] one another andtreat each other fraternally, as good confraternal brothers [lit. confrares];and if a conflict or confrontation breaks out among them, the said officersmust broker peace between them; and if one of the said members [BSAL363] refuses to make peace, he or she must pay five sous to the cash box,if it seems fit and reasonable to the officers to do so;

13. if one of the members is a false accuser or deals badly with the confra-ternity or its members, the officers, with the counsel of six notables [lit.prohoms], may expel that person from the confraternity and thereafterhe or she will not be able to return to it or to enjoy [its benefits]; and ifhe or she owes something to the confraternity, they can levy it from himthrough the court or its messenger or saig;78

14. if one of the members, while in council, causes a disturbance and isadmonished by the officers or by anybody else who hears him, and hestill continues to make disturbance, he can be fined up to two sous foreach instance, payable to the cash box;

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15. if one of the members dishonors another one while they are in counciltogether he must pay two sous each time, payable to the cash-box; nomember of the confraternity should disrespect an officer who is in office,and if he does so, he shall be fined five sous for each instance, payableto the cash box;79

16. if the officers send their messenger to summon one of the members forthe sake of affairs of the confraternity and he does wish not to go, butrather disdains their summons, he is to be fined two sous, payable to thecash-box;

17. none of the members should dare to injure the confraternity’s manefle ormessenger on duty, under pain of two sous for each instance, payable tothe cash box;80

18. if one of the members, or their wife or children should die, from themoment the officers are informed they should have their messenger an-nounce it and call together all the members to bury the deceased; and ifone of them does not show up, he must pay five sous to the cash box foreach time; and if the said manefle does not call a particular member, hemust pay [fol. 55v] more sous for each time he omits somebody;

19. if one of the members takes a wife, or his son or daughter gets engagedor married [lit. fayen noces o sponcalicis], as soon as it is announcedto the officers they should send their messenger to call and assembleall the members to do honor to that [member] at the ceremony of theengagement or the wedding; and if any of the members do not come,they must pay one sou to the cash box each time; and if the said manefledoes not announce it [to a member] he must pay six diners each time aperson is omitted, [payable] to the cash-box;

20. none of the members can excuse themselves from the said burials, en-gagements or weddings without incurring the said fine of one sou, un-less legitimately prevented from attending whether by absence [from thecity] or sickness or some hindrance which truly prevented them fromattending;

21. if one of the members or their sons or daughters should be sick and it isreported to the officers, [the officers] should go and visit that person, andif the sick person is in need and possesses objects which he can pawn [lit.penyores] the officers may lend money from the confraternity up to thevalue of the pawn, which should be placed in their possession, and whenhe [or she] is relieved of his [or her] illness, if he [or she] refuses to re-deem the pawn, the officers may have it sold by their messenger withouta warrant from any judge or court; and if the sale of the pawn producesmore money than [the amount] owed plus interest [lit. messions],81 theofficers shall restore the surplus to the owner of the pawn;


22. if one of the members, or his wife, mother, father or child is sick, andthey wish that the sick person be watched over, the officers should ordertwo of the members of the confraternity to go and watch over the sickperson; and if one of the members fails to keep the said vigil they mustpay two sous for each night they do not attend, [payable] to the cash-box;

23. if one of the members, his wife, parents or children are detained in prisonand do not have anyone to defend them, and if it is requested of the offi-cers, and the officers know that [the member] is poor, they should providefor the prisoner from the funds of the confraternity, and in addition theyshould defend or provide defence for him to the judge before whom theprisoner will be summoned; and if it appears to them that he is not aneedy poor [ lit. pobre freturant], they can loan him [money secured] onpawns as they would do if he were sick;

24. when one of the members, [BSAL 364] their wife or parents or childrendie, the officers can select members to carry the body of the deceased[adult] or child from the house to the church, and from the church tothe cemetery, and to help bury it; and if a member chosen for that taskrefuses to do it, they must pay one sou per person and per instance. Inorder to avoid that the properties of the confraternity be mishandled [lit.irrogats] or distributed only among members of the confraternity, greatermerit could be obtained rather from the distribution of [these funds] if theofficers [fol. 56r] find any [other] converso or conversa [to donate themto], whether or not [they are] from the City and Kingdom of Majorca,and whether or not they wish to be members of the confraternity; theofficers can give and distribute the said [confraternal funds] to supportthe needs [of that poor person], as the officers see fit;

[BSAL 380]

25. if a converso or conversa who is not a member of confraternity—whetherfrom the City of Majorca or a foreigner—is found to be miserably poor[lit. pobre miserable] and to have nowhere to be buried, the officers canhave that person buried in the cemetery of the confraternity. However,if it is found that the deceased or interred person has some possessions,the officers can recover, from those possessions, any expenses caused bythat person’s illness or burial;

26. if friends or relatives of a deceased enter the confraternity or are buriedin its cemetery, they should contribute to pay the expenses of the con-fraternity and to its cash-box, as they agree upon with all the officers, orwith the majority of them, as they see fit;

27. current and future members of the confraternity must pay two diners perweek to the confraternity, which will go towards alms and [the confra-ternity’s] affairs;

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28. the officers, together with at least six members gathered in the [confra-ternity’s] house, can select a manefle in order to assemble the memberswhenever it is necessary to execute other affairs of the confraternity;

29. that the officers, together with the members or the majority of them, ifthey deem it necessary and as often as they wish, may dismiss a maneflefrom his office or select and vary them as deemed necessary; and that thenew manefle shall take an oath in the presence of the officers to performhis tasks duly and legally, and to give an accurate report of that [message]which has been dictated [for him to convey];

30. said manefle shall receive, as soon as he is hired, one sou from eachofficer which they must pay out of their own [pocket];

31. each and every time the officers call a council they should pay the mane-fle, from the confraternal funds, one sou;

32. each time the manefle assembles the members to attend the wedding orfuneral of one of the members [or their said relatives], if that member ispoor, the officers shall pay the manefle or messenger twelve diners outof the confraternal funds; but if the officers deem that the member [orhis or her relative]for whom the job was done is able to pay this money,then he [or she] shall directly pay the manefle two sous for each time heperforms a job;

33. if someone refuses to pay to the cash-box any of the quantities referredto above, [incurred] for the reasons listed above, the manefle, by orderof the officers, can seize pawns to be auctioned or sold in order to paythe amounts owed to the confraternity, without a license from any judge[fol. 56v] or from the notables [lit. prohoms]; and if [the member] re-fuses, this can be done [i.e. his properties seized] through the court or itssaig or messenger;

34. the manefle shall have four diners for each pawn he takes from the pos-sessions of the said members [who had to surrender one]; the manefleshall have four diners for each sale of a pawn taken from [members whohad to surrender one (lit. penyorats)];82

35. the manefle should be believed and trusted by the officers and members,and they should act according to his account;

36. if the manefle is found to have relayed a false account—or to have com-mitted fraud in his office—once it is proven so, the officers along withthe council or its majority should expel him from office never again tobe called upon by a member of the confraternity, nor may he return to it,under pain of twenty sous to the cash-box; the officers can have a courtsaig or messenger of the court seize the fine;

37. if a converso wishes to enter [BSAL 381] the confraternity and he appearsto be of such a status [lit. condició] that the officers think he should enterthe confraternity as [its] grave digger, that member should serve as the


grave digger for as many years as he agrees upon with the officers; andno one else can dig graves in the cemetery without express permissionof the officers;

38. the said grave digger or diggers should dig and cover over the graves ofthe members [male or female] and their children, as ordered to by anyone of the officers; and he will be fined two sous each time he disobeys,payable to the cash-box; and if the grave digger has to be paid but thedeceased was too poor, the officers may pay the digger from the cash-box, or let him be paid from the deceased’s possessions, or from thepossessions of the deceased’s parents, as the officers see fit;

39. if the officers grant a license to someone to dig graves in the cemetery,that person should come to an agreement with the gravedigger(s) of theconfraternity, as the officers see fit;

40. the officers of the confraternity cannot give gifts or services from theproperties of the confraternity without the counsel of ten of its memberschosen by them, and if they do so [i.e. without counsel], they must pay[for it] out of their own [pocket];

41. none of the members should dare to quarrel with any of the officers inplazas or [street] corners or in other places, under pain of twenty sous foreach incident, half of which shall go to the royal treasury and the otherhalf to the confraternity’s cash-box;

42. if any of the members or another converso who is not a member is held incaptivity, the officers can aid in their rescue, according to their judgment,but the aid cannot amount to more than five pounds;

43. if one of the members has a daughter or [female] relative to be marriedand is poor, the officers may help them up to the amount of four florins;

44. immediately following the election of the second turn of officers, andothers elected annually henceforth, the members, or at least a majorityof them, should elect six notables [fol. 57r] from among the member-ship, and in their presence, the officers who have just finished their termshould render an account [of finances] to the four new officers, and re-store everything in their possession which pertains to the confraternityunder pain of one hundred sous per person who disobeys, half going tothe royal treasury and half to the cash-box;

45. no officer can select a proxy for his office, whether because he is absentor for any other reason;

46. if one of the members of the confraternity be away from the island ofMajorca, and they have other properties on the island, they should pay[their dues] from these properties to the confraternity as if [he or she]were present;

47. the officers, through the manefle, may seize possessions [of a member, toenforce the payment of debt to the confraternity] in the manner described

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above, whether owed to the confraternity as a result of the fines or debtsdescribed in the articles above, or as a result of a pledge or any othermanner, even if such pledges were made prior to the approval of thepresent statutes. If need be, they can enforce payment through the courtor its messenger.

And because of the great perils in crossing the sea as a result of enemyattacks [i.e. by pirates or corsairs] and in other ways, it would be verydangerous if some matter should require a ruling either because of somedoubt which may challenge the said articles, or for some other reason; itshould [therefore] please the King to grant license to a representative [lit.veusportant] of the governor, present or future, such that if any articlesare presented to him by the officers to be confirmed [lit. declaratoris] forthe benefit of the confraternity, the current or future representative may,according to his judgment, sign [and therefore confirm] those articles—or have them signed [i.e. by a proxy]—just as if they were signed by theking himself;

48. the officers of the confraternity for the current year should remain intheir office until the next feast of Saint Michael, so that the affairs ofthe confraternity, with which they are already acquainted, shall be betterdealt with, and [also] so that they complete their year without infamy orloss of prestige [lit. minva] on their part;

49. it should please the king to have the bishop of Majorca or the pope blessand consecrate, as is necessary, the plot or place which the members[already] purchased and amortized, as well as any other plot or placewhich they will purchase and amortize as a cemetery (or cemeteries) inthe city of Majorca;

[end of capitols—reverts to Latin]

Benignly responding to the said supplication and considering that the abovearticles, [BSAL 382] with which the said confraternity and spiritual societyare built, strive towards the worship and reverence of God, and to the charityand stability of [one’s] neighbor—[virtues] by which the teaching [lit. pre-ceptum] of the Lord is chiefly observed—[we are] persuaded by reverenceand a special devotion that we bear for the blessed Archangel Michael, [thatwe should] merit to cause you to partake in good and pious works; [there-fore] by tenor of the present [letter] we praise, approve, ratify and confirm[fol. 58r] each and every one of the above chapters [. . .]

[Summarizing: King Marti orders the governor and all other royal officialsto uphold this concession and ratifies it with his seal. Dated in the house ortower of Bellesguard near Barcelona, January 28, 1410.]83


Notes

1. ARM AH G6 (Llicències i guiatges): 26r (February 11, 1401).2. ARM AH G6: 53v (April 4, 1402).3. A transcription of the 1404 statutes has been published in Bolleti de la Societat Arque-

ològica Lulliana 7: 408–410. The 1410 statutes are found in ACA CR 2271: 54r–57r(January 8, 1410), and are also published in BSAL 21: 361–364 and 380–382, albeit froma different source: the document published in BSAL, dated July 15, 1415, exists in theARM collection of Lletres Reials and records the recitation, before the governor, of theroyal letter confirming the statutes that is currently housed in the ACA. Thus far there isno record of the confraternity formally taking on the name of Sant Miquel until 1410.

4. ACA CR 2271: 59r–60r (February 12, 1410).5. We know this from the testament of the Majorcan Jew Sayt Mili, who in 1377 established

a hospital to be funded by perpetual rents, and also bequeathed six pounds and ten sousto each of the following confraternities: Kabbarim (burial society), Sobreolim (society forcare of the sick), dels Mesquins (for the poor) and Talmut Thora (for education of youngboys). See Estanislau Aguiló, “Testament de Sayt Mili, juheu fundador d’un hospital enel call de Mallorca (1377),” BSAL 9 (1901–1902): 203–204; Álvaro Santamaría Arán-dez, “La asistencia a los pobres en Mallorca en el Bajomedievo,” Anuario de estudiosMedievales 13 (1983): 381–406.

6. ACA 1997: 139v–140v (October 1, 1394).7. See for example: Yitzhak Baer, A History of the Jews in Christian Spain. 2 vols. (Philadel-

phia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1966); Haim Beinart, “The Converso Com-munity in Fifteenth Century Spain,” in R.D. Barnett (ed.), The Sephardi Heritage, vol. 1(New York: Ktav, 1971), pp. 425–478; Benzion Netanyahu, The Origins of the Inquisitionin Fifteenth Century Spain (New York: Random House, 1994); Carlos Carrete Parrondo,“Nostalgia for the Past (and for the Future?) among Castilian ‘Judeoconversos”’ Mediter-ranean Historical Review 6 (1991) 25–43; John Edwards, “Religious Faith and Doubt inLate Medieval Spain: Soria Circa 1450–1500,” Past and Present 120 (1988); FranciscoMárquez Villanueva, “Conversos y cargos concejiles en el siglo XV,” Revista de archivos,bibliotecas y museos 63 (1957); Ellis Rivkin, “How Jewish were the New Christians?” inHispania Judaica: Studies in the History, Language, and Literature of the Jews in the His-panic World, vol. I, eds. J. Sola-Sole, S.G. Armistead, and Silverman (Barcelona: Puvill-Editor, 1980); Jaime Contreras, “Family and patronage: The Judeo-Converso minorityin Spain,” in Cultural Encounters: The Impact of the Inquisition in Spain and the NewWorld, eds. Mary Elizabeth Perry and Anne J. Cruz (Berkeley: University of CaliforniaPress, 1991); Scarlett Freund and Tefilio Ruiz, “Jews, Conversos, and the Inquisition inSpain, 1391–1492,” in Jewish-Christian Encounters over the Centuries, eds. Marvin Perryand Frederick M. Schweitzer (New York: Peter Lang, 1994); Steven Haliczer, Inquisitionand Society in the Kingdom of Valencia, 1478–1834 (Berkeley: Univresity of CaliforniaPress, 1990); Eleazar Gutwirth, “Conversions to Christianity amongst Fifteenth-CenturySpanish Jews: An Alternative Explanation,” in Shlomo Simonsohn Jubilee Volume; Stud-ies on the History of the Jews in the Middle Ages and Renaissance Period. Eds. DanielCarpi et al. (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 1993).

8. In his useful outline of earlier scholarship on converso identity, David Graizbord citesmore recent works that do include a wider range of sources to “compose sociologicalportraits,” albeit for post-expulsion periods. See Souls in Dispute: Converso Identities inIberia and the Jewish Diaspora, 1580–1700 (Philadelphia: University of PennsylvaniaPress, 2004), 8–12.

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9. See for example, ARM AH 64: 37r (March 11, 1392); ACA 1995: 191v (February 26,1393); 2266: 109v (June 17, 1402), 162v–163r (January 23, 1403); 2269: 151v–152r (June30, 1407).

10. See for example the documents published in BSAL 9: 243 (1399) and BSAL 6: 343 (1400).11. Until pope Benedict XIII established an independent Majorcan tribunal in 1413, partly

in response to the growing number of conversos there, the inquisitor acting in Majorcawas a lieutenant of the tribunal of Roussillon. See Mateu Colom i Palmer, La Inquisicióa Mallorca (1488–1578) (Barcelona: Curial, 1992), 18; Salo W. Baron, Social and Reli-gious History of the Jews, Volume 13: Late Middle Ages and Era of European Expansion(1200–1650): Inquisition, Renaissance, and Reformation, 2nd ed. (New York: ColumbiaUniversity Press, 1970), 309 n12.

12. See Mark Meyerson, A Jewish Renaissance in Fifteenth-century Spain (Princeton: Prince-ton University Press, 2004), Chap. 1.

13. AH 419: 121 bis.14. Graizbord has raised this issue in his discussions of the problematics of Inquisition

records, and of religion versus ethnicity as “categories of analysis” of converso identity.See “Religion and Ethnicity Among ‘Men of the Nation’: Toward a realistic Interpreta-tion,” Jewish Social Studies n.s. 15, no. 1 (Fall 2008): 32–65.

15. See James William Brodman, Charity and Welfare: Hospitals and the Poor in MedievalCatalonia (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998), 6, 8–9, 31, 125; Al-varo Santamaria, “La asistencia a los pobres en Mallorca en el Bajomedievo,” Anuario deestudios medievales 13 (1983): 381–406; Larry J. Simon, “Hospitals and Poor Relief inRamon Lull’s Majorca,” The Devil, Heresy and Witchcraft in the Middle Ages: Essays inHonor of Jeffrey B. Russell (Leiden: Brill, 1998), 1–17.

16. This assertion is based on the rather scant scholarship on charitable associations in latemedieval Majorca, which focuses on guilds (most of which might be properly called tradeconfraternities). Judging from the statutes that have been published in early issues of theBSAL (1889–1933) and in Antoni Pons’ Ordinacions gremials i altres capitols a Majorca(1930), Sant Miquel appears to be the first non-trade-based association. On the differ-ences between guilds and trade confraternities, and the movement towards devotionalconfraeternities, see Gregoria Cavero Domínguez, Las cofradías en Astorga durante laedad media (Universidad de Leon, 1992): 35–59; 289. For devotional confraternities inMajorca see BSAL 24 (1932–1933).

17. Alvaro Santamaria, “La asistencia a los pobres en Majorca en el bajomedievo,” Anuariode estudios medievales 13 (1983): 393–394, 400.

18. For instance, in 1312 the Majorcan tailors met in the church of Santa Margalida, and theirstatutes specified prayers to be said in the chapel of the Blessed Virgins of the MadonnaSanta Maria del Carmen. See Pons, Ordinacions, 102.

19. See Yom Tov Assis, The Golden Age of Aragonese Jewry: Community and Society in theCrown of Aragon, 1213–1327 (London: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 1997)243; Isidore Epstein, Studies in the Communal Life of the Jews of Spain; as reflectedin the Responsa of Rabbi Solomon ben Adreth and Rabbi Simon ben Zemach Duran:The Responsa of Rabbi Solomon ben Adreth of Barcelona (1235–1310) (New York: Her-man Press, 1968), 70; Asunción Blasco Martínez, “Instituciones socioreligiosas judías deZaragoza (siglos XIV–XV). Sinagogas, cofradías, hospitales,” Sefarad, 50: 1 (1990): 8.

20. Epstein, The Responsa of Rabbi Solomon ben Adreth, 69–70.21. Epstein, The Responsa of Rabbi Solomon ben Adreth, 66–68; Cf. Assis, Golden Age, 249–

251; Blasco Martinez, “Instituciones sociorreligiosas,” 30–40.22. To compare with Early Modern Italian examples see Elliott Horowitz “Jewish Confra-

ternal Piety in Sixteenth-Century Ferrara: Continuity and Change,” The Politics of Ritual


Kinship, ed. Nicholas Terpstra (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 150–154;Mauro Perani and Bracha Rivlin, eds., Vita religiosa ebraica a Bologna nel cinquecento(Florence: La Giuntina, 2000), 104–106.

23. For a discussion of the influence of Christian customs on Jewish practices surroundingcharity and burial see Judah Galinsky, “Jewish Charitable Bequests and the Hekdesh Trustin Thirteenth-Century Spain,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 35 (2005): 439. SeeBlasco Martinez, “Instituciones socioreligiosas,” for the influence of Christian trade con-fraternities on the establishment of Jewish ones.

24. For an example of a Jewish confraternity that administered care to the sick in sixteenth-century Italy, see Perani and Rivlin, 105.

25. Aguiló, “Testament de Sayt Mili,” 203–204.26. Blasco Martinez, “Instituciones socioreligiosas,” 27–29; Assis, Golden Age, 246–248.27. For instance, the Jewish confraternities of Bicorolim and of the tanners in Zaragoza. See

Blasco Martinez, “Instituciones socioreligiosas,” 9.28. ACA CR 2266: 109v–110r (June 17, 1402). The tax collection which this letter refers

to was likely the aforementioned, organized in 1401. Surely the money was devoted tocommunal needs—even debts—which were more pressing than building a Christian placeof worship.

29. ACA CR 2271: 15v–16r (November 2, 1409); the presentation of this letter by conversorepresentatives before the regent governor in October 1410 is published in BSAL 24: 402,420.

30. For a discussion of anti-converso legislation specifically in Majorca, see Gabriel Cortèsi Cortès, Historia de lo judíos mallorquines y de sus descendientes cristianos, 2nd edn.(Palma de Majorca: Miquel Font, 2000), 116–117 and Chap. 14. The majority of anti-converso statutes that Cortès cites in this chapter date from the sixteenth through eigh-teenth centuries, since he did not find many for the fifteenth century. For a more com-prehensive history of the purity of blood statutes and anti-converso attitudes in Spain seeAlbert A. Sicroff, Les controverses des statuts de “pureté de sang” en Espagne du XVe auXVIIe siècle (Paris: Didier, 1960).

31. The scholarly literature dealing with popular anti-converso attitudes more or less startswith the mid-fifteenth-century episodes of violence in Castile. There have been few at-tempts to study the period before that, or to look at how these attitudes developed dif-ferently in the Crown of Aragon. Mark Meyerson points out that anti-converso violenceand the obsession with purity of blood in the Crown of Aragon was virtually non-existentcompared with Castile in “Aragonese and Catalan Jewish Converts at the Time of theExpulsion,” The Frank Talmage Memorial Volume (1992), 141–142. He also examinesattitudes towards conversos exhibited shortly after 1391, particularly through the lens ofroyal policy and the activities of the Episcopal Inquisition, in A Jewish Renaissance. Withthe arrival of a Castilian dynasty to the Crown of Aragon in 1412, the Crown exhibited aharsher stance against Jews and a greater suspicion of conversos.

32. The present discussion of anti-converso sentiment expressed by Majorcan Old Christianconfraternities in the first few decades of the fifteenth century is largely based on thestatutes published in Antoni Pons Pastor, Ordinacions gremials i altres capitols a Ma-jorca: segles XIV–XV (Palma de Mallorca, 1930), which includes most of the statutesof trade confraternities published in BSAL, and from the summaries in Cortès, Historiade lo judíos mallorquines. I am not convinced that either of these sources is exhaustive,however, and so my conclusions in this section ought to be considered as tentative.

33. Although the term “infidel” might not always have refered to “Jews,” the 1391 statutesof the weavers’ guild confirm that, at least in this context, a Jew was considered to be an

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infidel: “Primerament que alcun taxidor laner o flassader no dege daqui avant ensenyar,o mostrar lo dit office de taxidor ne enson teller meta alcun sarrayn catiu, o franch nealcun bort, o fill de catiu grech, o de tarter ne de torch ne de altra linatge de infels per losquals lo dit offici seria en deterioracio o menyspreu [. . . ] Etots los convertits e tornats ala fe xristiana del linatge dels juheus sien e puxen esser admeses a rebuts al dit offici eaquell los puxa esser ensenyat e mostrat no contrastant sien de lintage de infels” (Pons,Ordinacions, 77–78). Another identification of Jews as infidels can be found in one ofVicente Ferrer’s sermons, in which he analogized the two: “es necessari al preycadorde publicar les veritats a fels e infels. . . e per ço. . . yo complint aquell manament. . . axi hofaré. E veus per ço vosaltres, juheus, veniu a preycacio. . . ” Cited in Francisca Vendrell, Laactividad proselitista de San Vicente Ferrer durante el reinado de Fernando I de Aragón,Sefarad, 13: 1 (1953), 94.

34. Cortès cites the statutes for the carders’ guild, confirmed in 1391, but does not cite asource: “. . . sarrains catius o francos, borts o fills de catius, grech o tarter, ne de altrellinatge de infels, per los quals lo dit offici seria en deterioració o menys preu” (191).

35. For a discussion of shared corporate honour and disgrace see Ronald Weissman, RitualBrotherhood in Renaissance Florence (New York: Academic Press, 1981), 76–77.

36. On the occupations of Majorcan Jews around 1350 see Margalida Bernat i Roca, El callde ciutat de Mallorca: a l’entorn de 1350 (Palma de Mallorca: Lleonard Muntaner, 2005):59–60.

37. Pons, Ordinacions, 98 (dated 1428). Interestingly, this clause offered a way for Jews—andconversos, for that matter—to circumvent payments on the Jewish Sabbath (i.e. Saturday)by allowing for one larger payment annually: “. . . tothom de qualsevol ley estament ocondicio sia que dins la ciutat de Mallorques viura de custures, o obredor tendra del officide sastre que aquest aytal pach ala confraria dels sastres dos diners cascun dissapte. E siaquest esta quatre dissaptes de no pagar que noli sie res demanat fins al cap del any e alcap del any lo manefla haia carrech ab un saig dela cort de fer li pagar los VIII sous IIIIdiners.” Another edition of the statutes which appears to have been issued earlier, in 1408,stipulates Saturday payments for every tailor, both “natural Christian as well as converso”(107).

38. I have not seen any instances of conversos apprenticing their children with Jews or viseversa.

39. BSAL 7: 333. If this was the first order to exclude conversos (and to ascertain that wouldrequire extensive archival work) then we ought to ask whether other factors influenced it.It is possible that the anti-Jewish sermons of Vincent Ferrer and legislation issued underhis auspices played a role. Vincent Ferrer visited Majorca in 1413–1414, around the sametime as the disputation of Tortosa took place. Anti-Jewish legislation issued under kingFerdinand in 1413 also targeted conversos, albeit to a lesser extent, in as much as theywere abandoning Majorca and Catholicism. See Baer, A History of Jews in ChristianSpain, vol. 2 (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1966): 166–169.

40. Cortès i Cortès, 187.41. David Nirenberg, “Mass Conversion and Geneaological Mentalities: Jews and Christians

in Fifteenth-Century Spain,” Past and Present 174 (2002): 33.42. Descendents of conversos were explicitly prohibited from joining the guild of tanners

according to their statutes confirmed in 1431 (Cortès, Historia de los judios mallorquines,188). This rule must have been instituted some time between 1420 and 1431, since their1420 statutes make no mention of “infidels” or conversos (Pons, Ordinacions, 90). Theregulations of the confraternity of skinners, confirmed shortly after the alleged conversionof the remainder of Majorcan Jews in 1435, stipulate that no skinner should instruct any


converso in their trade (Pons, Ordinacions, 132). Neither of these trades were popularamong Jews or conversos, however; Bernat i Roca found no record of Jewish tanners inher study of the 1350 monetadge tax register, and found just a few instances of Jewishskinners (El call de ciutat de Mallorca, 59–60).

43. Álvaro Santamaría argues that Old Christian hostility was a major impetus, together witha fidelity to ancestral tradition, in founding Sant Miquel. See, “En torno a la situación delos judíos conversos de Mallorca en el siglo XV,” BSAL 31 (1953–1960): 189.

44. The donation was to be collected as follows: four sous per pound, or twenty percent, ofevery loan made by a converso (it would have been made before they were baptized)was to be collected by royal officials and directed to the royal treasury. This amountwas equivalent to the rate of interest Jews could legally charge their Christian debtors.ACA CR 1995: 138v–139r (August 9, 1392). The conversos of Valencia made a similardonation to Queen Violante: ACA CR 2001: 27r. The conversos and Jews of Barcelonaalso made one to both the king and queen: ACA Cartas Reales, Joan I, c. 6, n. 689; bothdocuments are published in The Jews in the Crown of Aragon: Regesta of the CartasReales in the Archivo de la Corona de Aragon, Part II: 1328–1493 (Jerusalem, 1995):250.

45. ARM: AH S-31: 46r–59r. In the decade prior to 1391 (and earlier) the Majorcan aljamahad been contracting debts in the form of censals in order to meet fiscal demands ofkings Pere and his son and successor, Joan. Details are discussed in my forthcomingdissertation, Crisis and Regeneration: the Conversos of Majorca, 1391–1416. For doc-umentation of royal subsidy demands see, for instance: ACA 1446: 38r–41v (April 25,1383) and 1687: 227v–228v (December 19, 1383), published in Fritz Baer, Die JudenIm Christlichen Spanien (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1929): 536–537, 552–553; ACA CR1872: 175r–v (?, 1389); 1873: 23v (April 10, 1389); 1873: 33r (May 20, 1389); 2000:181v–184r (November 18, 1395).

46. On difficulties collecting the donation (of four sous per pound of all loans owing to con-versos) and the tax levied directly on converso and Jewish assets to repay aljama creditors,see: ACA CR 1997: 137v–138r (September 24, 1394); 1998: 36v–37r (March 20, 1395),38v–39r (March 20, 1395); 1999: 105v–106r (November 16, 1395); 2263: 105v–106v(September 3, 1398); 2264: 11v–12r (July 19, 1397); 2266: 109r (July 18, 1402); ACACR 2269: 152r–v (July 1, 1407).

47. The specific economic repercussions of 1391 for conversos—not well adressed by thescholarship—are discussed in further detail in my forthcoming dissertation; the taxes,debts and economic obligations that conversos faced at this juncture were, in my opinion,critical in determining the trajectory of the group over the next century.

48. Nirenberg refers to this phenomenon of being treated as a separate group for fiscal pur-poses in various converso communities in the Crown of Aragon, thus setting the stage forseparate confraternities in Barcelona and Valencia, in addition to Majorca. See Nirenberg,“Mass Conversion and Geneaological Mentalities,” 14–15.

49. For example, ACA CR 2269: 152r–v (July 1, 1407)50. The conversos of Valencia also planned to establish their own cemetery as early as 1397

and made it a priority for their confraternity, Sant Cristòfol, once its statutes were ap-proved in 1399. See Jaime Castillo-Sainz, “De solidaritats jueves a confraries de con-versos: entre la fossilització i la integració d’una minoria religiosa,” Revista d’HistòriaMedieval 4 (1993): 197–199.

51. ACA CR 1996: 163r–v, September 16, 1393.52. ACM Protocols notarials 14751 (Pere Giges): April 9, 1399. While conversos were be-

ing buried in the monastery’s grounds, Jews possessed a separate cemetery. The 1396

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testament of Samuel Fazuati refers to the “cemetery of the Jews of Majorca which is ad-jacent to the ‘torres lavaneres. . . ”’ According to the Diccionari català-valencià-balear,the “torres lavaneres” were towers located outside of the city, near the sea, by Porto-Pi. Ifthe existing scholarship on Jewish cemeteries is correct, the cemetery used by Jews at theturn of the fifteenth century was probably not the same one used prior to 1391. For moreon Jewish cemeteries in Majorca see: Antonio Ortega Villoslada, “Donación de SanchoI de Mallorca de un antiguo cementerio judía la ciudad de Mallorca,” Espacio, Tiempo yForma, Serie III, Historia Medieval 14 (2001): 143–162; Antoni Pons Pastor, Historia deMallorca (Palma de Mallorca, 1963): 190.

53. That conversos used the Franciscan monastery, located adjacent to the former Jewish quar-ter, is noteworthy. Franciscans had been active in missionizing among Jews in the Crownof Aragon since the thirteenth century, and Majorcan converts to Catholicism had beenexpected, in the past, to go immediately to the friars for education in the Catholic faith,in accordance with an edict of Jaume II of Aragon. This is illustrated in the Disputationof Majorca, 1286, as pointed out by Larry J. Simon in “Mendicant-Jewish Interaction inMediterranean Spain,” eds. Susan E. Myers, and Steven J. McMichael, Friars and Jewsin the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Medieval Franciscans, vol. 2 (Boston: Brill, 2004),65.

54. ACA 2271: 59r–60r (February 12, 1410).55. Santamaría Arández, “En torno a la Situación de los judíos conversos de Mallorca en el

siglo XV,” 189.56. See Epstein, The Responsa of Rabbi Solomon ben Adret, 32–39; Antoni Pons, Los judios

del Reino de Mallorca, vol. 1, 17–25; vol. 2, 224 (document no. 31, dated 1308) whereJaume II instructs his lieutenant to punish anyone who “vituperates” against the aljamasecretaries; for a discussion of the malsin see Elena Lourie, “Mafiosi and malsines: vio-lence, fear and faction in the Jewish aljamas of Valencia in the 14th century,” Crusade andcolonisation: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Medieval Aragon (Aldershot: Variorum,1990).

57. Epstein, Studies in the Communal Life of the Jews of Spain: The Responsa of Rabbi SimonDuran, 42–43.

58. The obligation for members to love and honour one another, and for officers to mediatein resolving disputes, was standard in Jewish, Christian and converso confraternities. Forexamples in Christian confraternities (prior to the establishment of Sant Miquel) see thestatutes of Santa Lucia in Valencia or the sandal-makers and cuirass-makers (patiners etcuyrassers) of Barcelona, published in Manuel de Bofarull y de Sartorio, Colleción dedocumentos inéditos del archivo de la Corona de Aragón, vol. 41: Gremios y cofradías dela Corona de Aragón, vol. 2 (Barcelona: Archivo General de la Corona de Aragon, 1975):21, 261); for trade confraternities in Majorca (few of which included clauses dealing withdiscord) see the statutes of gardeners (hortolans) and of tailors in Pons, Ordinacions,71, 116); for Jewish shoemakers of Zaragossa see De Bofarull, Colleción de documentosinéditos, 40: 132; for the converso confraternities of Sent Christòfol in Valencia, SantaMaria in Denia, Santa Trinitat in Barcelona and Sent Christòfol in Gandía (the latter twowere mixed New and Old Christian), see De Bofarull Colleción de documentos inéditos,41: 125,135 and Ángeles Cuenca Adam, “Dos cofradías medievales: Sant Cristóbal deGandía y Santa María de Denia,” Saitabi XXXV (1985): 26, 31. For a discussion of thesefeatures in Valencian and Catalan trade confraternities see Paulino Iradiel, “Corporacionesde oficio, acción política y sociedad civil en Valencia,” Cofradías, gremios, solidaridadesen la Europa Medieval (Pamplona: Gobierno de Navarra, 1993), 270. With respect toadministrative framework, Sant Miquel’s was almost identical to that of the following


confraternities, to name just a few examples: the dyers, and Santa Lucia, in Valencia,the sandal-makers and cuisass-makers in Barcelona, the mixed converso-Old Christianconfraternities of Sent Christòfol in Valencia and in Gandia, and the Jewish burial societyof “Cabarim” in Zaragoza. See De Bofarull Colleción de documentos inéditos, 41: 18–19, 39–40, 122–123, 259–260; Cuenca Adam, ”Dos cofradías medievales,” 30; BlascoMartinez, “Instituciones socioreligiosas,” 33.

59. The logic of this mode of transition would not be lost on Christians, at least not in Romein the sixteenth century. The convert, Hebraist, and Lector at the Roman Casa dei cate-cumeni, Fabiano Fioghi went so far as to translate basic Christian prayers—and even amass—into Hebrew, so that neofiti could continue praying in the language of prayer theyknew and felt comfortable in; see Kenneth Stow, “Conversion, Christian Hebraism andHebrew Prayer in the Sixteenth Century,” Hebrew Union College Annual 47 (1976): 217–36.

60. Jaime Castillo-Sainz, “De solidaitats jueves a confraries conversos: entre la fossilització ila integració d’una minoria religiosa,” Revista d’Història Medieval 4 (1993): 183–206.

61. Castillo, “De solidaitats jueves,” 199.62. Castillo, 203–205.63. In 1416 about fifty members of Sant Miquel who were “collectively and individually”

responsible for a twenty pound annuity on behalf of the confraternity instituted a tax to becollected from all its members to redeem its debt entirely. What is of particular note, here,is that only the members of Sant Miquel, and not the whole “community” of conversos,were taxed. Perhaps at that time there was no need to differentiate between confraternityand community since the two were, in effect, one; but this may in fact point to greaterintegration, on the part of some conversos, into Christian society, such that they couldnot be easily sought out or legitimately taxed for the expenses of a confraternity to whichthey no longer were affiliated. See ACM Protocols Notarials, 14768, Tomas Clavell: May28, 1416. This is the latest document I have found, so far, for the converso confraternity;There are statutes for a confraternity of Sant Miquel confirmed in 1479 (published inBSAL 24: 237–238), but this is likely a not the same as the converso confraternity, whichhad officially called itself the “Novella” Confraria de Sent Miquell in its 1410 statutes inorder to distinguish itself from another, pre-existing one with the same name.

64. Shortening the confraternity’s life may have been the marriage alliances which modernscholars have alleged between elite converso and Old Christian families later in the fif-teenth century, although this phenomenon was disputed by Mariano Gual de Torella in“El supuesto origen judio de los Pardos,” BSAL (1971) 179–193; at the same time, numer-ous condemnations of Judaizers by the Inquisition, shortly after its establishment in Ma-jorca in 1488, suggests a continuity of former Jewish networks and customs; see Colomi Palmer, La Inquisició a Mallorca; Lorenzo Pérez, ed., Inquisición de Mallorca, recon-ciliados y relajados, 1488–1691 (Barcelona: M. Perdigó, 1946); Angela S. Selke, TheConversos of Majorca: Life and Death in a Crypto-Jewish Community in XVII CenturySpain (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1986).

65. Santamaria, “Sobre la condición de los conversos y chuetas de Mallorca,” Espacio,Tiempo y Forma, Serie III, vol. 10 (1997): 229. Note that there were some Old Chris-tian confraternities which collected alms on Sundays, particularly later in the century; seefor example the statutes of the Sant Bartomeu in the parish of Arta (1479) published inBSAL 24: 235.

66. Mark Cohen discusses expectations of the poor in North African Jewish communities toreceive charity before the Sabbath in order to buy food with which to celebrate it. See“Feeding the Poor and Clothing the Naked: The Cairo Geniza,” Journal of Interdiscipli-nary History XXXV: 3, 407–421.

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67. For Valencia see De Bofarull, Colleción de documentos inéditos, 41: 120; Cf. statutesof the Old Christian confraternity of Santa Lucia in Valencia (confirmed 1392) whichdid specify alms on Saturdays, p. 19. For Gandia see Cuenca Adam, “Dos cofradías me-dievales,” 29.

68. Castillo writes that Jewish confraternities focused on social activities and emphasizeddevotional aspects less than Christian confraternities did (“De solidaritats jueves,” 188–192). The regulations of Sant Miquel could be said to deal entirely with the social realm,but it is not clear if this is in imitation of guilds or Jewish precedents, or both.

69. By contrast, the converso confraternity of Gandia did; see Cuenca Adam, “Dos cofradíasmedievales,” 30, and also note 70, below.

70. By contrast, the aforementioned “converso” confraternities of Barcelona, Valencia andGandia did have lengthy instructions regarding burial of members, along with accompany-ing prayers and rituals. In Valencia, members were required to attend the burial, and recitefifty Paternosters and Ave Marias for the soul of the deceased at the time of the burial orwithin eight days of it, as well as a Requiem mass; there were also specific instructions forthe funeral procession which included carrying wax candles with the symbol of a cross onit (De Bofarull, Colleción de documentos inéditos, 41: 120,126). For statutes concerningburial processions with confraternal candles and robes, and obligations for saying prayersand masses in Gandia, see Cuenca Adam, “Dos cofradías medievales,” 29–30.

71. For discussion of similar nuances in the attitudes of sixteenth-century conversos in Romesee Kenneth Stow, “A Tale of Uncertainties: Converts in the Roman Ghetto,” ShlomoSimonsohn Jubilee Volume: Studies on the History of the Jews in the Middle Ages andRenaissance Period (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 1993).

72. Carlos Carrete Parrondo, Nostalgia for the Past (and for the Future?) Among Castilian“Judeoconversos,” Mediterranean Historical Review 6: 2 (1991) 25–43.

73. The first statues of the Novella Confraria de Sant Miquel were confirmed by the kingin 1404. The text translated here is a royal letter confirming a revision and expansion ofits statutes, dated January 8, 1410, which is currently housed at the Arxiu de la Coronad’Aragó (Cancelleria Reial 2271: 54r–57v). The same 1410 statutes, as they appeared ina document which recorded the presentation of this letter before the lieutenant governorof Majorca on July 5, 1410, have been published in BSAL 21 (1926–1927): 361–364 and380–381; the source for this published version is cited as: ARM, ARH, Lletres reials1408–1411, fol. 295. We have noted pagination for both sources. The statutes publishedin BSAL are preceded with the following clause in Latin: “Saturday, July 5, in the yearof our Lord 1410. On this day and year, Gabriel Gatzas and Julià D’Osca, conversos ofMajorca and officers—as they claim [to be] of the said conversos of Majorca—appearedbefore the honorable Pelai Unis, lieutenant of the noble Roger de Moncada, Governor ofthe Kingdom of Majorca and the venerable Jaume Lagaia his legal advisor, and presentedand required to be read by the notary Vicenç Abellar—one of the notaries of the scribes ofthe court of the Governor of Majorca—a certain royal letter secured with the public sealof the king pendent, the content of which is as such. . .”

74. Manel Frau, Assistant Librarian for Jewish Religious Texts, Reconstructionist RabbinicalCollege, e-mail [email protected]

75. The published version inserts the following here: “. . . Valencia, Majorca, Sardinia andCorsica, count of Barcelona, Duke of Athens and Neopatria, and count of Roussillon andCerdagne. . . ”

76. “Scrutiny” was a voting method in which voters could select more than a single candidatein their ballot. See Josep M. Colomer and Iain McLean, “Electing Popes: Approval Bal-loting and Qualified-Majority Rule,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History, vol. 29, No. 1(Summer, 1998): 1–22.

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77. We have left this term in the original Catalan because of the difficulty in finding a suitableEnglish equivalent. Associations such as confraternities typically employed a manefla(sometimes spelled “manefle” in medieval Catalan and in this source text), as distinct froma missatge (i.e. messenger), to carry out certain administrative tasks, call upon membersfor meetings or to make announcements, and to execute mandates of the officers. I wouldlike to thank Nicholas Tersptra for his help in defining this term. See also the definitionof manefla as a specific office in Alcover and Moll’s Diccionari català-valencià-balear.Despite their distinct meanings it is difficult to ascertain whether or not the statutes some-times use the terms “missatge” and “manefle” interchangeably.

78. The “saig” was a civil functionary in charge of executing judicial summons, arrests andpunishments including fines and confiscations of possessions.

79. This clause begins as a new article with “Item. . . ” in the original, but is not given a sepa-rate number in the margin of the document, which may simply be a notarial error; never-theless, the numbering in this translation remains faithful to the numbering in the marginof the pages in the royal register at the ACA.

80. The original term for “injure” here is injuriar, which can refer to dishonoring or injury toone’s status, in addition to, or rather than, physical injury.

81. The literal translation of “messions” is “expenses” but this term is often used in notarialrecords to refer to interest on a loan.

82. This clause was mistakenly omitted from the source text (ACA CR 2271: 56V) and addedas a footnote, in the same hand. The note marker is placed between numbers 34 and 35,which is where this clause appears in the published text housed at the ARM; both textswere probably copied from one common original royal letter.

83. The document published in BSAL 21 includes an addendum after citing the royal lettertranslated here, dated on Saturday, August 16th, 1410, summarized as follows: the lieu-tenant governor and his assessor agree to submit to the royal orders communicated in theletter, and the converso sobreposats request that the lieutenant governor orders its contentsto be carried out, and that the vicar and bailiff of Majorca protect the confraternity as perthe King’s orders.

A converso confraternity in Majorca: La Novella Confraria de Sant Miquel

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