"Jewish Women and Apostasy in the Medieval Crown of Aragon," Jewish History 24 (2010)

Jewish History (2010) 24: 7–32 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010DOI: 10.1007/s10835-009-9095-x

Jewish women and apostasy in the medieval crown of Aragon,c. 1300–1391

PAOLA TARTAKOFFDepartments of Jewish Studies and History, Rutgers University, 12 College Avenue, NewBrunswick, NJ 08901, USAE-mail: [email protected]

Abstract On the basis of unpublished records from the diocesan archives of Barcelona andGirona, this essay explores why Jewish women converted to Christianity, what their alter-natives were, and what happened following their baptisms in the environs of the Crown ofAragon during the century prior to the massacres and forced conversions of 1391. It suggeststhat Jewish women apostatized under two general sets of circumstances. Some went over toChristianity with their husbands or fathers, while others chose baptism in order to assert con-trol over their individual fates, in defiance of communal norms. Among the latter group, someconverted for love, and at least one woman threatened to apostatize in the hope of escaping anabusive husband. Following baptism, apostates often endured poverty and, when suspected ofjudaizing, they were prosecuted by ecclesiastical officials. The alternatives to baptism that allof these women contemplated, however, were also harsh. In examining how some medievalwomen negotiated the competing demands of their identities as daughters, wives, mothers,lovers, and Jews, this study also brings to light legal conundra to which apostasy gave riseand illustrates how varied and risky apostasy was in Iberia during the decades prior to 1391.Transcriptions of four documents follow the essay.

Keywords Apostasy · Conversion · Iberia · Marriage · Middle Ages · Sepharad · Women

About the year 1371, on the verge of death after struggling for several daysand nights to give birth to a child, a Jewish woman named Blanca had a con-version experience—so reported the bishop of Elne, Pere de Planella (1361–1371), in a letter to the bishop of Barcelona, Berenguer d’Erill (1369–1371).Blanca, he said, “recognized her Creator, venerated His mother, the most holyVirgin Mary,” and vowed that, if her agony eased, she and her child would“convert and be reborn through holy baptism.” Purportedly, Blanca was lib-erated from pain the moment she made this promise. The baby boy to whomshe gave birth, however, was “black as coal.” Yet the instant Blanca had him

The author wishes to thank the Fulbright Foundation, the Center for Israel and Jewish Stud-ies, and the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture for supporting her archival researchin Spain, and Elisheva Baumgarten, Pere Benito i Monclús, Robert Chazan, Adam J. Kosto,Ilana Kurshan, José Ramón Magdalena i Nom de Deu, Karl Morrison, Jaume Riera i Sans,Steven Schoenig, S.J., Nancy Sinkoff, Haym Soloveitchik, Iddo Winter, and Yosef HayimYerushalmi for their advice.

mailto:[email protected]

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baptized and he was anointed with the sign of the cross, “all of his blacknesswas turned, through the power of the Holy Spirit, into whiteness.” Upon wit-nessing “so great a miracle,” Blanca, her husband, her four other children,and eighty(!) Jewish onlookers “flew over” to the Catholic faith.1

The bishop of Elne surely embellished this episode, seizing an opportu-nity to emphasize the darkness of Jewish error and the cleansing, transfor-mative power of baptism. Yet once past these layers of legend, there is noreason to doubt the credibility of the conversion of the aptly named Blanca.If, despite all odds the mother and child survived, Blanca may well havebeen so overcome with wonder as to pursue the course of action to which shehad committed herself while in a state of near delirium. In fact, as ElishevaBaumgarten has shown, in the Middle Ages there existed a real fear amongJews that women in labor might apostatize, perhaps urged on by a Christianmidwife.2

This essay presents the little-known stories of a dozen of Blanca’s con-temporaries, Jewish women who converted to Christianity in and around theCrown of Aragon prior to the massacres and forced conversions of 1391.3 Onthe basis of these cases, it explores why women apostatized, what their alter-natives were, and how they fared following baptism, revealing how someindividuals negotiated the competing demands of family, community, reli-gious law, and personal concerns. The sources that preserve the experiencesof these women—letters from royal and episcopal registers, entries in notar-ial manuals, and inquisitorial records—are frustrating. Scrawled in medievalLatin, they are difficult to read and provide only a ‘snapshot’ of a situation,leaving its context and outcome unclear. These sources are, nonetheless, in-valuable, for, unlike rabbinic responsa and ecclesiastical canons, which of-ten omit historical details and attest principally to the ideals to which re-ligious leaders aspired, these texts provide a rare glimpse into the realitiesof Jewish apostasy in Iberia during the century prior to 1391.4 In so do-ing, these documents begin to illustrate, not only how apostasy affected thelives of women, but also, more generally, how varied and dangerous apostasycould be.

The number of Jewish apostates in the Crown of Aragon prior to 1391was small. In the aftermath of the Black Death of 1348, the Crown was hometo approximately 30,000 Jews.5 Out of this larger number, archival sourcesrefer to fewer than two hundred Jews who were baptized between 1243 and1391, and they mention but a handful of recent converts who immigrated tothe Crown from Castile, France, and Germany.6 Still, it is probable that thesesparse indications are incomplete, and that the actual number of conversionswas greater than documents suggest. Episcopal records of the kind that mostfrequently mention converts did not begin to be kept until at least the firstquarter of the fourteenth century, and often not until late in that century.7 Yet

JEWISH WOMEN AND APOSTASY IN THE MEDIEVAL CROWN OF ARAGON 9

even these would have omitted converts who were not involved in situationsthat warranted documentation, not to mention that enormous quantities ofarchival material have been lost due to the ravages of war, natural disasters,and poor storage conditions.8 Finally, surviving sources often refer to con-verts without specifying whether they were former Jews or Muslims, makingthem difficult to use for the study of Jewish apostasy in particular.9

Although women constituted an important subset of medieval Jewishapostates, scholars have not frequently highlighted their experiences.10 Inpart, this is because rabbinic responsa and archival sources from before 1391mention women less frequently than men.11 In addition, the Middle Agesproduced no female counterparts to Petrus Alfonsi, Hermann of Cologne,Pablo Christiani, Alfonso of Valladolid, and Geronimo of Santa Fe, all maleapostates who gained visibility as writers or as public figures.

In the pages that follow, we shall explore the difficult choices that womenapostates confronted. Those who went over to Christianity with their hus-bands may have feared the consequences of leaving their spouses. In spiteof widespread Jewish condemnation of apostasy, wives who refused to bebaptized with their husbands often did so at great cost. They ran the risk thattheir husbands would not give them a get, or bill of divorce, and that theywould consequently never be able to remarry. In addition, as ecclesiasticalcanons prescribed, apostate fathers might obtain custody of their children.Moreover, should apostate husbands later return to Judaism, Jewish wiveshad reason to fear for their lives. Inquisitors might suspect them of havinglured their husbands back, a crime that could lead to harsh punishment,12

and secular and ecclesiastical officials might prosecute them for engaging inforbidden sexual relations with a baptized Christian.13 Women who aposta-tized, not in the context of a decision taken by, or with, their husbands, but,rather, in order to assert control over their individual fates also faced dilem-mas. Not converting could, for instance, mean a lifetime of separation fromtheir beloved.

But apostasy itself was perilous. Many apostates were left destitute. Somesurvived on Christian alms, and the unmarried baptized daughters of apos-tates had trouble procuring dowries. Like their male counterparts, apostatewomen additionally incurred the burden of never again being able to as-sociate with Jews without fear of inquisitorial prosecution.14 In the 1370sat least two apostate women were burned at the stake for having relation-ships with Jewish men. For Jewish women in the medieval Crown of Aragon,then, apostasy was cause for both hope and despair. Its costs could be greatand its consequences unpredictable, yet some women deemed it worth therisk.

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In the early thirteenth century, the canonist Johannes Teutonicus declaredthat when husbands converted to Christianity their wives were likely tofollow.15 A number of cases from the medieval Crown of Aragon suggestthat this was correct. During the last quarter of the fourteenth century, forinstance, one Jewish woman converted with her husband, Juan Fernándezde Toledo, her three sons and four daughters, and her brother- and sister-in-law.16 Another woman named Joana was baptized at Sant Creu de Rodeswith her husband, Pere Rodes, and her son, Joan.17 A third, Brunissenda,was baptized in the cathedral of Girona in 1376 with her husband, PedroAlfonso de Luna, who was from Castelló de Ampurias, and her son, PedroRoig.18

Following their baptisms, these women likely endured poverty. Through-out the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, despite royal and ecclesiasticallegislation condemning the practice, many converts in the Crown of Aragongave up their belongings when they were baptized.19 Juan Fernández, for ex-ample, told the leaders of Girona that he had “given up his temporal goodsto gain celestial glory.”20 Similarly, the bishop of Barcelona explained to theclergy of his diocese that Blanca, her family, and the eighty Jews who al-legedly converted upon witnessing the transformation of her infant “gave upall of their goods freely and spontaneously, taking with them nothing but theirbodies.”21 In addition to parting with their belongings, and again in spite ofroyal legislation condemning the custom, many apostates were also deprivedby relatives of their inheritance.22 Jewish communities condoned the prac-tice, and it seems that Church authorities did nothing to remedy it, as thereare many papal letters calling for subsidies for now indigent converts.23 Fur-thermore, some apostates apparently lacked skills that were marketable inthe Christian world. Juan Fernández, for instance, claimed that he had neverlearned a trade because he was of sacerdotal lineage, a kohen.24

In the face of penury, these converts turned to Christian charity.25 Joana’sfamily received a begging license from the bishop of Girona in 1375.26

Brunissenda’s family received a begging license in 1379.27 Juan Fernándezreceived alms from King Pere III (IV in Aragon, 1336–1387) in 1382 and apayment from the consuls of Tarragona for disputing with Jews in 1388.28

He beseeched the councilmen of Girona for further assistance in 1389,29 andin the same year he also received a royal license to dispute with—and preachto—Jews.30 This document described Juan as “instructed in both the Latinlanguage and also in Hebrew.”31 Blanca and her entourage received supportfrom Bishop Berenguer d’Erill. Upon learning of their plight, he wrote to theclergy of his diocese and instructed them:

when the aforesaid individuals who have been reborn [in Christ]approach you and your parishes and churches to ask for alms fromChrist’s faithful, you should receive them kindly and treat them


charitably and, through salutary admonitions and exhortations,lead your congregants to help them so that on account of yourassistance. . .they might be rescued from their state of want.32

The bishop’s missive not only stresses the poverty of these converts, it alsosuggests that Christian aid did not come easily. In addition to advising clergyto “admonish and exhort” their congregants to contribute to the cause, thebishop provided a common incentive for almsgiving, promising a partial in-dulgence to all those “who. . . [should] extend their. . . hands to the said indi-viduals who [had] been reborn [in Christ].”33

Poverty presented particular challenges for the baptized daughters ofapostates, since women needed dowries in order to marry.34 In 1372 thebishop of Girona, Jaume de Trilla (1369–1374), wrote to “Christ’s faithfulthroughout the city and diocese of Girona” explaining that a young womanconvert named Margarita, the daughter of the convert and former Jewishphysician Jaume de Faro, would not be able to marry without the help ofChristian charity. Stating that it was an act of piety to help girls marry andpromising the remission of sins, the bishop urged Christians to collect almsfor Margarita.35 We do not know if the bishop’s plea was effective. In 1378King Pere III came to the rescue of another young woman who had convertedwith her father and lacked money for a dowry. Caterina, the daughter of thedeceased apostate Andreu Çontigoc, was the goddaughter of King Pere, oneof a handful of Jews whose baptisms the king had sponsored.36 In 1378, Peregave Caterina 50 Barcelona sous specifically “to help her marriage.”37 Sug-gesting that even after she married Caterina lacked funds, Pere subsequentlycontinued to support his goddaughter financially. In 1382, he sent her 73Barcelona sous and 3 florins “to help with her journey to Barcelona,” and hepromised her four diners daily for the rest of her life.38 Shortly thereafter,when Caterina was ill, Pere sent her 11 Barcelona sous,39 and the followingyear, he sent her 150 Barcelona sous.40 Few converts—male or female—were the beneficiaries of such extensive royal munificence, and it is probablethat, unlike Caterina, many baptized daughters of apostates were not able tocollect enough money for dowries.41

If Jewish women sometimes followed their husbands or fathers intoChristianity, other times they refused—whether for personal reasons or asa result of pressure from their families or communities.42 The refusal toconvert brought with it special complications. Following the teachings ofRashi (1040–1105), apostasy was deemed halakhically one of the three mostheinous sins, together with murder and sexual crimes. Yet it did not alterone’s legal status as a Jew.43 In particular, wives of apostates were consid-ered still married.44 Therefore, in accordance with the recommendations ofhalakhic authorities, including the great Catalan rabbi Shelomo ben Avra-ham ibn Adret, known as “Rashba” (1235–1310), these women had to obtain

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bills of divorce, which would enable them to remarry,45 as did, for example,the wife of the wealthy Açach Golluf, who converted to Christianity around1389.46

The case of Tolrana and David of Ripoll, a Jewish couple married in1337, provides a closer look at a wife who did not convert when her hus-band was baptized.47 In an act drawn by a Christian notary on November 9,1343, David, who had been baptized some time before 1343, taking the nameJaume Pallars, recounted how he and others had repeatedly urged Tolrana “toleave the Jewish blindness and come, like him, to the light of the Christianreligion.” Jaume affirmed that “he desired to serve the Most High for therest of his life.” He added that he had told Tolrana that, were she to convert,they would “enter into the Christian rite of marriage and devotedly serve theMost High all the days of their lives, driving away their sins.” According toJaume, Tolrana ignored his pleas and chose instead “permanently to stay andremain in Jewish blindness.”48 According to the text, Jaume was genuinelyattracted to Christianity, and he truly desired that Tolrana should join him asa Christian.

As a result of Tolrana’s refusal, and following the advice of his father,whose name was also David of Ripoll, Jaume divorced Tolrana. In a docu-ment drafted by a Christian notary on November 7, 1343, Tolrana acknowl-edged that “Jaume Pallars, formerly a Jew, but now a neophyte,” had com-pleted part of the divorce process, paying the 5,500 sous specified in the“marriage contract. . . written with Hebrew letters, which among Jews iscommonly called a ketubbah.”49 Two days later Jaume agreed, “in accor-dance with Jewish custom,” to give Tolrana or her representative “the bill ofrepudiation that in Hebrew and among Jews is commonly called a get.”50

In closing, Jaume referred to Tolrana as “the Jewess who was formerly mywife” and promised that he had not done, nor would he do, anything to hin-der the concession of the get.51 Jaume’s promise not to hinder the giving ofthe get was probably formulaic. However, it attests to concern that may havebeen widely shared regarding husbands’ behavior in such situations. Indeed,although Christian notaries regularly handled business between Jews in themedieval Crown of Aragon, Tolrana’s and Jaume’s employment of a Chris-tian notary may not have been merely routine.52 Tolrana, in particular, mayhave sought to enhance the legitimacy of their arrangements in the eyes ofChristians, for since Jaume had converted to Christianity, the Jewish com-munity was not likely to be able to succeed in pressuring him to grant her aget.

In addition to running the risk that their husbands would not divorce them,Jewish women who did not apostatize with their husbands also faced thepossibility of losing their children. Prior to the period in question, in 1229,Pope Gregory IX ruled in favor of an apostate who demanded custody of


his four-year-old-son. Gregory explained that since the boy was over theage of three, it would be “of the greatest advantage to the Christian faith”to entrust him to his father’s care, as his mother “might easily mislead himinto the error of infidelity.”53 Gregory’s verdict was incorporated into canonlaw.54 The renowned thirteenth-century apostate, Pablo Christiani, took hischildren with him when he converted to Christianity. Years later, a formeracquaintance reminded him how greatly his wife had suffered, writing in aletter: “you did not have had mercy on your wife, your faultless pigeon [al-lusion to Song of Songs 5:2]. While she still nested on her chicks, you tookher children [from] under her wings and removed them from their tradition.You shaved them, and you changed their garments. All of this [your wife’s]eyes saw and her ears heard. Woe to her eyes that saw this! Woe to her earsthat heard this! . . . Who shall console [her]?”55

Some Jews went to great lengths to spare mothers such agony.56 Partic-ularly notable is the story of David of Ripoll, the father-in-law of Tolrana.In or before 1341, Tolrana’s brother-in-law was baptized in Barcelona, pos-sibly together with Tolrana’s husband, David/Jaume. After his conversion,Tolrana’s brother-in-law brought his two daughters, who were “between theages of three and nine,” to live with him. David of Ripoll now had a son anda son-in-law who were apostates. Fearing that he might also lose his daugh-ter and granddaughters, David took all three away “to other parts.” WhenDavid’s apostate son-in-law discovered the disappearance of his daughters,he demanded that the bishop of Barcelona, Ferrer d’Abella (1335–1344),and the inquisitor Bernat de Puigcercos, who was no stranger to prosecut-ing Jews, hand them over to him.57 The bishop agreed that this would be “inaccordance with canonical sanctions,” and he ordered the arrest of David, hisdaughter, and his granddaughters.58 The bishop further decreed that David’spossessions were to be confiscated until he should appear before the bishopand make satisfaction for his deeds. In the meantime, no one was to paydebts owed to David or return anything they had borrowed from him.59 Here,however, the story stops. We do not know whether David was apprehendedand his granddaughters were turned over to their apostate father, or whetherDavid, his daughter, and granddaughters remained fugitives.

Some children of apostate fathers are known for certain not to have fol-lowed their fathers into the Christian faith. In thirteenth-century Marseilles,for instance, one son of an apostate remained in the Jewish community and,at the age of thirteen, he was summoned to lead prayers in synagogue. On thisoccasion, as was customary in such situations, the boy was referred to, not asthe son of his apostate father, but as the son of his Jewish grandfather.60 An-other son who remained in the Jewish community appeared in court in Avi-gnon in 1365 with his Jewish grandmother.61 In fifteenth-century Catalonia,a Jewish woman from Besalù named Coigs, who refused to be baptized along

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with her husband, had her husband promise before a notary, in spite of thecanon cited above, not to seek in any way to have their children baptized.62

One case from the fourteenth-century Crown of Aragon reveals that, inpractice as well as in law, a Jewish marriage had a chance of surviving—under special circumstances, that is—when a wife refused to convert withher husband and her husband later returned to Judaism. In 1312, a Jew fromTarragona named Benvenist Barzilay converted to Christianity and took thename Pere d’Avinyó.63 Pere may have been one of three Jews who convertedto Christianity when the Jews of Tarragona were prosecuted for allegedlyhelping two German Christians convert to Judaism.64 Because these threeJews converted, they were able to reduce their penalty to a fine of 11,000Barcelona sous.65 Pere’s wife, however, whose name was Conort, did notconvert. Some time later, Pere escaped to the Barbary Coast, with a sonnamed Jucef, and returned to Judaism.66 As punishment for his apostasyback to Judaism, royal officials confiscated his goods.67 Conort later claimed,when communicating with the bishop of Barcelona, Ponç de Gualba (1303–1334), that when she learned of her husband’s flight, she felt “deserted” and“rejected.” Conort followed Pere to Tripoli, bringing “several” of their chil-dren with her, but Pere died shortly after Conort and the children arrived.68

Following Pere’ death, Conort paid the royal treasury 2000 Barcelonasous in exchange for Pere’ confiscated belongings, and she expressed a desireto return to Catalonia.69 However, according to the bishop of Barcelona, she“doubted that she should [return to Catalonia] because she had joined andremained with her husband after his holy baptism and [subsequent] apostasy[to Judaism].” It seems Conort feared that inquisitors would suspect her ofhaving encouraged her husband’s return to Judaism, rendering her guilty ofa crime for which punishment might be severe. Conort may also have beenconcerned about the implications of her presumably having had sexual rela-tions with a baptized Christian.70 Nonetheless, Conort and her friends andrelatives asked Bishop Ponç de Gualba to enable her to return to Cataloniaby promising to protect her family and belongings. Possibly upon receivingsome financial remuneration, the bishop declared that he “deemed it entirelyappropriate to guide and safeguard” Conort’s family, since it did not seemthat Conort or any of her sons and daughters “bore guilt in the aforesaid mat-ters,” and he proceeded to issue the family a safeconduct.71

If some women converts were baptized with their husbands—and thusavoided the predicaments faced by the likes of the wife of Pablo Christiani,the daughter of David of Ripoll, and Conort—others converted in order toassert control over their personal fates and in so doing, they subverted tradi-tional strictures. Some of these women apostatized in order to marry other-wise forbidden partners. In 1378, for instance, in the cathedral of Girona, awoman from Alcalá who took the Christian name Teresa was baptized “and


at the same time contracted marriage with” another Jewish apostate, a manfrom Toledo who took the name Raimundo Malars.72 The two events weresurely linked.73 Possibly, Teresa and Raimundo had wanted to marry whileJews, but family opposition, or even some technicality in the halakhah, hadmade it impossible.

Easier to decipher, perhaps, is the story of a love triangle involving threeapostates. In the 1380s, a Jewish woman, the wife of a tailor from Barcelonanamed Astruch Bonnin, converted to Christianity and took the name Eu-lalia. After she was baptized, Eulalia verbally contracted marriage (matrimo-nium per verba de presenti. . . contractum) with a convert named Bernat deMuntrós.74 Canon law recognized the expression of mutual consent as nec-essary and sufficient to effect a valid marriage; indeed this expression of mu-tual consent constitutes the sacrament, which is canonically unbreakable.75

An unexpected turn of events, however, illustrates how the practical realitiesof conversion challenged religious authorities. When Eulalia’s Jewish hus-band, Astruch, learned of Eulalia’s new marriage, he “immediately” turnedto the bishop of Barcelona, Ramon d’Escales (1386–1398), “brought himselfforth to be converted to the Catholic faith,” and requested that, “if legally pos-sible,” his marriage to Eulalia should be declared to supersede the marriagebetween Eulalia and Bernat.76

Determining the status of the marriage between Eulalia and Astruch wasno simple matter. In 1199, Pope Innocent III had ruled that a convert couldremarry when his or her spouse refused baptism and refused to continue liv-ing with the convert. The pope added that, whereas a legitimate marriagebetween two Christians could not be dissolved, a marriage between two non-Christians could, since a marriage between non-Christians was not “con-firmed” (ratum).77 Far from refusing to convert and continue living together,Astruch had been baptized and requested to remain married to Eulalia. How-ever, Astruch had done so after Eulalia converted and contracted marriagewith Bernat. The first question confronting the bishop, then, was whether Eu-lalia had met the requirements for dissolving her marriage with Astruch at thetime of her marriage to Bernat. If she had not, then, according to canon law,she was still married to Astruch, and she was guilty of adultery with Bernat.A second question was whether Eulalia’s marriage to Bernat had been prop-erly contracted. The bishop was careful to note, in a letter to the vicar of theChurch of Santa Maria de Caldes de Montbui and to all the priests of the cityand diocese of Barcelona, that “it was claimed” that Eulalia and Bernat hadverbally exchanged the verbum de presenti. There appears to have been somedoubt about the circumstances under which Eulalia wed Bernat. Finally, ifEulalia had indeed met the canonical requirements for re-marriage, and if shehad properly contracted marriage with Bernat, the question remained: couldAstruch’s conversion have any retroactive impact on Eulalia’s marriage toBernat?

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We do not know how the bishop ruled. We know only that he began byseeking to prevent further developments. First he demanded that the vicar ofthe Church of Santa Maria de Caldes de Montbui and the priests of the cityand diocese of Barcelona under no circumstances proceed with the solem-nization of the marriage of “these converts” (presumably Eulalia and Bernat)before the church (in facie ecclesie), thus making their union sacramentallycomplete.78 Then, concerned that there might be adultery, as Eulalia mightstill be married to Astruch, the bishop added that “the two” converts (ambo,again presumably Eulalia and Bernat) were “to cease and desist completelyfrom all cohabitation” until he should determine whether the marriage be-tween “said converts” was valid, enabling them to remain together.79

In at least one instance, a Jewish woman who lived north of the Crown ofAragon used apostasy, not as a means of forging a new union, but as a threatto pressure her family to rescue her from an abusive husband.80 In Manosquein 1304 the local court heard a case involving a Jewish woman named Mar-ioneta. Neighbors testified that her husband, Samuel Bonastrug, hit her sohard “that the whole neighborhood would gather.” Marioneta begged herbrother, Davinetus de Portali, to save her from Samuel, and she declared thatunless Davinetus came to her assistance, she would “leave in the companyof a Christian woman.”81 Marioneta’s words may merely have been an idlethreat. But the cases of Teresa and Eulalia make clear that some women didchoose to abandon Judaism.

How her family and others reacted to Marioneta we do not know. Justas with regard to the outcomes of the cases of Teresa and Eulalia, we arein the dark. However, we can imagine that like all those who left Judaism,Marioneta would have had to face serious challenges. For one thing, be-sides enduring poverty, apostates who associated with Jews had reason tofear prosecution. Records from the 1370s tell of four baptized Jewish womenwho were accused of living as Jews.82 One of these women, said originallyto have been from Rosseillon or Provence, was denounced to inquisitors bya Jew for living in the Jewish quarter of Girona as the wife of a Jewish mannamed Salamò. The leaders of the Jewish community of Girona apparentlyhad warned her to be careful, and she allegedly had paid Jews to keep herstory quiet.83 Another woman apostate was denounced by the same Jew-ish informer for living as a Jew in Banyoles. When this woman learned thatshe was suspected of being a “relapsed” convert, she fled “for fear of theinquisitors.”84 The fates of these two women are unknown, but two otherwomen apostates were burned to death in Tudela, one in 1372 for “commit-ting adultery” with a Jew, and the other in 1373 for living with a Jew.85

Why had these four women been baptized? Had they apostatized togetherwith their husbands or fathers? Had they chosen baptism in the hopes of mar-rying their beloved or to escape an abusive marriage? What subsequently led


them back to the Jewish community? We shall never know. What is clear isthat Jewish women in the environs of the Crown of Aragon apostatized undera wide range of circumstances and often at great cost. Yet the alternatives tobaptism were no less harsh. Jewish wives who refused to apostatize with theirhusbands ran the risks of not receiving a get and losing their children. If theirspouses returned to Judaism, they might be accused of sexual transgressionsor of encouraging Christians to apostatize.

In addition to shedding light on the ways apostasy shaped the lives of Jew-ish women, the cases discussed in this essay also reveal that prior to 1391,Jewish men of different social ranks chose baptism in a variety of contexts,none of which promised an easy existence. These men included Juan Fer-nández who claimed to be of sacerdotal lineage (a kohen) and was appar-ently learned, Pere Rodes (the husband of Joana), Pedro Alfonso de Luna(the husband of Brunissenda), Jaume de Faro (Margarita’s father) a formerdoctor, Andreu Çontigoc (Caterina’s father), Açach Golluf/Juan Sánchez deCalatayud the son of a royal official, who may have hoped to advance pro-fessionally, David of Ripoll/Jaume Pallars (Tolrana’s husband), who maygenuinely have been attracted to Christianity, the brother-in-law of Davidof Ripoll/Jaume Pallars, Benvenist Barzilay/Pere d’Avinyó (Conort’s hus-band), who sought to reduce a punishment, and Astruch and Bernat (Eulalia’shusbands), both of whom converted ostensibly in order to be with Eulalia.These men all encountered hardship. Juan Fernández, Pere Rodes, Pedro Al-fonso de Luna, and Jaume de Faro endured poverty and turned to Christiancharity for survival. Juan Sánchez de Calatayud and Jaume Pallars lost theirwives. The brother-in-law of Jaume Pallars may have lost his wife and twodaughters. Pere d’Avinyó had his goods confiscated when he returned to Ju-daism, and either Astruch or Bernat lost the woman both claimed as theirwife.

These observations have been derived from only a small sampling ofthe available data. Yet one is struck by their similarity to conclusions thatscholars have recently drawn about apostasy in medieval Ashkenaz, a realmthat has traditionally been contrasted to Sepharad, particularly with regardto Jews’ attitudes toward apostasy.86 It seems that in both Ashkenaz andSepharad, apostasy affected men and women of many walks of life,87 thatit occurred under a variety of difficult conditions,88 and that its outcomewas often grim.89 For some medieval Jews, then, including many women,the same baptismal waters that, under violent circumstances, connoted terrorand violation, held a host of other meanings, as well.

Key

〈〉 interlinear insertion[ ] my own insertion

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__— word crossed out. . . illegible text

Appendix 1: Blanca

January 28, 1371ADB, RG 4, fols. 100r–v

Berengarius, Dei et apostolice sedis gratia episcopus Barchinonensis univer-sis et singulis ecclesiarum rectoribus, vicariis perpetuis et aliis eciam pres-biteris curatis per civitatem et nostram diocesem costitutis[sic] ad quos pre-sentes pervenerint, vel locatenentibus eorundem et cuilibet eorum in solidumsalutem in Domino et bonis semper operibus habundare. Tanto vos ad pietatiset caritatis opera libentius invitamus quanto ad ea exercenda vos invenirecredimus promptiores. Cum igitur, prout percepimus per literas reverendi inChristo patris et domini Petri, miseracione divina Elnensis episcopi, Blancha,uxor Abrahe renacii, in partu laborasset novem diebus et totidem noctibus, inextremis vel quasi propter dolorem, suum creatorem recognoscens et beatis-simam Mariam virginem eius matrem veneraldo[sic], promisit quod, si do-loribus sui partus et aliis suis doloribus solverentur, ad sanctam fidem catholi-cam et christianam una cum creatura dicti partus, pro qua sic laborabat, con-verteretur in sacro babtisma renasceretur et converti et renasci faceret. [fol.100v] Et ilico, voto promisso, fuit ipsa Blancha ab ipsis doloribus liber-ata et peperit infantem masculum nigrum velut carbone. Quequidem Blan-cha iudea, percepta nigredine sui partus et volens dictum votum ad im-plere, iussit prefatum suum partum in sacris fontibus babtismatis babtizari.Quo babtitzato in civitate Aquensis crucis signaculo sacri crismatis facto,tota nigredine retroversa virtute Sancti Spiritus in albediem conversa fuit inquantum fides christiana optatur. Mater vero et pater cum quatuor suis fil-iis, videntes tam magnum miraculum, et sit manifestum, cum aliis octuagintaiudeis ibi presentibus ad sanctam fidem catholicam convolarunt, et omnia eo-rum bona dimiserunt gratis et spontanea voluntate, nichil secum preter eorumcorpora defferentes, prout fertur. Quo circa vobis et vestrum cuilibet in virtutesancte obediencie districte percipiendo, mandamus quatenus cum renati pre-dicti ad vos et ecclesias et parochias vestras declinaverint a Christi fidelibuselemosinas petituri, ipsos benigne recipiatis et caritative tractetis plebesquevestras ad beneficiendum eisdem salubribus monitis et exortationibus ind-ucatis, ut per subventionem vestram et plebis vobis comisse eorum inopiesuccurrantur. Et unum vel duos de parochianis vestris quos ad hoc magisidoneos inveneritis et fideles cum per dictos renatos requisiti fueritis eligatisqui predictas elemosinas colligant pariter et concervent, et ipsas collectas


tradant renatis supradictis sperantes ab illo proemium qui incentuplum remu-nerat omnem bonum. Nos enim de omnipotentis Dei misericordia beatequevirginis Marie eius matris, sanctorum Petri et Pauli eius apostolorum ac om-nium sanctorum martirum confessorum atque virginum meritis confidentes,omnibus vere penitentibus et confessis qui manus suas dictis renatis porrex-erint adiutrices, quadraginta dies de iniunctis eis legittime penitenciis pergratiam Sancti Spiritus misericorditer in Domino relaxamus, presentes nos-tri sigilli appendicii munimine roboratas eisdem concedentes in testimoniumpremissorum presentibus post annum minime valituris. Datum Barchinone,vicesima octava die ianuarii, anno a nativitate Domini millesimo trecentes-imo septuagesimo primo. Vidit episcopus. . .

Appendix 2: Margarita

January 23, 1372ADG, LE, U 64, fol. 92v

Episcopus etc. universis et singulis christi fidelibus per Gerundensem civ-itatem et diocesim constitutis ad quos presentes pervenerint, salutem indomino et bonis semper operibus habundare tanto nos, etc. Cum igitur〈discretus〉 Iacobus de Faro, magister in medicina, de cecitate iudaicha ad fi-dem catholicam conversus quandam habeat filiam vocatam Margaritam quamsine vestris et aliorum Christi fidelium elemosinis 〈non potest. . . maritare〉,idcirco. . . ut in opera pietatis pium sit maritare puellas, uni〈versitatem ves-tram rogamus in domino et ortamus ac in remissionem vestrorum vobis in-iungimus peccatorum, quatenus de bonis a Deo nobis collatis pias eidemMargarite elemosinas per latorem presentem transmitatis vosque per hec etalia bona quod domino feceritis inspirante〉 ad eterna posse felicitatis gau-dia pervenire vobis auctoritatem ecclesiarum rectoribus et clericis universiset singulis curatis et non curatis 〈civitatis et nostre dicocesis Gerundensis〉et vestrum locatenentem, in virtute sancte obedientie, dicimus et mandamusquatenus populum vobis comissum ad benefaciendum eidem Margarite salu-bribus monitis et exortacionibus inducatis. Speratis ab illo proemium quiin centuplum remunerat omnem bonum. Nos enim de domini nostri IhesuChristi misericordia et beatorum Petri et Pauli apostolorum eius auctoritateconfisi omnibus vere penitentibus et confessis qui eidem Margarite manussuas porrexerint, adiutricis XL dies de iniuncta sibi penitentia per SpiritumSanctum gratiam misericorditer in Domino relaxamus. Datum Gerunde, xxiiidie ianuarii, etc.

20 P. TARTAKOFF

Appendix 3: Conort

May 11, 1317ADB, RC 3, fols. 91v–92r

Guidaticum iudeeUniversis et singulis, nos Poncius, Dei gratia Barchinonensis episcopus

notum fieri volumus per presentes quod cum ad aures nostras pervenerit quodPetrus de Avinone, nehofitus iudeus, quondam habitator civitatis Terrachone,qui Bonist Barzelay antea vocabatur, de iudaismo ad fidem catholicam con-versus fuisset et in ecclesia Terrachone recepisset sacri babtismatis sacramen-tum, tractu temporis cum quodam filio suo nomine Jucef exinde recedens etad partes Barbarie se transferens et ibidem ad ritum iudeorum redire in cre-atoris nostri contumeliam, instigante diabolo, ut a fide dignus accepimus,non expavit. Quo audito et intellecto per Conort, uxorem ipsius Petri, ipsaConort, sentiens se desertam et a dicto viro suo inconsulte dimissam, ad dic-tum virum suum cum quibusdam filiis suis communibus curavit accedere etdirigere gressus suos ad locum videlicet de Tripoli, ubi dictus nehofitus erat.Et apostatare curavit ibique dictus apostata. Finaliter, ut intelleximus, paulopost quam dicta uxor sua[sic] eius fuit secum, diem clausit extremum. Sedquia dicta iudea, propterea quia 〈ad〉 dictum virum suum post susceptionemsacri babtismatis et apostatationem eiusdem accessit et cum eo perseveravit,venire dubitat ad partes Cathalonie ad quas, ut accepimus, venire desider-aret et intendit, nobis, ex parte ipsius 〈iudee〉 ac per amicos et consanguineoseiusdem, extitit humiliter supplicatum quod nos predictam iudeam et prolemeiusdem cum omnibus eorundem bonis ad veniendum et tornandum ad partesistas et remanendum in eisdem guidare et asse- [fol. 92r] curare omnimododignaremus, unde nos, eorum supplicationibus inclinati, quia non constat no-bis dictam Conort seu aliquem de filiis vel filiabus suis fore culpabilis inpredictis, nos dictam[sic] iudeam 〈ipsam〉 et prolem eiusdem et bona ipso-rum quecumque sint et ubicumque guidamus et assecuramus ad bonum etsanum intellectum et sine fraude 〈et quantum ad nostrum spectat officium incivitate et agrum diocesis nobis commissis〉, in cuius rei testimonium, etc.Datum Barchinone, vo idus madii, anno quo supra.

Appendix 4: Eulalia

January 23, 1387ADB, RC 42, fol. 177v

Raymundus miseratione divina episcopus Barchinonensis. Dilecto in Christovicario perpetuo ecclesie beate Marie Calidarum de Monte Bovino vel eius


locumtenenti et quibusquis aliis personis[sic] presbiteris curatis et non curatisper civitatem et diocesem Barchinonensem constitutis ad quos presentes per-venerint, salutem in Domino. Cum matrimonium per verba de presenti sit,ut asseritur, contractum inter Bernatum de Muntros, olim iudeum, nunc veroper Dei gratiam ad fidem catholicam conversum, ex una parte, et Eulaliam,modo simili conversam, qui primo erat uxor Astruchi Bonnin iudei, sartorisBarchinone, et pro parte dicti Astruchi Bonnin iudei fuerimus instantissimerequisiti et cum ipse desideret et afferret se ad fidem catholicam converti etin matrimonio in quo erat cum dicta Eulalia antequam ad fidem catholicamse convertisset, ut predicitur, si de iure fieri poterit, remanere, quatinus adcelebracionem dicti contracti matrimonii supersedere eos facere deberemus.Nos vero dicta requisitione attenta, vobis et cuilibet vestrum dicimus et man-damus, in virtute sancte obedientie, firmiter et districte, quatinus ad sollemp-nitzationem dicti matrimonii inter dictos conversos contracti in facie ecclesiesint, alias quamvis per eosdem fueritis requisiti, minime procedatis aliqua ra-tione, immo ex parte nostra eisdem mandetis et inhibeatis, in virtute sancteobedientie, firmiter et districte, quatinus an solempnitzationem dicti matri-monii minime procedant et quod ambo insimul minime cohabitent, immo abomni cohabitatione eorundem desistant penitus atque cessent donech per nosdecisum et determinatum fuerit ad dictum matrimonium inter dictos conver-sos contractum locum habeat et in eo remanere possint necne. Alioquin, sidicti conversi contra fecerint in premissis in ipsos et utrumque ipsorum, nuncpro tunc et e converso in hiis scriptis excommunicacionis sentenciam pro-mulgamus. Reddite presentes latori earundem cum subscriptionibus vestrispropriis diem declarantibus qua predictam monitionem et citationem feceritisappositis in eisdem. Datum Barchinone, XXIIIa die ianuarii, anno a nativitateDomini millesimo trecentesimo octuagesimo septimo. Visa de polo[?]

Notes

1. Barcelona, Arxiu Diocesà de Barcelona (hereafter, ADB), Registra Gratiarum (hereafter,RG) 4, fol. 100r. Full text in Appendix 1.

2. Baumgarten cites conversion miracles at time of birth described in the works of medievalLatin authors such as Vincent de Beauvais (d. c. 1264); Elisheva Baumgarten, Mothersand Children: Jewish Family Life in Medieval Europe (Princeton, 2004), 49–52.

3. For an overview of the political and economic history of the Crown of Aragon, a confed-eration of realms that included Catalonia, Aragon, and Valencia, as well as portions ofsouthern France and major Mediterranean islands, see Thomas N. Bisson, The MedievalCrown of Aragon: A Short History (Oxford, 1991). On the history of the Jews in theCrown of Aragon, see Yom Tov Assis, The Golden Age of Aragonese Jewry: Communityand Society in the Crown of Aragon, 1213–1327 (London, 1997) and Miguel Angel MotisDolader, Los Judios en Aragon en la edad media (siglos XIII–XIV) (Zaragoza, 1990). Onthe relationship between Jews and royal power in medieval Barcelona, see Elka Klein,

22 P. TARTAKOFF

Jews, Christian Society, and Royal Power in Medieval Barcelona (Ann Arbor, 2006). Onthe history of the Jews in Iberia under Christian rule more generally, see Yitzhak Baer,A History of the Jews in Christian Spain, 2 vols., trans. L. Schoffman et al. (Philadelphia,1961). Also see Maurice Kriegel, “Ferdinand le Catholique, fils de Palomba: les Juifs etl’alliance royale,” in Le temps de l’état. Mélanges en l’honneur de Pierre Birnbaum, ed.Bertrand Badie and Yves Deloye (Paris, 2007), 111–134.

4. Jewish apostasy in medieval Iberia prior to 1391 has been discussed primarily with refer-ence to a handful of apostates who were prolific or became public figures, such as PeterAlfonsi, Pablo Christiani, and Alfonso of Valladolid, as well as with reference to the mas-sacres of 1320, which took place in northern Aragon at the hands of the Pastoureaux.See, for example, Jeremy Cohen, “The Mentality of the Medieval Jewish Apostate: PeterAlfonsi, Hermann of Cologne, and Pablo Christiani,” in Jewish Apostasy in the ModernWorld, ed. Todd A. Endelmann (New York, 1988), 20–29, 35–47; Jaume Riera i Sans,Fam i Fe: L’Entrada dels Pastorells (juliol de 1320) (Lleida, 2004); David Nirenberg,Communities of Violence (Princeton, 1996), 69–92.

5. Jaume Riera, cited in David Romano, “Els jueus en temps de Pere el Cerimoniós,” inPere el Cerimoniós i la Seva Època (Barcelona, 1989), 118–119. On the impact of theBlack Death on the Jewish communities of the Crown of Aragon, see Baer, History,vol. 2, 24–28; Nirenberg, Communities, 237–245; Anna Rich Abad, La comunitat juevade Barcelona entre 1348 i 1391 a través de la documentació notarial (Barcelona, 1999),32–33.

6. Paola Tartakoff, Jews, Converts, and Inquisitors in the Crown of Aragon, Ph.D. Disser-tation, Columbia University, 2007, 90–105. There are also few records of violent forcedconversions. The names of only nine individuals have survived, including those of six chil-dren, who were converted by the Pastoureaux in 1320 (Riera, Fam i Fe, 134; Nirenberg,Communities, 78). It is likely that some Jews were forcibly baptized during the violencefollowing the outbreak of the Black Death in 1348, but no specific cases have been docu-mented; José Maria Coll has argued that the convert Ramón de Tárrega, who was rumoredto have been baptized in 1348, and who rose in the ranks of the Dominican order beforebeing detained by inquisitors and dying in prison in 1371, was actually baptized prior tothe outbreak of the Black Death, “Ramón de Tárrega fue formalmente hereje” Ilerda 6(1948): 8.

7. In the Diocese of Barcelona, for example, records of pastoral visits and the Registra Com-munium were not kept until 1303, and the Registra Gratiarum were initiated in 1363. Thearchdiocese of Tarragona conserves records of pastoral visits beginning only in 1445.

8. To mention just a few examples: the municipal and diocesan archives of Tarazona weredestroyed by earthquakes in 1380 (personal communication with staff at the Arxiu Dio-cesà de Tarazona, March 2006). The Dominican convent of Barcelona, Santa Caterina,was burned to the ground by the French in 1835; see Robert Hughes, Barcelona (NewYork, 1992), 218. During the Spanish Civil War, Republican forces set fire to the Dioce-san Archive of Valencia, burning most of its contents (personal communication with staffat the Arxiu Diocesà de Valencia, March 2006), and they flung the contents of the Ca-pitular Archive of Tarazona into the River Queiles (personal communication with staff atthe Arxiu Capitular de Tarazona, March 2006). High levels of humidity in the DiocesanArchive of Tarragona have caused many documents there to disintegrate.

9. On Muslim conversion to Christianity in the medieval Crown of Aragon, see Brian Catlos,The Victors and the Vanquished (Cambridge, 2004), 234–252; Robert I. Burns, Muslims,Christians, and Jews in the Crusader Kingdom of Valencia (Cambridge, 1984), 80–108;John Boswell, The Royal Treasure (New Haven, 1977), 347, 378–381; Robert I. Burns,


“Journey to Islam,” Speculum 35 (1960): 337–356. On the story of a Muslim woman fromTeruel who committed a crime and then converted to Christianity, see Boswell, RoyalTreasure, 347. Conversion between Judaism and Islam also occurred. See, for example,David Nirenberg, “Love between Muslim and Jew in Medieval Spain: A Triangular Af-fair,” in Jews, Muslims and Christians in and around the Crown of Aragon, ed. Harvey J.Hames (Leiden, 2004), 127–155. On Muslim conversion to Judaism, see Boswell, RoyalTreasure, 351–152, 379–381, 436–437, 443.

10. Recent studies of medieval Jewish apostasy include: David Malkiel, “Jews and Apostatesin Medieval Europe: Boundaries Real and Imagined,” Past and Present 194 (2007): 3–34;Jean-Claude Schmitt, La conversion d’Hermann le Juif: autobiographie, histoire et fiction(Paris, 2003); Kenneth R. Stow, “Conversion, Apostasy, and Apprehensiveness: Emichoof Flonheim and the Fear of Jews in the Twelfth Century,” Speculum 76 (2001): 911–933;Alfred Haverkamp, “Baptised Jews in German Lands during the Twelfth Century,” in Jewsand Christians in Twelfth-Century Europe, ed. Michael A. Signer et al. (Notre Dame,2001), 255–310; William Chester Jordan, “Adolescence and Conversion in the MiddleAges,” in Jews and Christians; Jonathan Elukin, “From Jew to Christian? Conversionand Immutability in Medieval Europe,” in Varieties of Religious Conversion in the Mid-dle Ages, ed. James Muldoon (Gainesville, 1997), 171–189; Edward Fram “Perceptionand Reception of Repentant Apostates in Medieval Ashkenaz and Pre-Modern Poland,”AJS Review 21 (1996): 299–339; Joseph Shatzmiller, “Jewish Converts to Christianity inMedieval Europe,” in Cross Cultural Convergences in the Crusader Period, ed. MichaelGoodich et al. (New York, 1995), 271–272; Robert C. Stacey, “The Conversion of Jews toChristianity in Thirteenth-Century England,” Speculum 67 (1992): 263–283. The experi-ences of women apostates are discussed in Shatzmiller, “Jewish Converts,” 307–309 andHaverkamp, “Baptised Jews,” 267–273. On the status of apostate women in medieval Jew-ish law, see Gerald Blidstein, “The Personal Status of Captured and Converted Women inMedieval Halakhah” (Hebrew), Shenaton ha-mishpat ha-ivri 3–4 (1976–1977): 35–116.On the apostasy of Jewish women in early modern Europe, see, for example, DeborahHertz, “Women at the Edge of Judaism: Female Converts in Germany, 1600–1750,” inJewish Assimilation, Acculturation and Accommodation, ed. Menachem Mor (Lanham,1992), 87–109.

11. Elisheva Carlebach has suggested that rabbinic responsa may mention women apostatesless frequently than men because the apostasy of men created greater halakhic problems(Divided Souls: Converts from Judaism in Germany, 1500–1750 [New Haven, 2001],25–26).

12. In 1284, Dominican friars prosecuted Jews from Barcelona for harboring Jewish convertsto Christianity; see Jean Régné, History of the Jews in Aragon: Regesta and Documents,1213–1327, ed. Yom Tov Assis (Jerusalem, 1978), 218–219, no. 1206. Inquisitors in theCrown of Aragon subsequently prosecuted Jews for bringing converts back to Judaism onmore than a dozen occasions; see Tartakoff, Jews, Converts, and Inquisitors, 34–89. Onthe origins and development of inquisition in the medieval Crown of Aragon, see EufemiàFort i Cogul, Catalunya i la Inquisició (Barcelona, 1973), 1–119 and Johannes Vincke,Zur Vorgeschichte der Spanischen Inquisition: Die Inquisition in Aragon, Katalonien,Mallorca und Valencia während des 13. und 14. Jahrhunderts (Bonn, 1941), 1–50. Onmedieval inquisitions and the Jews, see Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, “The Inquisition andthe Jews of France in the Time of Bernard Gui,” Harvard Theological Review 63 (1970):363–376 and Solomon Grayzel, “Popes, Jews, and Inquisition, from ‘Sicut’ to ‘Turbato’,”in Essays on the Occasion of the Seventieth Anniversary of the Dropsie University, ed.Abraham Katsh (Philadelphia, 1979), 151–188.

24 P. TARTAKOFF

13. In 1267 Pope Clement IV (1265–1268) issued the bull Turbato corde (subsequently re-issued in 1274, 1278, and 1288), which stated that inquisitors were to punish Jews whobrought Christians over to Judaism with a “fitting punishment” (poena debita) (full textin Solomon Grayzel, The Church and the Jews in the XIIIth Century, Vol. 2: 1254–1314,ed. Kenneth R. Stow [New York, 1988], 102–103, no. 26 and Shlomo Simonsohn, TheApostolic See and the Jews [Toronto, 1991], vol. 7, 236–237, no. 230). At the end of thethirteenth century, Boniface VIII (1294–1303) issued the bull Contra Christianos, whichspecified that those who brought Christians over to Judaism were to be treated like abet-tors of heresy (Liber Sextus Decretalium 5.2.13, ed. Aemilius Friedberg, Corpus IurisCanonici [Leipzig, 1879; repr., Graz, 1959], vol. 2, 1075). This legislation was incorpo-rated into the two best-known inquisitorial manuals of the fourteenth century. Bernard Guiquoted Contra Christianos in the section on “Jewish perfidy” of his Practica inquisitionisheretice pravitatis (1323–1324) (ed. Célestin Douais [Paris, 1886], 288), and some fiftyyears later the inquisitor general of the Crown of Aragon, Nicolau Eimeric, paraphrasedthis bull in his Directorium Inquisitorum (Venice, 1607), 348. On medieval prohibitionsagainst sex between Jews and Christians, see James A. Brundage, “Intermarriage BetweenChristians and Jews in Medieval Canon Law,” Jewish History 3 (1988): 26, 29–30; DavidNirenberg, “Conversion, Sex, and Segregation: Jews and Christians in Medieval Spain,”American Historical Review 107 (2002): 1065–1093; Stow, “Emicho of Flonheim,” 920–921.

14. Inquisitors in the Crown of Aragon pursued converts suspected of judaizing since at leastas early as 1265. In 1265, a convert named Berengario Durand was tried for judaizing bythe inquisitor Pere de la Cadireta (Joaquim Miret i Sans, Itinerari de Jaume I el Conqueri-dor [Barcelona, 1918], 371, 376). The bulls Turbato corde and Contra Christianos, men-tioned above, both instructed inquisitors to proceed against Christians who went over toJudaism just as they would proceed against other heretics. For a discussion of the meaningof the verb ‘to judaize’, see Shaye Cohen, “Between Judaism and Christianity: The Semi-circumcision of Christians According to Bernard Gui, His Sources and Rabbi Eliezerof Metz,” Harvard Theological Review 94 (2000): 295. On the various ways apostatessought to return to Judaism and on the attitudes of Jews toward repentant apostates, seeFram “Perception and Reception of Repentant Apostates,” 299–339 and Tartakoff, Jews,Converts, and Inquisitors, 155–195.

15. Johannes Teutonicus [c. 1180–1252]: Vel dic quod aliud est si vir convertitur ad fidem etaliud si mulier. Nam si mulier convertitur, ipsa debet recedere a viro, ne vir eam revocet adpriorem errorem. Secus est si vir convertitur, quia facilius possunt viro revocare mulieres,quam econverso, nam vir caput eius est, cited in Brundage, “Intermarriage,” 38, n. 39.

16. Enrique Claudio Girbal, Los Judios en Girona (Girona, 1870), 41.17. Josep M. Marquès, “Sis-cents pidolaires (1368–1540): Captius, esclaus i peregrins,” Es-

tudis del Baix Empordà 13 (1994): 146.18. Marquès, “Sis-cents pidolaires,” 147. According to Marquès, the name of Brunissenda’s

son was not Pedro Roig, but Ramón Roig. Brunissenda’s family is mentioned also inEnrique Claudio Girbal, “Conversiones de Judíos en Girona y su obispado,” Revista deGirona 18 (1894): 35.

19. At the Council of Lleida in 1243, Jaume I decreed that converts should keep their be-longings (full text in Solomon Grayzel, The Church and the Jews in the Thirteenth Cen-tury [1198–1254], 2nd ed. [New York, 1966], 254–256, no. 105). This legislation wasre-promulgated by Jaume II with slight modifications in 1296 (full text in Documents perl’història de la cultura catalana migeval, ed. Antoni Rubió i Lluch, [Barcelona, 1921],vol. 2, 110–111) and yet again at the Corts of Barcelona in 1300 (Cortes de los antiguos


reinos de Aragon y de Valencia y principado de Cataluña [Madrid, 1896–1903], vol. 1,171) and 1311 (Cortes, vol. 1, 217–218).

20. . . . haya dejado los bienes temporales por ganar la gloria celestial (Girbal, Los Judios enGirona, 41, n. 2).

21. ADB, RG 4, fol. 100r. Full text in Appendix 1.22. In 1243 Jaume I decreed that converts were not to be deprived of their inheritance (full text

in Grayzel, The Church and the Jews [1198–1254], 254–256 (no. 105). This legislationwas repromulgated at the Corts of Barcelona in 1311 (Cortes, vol. 1, 217–218).

23. See, for example, the case summarized in Régné, History, 540, no. 2919. On the disinher-itance of apostates in medieval Ashkenaz, see Jacob Katz, Exclusiveness and Tolerance:Studies in Jewish-Gentile Relations in Medieval and Modern Times (West Orange, 1961),72–73. In late eleventh-century Ashkenaz, Christian charters for Jewish communities lentsupport to this practice, specifically prohibiting converts from inheriting their parents’estate. See Friedrich Lotter, “Imperial versus Ecclesiastical Jewry Law in the High Mid-dle Ages: Contradictions and Controversies Concerning the Conversion of Jews and theirSerfs,” in Proceedings of the Tenth World Congress of Jewish Studies, ed. David Assaf(Jerusalem, 1990), 59–60 and Friedrich Lotter, “The Scope and Effectiveness of ImperialJewry Law in the High Middle Ages,” Jewish History 4 (1989): 40–41. On converts andtheir inheritances in early modern Rome, see Kenneth R. Stow, “A Tale of Uncertainties:Converts in the Roman Ghetto,” in Studies on the History of the Jews in the Middle Agesand Renaissance Period; Shlomo Simonsohn Jubilee Volume, ed. Daniel Carpi et al. (TelAviv, 1993), 261–262.

24. In a letter to the leaders of Girona, Juan wrote: de las sus manos non sepa ningun oficiofacer con que pueda mantener la sua familia porque sea estado de la generacion e linagede Sadoch (Girbal, Los Judios en Girona, 41, n. 2). Juan’s statement is puzzling as theredoes not appear to have been a connection between social status, power, or scholarshipand being a kohen in medieval Iberia.

25. The trend was widespread. Some apostates received royal alms, and others obtained epis-copal begging licenses (Tartakoff, Jews, Converts, and Inquisitors, 113–120).

26. Marquès, “Sis-cents pidolaires,” 146. On the issuing of begging licenses by the bishops ofGirona, see Eduard Sierra Valentí, “Captivus de Sarraïns: llicències per a demanar caritatdels bisbes de Girona (1376–1415),” Anuario de estudios medievales 38 (2008): 385–428.

27. Marquès, “Sis-cents pidolaires,” 147.28. Agustí Altisent, L’Almoina reial a la cort de Pere el Cerimoniós (Poblet, 1969), 147–148;

Enrique Morera y Llauradó, Tarragona cristiana (Tarragona, 1954), vol. 3, 37. The familyof Juan Fernández may also have received a begging license in Girona in 1370 (Marquès,“Sis-cents pidolaires,” 146).

29. Girbal, Los Judios en Girona, 41–42.30. Jaume Riera i Sans, “Les llicències reials per predicar als jueus i als sarraíns (segles

XIII–XIV),” Calls 2 (1987): 125–126 and 139–140, no. 8. Juan Fernández may also havepreached to the Jews of Vila-reial in 1378 (Riera, “Les llicències,” 131, n. 57). Juan wasone of a dozen fourteenth-century Jewish apostates from the Crown of Aragon who re-ceived preaching licenses. See Riera, “Les llicències” for a thorough analysis of theselicenses. Other such converts included Joan d’Osca, Pedro Fernández de Tudela, JimenoPérez de Tudela, Pere de la Mercè, Romeu de Pal, Pere de Gràcia, Nicolau de Gràcia,Arnau d’Estadella, Guillem de Paris, Jaume Romeu, and Guillem Català.

31. . . . imbutus tam latina lingua quam ebrayca (Barcelona, Archivo de la Corona de Aragon,Canc., Reg. 1895, fols. 212v–213r, published in Riera, “Les llicències,” 139–140, no. 8).

32. ADB, RG 4, fol. 100r. Full text in Appendix 1. During the second half of the fourteenthcentury—the period during which the families of Juan Fernández, Joana, and Brunis-

26 P. TARTAKOFF

senda apostatized—economic distress was widespread in the Crown of Aragon. The BlackDeath of 1348 and the anti-Jewish riots that ensued took the lives of many Jews, as didanother outbreak of the plague in 1369. These events were followed by economic disas-ter, as many debtors and lenders fled or passed away, leading to the collapse of importantbusiness networks, and as Jews were burdened with new taxes to pay for wars at homeand abroad. These hardships may have led to some of the apostasies of the period.

33. ADB, RG 4, fol. 100r. Full text in Appendix 1.34. On the dowries of Christian women in the medieval Crown of Aragon, see Rebecca Winer,

Women, Wealth, and Community in Perpignan c. 1250–1300 (Aldershot, 2006), 25–28.Both Jews and Christians had trouble providing dowries for poor girls in the late medievalCrown of Aragon (Assis, Golden Age, 245). The gravity of the problem is underscored bythe fact that, between 1378 and 1385, King Pere III gave alms to help women marry on atleast eighty-nine occasions (see Altisent, L’Almoina, 7, 8, 11–14, 18–20, 29, 30, 32, 36,40, 42, 44–46, 59, 60, 62, 63, 64, 67, 69, 71, 72, 78–80, 82–84, 117, 118, 120, 122–127,129, 132–134, 164, 165, 168, 171, 172, 174, 177, 178, 193, 206, 207, 209, 219, 224–228,232, 292). In at least twelve of these cases the young women’s fathers were deceased (seeAltisent, L’Almoina, 7, 8, 29, 30, 59, 122, 164, 174, 178, 227, 228).

35. Girona, Arxiu Diocesà de Girona (hereafter, ADG), Lletres Episcopals (hereafter, LE),U 64, fol. 92v. Full text in Appendix 2. Jaume de Faro is mentioned also in ADG, LE,U 63, fol. 170r-v (published in Jaume Puig i Oliver, “Documents Relatius a la Inquisi-ció del ‘Registrum Litterarum’ de l’Arxiu Diocesà de Girona [s. XIV],” Arxiu de TextosCatalans Antics 17 [1998]: 447–448, no. 59); Vincke, Zur Vorgeschichte der SpanischenInquisition, 167, no. 11 (= Jean Régné, “Rapports entre l’Inquisition et les Juifs d’après lemémorial de l’inquisiteur d’Aragon [fin du XIVe siècle],” REJ 53 [1906]: 229). Evidencefrom elsewhere in Europe shows that young women who apostatized without their fatherswere often cut off from their families. In 1249 in England, a Jew named Josse tried to takeaway the 30 marks he had given to his daughter as a dowry. King Henry III ordered thatthe gift be restored (Stacey, “Conversion of Jews,” 271).

36. Pere is described as the “godfather” (padrí) of a convert named Pere de Sicília (Altisent,L’Almoina, 223) and as “having had baptized” or “having been present at the baptismof” several individuals, including an unamed Jewish woman to whom he gave fifty-fiveBarcelona sous for clothes (Altisent, L’Almoina, 117–118), an unamed Muslim man (Al-tisent, L’Almoina, 127), an unamed Jewish man (Altisent, L’Almoina, 139), and a Jewishadolescent named Johan d’Alzira (referred to also as Johan de Xàtiva, don Jhan, Jhanicó,and Johanet; Altisent, L’Almoina, 253, 255, 257, 288, 290, 294, 297, 299, 301, 303, 312,314, 316, 319, 321, 326, 328, 330). On the kings of medieval England and France serv-ing as godfathers to converts, see Stacey, “Conversion of Jews,” 269 and William ChesterJordan, The French Monarchy and the Jews: From Philip Augustus to the Last Capetians(Philadelphia, 1989), 150. In the thirteenth-century Crown of Aragon, King Pere II (IIIin Aragon, 1276–1285) served as a godfather to Muslim converts (see Burns, Muslims,Christians and Jews, 85–86).

37. . . . en ajuda de son matrimoni (Altisent, L’Almoina, 8). For an overview of currencies andtheir values in the medieval Crown of Aragon, see Robert I. Burns, Jews in the Notar-ial Culture: Latinate Wills in Mediterranean Spain, 1250–1350 (Berkeley, 1996), 8–10;Boswell, Royal Treasure, 25–27; Assis, Golden Age, 335–336.

38. . . . en ajuda del camí que a fer a Barçalona (Altisent, L’Almoina, 122).39. . . . no era sana (Altisent, L’Almoina, 145).40. Altisent, L’Almoina, 159. The last two references to Caterina actually mention, not “Cate-

rina,” but “Catalina” and “Catalina de Paris,” respectively. Both of these Catalinas are re-ferred to as “fiyola del senyor rey” (goddaughter of the lord king). I am assuming these two


Catalinas are the same person as “Chatarina, fiyllola d’en senyor rey” and “Na Caterina,fila de N’Andreu Contigoch, quondam convers a la fe catòlicha,” as spelling in general,and the spelling of names in particular, is very inconsistent in these records.

41. Whereas Pere supported Caterina generously and on an ongoing basis, he made onlymodest donations to his other godchildren.

42. The considerable number of rabbinic responsa from medieval Ashkenaz that discuss di-vorces given to the Jewish wives of apostates suggests that it was common for husbands toapostatize without their wives (Louis Rabinowitz, The Social Life of the Jews of NorthernFrance [New York, 1972], 106).

43. On these three sins, see bsan 74a–b. On the halakhic status of apostates, see Jacob Katz,“Although he has Sinned, he Remains a Jew” (Hebrew), Tarbiz 27 (1958): 203–217.

44. Katz, Exclusiveness, 68–74. On how Joseph Perl in early 19th-century Galicia found thistradition problematic, see Nancy Sinkoff, “The Maskil, the Convert, and the Agunah:Joseph Perl as a Historian of Jewish Divorce Law,” AJS Review 27 (2003): 281–300.

45. Shelomo ben Avraham ibn Adret, Sheelot u-teshuvot (Responsa), no. 1162. Also see Katz,Exclusiveness, 70.

46. Açach’s relatives were so angered at his apostasy that they allegedly plotted to poison him(Baer, History, vol. 2, 93–94).

47. David appears to have been the brother-in-law of an individual who converted to Chris-tianity in Barcelona in, or shortly before, 1341 (see ADB, Registra Communium [here-after, RC] 9, fols. 189v–190r, published in Josep Perarnau i Espelt, “Documents de TemaInquisitorial del Bisbe de Barcelona, Fra Ferrer d’Abella [1334–1344],” Revista Catalanade Teologia 5 [1980]: 467–468).

48. Parts of this document are published in Joaquim Sarret Arbós, Jueus a Manresa, Am-pliació de la conferència donada en el ‘Centre escursionista de Bages’ el dia 16 de no-vembre de 1908 (Manresa, 1917), 49–50. Sarret specifies only that he found the docu-ment in a Liber judeorum in the notarial archive of Manresa. I have not yet been able tolocate the original document. I quote Sarret’s combination of paraphrase (Catalan) andtranscription (Latin): . . . Atenent tambe que en el temps que jo per merce de Deu ‘fui adlumen xpiane religionis deventus’ vaig manar y requerir moltes vegades per mi y permoltes personas a vos dita Tolrana ‘ut exiretis a judayca cessitate et deveniretis sicut egoper dei gratiam devotioni, ad lumen dicte religionis xpiane ad hoc ut ego intraveremus inordine christiane religionis matrimonii et altissimo desserviremus in eodem ordine tototempore vite nostre quos quidem penis et culpis nostris exegentibus vos dicta Tolranafacere neclexistis immo vultis et cupitis in dicta cessitate judayca stare et pertinaciterpermanere.’ Y atenent tambe que jo vull de tot cor y de tota ma voluntat entrar en religio‘in tota vita mea altissimo famulari. . . (49).

49. I quote Sarret’s paraphrase: . . . Atenent que segons les consuetuts judaycas va contraurematrimoni ab dit Jaume Payllars, tunc judeo, nunc autem neophito, y dit marit de conselly voluntat de David de Rivipullo, jueu de Manresa pare seu, feume sponsalici de quinquemille quinquaginta sous barcelonesos, segons document sponsalici fet per dit marit, escritab lletras ebraicas el qual entre ‘ls jueus y segons les costums juevas s’anomeno vulgar-ment caçubba. . . confessa y regonex a dit David de Ripoll son sogre ausent, que ha sigutbe y plenament pagada de quinquaginta sous que restaven pagar dels quinque mille quin-quaginta que dita Tolrana havia de percibir sobre’ls bens de son marit, segons promesa,e igualment de tot lo que per ella havian de donar de provisió, vestits y demes a que ‘sreferex el document d’esposalles confirmat per son marit devant el notari Pere Nadal deManresa (48–49). The values of the dowries of Christian brides in late-thirteenth-centuryPerpignan ranged from 125 to 17,500 Barcelona sous (Winer, Women, Wealth, and Com-munity, 25).

28 P. TARTAKOFF

50. Sarret, Jueus a Manresa, 49.51. I quote Sarret’s combination of paraphrase (Catalan) and transcription (Latin): Atenent

que segons dret y costum judayca vos dita Tolrana per ser ma muller, esteu bax la mevapotestat y no podeu fer res sens la meva llicencia. Atenent que, segons costum dels jueusjo vos vaig donar y concedir á vos Tolrana ‘seu provinciali levitii judeo’ procuradorper axo constituit per vos ‘libellum repudii qui ebrayce et inter judeos guet vulgariternuncupatur.’ Atenent que per pacte entre mi de una part y vos dita Tolrana olim uxormea y dit procurador per altra, vaig prometre que res faria ni procuraria ni ho he fet,contra la concessio de dit ‘libelli sive guet’ per lo qual pot dirse que fou llegítima la ditaconcessio. . . Ab testimoni d’aquest instrument public, confirmo a vos dita Tolrana judee,olim muller mia, que jo no faré res en avant contra la concessio de dit libelli sive guet(49–50).

52. On the redaction of Jewish wills by Christian notaries in the medieval Crown of Aragon,see Burns, Jews in the Notarial Culture and Winer, Women, Wealth, and Community, 80–82.

53. Grayzel, The Church and the Jews (1198–1254), 180–182, no. 59. Also see Simonsohn,Apostolic See, vol. 7, 253–254 and Baumgarten, Mothers and Children, 160–161.

54. Decretales Gregorii IX (hereafter, Decretales) 3.33.2, in Corpus iuris canonici, vol. 2,723.

55. The letter was published by Joseph Kobak in Jeschurun 6 (1868): Heb. Sect., 1–31. Thequoted passage corresponds to Sect. 22. On the identities of the letter’s author and ad-dressee, see Kenneth R. Stow, “Jacob of Venice and the Jewish Settlement in Venice inthe Thirteenth Century,” in Community and Culture: Essays in Jewish Studies in Honorof the Ninetieth Anniversary of Graetz College, ed. Nahum M. Waldman (Philadelphia,1987), 221–232 also printed in Kenneth R. Stow, Popes, Church, and Jews in the MiddleAges: Confrontation and Response (Burlington, 2007), and Robert Chazan, “The Letterof R. Jacob ben Elijah to Friar Paul,” Jewish History 6 (1992): 51–63.

56. At the end of the fourteenth century in northern France, the Jewish wife of an apostatenamed Denis Machaut sued her husband after he took away their four children. For ananalysis of the complicated trajectory of this family, see Roger Kohn, Les Juifs de laFrance du Nord (Louvain, 1988), 253–261. In England in 1236 a Jewish mother who hadapostatized complained to King Henry III that her children had been kidnapped by theirJewish father. Henry III ruled that the children should be allowed to live with their fatherand that it was up to the children to decide whether they wanted to be Jewish or Christian(Calendar of Close Rolls of the Reign of Edward I [London, 1900–1908], 1236: 264, 358,383).

57. Puigcercos served as eighth prior of the Dominican convent of Barcelona from 1324–1326, and he was appointed inquisitor general of the Crown of Aragon by Pope JohnXXII in 1330 (Francisco Diago, Historia de la Provincia de Aragon de la Orden de Pred-icadores [Barcelona, 1599; repr., Valencia, 1999], fol. 29r and Barcelona, Universitat deBarcelona, Ms. 1005, fol. 49r). In 1323 Fra Bernat de Puigcercos prosecuted twenty-twoJews from Tarragona and Valls for “crimes relating to heretical depravity” (criminibushereticam pravitatem tangentibus) (Régné, History, 598–599, no. 3256; Yitzhak Baer,Die Juden im christlichen Spanien [Berlin, 1929/1936], vol. 1, 239–241, no. 180). FromOctober 1341 to August 1342 Puigcercos prosecuted three Jews for allegedly encourag-ing apostates to renounce Christianity and then burn to death (ACB, Còdex 126). Foran analysis of these trials, see Tartakoff, Jews, Converts, and Inquisitors, 34–89; Kris-tine T. Utterback, “‘Conversi’ Revert: Voluntary and Forced Return to Judaism in theEarly Fourteenth Century,” Church History 64 (1995): 16–28; Josep Perarnau i Espelt,


“El procés inquisitorial barceloní contra els jueus Janto Almuli, la seva muller Jamila iJucef de Quatorze (1341–1342),” Revista Catalana de Teologia 4 (1979): 309–353. On theepiscopate of Bishop Ferrer d’Abella and his involvement with inquisitorial proceedings,see Perarnau, “Documents,” 444–459.

58. In the early fifteenth century Pope Martin V would declare that individuals aged twelveand older could make their own decisions about conversion and that parents should makedecisions for children under the age of seven (Salo Wittmayer Baron, A Social and Reli-gious History of the Jews, 2nd ed. [New York, 1965], vol. 9, 16). How the fates of childrenbetween the ages of seven and twelve were to be determined remains unclear. In 1327 theregent of Majorca specifically forbade the baptism by force of Jews younger than seven(Antonio Pons i Pastor, Los judíos del Reino de Mallorca durante los s. XIII y XIV [Palmade Mallorca, 1984], 261, no. 76). On the baptism of children, see also Simonsohn, Apos-tolic See, vol. 7, 253–257.

59. ADB, RC 9, fols. 189v–190r, published in Perarnau, “Documents,” 467–468, no. 9. JosepBaucells i Reig mentions this case in passing in Vivir en la edad media: Barcelona y suentorno en los siglos XIII y XIV (1200–1344) (Barcelona, 2004–2005), vol. 2, 1729.

60. Shatzmiller, “Jewish Converts,” 302.61. Shatzmiller, “Jewish Converts,” 302.62. Manuel Grau i Monserrat, “Jueus convertits al Cristianisme (Besalú, segles XIV–XV),”

Patronat d’estudis històrics d’Olot i comarca (Olot, 1980): 98. As the guardians of theirchildren, these women may have received support from the Jewish community. On car-ing for fatherless Jewish children in thirteenth-century Perpignan, see Winer, “Family,Community, and Motherhood: Caring for Fatherless Children in the Jewish Communityof Thirteenth-Century Perpignan,” Jewish History 16 (April, 2002): 15–48 and Winer,Women, Wealth, and Community, 107–125.

63. ADB, RC 3, fols. 91v–92r. Full text in Appendix 3. Benvenist Barzilay is mentioned inpassing in Baucells, Vivir en la edad media, vol. 2, 1729 and Assis, Golden Age, 57.

64. Assis, Golden Age, 57. Also see Baer, Die Juden, vol. 1, 204–206.65. Baer, Die Juden, vol. 1, 204–205, no. 166; Régné, History, 546, no. 2952.66. Around the same time, Jews from Montblanch were prosecuted for having convinced a

newly converted Jew to return to Judaism (Régné, History, 547, no. 2954). Yom Tov Assissuggests that the convert in question was Benvenist Barzilay (Golden Age, 57).

67. Baer, Die Juden, vol. 1, 205–206; Régné, History, 557, no. 3016.68. Baucells reads “Tripoli” as “Reipoll” (Vivir en la edad media, vol. 2, 1729).69. Baer, Die Juden, vol. 1, 205–206; Régné, History, 557, no. 3016.70. Sexual relations between Jews and Christians—cradle Christians or converts—were taboo

from the perspectives of both Jewish and Christian authorities. The twelfth-century canon-ist Rolandus had made an exception in cases involving a married couple in which onespouse had converted, maintaining that, in such situations, sex in fact ratified the marriagein the eyes of the church (James A. Brundage, Law, Sex, and Christian Society in Me-dieval Europe [Chicago, 1987], 296). Rolandus undoubtedly believed that the continuedcloseness of the couple would eventually lead the unbaptized spouse to convert to Chris-tianity. In the sixteenth century, Marquardus de Susannis would explain that “in ancienttimes, when only one of two spouses converted, it was not overly optimistic to hope thatthe infidel spouse would soon convert” (Kenneth R. Stow, Catholic Thought and PapalJewry Policy, 1555–1593 [New York, 1977], 177). In Conort’s case, however, as Petrushad returned to Judaism before the couple was reunited, there was no hope of Conort con-verting to Christianity. On the contrary, the couple’s reunion was likely further to distancePetrus from Christianity.

30 P. TARTAKOFF

71. ADB, RC 3, fols. 91v–92r. Full text in Appendix 3.72. Girbal, “Conversiones,” 35. Similarly, an apostate named Antoine Demorgin who was

baptized in Dijon in the early fifteenth century seems quickly to have become engaged(Kohn, Les Juifs, 186). Although women apostates in Ashkenaz are known to have mar-ried men who were Christian from birth (see, for example, Haverkamp, “Baptised Jews,”267–273 and Stacey, “Conversion of Jews,” 278), in the cases I have come across fromthe Crown of Aragon, women apostates sought to marry other former Jews. On Christiansin medieval England who converted to Judaism to marry Jews, see Michael Adler, Jewsof Medieval England (London, 1939), 23–24 and Frederic William Maitland, “The Dea-con and the Jewess; or, Apostasy at Common Law,” in The Collected Papers of FredericWilliam Maitland, ed. Hal Fisher (Cambridge, 1911), vol. 1, 385–406.

73. On “apostasy for love” see Jordan, “Adolescence,” 79–80 and Shatzmiller, “Jewish Con-verts,” 308–309. The fourteenth-century Sephardic halakhic authority Yom Tov ben Avra-ham Ishbili (known as “the Ritba” according to his rabbinic acronym) told of a young manwho threatened to apostatize unless permitted to marry whomever he pleased (Sheelot u-teshuvot [Responsa], no. 179).

74. ADB, RC 42, fol. 177v. Full text in Appendix 4.75. See discussion in Brundage, Law, 264–265 and Baucells, Vivir en la edad media, vol. 1,

689. For a concise summary of the history of medieval Christian understandings of mar-riage, see Thomas Head, “The Marriages of Christina of Markyate,” Viator 21 (1990):92–96.

76. According to Rabbi Shelomo ben Avraham ibn Adret, an apostate wife was suspected oftransgressing all the commandments of the Torah, including adultery, and she thereforebecame sexually prohibited to her husband (Sheelot u-teshuvot [Responsa], no. 1162).

77. See discussion in Brundage, “Intermarriage,” 27. From a Jewish perspective, of course,the Christian marriage of two apostates had no validity whatsoever as a Jewish marriage.See Isaac ben Sheshet Perfet (known according to his rabbinic acronym as “the Rivash”),Sheelot u-teshuvot (Responsa), no. 6. This responsum is discussed in Baron, Social andReligious History, vol. 9, 250, n. 21 and Abraham M. Hershman, Rabbi Isaac ben SheshetPerfet and his Times (New York, 1943), 71, 218.

78. On the solemnization of marriages in fourteenth-century Barcelona, see Baucells, Vivir enla edad media, vol. 1, 704–706.

79. Compounding the problem, a diocesan synod held in Barcelona in 1241 affirmed thatthe sexual consummation of a union was tantamount to marriage (Baucells, Vivir en laedad media, vol. 1, 709). Consummation was also essential to marriage in popular opin-ion (Brundage, Law, 502). For a similar case from the eighteenth century, in which it wasruled that the initial convert had to return to their first spouse, following the conversionof the latter, see Lucio Ferraris, Bibliotheca canonica juridic-moralistheologica (Rome,1766), s.v., Hebraeus, par. 6: Hebrea mulier viro relicto christianam fidem amplexa fuit,permansitque innupa, sperans eius virum Catholicam Religionem amplexurum, qui ductaalia muliere Hebrea in uxorem, post multos annos una cum ipsa catholicam fidem am-plexus fuit; Ipsa autem repetente virum. Sac. Congr. Concil. In Florentina Matrimonii1. Iulii 1679. respondit referendum Sanctissimo eius votum, scilicet debere virum rediread primam. Sic apud Ursayam in Miscellaneo Sacro, e prophano part.1. Verb. Hebrea.Ferraris is discussed in Kenneth R. Stow, “Expulsion Italian Style: The Case of LucioFerraris, Jewish History 3.1 (1988): 51–63 and repr. in Kenneth R. Stow, Jewish Life inEarly Modern Rome (Ashgate 2007).

80. On apostasy as an escape route, see Jordan, “Adolescence,” 81.81. Shatzmiller discusses the unpublished documentation in “Jewish Converts,” 307. On the

maltreatment of Jewish wives in the medieval Crown of Aragon, see Assis, Golden Age,


258–259. This case bears some resemblance to one from thirteenth-century Germany thatis related in a responsum of Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg: “Leah rebelled against her hus-band, A, the son of Mendel Kern. When warned that she might lose her ketubbah andthe dowry and that she might be forced to wait many years for her divorce, she threat-ened, among other things, to go and live among the gentiles” (Irving Agus, Rabbi Meirof Rothenburg: His Life and His Works as Sources for the Religious, Legal, and SocialHistory of the Jews of Germany in the Thirteenth Century [Philadelphia, 1947], vol. 1,340–341, no. 317, cited in Carlebach, Divided Souls, 30).

82. In Valencia in 1360 two women apostates were exonerated, together with their families, ofthe charge of having returned to Judaism (Valencia, Arxiu del Regne de Valencia, BailiaGeneral, Libro de Privilegios 1143, fols. 34r-v, 54r-v). In 1326 King Jaume II (1291–1327) granted a remission of 10,000 Jaca sous to two Jews accused by an inquisitor andthe bishop of Tarazona of having allegedly brought back to Judaism a “French woman”(gallica) apostate (Régné, History, 619, no. 3389; 620, no. 3396). This “French woman”had probably converted to Christianity in France and later fled to the Crown of Aragon. Onthe expulsions of the Jews from France, see Assis, “Juifs de France réfugiés en Aragon(XIIe-XIVe siècles),” REJ 142 (1983): 285–322; Nirenberg, Communities of Violence,115–118; William Chester Jordan, “Home Again: The Jews in the Kingdom of France,1315–1322,” in The Stranger in Medieval Society, ed. F.R.P. Akehurst et al. (Minneapolis,1997), 27–45. In a particularly intriguing case from 1317 the bishop of Barcelona issueda search warrant for two Jewish women from Castile named Huruceta and Vilida, whowere charged with having participated in converting to Judaism a Christian woman fromNavarre named Johanna, who was described as “the daughter of a Christian woman and aChristian man” (ADB, RC 3, fol. 59r, published in Yom Tov Assis, “The Papal Inquisitionand Aragonese Jewry in the Early Fourteenth Century,” Medieval Studies 49 [1987]: 409,no. 6 and ADB, RC 3, fol. 88v, cited in Baucells, Vivir en la edad media, vol. 2, 1729).

83. . . . in calle Gerunde est quedam mulier vocata. . . et est uxor d’en Salami sartoris de quadicitur quod fuit baptizata, et quod secretarie dixerunt sibi quod caveret sibi pro tem-pore quia aliquod sinistrum evenire posset ei dicta de causa; item deposuit, quod diciturcommuniter quod quandoque quibusdam baptizatis dedit pecuniam quod tacerent dic-tam causam, et quod est de Rossilione vel de Provincia (Vincke, Zur Vorgeschichte derSpanischen Inquisition, 170, no. 42).

84. . . . quedam judea de Provincia consuevit morari in Balneolis de qua fuit ibidem dictumquod fuerat baptizata, quo audito ipsa fugit timore inquisitoris qui hoc persequebatur(Vincke, Zur Vorgeschichte der Spanischen Inquisition, 170, no. 43).

85. Béatrice Leroy, The Jews of Navarre in the Late Middle Ages (Jerusalem, 1985), 143.86. This dichotomy was outlined by Gerson D. Cohen in his essay “Messianic Postures of

Ashkenazim and Sephardim,” in Studies of the Leo Baeck Institute, ed. M. Kreutzberger(New York, 1967), 117–158. It is now recognized that many in Ashkenaz, for example in1096, chose conversion, whereas in Iberia in 1391, martyrdom was not unknown. See, forexample, Stow, “Emicho of Flonheim,” 911–933; Ram Ben-Shalom, “Kiddush ha-Shemand Jewish Martyrdom in Aragon and Castile in 1391: Between Sepharad and Ashkenaz”(Hebrew), Tarbiz 70 (2001): 227–282; Abraham Grossman, “Martyrdom in the Eleventhand Twelfth Centuries: Between Ashkenaz and the Muslim World” (Hebrew), Pe’amim75 (1998): 27–46; Elisheva Carlebach, “Between History and Hope: Jewish Messianismin Ashkenaz and Sepharad,” Third Annual Lecture of the Victor Selmanowitz Chair ofJewish History, Graduate School of Jewish Studies, Touro College, May 17, 1998; Abra-ham Gross, “On the Ashkenazi Syndrome of Martyrdom in Portugal in 1497” (Hebrew),Tarbiz 64 (1994–1995): 83–114; Marc Saperstein, “A Sermon on the Akedah from the

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Generation of the Expulsion and Its Implications for 1391,” in Exile and Diaspora: Stud-ies in the History of the Jewish People Presented to Professor Haim Beinart (Madrid,1991), 103–124.

87. See Stacey, “Conversion of Jews,” 269; Shatzmiller, “Jewish Converts,” 271–272; Jordan,French Monarchy, 150, 300 n. 40; Kohn, Les Juifs, 34, 38, 183–187, 253; Robert Chazan,Medieval Jewry in Northern France (Baltimore, 1973), 146–147.

88. See, for example, Joshua Starr, “The Mass Conversion of Jews in Southern Italy (1290–1293),” Speculum 21 (1946): 203–211; Stacey, “Conversion of Jews,” 269–272; Stow,“Jacob of Venice,” 223–225.

89. On poverty, see Stacey, “Conversion of Jews,” 274–275, 278.

"Jewish Women and Apostasy in the Medieval Crown of Aragon," Jewish History 24 (2010)

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