41845358-Antisemitism

128 ANTISEMITISM
there had been no Jews in England since 1290, the debate, like stage plays, was
haunted by the image of scheming Jews, with much fulmination that interest
taking is “judaisme” and usurers are “mercatore Judaizantes” (judaizing merchants).
With the 1624 act, “as far as usury is concerned, the Middle Ages had
ended,” but the Shylock image of the Jew remained.* 30
EARLY MODERN EUROPE
In the early modern period, 1500 to 1789, there emerged a far-flung network
of Jewish communities that centered in the Netherlands. This international
network linked the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492** and Spanish and Portuguese
Marranos (forced converts to Catholicism); the arendars, agents of
Polish kings and nobles, and merchants of Poland-Lithuania-Ukraine; and the
court Jews who served the rulers of central Europe.
Fourteenth-century Spain saw the emergence of the Marranos (Castilian
for “pig”), known variously as New Christians, crypto-Jews, or conversos. By
1450 the converts or their descendants were “overwhelmingly Christianized”
but were nevertheless exposed to an antisemitism that was “basically an extension
of Christian hatred of the Jews.” That hatred was of a “non-religious Jewishness,”
for their “impure blood” made Marranos the object of fear and
loathing—the vocabulary and thought idiom of racism originated in Spain.
Their economic achievements arousing “both ferocity and vengefulness,” the
Marranos were pursued relentlessly by the Inquisition, which profited enormously
in the prosecution and confiscation of the property of “heretics” and
* If space permitted, a substantial portion of this chapter would deal with Jewish economic
activity in Islamic societies and the Jews’ status as dhimmis (people of the
covenant); for a brief analysis of this subject, see appendix I.
** In 1391 an orgy of bloodletting and destruction spread over Spain, presenting Jews
with the choice of baptism or death. Before the wave spent itself as many as 50,000
were dead. The 200,000 converted Jews of 1391 were augmented in subsequent
decades by numerous sword-point conversions. Unconverted Jews could practice Judaism
openly, technically still enjoying the old freedom and autonomy but increasingly
exposed to raging mobs and inflammatory preachers. To deal with the Marranos, who
were suspected of crypto-Judaism, the Spanish Inquisition was established in 1478. But
the Inquisition—despite its ruthlessness, persistence, and slaughterhouse efficiency—
made little headway against the Marranos. Nor did the policy suffice of decimating
Jews by massacre and forced conversion, or reducing them to beggary and degradation
by steady erosion of their legal rights. The only solution was baptism or expulsion. It is
not known how many Jews fled in 1492 (perhaps 150,000 to 200,000), or how many remained
and converted.