In 1391 the cruel and injust massacres of the Castilian, Catalonian and Valencian Jewish quarters erupted, with thousands of Jews perishing. Anti-Jewish sentiments took a concrete form in the 15th century, obliging Jews to wear distinct clothes. The sermons of Saint Vincent Ferrer, the Tortosa Debate between Jews and Christians and the Bull of Benedict XIII, Pope Luna, against the Jews, accelerated the destruction of Spanish Jewry. The sermons of the Archdeacon of Ecija, Ferran Martinez, turned the mobs into fanatics, attacking the Jewish quarters and slaughtering thousands of Jews. In 1476 the Inquisition Tribunal was set up in Seville. Seven years later, Tomas de Torquemada was named inquisitor General. The persecutions had produced a wave of forced conversions. The Inquisition acted harshly against the converted and stepped up the pressure on the Jews: they were forced to hear anti-Semitic sermons in the synagogues themselves, after which the conversions took place.
The Catholic
Monarchs, busy with the war with Granada, had accept the financing offered
by Don Isaac Abravanel and Don Abraham Senior, Senior Comptroller of Castile
and Chief Rabbi of the kingdom, to underwrite the costs of the war - which
did not stop them from signing the Edict of Expulsion on March 31, 1492. The
supplications of Don Isaac Abravanel for mercy to his brothers were turned
down by the Monarchs. Political power based on a unified dynasty, royal power
and religious unity leaned on the Inquisition and Torquemada to advance the
conversion of the Jews. All those who would not accept baptism had to leave
Spain within four months, leaving all their wealth behind. Some 100,000 Jews
left Spain. They spread out mostly through Greece, Turkey, Palestine, Egypt
and North Africa. Their descendants are the Sephardim, who still use the language
of Castile. In their diaspora throughout the Mediterranean they carried to
names in their hearts: Sepharad and Jerusalem.