Popularizing Anti-Semitism in Early Modern Spain and Its Empire: Francisco de Torrejoncillo and the "Centinela contra Judíos" (1674)

Description

This book charts the history and influence of the most vitriolic and successful anti-Semitic polemic ever to have been printed in the early modern Hispanic world and offers the first critical edition and translation of the text into English. First printed in Madrid in 1674, the 'Centinela contra Judíos' ('Sentinel against the Jews') was the work of the Franciscan Francisco de Torrejoncillo, who wrote it to defend the mission of the Spanish Inquisition, to call for the expansion of discriminatory racial statutes and, finally, to advocate in favour of the expulsion of all the descendants of converted Jews from Spain and its empire. Francisco de Torrejoncillo combined the existing racial, theological, social and economic strands within Spanish anti-Semitism to demonize the Jews and their converted descendants in Spain in a manner designed to provoke strong emotional responses from its readership. Acknowledgements Abbreviations List of Illustrations and Maps Maps Illustrations Foreword SECTION ONE: A HISTORY AND ANALYSIS OF THE CENTINELA CONTRA JUDÍOS 1. Seventeenth-Century Spain and its 'Jewish Problem': The 'Centinela contra Judíos' and its Historical Context 2. Religion and Blood: Religious Anti-Semitism in Early Modern Spain 3. Authorship, History and Impact of the 'Centinela contra Judíos' 4. Anti-Semitic Propaganda and Pedagogy: Fear Mongering in the 'Centinela contra Judíos' Conclusion SECTION TWO: TRANSLATION OF THE CENTINELA CONTRA JUDÍOS Foreword to the Translation Francisco de Torrejoncillo Prologue for the Reader 1. How the Jews are, and always have been, Arrogant and Liars 2. That the Jews are, and have been, Traitors 3. How the Jews came to be Disdained and Humbled 4. How the Jews are Persecutors of our Holy Catholic Faith 5. That those who Favour Jews because of the Benefit that They Receive in Return will never come to a Good End. Nor will They Prosper with Them 6. Why the Jews should not be Trusted, nor should any Faith be placed in their Deeds 7. Regarding the Anxiety with which the Jews await the coming of the Messiah 8. How the Jews, wherever they may be, stick together and form a Mystical Body 9. Why they were called Hebrews, Israelites and Jews and why and how, in Ancient Times, they came to be called Marranos 10. How the Jews, in addition to being opposed to our Holy Faith, are our Mortal Enemies 11. Regarding the Signs by which Divine Providence differentiates the Jews 12. How the Jews are Restless, Vainglorious, Seditious and ordinarily sow Discord wherever they are 13. How the Hebrews do not Presently possess any Honour or Nobility whatsoever, and they lost that which they possessed with the Death of Christ 14. Regarding the Mercy with which our Mother Church treats the Jews, and will continue to treat them, and how far its obligations extend Appendix Bibliography Index