One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Spain

THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA
One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Spain:

Nationalism and the Rejection of the Morisco Other
A DISSERTATION
Submitted to the Faculty of the
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
School of Arts and Sciences
Of The Catholic University of America
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
All Rights Reserved

By Kathleen E. Bartels
Washington, DC
2013
One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Spain:

Nationalism and the Rejection of the Morisco Other
Kathleen E. Bartels, Ph.D.
Director: Lourdes M. Alvarez, Ph.D.
In the latter half of the sixteenth century, Spains Catholic rulers faced a problem of their
own making: having forced Spains remaining Muslim population to convert to
Christianity, these rulers now suspected that these converts, known as Moriscos, were not
faithful to the crown or to their newly-adopted Catholic faith. Decades of political and
theological debate concerning the Moriscos ensued, only to be resolved when King
Philip III, in 1609, finally determined to expel the Moriscos, aiming to rid the Iberian
Peninsula of their purportedly destabilizing influence. The decision was not universally
popular, and out of concern that the expulsion could be undone, several clerics and men
of political influence became apologists for the massive deportation campaign, justifying
the expulsion and glorifying its results. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore how
the treatises of the apologists Pedro Aznar Cardona (Expulsin justificada de los
Moriscos espaoles), Damin Fonseca (Justa expulsin de los moriscos de Espaa),
Marcos de Guadalajara y Javier (Memorable expulsin y justsimo destierro de los
Moriscos de Espaa and Prodicin y destierro de los moriscos de Castilla hasta la Valle
de Ricote), and Jaime Bleda (Crnica de los Moros de Espaa) provide a foundation for
the formation of a Spanish national identity based on a shared Catholic faith. This study
specifically examines the apologists rhetorical strategies and goals, exploring the ways
in which they seek to establish Morisco otherness as a means of reinforcing the
institutional hegemony of the Catholic faith. The apologists hope to persuade their
Catholic audience of the risks to their physical and spiritual safety if Moriscos were to
return to the Peninsula, thereby safeguarding their ideal Spanish Catholic nation from
future contamination.
This dissertation by Kathleen E. Bartels fulfills the dissertation requirement for the
doctoral degree in Spanish approved by Lourdes M. Alvarez, Ph.D. as Director, and by
Bruno M. Damiani, Ph.D. and Peter Shoemaker, Ph.D. as Readers.
Lourdes M. Alvarez, Ph.D., Director
Bruno M. Damiani, Ph.D., Reader
Peter Shoemaker, Ph.D., Reader
ii
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements............................................................................................................. v
Introduction......................................................................................................................... 1
Chapter One: Parameters for the Faith.............................................................................. 17
Why Apologize? ........................................................................................................... 17
The Moriscos in Scholarship ........................................................................................ 27
Archbishop Juan de Ribera and the Catholic Apologists ............................................. 31
The Islamic Threat ........................................................................................................ 41
Construction of an Essentially Catholic Spain ............................................................. 49
Catholic Christianity Under Siege ................................................................................ 60
Chapter Two: Cultures in Contact .................................................................................... 74
Arguing Against a Hybrid Space .................................................................................. 74
Francisco Nez Muley and the Argument for Cultural Hybridity.............................. 77
Cultures in Contact and Anxiety in the Wake of Forced Conversion .......................... 84
Chapter Three: Delimiting Sacred Space........................................................................ 109
Perceived Threats to Catholic Sacred Structures, Objects, and Rituals...................... 109
Debating the Legitimacy of Religious Symbols ......................................................... 113
Delimiting Sacred Space............................................................................................. 118
Sacramental Activity................................................................................................... 120
Sacred Structures ........................................................................................................ 139
A Threat to National Identity...................................................................................... 153
Chapter Four: A Culture of Fear ..................................................................................... 162
A Difficult Decision.................................................................................................... 162
Economic Distress ...................................................................................................... 167
A State of Fear: East vs. West and La Turbacin Quotidiana ................................... 183
Fear of the End of Days .............................................................................................. 199
Antichrist on Spanish Terrain ..................................................................................... 206
Unity Threatened ........................................................................................................ 226
Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 228
iii
Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 241
iv
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my dissertation committee members and readers Dr. Peter
Shoemaker, Dr. Bruno M. Damiani, Rev. John T. Ford, and Dr. Enrique Pumar for their
insightful comments and encouragement. I am especially grateful for the guidance of my
advisor, Dr. Lourdes M. Alvarez, who stuck with me until the end of the project even
though a job opportunity relocated her to another state. I also appreciate the generous
support of the Lee Hatzfeld Dissertation Guidance Scholarship, awarded by the
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the Catholic University of Amerca.
Many CUA professors provided me with invaluable support throughout the
dissertation-writing process. I am especially thankful to Dr. Mario A. Ortiz of the
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures and to Dr. Shawqi Talia of the
Department of Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures for their assistance and
encouragement as I conducted my research.
My family has always supported me in my educational pursuits. I am especially
grateful for my mother, Casey Hanley, who traveled to DC countless times to care for
Jack while I was sick. Without her patience, encouragement, and willingness to do
whatever I asked at whatever hour, I would not have even started writing this dissertation
let alone finished it. Likewise, I remain eternally grateful to the surgeons who cared for
me in my recovery and who also always inquired about my research, Dr. Luis Sanz and
Dr. Othon Wiltz.
v
I am also grateful to have had the endless support of friends throughout the
process. I especially thank Elena Gutirrez, Rebecca Crisafulli, David Barkley, and June
Wai for their humor, wit, support, and chocolate that made the project infinitely easier. In
particular I want to thank Elena, who offered a shoulder to cry on more than once, and
who became a library character with me. I also thank Dr. Rose McEwen, who planted
the seed for this crazy idea in the first place and who continued to offer wisdom and
guidance along the way.
Above all I thank David Bartels, who, as perhaps the worlds most supportive
husband, made this dissertation emotionally and financially feasible. Words simply
cannot express my gratitude for all that he has done to help me achieve this goal. He
even formatted the manuscript.
vi
Introduction
O Catlica Espaa, que alabanza tan nica y digna de estima alcanzas en este
particular, que con haber habido en sus tiempos, Arrianos, Judos, y
Mahometanos, tus moradores (con el favor del Cielo) tan puros en la Fe
Cristiana, tan firmes, tan sin mezcla de secta alguna, tan Catlicos, y tan
obedientes a la Iglesia Romana, como si jams infiel alguno hubieras visto. 1
Throughout the sixteenth century, the Spanish Crown led an effort to forcibly
convert Spanish Muslims to Christianity, with the converts becoming known as
Moriscos. The conversions were intended to quell a perceived threat to the nation, but
at the end of the century, King Philip III remained unconvinced that the conversions were
sufficient. Consequently, in late 1609, the King issued the first of several edicts that
would result in the expulsion of the Moriscos from the Iberian Peninsula. This decision
found support among the many Spanish Catholics who regarded the Moriscos as the most
persistent in a line of heretics that had threatened the purity of Spains Catholic faith. The
supporters included many clerics, such as Pedro Aznar Cardona, the author of the quote
above, who sought to provide the expulsion with moral authority. These clerics viewed
the nine-century Muslim presence on the Peninsula as an unwelcome menace to a
homogeneous Christian ideal, as a long chapter in Spains history that deserved to be
erased and forgotten.
Pedro Aznar Cardona, Expulsin justificada de los moriscos espaoles y suma de las
excelencias cristianas de nuestro rey don Felipe el Catlico Tercero: dividida en dos
partes (Huesca: Pedro Cabarte, 1612), 2:141.
2
The decision to expel the Moriscos, however, was not as easy or as
straightforward as the most fervent supporters would have hoped. King Philip II had been
hesitant and, during his reign, was too overextended in political matters elsewhere to
force the matter. His son, Philip III, understood that, once executed, the policy of
expulsion would force into exile a significant portion of the kingdoms workforce, and
one with specialized skills not common to its Christian counterpart. It is therefore
unsurprising that landowning nobles, who relied heavily on the Moriscos for economic
prosperity, opposed the policy. In addition to fiscal concerns, the expulsion incited
theological debate. Because the Moriscos had been baptized as Catholic Christians, many
clerics believed it was the Churchs responsibility to further their spiritual conversion,
turning nominal converts into genuine believers. In their view, if the Moriscos were sent
abroad to Muslim lands, the king and the Church would effectively condemn Christian
souls to eternal damnation.
Many prominent figures waded into the debate over the expulsion, but the most
influential Spanish cleric among the supporters was Juan de Ribera. Named Patriarch of
Antioch by Pope Paul V, Ribera was installed as Archbishop of Valencia in 1569, a post
he held until his death more than four decades later. As a young Archbishop, Ribera was
initially optimistic that the Moriscos could be brought into the Christian fold and
dedicated a great deal of time and resources to pastoral endeavors. Over time, however,
he became increasingly disillusioned. He found the Moriscos to be obstinate in their faith
and customs, unwilling to seize what he believed to be the gracious conversion
3
opportunity afforded them by a benevolent king and Church. Through a series of fiery
sermons and memoriales to the king, the Archbishop began to advocate for immediate
expulsion, calling the Moriscos wizened trees full of knots of heresy. 2 Ribera lamented
that, if the Moriscos were not forcibly removed from the Peninsula, he would see Spain
lost in his lifetime. Riberas efforts finally bore fruit in the summer of 1609, when Philip
III authorized the expulsion. Ribera did not, however, live to see the expulsion through to
completion.
As a man whose theological authority provided critical support to a controversial
policy, Riberas legacy provides a striking illustration of the role this remarkable episode
in Spanish history has played in the development of a Spanish national identity. Upon
assuming the Archbishopric in 1569, Riberas reputation as a dedicated reformer in the
spirit of the Council of Trent was already firmly established. Following his elevation, he
went on to found the Colegio Seminario de Corpus Christi and made significant
donations to the Church from his personal riches. Riberas reputation, together with his
accomplishments and his purported miraculous healing of young children, served to
justify his subsequent beatification in 1769 and his canonization in 1960. 3
Quoted in Benjamin Ehlers, Between Christians and Moriscos: Juan de Ribera and
Religious Reform in Valencia, 1568-1614 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press,
2006),134.
3
Ehlers, Between Christians and Moriscos, 156. Ehlers traces Riberas formation as a
Catholic bishop in the spirit of Trent, discussing how his pastoral efforts evolved as he
became increasingly acquainted with the Valencian Old Christian community, their
strong regional allegiances, and their relationship to the Valencian Morisco workforce.
He argues that throughout his tenure as Archbishop, Ribera continually adapted his
originally Trent-derived policies and practices to conform to needs unique to his
4
Continued attention over the last four centuries to the details of Riberas life and
works suggests that, for Spaniards devoted to him, San Juan de Ribera represents a
critical force in the defining of an era. Throughout this time, Ribera has been regarded as
a man of honorable vision, committed to the religious cleansing of Spain and its
unification in one culture and faith. For his 1960 biographer, Ramn Robres Lluch, the
Archbishop is the great hero of an interminable national epic begun in the eighth century
in which two opposing worlds, Christian and Muslim, clashed.4 What Robres calls
Riberas asctica austeridad, riqueza de valores humanos traducidos en arduas
empresas,5 must have resonated with a twentieth century Spanish regime still dedicated
to the universalizing mission of the Spanish Catholic State in the era of General Francisco
Franco. Riberas ideas represented the spirit of a nation determined to erase many
chapters of its past in order to present a unified front.
Ribera is still admired in the twenty-first century, decades after the collapse of
Francos regime. Some four centuries after his passing, and a half-century since his
canonization, the Archdiocese of Valencia continues to celebrate Riberas legacy. For
congregation. Ehlers states that Ribera succeededor failedto implement this vision
of reform according to his ability to integrate these ideas within the broad range of
devotional practices that characterized the Valencian people. Ribera took an active role in
promoting the cult of the Eucharist, the veneration of Agullona and Ferrer, and the
expulsion of the Moriscos, but these were not changes that he dicated from above; in all
of these cases he adapted his goals and views to the situation as he encountered it.
4
Ramn Robres Lluch, San Juan de Ribera: Patriarca de Antioquia, Arzobispo y Virrey
de Valencia 1532-1611: Un Obispo segn el ideal de Trento (Barcelona: Juan Flors,
1960), 364.
5
Robres Lluch, San Juan de Ribera, v.
5
example, the Archdiocese marked the fifty-year anniversary of his canonization with a
solemn Mass sung in Gregorian chant.6 In January 2012, Diario Crtico de la Comunitiat
Valenciana reported that El Cor de la Generalitat Valenciana (the governing body of the
autonomous community of Valencia) along with Estil Concertant, an ensemble that
specializes in eighteenth-century music, gave a concert commemorating not only the
four-hundred year anniversary of the Archbishops death, but also the centenary of
Antonio Montesinos, the musician who composed a Mass in honor of Riberas
beatification in 1769.7
Riberas legacy, it would seem, is still visible in contemporary Valencian culture.
The man who, in the name of God and country, advocated for the systematic deportation
of some 300,000 people is today a fondly remembered saint. His role in the expulsion has
been cleansed from memory reports of celebrations commemorating Ribera, for
instance, make no mention of his prominent role in supporting the expulsion. The
omission of such a critical detail demonstrates how Spanish culture has managed to
mythologize its emergence as a purportedly homogenous Catholic nation by glossing
over the human cost. In celebrating San Juan de Ribera, the expulsion of the Moriscos
becomes an unspoken, and yet critical, component in the formation of Spanish Catholic
identity, even centuries later. At moments when this purportedly homogenous culture
6
La canonizacin de San Juan de Ribera por el Papa Juan XXIII cumple hoy 50 aos,
accessed July 26, 2012, http://www.europapress.es/sociedad/noticia-canonizacion-sanjuan-ribera-papa-juan-xxiii-cumple-hoy-50-anos-20100612084838.html.
7
El Cor de la Generalitat y Estil Concertant clausuran la conmemoracin del centenario

del Patriarca, accessed July 26, 2012, http://www.diariocriticocv.com/cultura/cor-de-lageneralitat/estil-concertant/centenario-del-patriarca/404987.
6
feels threatened, Riberas legacy resurfaces to further perpetuate the myth of the ideal
Catholic nation.
Riberas influence in his own day on the political discourse concerning the
Moriscos was no less important than his modern legacy. As perhaps the most vocal
explusion proponenet of the highest political standing, Riber was the chief spokesman for
the campaign, influencing over the course of decades the many clerics with whom he cam
in contact. In the wake of the expulsion, several of these clerics and men of political
influence assumed the role of apologists for the campaign of ethnic cleansing,8 justifying
the expulsion and glorifying its results. Among the champions of the expulsion were
Pedro Aznar Cardona (Expulsin ivstificada de los Moriscos espaoles, y suma de las
excelencias cristianas de nuestro Rey Don Felipe el Catlico Tercero), Damin Fonseca
(Justa Expulsin de los Moriscos de Espaa),9 Marcos de Guadalajara y Javier
(Memorable expulsin y justsimo destierro de los moriscos de Espaa and Prodicin y
destierro de los Moriscos de Castilla),10 and Jaime Bleda (Crnica de los moros de
While the expulsion of the Moriscos predates 20th-century Serbian episodes of violence
in which the term ethnic cleansing became widely used, I use it here to refer to the
systematic removal of a cultural and religious group from the Iberian Peninsula.
9
Damin Fonseca, Justa expulsin de los moriscos de Espaa: con la instruccin,

apostasa, y traicin de ellos: y respuesta a las dudas que se ofrecieron acerca de esta
materia (Roma: Giacomo Mascardo, 1612).
10
Marcos de Guadalajara y Javier, Memorable expulsin y justsimo destierro de los

moriscos de Espaa (Pamplona: Nicols de Assiayn, 1613); Marcos de Guadalajara y
Javier, Prodicin y destierro de los moriscos de Castilla hasta la Valle de Ricote: con las
disensiones de los hermanos Jerifes y presa en Berbera de la fuerza y puerto de Larache
(Pamplona: Nicols de Assiayn, 1614).
7
Espaa, dividida en ocho libros).11 These apologists drew heavily on Riberas rhetoric,
borrowing from his moral authority and extending his views to develop a wide-ranging
rationalization of the expulsion.
The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the rhetoric of the expulsions
apologists. Chief among the expulsion apologists was Jaime Bleda, a Valencian cleric
who composed his Defensio fidei12 in 1603. Bleda knew Archbishop Ribera personally
and championed the expulsion from his initial appointment to a Morisco parish in 1585,
even before Riberas shift from Morisco evangelist to expulsion advocate. In the years
that followed publication of Bledas initial tract, Aznar Cardona, Fonseca, and
Guadalajara y Javier followed his lead, composing treatises in the vernacular that
likewise defended Morisco expulsion as the primary means of protecting Catholicism
from heretical threats. Bleda read all of their works and referenced them repeatedly in his
enormous Crnica, which attempts to incorporate all such opinions in favor of Morisco
expulsion into a larger narrative of a Christian battle with Islam dating back to the
Prophet Muhammad. To all of these apologists, Archbishop Ribera embodied the title of
Patriarch13 to a degree that reached beyond his commitments to the Church, speaking to
11
Jaime Bleda, Crnica de los Moros de Espaa, Dividida en Ocho Libros (Valencia:
Felipe Mey, 1618).
12
Jaime Bleda, Defensio Fidei in cavsa neophytorvm (Valencia: Chrysostomum Garriz,

1610).
13
James-Charles Noonan, Jr. The Church Visible: The Ceremonial Life and Protocol of
the Roman Catholic Church (New York: Viking, 1996), 125. In discussing contemporary
Assistants to the Papal Throne, Noonan notes that such titular patriarchates have their
roots in the Renaissance Church when political strife required a firm bond between Rome
and the far-off patriarchates.
8
his role as the father of the ideal Spanish nation that was so critical to the apologists
imaginations. This nation, the apologists would come to argue through their texts, could
only be fully realized in the fulfillment of Riberas vision of a Spain cleansed of its
Morisco taint. Perhaps fearing that the dream would die with the Patriarchs passing in
1611, the apologists assume responsibility for seeing Riberas ideal nation brought to
fruition.
While the apologists treatises are mentioned in the vast majority of works dealing
with the Moriscos from the nineteenth century to the present, they remain largely
unstudied for their role in actively contributing to the formation of a national
consciousness. In the nineteenth century, when the apologists treatises were rediscovered
in the archives, scholars used the texts primarily as evidence to support their own
positions on the Morisco role in Spanish history. Conservative scholars saw admirable
patriotism in the clerics tracts, evidence of how Spains history, culture, and character
were improved by removing alleged seeds of sedition. Other scholars of the era were
more critical of the apologists position, citing their texts as examples of religious zeal
that resulted not only in economic losses for Spain, but also in human tragedy. Beginning
in the mid-twentieth century, the Moriscos themselves, rather than the effects of their
expulsion, became central to academic discourse. Scholars became increasingly
interested in studying the Moriscos faith and culture as preserved in aljamiado texts and
their influence on cultural production in the Peninsula on the whole. In this regard, the
apologists texts were less relevant, serving only as evidence of an active campaign to
9
stamp out cultural practices interesting to contemporary scholars. My study of the
apologists treatises examines the purpose and rhetoric of these works as a corpus,
highlighting the inner-workings of a propaganda machine determined to define Spanish
national identity.
In this light, perhaps the most critical detail of the apologists treatises that
remains unnoticed in contemporary scholarship is the significance of their publication
dates. All of the treatises under consideration were written after the policy debate had
subsided, and yet the apologists tout the benefits of expulsion as if the king had not
himself signed the expulsion edicts, or as if shiploads of exiled Moriscos were not
already meeting their fate across the Mediterranean. In this respect, the apologists betray
their anxiety concerning a project they see as at risk of failure. The apologists project,
therefore, was aimed at keeping a newly-cleansed Spain free of Moriscos, rather than
arguing in favor of the policy in the first place. I argue that by enumerating after the fact
the risks inherent to Catholic Spaniards while the Moriscos resided within Spains
borders, the apologists hope to highlight for their readers the danger to Spanish Catholic
identity if the Moriscos were to somehow return. The apologists works are, therefore, an
attempt to commit to writing their ideal account of the expulsion, hoping to make the
expulsion permanent by the act of recording their accounts and warnings.
The apologists rhetoric aims, paradoxically, to keep Spanish Catholics from truly
forgetting the events that the apologists themselves want struck from the official record.
They warn Catholics never to become so complacent or so desperate as again to allow
10
heretical others to stain Spanish Catholic identity. By issuing these warnings against
forgetfulness, the apologists hope to wipe out any alternate versions of the official history
they aim to author and eliminate the possibility of a future contaminated with Morisco
contributions and influence. In this sense, the Moriscos become essential to shaping
Spanish Catholic identity by standing as the archetype for what the Spanish Catholic is
not. Majid notes a similar paradox in Spanish identity formation, commenting that
[s]o indispensable were Jewish and Muslim minorities to the nascent
Castilian state that it instituted what amounted to racial safeguards against
assimilation. Almost fifty years before Granada was taken by Catholic
forces, a new law stressing purity of blood (limpieza de sangre) was
promulgated in Toledo to avoid integrating converted Jews into the main
professions and occupations. In this way, the state could unite the nation
around a faith that would never, in theory, be accessible to descendants of
Jews and Muslims. Minorities in this new scheme (which the church
rejected, at first, because it undermined the redemptive powers of baptism)
would serve as a rallying point for consolidating national unity, but these
very useful minorities would also have to suffer permanent exclusion and
harassment. The modern nation that was emerging in Catholic Iberia both
depended on and deliberately punished its Others. This double
contradiction, in some ways, has been the defining fate of nations ever
since.14
I argue that the apologists see themselves as the consolidators of this national unity, their
treatises the literature of the emergent Spanish Catholic nation. The focus of my study,
therefore, is to demonstrate how they executed their role as definers of a national
consciousness and how they crafted their propaganda to exclude from their definition of
the Spanish nation any person who did not subscribe to their prescribed ideal.
14
Anouar Majid, We Are All Moors: Ending Centuries of Crusades Against Muslims and
Other Minorities (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009), 6.
11
In the first chapter of my dissertation, Parameters for the Faith, I explore the
backgrounds of the apologists and of their muse, Archbishop Ribera. Written after the
policy of expulsion had been established but while the expulsion campaign was still in
full swing, the apologists treatises are laden with anxiety in regard to what they see as
viable physical and spiritual threats to the true Catholic faith. A universally popular and
praised decision would certainly not inspire copious volumes of justification, and the
apologists therefore seek to place themselves within a debate they see as largely still
undefined, and one whose official outcome still lay undetermined. The apologists feared
that the unpopularity of the expulsion decision, fueled to a great extent by the Moriscos
economic contributions to the Spanish economy, left Spains policy makers vulnerable to
what they saw as dangerous concessions. The treatises, therefore, reveal a larger anxiety
that the boundaries of the clerics sacred faith may not be as certain and as immutable as
they imagine them to be.
After exploring the apologists backgrounds, I go on to illustrate the process by
which the apologists set out to construct a series of parameters to define the Catholic faith
in order to exclude from its realm the newly-converted Moriscos. The clerics begin
constructing their narrative by arguing for Catholicisms exclusive claim on Spain, a
heritage they argue dates back to the Old Testament and is further substantiated by Saint
Jamess alleged and unique role in Christianizing the Iberian Peninsula. In this way, the
apologists tightly-scripted polemics go beyond physical dismissal of the Moriscos in an
effort to create a Spain ideologically unified in both faith and culture from its roots, a
12
Spain in which dissenters have never been welcome nor ever will be. To the apologists,
Islam represents a spiritual and physical threat and the complete antithesis of Christianity.
They attempt to prove that Islam aimed to corrupt Christian Spain from its initial arrival
on the Peninsula, its adherents impervious to true conversion to Christianity and hell-bent
on destroying the Christian faith from within. So long as Muslims reside within the
physical borders of the Peninsula threatening the ideological boundaries of the Catholic
faith, Catholicism will remain vulnerable to attack. The expulsion, therefore, becomes to
the apologists the latest battle in a war between the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael,
with Philip III leading the army to a final victory in eliminating Islam.
The second chapter, Cultures in Contact, builds on the theme of the first chapter
and shows in detail the ways in which the apologists betray their greater desire to
desemitize Spain in order to more effectively mold it into what they see as the Catholic
and European ideal. Forcible conversion of the Moriscos did not satisfy the apologists
basic goal of eliminating heresy because baptism and catechesis had failed to expunge all
traces of Islamic influence. In the apologists view, Christians and Muslims existed in
stark black and white categories, and any convert exhibiting signs or tendencies toward
engaging Muslim faith and culture was certainly a crypto-Muslim whose presence within
the Peninsula threatened Spanish Christian national identity. From dress to ritual
washing, from food choice and manner of dining, the apologists characterize all facets of
Morisco daily life as antithetical to the true Christian path. While evidence of hybridity
and cultural exchange between Muslims and Christians abounds, the apologists deny the
13
existence of inadvertent cultural comingling and instead advance the idea that Morisco
cultural expression is an example of the converts overt defiance and rejection of the
Christian lifestyle.
In this way, the apologists treatises engage in a process of actively transforming
cultural practice into heresy, arguing that a blended culture is undesirable and
impracticable given the alleged strict theological, moral, and even physical characteristics
that separated Muslims and Christians. If a Morisco eats seated on the ground, she is as
heretical as one who refers to Muhammad as Gods messenger. If a Morisco eats
couscous or dances a zambra, he is as Muslim as the Prophet himself. Expulsion of these
transgressors, the apologists argue, is the only way to fully rid Spain of heretical Muslim
contamination, and they, therefore, praise the process already underway for its potential
to liberate Catholic Spain from its purported oppressors.
In the third chapter, Delimiting Sacred Space, I argue that the apologists
attribute to the Moriscos physical and spiritual ravaging of Catholic sacred structures,
objects, and rituals further threatening Spanish national identity. The apologists argue
that, beginning with their initial arrival to the Iberian Peninsula in the eighth century,
immigrant Muslims and their descendants have engaged in a steady process of
annihilating Spanish Catholicism as an institution. To do so, the apologists claim, people
of Muslim heritage actively defame the Churchs sacramental activity, including the
liturgy, and desecrate sacred physical objects, such as churches, holy relics, and Christian
images. For example, the apologists accuse Morisco churchgoers of crude gestures during
14
the Mass, wearing filthy clothing, and pinching their children so that they cry and disrupt
the liturgy. The apologists likewise accuse Moriscos of denying the validity of the
sacraments while at the same time desecrating them, washing off the baptismal Chrism,
having one Morisco child baptized repeatedly to stand in for other Morisco babies, and
staining the sacrament of marriage with sexual promiscuity. This criticism extends to
physical objects, with the apologists accusing Moriscos of burning crosses and churches
and hanging pictures of saints upside down. In the apologists view, Morisco scorn leaves
no symbol of Christianity untouched.
This alleged Morisco attack on Christian images is a war that, the apologists
argue, seeks to not only destroy objects but to annihilate the faith it targets, paradoxically
affirming the power of the image. And this destruction, they claim, is orchestrated to
make impossible the practice of the true Catholic faith, which incorporates sacred space
into the very fabric of its dogma. They claim that in resisting Christian conversion efforts,
the Moriscos actively choose to exist outside the universal Christian kingdom. In so
doing, they position themselves as a very visible threat to Spanish identity and will
remain as such until they are, once and for all, excluded from the sacred space. In this
chapter, I also argue that the apologists use descriptions of purported attacks on Christian
imagery to garner support for the defensive position they believe all Spaniards must take
in the face of Morisco destruction. The apologists assert that Morisco dissent and
destruction of Catholic spaces wages war on Catholicism, victimizing the national faith.
They therefore advocate for a defense of this Spanish Catholic sacred space against
15
further Muslim and Morisco assault. The need for active defense, they argue, should be
obvious to Christian Spaniards whose daily lives bear witness to such physical and
spiritual threats. According to the apologists, as sovereign, Philip III is leader of the
defense, but his expulsion efforts will only succeed if his fellow Spaniards recognize the
need to maintain a defensive position.
The fourth chapter, Culture of Fear, provides a framework for analyzing the
anxieties discussed in the previous chapters, arguing that the apologists ultimately aim to
inspire fear of a potential Morisco return to the Peninsula. The sixteenth century was
wrought with financial hardship in Spain and, as a result, the bankrupt monarch permitted
Jews to return to the kingdoms, undermining Ferdinand and Isabels 1492 decision. I
argue that the apologists, who had witnessed varying degrees of public outcry in the wake
of the Crowns decision to expel the productive Morisco workforce, feared not only
increased social unrest, but also a similar right of return for exiled Moriscos. Therefore,
instead of entertaining popular opinions that expulsion further devastated the Spanish
economy, I demonstrate that the apologists reverse those claims entirely, arguing that the
Moriscos were intentionally bankrupting the Peninsula, hoarding cash and infusing into
the economy counterfeit currency. With economic concerns waylaid, the apologists then
argue that the real issue at hand is the state of fear in which all Christian Spaniards reside
while Moriscos remain in their midst.
In order to most effectively inspire fear of the devastating consequences of
Morisco return, I argue that the apologists first appeal to basic instincts for physical
16
safety. They assert that Spain remains in constant danger of Muslim attack from outside
the Peninsula, aided by support of dissenting Moriscos within. Fear of Ottoman advance
was common in the Mediterranean of the Early Modern era, but the apologists saw
Christian Spaniards as in a particularly precarious position, given the Moriscos alleged
desire to collude with Ottoman Turks and North African pirates and their intimate
knowledge of the Iberian Peninsula and its weaknesses. Assistance from Ottoman forces,
the apologists argue, gave Moriscos increased confidence in their power to rebel and
reclaim Spain for their Muslim ancestors. The ease with which they were expelled from
Spain and their apparent joy in departing convinced the apologists that the Moriscos were
simply gearing up to join forces abroad and re-enter the Peninsula, armed and dangerous.
Furthermore, I argue that the apologists compound these day-to-day fears for
physical safety with warnings that Morisco presence in Spain is a virtual gateway to
eternal damnation. To do so, the apologists harness an early-modern fear of the
apocalypse, arguing that the Moriscos are living representations of the Antichrist
Muhammad. They provide various examples of evidence of apocalyptic doom in the form
of ominous signs and portents, hoping that a fear of the end of the world will inspire
impassioned support for the expulsion campaign amongst citizens of political power and
influence. The ultimate result, in their view, will be a permanent sealing of Spains
borders, leaving one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Spain pure, clean, and united.
Chapter One:
Parameters for the Faith
Why Apologize?
On Saturday evening, March 17, 1571, it is likely that the city center of Granada
was bustling with last-minute preparations for a display of fear-inspiring spectacle, the
next days auto de fe.1 A public sentencing of heretics, blasphemers, witches, and
hypocrites, the auto of the early modern era was everything but the sterile procedure
endemic to the contemporary courtroom. An exercise in pomp and pageantry, the auto
was designed to attract large crowds in need of a powerful reminder to follow the
Catholic Churchs teachings, lest one find himself in the group of the accused rather than
among the throngs of spectators. The month leading up to the costly event would have
involved preparations for elaborate feasting and celebration of Mass in addition to the
building of substantial scaffolding on which the inquisitors and their prisoners would sit
throughout the proceedings. On the morning of the event, inquisitors and accused alike
would have attended Mass followed by breakfast (if the anxious prisoners awaiting
sentencing could have stomached it) and taken their places on the dais.
For a description of the pageantry of the auto de fe, see Henry Kamen, Inquisition and
Society in Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1985),189-97.
17
18
In Granada on that particular Sunday, the eighteenth day of March, Lady
Constana Lopez2 would have sat among several Morisco prisoners on the platform, all
of whom were accused of joining fellow Moriscos in armed rebellion in the Alpujarras
Mountain region of the Sierra Nevada just east of the city of Granada. The Second
Alpujarras War, which ended shortly before the celebration of this particular auto de fe,
began some three years earlier in response to Philip IIs prohibitions on Moorish forms of
cultural expression including dress, dance, and music. The decision of the accused to
support and participate in the rebellions while also engaging in ritual prayer and washing
was, to the inquisitorial authorities, a clear indication of their continued adherence to
Islam.
Having been forcibly converted to Christianity through a series of edicts
beginning in the early sixteenth century, communities of Muslims throughout the
Peninsula were forced to abandon the practice of Islam in favor of the religion of the
Crown and of Rome. The validity of the baptisms was hotly debated among theologians,
but when the dust settled, it was agreed that the Moriscos were legitimate members of the
Christian fold, and members who were now, as the Jewish conversos before them, forced
to answer to the Holy Office of the Inquisition for any transgressions against the Catholic
Church. While Morisca Constana Lopez did not take up arms and join in the fighting
herself, she stood on trial for having praised the rebels efforts, saying, What do you
2
A transcript of this particular auto de fe can be found in Jos Mara Garcia Fuentes, La
Inquisicin en Granada en el siglo XVI: Fuentes para su estudio (Granada:
Departamento de Historia de la Universidad de Granada, 1981), 114. Homza offers an
English translation in Lu Ann Homza, The Spanish Inquisition, 1478-1614: An Anthology
of Sources (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2006), 245-46.
19
think? That the world is always going to be yours? And because you dress us in a certain
way, we have to be Christian? Underneath it all, we have done and will do what we want,
because we were Moors, and Moors we shall remain. 3 For this offense, as well as for
engaging in Muslim ritual prayer and burning wood that purportedly belonged to a
Christian altarpiece, she was sentenced at the auto to wearing the Sanbenito and to
perpetual, irremissible prison.
The circumstances surrounding Lopezs trial and its outcome were not unique.
She and the Alpujarras rebellion participants and sympathizers who accompanied her at
the auto were accused of similar crimes and received comparable sentences, serving as
examples to the Moriscos who may have had similar leanings assembled in the audience.
And it would appear, at least based on the evidence and testimony available to us, that
Lopez did indeed consider herself a practitioner of the Muslim faith; in other words, she
would have supported the accusation made against her that she believed the sect of
Muhammad was good4 and that she might attain salvation through it. (The sentencing
notes also claim that she professed belief in one God and that Muhammad was His
messenger, leaving little doubt in the inquisitors minds of her apostasy.) It should be
noted, however, that the transcripts from various sixteenth-century autos like the one that
relates the fate of Constana Lopez, are filled with murkier evidence of what Inquisitorial
3
Homza, The Spanish Inquistion, 249. This is translated from the original Spanish, y
dixo delante de muchas personas christianas viejas que pensaba de vosotras que el mundo
avia de ser siempre vuestro y que por vestirnos aquellosaviamos de ser christianos pues
debajo de ellos hizieramos y haziamos lo que queramos porque moros eramos y moros
aviamos de quedar. Garca Fuentes, La Inquisicin en Granada,114.
4
Homza, The Spanish Inquisition, 249.
20
authorities saw as Morisco transgression. For example, Ysabel Xuaya was a Morisca
slave accused by one witness of having bathed frequently; 5 Maria, a Morisca from
Benalguaziles, was similarly accused of washing muchas vezes desnuda en cueros todo
el cuerpo y echarse agua por las espaldas. 6 Here the Christian authorities make no
allowance for the possible secularization of a habit rooted in religious ritual. Damian
Perez from Mlaga was accused of dressing in the Moorish style and calling himself by
the name of Jafe after having been imprisoned in Algiers. 7 Another Morisco was tried for
singing Moorish-style songs and dancing the zambra,8 and Lea relates the tale of a
Morisca who faced trial for bringing to her daughters house on the occasion of her
wedding sweetmeats and cakes to be thrown in the mattresses according to an old
Moorish custom.9 The overwhelming characterization of instances like these as heretical
and blasphemous fails to take into consideration the gray area where religious ritual and
custom intertwine, or where religious rite can assume a pragmatic and necessary quality.
Also tried on grounds of heresy was a Morisco named Gonalo Lopez Gualit,
accused of having doubted Marys virginity to an Old Christian acquaintance, saying, no
puede ser que pariesse siendo virgen sino para por la boca o por las narizes. 10 An
example of this sort attributes to Moriscos alone an ignorance or a skepticism of
5
Garca Fuentes, Inquisicin, 203.
Kamen, Inquisition and Society, 107.
Henry Charles Lea, The Moriscos of Spain, Their Conversion and Expulsion
(Philadelphia: Lea Brothers & Co., 1901), 129.
10
Garca Fuentes, Inquisicin, 201-2.
21
complicated Church doctrine. Evidence suggests, however, that Old Christians were
likewise tried for similar delitos menores, or lesser offenses of superstition, blasphemy,
and general crimes against the Holy Office of the Inquisition.11 While instructing lay
people in the tenets of the Catholic faith in an effort to eliminate pagan practice and
Christianize even the Christian-born masses had been among the chief concerns of the
Spanish clergy in the early modern period,12 admitting a lack of Catholic dogmatic
understanding on the part of the alleged Old Christian stock would certainly weaken the
apologists argument that such ignorance was particular to the heretical Moriscos.
Therefore while many Old Christians may have likewise doubted Marys virgin
conception or professed similar doubts in regard to the Churchs teachings, clerics critical
of the Moriscos dismiss this possibility altogether, insinuating that the Moriscos were
uniquely and defiantly ignorant.
The question of Constana Lopezs guilt and intentions aside, her commentary on
the futility of Christian efforts to eradicate Islam through the elimination of Morisco
cultural practice is of particular interest to my study because in it she unintentionally
critiques the Holy Offices assumption of clear binary divisions between Old Christian
and Morisco. These notions, held by the Catholic orthodoxy and repeatedly expressed by
11
For an interesting examination of such delitos menores, see Gustav Henningsen, The
Archives and the Historiography of the Spanish Inquisition, in The Inquisition in Early
Modern Europe: Studies on Sources and Methods, ed. Henningsen et al. (Illinois:
Northern Illinois University Press, 1986), 54-78.
12
For more information on catechesis in Spain in the sixteenth century, see Jean Pierre
Dedieu, , Christianization in New Castile: Catechism, Communion, Mass, and
Confirmation in the Toledo Archbishopric, 1540-1650 in Culture and Control in
Counter-Reformation Spain ed. Anne J. Cruz and Mary Elizabeth Perry (Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 1992), 1-24.
22
so many Catholic polemicists of the expulsion era, are the subject of this chapter. The
specific texts by clerics Jaime Bleda, Pedro Aznar Cardona, Damin Fonseca, and
Marcos de Guadalajara y Javier13 for the most part appeared in the midst of the expulsion
campaign, between the years of 1612 and 1618.
First, these polemicists held the view that Morisco cultural practice was
inextricably linked to Islamic religious belief and practice and second, they asserted that
controlling cultural expression was essential in order to effectively reduce the minority to
more hegemonic beliefs. This insistence on the diametrical opposition of Christian and
Morisco served to deny the validity of regional differences that were cultural, lacking a
religious dimension altogether. It also negates any possibility of the blurring of cultural
and religious practice into common daily practices that may have given up their religious
significance over time.
This implicit direct and unbreakable relationship between culture and creed in the
Christian mind remained a powerful hindrance in accepting the converted Moriscos into
the Christian fold. At a time when Catholic Spaniards were attempting to permanently
establish their political and ideological control over the Iberian Peninsula, they feared
13
Jaime Bleda, Crnica de los Moros de Espaa, Dividida en Ocho Libros (Valencia:
Felipe Mey, 1618); Pedro Aznar Cardona, Expulsin justificada de los moriscos
espaoles y suma de las excelencias cristianas de nuestro rey don Felipe el Catlico
Tercero: dividida en dos partes (Huesca: Pedro Cabarte, 1612); Damin Fonseca, Justa
expulsin de los moriscos de Espaa: con la instruccin, apostasa, y traicin de ellos: y
respuesta a las dudas que se ofrecieron acerca de esta materia (Roma: Giacomo
Mascardo, 1612); Marcos de Guadalajara y Javier, Memorable expulsin y justsimo
destierro de los moriscos de Espaa (Pamplona: Nicols de Assiayn, 1613); Marcos de
Guadalajara y Javier, Prodicin y destierro de los moriscos de Castilla hasta la Valle de
Ricote: con las disensiones de los hermanos Jerifes y presa en Berbera de la fuerza y
puerto de Larache (Pamplona: Nicols de Assiayn, 1614).
23
that Muslimsgenuine and those who were now Christian in name but whose faith
seemed intertwined with cultural specificitycould pose a physical threat to the
consolidation of power in Catholic hands. The trial of individual Moriscos for apostasy
(which included accusations ranging from bathing regularly and eating couscous to
praising the Prophet Muhammad and observing Ramadan) and the subsequent decision to
banish the group as a whole from Spanish Christendom reflects a process on the part of
the Spanish Catholic orthodoxy to define its own criteria as a faith and ultimately as a
nation.
In this chapter I aim to illustrate the process by which members of the Spanish
Catholic clergy constructed a series of parameters to define the Catholic faith in order to
exclude from its realm, both spiritually and physically, the newly converted Moriscos.
This propaganda is especially evident in several apologetic treatises written just after the
expulsion of the Moriscos in 1609. The treatise authors were all members of the Catholic
clergy who used their experiences with the Morisco community as evidence for
glorifying the results of the expulsion. These apologists occupy a unique space in the
great debate regarding the Moriscos and their place within Spanish societya debate in
which the previously described auto de fe served as the most public example of Morisco
denunciation, only to be upstaged by their dramatic and tragic expulsion between 1609
and 1614. While Jaime Bleda argued in favor of expulsion for most of his career as a
priest, the other apologists wrote and published their anti-Morisco tracts after the
expulsion decree had been issued. Their opinions, therefore, formed no part of the
decisions that emerged from the various juntas convened throughout the decades leading
24
up to the expulsion to come up with a solution for the Morisco problem. The question
raised, therefore, in considering this curious group of voluminous treatises (Bledas
Crnica is over 1100 pages) is what precipitated their writing?
The most likely response is that the expulsion of the Moriscos was economically
devastating, and the Spanish monarchy may have endured recrimination as citizens
lamented the loss of their neighbors, the loss of the services those neighbors provided,
and the economic collapse left in the expulsions wake. Expulsion had not been a fast and
easy decision for the House of Habsburg. During Philip IIs reign, theologians wavered
considerably between supporting increased efforts at conversion and catechesis,
advocating for dispersal of the Moriscos throughout Spains more Christian kingdoms,
and promoting their wholesale expulsion to North Africa. The king himself, however,
never followed through with any plan other than to carry on with the evangelical mission
in spite of the myriad recommendations he received advocating for expulsion. Some
attribute this to his numerous political engagements including skirmishes in the
Netherlands, his newly acquired kingdom of Portugal upon the death of the sovereign,
and the defeat of his Armada by England in 1588. As Domnguez Ortiz and Vincent
suggest, however, the kings inaction with regard to the expulsion debate more likely
indicates a prudent unwillingness to force into exile such valuable assets to Spains
economy who were also baptized Christians.14 Tueller cites the kings devotion to the
14
Antonio Domnguez Ortiz and Bernard Vincent, Historia de los moriscos: vida y
tragedia de una minora (Madrid: Editorial Revista de Occidente, 1978), 159. Los que
sostienen la visin de un Felipe II inflexible y fantico tendran que explicar porqu trat
25
writings of Botero and Lipsius, who advocated the following of a higher moral purpose in
preserving the state, as an explanation for his reluctance to expel the Moriscos. These
men would have favored dedication to the true conversion of Morisco souls to
Christianity before more drastic measures were considered.15
A turning point in the urgency with which the kings advisors sought a remedy to
the Morisco situation, however, occurred in March of 1577 when the king and his
Council of State received intelligence of a looming uprising of Valencian Moriscos,
supported by the Ottoman Turks. Not even a decade after the War in the Alpujarras,
rebellion was fresh in the minds of the clergy throughout Granada and Valencia. While
the kings counselors thought this particular threat had some merit, they were largely
concerned with the cost of mounting an offense. They also considered accessibility to
Ottoman assistance unlikely, given the lack of available ports.16 Philip II proceeded to
convene a series of juntas to debate the course of action that should be taken with regard
to his Morisco subjects. Next to continued evangelization, expulsion was one of the
perhaps least fatal of the possible solutions suggested, and for that reason it was touted
among polemicists such as the Catholic apologists as a benign and merciful gesture
toward people who deserve death and damnation. From forced sterilization to abandoning
a los moriscos con menos dureza que su hijo, a quien se atribuye un carcter ms
benvolo.
15
James. B. Tueller, Good and Faithful Christians: Moriscos and Catholicism in Early
Modern Spain (New Orleans: University Press of the South, 2002), 101-2.
16
Tueller, Good and Faithful Christians,94-5.
26
the Moriscos at sea on ships without sails, there appears to have been no limit to the
brutalities considered.17
The Catholic apologists believed that Philip IIIs 1609 expulsion decree would
become the most critical event in the development of the Spanish nation to date. To them,
he followed in the footsteps of his ancestors, the Reyes Catlicos and Charles V, and
accomplished what his father could not do in an attempt to unify the Spanish kingdoms
under one, holy Catholic faith. Highlighting the physical and spiritual dangers to the
stability of the nation that were eliminated with the expulsion, these apologists argue in
their treatises for Catholicisms exclusive claim on Spain, justifying first the forcible
conversion of the Muslims to Christianity and later their expulsion when said conversions
failed to bear fruit. Arguing that the opposition of Christian to Morisco in the sixteenth
century was binary and absolute, the apologists also set out to define an authentic Spanish
Catholic culture by drawing parameters regarding what is considered acceptable in
Spanish Catholic orthodoxy and rejecting cultural expression they see as tainted by
Semitic influence.
In my analysis of the apologists treatises that justify the Morisco expulsion, I rely
on Alain Milhous18 theory that in an effort to legitimize itself as part of the European
cultural sphere and the City of God on earth, Catholic Spain had to renounce Jewish
17
Matthew Carr, Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain (New York: The New
Press, 2009), 211-12.
18
Alain Milhou. Desemitizacin y europeizacin en la cultural espaola desde la poca

de los reyes catlicos hasta la expulsin de los moriscos, in La cultura del Renaixement:
homenatge al pare Miquel Batllori, ed. Miquel Batllori and Manuel Fernndez lvarez.
(Barcelona: Bellaterra,1993), 35-60.
27
and Muslim cultural influence. This argument, later expounded on by Barbara Fuchs, 19
suggests that the apologist treatises represent only the latest of a many centuries-long
process of Peninsula-wide desemitization. (This idea will be explored in greater detail in
Chapter 2, Cultures in Contact.) The arguments that the apologists make in this regard,
however, have gone largely untreated in contemporary writings about the Morisco
community.
The Moriscos in Scholarship

While the apologists names are well-known and their most vitriolic
characterizations of the Moriscos widely quoted, their larger nation-building project on
the whole goes unnoticed in favor of a focus on the general effects the expulsion
produced on the Spanish nation. While the apologists were by no means the final word on
the subject, and celebrated writers of the era like Lope, Quevedo, and Cervantes
continued to offer their own conflicted assessments of the expulsion,20 the Morisco
question practically disappeared from print until the debate was taken up again in the
nineteenth century. This more contemporary treatment of the subject used the apologists
testimony as proof of what more conservative writers would call their exemplary patriotic
19
Barbara Fuchs, Exotic Nation: Maurophilia and the Construction of Early Modern
Spain. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009).
20
See, for example, Thomas E. Case, Lope and the Moriscos, Bulletin of the
Comediantes 44(1992): 195-216; Richard Hitchcock, Cervantes, Ricote and the
Expulsion of the Moriscos, Bulletin of Spanish Studies: Hispanic Studies and
Researches on Spain, Portugal and Latin America 81 (2004): 175-85; Vincent Barletta,
Notes on Morisco Speech and Quevedo, Alhadith, last modified March 21, 2010,
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/span-port/cgi-bin/alhadith/2010/03/21/notes-on-moriscospeech/ (17 October 2011).
28
zeal, and those of a more liberal leaning, their narrow-minded xenophobia. To writers
like Manuel Dnvila y Collado, Marcelino Menndez Pelayo, and Pascual Boronat y
Barrachina,21 the apologists condemnatory characterizations of the Moriscos merely
served as evidence of a larger point that Spains cultural and political situation was
improved by their removal. For them, the stronger race had prevailed over the weaker
one, and Spain was once again united in its Catholic faith. Other scholars of the era,
including Florencio Janer, Modesto Lafuente, and Henry Charles Lea22, took a more
sympathetic view, arguing that the Moriscos were valuable contributors to the Spanish
economy forced from the only land they had ever called home. They claimed that their
expulsion had been devastating to Spains finances. Lea, for example, introduces his
study by referring to the larger narrative of the expulsion as embod[ying] a tragedy
commanding the deepest sympathy, but it epitomizes nearly all the errors and tendencies
which combined to cast down Spain, in little more than a century, from its splendor under
Charles V to its humiliation under Carlos II. 23 Twentieth- and twenty-first-century
scholarship shifted away from economic analyses of the expulsion and strove to study the
21
See Manuel Dnvila y Collado, La expulsin de los moriscos espaoles (Madrid:

Librera de F. F, 1889); Marcelino Menndez y Pelayo, Historia de los heterodoxos
espaoles (Madrid: Librera catlica de San Jos, 1880-1881); Pascual de Boronat y
Barrachina, Los moriscos espaoles y su expulsin. Estudio histrico-crtico (Valencia:
F. de Vives y Moro, 1901).
22
See Florencio Janer, Condicin social de los moriscos: causas de su expulsin y

consecuencias que esta produjo en el orden econmico y poltico (Madrid: Imprenta de la
Real Academia de la Historia, 1857); Modesto Lafuente, Historia general de Espaa
desde los tiempos primitivos hasta la muerte de Fernando VII (Barcelona: Montaner y
Simn, 1887-1891); Henry Charles Lea, Moriscos.
23
Lea, Moriscos, v.
29
Morisco community in its own right. Such contemporary studies have paid particular
attention to Morisco literature and culture and its influence on Peninsular thought on the
whole. In addition, scholars have discussed the communitys marginalized status and
covert practice of Islam as integral components to the formation of Morisco cultural
identity before the expulsion.24 The apologists treatises justifying the expulsion,
however, occupy a curious and neglected spot in the great corpus of works dealing with
the Moriscos. Studied as a whole, these texts prove to have a very specific agenda,
seeking to persuade a bankrupt and indecisive Philip III to stay firm in his resolve to
expel the Moriscos. By inciting fear of economic collapse, the death of the Spanish
Church, and the apocalypse, the treatsies set in motion a propaganda machine whose
primary purpose went beyond the dismissal of the Moriscos in an effort to create a Spain
unified in faith and culture. While we see the nation-building project still hard at work in
the nineteenth century and the very conscious rewriting of the cultural myth in twentiethand twenty-first-century scholarship, the culture-constructing project of the Catholic
apologists has received little critical attention. Grace Magniers study of Pedro de
Valencia,25 a cleric who argued against expulsion in favor of continued evangelization, is
24
For example, see Vincent Barletta, Covert Gestures: Crypto-Islamic Literature as

Cultural Practice in Early Modern Spain (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
2005); David Coleman, Creating Christian Granada: Society and Religious Culture in an
Old-World Frontier Society, 1492-1600 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003); Luce
Lpez Baralt, Huellas del Islam en la literatura espaola: de Juan Ruiz a Juan Goytisolo
(Madrid: Hiperin, 1985); Mary Elizabeth Perry, The Handless Maiden: Moriscos and
the Politics of Religion in Early Modern Spain (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
2005).
25
Grace Magnier, Pedro de Valencia and the Catholic Apologists of the Expulsion of the
Moriscos: Visions of Christianity and Kingship (Boston: Brill, 2010).
30
perhaps the most comprehensive overview to date of the apologists contributions to the
Morisco debate, but the author characterizes Pedro de Valencias position as heroic in
comparison to the expulsion apologists. She fails to see the similarities in the very
scripted rhetoric of all of the treatisesthat of Pedro de Valencia includedthat
invalidates Morisco culture in favor of the more hegemonic ideal. Matthew Carrs recent
book Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain, is closer in approach to my own
study in that he very openly critiques the apologist propaganda machine as an instrument
of ethnic cleansing, but he relies entirely on citations of the treatises in other scholarly
work and therefore cannot offer a comprehensive study of the treatises on the whole.
Carrs goal, as he very plainly states, is to make available to a contemporary audience a
story long confined to academic circles. For my own part, I intend to pay particular
attention to the incendiary preaching of the apologists treatises as they craft the
propaganda that would fuel historical debate on the Moriscos for centuries to come.
To accomplish their nation-building project the early seventeenth-century
apologists formulate their justification of the wholesale expulsion of the Moriscos by
arguing in favor of Catholicisms exclusive claim on the Iberian Peninsula, establishing
the faith as the original and rightful owner of the kingdoms. They warn that a Spain
that admits dissenters and heretics renders Spanish Catholics vulnerable to seduction
away from the true faith and consequently threatens the sovereignty and unity of the
Spanish nation. In addition, the apologists feared that harboring alleged Muslim infidels
only increased the threat to national security, as the marauding Turks continued to
threaten territories around the Mediterranean.
31
In regard to Constana Lopezs outburst for which she was convicted in 1571, the
apologists do indeed believe that they, as Spanish Catholics, lay rightful claim on Spain.
To them, the Spanish world has always belonged to Catholic Christendom. Eight
centuries of Islamic presence within their territory was merely an aberration that needed
to be managed and contained through active construction of perimeters surrounding the
Catholic faith. They therefore argue that those who fail to conform to the prescribed
cultural ideal have no place in Catholic Spain and should therefore be expelled.
Archbishop Juan de Ribera and the Catholic Apologists

Critical to understanding the ideological framework surrounding the Catholic
apologists justification of the expulsion of the Moriscos is becoming better acquainted
with a powerful man whose political and theological opinions guided the clerics in their
endeavor: Juan de Ribera, Archbishop of Valencia. A native of Seville born in 1532,
Ribera was ordained a priest in 1557 during the height of Tridentine Catholic Reform and
the Protestant Reformation, and he was appointed bishop of Badajoz by Philip II five
years later. Committed to the Council of Trents vision of a renewed Church with
bishops at the center of the movement, Ribera took his powerful position seriously and
began a campaign of reform during his six year tenure in Badajoz that earned him a
favorable reputation with the king and the pope. A mere ten years after ordination and at
only thirty-six years of age, he was named Patriarch of Antioch by Pius V and
Archbishop of Valencia by Philip II, positions that he would hold for the remainder of his
32
life.26 Riberas predecessors had advanced through the clerical ranks more slowly and
consequently were named bishops much later in life. The king realized that complex
institutional reform could hardly be carried out if momentum were lost each time the
pontiff succumbed to old age, so his appointment of Ribera in 1567 was a tactical move
intended to bring about results over the long term. 27
Ribera initially attempted to turn down the promotion, perhaps understanding that
his successful reform efforts on the Portuguese border were less likely to attain results in
a more heterogeneous area heavily populated by Moriscos. The Moriscos, whose
compulsory conversion to Catholicism had come about in a series of edicts in the early
sixteenth century during the reign of Charles V, were largely Christians in name only.
Conversion efforts had been significantly lacking in direction and organization, and Old
Christian nobles, primarily in Valencia, whose prosperity depended in large part on the
Morisco labor force, worked to secure Morisco religious independence in appeasement.
As a result, many of the Moriscos continued to practice their Islamic faith openly,
increasingly exposing themselves to Inquisitorial pressures. When Archbishop Juan de
Ribera arrived in Valencia in 1569, Moriscos in the nearby province of Granada were in
the midst of the Alpujarras rebellion, violently protesting prohibitions on forms of
Moorish cultural expression. Fearful that Morisco refugees would seek asylum in
Valencia and inspire local Moriscos to rebel in a similar manner, Philip must have known
that he was sending the young Ribera into a hotbed of contempt.
26
Ehlers, Between Christians and Moriscos, 7-8.
27
Ehlers, Between Christians and Moriscos, 7.
33
The Archbishop felt that the Moriscos faulty conversion was the result of lack of
qualified priests to instruct the neophytes, especially in outlying areas, so he quickly
committed himself to reorganizing the Morisco parishes and outfitting them with men
equipped for the job. Jaime Bleda, author of one of the apologist treatises justifying the
expulsion under consideration in this chapter, is a prime example of a priest whose
assignment to a particular parish included the missionary obligation to work toward
authentic Morisco conversion. In supplementing official funds with personal wealth
Ribera had inherited to fund such projects, the Archbishop demonstrated a real optimism
that true conversion was reachable, at least in the first decade of his tenure as
archbishop.28 In Riberas conversion model, priests were to serve as examples for the
people, and likewise, the archbishop used his skills as an orator to demonstrate the utility
of preaching sermons in educating the masses and converting the Moriscos. But as he
became increasingly discouraged with the failures of his evangelizing mission, his
sermons began to take on quite a different tone, and the optimism of the early sermons
gave way to fiery diatribes that advocated removing poisonous elements from Gods
house. In the early 1580s, Ribera became an ardent supporter of Morisco expulsion,
urging then Grand Inquisitor Quiroga to communicate his recommendations to the king. 29
The archbishop characterized the Moriscos as traitors and conspirators whose presence in
Christendom not only contaminated the Catholic faith but put the Spanish kingdoms in
peril with dangerous connections to the Islamic world abroad. He also criticized
28
29
34
Valencian seigneurs who, in protection of their own economic interests, failed to support
the archbishops conversion campaign while secretly assisting their Morisco vassals.30
Riberas efforts to procure immediate expulsion of the Moriscos did not bear fruit
during the reign of Philip II, who was too preoccupied with political instability in the
Netherlands and the economic interests of the nobility at home to pay the archbishop
much heed. Riberas oratory, however, certainly did not fall on deaf ears, as his sermons
are copied and discussed at length in each of the apologists treatises justifying the
expulsion. For men like Bleda, Aznar Cardona, Guadalajara y Javier, and Fonseca, Juan
de Riberas sermons and personal example serve as the foundation of a successful and
ultimately laudable step in a great nation-building project. His arguments provide the
apologists with essential theological justification for the decision to expel the Moriscos,
removing any blame that might have been placed on the Crown for subjecting baptized
Christians to the evil forces of Islam abroad.31 When Philip III assumed the throne in
1598, Ribera hoped to gain his attention quickly in regard to the expulsion of the
Moriscos, but the new king instead entertained an opponent of the expulsion, Don
Feliciano de Figueroa, Bishop of Segorbe.32 In spite of the lack of attention, Ribera
persisted, sending seemingly unsolicited advice to the new king, emphasizing the
Moriscos apostasy and further highlighting the danger they posed in matters of national
security. Ribera described the Moriscos as sponges who suck up all of the riches in
30
31
Magnier, Pedro de Valencia, 7.
32
35
Spain, undercutting the wages of their Christian neighbors while greedily hoarding cash
and spending little.33 He characterized the New Christians as inherently violent, given to
rapidly populating in an effort to overthrow the Old Christians in rebellion.34 It is in one
of his letters to the king that Ribera penned perhaps his most well-known line: If Your
Majesty does not order a resolution in this matter, taking advantage of these inspirations,
I will see in my days the loss of Spain.35 The apologists, who not only see themselves as
defenders of the Faith but also as patriots, aim to prove that Spain, in all of its glory, was
indeed saved due to one powerful and magnificent decision of the Catholic monarch
Philip III that came to fruition in 1609.
Of these Catholic apologists, Jaime Bleda was perhaps the most well-known and
most outspoken. His close relationship with Juan de Ribera and his frequent trips to
Rome to advocate for expulsion in front of the pope gave him more access to the
limelight than Aznar Cardona, Guadalajara y Javier, and Fonseca, and for that reason,
more is known about his life and works than of the other apologists. Bleda joined Ribera
in actively promoting expulsion to the king by sending him his Defensio Fidei36 in 1603,
and all of the other apologists under consideration here repeatedly cite this defense of the
faith, praising his initiative in advocating expulsion. A Dominican from the small
Valencian Morisco town of Algemes, Bleda also served as an Inquisition censor. His
intimate knowledge of the Tribunal and consequent confrontation with purported
33
34
35
Quoted in Ehlers, Between Christians and Moriscos, 128.
36
transgressions must have fueled his enmity against the Moriscos, coloring his judgment
before he was ever assigned to missionary tasks. In 1585, Archbishop Ribera sent him to
the Morisco parish of Corbera, and the priests first impression of the town is recorded in
his lengthy Crnica de los moros de Espaa, dividida en ocho libros, published in 1618.
Disguised as an everyday parishioner, Bleda attended mass in Corbera and was disgusted
by what he viewed to be the outward blasphemy of the Morisco churchgoers. He claims
to have ridden back to Valencia without speaking to anyone, dramatically throwing
himself at Riberas feet and begging for a new assignment. At this point in time, Riberas
favored solution for the Morisco problem was still that of peaceful evangelization, so
he sent the disgruntled Bleda back to Corbera to assume his post. Bledas first impression
of the Moriscos never softened over time and only worsened as he continued to work
among the New Christians. Instead, he cultivated what Carr refers to as an obsessive
loathing of the New Christians and began ardently advocating for their demise.37
Expulsion, in fact, was the least extreme of the measures Bleda promoted: he would have
been satisfied to see the Moriscos killed in Barbary or devastated by plague. In addition
to his Defensio Fidei, personally presented to the king in 1604, and his copious Crnica
of the next decade, Bleda also wrote several collections of miracles with a decidedly antiSemitic tone.38 The Catholic apologists who followed Bleda attributed to him much of the
success of the expulsion project.
37
38
Carr, Blood and Faith, 208.
Magnier, Pedro de Valencia, 120-1. Bledas Libro de la cofradia de Minerua: en el

qual se escriuen mas de dozientos y cinquenta milagros del Santissimo Sacramento del
Altar (Valencia: 1600) is available as an electronic book at
37
Over the course of the rest of his life, Bleda worked closely with the Archbishop,
traveling to Rome three times, promoting the expulsion cause in front of three pontiffs. In
addition, he traveled frequently to Madrid to gather support for his mission. Bledas trips
to Rome, however, did not prove as productive as he might have hoped. Pope Paul V
continued to advance the softer methods of persuasion and education already espoused by
Ribera and the Court and gave no official papal support to expulsion. In 1599, Bleda was
given the opportunity to meet with Philip III when the king spent ten months in Valencia
after marrying Princess Margaret of Austria. Bleda, therefore, was able to directly
influence Philips decision, further endearing him to the apologists who would follow.
In spite of Ribera and Bledas enthusiastic support, lack of papal backing for the
expulsion decree worried Philip III, and as a result he sent Damin Fonseca, a Dominican
of Portuguese descent, to Rome to pick up where Bledas efforts had left off. Fonsecas
justification of the expulsion, therefore, was first published in Rome in Italian (1611) and
translated the next year into Spanish (Justa expulsin de los Moriscos de Espaa: con la
instruccin, apostasia, y traicin de ellos: y respuesta a las dudas que se ofrecieron
acerca de esta material). In an earlier version of the manuscript, Fonseca claims to have
had Pope Paul Vs support. The pontiff, however, wanted nothing to do with the
expulsion mission and, as Tueller points out, he insisted that any indications of his
http://books.google.es/books?id=wghORc9XQ7gC&pg=PP5#v=onepage&q&f=false,
and his Vida y milagros del glorioso S. Isidro el Labrador can be found at
http://books.google.es/books?id=3ycSxkhOrJ8C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=
false.
38
support be removed from Fonsecas treatise prior to its printing. 39 He was later honored
by pope Clement VIII, but beyond this information, few details of his life are known. 40
That Bleda and Fonseca were both members of the Dominican order is important to
understanding the significance of their religious vows in their mission to expel the
Moriscos. Dominic de Guzmn (b.1170-d.1221), founder of the Order of Preachers,
hailed from Castile. Since the founding of the order, Spain, and later her colonies,
remained the center of Dominican learning. As Benedict M. Ashley notes, in the
sixteenth century, no Dominican could earn the title Master of Theology without having
spent four years as a teacher in one of the approved universities scattered throughout
Spain and the New World.41 The Dominicans were extremely influential during the
reigns of both Philip II and Philip III, due largely to their roles as expert inquisitors and
royal confessors.42 Wright notes that the opinions of Philip IIs conservative Dominican
confessor are evident in the kings unwillingness to espouse some of the Council of
Trents reforms.43 In the evangelical mission, perhaps no Dominican is better known than
Bartolom de Las Casas (b.1474-d.1566) who dedicated his career to the conversion the
indigenous of the New World through education. As Boyarin notes, success stories from
abroad in regard to conversion provided a model of sorts for the religious seeking
39
Tueller, Good and Faithful Christians, 135-6.
40
41
Benedict M. Ashley, The Dominicans (Collegeville: Litrugical Press, 1990), 129-30.
42
A.D. Wright, Catholicism and Spanish Society Under the Reign of Philip II, 1555-1598
and Philip III, 1598-1621 (Lewiston: E. Mellen Press, 1991), 130-1.
43
Wright, Catholicism, 130-1.
39
conversion of the Moriscos.44 Bleda and Fonseca, therefore, belonged to a greater
tradition of court influence and evangelization, and Bleda tips his hat to the Dominican
legacy repeatedly: que el gran Patriarca Santo Domingo mi padre represent al Sumo
Pontfice para que le confirmase su nueva religin, fue para defender la Fe, impugnar las
herejas, y alumbrar con doctrina Catlica el mundoque los frailes de vuestra orden han
de ser defensores de la Fe, y unas verdaderas lumbreras del mundo. 45 He considers
himself to be one of a long line of religious men committed to eliminating heresy
beginning with St. Dominic. The saint purportedly fought heresy during his lifetime and
continued to do so through his legacy as inventor del santo tribunal de la Inquiscin.46
When speaking of fellow apologist Fonseca, Bleda proudly claims him as one of his own:
de este Convento de Predicadores de Valencia, es varn muy doctor, y en mi orden tiene
eminente lugar,47 praising Fonseca for bringing to light many of Bledas ideas from his
Defensio Fidei by incorporating them into his own anti-Morisco tract.
In addition to the biographical data gleaned from the prefatory pages of their
treatises, details about the lives of Aznar Cardona and Guadalajara y Javier are rather
sparse in comparison, perhaps because neither cleric aspired to championing his cause in
such a public forum as the Holy See. The little information that is known about them is
44
Jonathan Boyarin, The Unconverted Self: Jews, Indians, and the Identity of Christian
Europe (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009), 41.
45
Bleda, Crnica, 969.
46
Bleda, Crnica, 932.
47
Bleda, Crnica, 946.
40
contained within Nicols Antonios Biblioteca hispana nueva,48 composed in the latter
half of the seventeenth century. Pedro Aznar Cardona was not in fact responsible for the
authorship of the Justa Expulsin de los Moriscos Espaoles (1612); he served as a
scribe for his uncle, Jernimo Aznar, an Augustinian friar and prior of the monastery of
St. Augustine in Huesca. Jernimo Aznar is also said to have composed a book on the
Immaculate Conception entitled, De la Concepcin de Nuestra Seora, also published in
Huesca in 1620. Marcos de Guadalajara y Javier was a much more prolific writer than
Aznar and was from Zaragoza. Antonio describes him as Carmelite who spent day and
night engrossed in his studies, adding considerably to the corpus of historical
investigations on pontiffs. He was named Superior of his order in 1606, and his treatises
on the Moriscos appeared shortly thereafter: the Memorable expulsin y justsimo
destierro de los Moriscos de Espaa in 1613, and his Prodicin y destierro de los
Moriscos de Castilla hasta el Valle de Ricote con la disensin de los dos hermanos
Jerifes, y presa en Berbera de la fuera y puerto de Larache the following year.
In the introduction to their modern edition of Juan Ripols Dilogo de Consuelo
por la expulsin de los moriscos de Espaa,49 Talavera Cuesta and Moreno Daz give
brief characterizations of the apologistscontemporaries of Ripolhighlighting the
differences in their approaches. For them, Bleda, in his radicalism, is the prelude to a
debate that would then be repeated in every other apologist tract. Aznar Cardona (or
rather, Jernimo Aznar) is seen as the most propagandistic of the apologists and the one
48
49
Nicols Antonio, Biblioteca hispana nueva (Madrid: Servicio de Publicaciones, 1999).
Santiago Talavera Cuesta and Francisco J. Moreno Daz del Campo, Juan Ripol y la
expulsin de los moriscos de Espaa (Zaragoza: Institucin Fernando el Catlico, 2008).
41
who relies most heavily on scriptural quotation and anecdote. Fonsecas exposition is the
most juridical of the apologies, dedicated to countering arguments against expulsion, and
Guadalajara y Javier relies on legends and prophesies more than any of his
contemporaries.50
In spite of slight differences in content and style, the apologists treatises are very
similar. All four exemplify what Thomas F. Glick refers to as the tightly scripted
religious polemic characteristic of Medieval and early modern times. Devoid of what
Glick describes as epistemological modesty, or the willingness to entertain the validity
of someone elses epistemology, 51 the apologists treatises justify the expulsion of the
Moriscos by describing the Muslim faith as the antithesis of Christianity. One of the
overarching themes of these tightly scripted polemics in particular is the portrayal of
Islam as a non-native invading force, inherently corrupt and highly dangerous in its
ability to lure Christians away from the truth faith. It is through this characterization that
the apologists frame their justification for the expulsion of the Moriscos, arguing for
Christianitys innate goodness and rightful claim on the Peninsula.
The Islamic Threat

Estos son el veneno, la ponzoa, la apostema, la corrupcin pestilente, de que
nuestro Catlico Galeno de Galenos ha purgado el cuerpo mstico, de la
Cristiana republica Espaola. Estos son la sarna, la lepra, el cncer, la gota
50
51
Talavera Cuesta and Moreno Daz, Juan Ripol, 26-9.
Thomas F. Glick, My Master the Jew: Observation on the Interfaith Scholarly

Interactions in the Middle Ages in Jews, Muslims and Christians in and Around the
Crown of Aragon: Essays in Honour of Elena Lourie, ed. Harvey J. Hames. (Boston:
Brill, 2004), 158.
42
coral, y el mal de costado peligroso de que nuestro poderoso Rey Catlico, nos
ha separado para siempre. Estos son los no solo intiles, sino sealadamente
malas yerbas.52
The apologists anxiety in regard to the stability of their Spanish Catholic identity
is evident in their assertions of Spains vulnerability to Islams corruption, particularly in
the light of centuries of failed efforts to bring the Moriscos into the Christian fold. They
view Islam as a spiritual threata force whose presence within the Iberian Peninsula
threatened the stability and hegemony of the Catholic faith with its influence, painting the
Islamic faith as the very antithesis of Catholic Christianity. Arguing that Spain has been
Catholic since the beginning of time, the apologists claim that it is the monarchs duty, as
inheritor of an unbroken genealogical connection to Rome, to reclaim Catholicism as
Spains sole and rightful faith. After establishing that conversion efforts failed to yield
results for centuries, the apologists justify the expulsion as the only practicable resolution
to restoring Spains unity.
The apologists consider Islam to have been corrupt since its foundation. To Bleda,
Muhammads teachings serve to intentionally undermine Christian doctrine, beginning
with a crafty salesman-like approach of getting to know his competition thoroughly
before creating a doctrine most attractive to potential subscribers:
Y siendo de astuto ingenio, ambicioso, y amigo de cosas nuevas, procure
entender los modos, y formas de vivir de las gentes, y vino a tener
Amistad, y particular conocimiento con hombres de diferentes leyes. Con
esto Mahoma qued instruido, y enseado medianamente en todas las
leyes, que entonces haba en el mundo: en la idolatra, como queda dicho:
de su to Baheyra fue tambin enseado, que era Judo: y de Sergio
52
Aznar Cardona, Expulsin justificada, 2:62-3.
43
aprendi la ley de Cristo, lo que l le quiso ensear, y as urdi de todas
tres leyes la tela, con que despus enga al mundo.53
Utilizing details from Muhammads life story, Bleda characterizes his understanding of
God as the result of a conscious religion-building process in which he uses his knowledge
of other more established faiths to model the structure of his own invented religion. In
contrast to the belief in Islam that Muhammads knowledge is perfect, God-given, and
outside his control, to Bleda, a conscious procuring of religious authority served
Muhammads goal to lend credibility to his preaching. He notes that as Muhammad set
out to attract converts, he rejected other religions notions of appetite-repression, making
his doctrine more palatable and attractive to potential converts:
Con haber Mahoma soltado las riendas a toda sensualidad: habiendo sido
un legislador t Epicreo, y enemigo de la templanza Cristiana; habiendo
querido engaar al mundo, dado a entender, que Dios le haba enviado,
para que moderase, y templase el rigor de la ley de los cristianos: con todo
para dar color de religin a su falsa secta, mand un mes entero de ayunos,
que llaman Ramadn54
The apologists view Muhammads plan to trick the world with his false teachings as
Lucifers handiwork, and Guadalajara y Javier warns of the necessity amongst the
faithful of recognizing such deception: ser necesario en el presente, tener noticia clara
de los medios que tiene, para conducir gente, en detrimento de la virtud y santidad, y de
algunas seales de los herejes, para huir de su trato y comunicacin, como nociva y
peligrosa.55 Muhammad begins the task of disseminating his message with the first of
53
Bleda, Crnica, 7.
54
Bleda, Crnica, 54.
55
Guadalajara y Javier, Memorable expulsin, 8.
44
his wives, Khadijah, and her nave willingness to accept his claims sets off a chain
reaction of conversion among the people: As lo crey su mujer, y lo hizo creer a otras
amigas suyas, y de ellas man esta fabula a muchos hombres plebeyos. 56 In this
scenario, Muhammad is a sort of serpent tempting his Eve, and her willingness to be
duped opens the figurative garden gates for mass damnation. Khadijah is only the first of
many ignorant people who succumbed to Muhammads black magic and trickery. Bleda
attributes this trend to feminine weakness and desperation, noting [y] considera un autor,
que en esta flaqueza ca algunas veces las mujeres, y aun seoras, y de ello se alaban en
Espaa algunos viles lenceros. Y como el maldito Mahoma era mago, y hechicero,
fcilmente recab con ella, pues era viuda, que se casase con l.57 Likewise, Bledas
fellow apologists describe Muhammads efforts to create a plausible religion as a process
of fiction-writing designed to appeal to an ignorant and gullible audience who lacks the
intellectual tools to evaluate it for what it is worth.
The fear that common people in the Iberian Peninsula are vulnerable to the
Islamic seductions that converted the Middle East and North Africa in the seventh
century permeates the apologists treatises. They note, however, that Scripture gives fair
warning of Islams efforts to devastate Christianity, and the Christian community must
prepare itself to take defensive action. For example, Aznar Cardona refers to Muhammad
as a false prophet whose teachings condemn countless souls to hell, describing him as a
lascivious beast prefigured in Johns Gospel. He observes,
56
Bleda, Crnica, 8.
57
Bleda, Crnica, 6.
45
por el modo de vida bestialsima, que us personalmente, y ense a los
suyos, fundada, no en razn, ni en gozos de la virtud, y verdaderos bienes
del alma, ni en cosas, que de suyo son de estima, quitada la necesidad, o la
costumbre daada de ellas, ni en obras que sean propias de aquello, que en
nosotros es verdaderamente ser hombre, sino en bienes brutos del cuerpo,
de comer, o refocilarse, y en riquezas, y pompas y vanidades caducas, y en
torpezas, y deleites de ardores deshonestos.58
Calling Muhammad the Epicurean captain of brute appetite and a slave to filthy
passions, Aznar Cardona contrasts what he views as an Islamic ideal of searching for
human happiness in earthly pleasures with the truth of rational Catholic faith that teaches
that the body and soul tire of such pleasures, ultimately seeking fulfillment in Christs
salvation.59 Specifically, he explains that the Muslims focus all of their attentions en
dulzura de comidas, en suavidad de manjares sabrosos, y delicados; en preciosidad de
vestidos; en deleites del cuerpo; en abundancia de riquezas; en pompas y honras
mundanas: en galas curiosas; en fuerzas, salud, y dones corporales; en aplausos de
amigos: en paseos de jardines y prados. 60 To a true Catholic Christian, suffering ends
with death and admittance into the eternal heavenly kingdom where souls exist
perfectamente gozosos, sin comida, ni bebida, ni sueo, no otras cosas que presupongan
cansancio, o necesidad. 61 In this regard, he accuses Muhammad of trying to convert his
soul into flesh, or corrupt Gods people in an attempt to undermine the Divine plan. He
states, [q]ue fue tan dado a lo corporal, y tan materializo, su voluptuoso capitn,
Mahoma; que desear convertir su alma en cuerpo: y la razn, en sentido, y trocar el oro
58
59
60
Aznar Cardona, Expulsin justificada, 1:27.
61
46
sino por el hierro; y tan idiota, que confundi, y perturb (cuanto fue de su parte) el orden
natural y divino.62
The threat to seventeenth-century Spanish Christianity inherent in prioritizing
pleasures of the body over spiritual aspirations is that such choices are viewed as
potentially irresistible temptations to a Christian whose faith promotes temperance and as
a certain source of corruption of Christian purity. It is precisely because of this
temptation, as Bleda states, that Islam has lasted for so many centuries in spite of
Christian resistance. In the apologists opinions, it is easier and more pleasurable to be a
Muslim than it is to be a Christian porque esta secta no manda creer a los hombres cosa
que exceda los sentidos, ni la capacidad de qualquier mediano entendimiento: Es ley
carnalaza, que concede todo lo que pide la sensualidad, y los apetitos terrenos, y sobre
todo favorece la ambicin de mandar, e Imperar de cualquier manera, y por cualesquier
medios, que ello se alcance. 63
The danger to Christian Spain lies in the fact that it may appear that a Morisco
who engages in such hedonistic behavior does not suffer consequences on earth, leading
the casual observer to believe that earthly pleasures need not be eschewed. After
Muhammad gives what Guadalajara y Javier calls licenciageneral y absoluta para
robar y lujuriar (vicio y natural inclinacin de Barbaros Arbigos),64 and Moriscos of
this persuasion continue living in the Iberian Peninsula for centuries abiding by these
62
63
Bleda, Crnica, 102.
64
47
provisions, the apologists insist that leading such a life is attractive to weak-willed
Christians who see no obvious consequences. But as Aznar Cardona points out, outward
appearances are deceiving, and Christians should be forewarned that Moriscos certainly
suffer in the afterlife: que su torpe secta, en lo exterior es deleitosa, pero en lo secreto,
azota con muerte eternal.65
The apologists see Muhammads religion, therefore, with its focus on bodily
pleasures and multiple wives, as most attractive to the ignorant campesinos who are
highly vulnerable to Morisco hedonistic influence. The apologists cite as their forebearers
the ignorant country-folk and Bedouin tribes who fell victim to Muhammads
proselytizing in the seventh century, noting,
Fingi que era Apstol, y Profeta. Yua enseado sus embelecos a gente
idiota, ignorante, que vivan en el campo en caseras, y aldeas, a pastores,
a bandoleros, y salteadores, a hombres que el fcilmente poda engaar
con su astucia de zorra, por ser gente del todo ajena de la sabidura, que
careca de toda prudencia humana, y de toda urbanidad y policano saban
conocer, ni discernir entre la verdad, y la mentira, entre la necesidad, y la
sabidura: y a cada uno empleaba en su oficio.66
Bleda considers these commoners so isolated from civilized life that they lack the
intellectual capacity to differentiate between genuine truth and fictional creation.
Muhammads easy conversion of a multitude of people and the rapid expansion of his
sect inspires anxiety in the apologists who view Spains ignorant commoners as a group
as vulnerable to the risk of defection as the early inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula and
the Levant who followed Muhammads teachings centuries before. Bleda refers to
65
66
Bleda, Crnica, 16.
48
Muhammads early practitioners as being tan fcil en creer novedades, al cual mas
agradan las cosas fabulosas, y las invenciones mentirosas, que la doctrina de la verdad, 67
and fears Spains gente popular will follow suit. As Aznar Cardona suggests, they are apt
to latch onto the vestiges of Muhammads pestilential preaching that live on in the
Iberian Peninsula eagerly, blindly, and without evaluation, al modo de los que beben con
botija, sin ver, ni saber lo que beben.68 Bleda reiterates cun daosa era a los Cristianos
simples la compaa de aquellos infieles escandalosos, reminding his reader that it is
never a good idea to leave a wolf among the sheep, nor Cain alone with his brother
Abel.69
But the threat of losing the Christian populace to the temptations of Islam is even
greater when considering that the more educated cosmopolitan citizens are also given to
moral weakness, leaving no Christian immune to contamination or seduction. Bleda notes
that
Para los hombres ciudadanos, y mas entendidos, dados a los vicios de la
carne, y amigos de toda libertad, tomo el engaoso Mahoma otro
mediopara rendir los a su secta Escondido el anzuelo de su falsa ley, y
doctrina en el cebo dulce de los deleites mundanos, permitindoles el
ayuntamiento carnal a rienda suelta, y todos los regalos, y pasatiempos de
la sensualidad: hasta darles la bienaventuranza de la otra vida en deleites
carnales, hacindoles creer, que despus desta vida mortal se haban de ir
con el a gozar de una vida regalada, llena de banquetes, y de fiestas, como
las que aqu se usan: y as eran muy amigos de ellas los Moros.70
67
Bleda, Crnica, 15.
68
69
Bleda, Crnica, 873.
70
Bleda, Crnica, 18.
49
The apologists fear that it is hard to deny the attractiveness of Muhammads teachings
and lack of moral fortitude, and Morisco presence within the Iberian Peninsula therefore
will always mean constant confrontation with Lucifers temptations. Therefore, the
apologists first argue in favor of the moral superiority of Catholicism, claiming its right
to souls destined for eternal life.
Construction of an Essentially Catholic Spain

In terms of life on earth, they then set out to argue that Catholicism also lays
rightful claim on the Peninsula itself. Predicated on the notion that Spain was
fundamentally and originally Catholic, the apologists continual emphasis on the dangers
of corruption is directly tied to Christian fears of a loss of Spain to other faiths that had
persisted for centuries. The apologists argue that innately Catholic Spain remains
vulnerable to dissenting influence if adequate measures are not taken to ensure her
religious homogeneity.
A critical component to the argument for Spains innate Catholicism, the
apologists appropriate the myth of Saint James (Santiago in Spanish) and his role as
bringer of Christianity to Iberia. While scriptural evidence for the saints journey to the
Peninsula is lacking, the mythology surrounding this particular disciples missionary
work suggests that Spain had been Catholic since the earliest Christian era, after the
apostle gathered a community of believers in Spain.71 The legend of Santiagos
71
For further study of the Cult of Santiago, see Louis Cardaillac, Santiago apstol: el
santo de los dos mundos (Jalisco: Fideicomiso Teixidor, 2002), Louis Duchesne, Saint
50
prominent place in Catholic Spanish culture took root in the ninth century when the
saints supposed remains were found in the Peninsula. After being martyred in the Holy
Land, Santiagos relics came to their final resting place in Galicia. The subsequent
dedication of a chapel to house the remains, later replaced by the famous cathedral, drew
pilgrims from all over Europe. As Rowe notes, the discovery of Santiagos supposed
remains in the Peninsula established for the Spanish church unique and enduring
connection to the apostle.72
More important to the apologists endorsement of the myth is that Santiago later
became patron saint and intercessor during the Reconquista. His image as a crusading
saint is associated primarily with the Medieval kingdom of Castile as the Crown worked
to restore Christianity through the reign of Isabel and Ferdinand. However, critical to
Rowes understanding of Santiagos position as patron saint of Spain, rather than of
Castile alone, is the idea that Santiagos significance as founder of Christianity in the
Peninsula predated the territorial fragmentation of the Middle Ages. 73 His image,
therefore, was not only contemporarily salient for its crusader implications, but was also
reminiscent of Roman and Visigothic glory days. 74 As Rowe remarks, the term Spain
immediately invoked this idealized period of unity and Christianity, before the darkness
Jacques en Galice in Annales du Midi 12 (1900), 145-79, and R.A. Fletcher, Saint
Jamess Catapult: The Life and Times of Diego Gelmrez of Santiago de Compostela
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1984).
72
Erin Kathleen Rowe, Saint and Nation: Santiago, Teresa of Avila and Plural Identities
in Early Modern Europe (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2011).
73
Rowe, Saint and Nation, 30-1.
74
51
and chaos of 711.75 Santiago is for the apologists, therefore, a symbol of Spains
essential Christianity and the Peninsulas continued bond with Rome even in the face of
Muslim conquest. In this vein, Aznar Cardona notes that all corners of the earth had
experienced the Gospel, suggesting that Spains Christianity is not unique. However his
reference to Muhammads birth some six centuries after Jesus death and the lands that
succumbed to his influence emphasizes Catholic Spains response to invasion and her
unyielding efforts to reclaim her people:
[T]odas las provincias, y naciones del mundo recibieron nuestra san ley
Evanglica, y que perseveraron en ella por la mayor parte, hasta la raya de
los seis cientos aos cumplidos: y ello es as, que un hubo parte en el
universo, ni gente, ni lengua, ni pueblo, donde no llegase la publicacin
del Evangelio, por la voz de los Apstoles, o de sus sucesores Mrtires,
Confesores, y Doctores76
To further reject Islam and substantiate Santiagos exclusive Catholic claim on Spain,
Bleda seeks to discredit sources that attest to Muhammads supposed visit to the
Peninsula. He notes that Alfonso Xs Crnica general de Espaa, in addition to several
other works, makes a claim for Muhammads visit to Iberia, but Bleda chooses to focus
on evidence that discounts the claims:
Y Vaseo refiere, que lo mismo hall en el Brevario de Eurora, y que en
Crdoba quiso ensear sus errores: mas quesiendo de ello avisado S.
Isidoro, procure, de prenderle, y el, o porque el Diablo su familiar le avis,
o algn mal hombre, se fue huyendo. Ambrosio de Morales dice, que tiene
esto por cosa tan manifiestamente falsa, que no tiene necesidad, que
ninguno la contradiga.77
75
76
77
Bleda, Crnica, 47.
52
Bleda therefore construes from the outset a Christian Spain in which there is no place for
Muslims and never has been, where Christianity claims the territory and its people.
Santiago becomes a symbol of Spains authentic faith and serves as protector of its
connection to the mother church in Rome.
As noted earlier, there is lack of evidence in the scriptures supporting the idea that
Santiago had personally Christianized Spain. However, the subsequent mythologythe
tradition from which the apologists drawwas substantially augmented by the saints
appearances in literary sources dating from the sixth century. 78 For the apologists, such
historical sources not only serve to bolster Santiagos importance as Christian founder
and protector of Spain, but also to discredit competing foundational myths, as in the
above example of Muhammad. This idea of using a literary tradition to establish
dominance and rightful possession based on which group arrived to the Peninsula first is
interesting with respect to famous archeological findings of the late sixteenth century. A
mere decade before the Moriscos were expelled, religious relics and lead tablets of
dubious authenticity were found in and around the city of Granada. Written in Arabic, the
parchment from Granadas Torre Turpiana,79 discovered in 1588, and the lead books
(plomos) recovered on the nearby Monte Valparaso between 1595 and 1599, told the
story of Spains martyred first bishop, San Cecilio, and his fellow martyr and brother
Tesifn. According to the texts, these men were Arabs who traveled with Santiago to
78
79
See Fletcher, St. Jamess Catapult, 54-7.
David Coleman, Creating Christian Granada, 189. The Torre Turpiana was the former
minaret of Granadas Great Mosque. After its consecration as a Catholic Cathedral in
1501, the tower served as the churchs bell tower. The parchment and relics were found
in the rubble produced by the towers demolition in 1588.
53
Iberia after having been converted to Christianity by Jesus himself. Santiago purportedly
said Spains first Catholic Mass on the holy mountain outside of Granada from which the
tablets were excavated (referred to in the texts as the Sacromonte), and the men in his
company became the Peninsulas first Christian martyrs in that same location. 80 These
texts were the source of much theological controversy over the next century, and even
though several prominent theologians were skeptical of their authenticity from the outset,
the plomos were not officially declared to be forgeries until 1682. The narrative of the
plomos posits an interesting alternative version of the Santiago legend, positioning people
of Arab descent as first and rightful Christian inhabitants of the Peninsula. The plomos
therefore allegedly include the Moriscos ancestors in the foundational myth of the
Spanish Catholic nation in a way in which the apologists would find in conflict with their
notions of blood purity and their experience of the practice of Islam in the Peninsula. The
narrative of the plomos is one of an uncommonly heroic Christian antiquity that all but
erased the embarrassing historical stain on eight centuries of Muslim domination,81 as
Coleman puts it, striving to appeal to tentative Muslim converts to Christianity through a
sort of hybrid doctrine that eliminates those facets of the Catholic faith most offensive to
Muslims. (For example, Coleman observes that the plomos refer to Jesus as the Spirit
of God rather than the Son of God because to Muslims, the Christian Trinity conflicted
with the concept of monotheism.82)
80
Coleman, Creating Christian Granada, 192.
81
82
54
Acceptance of the lead books treatment of Santiago as bringer of Christianity
who worked in close proximity with the Arab descendants of Granadas Moriscos,
however, would certainly not have complemented the apologists construction of their
crusading patron. In contrast, critical to the apologists conception of the myth of this
essentially Catholic nation is Santiagos association with Christian reconquest efforts. In
this regard, Santiago Matamoros (the Moor-Slayer), becomes a sort of mascot of the
apologist polemic. The saints reputation as such began to emerge in the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries as legends began to circulate widely relaying the power of Santiago
the warrior-saint to intercede on the Christian forces behalf.83 The foundational
intercession, so to speak, on which much of the lore is based, occurred in the ninth
century battle of Clavijo in which King Ramiro I of Asturias and Leon prayed for
Santiagos assistance on the battlefield. 84 The saint appeared to Ramiro in a dream
83
Rowe, Saint and Nation, 26. Thus the ascendancy of Santiago as a military saint
occurred only after the First Crusade and the spread of crusading rhetoric throughout
western Europe. Iberia was particularly ripe for the adoption of crusading ideology, as its
Christian leaders began renewing their assaults on their Islamic neighbors with increased
vigor and success during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
84
Fonseca, Justa expulsin, 303. Santiago, y mueran los perros! Guadalajara y Javier,
Memorable expulsin, 25. Don Ramiro primero, hijo del Rey don Bermudo, hallndose
desocupado de ciertas guerras civiles, armado de celo grande, y deseo de dilatar la Fe
Catlica, junt sus gentes, y corri la tierra de los infieles, haciendo por ella notables
estragos. Rebolvieron contra el los Moros, con un poderossimo ejrcito, y tan
formidable, que con razn temi el Rey (midiendo sus fuerzas con las del contrario) y se
retir como pudo haca Clavijo. Conocida por los Moros su flaqueza, le apretaron de
manera, que se dio por destrozado, muerto, o preso. Estando en estas congojas, le
apareci aquella noche el Apstol Santiago, y le amonest, diese sin temor la batalla,
porque favorecido del cielo, sera suya la victoria. Al punto del amanecer orden el Rey
sus banderas, present la batalla, y embisti al enemigo gallardamente, y en lo hervoroso
de ella le apareci el Apstol santo, peleando a caballo, con que cobrando animo los
fieles, rompieron a los enemigos, y les mataron mas de sesenta mil hombres. Este milagro
55
assuring him of the Christian armys victory. The following day, the skies opened up and
Santiago emerged brandishing a sword that terrified the Muslim army, causing their
defeat. From that point forward, invocation of Santiago became the Christian battle cry, 85
and the apologists cite numerous examples in which soldiers continue to summon the
apostle during the Morisco rebellions seven centuries after Clavijo.86 In a similar manner,
the apologists continually refer to various soldiers de hbito de Santiago, highlighting
the saints enduring legacy through Spanish military orders. Guadalajara y Javier claims
dio principio a los Espaoles, para que en sus empresas, acometimientos, y asaltos,
invocasen el glorioso nombre de Santiago. Also Guadalajara y Javier, Prodicin y
destierro, 19, relates a contemporary sighting of a similar intercession, reminiscent of
Santiagos assistance in centuries past: Porque vistos estos prodigios, pareci, que
desmayaba la gente Cristiana, sin entender sus misterios, y se animaba ms la Morisma,
interpretndolo todo en su favor y modo: con resplandor de luz extraordinaria, y seal
conocida, el ao 1606: a media noche, por un da del mes de Mayo, refieren muchos de
los que lo vieron, hallndose en el campo, y en partes donde lo pudieron ver y apercibir:
que se abri el cielo, y arroj por los aires una Espada de fuego resplandeciente, de color
de sangre; la cual tendiendo la punta hacia las partes de frica, estuvo as hasta el alba,
que desapareci, a vista de los que la miraban, sin que la pudiesen mas ver. Prodigiosa y
admirable seal fue esta, y digna de hacerse mencin de ella, por sus muchos y ciertos
significados: pues cuando los Prncipes estaban en la mitad del sueo, olvidados de lo
que tanto importaba remediar (como lo avisaban las cosas y personas arriba dichas) y tan
despiertos y cuidadosos los Moriscos, y con tanto secreto, armado su pertinaz
conjuracin: entonces desenvaina Dios la espada de sus divina justicia (creo por
intercesin del Protector de Espaa Santiago) y la muestra a los que velan en el medio de
la noche; como a aquellos que mas y mejor fauorecen sus derechos. Dando a entender a
todos que con ambos filos auia de castigar y triphar de los Mahometanos, como otras
veces.
85
86
Rowe, Saint and Nation, 22.
For example, Fonseca, Justa expulsin, 309, portrays the battle cries of the the
opposing sides almost like weapons, causing chaos and destruction as they mix with the
sounds of war: Se trab en efecto la batalla con grande animo de una, y otra parte,
tocando al arma los dos campos, invocando el Cristiano Santiago, y el Agareno Mahoma,
moviendo un ruido, y alboroto tan grande, que mezclado el estruendo de los mosquetes, y
arcabuces con el ruido de las cajas, y pisaros, y respondiendo los ecos en las
concavidades del valle, pareca hundirse toda aquella montaa.
56
that a mysterious voice echoing in Santiagos church Arma, Arma, Espaa, Espaa,
inspired Philip III to undertake a restoration campaign via los ejecutores y principales
los Caballeros de su benditsimo hbito.87 Among them was the kings favorite, the
Duke of Lerma, whose chief accomplishment in the eyes of the apologists was securing
the expulsion of the Moriscos in 1609. To Bleda, these orders were faithful companions
to the monarchs en las santas guerras contra los Moros, en las conquistas, y restauracin
de Espaa.88
This evidence for Spains authentic Christian lineage, however, begins much
earlier than Santiagos evangelical mission to the Iberian Peninsula and even predates the
birth of Christianity itself. Presented in the apologists treatises as the contemporary
continuation of ancient battles waged for the triumph of good over evil, Spains
Reconquista is merely the latest battle in a war between the descendants of Isaac and of
the descendants of Ishmael. Fonseca, for example, views Felipe IIIs great expulsion
decision as the most recent in a list of Old Testament triumphs of the chosen people over
the infidel, noting,
que fue particular favor del cielo el querer reservar esta empresa heroica,
para nuestro gran Monarca Felipe tercero, en premio de las virtudes
singulares, que con real, y Cristiano pecho ejercita: como tambin reserv
la libertad de su pueblo para Moiss: la entrada de la tierra de promisin,
para Josu: la venganza de la injuria Antigua de los Amalequitas para
Sal: la Victoria de los Filisteos, y la expulsin de los Jebuseos de la tierra
santa, para David: y finalmente la Gloria de su temple para su hijo
Salomn.89
87
Guadalajara y Javier, Prodicin, 21.
88
Bleda, Crnica, 978.
89
Fonseca, Justa expulsin, prologue, n.p.
57
Bleda makes a very similar statement, claiming that God has reserved so great an act for
Felipe III in the same way que reserv a Mosn la libertad de su pueblo, Josu la entrada
de la tierra de promisin, a Sal la venganza de la Antigua injuria de los Amalecitas
idolatras, a David la victoria de los Filisteos.90 Critically, however, he adds to the list by
stating, al Infante don Pelayo el principio de la restauracin de Espaa, al Rey don
Jaime la conquista de estos Reinos, al rey don Fernando el santo la de los de Crdoba, y
Sevilla, a los Reyes Catlicos la de el de Granada, que fue el ltimo refugio de los
Moros.91 In this manner, Bleda seamlessly interweaves Old Testament conquests and a
series of battles for Catholic supremacy in the Iberian Peninsula, suggesting the
Christians continued lineage from Biblical times and validating the expulsion of the
Moriscos as Gods triumph prefigured in Scripture. The apologists view Abrahams
dismissal of his concubine Hagar and their son Ishmael as a telling act of God with future
implications for the chosen people. They interpret the subsequent separation of Isaac and
Ishmael as moral validation of Felipe IIIs expulsion decree, noting, [d]e todo este
discurso se saca, que la expulsin de los moros de Espaa figurada en la de Agar, y
Ismael, fue muy justa: porque ellos no quisieron obedecer ni or a la Iglesia, antes
trazaban de enseorearse de estos reinos, y establecer en ellos la secta idolatra de
Mahoma, por lo cual eran dignos de mayores penas.92
90
Bleda, Crnica, 956.
91
Bleda, Crnica, 956.
92
Bleda, Crnica, 909.
58
This separation of races, so to speak, insinuates a genetic partitioning of the sects
that creates an inherited right to Gods kingdom on one side of the family tree and an
indelible stain of unworthiness on the other. Much as the apologists characterize Islam as
unavoidably inherited in the womb and a symbol of impure blood according to the
limpieza de sangre doctrine, so too do they characterize Catholic Christianity, implying
that the burden to rid the realm of infidelity is also passed on genetically from one
Spanish king to the next:
De la misma suerte los principales, que se honran de auer sido regenerados
por Jesuchristo, que les dio sobre natural ser, y que se sustentaron de su
sangre, convertida en [ ] leche, de sobrenatural doctrina, la cual chuparon
en los pechos de la Iglesia Catlica, su verdadera y nica madre spiritual,
obligacin tienen, de volver por Jesuchristo, y procurar el descanso,
seguridad, y tranquilidad de su esposa la Iglesia Romana, maestro de todas
las Iglesias, tomando la vara de la Justicia, y las armas contra los que
andan tras inquietarla y perturbarla como los Mahometanos Moriscos. En
fin es Rey con ttulo preclarsimo de Catlico, de que nuestros Reyes
meritisimamente gozaron y gozan, por una cierta eminencia: de fuerte, que
con decir el Rey Catlico, se entiende el Rey de Espaay
significandonos ese nombre universalidad, con cierta significacin de
unidad, cual es nuestra santa Fe, y la Iglesia romana.93
The rulers he refers to are not only born deserving of the title of Catholic, but they
further prove their worthiness through actions designed to uphold the tenets of the faith.
These rulers, as Aznar Cardona highlights, promote a universality and unity amongst
their Catholic subjects that does not admit division and difference. Guided by God in
their kingships, rulers like Felipe III inherit their Catholic legitimacy, engrandecido por
el mismo sumo Pontfice con que insigne blasn, igual con los que hered de sus
93
59
antepasados, que quedara eternizado para siempre, llamndolo Firmamento de la
Republica Cristiana.94
Embodying the same divinely-inspired faith and zeal as their prophetic
predecessors, Aznar Cardona sees these rulers as contemporary manifestations of great
Biblical prophets and kings who labored tirelessly to eliminate heresy. Among them he
cites the eminent prophet Elijah, King David, and King Josiah, establishing Felipes
inherited link to these figures and equating his decision to expel the Moriscos with the
magnitude of their Biblical deeds. 95 Felipe, therefore, like these kings and prophets, is an
instrument of Gods will on earth. Aznar Cardona notes, [y] as este supremo seor
Jesuchristo, tiene su vara y cuchillo de justicia secular, que son los Reyes y Prncipes
seglares pero a mas de ese, quiso tener otro mas penetrante chuchillo spiritual de
penitencia, que es mas noble sin comparacin.96
94
Fonseca, Justa expulsin, 72.
95
Aznar Cardona, Expulsin justificada, 1:10. Se dir con toda verdad, de cualquier
verdadero fiel Cristiano, que con fe viva, y caridad perfecta, desearse de todo corazn y
procurare, con toda el caudal de sus obras, el servicio y honra de Dios, sobre todas las
cosas, que es un Elas, un David, otro cualquier esclarecido Santo, cuyo espritu, y justo
obrar, resplandeciere muy al vivo, en el tal verdadero Cristiano. Also, Aznar Cardona,
Expulsin justificada, 2: 66. O Catlico Felipe guila de Reyes, Atlante deste cielo
Eclesistico, a quien tan santo objeto tan gloriosos fin ha movido. O Rey magnnimo de
profundos pensamientos, y de claros y altos hechos, de quien nadie podr decir, la
grandeza de su pecho, la constancia de su nimo, y las empresas de su valor sin segundo,
mayor que sus heroicas obras, semejantes a las del santo Rey Josas, de dulce memoria a
quien dio el cielo rectitud enderezadora para enmienda de la gente y perdicin de las
idolatras.
96
60
Catholic Christianity Under Siege
The apologists constant references to Biblical and historical examples of the God
of Israel triumphing over heresy demonstrate that no kingdom can avoid altogether a
threat on its spiritual identity. What is important in the aforementioned scenarios is the
response of the ruler to such a threata chosen ruler meets the challenge by eliminating
infidelity and defending Gods word and people. A critical example of Spains
vulnerability in the face of what the apologists view as Islamic seduction is the
devastation of Catholic Visigothic reign in the eighth century. To them, a breakdown of
Christian morality on the part of the purportedly Catholic rulers caused a breach in their
line of defense so severe that its repercussions were still not fully managed some nine
centuries later. Bleda pays particular attention to the role of licentiousness of this sort in
the Iberian Peninsulas past, citing weaknesses of the flesh on the part of the Visigoth
rulers as the root cause of Spains Moorish conquest. Referring to the sins of the Visigoth
kings Vuitiza and Rodrigo, and the poor example they set for their people, 97 Bleda calls
the former indigno de la Corona de Espaa, y de la Francia Gtica98 for his public
display of the vices of the flesh. Bleda comments that the Muslim invasion caught the
Visigoth rulers by surprise because they were until that point entirely accustomed to
reigning victorious and consumed by immoral deeds.99 For the apologist, moral
97
Bleda, Crnica, 117.
98
Bleda, Crnica, 118.
99
Bleda, Crnica, 126. Del mal ejemplo de vida, y costumbres deste Rey, y de Vuitiza
nacieron tantos vicios, maldades, y traiciones entre sus sbditos, que no se trataba verdad,
ni podan vivir sino con grade trabajo, sobrevinieron tantas maldades (como dice don
Rodrigo) que por el discurso del tiempo cubrieron la tierra, y la Fortaleza, y potencia de
61
weakness in the rulers of the late seventh and early eighth centuries is a symbolic
prefiguration of the present situation of alluring Muslim pleasure-seeking on Spanish
territory nine hundred years later. A once powerful, united, Christian kingdom led astray
by the bad example of a monarch consumed by what the apologists view as Muslim-like
licentiousness. In his opinion, the Visigoths commitment to desviar el pueblo de la
Antigua disciplina Cristiana100 should serve as a warning to the present king that he and
his subjects are equally vulnerable to such weakness. The once noble quality of the
Visigoths is now vile and debased, opening the floodgates to continued devastation not
only in Spain but across the globe:
La nobleza de los Godos, la devocin de los Sacerdotes, la honestidad, y
limpieza de las mujeres, todo se volvi en una horrible fealdad. Lleg a
tanto en esto su abominable desorden, que contra lo establecido por
derecho natural, divino, y humano, no contento de una mujer, tom
muchas, siguiendo en ello la descomulgada secta de Mahoma, que en estos
das andaba poderosa sobre todas las naciones del mundo, como se ha
visto.101
These moral vices, if left unabated, will destroy Christianity in Iberia completely, just as
it weakened the Visigoths to invasion at the time of the Arab conquest. Here the
apologist seems to highlight noble qualities of the ruler that he might associate with the
much-praised Philip III, warning the current king that even the devout Visigoths whose
era represented for many sixteenth-century Spaniards a Catholic legacy and cultural ideal,
succumbed to moral weakness. In that vein, Bleda observes that
los Godos, que estaba acostumbrada a triunfar de otros reinos, y gentes, encenegada y a
en la profundidad de los vicios estuvo a punto de rendirle a todas las abominaciones.
100
Bleda, Crnica, 117.
101
Bleda, Crnica, 118.
62
[e]stos vicios enflaquecieron los nimos, y los cuerpos de los Godos, y
aquella fuerza, y valor, que sola ser espantable a los enemigos en la
Guerra, ahora rendida, y sujeta al vicio se debilitaba, y consuma con la
blandura de este feo deleite, sin advertirse de su dao, y destruicin. Estas
fueron las verdaderas causas de la perdicin de Espaa102
To the apologists, Spain had been oblivious and complacent during periods of
relative peace and prosperity prior to the arrival of the Muslims in 711. Guadalajara y
Javier spends much of his Prodicin y destierro de los Moriscos de Castilla enumerating
the many terrible and ignored signs that announced the destruction of Christian Spain as
it was knownearthquakes, famines, serpents, a baby who returned to his mothers
womb, clouds that rained milk and blood. However, these signs, no matter how
malevolent they seemed, were merely intended by God to serve as a warning to the
beloved Spanish, the people upon whom he had bestowed his faithful apostle Santiago.
He remarks, y hallaremos que no son tan siniestras las interpretaciones y discursos: sino
que notoriamente quiso Dios prevenir con ellos a su querida Espaa, y despertarla del
profundo sueo en que dorma, entre sus mortales enemigos; para que se previniesen
contra la conjuracin.103
Gods initial warnings were not enough, however, and He then sent Muhammads
invaders into the Peninsula to punish first the Visigoth kings for their sins, and then
continued to punish all of Christian Spain until she repented. As Bleda notes, la ltima
causa, y mas principal, porque Dios permite tanto tiempo esta secta, es para castigar los
pecados de los malos Cristianos: y as durar todo el tiempo, que ser Dios servido, que
102
Bleda, Crnica, 118.
103
63
sean los perfidos Mahometanos verdugos de los Cristianos.104 As Bleda observes, Islam
would continue to be a constant threat to Spains Christian identity until the realm could
be restored to its former glory.
Physical battles had favored the Christian side through Ferdinand and Isabels
1492 conquest of Granada but ideological warfare proved more difficult as the wholesale
efforts aimed at converting the Muslim masses to Christianity appeared to fail miserably.
The apologists, desiring to put an end to this nine-century conflict, argue that conversion
efforts would never succeed in bringing the Muslims into the Christian fold. To the
apologists, outward signs of conversion on the part of the Moriscos were not to be
trusted, and they base their arguments on their own observations of various Morisco
communities as well as on the testimony of important historical figures.
Perhaps the earliest example of a celebrated leader who distrusted the Moors and
whose opinion Fonseca believes is evidence of inevitable truth was Jaime I of Aragon
(b.1208-d.1276). Fonseca quotes the thirteenth-century leader of Reconquista battles
against the Muslims as having said que esta gente jams haba de ser fiel a Dios, ni a sus
Reyes. Y por esta causa determin echarlos a todos,105 suggesting that Philips 1609
expulsion decree was indeed justified and long overdue. Apparently King Jaime saw
infidelity as permanently entrenched in the Moors hearts. 106 Bleda echoed this sentiment
centuries after forced baptism of the Muslims ensured that the new converts were
104
Bleda, Crnica, 105.
105
Fonseca, Justa expulsin, 2-3.
106
64
Christian in name, noting [y] daban algunas apariencias de ello, segn les dio licencia
aquel su embaidor, por vase el poco amor, y obediencia, que tenan a los preceptos, y
costumbres de la Iglesia, y la grande atencin con que guardaban su abominable
secta.107 Massive forced conversion, in the eyes of the apologists, had been necessary
unite all citizens under one faith.
The conversion process, however, ultimately resulted in confusion, uniting people
in Christian name whose true intentions and beliefs were often unclear or consciously
obscured. Conversion efforts were not as organized or as efficient as religious zealots like
the apologists might have hoped, and nominal conversion of the Peninsulas Moriscos
spanned several decades in which some descendants of the Moors had been baptized,
others not, and it was difficult for authorities to determine the overall status of the
project. When the Catholic monarchs originally conquered Muslim Granada in 1492, the
provinces inhabitants were permitted to abide by their own laws and customs. A few
short years later, however, archbishop Jimnez de Cisneros broke the pact and began
intimidating Granadan Muslims to convert. He converted the local mosque into a
Catholic church and burned scores of books in Arabic, including the Quran.108 Isabel in
turn issued a decree in 1502 demanding baptism or exile for Muslims in Castile. Those
Muslims wealthy enough to afford passage overseas left for North Africa while the
remainder were forced to submit to conversion.109 In Aragon and Valencia where
107
Bleda, Crnica, 655.
108
James M. Anderson, Daily Life During the Spanish Inquisition (Westport: Greenwood
Press, 2002), 105.
109
Anderson, Daily Life, 106.
65
Muslims made up a valuable percentage of the workforce, Old Christian lords protected
their Muslim vassals from unfavorable legislation in exchange for their labor. Many
were forcibly converted as a result of a class struggle in Valencia in 1520, effectively
freeing them from their vassal obligations while jeopardizing the profits of the estates. 110
By 1526, Charles the V had decreed the conversion to Christianity of all remaining
inhabitants of Muslim descent. Fonseca observes that as a result of what proved to be
incomplete and ineffective conversion in Valencia during Charles Vs reign, the kingdom
was in in fact in a state of tumult with some descendants of the Moors claiming to have
been baptized, others not, and all of them mixed together in an inseparable jumble. In
order for the Christians to maintain the upper hand, it became absolutamente necesario,
o que se bautizasen los que quedaban, o que fuesen apartados totalmente del trato y
comunicacin de los recin bautizados. Por esta causa comenz tratar el Emperador de
expeler estos Moros no bautizados de sus estados, o que se bautizasen, y fuesen
Cristianos como los dems.111
But to the apologists these forced conversions only gave the illusion of Christian
control for a short time, and in truth, unconverted Muslims living as Christians
survived in their midst, deceiving their neighbors, having converted out of fear,
intimidation, and obligation alone. Fonseca observes that a false and short-lived sense of
peace descended upon Spain after the forced baptisms, but that it was fear of being put to
110
Anderson, Daily Life, 106.
111
66
death that led the Moriscos to choose Christs path. 112 Their actions from that point
forward suggest nothing more than an inept effort to live according to Christian dogma
while inwardly conserving Muslim practices. This notion leads Aznar Cardona to refer to
the daily activities of the Moriscos as examples of su fingida Cristiandad, intended to
one day hand over Christian Spaniards to Muslims overseas. 113
Fonseca explains why the Moriscos are given to dissimulation, noting that Islam
itself permits disguising true beliefs in an effort to save a Muslim from persecution.
Calling Morisco observance of Christian ritual ficcin permitida en su ley,114 Fonseca
describes Muslim taqiyya115 practice as an inherently heretical means of promoting
Morisco hopes of being one day reunited with the Muslim brotherhood at large and the
reason that Christians should not be tricked into thinking that true spiritual conversion
had taken place. Many Christians may have indeed been fooled, but according to the
112
113
114
115
Encyclopedia of Islam, s.v. taiyya, also tuan, tut, taw and itti, prudence,
fear (see LA, s.v. w--y, Beirut 1956, xv, 401-4; TA, x, 396-8), and also, from the root
k-t-m, kitmn action of covering, dissimulation, as opposed to idha revealing,
spreading information, denotes dispensing with the ordinances of religion in cases of
constraint and when there is a possibility of harm. The urn itself avoids the question
of suffering in the cause of religion in dogmatics by adopting a Docetist solution (sra
IV, 156) and in everyday life by the hidjra and by allowing in case of need the denial of
the faith (XVI, 108), friendship with unbelievers (III, 27) and the eating of forbidden
foods (VI, 119; V, 5). This point of view is general in Islam. But, as Muammad at the
same time asserted the proclamation of his mission to be a duty and held up the heroic
example of the ancient saints and the prophets as a model (V, 71; III, 40; etc.), no definite
general rule came to be laid down, not even with the separate sects. Minor questions,
which are very fully discussed, are whether taiyya is simply a permitted alleviation
through Gods indulgence (rukha) or a duty, if it is necessary in the interest of the
community.
67
apologists, the truly competent and exemplary spiritual leaders were not. Ribera, for
example, cites his long tenure as Archbishop of Valencia and the lack of results his
conversion efforts had produced as evidence of the unlikelihood of true conversion of the
Moriscos and the impossibility of ever being truly able to discern who was Christian and
who was not. Riberas conversion efforts only convinced him that the Moriscos were
stubborn and fundamentally flawed in their religious constitution. Fonseca quotes the
Archbishops correspondence with the king in which he states, Cuarenta aos estuve al
lado desta generacin, y siempre dije que iban errados en su corazn.116 He is later
quoted to have said, De estos ejemplos me vienen cada da a las manos, y el haberme
engaado algunas veces, me sirve para no creerles hasta haber tomado prendas de su
verdad, las cuales dan pocas veces, antes pidindoselas, descubren su ficcin, y
engao,117 highlighting his own susceptibility to trickery in spite of wisdom, power, and
experience as Archbishop. This experience he translates into a harsh and direct warning
for the king:
Quiero acabar con referir a Vuestra Majestad el consejo del Espritu santo
en las divinas letras. No te fes jams de tu enemigo, porque as como el
orn va secretamente labrando, y gastando el hierro, as su malicia le va
gastando el corazn, y aunque lo veas pobre, y se finja humilde, no por
eso te descuides, antes est sobre ti, y no le pongas en buen lugar, porque
sin duda te quitara a ti el tuyo, y se sentar en tu silla, y entonces
conocers, que te aconsejaba bien, y te afligirs sin provecho de no auer
tomado mi consejo.118
116
117
118
Fonseca, Justa expulsin, 154,
68
Like rust that slowly overtakes iron, consuming it bit by bit, so too will Catholic Spain
see itself conquered both spiritually and physically if the king fails to take the necessary
drastic measures.
Catholic clergy in Spain were not the only religious leaders frustrated by an
insubordinate or skeptical congregation. At the same time that Christian clerics were
working and failing to convert Spanish Muslims to Christianity, they also found
themselves in the midst of an ideological predicament within the Christian sphere. The
anxious apologists were writing at a time when Reformation movements throughout
Europe were challenging the authority of Rome. Such divisions within Christianity were
certainly not novel. In fact, Guadalajara y Javier cites Arian trickery as the principal
cause of Visigothic internal division that led to Muslim invasion and the Visigoths
subsequent demise.119 Likewise, he also provides an example of fourth-century heresy in
Priscillian, demonstrating how Spains short memory and failure to learn from past
experiences only increases vulnerability to invasion, noting, [t]ambin nuestra Espaa
segunda vez, no acordndose del dao recibido de Prisciliano, y hacindose sorda a los
Concilios de Toledo, y a los dems celebrados por diferentes ciudades, y a las voces y
119
Guadalajara y Javier, Memorable expulsin, 21. Los Godos (segn Carlos Sigonio) al
principio fueron Catlicos, y un Obispo dellos llamado Ulsillas, se hallo en el Concilio
Niceno, y despus por engao de algunos Arrianos, se pervirti e inficion a los dems.
Entrando la hereja, comenz luego la divisin y Discordia entre ellos, y vinieron los
Hunos, que los guerrearon, vencieron, y echaron de las tierras, que haban conquistado y
posean.
69
amonestaciones de los Doctores y Prelados Catlicos: abri ancha puerta, para que la
sujetarn (como veremos) los Moros Africanos. 120
The Reformations increasing momentum in combination with internal and
external Muslim threats added to a feeling of unrest and anxiety. They therefore hoped to
combat the heresies creeping up throughout the rest of Europe while at the same time
eliminating Islamic heresy in their own realm. In a way, these alleged Christian heretics
were quite similar to the Moriscos in that they were professed Christians, or as Aznar
Cardona states, todos profesaban ser seguidores de Cristo, que es lo que dice este
nombre de Cristiano.121 Aznar Cardona continues by arguing pero los Catlicos, son
los que verdaderamente le siguen, como miembros suyos y de su Iglesia, incorporados en
la unidad y obediencia de ella; y los dems, son los apartados de esta unidad, y secuaces
de los errores, que han elegido, noting that their rupture with Catholic dogma betrays an
inevitable distinction between them and the apologists idea of the true Catholic faith. 122
Altering the ceremonies, doctrine, and cultural practices of the true faith undermines the
perimeters the apologists have delineated in their definition of Catholicism.
It is easy for the apologists to see how Muhammads ideals, when viewed in light
of these characterizations, would be attractive to tentative Catholicsit is also easy for
them to envision Catholic Christians succumbing to the modifications proposed to their
faith by Reformers when said changes purportedly reflect the same ideologies that the
120
121
122
70
apologists see as inherent to weak-willed Islam. For example, Bleda draws a direct link
between Muhammads teachings and the ideologies of such Reformers as Luther, Beza,
and Calvin, noting that Luther imitated Muhammad en sus torpezas, y lascivias toda su
vida, y lo mismo Beza. Y es muy parecida la doctrina Luterana, y Calvinista a la secta de
Mahoma, en particular en la libertad de consciencia, que conceden, y en la secta de
polticos, que guardan: en la soberbia, y ambicin son todos unos,123 concluding, [h]ay
cosa mas parecida que Mahoma, y Lutero?124 Bleda accuses both men of falsifying the
Bible and perverting the words of the holy Gospels to serve their own particular ends,
eliminating sacred feasts and sacraments and permitting holy leaders to marry. He claims
that Luther, as a true follower of Muhammads lead, protects the interests of the
menacing Turks and ensures Islams survival, teaching que no era licito hacer guerra a
los Turcos, ni resistirles, aunque viniesen con ejrcitos, a infestar a los Cristianos: por
que esto sera repugnar a Dios, que por medio de ellos visita nuestros pecados, pues los
envi por flagela de los cristianos, y por eso permite, que dure tanto tiempo aquella
secta.125
It is in this light that Fonseca portrays Philip III as a Spanish Hercules, slaying a
seven-headed beast whose various heads represent all of these interconnected brands of
heresy: Simon Magus, Mani, Arius, Pelagius, Luther, Cavlin, and Muhammad, the final
of whom he deems the worst of the lot, who, unlike the others, generalmente blasfema
123
Bleda, Crnica, 54.
124
Bleda, Crnica, 54.
125
Bleda, Crnica, 106.
71
de toda la Religin Cristiana.126 And much as the Archbishop Ribera feared he would
see in his days the loss of Spanish Catholicism to Morisco machinations, Bleda laments
that the problem is much greater in scope, stating that Christianity the world over is en
muy miserable estado.127 He continues by calling on his true Christian brothers to
uphold his cause:
Y as nos corre grande obligacin a los fieles, en particular a los
Eclesisticos, derogar continuamente nuestro Seor, que aumente en
nosotros su santa fe, quede a los Prncipes Cristianos celo en su defensa,
que les comunique el grande hervor, en que ardan los corazones de los
antiguos fieles, de amplificar la religin cristiana, de cobrar la tierra santa,
de pelear con los Turcos, y de derramar su sangre a honra de nuestro
Seor Jesuchristo, y de su santo nombre.128
In Bledas eyes, true Christians across Europe are steadily decreasing in number, and
Spain represents only a small part of the problem with its Morisco contamination. It is
therefore the obligation of the faithful to uphold the tenets of the faith and close their
doors to further heretical influence. Bleda notes that even in the lands where Christians
survive, their ideology is so contaminated with the seeds of heresy that it is difficult to
know how many true Christians endure. He states,
[p]ues vemos que muy grande parte del mundo guarda la secta de
Mahoma, y a los cristianos les queda poca parte, y esa tan llena de
herejas, de sismas, y de costumbres depravadas, que a la verdad viene a
ser muy poco el numero de los fieles verdaderos: verdaderamente fieles
llaman, a los que profesan la fe de Cristo con palabras, y hechos.En
Francia, en Alemania, y otros Reinos de Europa a crecido tanto la
diminucin de la fe que jams fue tenida en tampoco, ni estimada por tan
126
Fonseca, Justa expulsin, prologue, n.p.
127
Bleda, Crnica, 111.
128
Bleda, Crnica, 111.
72
vil, y contentible, por el poco celo que de ella hay comnmente en los
Prncipes, y Prelados de aquellas tierras 129
Catholic Christendom on the whole, therefore, is seen as contaminated with heresies that
range from highly visible to quite difficult to distinguish. This anxiety in regard to the
parameters of true Catholicism led the apologists to feel threatened physically as well as
spiritually. The impossibility of conversion and the inability to distinguish true converts
from those who might seek to undermine Spanish Christian authority altogether reflects
the apologists chief anxiety. Their preoccupation with physical attack from other
Muslims outside Spains borders will be discussed further in Chapter 3.
Having established the Morisco as an exploiter and corruptor of Catholic Spain
an invasive poison, as Aznar Cardona claimsand having revealed the essential
characteristics that identify him as such, the apologists seek to justify the expulsion as the
only possible way of preserving Spanish Catholic identity. Framing it as the glorious end
to the Muslim others corruption of a pristine Catholic state that traces its Christian
roots to Christs Disciples and their endeavors to spread His perfectly authored holy
doctrine, the apologists argue that in order to preserve this privileged and original state,
difference must be identified and eliminated. This idea of reducing diversity to unity, a
critical component of Boyarins discussion of conversion efforts in medieval and early
modern Spain,130 has only two possible trajectories in the eyes of the apologists
bringing Moriscos into the fold through genuine conversion, which the clerics and
apologists deemed impossible, or removing them from the Christian sphere completely.
129
Bleda, Crnica, 44.
130
Boyarin, Unconverted Self, 2.
73
With his 1609 decision to expel the Moriscos from Spain, Philip IIIs name is added to
the apologists long list of triumphant monarchs deserving of the title Catholic, who, as
they demonstrate, uphold the tenets of the faith by ridding their realms of ideological and
cultural impurities.
Chapter Two:
Cultures in Contact
Arguing Against a Hybrid Space
The European conquest of the Americas is in some area separated from our
present day by a mere one-third of the chronological gap that stretched between
the Spain of the Expulsion and the Arab conquest. Yet the Americas as we know
them are felt as a firm fait accompli of history, an omelet that nobody ever expects
to see unscrambled.1
As examined in the previous chapter of this study, Archbishop Juan de Ribera and
the expulsion apologists set out to eliminate heresy in the Iberian Peninsula and designate
a set of perimeters for the Spanish Catholic nation. Their desire to eliminate heresy was
not satisfied, however, by the Moriscos forcible conversion to Christianity in the
sixteenth century because baptism and catechesis, as they discuss at length, proved
ineffective at eliminating all traces of Islamic influence as well as instances of
blasphemy. In their drive to condemn what they view as dangerous seeds of sedition and
examples of blatant blasphemy, the apologists instead betray a larger desire to desemitize
Spain in an effort to mold it into what they see as the Catholic and European ideal. Too
willing to proffer a black-and-white concept of Morisco versus Christian, the apologists
reveal their anxiety in regard to any evidence that might reflect a hybrid space and
L.P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain:1500 to 1614 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,

2005), 291-2.
74
75
indistinct boundaries between the two. They fail to take into consideration that the Islam
they criticize, as practiced in Iberia over eight centuries, had certainly taken on a life of
its own, divorced geographically from its epicenter in the Middle East, isolated on a faroff western peninsula overflowing with Christians and previously including Jews. This
Muslim faith in Iberia intertwined with cultural practices from North Africa and the
Middle East had percolated in Spains various geographical regions over the course of
centuries. When the apologists criticize food or dress as intrinsically Morisco and
therefore necessarily Muslim, they fail to acknowledge that practices developed over time
in varied regions with distinct climates and resources might in fact take on the aspect of
regional difference, separate from ideological or religious points of view. Consequently,
faith and religion become only a partial component of their attacks as they attempt to rid
the Peninsula of Morisco cultural presence as a whole. In this chapter I therefore argue
that the apologists of the Morisco expulsion want to convince their readers that, despite
centuries of comingling, the creation of a persistent blended culture in the Iberian
Peninsula the scrambling of the omelet, as Harvey would describe it would be both
undesirable and impracticable given the strict theological, moral, and even physical
characteristics that separated the Moriscos from their Old Christian neighbors.
In spite of the apologists desire to equate cultural practice with religious belief,
contemporary scholarship provides ample evidence of cultural exchange among Jews,
Muslims, and Christians in Iberia beginning with the Arab invasion in the eighth century
and enduring beyond the expulsions of the first two groups. Articulating for the Iberian
76
Peninsula Homi Bhabhas concept of a hybrid third space 2 that exists when cultures
interact and their original defining characteristics become obscured, twentieth and
twenty-first-century scholars refute the notion of the pure-blooded Christian monolith of
the apologists imagination.3 For example, in Exotic Nation: Maurophilila and the
Construction of Early Modern Spain, Barbara Fuchs describes a quality of unwitting
Moorishness in the inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula, noting that from the Christian
conquest of Muslim Granada in 1492 to the expulsion of the Moriscos, it had become
nearly impossible to separate what had become by that point hybridized and local
forms.4
2
Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture (New York: Routledge, 1994).
See Lourdes M. Alvarez, Beastly Colloquies: Of Plagiarism and Pluralism in Two

Medieval Disputations Between Animals and Men, Comparative Literature Studies 39
(2002): 179-200.; Vincent Barletta, Covert Gestures: Crypto-Islamic Literature as
Cultural Practice in Early Modern Spain (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
2005); Mara Judith Feliciano and Leyla Rouhi, introduction to Interrogating Iberian
Frontiers, ed. Barbara F. Weissberger, et al. (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 317-328.; Barbara
Fuchs, Virtual Spaniards, Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies 2(2001): 13-26.; Kamen,
The Disinherited: Exile and the Making of Spanish Culture, 1492-1975 (New York:
Harper Collins, 2007); Luce Lpez-Baralt, Huellas del Islam en la literature espaola: de
Juan Ruiz a Juan Goytisolo (Madrid: Hiperin, 1985).; Lucas A. Marchante-Aragn,
The King, the Nation, and the Moor, Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies
8(2008): 98-133.; Mara Rosa Menocal, The Ornament of the World: How Muslims,
Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain (Boston: Little,
2002).; Mara Teresa Narvez Crdoba, Writing Without Borders: Textual Hybridity in
the Works of the Mancebo de Arvalo, Medieval Encounters: Jewish, Christian and
Muslim Culture in Confluence and Dialogue 12(2006): 487-497.; Dwight F. Reynolds,
Music in Medieval Iberia: Contact, Influence and Hybridization, Medieval Encounters:
Jewish, Christian and Muslim Culture in Confluence and Dialogue 15(2009): 236-255.;
Mara del Mar Rosa-Rodrguez, Simulation and Dissimulation: Religious Hybridity in a
Morisco Fatwa, Medieval Encounters: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Culture in
Confluence and Dialogue 16 (2010): 143-180.
4
Fuchs, Exotic Nation, 1-2.
77
The Iberian Peninsula had been ripe for comingling, enjoying many centuries of
relatively peaceful coexistence among three faiths. Evidence suggests that a great deal of
cultural sharing took place throughout the centuries before the Jews were expelled in
1492 and before the mass campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Moriscos took root with
Philip IIIs decree in 1609. Fuchs comments that Charles Vs 1526 legislation intended to
curb Morisco cultural practices
may have repressed circumcision or the use of Arabic, but building in
what Europeans would consider a Moorish style, sitting Moorish-style in
the estrado, and a whole host of other practices continued intact. In some
cases, these persisted because they were not even identified as Moorish by
Spaniardsthey were simply Spanish ways. In other cases, such as the
juego de caas5, they continued even when their Moorish origins were
abundantly recognized.6
According to Fuchs, because such daily practices were commonplace, foreigners came to
identify them as obligatory elements of Spanish identity. 7
Francisco Nez Muley and the Argument for Cultural Hybridity

Fuchs also addresses the undoing of binary oppositions between Muslim and
Christian in her analysis of certain Morisco writings, including those of Francisco Nez
Enciclopedia universal ilustrada europeo americana, s.v. caa: Antigua fiesta,

juego, o ejercicio caballeresco en que tomaban parte dos bandos o cuadrillas corriendo a
caballo, caracoleando gallardamente y arrojndose caas de las que se resguardaban con
la adarga. Este juego, que se consideraba como propio de la nobleza y que se celebraba
con ocasin de alguna solemnidad, fue introducido en Espaa por los rabes, con el
nombre de correr o jugar caas.
6
Fuchs, Exotic Nation, 23.
78
Muley.8 Born around 1490, Nez Muley was a Morisco descendant of Granadan and
Moroccan nobility who, in his youth, had served as a page to Granadan archbishop
Hernando de Talavera (1428-1507). Immersed in both Morisco culture and the Christian
faith of his employer, Nez Muley had intimate experience with the practice of both
faiths. As Morisco cultural practices increasingly came to denote apostasy in the eyes of
Inquisitorial authorities, Nez Muley used his knowledge and experience to separate
them from essential facets of the practice of Islam. When Philip II issued decrees in 1567
prohibiting traditional Morisco dress, music, festivities, and the like, Granadan Moriscos
selected Nez Muley, then in his seventies, to petition the court in response. His ensuing
Memorandum for the President of the Royal Audiencia and Chancery Court of the City
and Kingdom of Granada9 argued that these practices were specific to the Grenadine
community and were in no way essential to Islam. Nez Muley acknowledges, for
example, unique styles of dress and musical instrumentation in Granadawhich had
been repeatedly observed by the apologists in an effort to dichotomize Muslim and
Christian cultural practice. Both the apologists and Nez Muley cite similar examples of
8
9
Fuchs, Virtual Spaniards, 14.
Here I use Vincent Barlettas recent English translation of the Memorandum, in addition
to his introductory material. (See Francisco Nnez Muley, A Memorandum for the
President of the Royal Audiencia and Chancery Court of the City and Kingdom of
Granada. Ed., trans.Vincent Barletta. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2007).
The Memorandum can also be found in Madrid BN MS 6176. It was first edited by
Raymond Foulch-Delbosc in 1899 (see Raymond Foulch-Delbosc, Memoria de
Francisco Nez Muley, Revue hispanique: Recueil Consacr Ltude des Langues,
des Littratures, et de Lhistoire des Pays Castillans, Catalans et Portugais. (1899): 20539.) It was later edited by Kenneth Garrad (see Kenneth Garrad, The Original Memorial
of Don Francisco Nez Muley. Atlante 2 (1954): 199-226.)
79
Morisco cultural expression, including typical garb and festivities. However, whereas the
apologists argue that these cultural conventions are innately linked to religious belief and
a clear indication of Morisco apostasy, Nez Muley separates cultural practice from
religious observance. He notes that the style of dress in Granada is specific to that
particular kingdom, much as Castilian dress is unique to that region. 10 Consequently, he
argues that if the Morisco trappings were fundamentally Islamic, Muslims throughout the
world would dress the same way, yet clothing styles across the Middle East differed
substantially from those of southern Spain. Furthermore, he states in his petition that the
language and dress of Castile are hardly essential elements of Christian observance, a
position that Fuchs refers to as more radical than his earlier assertion regarding dress,
for it suggests that those who appear most foreign by virtue of their language, culture,
and geographical provenance may in fact be the same where it matters most to Christian
Spain; that is, in the profession of Christianity. 11
Likewise, Nez Muley demonstrates the non-denominational nature of the
traditional Granadan zambra, a musical performance that developed during the Narid
period, when he describes the archbishop Talaveras trip to the Alpujarras during the time
that Nez Muley was serving as his page. According to Nez Muleys account, a
zambra followed the archbishops every move when he arrived in the town of Ugjar. He
notes,
10
11
80
And it was a zambra that waited for him at his door; and a zambra that
accompanied him as he left the house to walk to mass, with all of the
instruments playing and the people walking ahead of him, and even
entering into the church with him. And when His Holiness said mass in
person, there was a zambra in the choir with the clerics. At the moments
when the organ would normally be played, because they didnt have one,
they responded with the zambra and its instruments. And some words of
Arabic were even spoken in mass.12
The presence of the zambra within the confines of Catholic rite and ceremony suggests a
celebratory cultural practice devoid of religious significanceso much so that it can be
appropriated to religious rituals at will. In addition, when Nez Muley cites the use of
the Arabic language during the Catholic Mass, he further supports an argument he makes
throughout the Memorandum that use of the Arabic language is not indicative of Muslim
faith. He refers to communities of Arabic-speaking Christians that exist in Jerusalem and
other parts of the Middle East, noting that the authenticity of their faith is not called into
question for their use of Arabic. Emphasizing the proximity to Spain of what he refers to
as the not-so-distant island of Malta in the Mediterranean, Nnez Muley states that he
believe[s] that they say mass in Arabic, as is also the case in Jerusalem and its
surrounding areas, and neither of these groups knows how to read or write in Castilian. If
using Arabic were truly something that went against the Holy Catholic faith, then these
priests and philosophers in Malta and Jerusalem would not use it, as they are
Christians.13
12
Nnez Muley, Memorandum, 80.
13
81
Use of communal baths in Granada was also prohibited by the 1567 decrees
because it was believed that the Moriscos used these baths to perform Muslim ritual
ablutions. Nez Muley argues that the communal baths were too filthy and too public
for a Muslim ritual that relies on purity and privacy for its observance. He instead cites
examples of various groups of people whose professions require frequent washing, such
as blacksmiths, fishermen, coal and oil suppliers, butchers and skinners. He notes that
[a]ll of thse people come to the baths, particularly when they have need to clean
themselves of the aforementioned forms of filth and relieve themselves, 14 juxtaposing
the religious interpretation of bathing rituals with the sheer practicality of washing.
Barletta states that while Nez Muley may very well have exaggerated his description of
the filthy baths in order to prove his point, there is no doubt that public baths in Granada
were essential elements of social life and served the functional practice of keeping the
community cleaner and healthier.15 Barletta also characterizes Nez Muleys framing of
the Morisco debate as a colonial problem, evident in the Moriscos continued reference to
his fellow community members as naturales de este reino, or natives of this
kingdom.16 To the author of the Memorandum, Granadan Morisco culture is under threat
of extinction, particularly at the time of the 1567 decrees, by a usurping imperial power
determined to strip it down and force it to assimilate with the mainstream.
14
15
Vincent Barletta, introduction to A Memorandum for the President of the Royal

Audiencia and Chancery Court of the City and Kingdom of Granada. Ed., trans.Vincent
Barletta. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2007), 43.
16
Barletta, introduction to Memorandum, 28.
82
In addition to music and dress, architecture and agriculture in the Iberian
Peninsula were permanently altered as a result of cultural comingling. All three religious
groups figured into the preservation of a rich Islamic cultural heritage: Christian rulers
commissioned buildings from Arab architects, Arabic-infused music played a part in
Christian church ceremonies, and prominent Jewish philosophers wrote in the Arabic
language. In terms of agriculture and the production of foodstuffs, the culinary practices
in the southern part of the Peninsula prove to be a complex interplay of elements from
across the globe. Incorporating elements indigenous to Iberia into their unique cuisine,
the Moorish inhabitants of al-Andalus also relied heavily on agricultural products brought
from the Middle East.17 As conquistadors returned from the New World throughout the
sixteenth century with products unfamiliar to Europeans and Middle Easterners alike
(including tomatoes, potatoes, and chili peppers), the cuisine of southern Spain continued
to evolve.18 The Moriscos, therefore, took with them into exile unique recipes that were
perhaps neither Spanish nor Moorish but a hybrid concoction particular to the
Peninsula. 19
17
For discussion of culinary practices and agriculture in al-Andalus, see David Waines,
The Culinary Culture of al-Andalus in The Legacy of Muslim Spain, ed. Salma Khadra
Jayyusi. (New York: Brill, 1994), 725-738; Expiracin Garca Snchez, Agriculture in
Muslim Spain, in The Legacy of Muslim Spain, ed. Salma Khadra Jayyusi. (New York:
Brill, 1994), 987-999.
18
Kamen, Disinherited, 62-63, citing Susan T. Rivers, Exiles from Andalusia in Saudi
Aramco World 42 (1991): 10-17.
19
Kamen, Disinherited, 62-63.
83
In her introduction to Exotic Nation, Fuchs comments that travelers to the Iberian
Peninsula from other parts of Western Europe remarked on the odd setting in which
Spaniards dined, describing Arab-derived domestic practices, such as sitting on cushions
among braziers, so commonplace that they are not even recognized as such by Spaniards
themselves.20 Kamen would support such an observation, noting an instance in which
the duke and duchess of Alba paid a visit to the queen of England, Mary Tudor, in 1555.
A clear indicator that the aristocracy had incorporated Moorish-style seating customs into
their daily habits, the duchess automatically seated herself on the ground, and the
horrified queen made haste to raise her up and direct her to a chair, as befitted her
rank.21
The scrambling of the cultural omelet, as it were, seems undeniable. However, by
the sixteenth century, Christian Spaniards had come to view the seamless incorporation
of cultural elements they considered foreign into the fabric of Spanish daily life as a
threat to their Christian national identity. As Boyarin points out, Medieval Christendom
had long struggled with the uncomfortable presence of the Other within its realm. In
the same way that Muslim difference continued to challenge Catholic hegemony in Spain
in the late sixteenth century, prior centuries had witnessed [t]he stubborn survival of
Jewish otherness [that] spoke constantly to the limits of the Catholic Churchs effort to
include all of humanity within the spiritual and juridical body of Christ. 22 Boyarin refers
20
21
Kamen, Disinherited, 70.
22
84
to conversion efforts throughout the Middle Ages as an effort to reduce difference to
unity.23 Where such conversion efforts were seen to have failed, more drastic measures,
such as Spains 1492 expulsion of the Jews, were employed. Such actions served to
further delineate firm boundaries around Christianity rather than to promote its mantra of
inclusivity.
Cultures in Contact and Anxiety in the Wake of Forced Conversion

While Spanish Muslims had been forcibly converted to Christianity beginning not
long after the expulsion of the Jews, uncertainty about the authenticity of their
conversions soon produced an anxiety amongst Christian authorities that led to
contemplation of wholesale expulsion. An administrative failure to eliminate Morisco
cultural practices led many Christian Spaniards to believe that all Moriscos were
underground Muslims whose possible ties to the Muslim world at large put Christian
Spain in grave danger of takeover. This process of equating cultural practice with
religious observance and the consequent anxiety is clearly visible in the apologists
writings. Aiming to justify expulsion decrees that had already been put into effect, their
treatises are characterized by a desire to point out cultural conventionswhether they
had seeped into the cultural milieu or notidentify them as Other, reject them, and
thereby define the true parameters of Christianity. They had taken up the cause of
missionizing their homeland, working hard to reestablish Catholic supremacy by means
23
85
of complete religious cleansing. This is a process that Mann would refer to as a unique
bridge to modernity and one that necessitated wholesale identification and rejection of
cultural and religious elements that threatened Christianitys homogeneity. 24 In this
regard, Marchante-Aragn observes that
the construction of Spanish nationhood left no room for the negotiation of
identity proposed by those who defended the inclusion of the Morisco in
the fabric of the nation. Their presence in Spain, even as late as 1609,
undermined the narrative of the Reconquistas completion, and
compromised royal claims for the success of a Christian alliance that was
the foundation stone of Castilian identity. From early in the sixteenth
century, it was necessary to make the Morisco difference evident.
(Marchante-Aragn 105, my empasis)
Blended as the cultures were, the sixteenth century is an era in which the dominant
Catholic Christian group engaged in a process of active cleansing of cultural elements
identified with Moriscos and Moorishness as a means of streamlining and purifying a
contaminated Christian consciousness. In consciously making the Morisco difference
evident, Catholic Spaniards like the apologists attempt to unscramble the cultural omelet,
betraying an anxiety regarding what Marchante-Aragn calls their mongrel ancestry. 25
He states that the cultural conventions highlighted above served as an uncomfortable
reminder that the Castilian race had a Semitic component; that Castiles own hybridity
was undeniable.26
24
Michael Mann, The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing (New
York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 48.
25
Marchante-Aragn, The King, the Nation, and the Moor, 103.
26
Marchante-Aragn, The King, the Nation, and the Moor, 105.
86
Alain Milhous 1993 article on what he refers to as the desemitization of
Spain27 points to a conscious effort on the part of Catholic rulers in the Peninsula to reject
eastern influence in order to become accepted in the larger Christian European
community. Milhou points out that even monarchs such as Alfonso VI and Alfonso X,
whose policies favored freedom for Jews and Muslims and even celebrated their unique
contributions to the Spanish cultural sphere, made decisive moves toward integration
with the larger European community.28 Milhou notes that the whole of Christian Europe
congratulated Isabel and Ferdinand after their 1492 expulsion of the Jews, symbolizing
the greater continents role in glorifying the desemitization process. Following Milhous
observations that Spain came to be viewed by the rest of Christian Europe as marked by
its maldita mancha semtica, 29 Fuchs later highlights the process of active rejection of
eastern cultural elements as Spain came to define itself as a nation during the early
modern period.30
27
Milhou,Desemitizacin.
28
Milhou, Desemitizacin, 37. Ese mismo rey Alfonso [VI] que garantiz la libertad
de culto a judos y musulmanes, que ratific la permanencia de la liturgia especfica de
los cristianos mozrabes de Toledo, fue el que abri su reino a la influencia francesa, a la
liturgia romana y a la escritura carolina. Ese monarca que prolong, bajo la autoridad
cristiana, la convivencia que ya exista en Al Andalus, fue el instrumento de la
aculturacin europea.; En el siglo XIII, Alfonso X, tan celebrado como rey de las tres
religiones, que tanto aprovech el acervo cultural de judos y moros para mayor bien de
Espaa y toda Europa, fue quien reflej en las Partidas las medidas segregacionistas con
respecto a los no cristianos que recomendaba el Concilio de Letrn de 1215.
29
30
Milhou, Desemitizacin, 42.
See Barbara Fuchs, Exotic Nation; Barbara Fuchs, The Spanish Race in Rereading
the Black Legend: the Discourses of Religious and Racial Difference in the Renaissance
Empires, ed. Greer and Mignolo. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007), 88-98.
87
The Catholic apologists texts are prime examples of this process of cultural
rejection as they aim to define Catholicism by identifying the Moorish aspects of life that
it is not, concentrating heavily on many of the quotidian elements mentioned above. First,
the apologists point out cultural conventions of Moorish ancestry, clearly aiming to draw
a line of separation between the dominant Christian and the antithetical Morisco. In
matters of dining, for example, the apologists desire to remove Morisco conventions from
popular practice and keep them from further contaminating Christian cultural hegemony.
Aznar Cardona, for example, criticizes what he considers the uncivilized practice of
dining while seated on the ground, which, in combination with the other practices he
enumerates in his diatribe, serves to paint a picture of the uncouth Moriscos whose
inherently slovenly ways threaten the societys stability on the whole. He argues that the
Moriscos [e]ran brutos en sus comidas comiendo siempre en tierra (como quienes eran)
sin mesa, sin otro aparejo que oliese a personas, durmiendo de la misma manera. 31
Cardaillac, in his 1979 study, takes note of observations like these, stating, Los menores
hechos y gestos que no concuerdan con usos y costumbres de la comunidad cristiana
sern interpretados como ndice de islamismo, y motivarn investigaciones ms
amplias,32 citing more specifically the example of a certain Jernima la Franca and her
family members who se pusieron en cuclillas before preparing a meal. 33 A lack of
31
32
Louis Cardaillac, Moriscos y cristianos: un enfrentamiento poltico, 1492-1640

(Madrid: Fondo de Cultura Econmica, 1979), 27.
33
Cardaillac, Moriscos y cristianos, 27.
88
separation between the style of dining and the manner of sleeping suggests to the
apologists a rude comparison to a barnyard animal. Dadson refers to characterizations
such as these as dehumanizing practices utilized by the Spanish government as a means
of separating the Moriscos from the Christian population, making them different,
distinct, less than the rest, a people not worth defending.34
In his treatise justifying the expulsion, Aznar Cardona begins a lengthy diatribe
on the condicin y trato de los Moriscos by commenting on the vile quality of their
foodstuffs, implying stark contrast between that and the comparatively salubrious nature
of a Christian diet. For example he writes that the Moriscos [c]oman cosas viles (que
hasta en esto han padecido en esta vida por juicio del cielo) como son fresas de diversas
harinas de legumbres lentejas, panizo habas, mijo, y pan de los mismo.35 The apologist
views the bland and barbaric diet as Divine punishment for heresy, and while the vile
nature of the bread made of millet surely required condiments to conceal its unappetizing
flavor, the Moriscos, in his opinion, proved themselves incapable of improving their
dishes, seasoning them poorly and choosing to garnish them with small, unripe fruits,
gobbling it all up indiscriminately. As he describes it, the Moriscos wildly sought out and
devoured foods that Christians considered abhorrent, [c]on este pan los que podan,
juntaban, pasas, higos, miel, arrope, leche, y frutas a su tiempo, como son melones,
aunque fuesen verdes y no mayores que el puo, pepinos duraznos, y otras cualesquiera,
34
Trevor Dadson, "Official Rhetoric versus Local Reality: Propaganda and the Expulsion
of the Moriscos," in Rhetoric and Reality in Early Modern Spain, ed. Richard Pym.
(Woodbridge: Tamesis, 2006), 15-6.
35
89
por mal sazonadas que estuviesen, solo fuese fruta, tras la cual beban los aires y no
dejaban barda de huerto a vida.36 It should be noted, however, that this description of the
vile nature of Morisco culinary tradition is completely contradictory to the emphasis the
apologists place on Morisco preoccupation with earthly pleasures, suggesting that the
apologists color their descriptions of Morisco practice at will to suit their propagandistic
purposes. While Aznar Cardona identifies this diet with the Moriscos, giving it a
decidedly negative review, Nez Muley may have called this cuisine Grenadine
unique to the region but not necessarily unique to the Moriscos themselves, and certainly
not a surefire indication of apostasy. To the apologists, however, diet becomes an
inherent characteristic of religious cultural groups and serves as an external marker
differentiating Christian from Morisco.
The apologists then transition from identifying Morisco cultural elements to
drawing a connection between them and Islamic religious practices, suggesting that the
two are essentially linked. Striving to imply a stark binary opposition between Christian
and Morisco in his description of food preservation, Aznar Cardona begins to describe
matters of domestic habit that he then seamlessly equates with Islamic ritual. Any
industriousness on the part of the Morisco community Aznar Cardona overshadows with
a description of fruits and nuts saved on the verge of rotting, washed down with
flavorless water in the religiously-mandated absence of alcohol. He notes, y como se
mantenan todo el ao de diversidad de frutas, verdes, y secas, guardadas hasta casi
36
90
podridas, y de pan y de agua sola, porque ni beban vino,37 gently seguing from a
description of secular foods generally deemed unacceptable to a Spanish Christian
diner to foods expressly prohibited in the Islamic religious tradition.
This tendency to blur distinctions between cultural practice and religious mandate
serves to render the practices indistinguishable, establishing proof for the apologists
claims that a person can be judged a heretic based on his food intake alone. Inquisitorial
records of the era support the prevalence of this claim, citing examples in which
Christians handed over to Inquisitorial authorities Morisco heretics, basing their
accusations merely on culinary evidence observed when they were invited to dine in
Morisco homes. For example, Cardaillac cites a situation in which a Morisca named
Isabel la Gorda is invited to dine at a neighbors house and proceeds to regurgitate the
meal when she learns it contained pork.38 He also takes note of records that indicate that
women were preparing traditional North African couscousa foodstuff Aznar Cardona
might have included in a list of comidas viles and one that Nez Muley may have called
regional in a style that evokes Islamic religious ritual for the apologists, inextricably
linking food and religious observance. He notes that the cooks echaron alcuzcuz en
una batea, y todas con sta a la redonda, coman del alcuzcuz con la mano haziendo unas
pellizcas como los moros lo hazan por guarda y ceremonia de la secta de Mahoma. 39
37
38
Cardaillac, Moriscos y cristianos, 32.
39
Quoted in Cardaillac, Moriscos y cristianos, 27.
91
This description seems to aim to prove the primitive and almost tribal nature of the
Moriscos.
In claiming that cultural practices like eating couscous are inseparably linked to
religious observance, the apologists advance the idea that all Moriscos are cryptoMuslims who threaten the security and stability of Spanish Christian society. In their
introduction to Culture and Control in Counter-Reformation Spain, Cruz and Perry
describe the post-Tridentine era as a period in which officials exerted greater efforts
than before to define culture and set limits on how much cultural diversity would be
tolerated,40 referring to the Catholic Church as an official organ of cultural
production.41 Therefore, if inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula engaged in any number
of Moorish cultural practices that did not conform to the Churchs prescribed notion of
Spanish Catholic identity, they could expect to come under Inquisitorial scrutiny. Aznar
Cardona lists several examples of what Cruz and Perry describe as deviant forms of
private and public expression that threatened cultural homogeneity. 42 For example, he
notes that,
Eran muy amigos de burleras, cuentos, berlandinas y sobre todo
amicsimos (y as tenan comnmente gaitas, sonajas, adufes) de bailes,
danzas, solases, cantarcillos, aluadas, paseos de huertas y fuentes, y todos
los entretenimientos bestiales en que con descompuesto bullicio y gritera,
suelen ir los mozos villanos vocinglando por las calles. Vanagloribanse
40
Anne J. Cruz and Mary Elizabeth Perry, Culture and Control in Counter-Reformation
Spain (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1992), ix-x.
41
Cruz and Perry, Culture and Control, x-xi.
42
Cruz and Perry, Culture and Control, xiii.
92
de bailones, jugadores de pelota y de la estornija, tiradores de bola y del
canto, y corredores de toros, y de otros hechos semejantes de gaanes.43
To Aznar Cardona and his fellow apologists, these forms of cultural expression are no
different from observation of the religiously-mandated dietary laws discussed above.
Root44 observes that, initially, [a]t the everyday social level the Mudejars do not seem to
have been recognized as deviants, as those who exist outside the larger society because
of their religion, but [i]ncreasingly, infidelity was characterized in social and cultural
terms.45 As the Muslims across the Peninsula were forcibly converted to Christianity,
she notes that infidelity was reinscribed as heresy, as something existing within the
Christian community instead of outside it. 46
In the decades following the forced baptisms, the cultural and religious practices
described by the apologists were continually coded as heretical practices within the law
to legitimize the Christian positioning of the Moriscos outside the confines of their
society.47 In the early sixteenth century, as Morisco cultural practices were outlawed by
the Edicts of Faith, ordinary Christians were increasingly expected to police their
neighbors and report deviant acts to Inquisitorial authorities, and as Root observes,
accused Moriscos in front of the tribunal had to determine how to speak Christian to
43
44
Deborah Root, Speaking Christian: Orthodoxy and Difference in Sixteenth-Century

Spain, Representations 23 (1988): 118-34.
45
Root, Speaking Christian, 121.
46
47
93
avoid being convicted as heretics. 48 The boundary between religious observance and
cultural practice, as seen in the apologists descriptions, is blurred to the extent that
custom comes to denote religious deviance almost without question. Kamen observes
similarities in the earlier Inquisitorial processes regarding conversos of Jewish origin,
stating that [t]he basic ignorance of Jewish law shown by the inquisitors meant that by
default they accused people of offenses that were cultural rather than religious People
were consequently accused for what they were supposed to have done, rather than what
they really did.49
Root describes the process of identifying potentially heretical practices and
inscribing them as such as a practically limitless endeavor. The Inquisitorial machine
became capable of constantly producing and then reproducing codes in pursuit of the
Morisco heretic, continually adding to the list of infractions considered heretical and
proof of apostasy. 50 This process of establishing perimeters around the Catholic faith
sought to define true Christians as members of Spanish society who did not engage in any
of the aforementioned cultural practices by excluding from the Spanish body politic those
who did. In this vein, Morisco counterculture is seen as overt resistance to the dominant
cultural apparatus and a conscious effort on the part of the Moriscos to undermine
48
49
Henry Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1998), 39.
50
94
Catholic identity. This dangerous resistance, in the apologists opinions, had to come to
an end.
Fonseca highlights this resistance, for example, in his description of Morisco
dining habits. While Aznar Cardonas descriptions of the brutish practices of the
Moriscos imply their inherited inferiority and lack of sophistication, Fonsecas portrayal
of Morisco dining habits is permeated with a greater sense of rebelliousness and
intentionality. He states that the Moriscos only chose to dine while seated on the ground
when Inquisitorial eyes were turned in the other direction. He observes that the Moriscos
[s]iempre que se podan esconder de la Justicia, y de los Christianos, coman sentados en
tierra.51 For Fonseca, the Morisco style of dining is a deliberate and defiant act intended
to undermine Christian orthodoxy. He continues by describing the act of eating on the
ground as an intentional action intended to evoke Islamic religious practice, much like
Cardaillacs example of Jernima la Franca. For Fonseca, the Moriscos dined de la
misma manera que los otros Moros, conforme a la ceremonia Arbiga que les mand
guardar Mahoma,52 suggesting that the conscious choice to eat seated on the ground
reflects a form of crypto-Muslim resistance to Christian hegemony. Using this
interpretation, the apologists argue that antithetical cultural practices must be eliminated
because of their power to undermine Christian identity.
Likewise, the apologists dedicate a great deal of time to describing Morisco
dietary practices that specifically conform to Islamic prescription and the manner in
51
52
95
which the New Christians attempt to give alternate explanations for their behavior that
would be less vulnerable to Inquisitorial ridicule. Aznar Cardona, for example, when told
by Moriscos in the community that they avoided pork and alcohol because no todas las
condiciones gustaban de un mismo comer, ni todos los estmagos llevaban bien una
misma comida,53 seems willing to accept this explanation as plausible were it true.
However, he questions why the Moriscos make such a fuss over their children
accidentally consuming prohibited foods in the presence of Christian children if digestive
incompatibility is the chief objection. He asks, lo que el nio comi, da os pena a vos en
el estmago? No.54 When a Morisco townsperson asks Aznar Cardona if the Moriscos
can be saved from expulsion by consuming pork and wine, the priest responds, el no
beber vino ni comer tocino, no os echa de Espaa, sino el no comerlo por observancia de
vuestra maldita secta. Esto es erega y os condena y sois un gran perro, que si lo hicieras
por amor de la virtud de la abstinencia, fuera loable: como se alaba en algunos Santos,
pero lo hacis por vuestro Mahoma.55 Cardaillac cites a similar example from the
Archivo Histrico Nacional in which
Lope Almerique es invitado a compartir la comida de sus vecinos,
cristianos viejos, se excusa de no tomar tocino alegando una simple
tradicin familiar: Mis padres nunca comieron toino, as haemos
nosotros. Pero los vecinos comprenden bien la causa de este rechazo y e
fiscal, pidiendo su condena, lo explicar as: lo qual el dicho Lope
53
54
55
96
Almerique dexa de comer por guarda y obervancia de la secta de los
moros.56
Fonseca characterizes the Morisco relationship to pork as odio y ogeriza al tocino, 57
claiming that Morisco parents cultivate in their children an intense hatred for pork that
suggests an almost wholesale rejection of all things Christian and Spanish on the part of
the new converts. Bleda, in turn, alludes to the Spanish tradition of raising pigs for food
and contrasts this practice with what he views as a superstitious approach to the animal
by the Moriscos, stating that
[l]os Cristianos tenan costumbre de criar un puerco, y comrselo entre
ao: ellos nunca lo criaron, ni comieron: ni en nuevecientos aos que
duraron en estos Reinos, entr puerco vivo ni muerto en sus casas. Antes
tenan tanto horror de este animal, que si yendo por las calles, acertaba a
tocarles en la capa, no se la ponan ms: luego la vendan a Cristianos.58
Bleda uses this example as a symbol for the greater and irreconcilable differences
between Christian and Morisco, commenting that in addition to their contempt for pigs,
[e]n el gesto, en las costumbres, en el hablar, en todo se diferenciaban de nosotros.
Afrentbanse llamarse Cristianos. Tanto que la mayor injuria que uno poda decir a otro
entre ellos, era llamarle Cristianaz.59 Bleda suggests here that this differentiation is a
deliberate choice on the part of the Moriscos who otherwise could have adhered to the
Christian sect, were they to adopt the very Christian custom of raising pigs.
56
Quoted in Cardaillac, Moriscos y cristianos, 91.
57
58
Bleda, Crnica, 903.
59
Bleda, Crnica, 903.
97
Aznar Cardona is not alone in his critique of the ways in which the Moriscos
attempt to conceal their religiously-mandated dietary practices with everyday
explanations. Fonseca also highlights the treatment of children who have accidentally
consumed prohibited food as evidence of deeper religious significance attributed to these
dietary observances than the Moriscos outwardly claim. For example, he notes, pues si
alguna vez por burlarse los Cristianos les hacan comer esta carne, si venan a averiguar
los padres, los azotaban hasta la sangre, guardando por ley irrefragable el no poder
sustentar, ni aun mercadear, o comprar estos animales.60 If eating pork merely caused a
stomachache in the consumer, Fonseca wonders why such an offense should warrant
physical punishment. He further criticizes Morisco obfuscation by asking if any stomach
is truly so sensitive that it can tell whether or not an animal had been killed according to
Halal practice. He states, [y] aunque concediramos la flaqueza de su estomago, que
no podan digerir el tocino, y les era asqueroso, yo no s que haya en el mundo estomago
tan delicado que deseche una perdiz, solo por haber sido ahogada en un lazo; ni una
liebre, porque la mordi un galgo, ni deje de beber cuando tiene sed, porque este la fuente
untada con tocino, como estos hacan.61 Fonseca later comments that Old Christians
used the Morisco pork aversion to their advantage, exerting control over the Morisco
community by contaminating their fresh water supply. He observes that [e]staba en
mano de cualquier Cristiano hacerles pasar muchos das sin beber, porque con untar un
poco la fuente, Fuentes del lugar con tocino, no haba remedio que en muchos das
60
61
98
bebiesen agua de ellas, y de estas burlas eran muchas, y muy donosas las que les hacan
cada da."62
Aznar Cardonas description of the Morisco diet equates Morisco frugalitya
trait which the apologists view as an effort on the part of the Morisco community at large
to hoard all of Spains wealth and use it against them in retaliationwith religiouslyprescribed dietary laws. Specifically, he explains that, ni compraban carne ni cosa de
cazas muertas por perros, o en lazos, o con escopeta o redes, ni las coman, sino que ellos
las matasen segn el rito de su Mahoma, por eso gastaban poco, as en el comer como en
el vestir, aunque tenan harto que pagar, de tributos a los Seores. 63 In a land in which
Halal butchering is expressly prohibited by the Christian monarch, an observant Muslim
has few options other than to save his earnings rather than spend them on pricey meats
and leather, giving him ample opportunity, as the apologists would claim, to hoard his
wealth. The economic observations of the Catholic apologists are in contrast sharply with
the financial ruin Valencian landowners feared if their most profitable workers were
expelled. Here the apologists portray the Moriscos as the economic downfall of the
Peninsula, intentionally hoarding cash and amassing even more in fortune as they
liquidated their goods upon expulsion.
Through the above examples we see at work the active process that Root
describes of transforming Morisco cultural practice into heresy. Therefore the failure to
eat at tablea practice which Fuchs would later refer to as unwitting Moorishness or
62
63
99
part of the Moorish habitus so characteristic of life on the Iberian Peninsulais
regarded by the apologists as an act as heretical as strict avoidance of bacon, as heretical
as referring to Muhammad as Gods prophet, and as heretical as calling oneself a
Muslim.64 If a person committed any such heresy, the apologists felt themselves at liberty
to assume that he or she observed Islamic rites in all aspects of life. Fonseca directly
elides cultural and religious practice when he notes that observing whether a person eats
while seated on the ground or actively rejects pork is an important inquisitorial tool,
porque de ah se puede inferir que guardan la secta de Mahoma en lo de mas: de lo cual
aade, fueron muchas veces convencidos por su propia confesin en el tribunal de la
Inquisicin.65 He cites a specific example from Spains Visigoth past in which Jews
forced to convert to Christianity were given a test of sorts to examine the validity of their
conversions: se obligaron a comer de all adelante tocino, y que cuando su estomago por
la novedad no lo llevase que comeran la olla, y carne guisada con el, en pena de ser
apedreados, o quemados, o cuando quisiesen usar con ellos de misericordia, que fuesen
hechos esclavos perpetuos con perdimiento de todos sus bienes. 66 This anecdote
reaffirms his belief that Morisco rejection of pork is solid proof of apostasy and suggests
that he sees such tests as reliable and acceptable inquisitorial procedures.
The apologists are, therefore, suggesting an absolute binary opposition in matters
of religion, precluding any notion of a hybrid space where cultures comingle. For
64
65
66
100
instance, they spend a good deal of time portraying Morisco funerary rites as examples of
pure heresy and characterize them mockingly with dehumanizing rhetoric. Fonseca gives
a rather detailed description of Morisco funeral practices, highlighting ritual washing of
the body, burial in virgin soil, and separating male and female bodies in a manner he
hopes strikes the reader as antithetical to Christian rites:
Tambin se ha de advertir, que en dejndolos muertos a su disposicin,
guardaban en sus entierros todas las ceremonias Mahometanas, no con
pequeo escndalo del pueblo Catlico; lavaban supersticiosamente los
cuerpos de sus difuntos; enterrbanlos en tierra virgen, y llevaban el atad
sobre sus hombros, lo cual entre ellos es ceremonia de su secta, no poco
prohibida en los Snodos de aquella Metrpoli. Al echarlos en la sepultura,
iban con mucho tiento por no maltratarlos, creyendo que hacia el anima
asistencia al cuerpo, hasta que haba entrado en residencia de la
observancia de su secta, por aquellos dos demonios negros, ya nombrados,
y por esto en espacio de ciertos das acudan con pan, y comida a las
sepulturas. No enterraban juntos el varn, y la mujer, sino en distintas
cuevas: haban de caer los cuerpos de sus difuntos de lado en la sepultura,
y finalmente las acciones que hacan, y las palabras que decan, todo era
un vivo Alcorn. Estas ceremonias no podan ellos guardar cuando
enterraban sus difuntos en sagrado, y por esto aborrecan grandemente la
sepultura Eclesistica67
In a similar manner, Fonseca and Guadalajara both relate the tale of a deceased Morisco
named Motarri, resident of Valencia, whose secret Morisco-style funeral, complete with
mucha cantidad de vasos de tierra llenos de aguas de laurel, de naranjo, y de romero, 68
was discovered by the local parish priest on his customary visit to the deceaseds home.
Aznar Cardona, given to more sensational descriptions, seeks to call attention to the ways
this ritual differs from a Christian burial, adding: lo enterraron entre aquellos
67
68
101
abominables condenados ponindole oro, higos y pasas en la boca y en el sendo de la
mortaja, para el camino69 and then rhetorically asks,
[p]ues veamos ahora, las pasas y el oro, son para el alma, o para el
cuerpo? El alma es espritu y no tiene dientes ni estmago, como perro,
luego no son para ella? Y si el alma se va al paraso, el cuerpo separado,
ha hecho tierra tampoco podr comer ni comprar cosas con el oro? Eso
nos dice como Mahoma, como todo lo ms malo de la gentilidad, y lo
supersticioso de todas las malas sectas, para sus ciegos imitadores.70
The ritual described here of leaving the dead body with food and gifts, however, is not
part of Muslim tradition, nor is it unique to the Spanish Morisco population. For example,
Dedieu relates an example from Inquisition documents in Castile in which Old Christian
women prepared offerings for the dead in a similar manner. When Mara Snchez was
asked by a neighbor in 1550 why she was preparing an offering of wax cakes and wine
for the dead with Juana Garca, she replied, we couldnt stop doing what our ancestors
had done, that it was a Christian habit to give these offerings to the Church, and that it
was bad that some people did it but not others. 71 As Aznar Cardona correctly points out,
this tradition, among Moriscos or otherwise, is not Catholic practice, and yet we see no
wholesale effort to round up and deport those Christians who repeatedly made such
offerings.
69
70
71
Archivo Histrico Nacional Inq, leg. 42, exp. 6. Quoted in Jean Pierre Dedieu, The
Archives of the Holy Office of Toledo as a Source for Historical Anthropology in The
Inquisition in Early Modern Europe, ed. Henningsen and Tedeschi. (Dekalb: Northern
Illinois University Press, 1986), 158-89.
102
In reference to scenarios such as these, the apologists not only seek to highlight
the way these ceremonies differ from Christian ritual but also how the Moriscos fail to
adhere to the very prescriptions of the Qurn. Inadvertently acknowledging an indefinite
boundary that separates culture from dogma and an indeterminate cultural product of
comingling, the apologists suggest that the Moriscos not only fail in their attempts to
assimilate Christian culture but they also fail to be good Muslims. For example, Fonseca
refers to ritual washing of a dead body as rupture with Quranic dogma, referring to the
practice as a superstitious quebrantamiento del Alcorn.72 It is true that the tradition of
washing the dead body in Islam is passed along through the Hadth, or traditions of the
Prophet Muhammad, and does not appear as part of the Qurn itself. This does not make
it any less acceptably Muslim, as the Islamic religion is based on both the Qurn and the
Hadth in conjunction. It is therefore possible that Fonseca is criticizing the Muslim faith
at its roots, suggesting that Muhammads traditions and influence reflect human meddling
in what should be divinely-prescribed dogma. Likewise, while Aznar Cardona refers to
Muslim teachers and prophets as engaosos doctores y Anabes,73 he seems to ascribe a
certain level of understanding of their teachings in regard to admittance into the heavenly
kingdom. When he notes that in Islamic teaching, los Moros que ayunaren bien el
72
73
Aznar Cardona, Expulsin justificada, 2:43-4. Anabies comes from the Arabic word
for prophet, al nab.. The Arabic plural is al anbiy, and therefore Aznar pluralizes the
word by adding a terminal -s according to Spanish system of pluralizing nouns.
103
Ramadn e hicieran el aguadoch, y el zala, y el alquibla, y adoraran la Ampsa74, irn sus
almas luego en siendo muertos, al paraso, y sus cuerpos estarn sin osucridad en la
sepultura hasta el da del juicio, he sees this a reasonable approximation to the
prescriptions of the true faith, or something that could be compared favorably to Christian
doctrine.75 In the apologists opinion, this unadulterated Islamic observance leaves no
room for ridiculous rituals such as leaving raisins and gold pieces with a dead body for
his journey to heaven. He observes, therefore, that even genuine Muslim doctrine in
regard to the afterlife seems respectable in comparison to such superstitions that Son
cosas tan ridculas estas y tan indignas de asiento en juicio humano, que no solamente
contradicen a toda razn y verdad catlica, mas tambin a lo que ellos mismos profesan
de su Alcorn.76 It is interesting to note, however, that Aznar Cardona appropriates
correct Arabic terminology in this section of is treatise, almost as if the words had entered
freely into the Castilian lexicon and therefore required no definition or clarification. The
apologists, including Aznar Cardona, repeatedly cite Jaime Bledas Defensio Fidei as of
utmost significance in exposing the Morisco threat on the Iberian Peninsula. In this
defense of the Christian faith, Bleda names and defines the various Islamic traditions
under attack in this section of Aznar Cardonas treatise. Bleda, as we have noted, loathed
74
Raman, the Islamic holy month observed with fasting; wu, Muslim ritual
ablutions; alt, Muslim ritual prayer; qibla, direction, or the direction a Muslim
should face while praying (toward Mecca); al-aqsa, mosque in Jerusalem and one of
Islams three holiest sites.
75
76
104
the Moriscos during his years in Corbera. He worked closely with Ribera and most
certainly educated himself on the faith he considered the arch-nemesis of his own. To
what extent the other apologists had intimate knowledge of Muslim ritual and practice is
unclear, but their repeated references to Bledas pre-expulsion Defensio indicate that they
had, at the very least, learned the basics from the primary champion of their cause.
In a similar manner, Fonseca gives evidence for what he considers Morisco
undermining of Christian ritual when he notes that many Moriscos have a Catholic Mass
offered for a deceased relative. However, Fonseca characterizes the Morisco use of a
Christian custom as a duplicitous act designed to appease not only Inquisitorial
authorities, but also dos demonios negros, llamados Naquir, y Nucair,77 or Islamic
angels who interrogate souls after death.78 Just as in the examples of Spanish Old
Christians and Moriscos leaving food for the souls journey to the afterlife suggests
simultaneous participation in folk ritual and Christianity (or Islam), offerings to Islamic
angels is also evidence for of a sort of religious syncretism practiced in the Morisco
community. It is important to keep in mind that Islam as practiced in the late sixteenth
77
78
Encyclopedia of Islam, s.v. Munkar wa Nakir, 576. The names of the two angels
who examine and if necessary punish the dead in their tombs. To the examination in the
tomb the infidels and the faithfulthe righteous as well as the sinnersare liable. They
are set upright in their tombs and must state their opinion regarding Muhammad. The
righteous faithful will answer that he is the Apostle of Allh; thereupon they will be left
alone till the Day of Resurrection. The sinners and the infidels, on the other hand, will
have no satisfactory answer at hand. In consequence of this the angels will beat them
severely, as long as it will please Allh, according to some authorities till the Day of
Resurrection, except on Fridays. The angels are not mentioned by name in the Koran,
but there are several allusions to them. This tradition is also found in the hadith.
105
and early seventeenth centuries had evolved over eight centuries since the original eighthcentury Arab invasion as it coexisted with Christian, Jewish, and folk traditions. As RosaRodrguez notes, scenarios like these are examples of simultaneous participation in two
religions, whether conscious or not, [that] produced a hybrid sense of religiosity that
characterized Spains religious climate both in the sixteenth century and for generations
to come.79 Rosa-Rodrguez characterizes the experience of religious life for the
Moriscos as one of constant taqiyya in which generations of Muslims forcibly converted
to Christianity lived out, so to speak, the prescriptions of the Oran fatwa,80 whether they
were fully aware of it or not. This negotiation of Islam from an underground perspective
changed the participants understanding of the religion, altering the dogma and
demonstrating that religiosity becomes uncontrollable and undefined. 81 For many
Moriscos in the Iberian Peninsula, the religion they practiced was neither Christianity nor
Islam, but something of Bhabhas third space, a hybrid product of fusion in which it
seems logical to appease Islamic angels via Christian ceremony.
79
Rosa-Rodrguez, Simulation and Dissimulation, 152.
80
Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 60. The key theological document for the study of Spanish
Islamis a jurisconsultum fatwaa considered legal opinion provided on request[,]
handed down by a mufti in Oran in 1504, that is to say, very shortly after the crisis
created by the forcible conversions, first in Granada and then in all the lands of the
Castilian Crown as described above. There is no reason to doubt that it is a direct
response to them. This fatwa sets out for the benefit of the persecuted Muslims of Spain
what modifications might legitimately be introduced in the range of religious obligations
incumbent on a Muslim when he is being subjected to oppression.
81
Rosa-Rodrguez, Simulation and Dissimulation, 155.
106
While apologists like Aznar Cardona view some of these cultural practices as
errors inherited from the ancient Gentiles and unique to heretical Moriscos, it is unclear
to what extent such pagan rituals were unique to the Iberian Peninsulas New Christian
population, and how many people of Old Christian descent practiced similarly
unchristian rites. Kamen, for example, in his studies of the Spanish Inquisition, asserts
that
[w]e can be certain of one thing. Spain was not, as often imagined, a
society dominated exclusively by zealots. In the Mediterranean the
confrontation of cultures was more constant than in northern Europe, but
the certainty of faith was no strongerThough there were confusions of
belief in the peninsula, there seems in late medieval times to have been no
formal heresy, not even among Christians. But this did not imply that
Spain was a society of convinced believersReligious practice among
Christians was a free mixture of community traditions, superstitious
folklore and imprecise dogmatic beliefs.82
This free mixture of religious rite and folklore is discussed in Knutsens recent study
on witchcraft in the Peninsula.83 In this study, Knutsen observes, based largely on
Inquisitorial data, that witchcraft practices in Morisco and Old Christian communities had
very much in common. He describes spells and charms as cultural practices that crossed
the religious-cultural divide in order to bring about practical solutions to common
problems.84 While evidence suggests that neither group was any more likely to have
82
Kamen, Historical Revision, 5.
83
Gunnar W. Knutsen, Servants of Satan and Masters of Demons: The Spanish

Inquisitions Trials for Superstition, Valencia and Barcelona, 1478-1700 (Belgium:
Brepols, 2009).
84
Knutsen, Servants of Satan, 48-9.
107
engaged in witchcraft than the other, Old Christians in Valencia had come to view
sorcery as particular to the Moriscos.85
In addition to critiquing Morisco superstitions and insinuating that they were
unique to that population group, Fonseca also criticizes the Moriscos lack of knowledge
of basic prayers and Church customs. He states, [y] si con todo esto tenan aun
ignorancia de todas las cosas pertenecientes nuestra Religin, y no saban ni los
artculos de la Fe, el Credo, ni los mandamientos de la Iglesia, ni aun el Pater Noster, y el
Ave Maria; no era por no haber sido instruidos, sino por no haberlos querido ser."86
However, as Dedieu suggests, a wholesale operation to Christianize all of the masses in
the Peninsulanot solely the Muslimshad been underway for some time due to a
general lack of knowledge of Church dogma. In the sixteenth century, at the same time
that clerics were working to convert Muslims to Christianity, post-Tridentine reform
efforts increasingly gained momentum, ensuring that Old and New Christians alike could
recite basic prayers such as the Pater, Ave, and later the Credo.87 Inquisitorial records
demonstrate that doctrinal misunderstandings were common among Old Christians, thus
validating the mission statement of the Council of Trent and inquisitorial process itself
while offering evidence that Moriscos were not the only confused Catholics. The active
process of desemitization is therefore evident in both the example of witchcraft and in
85
Knutsen, Servants of Satan, 77-80.
86
87
Jean Pierre Dedieu, Christianization, 14-5.
108
ignorance of Church doctrine in that the Morisco transgressor is singled out over the Old
Christian transgressor and earmarked for expulsion.
Both Kamens and Dedieus observations again highlight the blurring of Christian
culture with cultures it considers other. Demonstrating that it is a result of the active
will of the Christian majority to point out cultural elements that conflict with their own
self-concept and then attempt to forcibly remove them from daily habit, these scholars
suggest that many inhabitants of the PeninsulaOld Christian and otherwisecame
under such Inquisitorial scrutiny. In this way, the apologists treatises were part of a
machine working tirelessly to place perimeters around acceptable Christian practice.
Chapter Three:
Delimiting Sacred Space
Perceived Threats to Catholic Sacred Structures, Objects, and Rituals

T destruiste la Cristiandad de Espaa en los tiempos pasados, t afligiste los
Catlicos: derrocaste las Iglesias: profanaste los Santuarios: edificaste tus
Mezquitas y levantaste la voz descomulgada, con el dicho escandaloso, Viva
Mahoma.1
In 1567, at thirty six years old and with merely a decade of experience behind him
as an ordained priest, Juan de Ribera found himself wielding the commanding titles of
Archbishop of Valencia and Patriarch of Antioch. An impassioned reformer in the spirit
of Trent, Ribera had captured the attention of fellow clergy members as well as that of
Philip II during his tenure as bishop of Badajoz, a Spanish province bordering Portugal.
This promotion to the archbishopric, which he was initially hesitant to accept,2 entailed a
move to the other side of the Peninsula into a region indelibly marked by Islam and
eastern culture. Valencia was home to the Peninsulas largest Morisco population, a
group of former Muslims whose forcible to conversion to Christianity had produced
mixed and uncertain results. The new Archbishop therefore foresaw clerical and
administrative difficulties in Valencia that far eclipsed any struggles he had faced in
1
Ehlers, Between Christians and Moriscos, 7. Ehlers attributes Riberas hesitation to a

combination of false modesty (to lust after honors and benefices ran counter to the
humility expected of a Tridentine bishop) and fear that he would not succeed in fully
converting the Moriscos to Christianity.
109
110
Badajoz. Riberas tender age also suggested the potential length of the arduous road
ahead: most of his predecessors had succumbed to infirmity and old age after a year or
two in the position. Any accomplishments these men may have achieved in genuinely
converting the Morisco community to Christianity were interrupted with each change of
command. Ribera would have decades in the post for pastoral missions if patience and
good health happened to favor him. The task was undoubtedly daunting, and Ribera
initially attempted to decline the promotion before finally accepting the responsibility.
The new archbishop quickly set aside his initial doubts, however, and plunged
into reform and conversion efforts in Valencia with zeal. True conversion, he believed,
was indeed possible if the Morisco parishioners were placed in the hands of capable
clergy members who could lead them down the true Christian path. With this catechetical
mission in mind, the archbishop assigned the then neophyte Jaime Bleda to the parish of
Corbera in 1585, a town with a large Morisco population in the archdiocese of Valencia.
Ribera most likely saw his own initial lack of enthusiasm with the discouraging task of
Morisco evangelization reflected in an outraged young Bleda who returned to Valencia
begging to be reassigned.3 As Bleda tells it, crouched down near the church door in
Corbera and concealed from the group of parishioners during the celebration of mass, he
witnessed firsthand astonishing blasphemy on the part of the Morisco churchgoers that
inspired him to dedicate his life to protecting the Holy Sacrament from further Morisco
Bleda, it should be noted, never shares the archbishops initial optimism in the
possibility of true Morisco conversion. Rather, he is disgusted at the start by what he sees
as Morisco blasphemy, not wanting any part in the evangelical efforts.
111
assault. He describes the moment of the consecration on that particular holy day, stating
that he saw
que aquellos infieles en lugar de adorar la Sacratsima Hostia, y Cliz a la
hora de la elevacin hacan todos escarnio, y burla de la sacrosanta
Eucarista: las mujeres pellizcaban las criaturas, para que llorasen;
ninguno haba, que no hiciese sus meneos, y moneras en manifiesta
irrisin, vilipendio, y desacato del santsimo Sacramento. Qued atnito, y
muy desconsolado, de ver injuriado a mi Redentor con actos tan
notoriamente hereticales.4
Bleda then stresses the profoundly negative effect that witnessing the purported
disrespectful heretical acts had on him emotionally, as well as on his career as a priest,
when he highlights his rather irrational willingness to abandon the post altogether.
Returning to Valencia on horseback, Bleda allegedly threw himself at the archbishops
feet, pleading with him to be sent back to his hometown of Algemes.5 Such a return to
his former position would be a certain demotion because the appointment to Corbera, as
Bleda confesses, was a critical step to his ordainment as a priest. He states, siendo yo
acolito, y con este ttulo me orden de los rdenes sacros.6 Ribera denied his request,
and when Bleda was confronted with the reality that he had to stay in Corbera on the
archbishops orders, he became consumed with worry. Rather than embracing the
evangelical mission like Ribera, he relates that from that point on, comenc, a
desvelarme, en pensar, de que manera se podra librar el santsimo Sacramento de estas
Bleda, Crnica, 938.
Bleda, Crnica, 938.
Bleda, Crnica, 938.
112
sacrlegas injurias, que padeca generalmente en estos Reinos.7 These nightmarish
preoccupations led him to Rome several times to advocate for complete Morisco
expulsion, believing that peace and religious harmony could only be achieved in a Spain
liberated from heretical Morisco contamination. It is a cause to which, in spite of initial
optimistic conversion efforts, a disenchanted Archbishop Ribera was ultimately drawn,
and together with Bleda, the two clerics became the expulsion campaigns most ardent
supporters. On the home front, Bleda addressed King Philip III both directly and through
his favorite, the Duke of Lerma, speaking with the king in person in 1599 in Valencia. He
composed both his Defensio Fidei and Crnica for the edification of these two men who
directly controlled the Moriscos future.
Bledas characterization of Morisco behavior at mass is not isolated to this one
particular exposition in the Crnica, nor is it unique among the treatises of his fellow
expulsion apologists. Utilizing every synonym for disrespect he can summon to
characterize and emphasize Morisco treatment of the Holy Sacrament, Bleda epitomizes
the apologists obsession with what they see as Morisco devastation of all things
Catholic. From alleged denigration of the sacraments and murder of Christians to the
purported destruction of churches and desecration of crosses, the apologists fear that such
spiritual and physical ravaging will lead to the annihilation of Spanish Catholicism as an
institution, and therefore to the ultimate destruction of the Spanish nation. To the
apologists, veneration of images and relics in conjunction with participation in the holy
Bleda, Crnica, 938.
113
sacraments binds together members of the religious community into a cohesive national
body, which, under continued duress, risks complete devastation. I therefore argue in this
chapter that the apologists, through abundant and detailed accusations of Morisco
destruction of Catholic iconography and defamation of the sacred structure of the liturgy,
propose the defense of sacred ritual and physical space against Morisco assault. To the
apologists, an active line of defense will protect the integrity of the holy, Catholic, and
apostolic Spanish nation, but in order to secure support, they must first call to the
attention of their readers the imminent destruction of Catholic Spain.
Debating the Legitimacy of Religious Symbols

The expulsion apologists of the early modern era had inherited a rich tradition of
medieval Christian iconography and devotion. At the time that they composed their
treatises, these Christian images were the subject of much debate, intensely scrutinized by
Reformers for their alleged connection to idol-worship and neglect of the truth faith while
under reevaluation among Catholics responding to such criticisms. As a consequence of
Reformation critique, the apologists and their mentor, Archbishop Ribera, were steeped
in the energy of the Tridentine reform movement that was determined to shore up the
legitimacy of Catholic symbols, taking a firm stance in support of both religious icons
and sacred rituals subject to Reformation scrutiny. The Council of Trents reforms were
aimed at rehabilitating religious images or icons, many of which had earned unfavorable
reputations among critics as the objects of questionable popular devotion. The Council
114
convened over the course of almost two decades between 1545 and 1563. During that
time, several of Trents sessions were dedicated to defining and upholding the most holy
Sacraments of the Church, through which all true justice either begins, or being begun is
increased, or being lost is restored. 8 The sacraments, which include Baptism,
Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Order, and Matrimony, were
divinely instituted by Christ. To take issue with any of them or to alter them in any form
was to the Council exceedingly detrimental to the purity of the Catholic Church, and to
the salvation of souls.9 Reformation rejection or reinterpretation of certain Catholic
sacraments was a further critique of the legitimacy of Catholic symbolic ritual. It
questioned the sacraments very nature and necessity to salvation, and therefore the
various decrees of the Council directly address such challenges. Eire speaks to this point,
noting that
[a]s a standardized ritual laden with an awe-inspiring display of spiritual
power through very material, and almost mechanical means, the liturgy
itself had become the living image of the mystery of salvation. Regarded
as the reenactment of Christs sacrifice on Calvary (especially since the
time of Gregory I, the Great), the Mass, as a ritual, could not help but
become representational in a very concrete manner. Therefore, most
worshipers approached the liturgy in the same way they approached
images and relics, as an object of veneration and a source of power.
Consequently, the Reformers would attack the ceremony of the Mass itself
as an idol.10
H.J. Schroeder, ed., Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent: Original Text with
English Translation (St. Louis: B. Herder Book Co., 1955), 51.
9
Schroeder, Council of Trent, 51.
10
Carlos M. N. Eire, War Against the Idols: The Reformation of Worship from Erasmus
to Calvin (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 17.
115
The Councils response to Reformation scrutiny of the sacraments was therefore to
reaffirm their supreme and essential importance to the true Christian faith. In so doing,
the Council also legitimized the position of the expulsion apologists who viewed the
sacraments as under direct threat of denigration and destruction in Morisco-inhabited
Spain. The Councils decision to discuss religious symbols and the strong and absolute
wording of its resulting decrees emphasizes the critical and sensitive nature of the debate
concerning Catholic religious iconography. Therefore, any physical threat to a priest or
monk from a Morisco became a threat to the sacred institution. Crude gestures and
blasphemous talk during the celebration of the Eucharist likewise amounted to the same
sort of direct attack on the Church.
Scholarship suggests that Christian sensitivity to the treatment of their revered
symbols did not go unnoticed by Moriscos. Cardaillac, for example, in his study of
inquisitorial records, observes that Moriscos criticized the Catholic Church for having
lost sight of essential devotion to God. One Morisco, he says, states que los cristianos
estaban ciegos en creher en una cruz de palo y en una ymagen que llaman de nuestra
Seora, que siendo un bulto de palo conpuesto cran en ella, y que por creer en ella,
dexavan de creer en Dios.11 In comparison to what the Moriscos viewed as the
enlightenment of Islam, as Cardaillac notes, Christianity represented for the Moriscos a
state of regression to pre-Christian paganism and idol-worship. The Moriscos therefore
used such an interpretation and understanding of Christian practice, Ehlers suggests, to
11
Archivo Histrico Nacional, Inq., leg 193, nm. 13. Quoted in Cardaillac, Moriscos y
cristianos, 301.
116
mock priests or other Christians.12 Cardaillac gives an example of mockery of revered
Christian images when he describes a Morisco who viewed a depiction of the Virgin in a
Castilian church, y con el dedo pas por encima del rostro de la dicha ymagen, como
que quera borrarla, hacindolo con el fin de destacar a la dicha ymagen; lo hizo
teniendo y creyendo que aquello era burla porque nuestro seor Dios no tena madre. 13
The Moriscos alleged refractory gesture was intended to ridicule the Christian doctrine
under which he was forced to live, fully acknowledging the significance of this sacred
image to Catholic authorities.
The decrees issued at the Councils twenty-second session, which convened in
September of 1562, sought to address critiques such as those mentioned above. While the
sources of the critiques under examination came primarily from the Reformation, the
Councils resulting decisions inevitably supported Catholic attack on Morisco opinions of
a similar nature. This particular session specifically upholds ceremonies known as
sacramentals14 that served to support the holy sacraments as the foundation of the faith.
12
13
Archivo Histrico Nacional, Inq., leg 191, nm. 12. Quoted in Cardaillac, Moriscos y
cristianos, 302.
14
New Catholic Encyclopedia Supplement 2009, s.v. Sacramentals, accessed May 24,
2012, 824-826, http://go.galegroup.com/. Sacred signs established by the Church to
render holy the various circumstances of life. Such signs can take the form of rites,
prayers, or objects outside those seven rites properly called sacraments. Sacramentals
resemble the sacraments inasmuch as they signify effectschiefly, although not
exclusively, an increase in holiness obtained through the intercession of the Church.
Sacramentals dispose those who use them to receive the principal effect of the
sacraments. Unlike the sacraments, the number of which is fixed at seven, sacramentals
include a wide variety of rites, prayers, and religious objects. The number of sacramental
may be increased or decreased as the Church deems fit.
117
The decree provides for external means of assisting man in meditation on the Divine
during the Mass, including mystical blessings, lights, incense, vestments, and many
other things of this kind, whereby both the majesty of so great a sacrifice might be
emphasized and the minds of the faithful excited by those visible signs of religion and
piety to the contemplation of those most sublime things which are hidden in this
sacrifice.15 The Council later gives its approval of the veneration of sacred images of a
broader scope, refuting claims that Catholic dogma condoned idol-worship. The decrees
of the twenty-fifth session, which convened in December of the following year, state that
not, however, that any divinity or virtue is believed to be in them by
reason of which they are to be venerated, or that something is to be asked
of them, or that trust is to be placed in images, as was done of old by the
Gentiles who placed their hope in idols; but because the honor which is
shown them is referred to the prototypes which they represent; so that by
means the images which we kiss and before which we uncover the head
and prostrate ourselves, we adore Christ and venerate the saints whose
likeness they bear. That is what was defined by the decrees of the
councils, especially of the second Council of Nicaea, against the
opponents of images.16
This Council decree, following Gregory the Great, asserts that religious images, including
paintings, are legitimate teaching tools to assist the clergy in instructing their
parishioners. They likewise state that
great profit is derived from all sacred images, not only because the people
are thereby reminded of the benefits and gifts bestowed upon them by
Christ, but also because through the saints the miracles of God and
salutary examples are set before the eyes of the faithful, so that they may
give God thanks for those things, may fashion their own life and conduct
15
16
Schroeder, Council of Trent, 215-6.
118
in imitation of the saints and be moved to adore and love God and
cultivate piety.17
In other words, religious images serve as a reminder to lay people to revere God,
heavenly creator of all earthly images. Images and relics therefore become for the
apologists a critical component of the sacred structure of the Church. Their destruction
reflects a direct attack on the holy sacraments, or on the very the foundation of the faith.
Delimiting Sacred Space

Dice el Apstol, que el Anticristo se levantar sobre todo lo que se llama Dios, y
es honrado portal, de suerte que pondr su asiento y domicilio en el templo de
Dios. Esto hizo Mahoma como queda dicho. En Meca es reverenciado como dios
en nuestros das. Y en el templo que le edific Omar en Jerusaln, reverencan los
Mahometanos sus pies y manos. Es reverenciado en el templo de Dios, pues su
mala secta ocupa las insignes Iglesias de frica, Siria, Arabia, y de otras
provincias, las cuales fueron privadas de la Fe y culto divino, y dellas fue
desterrado el sacrificio de la Misa, y derribadas las aras sagradas de Dios, y solo
Mahoma es adorado en ellas.18
To Bleda and to his fellow apologists, Islam represented a great threat of
replacement whereby Muhammad, emblematic of the Antichrist, usurped Gods position
in His holy dwelling place, the Church. Even the manner in which Bleda describes the
Mosque of Omar, a temple in which Muslims worshipped the feet and hands of
Muhammad, suggests a projection of Christian ritual onto Muslim history. The
apologist fears that the Muslim prophet has deceivingly taken Christs rightful place on
the altar and assumed the honor of His great sacrifice. From Muhammads seat with the
17
18
Bleda, Crnica, 49.
119
great churches of Africa, Syria, and Arabia, where the true Divine Cult had once taken
root and reigned supreme, Islams prophet, Bleda argues, was able to systematically
destroy the Christian church, both in spirit and in physical substance, in every territory in
which his cult had crusaded. Aznar Cardona, for example, speaks of a once Christiandominated world now confined to tiny pockets after Muhammads sect spread across the
globe. In reference to the Islamic advance he states that David in the Pslams, [h]abla de
este atroz enemigo Mahoma, que destruy los fieles, y los redujo, destruyndolos a
quedar de cuatro partes de la Cristiandad, la una de ellas, de modo, que arrincon la
Iglesia, esparcida sin lmite por todo el Orbe, hasta dejar la en solo un estrecho ngulo de
l, en estas partes de Europa.19 The holy Eucharist, or the sacrifice of the Mass, Bleda
claims, had been permanently exiled from its natural home in the symbolic sacred space
of Christian places of worship. In other words, the sacred altars of Gods church have
been crushed in symbolic destruction of the entire Christian faith.
In arguing that the Eucharistan essential sacrament of the faithis under threat
of complete annihilation, Bleda succinctly articulates the apologists general struggle to
preserve through their texts the Catholic Church as an institution of national identity. In
the above quotation, he alludes to two facets of the faith he and his fellow apologists
consider critical to the constitution of the Spanish Catholic church: sacred sacramental
activity and sacred structures. Both of these fundamental components of Catholic
Christian dogma had been expressly upheld in the face of Reformation intellectual
19
120
challenges in the Council of Trents sixteenth-century decrees and were at the forefront
of the minds of European Catholic clergy members. The Council supported the solemnity
and validity of the holy sacraments as well as the veneration of scared images, vowing to
excommunicate any person who abused either. The Spanish struggle to uphold Tridentine
reform was somewhat unique, however, and as Bleda suggests, Catholic Christians in
Spain faced Muslim rather than Reformation violation of the faiths sacred sacraments
and structures. The nature of this alleged Muslim threat, therefore, was not an ideological
revamping of the Christian faith but a complete annihilation of it.
Sacramental Activity
One of the apologists primary goals in defining the Catholic faith is asserting the
necessity of the holy sacraments. In so doing, they promote the sacred nature, so to speak,
of the Catholic faith, contrasting it with the inferiority of Islam. For example, Aznar
Cardona asserts [q]ue Mahoma falt lo formal constitutivoo de Religin, no ordenando
cosa para el culto divino, ni tratando del remedio del pecado, aunque orden el Zala.20
The institution of required charitable giving is the only aspect of Islam Aznar Cardona
deems worthy of referring to as a formal element of organized religion. Clearly ignorant
of many aspects of Islamic ritual and practice himself, Aznar Cardona claims that
Muhammads sect lacks the fundamental sacred base and structure of a God-given faith,
calling Islam the sterile result of pagan influence:
20
121
[y] dejada a parte la esterilidad triste, de que no tienen sacerdotes, ni
sacrificios, ni empleo de obras pas, excepto la limosna del afecto natural,
con los necesitados; ni celebran festividades de Santos, ni tienen cosa
autorizada, con Milagros, ni das consagrados para solemnidad y
reverencia de Dios, solo el viernes, entre los otros supersticiosos
embaimientos, les decret por fiesta de guardar, en honra de la Diosa
Venus, porque en el punto dela estrella de Venus haba sido levantado por
Rey.21
Therefore Islams apparent lack of Catholic sacramental ritual betrays its lack of belief,
making it wholly unacceptable to Aznar Cardona. These rituals that Catholics hold most
dear are in fundamental opposition to a Muslim austerity that sees the rites of Catholic
Mass as a superstitious impediment to true reverence of God and submission to His will.
For example, Cardaillac cites Morisco critique of Catholic hierarchy when a Morisco
notes, Y esta misa no la puede decir sino es quien fuere clrigo, de suerte que si en
alguna parte poblada o mar hubiera cristianos sin sacerdote, no pueden hacer ese oficio
de la misa de suerte que cada Cristiano no puede hacerla cada uno solo, por donde se
conoce su ley falsa.22 In front of God, the Morisco would argue, all people are equal
with no one possessing particular religious power over another. Cardaillac quotes another
Morisco who asserts that a Christian is powerless in adoring God without a priest in
contrast to los moros que cada uno de ellos puede hacer su zala solo u acompaado, con
sacerdote o sin l.23
21
22
Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid, ms. 9074, fol. 58 ro. Quoted in Cardaillac, Moriscos y
cristianos, 304.
23
Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid, ms. 9074, fol. 58 ro. Quoted in Cardaillac, Moriscos y
cristianos, 305.
122
The apologists therefore refute critiques like these, advancing the idea of several
critical components of the sacramental activity of their Catholic faith as the ultimate
means of revering God. For the apologists, this necessary component of Catholicism
includes the previously mentioned sacraments upheld by Trent, including the Eucharist,
Holy Orders, Baptism, and Matrimony. It also includes the survival of a religious
community of believers to partake in the sacraments and the public celebration and
actualizing of these sacraments in the Catholic Mass.
The apologists argue that Muslims inherently lack these constitutive elements,
and therefore the initial Muslim immigrants to the Peninsula as well as their Morisco
descendants have consistently sought to destroy the structural elements so fundamental to
Christian identity in order to eliminate Catholicism and secure a place of power in Spain.
In this manner, Aznar Cardona argues, Muhammad and his followers have wreaked
devastation on Christians for generations, condemning to eternal damnation countless
souls that could have otherwise been saved. He states, pues llegan hoy a pasados de mil
aos, en que contradiciendo ciegamente nuestra nica ley Evanglica, lleva millares de
almas al infierno, con la impeded pertinaz de su reprobada secta bestial.24 All religions
or sects, Aznar Cardona argues, have the power to open the gateways of perdition. It is
through these puertas metafricas, por quien tantos desdichados entraron, y entran en la
morada eternal de su perdicin.25 However God has vowed to protect the chosen
Christian members of His Church, even though at times por nuestros graves pecados,
24
25
123
permita [Dios] que nos acosen y ultrajen.26 In this way, Aznar Cardona argues that
Christians, albeit innately imperfect, are destined to prevail over other sects. Gods
Church stands as a landmark of His promise to protect his people from whatever
temptations or persecutions might lie in their paths. Guadalajara concurs, stating that the
Moriscos represent the very heart and soul of the prototypical heretic in their disdain for
Catholic sacraments. He argues that the Moriscos question the very roots of the sacred
Catholic ritual when they try to conceder y porfiar con soberbias y afectadas palabras,
de las cosas que la Iglesia catlica propone como verdaderas: como de la Encarnacin, de
la resurreccin de los difuntos, la necesidad y eficacia de los Sacramentos del Baptismo,
y Penitencia, del sacrificio de la Eucarista, y los dems.27 This questioning of the very
basic foundations of the Catholicism, he argues, destabilizes the faith, porque su
profanidad penetra como cncer, y pervierte la fe de alguno.28 It therefore threatens the
future of Christian souls on an individual level first, later spreading across population
groups, countries, and continents. What was once the fate of the East is now the fate of
the West, visible and palpable on Spanish terrain. But Spanish Catholics should not lose
hope, Fonseca argues, because even in the remotest and most distant locations, los
predicadores de la verdad Evanglica, afligidos, perseguidos, vejados, y oprimidos, cada
da ganan almas para el cielo.29 The faith, he argues, simply has to be given the best
26
27
28
29
124
chance for survival and be allowed to prevail. This is particularly possible in Spain
where, as I have argued elsewhere,30 the apologists view Christianity as essential and
inherent to the Peninsula. Fonseca continues to that effect, stating, ms presto harn esto
mismo en Espaa, donde florece la Religin, donde son venerados los siervos de Dios, y
sus Justas y loables obras, no solo son aprobadas, sino favorecidas y promovidas.31 In
other words, Spain boasts a deep-seeded Christian legacy and fundamental Catholic
structure that will ensure its survival in the future if proper steps are taken to protect it. It
is this point of view combined with the apologists insistence that that true Morisco
conversion was fundamentally impossible that allowed them to advocate for such wholly
unchristian measures. They maintained an uncharitable stance in regard to their Morisco
neighbors even when Pope Paul V32 refused to support the expulsion campaign and again
when Church leaders like Pedro de Valencia followed the Pontiffs lead in advocating for
patient and continued conversion. 33
In terms of the sacraments he sees as vulnerable to attack, Aznar Cardona begins
by emphasizing their supreme importance to Catholicism, and then stresses the way in
which Muhammad workedand continues to work through his Morisco followersto
30
See Chapter 1, Parameters for the Faith.
31
32
As noted in Chapter 1, Fonseca originally claimed in his Justa expulsin that Pope Paul
V supported his endeavor. However, as Tueller notes, the Pontiff demanded that any
mention of his alleged support be removed from the treatise before it was printed.
Tueller, Good and Faithful Christians, 135-6.
33
For a discussion of Pedro de Valencias Tratado Acerda de los Moriscos (1605/1606),

in which the author advocates for Morisco conversion through toleration and patience and
disputes Spanish purity of blood statutes, see Magnier, Pedro de Valencia, 245-365.
125
systematically break them down. He refers to God, con su poder omnipotente, sobre
todo podero y llave de excelencia,34 as having instituted the seven sacraments for
Christianity as the base of a perfect religion. The sacraments, he argues, serve para
remedio eficaz de nuestras enfermedades, conseruacin y nutrimiento de nuestra vida
espiritual.35 As an instrument of these divinely-created sacraments, God then endowed
the clergy with the power and responsibility to put them into effect, imprimindoles
carcter sacerdotal, en el alma, en el cual dej virtud substitutiva de poder hacer y
comunicar esos mismos sacramentos, mientras durare la peregrinacin de su Iglesia.36
The priest as witness of these sacraments then leads the true followers to full communion
with the Creator in Paradise. Just as without the sacraments there would be no church,
without priests, there were be no administering of the sacraments with the Christian fold.
It follows suit to the apologists that Muhammad would attack the sacraments as
an institution, targeting their performance by the clergy. As a group, the clergy work to
organize the community of believers into a unified body, inviting them to share in the
sacraments as a means of initiating themselves into Gods house, the Catholic Church. As
such they become la congregacin de los fieles de Espaa,37 or a national body
organized with faith at their foundation. Aznar Cardona accuses the Muslim prophet and
34
35
36
37
126
his followers of threatening the integrity of this cohesive unit with ojeriza desdeosa38
in regard to the sacraments, enough so that an entire book could be filled with las
palabradas groseras, y proposiciones hereticas, dichas con typo de infidelidad, que
habemos sabido de ellas.39 Defending the sacraments therefore becomes, according to
Aznar Cardona, a way to protect not only la barquilla preciosa de san Pedrola Santa
Iglesia,40 but also the very lives of Catholic Spaniards. To Aznar Cardona, the idea of
nuestras propias vidas includes more than just physical existence, but also all things
that contribute to life on earth. It encompasses all facets of life Christian Spaniards hold
most dear padres, hermanos, parientes, prjimos, amigos, haciendas, casas, villas,
ciudades, y todos los Espaoles Reinos41defended against la llama cruel, del yerro, y
de todo gnero de crueldad, con que nos amenazaba cercana, la impiedad enemigo, de los
Agarenos y Cedaraenos, homicidas de voluntad y de obra.42
The apologists pay a great deal of attention to the way in which they see Muslim
influence as an undermining of the sacraments of baptism and matrimony. Fonseca, for
example, accuses the Moriscos of intentionally undermining Christian baptism, stating
that they consciously and deceitfully avoided it. The apologist asserts that Morisco
38
39
40
41
42
127
parents attempted to trick Church authorities into believing their children had indeed
received the sacrament. He states that they,
inventaron una traza diablica de rebautizarlos, de manera que si en Buol
lugar de Moriscos, nacan diez, veinte, o mas nios en espacio de ocho
das, cogan uno solo de ellos, y este corra todas las estaciones, y lo
bautizaban diez, y veinte veces, mudndole cada vez el nombre, y el de
sus padres, con que multiplicando solo los nombres, y siendo uno mismo
el bautizado, quedaban todos los otros diez y nueve sin el sacramento.43
Here the apologist hopes to spark allegiance from his fellow Christians in a symbolic war
between sects in which the Moriscos allegedly seek to undermine Catholic authority. In
those cases where the Moriscos could not avoid being baptized, Fonseca claims that that
lo lavaban despus en su casa, enjugndole el Olio santo, haciendo muchas ceremonias
Mahometanas del Alcorn, pensando con esto cuanto era de su parte, desbautizarle.44
Claims such as these of active avoidance of Christianization as well as attempts at
outright undoing of Christian initiation serve to further emphasize the apologists opinion
that the Moriscos were in no way ignorant of Christian doctrine as many clerics who
favored their continued evangelization had argued. It is therefore the Moriscos tacit
acknowledgement of the potential power and influence of Christian ritual and their
subsequent outright rejection of it that fuels the apologists anger. In a similar manner,
Morisco avoidance of baptism and subsequent attempts to wash it away speak to the
power Christian ritual exerted in the Morisco community even though the Moriscos did
not share Christian beliefs. It reflects each communitys fear that the God and creed of
43
44
128
the other group would ultimately succeed in winning them over, a part of the symbolic
war waged between Christian and Muslim iterations of God.
As a somewhat more subtle rejection of Christian initiation, Fonseca notes the
Moriscos complete indifference to the Christian names given to them at baptism, noting,
si alguno les preguntaba como se llamaban, antes de responder volvan a
preguntar, Que nombre peds, de Algaraba, o del baptismo? Tanto que
muchos de sus padres, ignoraban los nombres Cristianos que en el
baptismo les haban puesto, y aun lo que mas es, ellos mismos as hombres
como mujeres, no saban sus propios nombres Cristianos, porque como
nunca usaban de ellos, con facilidad se les olvidaban.45
Failure to embrace Christian names, Fonseca would argue, highlights the Moriscos
desire to remain outside and separate from the Christian community while at the same
time actively or rejecting the Christian rite of baptism.
In terms of disrespect for the sacrament of marriage, we have already seen 46 the
extent to which the apologists consider Muhammads views on union to be a direct attack
on the Catholic Churchsand therefore Godsinterpretation of marriage. Aznar
Cardona refers to Muhammads allowance of multiple wives (and alleged approval of
sodomy) as injurioso al matrimonio47 as an institution and as a holy sacrament. He
states, que ningn hombre pueda tener, mas de una sola mujer, y aquella con bendicin
de Dios, mediante la virtud del sagrado matrimonio.48 For the apologist, this is a direct
and intentional rupture with Gods law on Muhammads part and a blasphemous attempt
45
46
See Chapter 1, Parameters for the Faith.
47
48
129
to assume God-like power. The apologists would also view the Moriscos rejection of
Catholic clerical celibacy as an undermining of divinely-inspired faith. Cardaillac cites,
for example, a Morisco named Gernimo Rojas who states that se condola mucho de
tantos clrigos, frayles y monjas como ay, y dea que todos se pierden y condenan sin
remedio porque impiden la generacin y no son casados ni tienen hijos. 49 He also cites
Muhammad Alguazirs anti-Christian polemic in which the North African physician of
Morisco descent quips that perhaps priestly celibacy is in fact divinely-ordained, porque
de ellos no se engendren otros herejes como de ellos lo son y que en ellos se acabe la
material de la idolatra.50 The apologists therefore view Muslim marital ideology and
alleged Muslim permissiveness as a direct affront to Catholic dogma. Likewise, Muslim
rejection of Catholic measures to curb such tendencies in accordance with what
Christians believe to be Gods will represent direct attacks on the holy sacrament of
marriage.
With respect to the most important sacrament of all, the Eucharist, the apologists
portray extreme contempt on the part of the Moriscos, who find the practice abhorrent.
Fonseca describes Morisco disrespect for the Eucharist as hatred in the extreme, que
49
Archivo Histrico Nacional, Inq, leg. 197, nm. 5. Quoted in Cardaillac, Moriscos y
cristianos, 305.
50
Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid, ms. 9074, fol. 52 vo. Quoted in Cardaillac, Moriscos y
cristianos, 306. For more information on Alguazir, see G.A. Wiegers, The Andalus
Heritage in the Maghrib: The Polemical Work of Muammad Alguazir (Fl. 1610) in
Poetry, Politics and Polemics: Cultural Transfer Between the Iberian Peninsula and
North Africa, ed. Ed de Moor, et al. (Atlanta: Rodopoi, 1996), 107-32.
130
cuando alzaba el Sacerdote la hostia, le daban higas por debajo de la capa.51 These
disrespectful gestures during the consecration, he claims, make for gossip across the
Mediterranean. He attests to gathering this information from travelers returned from
Algiers who heard former Morisco inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula say, [q]ue
pensis vosotros, que cuando el Sacerdote alza all en vuestra Misa aquella tortica
blanca, que nosotros le hacemos oracin? Pues engaaos, que cada uno hace debajo de la
capa una higa.52 Garca Arenal gives evidence of many similar instances of alleged
Morisco disrespect for the Eucharist from the Archivo Diocesano de Cuenca. For
example, she notes that certain Moriscos purporedly strug Hosts on a cord and hung them
from a tree.53 The archived documents also suggest that a Morisco man expressed
outward disdain for the whole idea of the sacrament, stating, [m]ira que el cuerpo de
Dios no tengo ganas de comer.54 Another expressed disbelief in the consecration,
aruging that, la hostia no era sino un poco de harina amasada y que all no estaba Dios,
51
52
53
Archivo Diocesano de Cuenca, leg. 121, num. 1631. Quoted in Garca Arenal,
Inquisicin y moriscos, 103.
54
131
pues como iba a estar en algo que hace el sacristn.55 And when Morisco woman was
presented with the Host, she allegedly replied, [d]arselo a mi asno que est malo. 56
Bleda then attributes the same anecdote regarding crude gestures during the
consecration to a Valencian Morisco living in Argel named Izquierdo who adds that in
Elche haca uno esta higa, y levantaba la mano a la hora, que el Sacredote alzaba la
santa Hostia, al mismo compas, y cayndosele la capa, fue visto de todos. 57 This final
detail transforms the interpretation of what at first seems to be an individualized
disrespect and protest to a communal gesture in that the participant shared it with all of
the onlookers. The Moriscos therefore, Bleda argues, seek unity and solidarity in their
desecration of Catholic ritual space. They look to one another to join forces in enacting
the assault, hoping to destroy the entire institution.
Fonseca likewise expresses his disgust at what he views as the Morisco assault on
Catholic ritual, shuddering upon imagining the response of a pious person like St. John
Crysostom if he were to enter a church plagued in such a manner by reprobates. He
describes the Morisco churchgoers as blatantly disrespectful of sacred space, unos
echados por el suelo, otros vueltas las espaldas al altar, estos riendo, aquellos burlando, y
hablando en su algaraba, mofando de los oficios de nuestra Religin Catlica.58 He
55
56
57
Bleda, Crnica, 898.
58
132
goes as far as to accuse Morisco parents of pinching their children during solemn
moments in the Mass, y les hacan llorar; de manera que no se poda percibir palabra
alguna, dejndole al predicador dar voces en desierto, antes se cerraban algunas veces la
orejas, por no or la palabra de Dios.59 This particular act of defiance prevents those who
want to participate in the liturgy from doing so, thereby depriving the whole congregation
of the experience of the sacraments.
While the examples the apologists give of Morisco behavior during Mass seem
exaggerated, leading readers to wonder why Moriscos determined to wear soiled clothing
and endure childrens screams when they could have chosen to stay home, it is important
to note that Moriscos throughout the kingdoms were required to attend Mass or suffer
penalty. Ehlers notes that even Archbishop Ribera complained that the Moriscos had to
be bullied into coming to church under the threat of fines and that once they arrived they
disrespected the holy water, refused the Host, and plugged their ears during the
service.60 Fines, it would seem, were not the sort of incentives the initially optimistic
Ribera would have applied to entice Moriscos to participate in the faith. Lea similarly
refers to Valencian lords who sought to protect their [Morisco] vassals from the
ceaseless exactions of the alguaziles set over them to see that they attended mass
regularly, and to fine those who did not, or who worked on feast days. 61 These
59
60
61
Henry Charles Lea, A History of the Inquisition of Spain (London: Macmillan & Co.,
1907), 3:370.
133
demands, Cscar Pallars notes, included that Moriscos as young as seven years old
attend Mass at their parish church at least once a month, at which time the church rector
would take note of absences in order to punish the offenders.62
Fonseca suggests that Morisco disrespect for the holiest of sacraments transcends
crude gestures and obvious ridicule, expressed in subtleties of appearance. He asserts that
the Moriscos were determined to break the Churchs command that the faithful attend
Mass every Sunday and holy day, avoiding attendance whenever they could. When they
did attend Mass, he claims that they arrived in a state of disarray, consciously
acknowledging the reverence true believers had for Gods house and sacraments and
intentionally undermining that respect with disrespectful attire. He says that de propsito
se ponan aquellos das los vestidos mas andrajosos, las camisas, y cuellos mas sucios que
tenan.63 They stubbornly refused to bow their heads, kneel, or make the sign of the
cross with holy water, and instead enjugaban los dedos en las espaldas, y en lugares mas
indecentes.64
Time and again prelates had argued that the Moriscos were simply ignorant of
church laws and customs, lacking instructors and a catechism understandable to them.
The apologists use their treatises to present counterpoint to that argument, backed
wholeheartedly by a disenchanted Archbishop Ribera. He and the apologists maintain
62
Eugenio Cscar Pallars, Notas sobre la predicacin e instruccin religiosa de los

moriscos en Valencia a principios del siglo XVII. Estudis: Revista de historia moderna
15 (1989): 238.
63
64
134
that despite their own personal attempts at evangelizing the new converts, the Moriscos
were steadfast in their apostasy, even in the face of adequate instruction and patience on
the part of the clergy. Fonsecas examples highlighted above, therefore, serve to
emphasize the Moriscos intentional undermining of church laws. In order to show such
blatant disrespect and contempt for ritual space the apologists revere above all else, the
Moriscos must first understand or acknowledge the importance of Catholic sacramental
activity in order to intentionally desecrate it. In these instances, the apologists make
impossible Morisco ignorance of church custom.
The Moriscos further threaten the Eucharist, the apologists argue, by torturing and
murdering the Catholic priests through whom Christ consecrates His own body and blood
during the Mass. In targeting Catholic priests, or the sacrament of Holy Orders, the
Moriscos aim to destroy Catholicism at its roots, eliminating the people who make
possible the sharing of the consecration with the Catholic community. For the apologists,
the priests are the lifeblood of the sacraments: the people who hear confessions, perform
marriages and baptisms, and administer the sacrament of Extreme Unction. Aznar
Cardona speaks of the eminent role of priests when he refers to Exodus 29 and the Old
Testament consecration of priests. Here Scripture details the process by which Aaron and
his sons are to be consecrated as priests, offering round loaves of wheaten flour. 65
Aznar Cardona offers as his interpretation that
as queda probado que no habla all el Profeta del trigo material, ni de los
montes insensibles de tierra y peas (como lo entienden los ciegos Judos)
65
Exodus 29:2.
135
sino que cuando dice, In sumis montium, que en las coronitas de los
montes, se vera el pan, o mantenimiento vital, fue nombrar claramente a
los Sacerdotes, cuyas cumbres son sus cabezas, sobre las cuales vemos el
pan del cielo, y sustento de la vida en forma de pan.66
The priests, he argues, are a human link to the Divine, connecting the group of believers
with the promise of salvation after death. Guadalajara argues that the Moriscos
intentionally tried to sever the peoples link to God by manner of las crueldades que
ejecutaron en los pobres Cristianos, singularmente en personas Eclesisticas.67 He
proceeds to enumerate the gruesome ways in which the Moriscos allegedly tortured the
clergy, stating that the Moriscos dieron en quemarlos vivos, cortarles los brazos y pies,
sacarles los ojos, quitarles con intenssimos dolores los miembros, empalarlos, ponanles
plvora en la boca, y cebando la hacnales faltar las mejillas y sesos, con navajas les
hacan cruces en las cabezas.68
In a similar manner, Aznar Cardona states that por toda la Cristiandad, por cuyos
trminos extendidos sin lmite, Mahoma, y sus sectarios los Sarracenos, maltrataron, y
mataron con exquisitos vituperios y muertes, los Prelados venerados, y ungidos
Sacerdotes, vicedioses en la tierra.69 He gives as a specific example a priest who noted
on a list the names of certain Morisco families who had failed to attend Mass, claiming
that the Moriscos lo mataron en pago de haberles sido buen Cura.70 In other words, the
66
67
68
69
70
136
apologists interpretation is that the priest was a man targeted and killed solely for the
(rightful) practice his Catholic Christian faith. In another instance, Aznar Cardona claims
that several Moriscos colgaron un Religioso trinitario en un rbol que haba en medio la
plaza.71 He allegedly proceeded to sing Davids Psalms for three straight days before
expiring in his state of torture. It seems that the nature of this act of tying the priest to the
tree in the middle of the square is so public and so prolonged that it suggests, for Aznar
Cardona, an example of certain individuals in the Morisco community drumming up
support for an assault on Catholicism amongst their Morisco neighbors. At the same time,
this sort of public punishment gives the sense of warning to the rest of the Catholic
community, especially the clergy, that they might be next on the hit list. The apologists
harness accusations like these, therefore, to argue that together with defamation of the
Eucharist, the Moriscos cruel and grotesque elimination of Catholic clergy 72 represents
71
72
Cardaillac, Moriscos y cristianos, 307-8. According to Ehlers, Ribera noted that priests
rarely resided in Morisco areas, choosing instead to live among old Christians in
neighboring towns. The Archbishop saw this as a significant impediment to
evangelization, and Ehlers comments that Ribera was aware of Morisco reputation for
hostility toward the clergy. (Ehlers, Between Christians and Moriscos, 99.) Similarly,
Arroyas Serano and Gil Vicent cite a certain Doctor Fragos memorandum to the king
in1560 that states, Item se save que estos miserable Moriscos maltratan y aun matan a
los que les predican la palabra de Dios y doctrina evanglica, y quando mas no pueden
procuran de llevarlos cativos Allende como se sabe por esperiencia. (Magn Arroyas
Serrano and Vicent Gil Vicent, Revuelta y represin en los Moriscos castellonenses: el
proceso inquisitorial de Pedro Amn, morisco vecino de Onda (Onda: Ajuntament
dOnda, 1995), 35.) Garca Arenal gives specific evidence from the Archivo Diocesano
de Cuenca of Morisco ridicule of Catholic clergy, quoting a Morisco who referred to
priests as beasts, and another who allegedly stated, que el predicador cuando predicaba
pareca un pastor que estava dando bozes en el campo. (Garcia Arenal, Inquisicin y
moriscos, 104.) Cardaillac speaks of more violent resistance to priests, noting that varios
137
calculated destruction of the entirety of the Mass on which Christian Communion is
based.
In this vein, as a further sort of assault on Catholic sacred ritual, the apologists
accuse the Moriscos of attempting to destroy the religious community member by
member. In Matthew, we read that Christ defines his church for his followers, stating that
[f]or where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of
them.73 A church without priests and a church without members is, to the apologists, a
church defeated, making impossible the gathering of two or three people in the name of
God. The apologists therefore strive to give examples of the destruction of the churchs
individual members to demonstrate the Moriscos desire to bring about the collapse of the
faith from its foundation. For Bleda, this intention on the part of the Muslims to destroy
the Christian community had been evident since the very beginning when the first
Muslims arrived on the Peninsula in the eighth century. He notes, [d]e la otra maldad
que entre ellos se usaba, desde que vinieron a Espaa, queran matar a todos los
Cristianos, que podran a su salvosi los mataban a cada paso, era en odio de la Fe, y
porque los tenan por hombres impos, infieles, y tan malos que merecan cruel muerte,
textos sealan que el morisco obtendr favores celestiales si mata a un sacredote o a un

clrigo. But here he refers specifically to claims made by Aznar Cardona regarding the
Morisco uprising in the Alpujarras and not to actual Inquisitorial documentation.
(Cardaillac, Moriscos y cristianos, 307-308.) In his account of the Morisco rebellion in
the Alpujarras published in 1660, Prez de Hita claims that, lo primero que los moriscos
emprendieron fu quemar las iglesias, hazer pedazos los santos y las cruces, y matar con
crueles muertes los curas y sacristanes. (Gins Prez de Hita, Historia de las guerras
civiles de Granada, (Paris: Baudry, 1847), 206.)
73
Matthew 18:20.
138
sino reciban su secta.74 He also adds that the Muslim invaders savagely [a]rrebatauan
los nios de los pechos de sus madres, y los estrellauan en las paredes, 75 suggesting a
cruel destruction that knows no bounds, sacrificing weak and helpless infants. In addition
to killing Christians in their paths, Bleda accuses the early Muslim inhabitants of the
Peninsula of raping las sagradas Vrgenes, imitadoras de los ngeles, y Esposas de Jesu
Cristo. Hicieron fuerza a las Doncellas: abusaron de las Viudas continentes, y Casadas
castas.76 In characterizing the raped women in terms of their prized virginity, Bleda
stresses that Muslim behavior not only violated the women physically but also stained
their virginal status in the eyes of the Creator. This physical violence, therefore, becomes
not only an attack on the Christian community but also a direct affront to God Himself
and His creation.
In terms of Morisco attempted destruction of the Catholic community by means of
torture in their own time, Aznar Cardona gives an example of Moriscos rounding up a
group of Christian men, women, and children and confining them to a church where they
forced them, naked, a manera de collera de yeguas, to thresh abrojos, or thistles. If one
fell out of line, he notes, estauan los perros alrededor con almaradas, o punzones largos
y al que sala lo punzaba, y de esta manera anduvieron hasta que pararon los abrojos
como una paja muy trillada tanto que hubo testigo de vista que afirm, ser tanta la sangre
74
Bleda, Crnica, 898.
75
Bleda, Crnica, 173.
76
139
que cora, qe se pudiera amasar con ella la paja de los abrojos.77 Fonseca relates that
often times instead of killing Christians when they had the chance, Moriscos would
capture them, hiding them en cuevas que ya para este fin tenian hechas en lugares muy
desviados, y despus los vendan por esclavos a los Moros de Argel.78 In this regard,
Fonseca warns of the danger of being physically removed from Christian Spain and
transplanted into a Muslim world, resulting in the systematic breakdown, bit by bit, of the
Catholic Christian community.
Together these alleged acts of violence to Catholic sacramental activity constitute
for the apologists a direct attack on the integrity of the faith and therefore to their identity
as Christian Spaniards. Expulsion of the Moriscos, they argue, grants the sacred liturgy
and its critical practitioners the security to survive and thrive.
Sacred Structures
Don Felipe el Catlicoha defendido juntamente, la Fe Catlica, la Cruz
santsima, las imgenes santas, las benditas Iglesias, y todas las cosas sagradas,
de la injuria, del escarnio, del vituperio, de la irrisin, de la blasfemia, y del
sacrilegio sempiterno, de los hijos de perdicin, los herejes Moriscos.79
In addition to defending Catholic sacramental activity from Morisco destruction,
the apologists set out to call attention to the ways in which people of Muslim descent
have wreaked physical havoc on Spanish Catholic sacred objects and structures since
77
78
79
140
their initial arrival to the Iberian Peninsula in 711. Bleda states that from the earliest
moments of Arab invasion the entirety of Spain had been marked by Muslim attack of
objects of Christian devotion, to the point that a penas huvo ciudad Episcopal en Espaa,
que no fuese quemada, o asolada.80 He views attempted destruction of the Christian faith
as part and parcel to Arab takeover, noting por que en vindose los Moros seores de
esta tierra, quebrantaron la fe, y juramento, con que haban confirmado las condiciones,
que prometieron guardar, cuando les entregaban las ciudades.81 As such, the Muslim
invaders became to the apologists lobos devoradores y rabiosos,82 bent on sinking their
teeth into any Christian person or object that impeded their wholesale takeoverboth
political and religiousof the Peninsula. Aznar Cardona attributes destruction in Spain to
the legacy of Muhammad, who guerre incesablemente, siempre que pudo, aprofanando
los templos hacan de ellos Mezquitas execrables.83 He continues, stating that Muslims
had waged such iconoclastic war across their vastly growing empire, in which they
repeatedly asolaron y devoraron la sacra habitacin de Dios, y de los suyos, con hachas
y segures, u otros fuertes instrumentos, correspondiente al templo penetrante de su
rabiosa ira.84 Armed with heretical documents and issuing death threats, the Muslims
devoraron a los Cristianos, con estragos mortales, y crueldades atroces, empalando,
80
Bleda, Crnica, 173.
81
Bleda, Crnica, 173.
82
83
84
Aznar Cardona, Expulsin justificada. 1:145.
141
quemando, despeando, matando, y de mil maneras horribles los martirizando85 as they
fought to secure political control. With violence they overtook Christian land and
desterraron de ella el culto Divino, estableciendo la prfida secta del falso profeta,86
while at the same time introducing to the people tan perniciosas supersticiones. 87
With every conquest of a Christian church, he claims, the Muslims replaced
Christs cross with their victory flags, adornadas con sus hincados blasones.88 This
demonstrates the Muslims intention to replace Gods legitimate reign and power with the
tenets of their own sect, the fruits of Muhammads unauthorized creation. The apologists
allege that part of this Muslim takeover was the deliberate desecration of objects faithful
Christians venerated and held in high regard, suggesting outward hatred for Christianity
and a desire to not only control its adherents politically but also to strip them of their
ability to practice their faith. Aznar Cardona, for example, describes Muslim takeover of
Christian churches, claiming that such a process was accomplished by means of complete
disrespect for sacred Catholic places, profanndoles sus Oratorios, haciendo dellos
corrales de animales, cabaas de pastores, tugurios de hortelanos.89 Aznar Cardona notes
that the Muslims were likewise disrespectful of the solemnity of Catholic structures, en
medio de las Iglesias consagradas a la solemnidad de Dios, hizieron ellos sus fiestas y
85
86
Bleda, Crnica, 878.
87
Bleda, Crnica, 878.
88
89
142
recozijos, danzando, bailando, riendo, cantando, y ejecutando en las torpezas brutas, y
sacrilegos nefandos, adorando all al maldito Mahoma.90 However, the Granadan
Morisco Francisco Nez Muley, who in the sixteenth century argued against Christian
prohibition of Morisco cultural practices, would have taken issue with Aznar Cardonas
assertion that Muslim victory celebrations were somehow related to the adoration of
Muhammad. In chapter 2, I comment in greater detail on Nez Muleys written response
to Christian prohibitions on Morisco cultural expression. In this Memorandum, the
Morisco expressly refutes claims that the zambra, with its unique dancing and
instrumentation, was Islamic. Instead, he comments,
how can it be claimed that the zambra and its instruments are in some way
linked to the faith of the Muslims? They are not; rather, they are linked
only to merrymaking and celebrations. Credible information and proof
will not be found to contradict this point, for as I have said, the zambra
and its instruments are not related to Islam, but rather are customs rooted
in our kingdom and province.91
If such festivities were essential components of Muslim rite and ritual, he argues, they
would also be found in Muslim regions across North Africa or in Turkey, but their
conspicuous absence from such territories suggests that they are purely cultural in nature,
having nothing to do with the practice of Islam. Nez Muley also suggests that such
forms of merrymaking were in fact particular to Granada, perhaps the result of centuries
90
91
Francisco Nnez Muley, A Memorandum for the President of the Royal Audiencia and
Chancery Court of the City and Kingdom of Granada. Ed., trans.Vincent Barletta.
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2007), 77-9.
143
of cultural comingling in the region. As noted elsewhere,92 the apologists take pains to
equate Morisco cultural practice with religious rite. It would therefore seem that in this
instance, Aznar Cardonas description of festive church takeover on the part of the
eighth-century Muslims may have been an act of projecting current stereotypes onto
alleged historical reporting.
After Muslim forces established control of the Peninsula, Catholic Reconquista
victories reestablished Catholic churches and Christian control throughout much of
Spain. In spite of the rededication of Catholic structures, however, the apologists argue
that Catholic sacred space remained in danger of destruction so long as the converted
Moriscos remained in Spanish territory. The late sixteenth-century miracle of Our Lady
of Tobed, for example, in which a statue of the Virgin Mary began to sweat profusely,
provides supporting evidence to Aznar Cardona of the Moriscos continued culpas tan
ofensivas a la Virgen,93 As her tears and drops of perspiration indicate, her suffering in
the presence of alleged infidels had not disappeared in spite of conversions to
Christianity. Some offenses, Fonseca claims, were so horrendous that he intentionally
omits them from his diatribe, por no ofender con ellas los odos del pio lector.94
One of these offenses was alleged Morisco destruction of Christian crosses.
Revered as a symbol of the faith since the crucifixion, the true cross is said to have been
rescued for Christendom from Jerusalem in the fourth century by Saint Helena,
92
Chapter 2, Cultures in Contact.
93
94
144
Constantines mother.95 Devotion to the cross became increasingly pronounced in the
Medieval Church from the time of Helenas trip to Jerusalem through the eleventh
century,96 and Medieval Christendom was thus decorated with crosses as the faith spread
and took root throughout Europe. Bleda relates a prophecy in Constantinople in 609 as
described by St. Theodore Siceotes97 in which many such crosses moved of their own
accord, un movimiento estrao y espantable. 98 To the saintand likewise to the
apologistsuch unexplained movement was a symbol of foreboding, a prediction of
calamity. Bleda explains that
por aquella concusin de las Cruces, se nos sealan grandes males,
muchsimas molestias, y gravsimas calamidades, que habemos de
padecer: porque significa que muchos han de dejar nuestra santa Religin:
ha de haber bravas incursionas, y venidas de brbaras gentes, y mucho
derramamiento de sangre, incendios, muertes, y sediciones en todo el orbe,
y las santas Iglesias quedarn desiertas: y seala el acabamiento del culto
divino, y de el Imperio: y que se acerca la venida del Adversario.99
95
Antonio Martnez, El Da de la Cruz en Granada: noticias acerca de una celebracin

religiosa y popular, (Granada: Ayuntamiento de Granada, 2005), 5-12. Saint Helenas
retrieval of the true cross is commemorated by the Feast of the Holy Cross, originally
called the feast of the Finding of the Cross (May 3 rd). A similar holy day, the Exaltation
of the Cross, marks Heracliuss retrieval of the true cross from the Persians in the seventh
century (September 14th).
96
Jos Snchez Herrero, El origen de las cofradas penitenciales in Sevilla Penitente,

ed. Enrique Pareja Lpez, et al. (Seville: Editorial Gever, 1995), 21.
97
See also the account of Ambrose Lisle Phillips, Mahometanism in its Relation to
Prophecy: or, an Inquiry into the Prophecies Concerning Antichrist, with Some
Reference to their Bearing on the Events of the Present Day (London: Charles Dolman,
1855), 68-9.
98
Bleda, Crnica, 8.
99
Bleda, Crnica, 8.
145
As the crosses rise up, their strange and frightening movement suggests confusion,
uncertainty, and possible schism within the faith. This sign, according to the apologists,
alerts Christians to the possibility of their impending destruction, a symbol of greater
devastation to the faith by means of Muslimand later Moriscodestruction of Catholic
sacred structures. The prophecy warns Christians to make sense out of the confusion
symbolized by the cross and take action against Muslim destruction. Bleda sees the end
of the Spanish Catholic church foreshadowed in the Saints prediction, represented in the
Moriscos par excellence. Fonseca likewise claims that the Moriscos expressed their will
to destroy Christianity by attacking the Crucifix, the beginning phase of a campaign that
would signify the end of the faith. He states that displaying the cross was a holy symbol
the Moriscos simply would not tolerate,
pues no se pueden referir sin lgrimas, las injurias, y contumelias, que
cometan contra las cruces que halaban en los caminos, y aun mas en
particular, contra las que encontraban en despoblados, adonde no podan
ser vistos. Las unas derribaban por el suelo, otras volvan de arriba a
abajo, estas escupan, les daban de coces, aquellas acuchillaban, y aun
algunas hacan astillas para el fuego.100
This alleged Morisco desire to destroy the Crucifix, particularly in abandoned towns,
suggests for the apologists that Christian imagery was so repugnant to the Moriscos and
so antithetical to their spiritual being (or lack therefore) that they could not coexist with
it. This idea highlights the apologists greater mission to portray the impossible
cohabitation of Christian and crypto-Muslim, justifying the expulsion for the protection
of Christian identity.
100
146
According to the apologists, such physical destruction of the cross inspired
Christians to reconsider their production methods, de suerte que teman los Cristianos
labrarlas de madera, y as las hacan de piedra y an de hierro para que pudiesen resistir a
los golpes con que las heran.101 In her study of archival documents in Cuenca, Garca
Arenal cites various examples of alleged Morisco disdain for the cross, including an
instance in which Morisco prisoners sacan pajas de sus colchones, hacen cruces con
ellas, y las pisotean en el suelo.102 She also quotes a document that claims that several
Moriscos took the body of a decesased Christian amortajada y la boca haca abajo y un
aspa en las espalda a manera de cruz sobre las nalgas por hazer escarnio y burla de la
dicha cruz.103 Such treatment of the cross suggests not only a desire to destroy the object
but also acknowledges Christian sensitivity to its treatment.
Fonseca similarly claims that the Moriscos could not stand to see crosses painted
on walls, and as a symbol of ultimate disrespect and disdain, las entallaban en los
ladrillos del suelo de sus casas, por hollarlas frecuentemente.104 Bleda gives similar
examples of desecration of the cross, stating that [c]ontra la santa Cruz eran tambin
muy injuriosos estos sus enemigos: perseguan las que estaban en las salidas de los
lugares, y por los nimos apedrebanlas, dbanles de cuchilladas, derribuanlas,105
101
102
Garcia Arenal, Inquisicin y moriscos, 103.
103
Archivo Diocesano de Cuenca, leg. 290, num. 4068. Quoted in Garcia Arena,
104
105
Bleda, Crnica, 899.
147
noting that in some places it was necessary hacerlas de hierro: para que durasen.106 He
also accuses the Moriscos of slashing crosses with their scimitars, lamenting such
sacrilegious abuse to the symbol of el estandarte imperial de Cristo, calling for its
defense on Spanish soil.107 Referring to the cross as Christs imperial seal further
highlights the apologists position that Christianity lays rightful claim on the Spanish
empire. The apologist therefore asserts that Christ remains emperor-in-chief of all who
reside there, aiming to conquer them once and for all for the Christian faith. The
conscious use of the term alfanje for the Moriscos weapon of choice is another example
of imbuing cultural practice with religious significance, alluding to Muslim destruction of
Christianity. In choosing a weapon charged with ethnic connotationsin this case a
decidedly Arabian sword with a curved bladethe apologists seek to link the Moriscos
to a cultural and religious tradition independent of the tools everyday practical
applications in Morisco Spain. To destroy a Christian cross with a scimitar is, in the
apologists minds, deeply emblematic of the Moriscos inherent cultural and religious
opposition to Christianity, a further phase in the symbolic war between the sects. In his
study of Catholic feasts devoted to the cross and their celebration in Granada, Martnez
observes that in this vein, Granadan Christians displayed the cross as a symbol of
Christian victory during moments in history en que Granada an tena abiertas las
heridas por la sublevacin de los moriscos (1568-1570).108 Likewise, when Christians
106
Bleda, Crnica, 899.
107
Bleda, Crnica, 899.
108
Martnez, El Da de la Cruz en Granada, 32.
148
feared Muslim contamination of Christian doctrine following the discovery of the Libros
Plmbeos in the late sixteenth century, they decorated the hillside and path leading up to
it with crosses.109 In this way, the cross becomes a symbol of Christian solidarity in
defense of the faith against a perceived Morisco threat.
Bleda is so offended by Morisco destruction of crosses that he had initially
proposed to the king the creation of una Hermosa hermandad, y cofrada de la Cruz, y
por su industria quedaron las santas Cruzes defendidas, y vengadas de aquellos sacrlegos
hereges que las infestaban de continuo.110 But of course removing the Moriscos from
Spain altogether solved the problem more completely, and he rejoices that ya hemos
sacado la Cruz de las ofensas que le hacan los Moriscos.111 This proposed brotherhood
seems to be a sort of offshoot of the Order of Santiago, a quasi-militaristic defender of
the Catholic faith and institution Bleda deems most admirable. 112
The apologists accuse the Moriscos of treating other Catholic religious images in
similar manners to their alleged disrespect of Christian crosses. Fonseca, for example,
describes Morisco display of images of the saints in their homes according to Church
mandate as laden with the appearance of purposeful and blasphemous neglect, mal
puestas, unas veces de lado, otras cabeza abajo, llenas de suciedad, de telaraas, y
rasgadas: escupanlas, dbanles nombres de oprobrio, y les hacan otras semejantes
109
Martnez, El Da de la Cruz en Granada, 32-7.
110
Bleda, Crnica, 981.
111
Bleda, Crnica, 981.
112
For further discussion of Santiago, see Chapter 1, Parameters for the Faith.
149
afrentas.113 Similar to the manner in which the apologists characterize Morisco neglect
of appearance when attending compulsory mass, Fonseca highlights what he views as
crypto-Muslim silent protest of Catholic dogma.
It would appear that destruction of sacred objects by fire offended the apologists
more than any other type of physical violence because of fires all-consuming nature and
resulting total annihilation. They speak of rebellious Moriscos in Granada burning all of
the towns
por donde pasaban, en particular los suyos donde eran naturalesY
aunque era este notable atrevimiento, lo que mas nos llegaba al alma, y no
se puede escribir sin muy grande sentimiento, es que como herejes
perversos, ningn respeto guardaban los templos, las imagines santas,
ni a los clices, y ornamentos sacerdotales que hallaban en las sacristas,
antes derribaban las Iglesias, acuchillaban las cruces, quemaban los
Santos, profanaban las vestiduras sacras.114
These blatant acts of physical destruction, he claims, are more sacrilegious than any acts
committed by any crusading Moors of Algiers or Turks from Constantinople, who were
more likely, at least in the apologists opinions, to steal such items. Burning Christian
images rather than claiming them for oneself suggests to the apologists a complete
disdain for the church on the part of the Moriscos. It is also important to note that the
apologist accuses the Moriscos of burning their own home towns, suggesting that their
destruction is cruel, ruthless, and knows no bounds. This destruction, they intimate, is
even more threatening to Spanish Christendom than external Muslim advance from the
Ottoman Empire for its desire to completely annihilate Christianity from its roots. It can
113
114
150
be sharply contrasted with, for example, Aznar Cardonas characterization of initial
Muslim conquest in the Peninsula, whereby crusading forces stole priceless artifacts and
profited from them,
habindose hallado en Babilonia, la de Caldea, tal copia de ellas, que a
penas en todo lo dems del mundo se pudieran hallar otras tantas; y entre
ellas pienso haba muchsimas de Espaa, robadas, de cuando la ganaron
al Rey don Rodrigo. Sin duda que estaran all juntas, todas las de Espaa,
las de frica, y de otros Reinos; y as fueron innumerables, y las ms
preciosas que en el mundo haba: porque se sabe que robaron la cama real
de los Godos, que estaba en Toledo, de donde llevaron la mesa de
Salomn, tan rica, y de tan preciosa material, como la alaban, que era toda
de Esmeraldas; y un cntaro de Aljfar, sin los dems ornamentos: y otro
cntaro de Esmeralda, que hallaron en Mrida.115
He claims that the Moriscos Muslim ancestors had assumed the riches for themselves,
thereby assigning to the sacred objects monetary value, legitimizing their significance
and importance. The Moriscos, on the other hand, allegedly devastated the images in
their entirety, expressly rejecting their value, both monetary and spiritual.
I would also offer that the apologists express a concernalthough more
indirectover Spanish Christendoms ability to continue the practice of revering God
through sacred images and objects when they criticize alleged Morisco hoarding of
Spanish wealth. The splendor of Catholic images had been a means of measuring
reverence and piety dating back to the Middle Ages when prosperous guilds and religious
brotherhoods donated money to fund the production of such items. 116 Religious images
and objects were costly. Replacing them after alleged Morisco destruction would be
115
116
Eire, War Against the Idols, 13-4.
151
difficult, particularly if the Moricos also threatened the Christian communitys finances
in other ways. Quoting the Archbishop, for example, Fonseca refers to the Moriscos as
la esponja de toda la riqueza de Espaa, y as es sin duda que ay grandsima cantidad de
oro, y plata en su poder.117 The Archbishop and the apologists likewise accuse the
Moriscos of fabricating false currency, as discussed in greater detail in Chapter 4. These
coins made of low-quality metals Fonseca asserts were designed to deceive Christians,
porque los mezclaban con los Buenosy como hallaban muchos que ciegos con la
avaricia, aceptaban el cambio, banse desta suerte apoderando poco poco de toda la
plata del Reino, y llevndolo de moneda falsa.118 For Fonseca, this machination on the
part of the Moriscos was designed entirely para acabar de destruir el Reino, de plata, y
de oro.119 The Moriscos also purportedly contribute to this destroying the kingdom of its
riches in devastating monetarily valuable Christian objects. As a result of Morisco
circulation of false currency, the apologists would argue, the kingdoms hardly possess the
wealth to replace the items lost to Morisco destruction.
All of these forms of physical destruction of Catholic structures and objects, the
apologists argue, are emblematic of an attack on the Heavenly Father and His celestial
kingdom. For example, Aznar Cardona gives a list of Morisco crimes against
Christianity, each time equating destruction on earth with destruction of Gods kingdom.
He states that the Moriscos [a]solaron los Monasterios, vergeles del Paraso: violaron las
117
118
119
152
sagradas Vrgenes, imitadoras de los ngeles, y Esposas de Jesu Cristo[a]rrojaron
furiosos las Reliquias de los cuerpos santos, que fueron Templos vivos del Espritu
Santo.120 Each act of terrestrial destruction corresponds to a heavenly counterpart,
suggesting that destruction on earth is mere devastation in effigy of Gods Paradise, or
the future of the Christian community. The apologists argue that the Moriscos receive
their comeuppance of a sort for attacks on Gods kingdom when they are exiled to North
Africa. There many of the destructive crimes they allegedly committed on Spanish soil
are visited upon them in the Maghreb. Fonseca notes to this effect that the Moriscos were
shocked by the barren land they encountered across the Mediterranean, in comparison to
the lush, fertile land they had enjoyed in Spain. He states that cuando los miserables
desterrados, descubrieron bien la aspereza de la tierra donde entraban, aquellos montes
fragosos, e infructferos; los arenales desiertos, e inhabitables por donde caminaban,121
the Moriscos were thus punished for wreaking havoc and destruction in Gods chosen
Spanish land, forcibly removed from it and forced to endure the hardship of its polar
opposite. Bleda refers to their confrontation with North Africa as expulsion from earthy
paradise a la mayor desventura que les poda acaecer.122 Moreover, the Moriscos found
themselves face to face with violent persecution, sujetos gente rabe, y bestial, que
era imposible que no matasen a unos, robasen a otros, y deshonrasen sus mujeres.123
120
121
122
Bleda, Crnica, 981.
123
153
Bleda seems to think that the Moriscos should have expected nothing less in being
handed over a crueles verdugos de su misma ley, y creca.124 The torture they
experience on earth at the hands of other Muslims is a sure sign to the apologists of their
ultimate eternal damnation.125
A Threat to National Identity

In Henry Kamens recent examination of Spanish identity, Imagining Spain:
Historical Myth & National Identity,126 on the very first page of the first chapter the
author states that historians agree
that the myth of Spain as a nation was born around 1808 or 1812. The
exact date is not important, for there is general accord about the
significance of that decade. The army of revolutionary France had
occupied the peninsula and eventually dethroned its king, setting up
Napoleons brother Joseph as the new ruler. On 2 Maycelebrated by
some as the beginning of Spains independencethe people of Madrid
and other towns rose against the foreign troops. If a common enemy can
help people to bond together and form a nation, then Spain had a good
124
Bleda, Crnica, 1021.
125
There is certainly evidence that this point of view did not resonate with all Christian
Spaniards, and several literary accounts of the era suggest a certain sympathy on the part
of Old Christians with the plight of their former Morisco neighbors. For a discussion of
Cervantess character Ricote and sympathy for Moriscos exiled from their homeland, see
Hitchcock, Cervantes, Ricote and the Expulsion of the Moriscos, 175-85. For a
discussion of a curious sympathy for the Moriscos in the Calderons drama, see Margaret
Rich Greer, The Politics of Memory in El Tuzan de la Alpujarra in Rhetoric and
Reality in Early Modern Spain, ed. Richard J. Pym (Rochester: Tamesis, 2006), 113-130.
For a discussion of similar sympathetic leanings in Juan Rufos La Austriada, see
Elizabeth B. Davis, Myth and Identity in the Epic of Imperial Spain, (Columbia:
University of Missouri Press, 2000), 61-97.
126
Henry Kamen, Imagining Spain: Historical Myth & National Identity (New Haven:
Yale University Press, 2008).
154
opportunity to emerge as one when it faced the occupying French army
that kept Joseph Bonaparte on the thrown.127
These particular historians ascribe wholeheartedly to a modernist vision of nationalism,
taking their cues from pioneers in the study of nation-building and formation as a product
of the modern era.128 In this line of thought, the nation is an impossible concept before
the nineteenth century when secular revolutionary movements sought to replace religious
governing, giving birth to the nation of the modern era. It is a vision of nation formation
with which H. Eric R. Olson129 takes issue, suggesting that episodes of pre-modern
patriotism suggest that the theoretical insistence on the novelty and modernity of
nationalism creates an unjustifiable and unnecessary breach with the past. 130
Like Olson, Liah Greenfeld,131 Adrian Hastings,132 and Anthony D. Smith133
dispute the modernist nation-building paradigm, arguing that a sense of community
drives nationalistic fervor, and such sentiment is evident among communities that
127
Kamen, Imagining Spain, 1.
128
See, for example, Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the

Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1983); Ernest Gellner, Nations and
Nationalism (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983); Eric J. Hobsbawm, Nations and
Nationalism Since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 1990).
129
H. Eric R. Olson, The Calabrian Charlatan, 1598-1603: Messianic Nationalism in

Early Modern Europe (New York: Palgrave, 2003).
130
Olson, Calabrian Charlatan, 21.
131
Liah Greenfeld, Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity (Cambridge: Harvard

University Press, 1992).
132
Adrian Hastings, The Construction of Nationhood: Ethnicity, Religion and

Nationalism (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
133
Anthony D. Smith, Chosen Peoples (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).
155
imagined themselves as cohesive units long before the dawn of the modern era. These
scholars, who believe in the nations more primordial origins, shed light on the
apologists early modern nationalistic sensibilities as they make appeals to their
audiences patriotic spirit. As we have seen in the discussion of the apologists
construction of Spain as a Catholic nation from its roots in Chapter 1, the apologists
begin to assert their vision of the cohesive Spanish Catholic community by designating
Spain as the protected land of Gods chosen people. The destruction of sacred spaces
discussed in this chapter represents to the apologists a direct threat to their identity as
Spaniards. Spain is, as Aznar Cardona states, tierra de Catlicos,134 a chosen people
whose mission is to protect Gods kingdom on earth and safeguard Catholicismthe
truth faithfrom any threat to its integrity. Aznar Cardona claims that in this Godordained endeavor, Christian Spaniards had hitherto proven themselves worthy of the
task. Spain had successfully preserved her Christian faith in spite of numerous threats,
protecting her God-granted preeminence. The Morisco expulsion is therefore the final
phase in the great Reconquista project, capable of permanently sealing off Spains
borders and protecting it once and for all as a Catholic nation. Aznar Cardona therefore
imagines the Spanish Catholic nation as now pure, untainted, and whole when he praises
his homelands valiant efforts at defending the faith. He states, O Catlica
Espaaconservaste no obstante eso, tus moradores (con el favor del Cielo) tan puros en
134
156
la Fe Cristiana, tan firmes, tan sin mezcla de secta alguna, tan Catlicos, y tan obedientes
a la Iglesia Romana, como si jams infiel alguno hubieras visto.135
Olson terms this critical component of national identity chosenness, observing
that the feeling of being a member of a selected group creates the sense of cultural
solidarity, the imagining of community, the willingness to die for that community. 136
For Smith, being selected and forming part of the covenant are part of the sacred
foundations137 of national identity, a topic which Maginer discusses at length as a means
of placing the Spanish apologists within the larger cultural context of their self-concept as
Gods preeminent elect.138 In this vein, Guadalajara refers to the Spanish as queridos de
Dios.139 He likewise states that as such,
los mas que dichosos pueblos de Espaa, por la Fe Catlica de Jesu Cristo
nuestro Seor y Redentor (tan arraigada y bien fundada en ellos) los ha
Dios siempre tenido por tan propios suyos. Que los ha regalado con tan
extraordinarios regalos, como es notorio: y dado uno de sus mas queridos
Apstoles por Patrn y defensor, y su primo en sangre, por recta lnea de
aquella insigne y generoso de su Real y divino Profeta; y tan celoso en
ensalzar con sus gentes Catlicas esta divina Fe en todo el mundo: para
que con la espada en la mano, se mostrase siempre en su ayuda y defensa
en las batallas, que han tenido con los barbaros infieles a su divina ley.140
Spanish Catholics therefore have at their disposal all of the necessary (and God-given)
tools with which to preserve their community. The challenge, the apologists postulate, is
135
136
Olson, Calabrian Charlatan, 24-5.
137
Smith, Chosen Peoples, 5; 44-65; 66-94.
138
Magnier, Pedro de Valencia, 49-84.
139
Guadalajara y Javier, Prodicin y destierro, 11.
140
157
to recognize the need to use those tools in defense of the nation. As they work to
demonstrate the extent to which the Church is under duress, they hope to stress to their
audience the imminent danger to Spains nationhood.
To Smith, the Biblical underpinnings of this mode of self-perception go without
saying. He states that throughout the course of his research on national identities,
Old Testament beliefs in chosen peoples and sacred territories were a
continual source of inspiration and language for a dynamic providential
history among so many Christian peoples in Europe and America; and that
in turn was vital for their growing sense of national identity in the early
modern epoch. The religious aspect, rooted in the Hebrew Bible, appeared
therefore to complement and reinforce their sense of common ethnicity. 141
Hastings adds that it was through translations of the Bible into the vernacular that such a
sense of community was able to develop. He states that [o]nce an ethnicitys vernacular
becomes a language with an extensive living literature of its own, the Rubicon on the
road to nationhood appears to have been crossed. 142 The apologists appear to see the
truths of their own sacred writings in direct competition with the Morisco Other, as Aznar
Cardona observes when he states that the Moriscos peruirtier a muchos, con documtos
ereticos.143 The apologists fight to preserve Spanish national identity therefore becomes
a battle of texts. The winners creed will bind the community together in religious unity,
forming the basis of national identity.
141
Smith, Chosen Peoples, viii.
142
Hastings, Construction of Nationhood, 12.
143
158
Together scholars of nationalism like Smith and Hastings make religion an
inextricable component of nation-formation, and the Spanish apologists would certainly
agree. Fonseca asserts that unity is essential for nationhood, [p]rimeramente, orculo es
de la primera verdad, que por serlo, ni puede engaar, ni ser engaada, que cualquier
Reino donde hay divisin, se perder, porque as como el cuerpo, cuyos humores se
conciertan mal entre si, est muy ocasionada y, muy vecino a la enfermedad, y a la
muerte, as el Reino dividido. While any division in the kingdom is dangerous, none is
more fatal than that of religion. According to Fonseca, Y aunque la divisin en todas
materias es muy perniciosa para conservarse una Repblica; pero ninguna mayor, ni ms
peligrosa, que la divisin concerniente a la Religin, porque como por la Religin
estemos obligados, a perder todo lo por defensa de la Religin que profesa, arrisgar todo
lo dicho.144 He states that the kingdom that admits division will be destroyed, 145 calling
religion el nervio, y atadura de los Reinos, y Estados, y as dividindose, o
quebrantndose esta, es fuerza que ellos tambin se dividan, y acaben: como de hecho se
acaban los Reinos, que permiten herejes sin ser castigados.146
The goal of the apologists texts, therefore, is to highlight the peril in which the
chosen people of the sacred Spanish Catholic nation find themselves when threatened by
religious division in the kingdom. Bleda worries that the immaculate faith cannot survive
while under duress in Spain, noting en cuan grande peligro estaba Espaa, siendo desta
144
145
146
159
manera escarnecido, e injuriado el Santsimo Sacramento en ella, donde tanto floreci
siempre la Fe y su devocin: y cuan grande misericordia de Dios fue, no habernos
acabado a todos por tan horrendos sacrilegios. 147 With Morisco destruction of its sacred
structures and sacramental activity and the threat to Catholicism of Reformation
destruction of images, the true faith saw itself relegated to el Rincn ms Catlico tan
llena de estos apstatas Mahometanos148 in Spain. The apologists argue that valiant
efforts had been made bring the converted Moriscos into the foldwhat Bell149 refers to
the universal Christian community that preaches the salvation of all of its members. But
the Moriscos, through continued apostasy, had proven themselves to exist unashamedly
outside the confines of this Christian community. To the apologists, the Moriscos
represent a living threat, committing notorious crimes in the midst of true Christians.
Aznar Cardona states they committed these crimes, estando entre nosotros con ttulo de
Cristianos, poseyendo nuestras tierras, mantenidos, de los frutos que gozar debiramos
los Catlicos.150 He asserts, therefore, that the Moriscos take away from Catholics the
full benefits of the national community entitled to them. Aznar Cardona argues for the
Moriscos complete inability to assimilate, stating ni el ms eloquente podra contar, los
desconociertos, las torpezas, y conversaciones nacidas del brbaro modo de criarse sin
147
Bleda, Crnica, 898.
148
Bleda, Crnica, 972.
149
David A. Bell, The Cult of the Nation in France: Inventing Nationalism 1680-1800
(Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2001), 47-8. Bell argues that the nascent French
nation of the Revolution retained many such Catholic foundational elements that set it
apart from the Protestant ideals of early modern England.
150
160
disciplina y sin enseanza poltica y doctrina de bien vivir.151 In actively rejecting its
embrace, the apologists argue, the Moriscos deserve exclusion. And as the governor of
the chosen people, the responsibility for cleansing the realm rests with the monarch,
Philip III.
The king is therefore entrusted with the defense of Spains Catholic identity and
the protection of sacred space from further assault. Aznar Cardona refers to Philip III as
Rey escogido, dado de la mano de Dios, por legtima sucesin y herencia, derecho cabal
para Reinar legtimamente, ajeno de toda usurpacin y tirana, aproado por la Iglesia
Catlica, y por sus leyes justas.152 He is legtimo y querido, aprobado por el tribunal del
mismo Dios, la Iglesia romana, que aprueba por derecho legtimo para Reinar, la legtima
decadencia en el Reino, por lnea hereditaria de fieles y obedientes a Dios, que reconocen
a la Iglesia romana por cabeza; y en esto excede nuestro Rey Felipe, por antigedad y
nobleza, a todos los Reyes del mundo.153 As such he is symbolized by the angel
guardian of paradise or by Joshua, captain of the Lords army. 154
Philips role is to protect Spains borders, to defend it from the entrance of
outsiders who contaminate the purity of the Catholic faith, and to protect the Spanish
Catholic nation. Aznar Cardona describes Philip, therefore, as a cortesano celestial,
protector del Paraso terreno, en cuya potente mano, estaba aquel montante de dos
151
152
153
154
161
afilados cortes, para defender la entrada de aquel lugar deleitoso a los malos espritus, y a
los hombres desterrados por indignos del. 155 Philip is Rey nuestro, Salvaguardia y
ampara del Paraso Espiritual, de la Iglesia Cristiana, Tutor y pacificador de la repblica,
Protector de los opresos, Conservador de las leyes divinas, y humanas, Guerreador
belicoso por las causas al honor de Dios anexas, y Mantenedor de la justicia Enfrenador y
domador de los nimos feroces y bestiales, y de los pueblos, y gentes insolentes, que
abusaron de la benignidad.156 For as Fonseca states, la mayor honra de todas es la
compaa de los fieles.157
155
156
157
Chapter Four:
A Culture of Fear
A Difficult Decision
The apologists treatises justifying the expulsion of Spains Moriscos are hardly
the stuff of street-level political propaganda: pamphlets that fit neatly into pockets,
intended for mass circulation. All of the works under consideration here span at least
several hundred large-format folios, Bledas Crnica tipping the scales at nearly 1200
pages. The works are dedicated to an elite audience of important political figures
including King Philip III himself, and all universally proclaim the uncompromised
success of the expulsion campaign. While expressing their own unwavering promotion of
the decision, the authors praise clergy and royal advisors whose efforts directly affected
the kings decision to formally issue the 1609 expulsion decree. Why, then, did clerics
like Aznar Cardona undertake the task of composing such weighty treatises justifying an
event they deemed so unequivocally laudable? Some answers to this perplexing question
can most likely be found in political debates that preceded the official expulsion decree
that continued well into the actual process of deporting the Morisco refugees.
Expulsion was first discussed and entertained during the reign of Philip II, but the
monarchs attention and resources always seemed to lie elsewhere, caught up with
political unrest in the Netherlands and armada missions to England. His ultimate decision
to see the Moriscos converted and incorporated into the larger Spanish Catholic society,
162
163
however uncommitted he proved to be in procuring actual results, passed along to his son
Philip III. The new king likewise opted to give the Moriscos another chance at
assimilation.1 At the beginning of his reign, he gave the Moriscos a grace period in which
to mend their ways, later becoming discouraged when complete conversion was nowhere
in sight. Over the course of the next decade, as in the final decades of Philip IIs reign,
meeting after meeting of royal councilors and theologians failed to bring about a
unanimously applauded resolution to the Morisco conundrum. Theologians continued to
debate the morality of expelling baptized Christians while royal advisors differed in their
opinions regarding the danger the Moriscos represented to Spains safety. To further
complicate matters, influential people who had once supported the Moriscos continued
presence in Spain on either religious or economic grounds experienced drastic changes of
heart. Archbishop Ribera, for example, the real mouthpiece of the expulsion, had begun
his tenure advocating for a true conversion of the Moriscos, welcoming them into the
Christian fold. It was only after years of failed conversion attempts that his optimism
began to sour and he started championing wholesale expulsion. In a similar manner, prior
to the Duke of Lermas appointment as chief advisor to the king, the then Marquis of
Denia initially opposed the expulsion on the grounds that it would devastate Valencias
economy. Home to his family and his estate, many of his financial interests lay in Denia
along the Valencian Mediterranean coast where he was landlord to many Morisco
1
James B. Tueller, Good and Faithful Christians, 97-8. Tueller notes that when a junta
of theologians convened in 1581 recommended concrete measures to further the
conversion efforts, including building churches and punishing Morisco alfaques who
violated regulations, Philip II ignored the recommendations.
164
workers.2 Williams3 and Feros4 suggest that in spite of his land holdings in Valencia,
Lerma took great pride in his Old Castilian heritage, hoping that as his wealth and
prestige would increase as a result of his influence at court. His true economic interests,
therefore, were intimately tied to his success in Castile, where economic gain would rid
him of generations of debt his family accrued. He became the kings most influential
supporter of expulsion, softening his views on the potential impact on Valencia and
proposing that lords once reliant on Morisco labor would benefit from purchase of
Morisco estates. Harvey asserts that the Duke of Lermas turnaround was the most
significant political development of the late sixteenth century with regard to the
Moriscos,5 offering the potential to enslave Morisco males as possible incentive for the
avaricious Duke.6
Philip III, greatly influenced by Lermas sudden change of heart at the turn of the
century, went on to advocate for expulsion, often making marginal notes in government
documents recording the discussions that indicated his new resolve. 7 Yet time and again
expulsion orders were delayed, and it was an entire decade before the first ship set sail
2
Patrick Williams, Lerma, Old Castile and the Travels of Philip III of Spain, History
73 (1988): 379-97.
4
Antonio Feros, Kingship and Favoritism in the Spain of Philip III, 1598-1621 (New
York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 32-47.
5
Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 297.
Tueller, Good and Faithful Christians, 141. He notes that documents from the Archivo
General de Simancas indicate that the king had written phrases such as den calor a ello,
desse mucha prisa, and con todo el calor possible in reference to Morisco expulsion.
165
with Morisco refugees aboard. Lack of conviction likewise characterized the entire
expulsion process. As officials carried out each phase of the expulsion from 1609 to
1614, the king and his advisors began to realize that they had created what Tueller calls a
governmental nightmare.8 As early as 1580, a then-tentative Archbishop Ribera had
remarked on the logistical difficulties of expelling such a large segment of the population
en masse. His fears proved entirely justified as unrest and anxiety increased among Old
Christians and Moriscos alike. Old Christians took advantage of the vulnerable Moriscos,
stealing from them, attacking them, and sexually assaulting the women in spite of the
kings command that the Moriscos depart unharmed. 9 The huge influx of exiles in Oran
led the Spanish commandant to request that new waves of Moriscos be sent elsewhere, as
he already had some 22,000 with which to contend.10 Meanwhile, on the home front,
Moriscos in Castile and Granada began to petition the court, hoping to prove their status
as faithful Christians before they too were expelled.11 In addition, confusion arose over
how to accurately identify Moriscos, with some lords and clergy members claiming that
their Moriscos were true converts to Christianity, others claiming that theirs were so
wholly integrated into the community that it was impossible to find defining features that
set them apart as Moriscos.12 After the Valencian expulsion was deemed complete,
Tueller, Good and Faithful Christians, 157.
10
11
12
Tueller, Good and Faithful Christians, 159-60, 201-18.
166
Aragonese nobles began to protest, fearing their Moriscos were next on the expulsion
agenda.13 The kings response to the ensuing chaos was bureaucratic backtracking. His
resulting series of exceptions to expulsion decrees stipulations regarding whom should
be expelled and what he or she could bring with along were designed to calm the waters
at home, but they confused Old Christians and Moriscos alike, and certainly inspired
anxiety in the apologists.14
The apologists, who wholeheartedly backed any decision that would result in the
spiritual and ethnic cleansing of the realm,15 wrote their treatises in a climate of upheaval
in which no decision seemed easy or final. In writing their tracts while the expulsion was
in full-swing, political unrest and wavering on the kings part suggest that they had
reason to fear a large-scale return to Spain of the exiled Moriscos. In this chapter,
therefore, I argue that the apologists attempt to effect a permanent sealing of Spains
borders by employing tactics designed to inspire fear of this potential danger. To
accomplish this goal, the apologists appeal to the Christian Spaniards very basic instinct
for physical safety and survival as well as to Catholic fears of the end of days and eternal
damnation that were prevalent in early modern Christian society. In harnessing common
secular and spiritual fears, the Catholic apologists aim to inspire their audience into
political actionan appeal that we recognize as a staple of politics and governing both in
13
14
Tueller, Good and Faithful Christians,159-63.
15
For further reading on violence and fear of miscegenation amongst religious and ethnic
groups in Spain, see David Nirenberg, Communities of Violence, Persecution of
Minorities in the Middle Ages (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996).
167
our own time and in the centuries that separate our era from the seventeenth-century
Morisco expulsion.
Economic Distress
Spains economic distress lay at the heart of many of the political debates
concerning the Moriscos and clearly added to the apologists fears of the inevitability of
Morisco return. The splendor of the early sixteenth-century Spanish economy was built,
as John Lynch observes, on the twin foundations of land and silver, Castilian agriculture
and American mining.16 Colonizing endeavors in the New World supplied by agrarian
efforts on the home-front had resulted in incomparable wealth for the Castilian court,
funding Philip IIs extensive and expensive imperialistic enterprises in Europe. When
kingship passed into the hands of Philips son in 1598, the new King Philip continued his
fathers legacy of lavish spending, only with fewer political ambitions. By the turn of the
seventeenth century, the Spanish economy had bankrupted itself several times over,
manipulating Castilian currency and borrowing in excess from foreign lenders. As the
Mexican and Peruvian economies evolved, requiring fewer agricultural products from
Spain and more manufactured goods, Spains once tightly-controlled and profitable
16
John Lynch, The Hispanic World in Crisis and Change, 1598-1700 (Oxford:
Blackwell, 1992), 1. For more on the early modern Spanish economy see Antonio
Domnguez Ortiz, La Sociedad espaola en el siglo XVII (Madrid: Instituto Balmes de
Sociologa, 1963), and J.H. Elliott, Imperial Spain, 1469-1716 (New York: St. Martins
Press, 1964).
168
relationship with its colonies became less stable, unable to keep up with the new
demands.
At the same time that the once-powerful Spanish economy began to crumble, the
Jewish community in Portugal came under increased scrutiny with the birth of a separate
Portuguese Inquisition in 1547. Even though Philip II had united the two crowns in 1580,
the inquisitions remained distinct entities, its Portuguese incarnation proving ruthless in
the trial of Jews and conversos.17 Many of these Jews, whose ancestors had been expelled
from Spain in the late fifteenth century, began seeking asylum in the neighboring Spanish
kingdoms. Refuge in Spain, however, came at a price, and after numerous costly wars
and other expenditures, the bankrupt Spanish court willingly took monetary bribes from
displaced Jews in exchange for their safety. Nolan notes that Philip III was so
overwhelmed by the debts his father had incurred that the pope authorized him in 1602 to
accept a bribe of 1,860,000 ducats from a wealthy Jewish exile. In exchange for this
handsome gift, the pope granted general pardon to Judaizers who sought refuge in
Spain.18 And so it came to be that the Jews, thought to have been expelled once and for
all from Spanish soil, were back. Court bankruptcy had proven a powerful enough force
for Church and Crown to reverse an expulsion decree.19
17
Cathal J. Nolan, The Age of Wars of Religion, 1000-1650, vol 1 (Westport:

Greenwood, 2006), 279.
18
19
Nolan, The Age of Wars, 279.
For further reading on the influence of Jews on Spains finances in the decades
following the expulsion, see Julio Caro Baroja, La Sociedad critptojudia en la corte de
Felipe IV (Madrid: Imprenta y Editorial Maestre, 1963). For a vitriolic seventeenth-
169
While the apologists make no formal mention of the Jews financial role in
Spanish affairs or the popes subsequent pardon, I would argue that the potential for
future asylum for the expelled Moriscos seems to be at the root of the apologists fears.
Throughout their treatises, the apologists repeatedly glorify Ferdinand and Isabels efforts
in bringing about their expulsion, praising their role in establishing the tribunal of the
Holy Office. Their Reconquista legacy of expelling the infidel from Spanish territory
extends hereditarily to Philip III, forming a critical component of his genetic makeup. His
issuing of the Morisco expulsion decree represents only the latest and greatest in a series
of his ancestors noble expulsion projects. Aznar Cardona, for example, praises the king
for his expulsion commitment, stating,
que aunque nuestro Rey tiene este supremo renombre de Catlico,
legtimamente heredado de su singular y clara descendencia, de los altos
Reyes de Espaa, fue preclarsimos antecesores y progenitores, pero ahora
por el hecho heroico de la Expulsin de los infieles Mahometanos,
juntamente con otros hechos religiossimos, aunque fue Majestad Catlica,
con eminencia se ha sealado, y se seala de da en da, se le debe de todo
rigor de justicia, ese glorioso renombre, no solo por derecho hereditario,
sino por exceso de excelencia eminentsima en que excede al ordinario y
comn obrar de los otros virtuosos Reyes. 20
Philip proves his worth as a great Catholic monarch by furthering a commitment to
ridding the realm of people of Jewish and Moorish descent. While Ferdinand, Isabel, and
Charles V may have readied the land for Catholic hegemony, it is Philip III who carries
out the plan to its fullest potential. The apologists characterization of Philip III as a
century response to the Jews return to Spain, see Francisco de Quevedo, Execracin
contra los judos (Barceolona: Editorial Crtica, 1993).
20
170
triumphant and noble leader seems particularly interesting in light of the monarchs
reputation for indolence and lavish spending. The apologists, I would argue, hope that
effusively praise of an otherwise criticzed king as a means of rehabilitating both his
reputation and his ego. An appeased monarch, they hope, will prove more amenable to
the policies the apologists advance.
Aznar Cardona directly links the Moriscos to the expelled Jews, calling them
verdaderos judos en el error21 who seek salvation in superstitious ritual like
circumcision rather than in Christ. He states that while the Jews themselves may believe
their name derived from the virtuous Judah, son of Jacob, the name more accurately
describes descendientes de Judas el negativo, ingrato, traidor, y homicida, y capitn
sacrlego de los homicidas que mataron a Cristo.22 Bleda likewise connects the Moriscos
to the Jews when he describes Muhammads search for followers among the Jews and
commoners, por ser tan fcil en creer novedades, al cual mas agradan las cosas
fabulosas, y las invenciones mentirosas, que la doctrina e la verdad.23 He explains that
learned Church doctors, including san Agustn, san Gernimo, san Efrn, san Hiplito, y
otros muchos santos padres, 24 had written of the Jews likely attraction to Islam, stating,
que los Judos han de recibir al Anticristo por su Rey, y Mesas. Movironse
21
22
23
Bleda, Crnica, 15.
24
Bleda, Crnica, 16.
171
principalmente los Judos a seguirle, por ver que aprobaba la circuncisin, y que
predicaba entre los Alarbes.25
Perhaps the most striking of the apologists comments regarding the Jews and
their history on Spanish soil comes from Bledas lament on Visigothic weakness and the
vulnerability of Spanish Christendom under Witiza in the eighth century. He notes that in
addition to don Julians treason that opened the Spanish floodgates for Arab invasion,
Witiza likewise committed a great offense against the Catholic faith when he mand
volver los Judos al Reino de las tierras, adonde su padre el Rey Egica con tanta razn los
haba desterrado: y porqu ese viese, como lo haca por desacato de la religin, les dio
mayores privilegios, que jams las Iglesias aqu haban tenido.26 This king, like Philip,
reversed a policy designed to safeguard and maintain Spanish Catholic hegemony.
Witizas moment of weakness is read by Philip and his advisors as an example of drastic
upheaval that destabilizes the state and weakens its borders, making them vulnerable to
further physical and ideological attack.
Clearly fearful that Spanish authorities would once again renege on an expulsion
decision they consider essential to Spanish Catholic hegemony, the apologists then gloss
over negative repercussions in the Morisco expulsions wake. In an effort to convince
their readership that the expulsion had had nothing but positive results, the apologists
take pains to note the ease with which the Spanish soldiers executed their orders and their
relative smooth sailing across the Mediterranean where management of exiles was
25
Bleda, Crnica, 16.
26
Bleda, Crnica, 118.
172
concerned. For example, Aznar Cardona calls it a marvel que dos pares de hombres
leales, sin otras armas algunas, mas de ser el uno de ellos Comisario Real, sacasen y
guiasen por donde dicho es, mil, y tres mil de ellos, sin suceder escandalo, sedicin,
alboroto, ni muerte de algn Cristiano. Quien lo creyera?27 To the apologist, the
expulsions tranquil execution is an example of Divine providence, suggesting that the
Moriscos deserved their very justified expulsion. These Moriscos, the apologists argued,
were in fact glad to go. Pleased to be reunited with their coreligionists abroad in a place
where they were free to practice their faith openly, the Moriscos allegedly expressed little
sadness in leaving their homeland, many of them celebrating their departure with festive
song and dance. Bleda, for example, comments that the Moriscos awaiting expulsion
iban con tanta alegra a las primeras embarcaciones, como nosotros furamos a la casa
santa,28 later quoting as evidence the statement of an important Morisco alfaqu who
claimed that expulsion was preferable to the Moriscos habitual clandestine (and
dangerous) passage between Spain and North Africa. The alfaqu comments, [p]ues
dndonos ahora embarcacin segura, y franca, quin haba de perder tan buena ocasin,
para ir a la tierra, de donde vinieron nuestros pasados, y debajo el gobierno de nuestro
Rey el Turco, que nos dejara vivir como buenos Moros, y no nos trataran como a
esclavos, como aqu nos trataban nuestros amos?29
27
28
29
173
The apologists also deny Morisco utility where the Spanish economy is
concerned, hoping to dissuade the monarch from granting a similar right of return to the
Moriscos as he did when the Portuguese Jews proved economically indispensable. They
remind their readers that the Moriscos had long held power over Spains finances by
issuing false money and hoarding it, using it against the Crown to commit treason.
Guadalajara, for example, comments, [v]ase pues, de cunto inconuiniente sea, que
nuestros enemigos declarados se vayan haciendo dueos, de lo que es dinero;
consistiendo en el la mayor parte de la conservacin, y prosperidad de la cosa pblica.30
This gold, they claim, remained in danger of exportation so long as the Moriscos amassed
it and were later expelled. The apologists repeatedly accuse the Moriscos of creating and
circulating false currency31 while maliciously hoarding genuine gold and silver with an
intent to use the funds in retaliation against Spanish Christendom. The apologists
therefore seek to reverse any claims that Morisco expulsion would be economically
devastating for Spain, arguing that allowing the Moriscos to remain and continue
counterfeiting money presents the true economic danger.
30
31
Aznar Cardona, Expulsin justificada, 2:52. For example, Aznar Cardona refers to the
Moriscos as the first people to practice money laundring on the Peninsula:Estos fueron
los primeros falsarios de estos tipos que secretamente hicieron menudos y tambin reales
cortos, y falsos en dos maneras: En el peso, porque un real, pesaba poco ms de medio: y
en la plata, porque en aquel medio ponan la mitad de otro bajo metal, y cundi tanto esta
falsa moneda, que quando se advirti estaba llenos de ella, todos estos reinos a donde han
padecido por esa causa los ricos y los pobres grandemente, y hasta hoy sirve de capa de
paliar esta maldad en los tramposos, mercaderes, ciudadanos, y oficiales, y malos
pagadores que con decir corre mala moneda, se tienen la hacienda ajena.
174
Fonseca is the apologist who perhaps pays closest attention to contemporary
objections to the expulsion on economic and other grounds. His Iusta expulsion contains
several chapters designed to refute any claims from Morisco sympathizers that the
Moriscos were harmless and incapable of rebellion or that their expulsion would come
with damaging economic consequences. In regard to the latter, Fonseca includes a
transcript of one of Riberas sermons that asserts that God is the ultimate presider over
the expulsion enterprise, forever keeping in mind the safety, security, and honor of His
faithful Christian Spaniards. The Archbishop states, [e]sto que Cristo nuestro Seor
promote, no puede faltar; porque el que lo promote no solo es verdadero, pero la misma
verdad: y as podemos estar seguros, de que en todo se ver cumplida esta promesa; y que
han de ser inumerables los bienes que se han de seguir a esta santa obra.32 In terms of
the lords financial losses with no more vassals to pay their rents, Ribera champions the
safety of the estates over their previous incomes, arguing
porque la calidad de las haciendas, y la seguridad de cobrarlas, son
estimables en mayor cantidad de renta, de la que se vendr a perder. Y
quien considerarse de veras, el eminente peligro que todos corramos con
la compaa de estos, de perder haciendas, y vidas, se terna por muy
dichoso, y mejorado, con gozar seguramente de lo que le ha quedado.33
This is the same safety, he claims, that the Israelites experienced under Solomon, where
men lived in peace, durmiendo a la sombra de su parra, y de su higuera, sin tener de
quien temer.34 It is a God-granted peace and security akin to the Garden of Eden, and its
32
33
34
175
paradise is achievable only in a Morisco-free Spain. This argument for personal safety is
an appeal to common fears designed to frighten tentative lords into submission.
As a means of refuting arguments that expulsion will devastate the Spanish
economy, Fonseca aims to prove that Morisco presence in Spain contributes more heavily
to the Peninsulas financial ruin. For example, he insists that the expulsion decrees
limitation that the Moriscos take with them only what they can carry on their persons
resulted in the immediate devaluation of Spanish goods as Moriscos rushed to liquidate
these items for portable cash.35 In addition, Fonseca argues that the Old Christian lords
lost a great deal when their Morisco vassals decided to sabotage the fruits of their estates,
consuming seeds and grains typically reserved for the next planting season, 36 polluting
genuine currency with counterfeit,37 and refusing to work altogether until the
embarkation date.38 He notes the particular tragedy of Morisco obstinate neglect in
reference to fields that had already been planted, stating that haba sido aquel ao el ms
frtil, que los naturales jams haban visto.39 When the nobles find their lands
impossible to cultivate in the absence of the Morisco workforce, Fonseca blames the
Moriscos decision to abort the farming mission, even though he mentions that the
maestros were already in Berbery and that there were no Christians nearby que
35
36
37
38
39
176
entendiesen el arte.40 He never stops to consider that Moriscos awaiting inevitable
expulsion hardly relished the idea of assisting their oppressors in maximizing agricultural
profits. Guadalajara dismisses Christian culpability in this regard, stating that the Ricote
valley lands were indeed abundantes de limones, naranjos, y todo gnero de agrura; pero
estriles de pan, y de todo lo dems necesario para la vida humana.41 To the apologists,
in other words, the political and spiritual benefits of expelling alleged heretics far
outweighed the negative impact of lost luxuries. So long as staple food crop production
was still largely intact, Christian Spaniards could withstand some limited hardship for the
nations greater good.
In regard to long-term economic consequences of the expulsion, Fonseca later
substantiates the Archbishops prediction that [t]odonos sobrar42 in Gods grace
when he touts the abundant harvests produced in the expulsions wake. Fonseca provides
evidence that the Moriscos were not needed for Spanish economic prosperity, claiming
that in 1610, que fue el primero despus de la expulsin,43 various regions in Spain
experienced their most abundant harvests to date. He suggests that this is evidence that
[d]ar Dios a Espaa ms salud de la que ha tenido estos aos pasados, y purgada de
este peste, lo quedar tambien de la otra, que tantas vezes la amenaza, y an destruye.44
40
41
42
43
44
177
In so doing, he rather downplays the fact that much of this rich harvest was lost por falta
de jornaleros.45 Guadalajara asserts that the above offensesincluding the Moriscos
abandonment of the fields for spiteobviously indicate que estos enemigos tuvieron
trato secreto entre si, para nuestra destruicin; y que el castigo fue bien merecido. 46 The
Moriscos, he argues, had it in for Spain, and their punishment was much deserved.
However, as noted above, historical records indicate that the expulsion process
was anything but smooth and had difficult consequences. As certain segments of the
population expressed concerns in regard to losing the valuable Morisco workforce in
addition to the cost of managing their relocation overseas at a time when Spains
economy was badly damaged, it is reasonable to think that King Philip III and his
advisors might have become a bit nervous. As subsequent kingdoms were depopulated
and economic devastation became more apparent, the apologists and their contemporaries
must have wondered if the monarch ever considered granting his exiled Moriscos the
right to return to their native Spain and resume their positions as sugar millers, silk
spinners, and, most important, taxpayers.
The apologists also assert that the alleged joy the Moriscos expressed in departing
was strategic. In leaving the Peninsula willingly without active resistance, the apologists
claim that the Moriscos hoped to facilitate their return to reclaim Spain for Islam after
joining forces with other Muslims around the Mediterranean. Guadalajara notes, for
example,
45
46
178
mas como todos tenan generalmente en el pecho mala y traidora
intencin, todo serva, de ponerles plvora en los pies y alas en los
hombros, para desamparar la tierra, que cuidaba tanto de su Religin
Catlica, y se opona tan de veras a la infernal y viciosa secta de Mahoma;
y para ponerse en Berbera con sus amigos Valencianos, en frica con
los de Tnez.47
In other words, the Moriscos wasted no time in vacating Spain if it meant the possibility
to be reunited with friends and coreligionists.
Aznar Cardona expresses his concern over the possibility of Morisco return,
positioning himself48 as first-person observer of the Morisco embarkations. He remarks
that the refugees departed in optimistic search of riches they presumed to find among the
Turks. He claims that upon departure, the Moriscos repeatedly threatened to return to
Spain to reclaim their belongings, destroy Christianity, and assume political control. He
states, [y] fueron con nimo declarado de volver rabiando con el poder del Turco a
destruir la Cristiandad, y establecer su secta Mahometana en toda Espaa.49 They
allegedly hoped to return with such haste after expulsion que aun pensaban hallar vivas
las brasas que dejaban cubiertas con la ceniza de sus hogares. 50 Guadalajara similarly
warns que muy brevemente se haban de volver todos los Moriscos antiguos, sin que
hubiera tenido efecto la dicha Expulsin.51
47
48
Recall that Aznar Cardona is serving as a scribe for his uncle, the Augustinian friar
Geronymo Aznar.
49
50
51
179
Combined with the evidence Guadalajara posits of actual Morisco return midexpulsion campaign, the treatises suggest a great deal of anxiety on the part of the
apologists, however real, imagined, or unlikely the case of Morisco return may have
been. To the apologists, Morisco return threatened to undermine the tireless efforts of
Archbishop Ribera and the Crown to purify and unify Catholic Spain. They therefore see
it as their mission to maintain the projects momentum and promote the continuation of a
process Fonseca refers to as the agradable holocausto. 52
Perhaps the apologists were particularly anxious in light of the fact that some
expelled Moriscos were returning to their native land, secretly crossing back into Spain
from France and North Africa, affirming Guadalajaras suggestion that de manera que se
volvan muchos, especialmente aquellos, que tomaron ocasin de sentencias de los Jueces
ordinarios de sus lugares, que con facilidad se dejaban engaar.53 Dadson, in his
contemporary study of propaganda and the Morisco expulsion, interprets the return of
certain Moriscos to Spain, as well as the refusal of others to leave, as fueling propaganda
of the sort that we see in the apologists treatises. He refers to such documents as
evidence of how official propaganda and self-delusion took over from the reality on the
ground; in fact, of how the propagandists came to believe their own propaganda even
when everything and everyone was telling them that the opposite was true. 54 According
to Dadson, while expulsion had not been enforced in certain areas of the realm, Muslims
52
53
54
Dadson, Official Rhetoric, 3.
180
were sneaking back across Spanish borders, the Duke of Lerma proposed celebrating the
completion of the expulsion and dedicating a day on the calendar when the momentous
event would be recognized yearly.55 While the apologists position themselves as ardent
supporters of an easy decision that hardly required debate, it appears that their texts were
designed not only to convince themselves of the expulsion success story, but also to
further enforce their position in the face of supporters they feared were now insecure.
It therefore seems critical to note the political figures to whom the apologists
address their treatises, for their close connections to the king and his court further
illustrate the apologists anxiety in regard to a potential overturning of the expulsion
decision. Guadalajara y Javier dedicates his 1614 Prodicin y destierro de los moriscos
de Castilla to King Philip III himself, the man upon whose shoulders rested the ultimate
decision-making power regarding expulsion. Many historians are of the opinion that
Philip III was an indolent and indecisive king, ill-equipped for the challenges he faced as
monarch. John Lynch refers to him as the laziest king in Spanish history, ironically
praising the kings own recognition of his incompetence in delegating tasks to a vlido,
or favorite.56 Philip selected Francisco Gmez de Sandoval y Rojas, the Duke of Lerma,
as his most trusted advisor. Not coincidentally, Lerma is the dedicatee of Bledas
Crnica, a tribute to the dukes influential role in Philips court. Philip III gave the duke
an unprecedented amount of political power in formally permitting him to sign orders
55
56
Lynch, The Hispanic World in Crisis and Change, 18.
181
with the authority of the monarch,57 and in his role as caballerizo mayor, or master of the
horse, he had more access to the royal household than anyone else of his station. 58 As
noted previously, Lermas position on Morisco expulsion changed as he climbed the
social ladder in Castile and as he came to see the campaigns potential for financial profit.
If he were wrong and expulsion proved economically devastating, how would Lermas
opinion evolve with changing economic circumstances and what effect might his
opinions have on royal policy? Decades of extensive debate on the Morisco situation in
Spain, as recorded in court documents,59 demonstrate that neither the king nor his most
trusted advisor had been fervent expulsion supporters from the start. The apologists
therefore attempt to thwart any royal backpedaling that might undermine the 1609
expulsion decision and threaten Spanish Catholic hegemony.
In a similar fashion, Fonseca makes an appeal to a man of power and political
influence, dedicating his 1612 Iusta expulsion de los moriscos de Espaa to Francisco de
Castro, the Count of Castro and Spanish ambassador to Rome. When initial discussions
of Morisco expulsion failed to garner papal support, Philip III sent Fonseca to Rome to
advocate for the Spanish position. Fonseca first published his pro-expulsion treatise in
Rome in Italian, and his decision to dedicate this treatise to the Count of Castro suggests
a desire to convey his sentiments to a person of power and influence who had a more
57
Paul Klber Monod, The Power of Kings: Monarchy and Religion in Europe, 15891717 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), 133.
58
59
For extensive analysis of court documents pertaining to the Morisco debate from the
Archivo General de Simancas, see Tueller, Good and Faithful Christians.
182
direct line of contact with the papacy. Levin discusses the Spanish ambassadors overt
mission to influence papal policy in his recent study Agents of Empire: Spanish
Ambassadors in Sixteenth-Century Italy. 60 He notes that Spanish ambassadors to Rome
eagerly sought out connections in Rome via favors and bribes, hoping to strengthen the
Spanish faction amongst the College of Cardinals and the Roman court. 61 It seems
hardly a coincidence that Francisco de Castro was the Duke of Lermas nephew. 62
Serving to praise the Duke of Lerma for his role in the tan heroico hecho63 of the
expulsion, Fonseca acknowledges his dedicatees close connection to the decisionmakers.
It is therefore in light of the Jews and Moriscos already returned to Spanish
territory in addition to economic protests and social upheaval regarding the Morisco
expulsion that the apologists see the risk of return of the Moriscos as very immediate.
The apologists therefore see it as their mission to protect Spains borders from this threat.
To do so, they incite in their audience a fear of Morisco return, appealing to the
Spaniards basic fears for human survival as well as their Christian fears of the final
judgment.
60
Michael Jacob Levin, Agents of Empire: Spanish Ambassadors in Sixteenth-Century

Italy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005).
61
Levin, Agents of Empire, 150.
62
63
Fonseca, Justa expulsin, n.p.
183
A State of Fear: East vs. West and La Turbacin Quotidiana
Ya esta inquieta turbacin cuotidiana, ser acabada.64
Having established what they consider the certainty of Morisco return if Spains
rulers and borders remain vulnerable, the apologists remind readers of the general state of
alarm that had previously characterized their daily lives, hoping to further instill the fear
of return. They then contrast this climate of fear with the perceived post-expulsion state
of peace and unity in the now Morisco-free territory in an effort to bolster support for
maintaining an ideologically pure Spain. As we have seen, however, proclaiming the
virtues of a liberated post-expulsion Spain was, perhaps, an example of an attempt on the
part of the apologists to convince themselves of a reality contrary to fact, or at the very
least, of counting ones chickens before they had hatched.
The state of fear, the apologists argue, stemmed in large part from the combined
threats to Christian Spains physical security from Muslims outside the Peninsula and,
consequently, from the Moriscos within. The fear is therefore one of a Muslim other, in
Spains case both internal and external, seen not only as physically dangerous but also as
morally and culturally inferior. Here the apologists appropriate part of a larger East-West
dichotomy studied by many scholars as a process of Western cultural and ethnic selffashioning dating back to ancient Greece. Hall65, for example, demonstrates through
64
65
Edith Hall, Inventing the Barbarian: Greek Self-Definition through Tragedy (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1989). See also Paul Cartledge, The Greeks: A Portrait of
Self and Others (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).
184
Greek tragedy the Greeks developing sense of cultural superiority over the Persians as a
xenophobic construction of the self in relation to the eastern other. As Blanks and
Frasseto note in their introduction to Western Views of Islam in the Medieval and Early
Modern Europe,66 the spread of monotheistic religions and competing tensions among
them only added to the existing uneasy intercourse between rival civilizations.
Throughout the Medieval and early modern periods, those who came to define
themselves as Western Europeans had encountered the Eastern other in a variety of
contexts, all influencing their self-perceptions.67
In her recent study Creating East and West, Bisaha devotes the second chapter68
to a discussion of the way in which Italian humanists resurrected classical texts that
demarcated East and West or Europe and Asia as hard and fast cultural and political
66
David R. Blanks and Michael Frassetto, introduction Western Views of Islam in

Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Perception of Other, ed. David R. Blanks, et al.
(New York: St. Martins Press, 1999), 1-9.
67
For further reading on Western European views of Islam and the eastern other, see
David R. Blanks and Michael Frassetto, Western Views of Islam in Medieval and Early
Modern Europe: Perception of Other, ed. David R. Blanks, et al. (New York: St.
Martins Press, 1999); Mustafa Soykut, Image of the Turk in Italy: A History of the
Other in Early Modern Europe: 1453-1683 (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 2001);
Margaret Meserve, Empires of Islam in Renaissance Historical Thought (Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 2008); Debra Higgs Strickland, Saracens, Demons & Jews:
Making Monsters in Medieval Art (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003); and
John V. Tolan, Saracens: Islam in the Medieval European Imagination (New York:
Columbia University Press, 2002).
68
Nancy Bisaha, The New Barbarian: Redefining the Turks in Classical Terms, in
Creating East and West: Renaissance Humanists and the Ottoman Turks (Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), 43-93.
185
boundaries,69 exemplifying prejudices in regard to barbarian easterners. She asserts
that Renaissance thinkers then used these documents to redefine the contemporary Turks
in such classical terms. Following scholars like Hall and Cartledge, and noting that the
word barbarian had initially been appropriated by the ancient Greeks in an East versus
West dichotomy, Bisaha suggests that the term evolved literarily in the early modern
period to denote the Turks. For example, she observes that while the original use of the
term was linguistic, and for Homer would have signified a speaker of bar-bar in the
early eighth century B.C.E., the Persian Wars later inspired among the Greeks a sense of
self in contrast to the barbaric Other. 70 In that vein, she notes that while Herodotus, for
example, was distinct in his cultural tolerance, his view of the Persian Wars as a deeply
rooted conflict between Europe and Asia established a sense of geographical and cultural
poles that would shape future Western thought.71
In this vein, Bisaha observes that Petrarch uses the dominance and prowess of
Christianity and Latin culture in the past as means of calling his coreligionists to fight on
Christianitys side in the Holy Land, painting a stark binary opposition between the
forces of good Latin Christendom and the inherently sinister Arab culture of Islam. 72
69
Bisaha, The New Barbarian, 44.
70
71
72
Bisaha, The New Barbarian, 53. She adds that Petrarch appears to echo a classically
based belief in Western cultural and religious superiority predating Islam; this occurs in a
reference to Saint Jerome writing about the spread of Christianity through France,
Britain, and other Western regions, as well as Africa, Persia, and the East, and all the
barbaric lands (omnemque barbariem). Petrarchs use of the term barbarian is not
186
The political and religious climate of the medieval period leading up to Petrarchs
comments in Spainthose centuries referred to in terms of convivencia, however
idealisticallywould certainly have proven less hostile to Eastern cultural influence. The
Iberian Peninsula had long enjoyed the fruits of Arab learning and scientific advance, and
as Bisaha states, [m]edieval thinkers probably sensed the incongruity in designating
Arabs, who surpassed Westerners in learning and cultural achievements, as barbaric. 73
She suggests that it was only in the fifteenth century that the term barbarian became
routinely applied to Muslims as the powerful Ottoman Empire threatened Christian
sovereignty in the Mediterranean. She comments that Humanists were at the forefront of
this trend, stating that [p]erhaps because so little was known about the Ottomans they
were more acceptable targets than the Arabs. 74
In the meantime, the idea of a clear cultural divide between East and West would
prove attractive to fourteenth-century thinkers like Petrarch, who appropriated Classical
models to his descriptions of crusading Western Christianity75, and Salutati, who
particularly well defined here, but it may point to the beginning of a trend that would
mark most humanist discourse toward the Turks and Islam in general.
73
74
75
For example, Bisaha notes that Petrarch uses Julius Caesar as a model for Christian
crusaders. She states, To Petrarchs mind, Caesar was one of the greatest heroes in
history. He was both a brilliant and courageous general and the immediate predecessor of
Augustus, who united the world into which Christ was born, thereby paving the way for
the spread of Christianity and Latin culture. He is an excellent example for crusaders
because of his heroism but also because of his ability to bring East and West together
under the rule of Rome. Bisaha, The New Barbarian, 52-53. In a similar manner,
Fonseca utilizes a Classical example as a symbol of contemporary crusading in the
187
described the Turks as an extremely ferocious race of men with high expectations who
trust and believe that they will erase the name of Christ throughout the world. 76 The fall
of Constantinople in 1453 precipitated the more consistent equation of Muslims with
barbarians, enhancing claims like Salutatis, as city after city fell to the seemingly
invincible Ottoman forces. Literature of the era gives graphic accounts of raping and
pillaging that fueled a Western fear and disdain that we see alive and well in the
apologists treatises justifying the seventeenth-century Morisco expulsion. The Catholic
apologists give ample evidence to support Bisahas claim that the Turks began to
occupy a most sinister niche of the European imaginationas cruel and lascivious
barbarians. For example, Aznar Cardona equates Muslims with barbarous actions when
he refers to fifteenth-century Ottoman sultan Mehmed II as Mohammedan in name and in
deeds, hombre de invencible corazn, y de feroces hechos, ms cruel que el fuego, ms
fiero que los leones, ms belicoso que Alejandro Magno. Abras, mat y despoj con
grande Gloria suya, innumerables gentes cristianas y gentiles; castillos y fortalezas,
particularmente en toda la Asia Menor. 77 In a similar manner, Guadalajara notes that
prologue to his Justa expulsin where he calls Philip III a Spanish Hercules, slaying the
seven-headed beast that represents the seven major heresies. Fonseca, Justa expulsin,
np. Y aunque los de mas Reyes de Espaa, han sido valerosos Hrcules, que peleando
contra esta bestia de tantas cabezas, han alcanzado de ella vitorias gloriosas;
sealadamente lo es el invictsimo Rey Felipe tercero, tomando por singular empresa,
quebrantar la ms perniciosa cabeza deste dragn, que es Mahoma.
76
Quoted in Bisaha, The New Barbarian, 56.
77
188
heretics intent upon destroying the world are inevitably gentes peregrinas, brbaras, y
crueles, para con su ivasin raer de la tierra su memoria. 78
Bleda also links barbarian actions to Islam when he draws a parallel between the
long duration of the Islamic faith and the power of the Ottoman Empire. He states, in
explanation of Islams survival in the face of Christian persecution,
esta secta no se ha introducido por la eficacia de la predicacin, ni la
persuadieron a los hombres por virtud de milagros, ni prodigios, sino por
el terror de las armas, y por tiranas, y violencia: Y por este medio
rindieron muchas gentes y provincias, porque no pudieron defenderse por
falta de gente de guerra, o por estar desarmadas, y sin presidios.79
To Bleda, Islam persists not because its practitioners believe the tenets it preaches but
because they have been recruited through violence and fear for their lives. Likewise, the
Ottoman Empire derives its power through similar tyrannical terror. He cites the
prodigious and widespread Turkish mounted army in control of a destitute population
with little power to resist as the foundation upon which Ottoman terror is built, stating
that the emperor [t]rata a los sbditos como a esclavos cuanto a las honras, y posesiones
de los bienes temporales.80 Aznar Cardona makes a similar claim when he states that in
the absence of Christ in government, there can be no autonomy. He argues,
Preguntmoslo a los Alarbes, y a los Moros Mahometanos, que ellos ni
dirn sus injusticias particulares y comunes, y los estatutos irracionales
que siguen por leyes justas; y nos contarn el injusto proceder de su gran
Turco, cuyo gobierno es desptico: porque de tal suerte es seor de los
comprehendido dentro los confines de su dominio, que los vecinos se
78
79
Bleda, Crnica, 102.
80
Bleda, Crnica, 103.
189
llaman, no vasallos, sino esclavosque nadie sea seor, no digo de su
hacienda, pero aun de si mismo.81
The apologists therefore paint the inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire and its soldiers as
uncouth automatons prepared to fight indefinitely against Christianity.
This tyrannical empire, therefore, is a direct threat to Spain in two ways. First,
Spain lies within easy reach of Ottoman forces. As Fonseca warns, an attack from far off
England would be announced in advance once it passed through Galician or Portuguese
waters, but an attack from the Mediterranean could happen virtually undetected and
within the span of twenty-four hours. He states that such a fleet would cogernos
descuidados, meternos en confusin, y con la ayuda que all tenan de cincuenta mil
soldados enemigos nuestros, que no esperaban para rebelarse,82 giving inhabitants of the
Peninsula little hope for survival. The apologists note that the potential ease of attack is
seen routinely when North African corsairs strike along the coast and iban, y volvan a
frica las veces que queran.83
Second, because the apologists argue that all Muslims represent barbarian threats,
most especially the powerful Turks, they present evidence that Spanish Moriscos are
indistinguishable from any other Muslim threat, habitually colluding with the Turks in an
effort to bring about Spains destruction. The apologists imply that the Moriscos desire to
blend in with the forces that oppress Spanish Christendom, therefore becoming a part of
81
82
83
Bleda, Crnica, 890.
190
the threat themselves. Fonseca gives the example of Moriscos who willingly fled to
Algiers, y vivan all, ms Moros eran que los del lugar, 84 taunting Spanish Christian
prisoners que los engaaban los Moriscos que residan en Espaa, cuando les decan que
eran Cristianos, porque lo cierto era ser todos tan Moros como los de Berbera.85 In this
instance, Fonseca expressly states the point that all of the apologists make: the Moriscos
are, in essence, Turks, and therefore a Spain in which Moriscos reside is a Spain replete
with internal enemies of the State. Failure to prevent the return of these now-expelled
enemies risks Spains complete annihilation.
The apologists then provide their audience with numerous examples of Morisco
treason, showing that over time, the Morisco traitors became cada dia mas atreuidos,
mas orgullosos, y mas desuergonados en declararse por Moros. 86 In other words, their
willingness to declare themselves publicly as Muslims increased the more confident they
became in the possibility of Ottoman assistance. Aznar Cardona claims that the Moriscos
perpetually conspired with the Turks, traveling between Spain and Ottoman territories
frequently and treating the Turks con grande familiaridad, y recibindolos en sus casas y
pueblos de la Marina con secreto cauteloso de traidores, y siendo recibidos de ellos con
grandes caricias, mayormente en Argel, a donde se yuanlos que saban oficios de hacer
plvora y escopetas, por ayudar a lo intentado del entrego de Espaa, y a destruir la
84
85
86
191
Cristiandad.87 This relationship of mutual hospitality, he claims, extended to North
African pirates who routinely captured Spanish Christians and robbed them while
granting Spanish Moriscos the professional courtesy of avoidance. 88 Bleda gives further
evidence that the Moriscos hoped to one day join forces with the Turk against
Christianity,89 noting the extensive written communication in Arabic between the
Moriscos of Spain and the Moors of Africa.90 He states that Moriscos in the Peninsula
had made promises to the Turk and to other heretical princes of cincuenta mil soldados
pagados, y otras muchas comodidades 91 for assisting them in bringing down the Spanish
Crown and Christianity. These pronouncements of a homeland riddled with traitors
serves to remind the apologists audience of danger hiding in plain sight in when
Moriscos reside in Spain.
87
88
89
Bleda, Crnica, 110.
90
Fonseca, Justa expulsin, 130. For discussions of the fear of Morisco collusion and
evidence to support or refute its legitimacy, see Ellen G. Friedman, Spanish Captives in
North Africa in the Early Modern Age (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1983);
Sebastin Garca Martnez, Bandolerismo, piratera y control de moriscos en Valencia
durante el reinado de Felipe II (Valencia: Universidad de Valencia, 1977); Andrew C.
Hess, The Forgotten Frontier: A History of the Sixteenth-Century Ibero-African Frontier
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978); James T. Monore, A Curious Morisco
Appeal to the Ottoman Empire, Al-Andalus 21 (1966): 281-303; Bruce Taylor, The
Enemy Within and Without: An Anatomy of Fear on the Spanish Mediterranean
Littoral, in Fear in Early Modern Society, ed. William G. Naphy, et al. (New York:
Manchester University Press, 1997), 78-99.
91
192
In addition to treason and espionage, the apologists further perpetuate a climate of
fear by providing additional examples of the Moriscos notorious crimes on Spanish
soil. Details of these crimes serve to remind the audience of the Moriscos destructive
potential and innate barbarity, highlighting the inescapable physical danger that comes
with harboring dangerous criminals and traitors. For example, in referencing the Morisco
uprising in the Alpujarras, Aznar Cardona gives a particularly graphic description of
Morisco destruction, stating that the Moriscos
ejecutaron las mayores crueldades de martirios que en el mundo se oyeron,
porque dejado el quemar las Iglesias, profanar los oratorios, buscar
diversas invenciones de fuegos para quemar los hombres mayormente
Clrigos y Frailes, el hacerlos pedazos, cortarles los miembros, sacarles
los ojos, colgarlos delas partes pudendas hasta que moran, meterles
estacas agudas por las partes secretas, que todo eso era comn, amas
desso, haba otros gneros de muertes, como era henchirles a los hombres
la boca de plvora, y pegarles una mecha para que as saliese de vuelo
cada mejilla por su parte.92
It is interesting to note that these alleged crimes described by the apologist bear striking
resemblance to the crimes of purported witches tried by the Inquisition not only in Spain
but throughout early modern Europe. Aznar Cardona himself appears to liken the new
converts crimes to witchcraft, later referring to the Moriscos invocaciones de
Demonios, Zahoras93, supersticiones, hechizeras, y brujeras, matando criaturas humanas
92
93
Corominas provides several definitions that are beneficial to interpreting this term.
First, zahorar, defined as the act of celebrating a boisterous feast among friends
(celebrar una comilona bulliciosa entre amigos, sobrecenar) derived from the Arabic
sar, or the meal taken after midnight during the month of Ramadan when fasting
during the day (comida que se hace despues de meidainoche en el mes de ramadn,
cuando debe ayunarse durante del dia) and also zahor from the Arabic zuhar,
193
y animales.94 This idea plays to the popular fear of witchcraft that Scott and Kosso
include in their list of common medieval and early modern fears. Curiously, however,
Knutsen,95 in his study of witchcraft and superstition in early modern Spain, finds that
trials for witchcraft (brujera), which he defines as collective diabolism and murder by
maleficium,96 are wholly absent from Valencias Inquisitorial records. Instead, charges
of superstition go hand-in-hand with accusations controlling demons to procure wealth or
to seek out love. In areas with little notable Morisco presenceand Knutsen uses
Barcelona as his example witchcraft trials abound. Knutsen attributes the difference in
large part to the nature of cultural mixing in different regions in Spain. In the south, the
Moriscos and their understanding of magical rites and demon-conjuring contributed to
what Knutsen calls the magical geography of the area, altering the nature of the
accusations and their trials.97 In his above accusations, Aznar Cardona certainly appears
to accuse the Moriscos of witch-like behavior regardless of what the inquisitorial records
may suggest about official accusations and proceedings within the tribunal. In light of
Knutsens analysis of Inquisitorial trials, the description of alleged Morisco crimes
geomntico, zahor, derivado de zhara lucero, planeta Venus (de zhar brillar),
por la semejanza de procedimientos entre los zahores y los astrlogos. Joan Corominas,
Diccionario crtico etimolgico de la lengua castellana (Madrid: Editorial Gredos, 1954),
4:802-3.
94
95
Gunnar W. Knutsen, Servants of Satan and Masters of Demons: The Spanish

Inquisitions Trials for Superstition, Valencia and Barcelona, 1478-1700 (Belgium:
Brepols, 2009).
96
Knutsen, Servants of Satan, 1.
97
Knutsen, Servants of Satan, 8.
194
suggests the apologists desire to equate Morisco dissidence with behaviors already
condemned in the public consciousness as heretical sorcery and feared by the masses. 98
The apologists descriptions of Spain create a climate of fear and unrest in which
Spains inhabitants are threatened in their daily lives. They therefore assert that just as the
king was previously obligated to protect his kingdom from the internal and external
threats and did so via expulsion, he must continue to protect his borders because the
potential for Morisco destruction is great. For example, with the same ease of attack that
North African pirates enjoy, the Turks could offer Spanish Moriscos still residing in the
Peninsula invaluable assistance in rebelling against Christian Spain. Bleda states that the
true objective of the Morisco uprising in the Alpujarras (1568-1571) in response to
prohibitions on Morisco dress and customs had been matar con atroces muertes, y
martirios a todos los Sacerdotes, y Christianos viejos que pudieron, de los que entre ellos
viuian, llamando al Turco, que viniesse en su fauor, y ayuda. 99 The Peninsula can only
be safer, the apologists argue, with [e]l enemigo fuera de casa, que no dentro de ella.100
In addition, such rebellions still have the potential to be aided by a Morisco
population that has intimate knowledge of the Peninsula and the vulnerabilities of its
people. This population, the apologists assert repeatedly, grew unabated before the
expulsion, reminding the Archbishop of malas hierbas. Referring to Riberas sermons,
98
For further discussion of witchcraft in early modern Europe, see Gustav Henningsen,
The Witches Advocate: Basque Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition (1609-1614)
(Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1980).
99
100
195
Fonseca reflects on what he and the Archbishop consider the power of innumerable
enemies who
[i]ban creciendo en ella mucho mas que el numero de los amigos, y as
aunque por aquel tiempo fuesen muchos menos, la buena cuenta dice que
dentro de pocos siglos, haban de ser ellos los mas, porque se casaban
antes de los 20 aos, y no los consuman las guerras, ni las Indias, ni os
presidios de Flandes, o de Italia, ni de su casta haba frailes, no monjas, ni
beatas, y los clrigos eran muy raros, y todos multiplicaban como conejos,
y por esta cuenta no es mucho que se doblase el nmero cada diez aos, y
siendo as, de cada mil se haran mas de un milln dentro de 100 aos, y
aunque hasta aquel tiempo no se haba echado de ver tanto la
multiplicacin, porque en la cuenta, que llaman de la dobladilla, hacen
poco numero las primeras multiplicaciones; a la nona, y a la decima, all
es la maravilla, que dicen, de las casas del ajedrez. Pues vase ahora, que
potencia seria necesaria para resistirles, sealadamente si nos cogieran
descuidados, y poco prevenidos.101
Here Ribera, Fonseca, and the other expulsion apologists who follow them hope to
inspire fear in their audiences of an armed enemy population dangerously in control of
the countrys finances multiplying limitlessly to the point que ya no cabian en sus
barrios ni lugares.102 However, Dadson provides ample evidence to the contrary, noting
that the Spanish Moriscos were no more prolific than the Old Christian population. 103 For
Dadson, depictions of Moriscos who multiply like weeds and rabbits provide another
example of the construction of official propaganda, or what the government of Philip III
and Lerma wanted us all to believe. 104 (And certainly the Moriscos, Carr comments,
101
102
103
For a more detailed discussion of Morisco population statistics, see Dadson, Official
Rhetoric, 19-21.
104
196
when forcibly confined to the albaicn, gave the appearance of multiplication and
overcrowding because they were not permitted as much living space as their Christian
counterparts.105) Dadson notes that this official propaganda, as repeated throughout the
apologists treatises, was then woven rather seamlessly and uncritically into much of the
official Morisco historiography.106
This emphasis on personnel of a seemingly limitless quantity aiding the Morisco
cause helps the apologists accentuate the multitude of risks presented if the Moriscos
were to return to the Peninsula. Some of the dangers they enumerate consist of tasks
easily carried out if members of the Morisco community joined forces. If the Morisco
population were as uncontrollably large as the apologists claim, the risk of these events
had the potential to increase exponentially over time. For example, Fonseca relays from
one of the Patriarchs memoriales the Archbishops fear that that the Moriscos could
devastate the Spanish food supply. He states, podran fcilmente matarlos, quitarles las
armas, y seorearse de la tierra; particularmente pudiendo con tanta facilidad quitarnos el
trigo, pues era publico que la mayor parte del que el Reino tiene, est en un lugar fuera de
la Ciudad.107 A band of Moriscos could likewise set fire to the fields or storehouses, or
cortar las azudas, que estn en el rio, por donde viene el agua a los molinos. 108 In this
section of his plea, the Archbishop repeatedly refers to such agricultural staples and
105
106
107
108
197
machinery as existing in public spaces, not only vulnerable to attack but also as
pertaining to the community at large. He clearly sees the Moriscos as existing outside of
this larger community, making the case for their further exclusion from it.
Riberas diatribe likewise preys on fears of Spanish Christian vulnerability when
he discusses the Moriscos intimate knowledge of the Peninsula. While arguments, he
claims, had been made that the Moriscos had little potential for rebellion because they
lacked castles and fortresses, Ribera counters that the Moriscos
eran seores de las sierras, lugares montuosos, y peas tajadas, en las
cuales ya de industria los criaban desde nios, que pertrechadas un poco,
segn eran speras, e inaccesibles, les pudieran servir de fortalezas para
defenderse, y ofender a sus contrarios, por lo menos por algn espacio de
tiempo, hasta que se juntaran todos, o los viniera alguno socorro, como
hicieron en otras ocasiones.
He therefore utilizes the image of the marauding barbarian, already ingrained in the
Christian Spanish imagination, giving it weightier implications by exposing Peninsular
territorial vulnerability. Aznar Cardona cautions that grown men are hardly the only
source of danger to Christian Spaniards, warning that even children are suspicious and
should be regarded with caution. He states, [d]e modo, que los mayores y menores,
todos eran unos en el error y apostasa, y en la noticia del crimen de la conspiracin: y
aun las mujeres leves, y los nios pequeitos de poco discurso, decan algunas veces, a
los nios de Cristianos viejos, Calle que ya dice mi padre, que cuando matemos a los
Cristianos no te matemos a ti.109 This image of a child participating in armed rebellion
attempts to give further credence to characterizations of the Moriscos as barbarians. It
109
198
also serves to alleviate any misgivings the clergy or Crown may have had in expelling
innocent children, suggesting that Morisco children were as capable as their adult parents
of violence, cruelty, and treachery.
To further warn their audience of dangers the Moriscos present on Spanish soil,
the apologists then contrast the above images of past and potential Morisco destruction
with a current climate they depict as safe and peaceful. Aznar Cardona, for example,
describes life in post-expulsion Spain in 1612 as safe and secure, in which podemos
discurrir de vnas partes a otros sin sobresaltos ni temores de enemigos sangrientos, por
toda EspaaPorque la purg destos tan duros y obstinados en el mal, que ninguna
espera (ni rastro della) haba de su cuersion y enmienda.110 Not only are citizens
safer in their homes now that the Turkish threat has been eliminated and Moriscos no
longer reside in the Peninsula, able to harbor enemies, but gone too are Catholic
Spaniards fears of a Holy Mass contaminated by blasphemy and sacrilege. He concludes
that Catholic Spain should rejoice in her newfound peace, because [y]a esta inquieta
turbacin cuotidiana, ser acabada.111 Guadalajara also declares Spain to be free from
internal and external threat a year before the expulsions official conclusion, stating
[e]stamos libres en nuestras costas y riberas, de los insultos y robos
Africanos: cesan tantas muertes como cada hora sucedan, cra nuestra
Espaa por los lugares habitados de estos, abundancia de nuevos soldados:
compnense con facilidad las inquietudes y diferencias: queda la tierra
asegurada y a de prodiciones y leuantamientos: vvese en all en una Fe
110
Aznar Cardona, Expulsin justificada, 2:139
111
199
Catlica, Apostlica, Romana, y finalmente tenemos todos seguridad en
nuestras casas.112
United in one holy Catholic and apostolic faith, Christian Spaniards can rest easily,
knowing that the Crown has assured their physical and spiritual safety through the
expulsion of the Moriscos. These descriptions of a tranquil kingdom free from threat
warns against any action that might disrupt the peace now that Spain is entirely Catholic,
sin excepcin ninguno.113
Fear of the End of Days

En el capitulo undcimo de las revelaciones de S. Juan, habla el espritu de Dios
del Antecristo, y de sus desventurados imitadores, llamados Antecristos, como
decamos ahora, y les dibuja al vivo, a l y a ellos, su monstruosa figura moral,
para que tengamos noticia dellos, y nos guardemos de su ponzoa, como de la
muerte.114
As is evident in the previous section, the Catholic apologists of the expulsion
capitalize on common fears for physical safety in an effort to maintain what they consider
to be Spains newly-achieved ethnic and spiritual purity. Contributing to basic fears for
survival was a medieval and early modern apprehensiveness regarding the Final
Judgment. Therefore the apologists, like Aznar Cardona in the above excerpt, thoroughly
harness early modern apocalypticism as means of making sense out of their historical
reality and then manipulate the discourse to warn of the vulnerability of a Spain
112
113
114
200
threatened by Antichrist and all of his infernal imitators. OLeary argues that the
apocalyptic tradition is, in essence, a collected set of rhetorical tools employed to
persuade. Following this idea, I argue that the apologists treatises exemplify the
conscious appropriation of a rhetorical mode readily available to them and already deeply
ingrained in the collective consciousness to influence political decision-making. It is
therefore not important to ascertain whether or not the apologists aim to prove that
Muhammad is in fact the Antichrist, or whether they themselves believe this to be the
case, so much as it is see their adaptation of apocalyptic discourse as a means of rousing
people to political action. As OLeary115 notes, [d]issatisfaction with the present and fear
of the future are not simply existential facts that the discourse must address; analysis of
the discourse itself reveals that much effort is often expended at developing the sense of
dissatisfaction and fear.116 For Pagels,117 John of Patmoss Revelation itself is just that
wartime literature118 that articulates the authors political and religious dissatisfaction
with the Roman Empire. Johns text calls the community of believers to join forces
against cultural influence he views as contaminating and damaging to the integrity of
Gods chosen people.119 We have already noted a similar rhetoric in which the apologists
115
Stephen D. OLeary, Arguing the Apocalypse: A Theory of Millennial Rhetoric (New

York: Oxford University Press, 1994).
116
OLeary, Arguing the Apocalypse, 11-2.
117
Elaine Pagels, Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation
(New York: Viking, 2012).
118
Pagels, Revelations, 7.
119
Pagels, Revelations, 47-8.
201
cultivate fear in their audience of daily interactions with Moriscos on Spanish soil. They
consequently turn to a fear of more cosmic proportions in their appropriation of Biblical
apocalyptic rhetoric, including Johns Revelation, to further position the Moriscos as a
threatening force.
As they set out to compose their apocalyptic diatribes, the apologists had at their
disposal centuries of apocalyptic images and ideas. From the canon of biblical
apocalyptic texts, references to the books of Daniel and Revelation appear most
frequently in the apologists treatises. The Old Testament Book of Daniel, a foundational
text that influenced the Judeo-Christian apocalyptic discourse that followed, appeared at
such a time of Jewish persecution in Palestine. The book, most likely composed around
the year 165 BCE, speaks to Jews whose culture and customs had been stripped in favor
of forcibly imposed Greek traditions that inspired the Maccabean revolt. 120 The author
narrates the story of Daniel, a Babylonian captive of four centuries earlier whose
tribulations in captivity, including his survival in the lions den, eventually lead to a
symbolic apocalyptic vision of four great beasts. The beasts, representing nations that
once ruled the earth, culminate with a beast unlike any otherthe Greekswho devour
the world. Cohn states that in this vision we see helpless victims suffer in a world overrun
by demonic tyrants, until suddenly the hour will strike when the Saints of God are able
to rise up and overthrow it. Then the Saints themselves, the chosen, holy people who
hitherto have groaned under the oppressors heel, shall in their turn inherit dominion over
120
Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical

Anarchists of the Midle Ages (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970), 21.
202
the whole earth.121 These ideas continued to resonate with a Jewish population that
struggled under Roman rule, issuing waves of Messianic fervor that Cohn describes as
the result of apocalyptic propaganda aimed at common people.122 Thompson observes
that in the absence of this optimistic thinking in terms of an ideal world to come,
Christianity would not have been possible. 123
The New Testament Book of Revelation, or Johns Apocalypse, was written
sometime after the year 70 CE. Thompson writes that Revelation serves to address
unanswered questions regarding the particulars of the Second Coming, comically noting
that [a]t fist glance, there is something ludicrous about the notion that this surrealistic
text is designed to make anything clearer. 124 A barrage of hypnotic dragons, beasts, and
horsemen who herald the worlds end, John of Patmos beasts have continued to inspire
art and literature throughout the centuries. In Johns vision, after Babylon is destroyed,
Christ defeats Satan, the beast whose number is 666, and drives him into hell. Christ
reigns on earth for a thousand years before ultimately defeating Satan in a final battle that
ends the world, ushering in a new world, a New Jerusalem. Replete with plastic images
and numerological symbols, Thompson wonders whether the author intended to keep
121
Cohn, Pursuit of the Millennium, 21.
122
123
Thompson, The End of Time: Faith and Fear in the Shadow of the Millennium
(Hanover: University Press of New England, 1997), 13.
124
Thompson, End of Time, 21.
203
successive generations of Christians in a state of apocalyptic expectation, and therefore
created images with a certain reusable quality. 125
For this reason, Revelation did not win much favor with the early Church fathers
who, in an attempt to solidify dogma and promote ideological uniformity, feared the
books potential to incite schism and panic in awaiting Christs Second Coming. Cohn
observes that Church opposition to millenarian beliefs became more pronounced as the
Church established increased control over the Mediterranean, stating that men in power
had no wish to see Christians clinging to out-dated and inappropriate dreams of a new
earthly Paradise.126 One such Patristic theologian was Augustine, whose insistence that
Revelation be interpreted as spiritual allegory rather than as a roadmap to the worlds last
day became official church doctrine.127
Doctrinal opposition to the apocalyptic tradition notwithstanding, apocalyptic
preoccupations lived on in the religious imagination, their imagery appearing more
frequently as Christianity secured its foothold as official religion of the Roman Empire in
the fourth century.128 Krisch notes that John may have intended the book of Revelation
to console and exhort the persecuted Christians of his own era, but it was only when
Christianity was both militant and triumphant that the imagery of the Apocalypse began
125
Thompson, End of Time, 21.
126
127
Henry Bettenson, trans. Concerning the City of God Against the Pagan, by Saint
Augustine of Hippo (New York: Penguin, 1972), 895-963.
128
Jonathan Kirsh, A History of the End of the World: How the Most Controversial Book
in the Bible Changed the Course of Western History (San Francisco: Harper San
Francisco, 2006), 132-5.
204
to proliferate across Europe.129 Throughout the next several centuries, as Cohn
describes,
[p]eople were always on the watch for the signs which, according to the
prophetic tradition, were to herald and accompany the final time of
troubles; and since the signs included bad rulers, civil discord, war,
drought, famine, plague, comets, sudden deaths of prominent persons and
an increase in general sinfulness, there was never any difficulty about
finding them. Invasion or the threat of invasion by Huns, Magyars,
Mongols, Saracens or Turks always stirred memories of those hordes of
Antichrist, the peoples of Gog and Magog.130
A man who fundamentally changed the implications of such signs, however, was the
Calabrian abbot Joachim of Fiore (d. 1202).131 Convinced that Revelations symbols
pertained to real-world events, Joachim saw as the result of persecution a reformed
Catholic Church on earth, refuting Augustines argument that the ideas of the Apocalypse
concerned solely the spiritual realm. While there is much to say about the abbot and his
influence on medieval apocalyptic discourse,132 his depiction of the seven-headed dragon
representing great heretics (including Muhammad) is the image that resonates most with
129
Kirsch, End of the World, 133.
130
131
Joachim of Fiore, Expositio in Apocalypsim (Frankfurt: Minerva, 1964).
132
For in-depth discussions of the Calabrian abbots influence on Medieval

apocalypticism, see Richard K. Emmeron and Bernard McGinn, eds., The Apocalypse in
the Middle Ages (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992); Bernard McGinn, The
Calabrian Abbot: Joachim of Fiore in the History of Western Thought (New York:
Macmillan, 1985); Marjorie Reeves and Beatrice Hirsch-Reich, The Figurae of Joachim
of Fiore (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972); Marjorie Reeves, The Influence of Prophecy in
the Later Middle Ages: A Study in Joachimism (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969);
Marjorie Reeves, Joachim of Fiore and the Prophetic Future (New York: Harper
Torchbooks, 1976).
205
the expulsion apologists who liken all Moriscos to the notorious beasts of Daniels and
Johns revelations.
In her study on Pedro de Valencia and the Catholic apologists, Magnier describes
the apocalyptic mentality of the early modern era in which the apologists, inspired by the
biblical apocalypses, conceived of their treatises. She states that
millenarian prophecies hovered uneasily between spiritual exaltation and
political expediency. These prophecies heralded a time of restoration and
renewal; the old sinful world would disappear and give way to the new;
the forces of the just from all over the world would be commanded by a
Universal Emperor of the Last Days, a New David, accompanied by a
shepherd or Angelic pope, who would defeat the forces of the Antichrist.
Once the Antichrist was dead, the New David would inaugurate the
Millennium, a Golden Age of peace and harmony; finally, Christ would
return and time would end.133
Critical to Magniers understanding of the millennial atmosphere that characterizes the
treatises is what she describes as Spains perceived preeminence in the dramatic
unfolding of the end-time. Citing as evidence details of the millenarian prophecies that
circulated in the Middle Ages as well as the widespread acceptance of Santiago the
Moor-slayer as a revered national saint, Magnier argues that the idea of the Spanish as a
new Chosen People was already deeply ingrained in the Spanish psyche at the time that
the apologists penned their tracts.134
133
134
Magnier, Pedro de Valencia, 51-2.
For a detailed description of these prophecies, see Magnier, Pedro de Valencia, 49118.
206
The books of Daniel and Revelation offer many of the emblematic components of
apocalyptic discourse, as delineated by scholars in that field.135 Collins defines the
apocalypse, for example, as a genre of revelatory literature with a narrative framework,
in which a revelation is mediated by an otherworldy being to a human recipient,
disclosing a transcendent reality which is both temporal, insofar as it envisages
eschatological salvation, and spatial insofar as it involves another, supernatural world. 136
The apologists, for their part, do not assert their own unique apocalyptic visions. Rather,
they appropriate a preexisting Biblical apocalyptic tradition, mapping onto it their
interpretation with respect to historical figures and events. In this respect, the apologists,
recognize the rhetorical power of the Judeo-Christian apocalyptic tradition as a reliable
and time-tested strategy in garnering support for a cause. It becomes one of many tools
the apologists use to persuade the king and his advisors of the danger of Morisco return.
Antichrist on Spanish Terrain

To begin the process of proving the Antichrists dangerous presence in early
modern Spain, the apologists first assert a typological relationship between Old and New
Testament events. They argue that apocalyptic discourse in both books of the Bible as
well as the correspondence between the two validates the apocalyptic warning signs the
apologists see in contemporary Spanish Moriscos. This emphasis on the end of days and
135
See, for example, John J. Collins, Apocalypse: Toward the Morphology of a Genre,
Semeia, 14 (1979): 1-20.
136
Collins, Apocalypse, 9.
207
the final judgment further contributes to the climate of fear created and intensified by the
apologists treatises. Aznar Cardona argues that just as Solomon and David prefigure
Christ, and Esther and Judith the Virgin Mary, the apocalyptic images and symbols
represented in the books of Daniel and Revelation offer
la luz clara de la soberana profeca, comunicada por la sabidura divina a
quien todas las cosas pasadas y venideras le estn presentes, parece que
los pinta, y les figura sus inclinaciones y condiciones, y sus dichos y
hechos, tan por menudo, y tan en particular, que fcilmente por la figura
tan particularizada, y pintura tan al vivo, atendiendo al contexto literal y
ajustndolo al discurso temporal de la Iglesia de Cristo.137
Muhammad becomes, therefore, the embodiment of the horrible beasts of the apocalypse
and their destructive power, and the apologists then extend this correspondence to include
all of Muhammads imitators. This brings to life the gruesome creatures of the Biblical
apocalypse, transporting their metaphorical and symbolic danger into ostensible peril on
Spanish soil. To further support this point that the danger is literal and immediate, they
137
Aznar Cardona, Expulsin justificada, 1:5-6. Aznar Cardona provides as theological

justification for his typological beliefs the following: Para llana y averiguada
inteligencia desta verdad, debe ser notada aquella regla usadsima de todos los Doctores
positivos acerca de las cosas que en la divinas letras son figura de otras, diciendo: Que
aquello que es figura y representacin de otra cosa, necesariamente ha de ser algo en si
mismo; pues el, nada, y lo que no es, ni tiene ser alguno, no puede representar, ni
significar cosa alguna. Por la cual la cosa que por orden del cielo es figura, y
significacin de otra, en tres maneras notables puede ser considerada. La primera, a solas
sin relacin ni respecto a otra, no ms de tomada precisamente en caunto es tal cosa. La
segunda en orden y relacin exterior, y cuanto es figura de otra. La tercera, en esas dos
maneras, es saber, en cuanto es tal cosa, y juntamente en quanto es figura de otra. Dan
esta regla (entre otras) importantsima los Doctores santos, porque siendo entre los
sentidos celestiales, de la sagrada escritura, solo el literal el que es fundamento de los
otros, y el que hace certeza de Fe (como lo prueba san Agustn, contra Donatistas, y lo
confiesan todos los Doctores Catlicos) con el tino y modelo desta regla aprobadsima se
manifiestan con grande claridad en un solo paso y en un mismo lugar sagrado, dos
sentidos literales, y ms, si ms admitiere.
208
repeatedly employ the idiom a la letra to portray the degree of correspondence between
apocalyptic beasts and Muhammad. In arguing that Muhammads apocalyptic evil is
passed down through generations of his followers, the apologists suggest that the beasts
and Muhammad are one in the same and therefore depict an Iberian Peninsula replete
with monsters. For example, Aznar Cardona argues, [q]ue los imitadores, son a la letra,
y en figura, aquellos a quien imitan: Y que san Juan habl de Mahoma, de cuya
deshonestidad, astucia y maldad de secta se trata. 138 Aznar Cardona likewise reports that
Muhammad is the subject of Johns Apocalypse, stating Este es aquel irracional
monstruo, de quien a la letra dijo san Juan: Et vidialiam bestiam ascendentem de terra,
habentem cornua duo, simila Agni, & loquebatur ficut draco. Llama bestia al lascivo
Mahoma, por el modo de vida bestialsima, que us personalmente, y ense a los
suyos.139 To the apologist, Muhammad is the apocalyptic beast who ensures that his
legacy is carried out for future generations by teaching his followers to embody the same
animalistic, destructive characteristics.
Aznar Cardona sees Muhammad himself, and therefore his Morisco followers, as
el Pardo que vio Daniel, y su secta hecha de malos remiendosmas son tambin, a la
letra, aquella bestia espantosa, erizada con revuelta variedad de pelo, que vio el santo
Profeta Daniel, entre aquellas cuatro malignas que refiere en el cap. 7 de su profeca, y la
llama Pardo, nombre correspondiente a su bestial monstruosidad. 140 In Daniel, this
138
139
140
209
pardo, a quien llamamos en vulgar Pantera, Tigre, 141 is said to represent the Persian
Empire that conquered Media. While its four heads may represent notable Persian kings,
Aznar Cardona is more concerned with the beasts multitude of colors and spots, rather
than its appendages. For the apologist, the fierce predator symbolizes the composite of
all Satanic sects, accepting and admitting into his fold heretics and enemies to the true
faith. He states that the pardo of Daniels vision
por ser pardo en el pelo, admite gran variedad de mchas y colores, negro,
blanco, morado, azul, amarillo, rojo, y las dems; significando por este
confuso Juergustico, las diversas sectas, de que Mahoma, y Sergio, y sus
doce Satanales, ministros suyos, forjaron esta secta de sectas, o suma de
errores, o este veneno, apurado de apestadas sectas diferentes, que
entonces cuando el comenz andaban por rincones, y como dicen, a
sombra de tejados, ultrajadas, y aborrecidas de los Cristianos.142
Aznar Cardona also views the pardo as the powerful precursor to the last and most
dangerous beast of all, Antichrist.143 In the same manner in which he equates Muhammad
with the great cat from the Book of Daniel, Aznar Cardona also describes the Muslim
141
142
Aznar Cardona, Expulsin justificada, 1: 153.
143
Aznar Cardona, Expulsin justificada, 1:152. Tuvo al contrario tambin la Iglesia de

Cristo otras cuatro diferencias de enemigos, figurados en aqllas cuatro terribles bestias
que vio el profeta Daniel, armadas contra ella en el mar tempestuoso dete mdo. La
primera, leona, significando la persecucin de los rabiosos Tiranos desenfrenados de toda
razn y justifica. La segunda, oso animal con dientes y uas, y astucia notable, denotado
por esta fiereza leonina la persecucin de los herejes mordaces, y astutos como zorras. La
tercera Pardo, a quien llamamos en vulgar Pantera, Tigre, significando por esta
prodigiosa bestia, la perseguidora secta Mahometana, predecesora a la cuarta del
Antecristo, bestia desaforada, a la cual no le da nombre esta profeca, para sealarnos,
como su crecida maldad de maldades, nunca vistas, ni nombradas, incluir, y como si
dijsemos, embeber en si, y dejara sin nombres la de sus malsimos inferiores, pequeos
en su respecto, por muy grandes que vuieren sido, ejecutando el, lo que ellos, ni pudieron,
ni supieron, aunque fueron malos por extremo.
210
prophet as the embodiment (again, a la letra) of the wild boar who appears in psalm
80,144 or el Puerco monts que vio David, y el verdugo que mat infinitos santos, y el
ladrn que hurt las riquezas mas insignes de Espaa. 145 The text of this particular
psalm hears the lament of Israel, repeatedly trampled by brutish foreign nations without
relief from God. It likens the chosen people to a vine brought out of Egypt only to be
ravaged by a wild boar from the forest. It is certainly not coincidental that Aznar Cardona
draws a parallel between the barbaric groups who threatened the Jews, symbolized by the
unclean wild boar in the psalm, and Muslim takeover in Spain. To refer to Muhammad
and his descendants as the garbage-eating animals that they, like the Jews, deem impure
and unworthy of human consumption is to once again criticize tenets of the Jewish and
144
Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest
between the cherubims, shine forth. 2Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up
thy strength, and come and save us. 3Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine;
and we shall be saved. 4O LORD God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the
prayer of thy people? 5Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and givest them tears to
drink in great measure. 6Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours: and our enemies
laugh among themselves. 7Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine;
and we shall be saved. 8Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the
heathen, and planted it. 9Thou prepardst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep
root, and it filled the land. 10The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs
thereof were like the goodly cedars. 11She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her
branches unto the river. 12Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they
which pass by the way do pluck her? 13The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the
wild beast of the field doth devour it. 14Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look
down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine; 15And the vineyard which they right
hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself. 16It is burned with
fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance. 17Let thy hand be upon
the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself. 18
So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name. 19Turn us
again, O LORD God of hosts, cause they face to shine; and we shall be saved.
145
211
Muslim faiths that the apologists deem superstitious, meaningless, and inferior to the true
faith.146
While all of the Catholic apologists considered here relate Morisco presence in
Spain to the impending apocalypse, Aznar Cardonas treatment is perhaps most notable
for its animal imagery. Each of the later apologists concurs with and cite Aznar
Cardonas scriptural commentary and equation of the Moriscos with apocalyptic beasts,
even if Guadalajara finds his narrative style a bit disjointed and chaotic. He notes that
[e]l licenciado Pedro Aznar, con su ordinario torrente y digresiones, prueba ser Mahoma
el Puerco que vio David, el Jabal de la Selva, y al Pardo que vio Daniel, y que de esto
habla a la letra la sagrada Escritura. 147 Aznar Cardona, therefore, sketches out an
apocalyptic discourse the other apologists would adopt in turn, all contributing to the
collective image of the Moriscos as brutish, animalistic, and dangerous.
In addition to Old Testament imagery regarding the apocalypse and its
prototypical creatures, the apologists also appropriate an image of Johns apocalyptic
beast described by the abbot Joachim of Fiore. Fonseca states that this beast, [v]iene en
figura de Dragn, quiz porque la primera aparicin que hizo en el mundo fue con la
forma de esta cruel bestia: que por eso le llama S. Juan, Serpiente antigua, de la suerte
146
Appearances of animals of the suidae family in the canonical Bible are limited to this
one particular psalm (80) where the wild boar from the forest ravages the vine. In 1
Enoch, however, a book from the Apocrypha commonly called the animal apocalypse,
the black boar symbolizes Esau and his descendants.
147
212
que la paloma est aplicada al Espritu Santo.148 This dragon, he claims, sported seven
crowned heads, and unos entienden a la letra aquellos siete grandes monarcas, con que
Satans en tiempo del Antecristo arruinara la tierra: y que otros se persuaden, que
significan los siete pecados mortales, los cuales tambin se llaman capitales, por ser
cabezas, y caudillos de los dems vicios. 149 Fonseca, for his part, agrees with the church
doctors who, following Joachims proposal, view the heads as representative of great
heretics and Antichrists precursors. 150 According to McGinn, in Joachims analysis,
[t]he seven heads are identified with seven evil rulers: Herod, Nero, Constantine the
Arian, Mohammed, Mesemoth (probably a North African ruler), Saladin, and the
Seventh King, who is properly called Antichrist, although there will be another like him,
no less evil, symbolized by the tail. 151 Appropriating Joachims image for his own
political intentions, however, Fonseca alters the relative position of the heads, reserving
for Muhammad the dragons seventh head, ms perniciosa de todas (que por esto la dej
para lo ltimo)que generalmente blasfema de toda la Religin Cristiana.152
148
Fonseca, Justa expulsin, Prologue, np.
149
150
In Fonsecas description of the seven-headed beasts, the other six heads symbolize
Simon Magus, Manicheaus, Arius, Pelagius, Luther, and Calvin. Fonseca, Justa
expulsin, Prologue, np.
151
Bernard McGinn, Symbols of the Apocalypse in Medieval Culture Medieval Studies

37 (1975), 279.
152
213
Bleda follows suit, attributing to Muhammad the destruction following the
opening of Revelations fourth seal, explicitly following Joachims commentary in his
Expositio in Apocalypsim. He states,
Dice el santo Euangelista en el sexto capitulo, que habiendo abierto el
Cordero el cuarto sello, oy una voz del cuarto animal, que le deca: ve, y
mira: y vio un caballo amarillo, en el cual yua caballero uno, que tenia por
nombre, la muerte, y tras del segua el infierno, y diosele poder sobre las
cuatro partes de la tierra, para matar con cuchillo, con hambre, con la
muerte, y con las bestias de la tierra.153
The horseman ushers in la persecucin de los Mahometanos, following generations of
other threats to Christianity represented by the previous seals. Bleda likewise concurs
with church doctors like Joachim who see in the yellow horse and his rider a vivid
representation of Muhammad,
primeramente porque el caballo es animal atrevido, feroz, belicoso: y los
hombres desta secta fueron feroces, audaces, y belicosos: porque esta secta
al principio fue introducida a fuerza de armas, y con aparato de guerra,
despus fue dilatada por armas, y con ellas fue establecida, y conservada.
Mas esta secta es irracional, sensual, y bestial, y toda encaminada a los
deleites carnales.154
In other words, the fourth seal is particularly threatening for the barbaric physical danger
it embodies and the fear it inspires. For Bleda, therefore, Muhammad is the sum of all
heresies, the Antichrist in person155 or the Antichrist of all Antichrists.156 He refers to him
153
Bleda, Crnica, 52.
154
Bleda, Crnica, 51-2.
155
Bleda, Crnica, 5.
156
Bleda, Crnica, 1. Mahoma engaador del mundo, Profeta falso, nuncio de Satans,
el peor precursor del Antecristo, cumplimiento de todas las herejas, y prodigio de toda
falsedad, como otro Hieroboam quit diez partes a la casa de David, esto es, a la iglesia
214
as aquel deforme monstruo, compuesto de los errores de los Nestorianos, Arrianos, y
Judos, que se embraveci contra las Cruces.157 Aznar Cardona similarly describes
Muhammad as a great deceiver,
y un Antecristo y se entiende la verdad de esta letra, que lo es sin duda, no
en persona, sino en espritu perverso de contradiccin y error, de perfidia y
odio de Dios, y de todo gnero de maldad y mentira, con que ofenden la
divinidad, y humanidad de Cristo, negndola, y contradicindola: que eso
quiere decir Antecristo, contrario a Cristo nuestro Seor, que le
contradice, y le deshace, en cuanto es de su parte, la Majestad de su
Divinidad, y la misericordia de su Humanidad, con blasfemo corazn, y
sacrlega boca descomulgada.158
For the apologists, Antichrists danger resides in his pervasiveness and manner in which
he carries off unsuspecting souls into the depths of hell. Fonseca, for example, observes
that Antichrists power stretches across the globe as a result of the advance of Islam. He
states in reference to the Church-devouring beast,
[c]on estas cabezas movi en todos tiempos este dragn tan cruel guerra a
la Iglesia, que ya parece se la llevaba entre los dientes, y se coronaba por
Rey de la tierra, como se que en la secta de Mahoma, que se ha apoderado
de casi toda la frica, de la mayor parte de Asia, y de gran parte de
Europa: y lo que peor es, que sin sentirse, haba metido ya el pie en
Espaa, seorendose, de la mitad del Reino de Valencia, de buena parte
de Aragn, y de muchos lugares de Catalua, cundiendo en Granada,
Sevilla, Crdoba, Murcia, Toledo, Valladolid, y en otras tierras as de
de Jesu Cristo nuestro Seor. Este tan grande monstruo pari, y crio el Oriente, tan
deforme, que en fealdad, y fiereza excede a todos, los que divinamente fueron mostrados
a Daniel, y a san Juan Evangelista, para significar algn mal gravsimo. Y as todas las
persecuciones mas diablicas que humanas, las tribulaciones, angustias, y terrores, que
les amenazaban antiguamente en los divinos Orculos, a los que haban de vivir en los
siglos venideros: todo lo que de esta materia leamos hasta hoy en el viejo y nuevo
testamento, y en otras divinas predicciones, y en figura de horrendos dragones, y bestias.
157
Bleda, Crnica, 13.
158
215
Castilla la vieja, como la nueva, en las cuales residan los Moriscos de
Espaa.159
As noted in the previous section concerning fear, the apologists establish the Moriscos as
emblematic of Islam, stating that their desire to collude with Muslim forces abroad
renders them indistinguishable from the persecuting Turks. Fonseca reiterates that the
Antichrists presence has gone dangerously undetected in Spain, slowly creeping in
across Asia, Africa, and the rest of Europe.160 Without proper precaution, Spain will find
its souls in the grips of el injusto opresor, y verdugo carnicero, 161 Muhammad the
Antichrist, as he carries millares de almas al inferno, con la impiedad pertinaz de su
reprobada secta bestial.162 Muhammad will bring about the end of the Church and the
world by engendering evil through los otros malos hombres que se le hacen, hijos, por
imitacin de su mal espritu, y mal obrar.163 The Antichrist Muhammad disorients and
misleads his followers with fictional scripture as Daniel predicted, employing un libro
de blasfemias, un sermn, o razonamiento entero (como es un Alcorn, que se interpreta,
Epilogo de preceptos) contra el excelso y varadero Seor Jesu Cristo.164 The vices he
promotes, which are los caminos mas generales, por donde la mayor parte del mundo
159
160
Aznar Cardona, Expulsin justificada, 1:141-51. Aznar Cardona traces the spread of
Islam over several continents.
161
162
163
164
216
ciego camina,165 serve as conduits to hell for souls who could otherwise be destined for
Paradise. Aznar Cardona warns that all sinners and idolaters, including Muhammads
followers, irn al infierno, y padecern all, sin remedio, no algn tiempo limitado, sino
eternalmente, en compaa de aquellos Demonios, cuya pena tambin ser eterna.166 The
danger of these vices only increases as the population of Muhammads followers grows,
and Guadalajara laments
[el] notorio y evidente peligro en que est Espaa, por ser estos tantos, e ir
cada da creciendo en nmero, y ser tan grande el aborrecimiento que
tienen a los Cristianos, y tan declarada aficin a su secta, y as tener por
cierto, que en cualquier ocasin que se ofreciere, sern traidores a su Rey
y Seor, y procuraran que Espaa venga en poder de Rey, que les deje
vivir en su secta.167
The Antichrist, they warn, will remain alive and powerful and a threat to civilization so
long as the Moriscos live on Spanish soil.
The apologists then add to their Scripture-based argument favoring the imminent
danger of Antichrist on Spanish terrain, providing copious descriptions of historical and
contemporary portents to support their claims. For example, it was during expulsion
proceedings in the port of Los Alfaques that a tale apparently circulated concerning a
resplendent celestial omen: a glistening white cross that hovered over the ships about to
embark, their holds full of Morisco refugees. Aznar Cardona refers to the glowing cross
as
165
166
167
217
el bculo poderoso de Cristo nuestro salvadorcon su virtud insuperable,
nos dejaba ya exentos de las asechadas de infieles domsticos, y se
quedaba libre de las blasfemias continuas de ellos, llevando los delante de
si, a echarlos por esos mares, barriendo nos la tierra de su pestfera
contagin, para que libres del mal ejemplo de sus infidelidades y
escndalos entibadores, la adorasen todos los fieles con mayor fervor y
puridad. 168
He states that Christ had repeatedly brandished this same cross throughout Spanish
history as a symbol of justice and triumph over the invading Moors,169 serving as a sort of
reassurance to Christians crusading against Islam that their efforts were justified. He
therefore gives his audience an example of Gods official seal of approval at this midway
point in the expulsion project, giving Spanish authorities the green light with which to
continue as planned to further rid the realm of what he regards as Morisco pestilence.
Aznar Cardona also hopes to dissuade the Crown from undoing the 1609 act, regardless
of the decisions fiscal or administrative consequences.
The apologists argue that such signs are obvious and undeniable to the true
Christian. For example, Aznar Cardona states that God gives
tan claros indicios, y tan particulares seas, que a lo menos podamos decir,
que vemos por la pintura presente, del verdadero retrato, al ausente en
persona: y los indicios y seas, son aquellas tan notorias a todo Cristiano,
como es la venida (tan predicada en la doctrina Evanglica) de los dos
Santos, Elas, y Enoc, en los aos cercanos a la fin del mundo, para efecto
de predicar la Ley de Dios, y contrastar al Antecristo.170
168
Pedro Aznar Cardona, Expulsin justificada de los moriscos espaoles y suma de las
excellencias christianas de nuestro rey don Felipe el Catholico Tercero: diuidda en dos
partes (Huesca: Pedro Cabarte, 1612), 2:30.
169
Aznar Cardona, Expulsin iustificiada, 2:30.
170
218
Similarly unmistakable signs appeared, they maintain, at the time of Muhammads birth,
confirming his power to bring about destruction and the end of days. Guadalajara notes
that in that year, que padeca Arabia terrible hambre y cruel pestilencia. 171 Bleda makes
the same claim, citing historical references including the Archbishop Rodrigo of Toledo,
Gnebrard, Geronimo Bardi, and Zonaras, adding that famine stretched all the way to
Italy where it also rained blood. 172 The apologists characterize the era of Muhammads
lifetime as rich in warning signs of the destruction of the Church. As symbols of la
crueldad monstruosa de Mahoma, y de su secta,173 Bleda includes historic events, such
as Pope Gregory the Greats death and the appearance of a comet in the same list as
events worthy of the front page of a modern tabloid. For example, he claims that in
Constantinople, two children were born with four feet as well as another with dos
colodrillos. One child was born fishlike, lacking eyes and limbs, and one night the sky
was full of bloody spears.174 Bleda relates that in 607, a Christian procession in
Constantinople was interrupted when various crucifixes began to move by themselves,
171
172
Bleda, Crnica, 3. En el mismo ao que naci Mahoma, afligi la hambre y

gravsima pestilencia aquella Provincia de Arabia la Feliz, en la cual segn Genebrardo,
hubo tanta falta de mantenimientos, que se sustentaba la gente de hierbas, que coga por
el campo. Lo mismo dice don Rodrigo Arzobispo de Toledo, y Mrmol. Y en este ao
dice Bardi, que aun duraba el hambre en Italia, y en la Toscana llovi sangre. Lo proprio
escriben Zonaras el Justino, y Blondo.
173
Bleda, Crnica, 8.
174
Bleda, Crnica, 8.
219
que caus horror a todos los que se hallaron presentes. 175 He also comments that St.
Theodore later interpreted the event to foretell a time of great calamity and grave danger,
porque significa que muchos han de dejar nuestra santa Religin: ha de
haber bravas incursiones, y venidas de brbaras gentes, y mucho
derramamiento de sangre, incendios, muertes, y sediciones en todo el orbe,
y las santas Iglesias quedarn desiertas: y seala el acabamiento del culto
divino, y de el Imperio: y que se acerca la venida del Adversario.176
For the apologists, this sign is replicated a thousand fold in the centuries to come,
repeatedly warning of the Antichrists power to destroy Christianity. These portents,
Bleda argues, frightened even Pope Gregory, threatening an unleashing of la artilleria, y
maquinas con quehaba de acometer, combater, y sugetar la mayor parte del orbe. 177 If
such threats rattled even the Sumo Pontifice, surely their ramifications resonated
throughout the Spanish kingdoms as Islam took root and spread throughout the Peninsula.
According to Guadalajara, signs like these also resonated with a certain Mossen Per, who
in 1392 predicted that in Spain, la gente Cristiana padecera grandes invasiones y fatigas
por los Moros que entre ellos moraban.178 The seer comments that the Christians will
make cruel and terrible enemies of the Moors,
hasta que al cabo aquel pueblo malvado acabara en Espaa, y seran
echados della de raz con su malvada Secta para siempre jams: segn que
ellos mismos lo hallaban escrito en los libros y vaticinios de sus pasados:
y que entonces se cumpliran los misterios escritos por san Juan en el
175
Bleda, Crnica, 8.
176
Bleda, Crnica, 8.
177
Bleda, Crnica, 9.
178
220
Apocalipsis, mayormente el del Sexto Sello, del libro que el ngel
abri.179
Guadalajara is the apologist most concerned with contemporary signs that reinforced the
validity of earlier Apocalyptic predictions. He devotes large sections of both his
Prodicin y destierro de los moriscos de Castilla and his Memorable expulsin to the
enumeration of impressive and often grave portents of the Moriscosnumbered days on
Spanish soil, stating that [t]odos estos prodigios, y otros muchos que pudiramos referir,
fueron avisos de la poderosa mano de Dios; para que los hombres, con nueva y reformada
vida evitasen los daos.180 He gives most importance to the mysterious unassisted
ringing of the church bells at Vililla in Aragon in 1601, stating that this sign alerted
Ribera to the gravity of the Spanish Catholic churchs situation and inspired him to
continue advocating for expulsion.181 Apparently this bell had a penchant historically for
announcing important events by its own devices, including the deaths of prominent
figures such as the Emperor Charles V and his wife the Empress Isabel.182 In this
particular instance regarding the Moriscos, however, Guadalajara notes that the bells
mysterious ringing served to the alert the Aragonese of the possibility of Morisco
uprising, y avisarle del peligro eminente que le amenazaba,183 stating that Bleda affirms
this interpretation.
179
180
181
182
183
221
In a similar manner, Aznar Cardona relates another miracle in Aragon, this time
of the Virgin of Tobed, who allegedly sud con abundancia una agua clarsima, por
espacio de veinte y cuarto, o treinta horas .184 He argues that the event denot, las
culpas enormes, las herejas, los sacrilegios, las blasfemias dignas de ser lloradas 185 that
the Moriscos had committed against God. He states that the Virgins perspiration serves
as a warning to the Spanish Catholics that the Moriscos will commit many offences
against her. In emphasizing this virgin sweat, Aznar Cardona insinuates a physical threat
to the innocent Christian body.186
Guadalajara references a similar example of the importance of the Morisco
expulsion as expressed by the miraculous crying image of the Virgin at the Convent of
Our Lady of Carmen in Zaragoza. He relates that she cried for twenty four hours
beginning on Holy Thursday, [y] si como aquellas lagrimas (error notable) que se
recogieron en Corporales y lienzos blancos, se reservarn con la curiosidad que en
Tobed, tengo por sin gnero de duda, que este milagro manifestar la causa y principio de
su angustia.187 Guadalajara gives an example of a religious miracle more explicitly
intended to mobilize Christian Spaniards into retaliation against their Morisco neighbors
that allegedly occurred at the church of the apostle Santiago, patron of Spain and symbol
184
185
Aznar Cardona, Expulsin justificada, 2:26
186
For a discussion of the ways in which Old Christians inscribed deviance on the
Morisco body, see Mary Elizabeth Perry, The Politics of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in
the Making of the Spanish State in Culture and the State in Spain, 1550-1850, ed. Tom
Lewis, et al. (New York: Garland, 1999), 34-54.
187
222
of the crusade against Islam. He states that several reliable witnesses were said to have
heard a voice emanating from the holy sepulcher, calling Christian Spaniards to rise up
against their domestic enemies, Arma, Arma, Espaa, Espaa. 188 He calls this uno de
los mayores prodigios que se pueden escribir, ni imaginar, y mas en un santo y tan
singular lugar, como todo el mundo sabe. 189
Guadalajara incorporates into his discussion of the above religious miracles
heavenly signs of more threatening nature when he talks about the clouds that rained
blood in the town of Graon. This town, originally named by the Moors as they
conquered Spain con tanto derramamiento de sangre, 190 is a geographical reminder to
Spain of its native territories taken by force. This freely-flowing blood warns of CatholicMorisco miscegenation, tainting the pure and rightful Catholic bloodline with the heresy
and deviance upon which the apologists expound at length. 191 Spains infamous limpieza
de sangre laws, as Perry suggests, institutionalized a belief that difference inherited with
the blood at birth was so deviant that it could not be changed or tolerated. 192
Guadalajara states that in many other locations in Spain where the descendants of
African Moors continued to inhabit the Peninsula, calamities likewise occurred as
188
189
190
Guadalajara y Javier, Prodicin y destierro, 17-8.
191
For a discussion of sex and violence between majority and minority groups in the
Middle Ages, see David Nirenberg, Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities
in the Middle Ages (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996),127-65.
192
Perry, Politics of Race, 38.
223
reminders of the enemy residing within the nations confines. Rivers and other bodies of
water began to flow against the natural current, que pareci el universal diluvio,
entrando en las ciudades, villas insignes, y otros lugares de Espaa: talado los capos,
llevndose los ganados, casas, y haciendas; y derribando muchas puentes, y de otras las
acitaras y antepechos.193 To Guadalajara this sort of disaster is representative of the
Moriscos greater mission to demolish and consume no solamente las haciendas, sino
tambin los Prncipes y Seores, mas poderosos y ricos.194 He claims that certain
sections of the Carrion River dried up, a clear signal that the Moriscos crimes were on
the rise. The apologist states that God threatened to rescind his grace from a people living
among heretics, representado por las aguas clara de sus dulcsimas Fuentes y ros
celestiales; para que privados del, como en ro seco, nos cogiesen nuestros enemigos
domsticos: para fin ltimo de la vida y libertad.195
The apologists also interpret several astrological sightings of the era as signs of
heavenly support for the Morisco expulsion. Guadalajara, for example, comments that in
1607, a fiery comet announced the Moriscos wicked ways, akin to Jonahs
pronouncements to the Ninevites.196 He claimed that a great astrologer repeated often in
Madrid that the comet was a symbol of Gods displeasure with the Moriscos, stating,
[v]elad, y mudad vuestras costumbres, castigando los delitos atroces, y pecados
193
194
195
196
224
encubiertos, que hay en el Reino: porque sino Dios tiene determinado de pasarle a otra
parte.197 Guadalajara likewise attributes to the conjunction of planets a sign of total ruina
y destruicin de la maldita secta de Mahoma, 198and warns that an ominous fire raged in
the Pyrenees, converting the night into day, serving as yet another symbol of the
aumento de la Fe Catlica, y destruicin de la oscura y denegrada secta de Mahoma.199
All of these celestial portents he links to the star that guided shepherds and kings to the
manger, la noche que naci en Belen el Verbo Divino: para manifesta a los Judos, de
ella, que estaba el Mesas ya en la tierra: que con la predicacin del sagrado Evangelio
cesaran las ceremonias de su antigua Ley: y que los invencibles Espaoles replanderan
siempre en la Nueva, libres de todas tinieblas.200 Bleda also comments on the
significance of the Great Conjunction of 1603, stating that the prominent astrologer
Francisco Navarro de Xtiva had written an entire discourse on the topic, arguing que
aquella conjuncion sealaba como con el dedo la dicha expulsin.201 Guadalajara notes
that many astrologers made similar observations, and that [t]odos ellos concordaron, en
que esta Conjuncin pronosticaba la cada y ltima resolucin de la Secta de Mahoma en
Espaa.202 The very public and conspicuous nature of many of the signs the apologists
enumerate serves to call attention not only to the devastation inherent in such disasters
197
198
199
200
201
Bleda, Crnica, 981.
202
225
but also to the unmistakable identity, in the apologists opinion, of the people who have
incurred Gods wrath.
While the apologists would all agree that the Moriscos symbolized Spains
destruction and that their intentions universally were to devastate the Catholic faith,
Bleda pays particular attention to Gods role in Spains destruction. Just as terrestrial
disasters and astrological signs signal to the apologists Gods approval of the expulsion
plan, Bleda reminds his readers that Spains initial invasion from North Africa must also
have come at Gods command. For example, he cites as the primary explanation for
Moorish invasion the sins of the last Visigothic kings Rodrigo and Witiza. Their
weaknesses as rulers, both in terms of policy and morality, weakened the Spanish state
immeasurably, rendering it vulnerable to punishment and divine justice. Bleda states that
as a result of these individual actions the entire nation suffered, stating that lloraron
estos Reinos por tantos siglos, y la llaga dur de curar novecientos aos, que han
corridoro desde la invasin de los Moros, hasta su expulsin.203 This particular
explanation serves as a sort of warning to King Philip and his advisors, reminding them
that the political, spiritual, and moral health of the nation rests in large part on the
decisions of the rulers. But Bleda also critiques Spaniards on a more pedestrian level
when he cites their cruelty as a group as inciting Gods wrath. He states that ninguna
gente fue tenida por tan cruel, y sin misericordia como la Espaola, 204 referring to
general Spanish inclination toward vengeance and hostility, a tomar satisfaccin de las
203
Bleda, Crnica, 117.
204
Bleda, Crnica, 119.
226
injurias que nos hacen.205 (His diatribe, of course, serves as an ironic prime example.)
The treatises are therefore not only a call to banish Moriscos from Spanish soil but to also
eradicate from Spanish hearts and souls the sins that left them vulnerable in the first
place. In this endeavor, every Spaniard, king and commoner alike, has a personal
responsibility.
Unity Threatened
The apologists argue that the true danger in the above signs, more devastating
than dried up rivers and rain clouds filled with blood, is that Spaniards have allowed them
to go unnoticed altogether. Guadalajara laments, for example, that even in spite of tan
grandes prodigios y monstruosas seales, de quien se poda tomar alguna luz de esta
prodicin; dorman los Catlicos Espaoles, en tan profundo sueo, sin poderlos
despertar, ni mover, para destruir esta mala generacin.206 While the planets align and
blazing comets whirl through the heavens, Spanish princes continued in a dreamlike state,
neglecting their duties. These monarchs, Bleda argues, are entrusted with the peace of the
realms, and scripture warns of los grandes peligros, y daos, que resultan a los fieles, de
tener en su compaia infieles. 207 A Spain that ignores the warning signs, both
scripturally foretold and literally embodied, consequently risks losing the political and
205
Bleda, Crnica, 120.
206
207
Bleda, Crnica, 873.
227
religious unity it worked so arduously to achieve through the expulsion of the Moriscos.
Spains very identity, therefore, is at stake.
In this vein, Guadalajara argues that heresy is poisonous to peace, harmony, and
human uniformity.208 He states that discord in matters of faith engendra discordia en los
nimos,209 breeding altercation, war, and civil unrest. Fonseca agrees, arguing that
cualquier Reino donde hay divisin, se perder.210 He adds that no division is as
dangerous as one concerning religion, porque como por la Religin estemos obligados, a
perder todo lo temporal, hacienda, deudos, y la misma vida; cada uno por defensa de la
Religin que profesa, arriesgar todo lo dicho.211 It is ultimately faith that sets apart the
true Christian Spaniards from their Morisco counterparts. Fonseca states that la Religin
es el nervio, y atadura de los Reinos, y Estados, y as dividindose, o quebrantndose
esta, es fuerza que ellos tambin se dividan, y acaben: como de hecho se acaban los
Reinos, que permiten herejes sin ser castigados. 212 In other words, in a land where unity
of faith is in any way compromised, the entire sovereignty of the nation is at risk of
ultimate destruction.
208
209
Guadalajara y Javier, Memorable expulsin, 19-20.
210
211
212
Conclusion
America, the Greatest Country God ever gave Man, was built on three bedrock
principles: Freedom. Liberty. And Fearthat someone might take our Freedom
and Liberty. But now, there are dark, optimistic forces trying to take away our
Fearforces with salt and pepper hair and way more Emmys than they need.
They want to replace our Fear with reason. But never forgetReason is just
one letter away from Treason. Coincidence? Reasonable people would say it
is, but America cant afford to take that chance. 1
Stephen Colbert
March to Keep Fear Alive
October 2010
On January 20, 2009, after swearing an oath to serve faithfully and defend the
Constitution, Barack Hussein Obama became the first black president of the United
States. Many saw this as the realization of a dream, a signal that post-racial America had
finally arrived. Others were less enthusiastic. The work of at least one academic suggests
that racism is among the most stable of political views and that, instead of delivering
what many suggested would be a post-racial presidency, Obama will have polarized
corners of American politics previously untouched by race.2 In other words, rather than
reducing the role of race in American politics, the election of President Obama may have
1
Stephen Colbert, March to Keep Fear Alive, accessed July 19, 2012,
http://www.keepfearalive.com/.
2
Sasha Issenberg,Racialization: Michael Teslers Theory That All Political Positions

Come down to Racial Bias, Slate, accessed July 19, 2012,
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/victory_lab/2012/06/racicalization_mic
hael_tesler_s_theory_that_all_political_positions_come_down_to_racial_bias_.html.
228
229
caused Americans to realign other, previously stable, political beliefs to reflect their
existing views on race.
Of course, the effect of race on contemporary political debates relating to, for
instance, health care and same-sex marriage is not at all apparent from the rhetoric. This
is because right-wing political pundits, among others, recognized that the black-white
dichotomy in American politics is too taboo to discuss as such and that a code was
needed. The solution was to exploit the anti-Muslim groundwork that had been laid in the
wake of 9/11, together with certain details of the Presidents biography, both mundane
(allegedly missing Hawaiian birth certificate) and cosmopolitan (Kenyan patrilineage and
Indonesian schooling). In particular, having earlier in the 2000s reduced the Muslim
world to a threatening monolith in the minds of many Americans, the conservative media
had a ready tool that they could use to talk about Obama as different and unacceptable
while allowing participants in the discourse to plausibly deny accusations of racism.
Seizing on this, certain conservatives began arguing for Obamas covert Muslim
allegiance, sounding the panic alarm about a clandestine Muslim with ties to terrorists
inheriting the White House. Conservatives exploiting this code have not necessarily been
motivated by racist views, but it is certainly the case that racial prejudice is a useful lever
when trying to sell the American populace on ones position regarding health care or
immigration.
230
A five-minute news clip from August 2010 helps to illustrate the rhetorical
maneuvers typical of those seeking to link Obama to Islam.3 In the clip, Fox News anchor
Sean Hannity interviews Brigitte Gabriel, a regular contributor to the program and author
of They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It, a
book published in 2008.4 In the interview, Gabriel asserts that President Obamas actions
in office exude sympathy for the Muslim cause as he ignores the opinions of his
American countrymen. She claims that he remains out of touch with his constituency and
continues pandering to the Islamic world, apologizing on behalf of America to the
Islamic world, praising the Islamic world while putting America down. 5 Hannity
responds by making passing mention of Obamas Christian church attendance in the
parish of Jeremiah Wright before turning to his other guest, Pat Caddell, stating,
Lets go through the history of this: remember he said were not a
Christian nation, he said America is arrogant, he went on the apology tour,
his first major speech was on Al Arabiya TV, he gave his next two major
speeches were6 in Turkey and Cairo, remember the NASA chief said the
top priority was Muslim outreach, the money, 900 million, to Hamas
controlled the Gaza Strip, his treatment of Benjamin Netanyahu, his lack
outspokenness on the Iranian democracy movement, the refusal to
acknowledge the Fort Hood shooter was a terrorist, we can go on and on
here!7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNJLVQi1UyI
Brigitte Gabriel, They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radial Islam and How
We can Do It (New York: St. Martins Press, 2008).
5
sic
231
Although Hannity does not here expressly call the President a Muslim, as Fox News
would later assert, he seeks to establish that Obama favors Muslim interests (and, by
extension, terrorist interests) while denying the fundamentally Christian character of this
nations interests. In other words, Obamas presidency should be viewed from an
American perspective as too Muslim-friendly for American Christian comfort.
Hannity then asks Brigitte Gabriel if Americans are drawing the wrong
conclusion about the Presidents faith. In response she asserts that
finally people are paying attention to things after the fog has been lifted
off their eyes as to who did we really elect as president. The signs and the
information were all out there. President Obama was born into the Islamic
Faith, raised as a Muslim as a child to a father who was a Muslim, he
attended Islamic schools.8
Hannity makes an unenthusiastic pass at offering counterpoint to this response, stating
that Obama did spend twenty years in Jeremiah Wrights church, he did talk about black
liberation theology,9 but Hannity then goes on to criticize even Obamas apparent brand
of Christianity, adding, by the way, I would never stay in a church with a guy who said
G-D America, Americas chickens have come home to roost. 10 If Obama is genuinely a
Christian, Hannity offers, then his creed clearly reflects the wrong sort of Christianity.
Turning again to Caddell, Hannity recalls, but you said something to me just
moments ago, and that was that the American people have more questions now than they
10
232
did when they elected him.11 Indeed, the prevalence of such questions likely owes much
to this brand of fair and balanced journalism, as the President would later agree. So
successful was this rhetoric that a 2010 study from the Pew Research Center found that
nearly one out of every five Americans believed Obama to be Muslim, an increase from
previous years.12
In a single interview, then, we see the essential steps of the rhetorical turn. First,
assert that there is a coherent value system shared among the entire in-group (were a
Christian nation). Second, identify a threat to the in-group from a competing value
system (the Muslims, who bombed us on 9/11 and are all the same). Finally, show that
Obama is a Muslim or, even if not quite a Muslim, that he at least prefers their value
system to ours.
Variations on this rhetoric employ slightly different codes, asserting that Obama
generally lacks patriotism or that the President cannot be an authentic American patriot.
For Pamela Geller,13 Barack Obama is a post-American president, one who eschews the
idea of American exceptionalism, favoring a mindset in which, according to the author,
there is no good, no evil, only equivocation and moral relativism.14 In Gellers
11
12
PewResearch.org. Growing Number of Americans Say Obama is a Muslim. Last

modified August 10, 2010. http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1701/poll-obama-muslimchristian-church-out-of-politics-political-leaders-religious.
13
Pamela Geller, The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administrations War on

America (New York: Threshold Editions, 2010).
14
Geller, Post-American Presidency, xiv.
233
estimation, Barack Obama, is missing the DNA of the USA. 15 She claims that [y]ou
have to grow up in America to get America. Or you have to escape tyranny, oppression
and suppression and live the dream by emigrating to America. 16 Obama may have the
necessary paperwork that accompanies the American birthright, but not the right ethos,
not the collective sense of American selfhood necessary, in Gellers opinion, to
governing the people. In her view, Obama may be President, but he is not an American
president.
Glenn Beck, like Sean Hannity, has asserted that Obamas Christian faith is also
subject to critique from a quintessentially American Christian perspective. He argues that
American Christians fail to identify with the theology that guides Obama, noting, [w]hat
Americans can't get their arms around is that for the first time, we have a president that
believes in collective salvation. That believes in the U.S. as the oppressor. And Islam in
this case is the victim but just one of many victims from the big bad to oppressor, the
United States of America. Thats whats happening.17 How can Obama be a patriot of
the greatest nation on earth, they argue, if he fails to understand the United States as the
Christian Pilgrims and the Christian Founding Fathers intended it?
* * *
It was therefore in this political climate that I first encountered the apologists
treatises justifying the seventeenth-century expulsion of Spains Moriscos. Muslims had
15
Geller, Post-American Presidency, xv.
16
Geller, Post-American Presidency, xv.
17
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,600150,00.html Glenn Beck August 24, 2010
234
coexisted with people of other faiths on the Iberian Peninsula for almost eight centuries at
the time of their forcible conversion to Christianity. Separated from the Islam of their
ancestors across vast land masses and steeped in a conglomeration of faiths and cultures
in Iberia, scholarship has suggested that the Spain of the expulsion in many ways
reflected a rich and complex hybridity. The Catholic apologists, however, would reject
this idea, arguing instead for a stark binary opposition between Christian and other.
Close examination of the treatises is illuminating for the similarities it reveals
between this seventeenth-century program of ethnic cleaning in Spain and the current
political discourse in America. In spite of the archaic Spanish, the four-century gap, and
the Atlantic Ocean that separates men like Aznar Cardona, Bleda, Fonseca, and
Guadalajara y Javier from contemporary American politics, the rhetoric is quite familiar.
The apologists texts read like Glenn Becks tirades: cynical manipulation of fears and
prejudices to support a political agenda.
The rhetorical playbook that the apologists developed is fundamentally similar to
that from which modern right-wing pundits are drawing. Perhaps most strikingly, this
extends not just to the technique but, to some extent, the substance. Specifically, the
apologists begin their works by asserting that seventeenth century Spain has a coherent
national identity and that this identity is fundamentally Christian. Next, through a series
of descriptions meant to illustrate how different Muslims are in terms of dining, dress,
customs, and ritual, the apologists explain how Islam poses a threat to the purity of the
Christian national identify. Finally, the apologists link the Moriscos to the Muslim threat
235
by asserting that the Moriscos remain secret Muslims. Converting these Muslims to
Christianity did nothing, the apologists assert, to eliminate differences that fundamentally
separate people of different faiths and create an ideological divide too massive to
overcome.
What makes the texts of the apologists fascinating, in part, is their publication
dates relative to the dates of the Moriscos forced exile. These writings were not
contemporary with the formulation of the policy but rather substantially followed the
determination to expel the Moriscos. One must wonder why these writers felt compelled
to fill volumes with defenses of a decision already being executed. The clerics take pains
to paint the expulsion as an irrefutable act with only positive outcomes that had improved
the quality of life of every Spanish Christian. In their estimation, the expulsion sang its
own praises in the results. It seems odd, therefore, that the apologists go to such great
lengths heaping on additional praise and seeking acceptance for an act they deemed so
laudable.
The decision to expel the Moriscos had not been an easy one and was unpopular
among the Spanish gentry who relied on Morisco labor on their estates. Since Philip III
had been willing to allow the descendants of exiled Jews to return to Spain from Portugal
so long as their pockets were lined with gold, the apologists feared that the decision
would be overturned for practical economic reasons. In addition to economic concerns,
the Moriscos were technically baptized Christians, and the decision to expel sheep from
the flock was also unpopular in Rome. The apologists, therefore, realized that difference
236
alone would not be enough to convince neighbors living side by side of their inherent
incompatibility, particularly if their economic security was at stake. They instead must
turn this difference into dangerous deviance that puts Christian safety at risk. The
apologists then capitalize on their fear of Morisco return as an emotion worth
cultivating. Fear, they determined, had the potential to drum up enough public support to
put pressure on the King and his advisors and keep the Moriscos (and the Jews, for that
matter) where they belonged: elsewhere.
The goal of exploiting everyday fears and inspiring more of them guides all of the
apologists works. Fear becomes a tool by which the apologists construct their ideal
Spain and the tool by which they attempt to maintain it. Fear that the Catholic faith is
under siege leads them to actively construct a perimeter around it, defining the traits
essential to Catholicism and excluding from Spains borders anyone who does not fit
within these specifications. This fear is further manifested in the apologists diatribes
against purported iconoclasm as they accuse Muslim invaders and their descendants of
rampant pillaging and desecration of Catholic images. The Spanish faith, they argue, is
under direct threat of spiritual and physical devastation, and with it will come the
destruction of each and every Christian Spaniard.
Above all, the apologists hope to ingrain in their readers imaginations the
suspicion of the enemy hiding in plain sight, the underground Muslim patiently collecting
intelligence regarding Catholic Spaniards vulnerability, waiting to plan his attack. Every
Morisco neighbor is suspect, even young children. It is this still-undetected and hitherto
237
unmitigated Muslim threat on Spanish soil, they argue, that presents the greatest
challenge to maintaining Spanish Catholic purity and national security. Even if the
Moriscos appear to be peacefully minding their business, each is capable of turning on
Christian Spaniards in an instant. To those who say the Moriscos lack fortresses, arms,
and organization, the apologists argue that no one should be duped by Morisco cunning.
Moriscos born and raised in Spain know Spanish territory inside and out. Every craggy
mountain pass, every inlet, every Christian vulnerability comprises the Moriscos wealth
of insider information. This intelligence, the apologists argue, the Moriscos will
certainly share with their Turkish brethren to help assailants from outside the Peninsula.
In the apologists minds, the Moriscos were, up to the expulsion, simply biding their time
waiting for the Muslim saviors to arrive so that they could reassume political control of
the entire Peninsula.
The apologists then amplify the urgency of this threat to national security with
fears of ultimate destruction. Arguing that the resulting annihilation of all things Catholic
and Spanish is only surface-level destruction, the apologists assert that Muhammad and
his descendants are the living embodiment of Antichrist, ready to wreak havoc once and
for all on Gods creation. Only a defensive Spain will survive, a Spain that assumes
control of its Christian destiny and fulfills the true plan according to the will of the
Creator.
The treatises repetition and intertextual back-patting (with each apologist quoting
the others favorably to the point that it is no longer clear where ideas originated), is the
238
seventeenth-century equivalent of talking points in the modern opinion media. The
treatises appear to usher in a certain style of modern era conservative broadcasting that
relies on repetition to create the appearance of truth (or, as one fake pundit calls it,
truthiness.18) The same talking points that the media repeats can then be heard from the
mouths of everyday citizens, end-products of the conservative propaganda machine that
people come to believe as truth.
The apologists texts also suggest a great deal of connectedness between one
another, giving a reader of the compendium the sense that within the scope of these
works the discourse rests in its entirety without room for dissent. The apologists hope to
write the final word on the Moriscos, and the sheer weight of the volumesparticularly
of Bledas, the most vitriolic of the Moriscos criticsseeks to add a dimension of
authority and testament of almost Biblical proportions to their opinions. Fear-mongering
is at the root of all of these techniques, and it is in the purported name of eliminating fear
that racial profiling becomes an acceptable means of keeping the peace.
We see this process and all of its accompanying techniques cleanly mapped onto
the modern political age. Beginning with the presidency of George W. Bush, post-9/11
American conservatives seized the opportunity to publically identify the same perceived
threat in the monolithic Muslim other. The years after the attack on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon were marked by a stream of rhetoric crafted by the Bush
administration to solidify in the American psyche an inherent link between Islam and
18
Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report.
239
terrorism. The administration argued that our nation was at perpetual risk of Muslim
destruction, painting themselves the protectors of American national security and
justifying a number of expansions of power and encroachments on civil liberties. In 2005,
the September 11th Public Discourse Project reported that the United States was still
alarmingly vulnerable to terrorist attack, an assessment intended to justify George W.
Bushs earlier presidential order allowing the National Security Administration to spy on
American citizens without a warrant. The following year, Bush renewed the Patriot Act,
reaffirming its mission in Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate
Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism, the official title of the Act. In that
spirit, Bush legalized in 2007 government eavesdropping of telephone and email
communication of American citizens suspected to be outside the country. In October of
2010, Bill OReilly became the mouthpiece for this strategy, loudly announcing on
ABCs The View, Muslims killed us on 9/11 before co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Joy
Behar walked off the set in disgust.19
This is not fear for fears sake. Like the apologists, right-wing pundits exploit the
speakable in order to talk about the unspeakable, all in support of other political ends. It
becomes a case of bigotry masquerading as legitimate political threat, a practice of
substituting the thing that cannot be said openly in the media for things that can.
19
The View. Bill OReilly. The View video, 4:43. October 14, 2010.
http://theview.abc.go.com/blog/ground-zero-mosque-spurs-debate-bill-oreilly.
240
It is in this same spirit that Bill OReilly attributes to Obama in describing certain
characteristics of a patriot (as compared to a pinhead) in his most recent book.20
Obama only measures on the patriotic scale for Bill OReilly when implicitly criticizing
his own kind, so to speak. He cites examples of Obamas Fathers Day call on deadbeat
dads to get on board with their paternal responsibilities. While he refers to these
seemingly generic American men who father children and leave them, 21 OReillys
message is clear: an Obama who criticizes fellow African Americans must have at least
something going for him.
In October of 2010, comedians and political pundits Jon Stewart and Stephen
Colbert arrived in Washington for their Rally to Restore Sanity and / or Keep Fear
Alive. Colberts battle-cry for the fear rallythe quotation that introduces this
chaptercould, devoid of intended irony, very easily open any one of the apologists
treatises. The treatises are a testament to the effectiveness of actively keeping fear at the
forefront of the political discourse. This seventeenth-century brand of fear is alive and
well in modern American politics, probably because it keeps working.
20
Bill OReilly, Pinheads and Patriots: Where You Stand in the Age of Obama (New
York: William Morrow, 2010).
21
OReilly, Pinheads and Patriots, 19-20.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Aznar Cardona, Pedro. Expulsion justificada de los moriscos espaoles y suma de las
excellencias christianas de nuestro rey don Felipe el Catholico Tercero: diuidda
en dos partes. Huesca: Pedro Cabarte, 1612.
Bleda, Jaime. Crnica de los Moros de Espaa, Diuidida en Ocho Libros. Valencia:
Felipe Mey, 1618.
Fonseca, Damin. Iusta expulsion de los moriscos de Espaa: con la instruccion,
apostasa, y trayicion dellos: y respuesta a las dudas que se ofrecieron acerca
desta materia. Roma: Iacomo Mascardo, 1612.
Guadalajara y Javier, Marcos de. Memorable expulsion y iustissimo destierro de los
moriscos de Espaa. Pamplona: Nicols de Assiayn, 1613.
----. Prodicin y destierro de los moriscos de Castilla hasta la Valle de Rictoe: con las
dissensiones de los hermanos Xarifes y presa en Berberia de la fuera y puerto de
Alarache. Pamplona: Nicols de Assiayn, 1614.
Secondary Sources
Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of
Nationalism. London: Verso, 1983.
Anderson, James M. Daily Life During the Spanish Inquisition. Westport: Greenwood
241
Press, 2002.
Alvarez, Lourdes M. Beastly Colloquies: Of Plagiarism and Pluralism in Two Medieval
Disputations Between Animals and Men. Comparative Literature Studies 39
(2002), 179-200.
Arroyas Serrano, Magn and Vicent Gil Vicent. Revuleta y repression en los moriscos
castellonenses: el proceso inquisitorial de Pedro Amn, morisco vecino de Onda.
Onda: Ajuntament dOnda, 1995.
Ashley, Benedict M. The Dominicans. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1990.
Barletta, Vincent. Covert Gestures: Crypto-Islamic Literature as Cultural Practice in
Early Modern Spain. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005.
----. Notes on Morisco Speech and Quevedo, Alhadith, 2010, accessed October 17,
2011, http://www.stanford.edu/dept/span-port/cgibin/alhadith/2010/03/21/notes-on- morisco-speech/.
----. Introduction to A Memorandum for the President of the Royal Audiencia and
Chancery Court of the City and Kingom of Granada by Francisco Nez Muley,
1-54. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.
Bell, David A. The Cult of the Nation in France: Inventing Nationalism 1680-1800.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001.
Bettenson, Henry, trans. Concerning The City of God Against the Pagans, by Saint
Augustine of Hippo. New York: Penguin, 1972.
Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. New York: Routledge, 1994.
242
Bisaha, Nancy. The New Barbarian: Redefining the Turks in Classical Terms. In
Creating East and West: Renaissance Humanists and the Ottoman Turks by
Nancy Bisaha, 43-93. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.
Blanks, David R. and Michael Frassetto. Introduction to Western Views of Islam in
Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Perception of Other, edited by David R.
Blanks and Michael Frassetto, 1-9. New York: St. Martins Press, 1999.
Boronat y Barrachina, Pascual de. Los moriscos espaoles y su expulsin. Estudio
histrico-crtico. Valencia: F. de Vives y Moro, 1901.
Boyarin, Jonathan. The Unconverted Self: Jews, Indians, and the Identity of Christian
Europe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009.
Cardaillac, Louis. Moriscos y cristianos: un enfrentamiento poltico, 1492-1640. Madrid:
Fondo de Cultura Econmica, 1979.
----. Santiago apstol: el santo de los dos mundos. Jalisco: Fideicomiso
Teixidor, 2002.
Caro Baroja, Julio. La Sociedad criptojudia en la corte de Felipe IV. Madrid: Imprenta
y Editorial Maestre, 1963.
Carr, Matthew. Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain. New York: The New
Press, 2009.
Case, Thomas E. Lope and the Moriscos, Bulletin of the Comediantes 44(1992): 195216.
Cscar Pallars, Eugenio. Notas sobre la predicacin e instruccin religiosa de los
243
moriscos en Valencia a principios del siglo XVII. Estudis: Revista de historia

moderna 15 (1989): 205-44.
Cohn, Norman. The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical
Anarchists of the Middle Ages. New York: Oxford University Press, 1970.
Colbert, Stephen. March to Keep Fear Alive. Accessed July 19, 2012.
http://www.keepfearalive.com/.
Coleman, David. Creating Christian Granada: Society and Religious Culture in an OldWorld Frontier Society, 1492-1600. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003.
Collins, John J. Apocalypse: Toward the Morphology of a Genre. Semeia 14 (1979):
1-20.
Corominas, Joan. Diccionario crtico etimolgico de la lengua castellana. Madrid:
Editorial Gredos, 1954.
Cruz, Anne J. and Mary Elizabeth Perry. Introduction to Culture and Control in
Counter-Reformation Spain, edited by Mary Elizabeth Perry and Anne J. Cruz,
ix-xxiii. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1992.
Dadson, Trevor. Official Rhetoric versus Local Reality: Propaganda and the Expulsion
of the Moriscos. In Rhetoric and Reality in Early Modern Spain, edited by
Richard J. Pym, 1-24. Rochester: Tamesis, 2006.
Dnvila y Collado, Manuel. La expulsin de los moriscos espaoles. Madrid: Librera de
F. F, 1889.
Davis, Elizabeth B. Myth and Identity in the Epic of Imperial Spain. Columbia:
244
University of Missouri Press, 2000.

Dedieu, Jean Pierre. Christianization in New Castile: Catechism, Communion, Mass,
and Confirmation in the Toledo Archbishopric, 1540-1650. In Culture and
Control in Counter-Reformation Spain, edited by Anne J. Cruz and Mary
Elizabeth Perry, 1-24. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1992.
----. The Archives of the Holy Office of Toledo as a Source for Historical
Anthropology. In The Inquisition in Early Modern Europe, edited by Gustav
Henningson, John A. Tedeschi, and Charles Amiel, 158-89. Dekalb: Northern
Illinois University Press, 1986.
del Mar Rodrguez, Mara. Simulation and Dissimulation: Religious Hybridity in a
Morisco Fatwa. Medieval Encounters: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Culture
in Confluence and Dialogue 16 (2012): 143-80.
Diario Crtico de la Comunitat Valenciana. El Cor de la Generalitat y Estil Concertant
clausuran la conmemoracin del centenario del Patriarca. Last modified January
13, 2012. http://www.diariocriticocv.com/cultura/cor-de-la-generalitat/estilconcertant/centenario-del-patriarca/404987.
Domnguez Ortiz, Antonio and Bernard Vincent. Historia de los moriscos: vida y
tragedia de una minora. Madrid: Editorial Revista de Occidente, 1978.
Duchesne, Louis. Saint Jacques en Galice. Annales du Midi 12 (1900): 145-79.
Ehlers, Benjamin. Between Christians and Moriscos: Juan de Ribera and Religious
Reform in Valencia, 1568-1614. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press,
245
2006.
Eire, Carlos M. N. War Against the Idols: Reformation of Worship from Erasmus to
Calvin. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Emmerson, Richard K. and Bernard McGinn, eds. The Apocalypse in the Middle Ages.
Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992.
EuropaPress. La canonizacin de San Juan de Ribera por el Papa Juan XXIII cumple
hoy 50 aos. Last modified June 12, 2010.
http://www.europapress.es/sociedad/noticia-canonizacion-san-juan-ribera-papajuan-xxiii-cumple-hoy-50-anos-20100612084838.html.
Feliciano, Mara Judith, and Leyla Rouhi, introduction to Interrogating Iberian Frontiers,
edited by Barbara F. Weissberger, Mara Judith Feliciano, Leyla Rouhi, and
Cynthia Robinson, 317-28. Leiden: Brill, 2006.
Friedman, Ellen G. Spanish Captives in North African in the Early Modern Age.
Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1983.
Fuchs, Barbara. Exotic Nation: Maurophilia and the Construction of Early Modern
Spain. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009.
----. The Spanish Race. In Rereading the Black Legend: the Discourses of Religious
and Racial Difference in the Renaissance Empires, edited by Margaret Rich
Greer, Walter Mignolo, and Maureen Quilligan, 88-98. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2007.
----. Virtual Spaniards. Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies 2 (2001): 13-26.
246
Gabriel, Brigitte. They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How
We Can Do It. New York: St. Martins Press, 2008.
Garca Fuentes, Jos Mara. La inquisicin en Granada en el siglo XVI: Fuentes para su
estudio. Granada: Departamento de Historia de la Universidad de Granada, 1981.
Garca Martnez, Sebastin. Bandolerismo, piratera y control de moriscos en Valencia
durante el reinado de Felipe II. Valencia: Universidad de Valencia, 1977.
Gellner, Ernest. Nations and Nationalism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.
Glick, Thomas F. My Master the Jew: Observation on the Interfaith Scholarly
Interactions in the Middle Ages. In Jews, Muslims and Christians in and Around
the Crown of Aragon: Essays in honour of Elena Lourie, edited by Harvey J.
Hames, 157-82. Boston: Brill, 2004.
Feros, Antonio. Kingship and Favoritism in the Spain of Philip III, 1598-1621. New
York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Fletcher, R.A. Saint Jamess Catapult: The Life and Times of Diego Gelmrez of Santiago
de Compostela. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.
Foulch-Delbosc, Raymond. Memoria de Francisco Nez Muley. Revue hispanique:
Recueil Consacr Ltude des Langues, des Littratures, et de Lhistoire des
Pays Castillans, Catalans et Portugais (1899): 205-39.
Garca Arenal, Mercedes. Inquisicin y moriscos: los procesos del Tribunal de Cuenca.
Madrid: Siglo Veintiuno Editores, 1987.
Garca Snchez, Expiracin. Agriculture in Muslim Spain. In The Legacy of Muslim
247
Spain, edited by Salma Khadra Jayyusi, 987-999. New York: Brill, 1994.
Garrad, Kenneth. The Original memorial of Don Francisco Nez Muley. Atlante 2
(1954): 199-226.
Geller, Pamela. The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administrations War on
America. New York: Threshold Editions, 2010.
Greenfeld, Liah. Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity. Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1992.
Greer, Margaret Rich. The Politics of Memory in El Tuzan de la Alpujarra. In
Rhetoric and Reality in Early Modern Spain, edited by Richard J. Pym, 113130. Rochester: Tamesis, 2006.
Hall, Edith. Inventing the Barbarian: Greek Self-Definition through Tragedy. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1993.
Hastings, Adrian. The Construction of Nationhood: Ethnicity, Religion and Nationalism
New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Harvey, L.P. Muslims in Spain: 1500 to 1614. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
2005.
Henningsen, Gustav. The Archives and the Historiography of the Spanish Inquisition.
In The Inquisition in Early Modern Europe: Studies on Sources and Methods,
edited by Gustav Henningsen, John A. Tedeschi, and Charles Amiel, 54-78.
Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1986.
----. The Witches Advocate: Basque Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition (1609-1614).
248
Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1980.

Hess, Andrew C. The Forgotten Frontier: A History of the Sixteenth-Century IberoAfrican Frontier. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978.
Hitchcock, Richard. Cervantes, Ricote and the Expulsion of the Moriscos. Bulletin of
Spanish Studies: Hispanic Studies and Researches on Spain, Portugal and Latin
America 81 (2004): 175-85.
Hobsbawm, Eric J. Nations and Nationalism Since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality.
New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Homza, Lu Ann. The Spanish Inquisition, 1478-1614: An Anthology of Sources.
Indianapolis: Hackett, 2006.
Issenberg, Sasha. Racialization: Michael Teslers Theory That All Political Positions
Come Down To Racial Bias. Slate, accessed July 19, 2012,
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/victory_lab/2012/06/
racicalization_michael_tesler_s_theory_that_all_political_positions_come_down_
to_racial_bias_.html.
Janer, Florencio. Condicin social de los moriscos: causas de su expulsin y
consecuencias que esta produjo en el orden econmico y poltico. Madrid:
Imprenta de la Real Academia de la Historia, 1857.
Joachim of Fiore, Expositio in Apocalypsim. Frankfurt: Minerva, 1964.
Kamen, Henry. The Disinherited: Exile and the Making of Spanish Culture. New York:
Harper Collins, 2007.
249
----. Imagining Spain: Historical Myth & National Identity. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 2008.
----. Inquisition and Society in Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985.
----. The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision. New Haven: Yale University Press,
1998.
Kirsch, Jonathan. A History of the End of the World: How the Most Controversial Book
in the Bible Changed the Course of Western Civilization. San Francisco: Harper
San Francisco, 2006.
Knutsen, Gunnar W. Servants of Satan and Masters of Demons: The Spanish
Inquisitions Trials for Superstition, Valencia and Barcelona, 1478-1700.
Belgium: Brepols, 2009.
Lafuente, Modesto. Historia general de Espaa desde los tiempos primitivos hasta la
muerte de Fernando VII. Barcelona: Montaner y Simn, 1887-1891.
Lea, Henry Charles. A History of the Inquisition of Spain. London: Macmillan & Co.,
1907.
----. The Moriscos of Spain, Their Conversion and Expulsion. Philadelphia: Lea Brothers
& Co., 1901.
Levin, Michael Jacob. Agents of Empire: Spanish Ambassadors in Sixteenth-Century
Italy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005.
Lpez Baralt, Luce. Huellas del Islam en la literatura espaola: de Juan Ruiz a Juan
250
Goytisolo. Madrid: Hiperin, 1985.

Lynch, John. The Hispanic World in Crisis and Change, 1598-1700. Oxford: Blackwell,
1992.
Magnier, Grace. Pedro de Valencia and the Catholic Apologists of the Expulsion of the
Moriscos: Visions of Christianity and Kingship. Boston: Brill, 2010.
Majid, Anouar. We Are All Moors: Ending Centuries of Crusades Against Muslims and
Other Minorities. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009.
Mann, Michael. The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Marchante-Aragn, Lucas A. The King, the Nation, and the Moor. Journal for Early
Modern Cultural Studies 8 (2008): 98-133.
Martnez, Antonio. El Da de la Cruz en Granada: noticias acerca de una celebracin
religiosa y popular. Granada: Ayuntamiento de Granada, 2005.
McGinn, Bernard. The Calabrian Abbot: Joachim of Fiore in the History of Western
Thought. New York: Macmillan, 1985.
----. Symbols of the Apocalypse in Medieval Culture. Medieval Studies 37 (1975):
265-283.
Menndez y Pelayo, Marcelino. Historia de los heterodoxos espaoles. Madrid: Librera
catlica de San Jos, 1880-1881.
Menocal, Mara Rosa. The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians
Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain. Boston: Little, 2002.
251
Meserve, Margaret. Empires of Islam in Renaissance Historical Thought. Cambrige:

Harvard University Press, 2008.
Milhou, Alain. Desemitizacin y europeizacin en la cultural espaola desde la poca
de los reyes catlicos hasta la expulsin de los moriscos. In La cultura del
Renaixement: homenatge al pare Miquel Batllori, edited by Miquel Batllori and
Manuel Fernndez lvarez, 35-60. Barcelona: Bellaterra, 1993.
Monod, Paul Klber. The Power of Kings: Monarchy and Religion in Europe, 15891717. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999.
Monroe, James T. A Curious Morisco Appeal to the Ottoman Empire. Al-Andalus 21
(1966): 281-303.
Narvez Crdoba, Mara Teresa. Writing Without Borders: Textual Hybridity in the
Works of the Mancebo de Arvalo. Medieval Encounters: Jewish, Christian
and Muslim Culture in Confluence and Dialogues 12 (2006): 487-97.
Nirenberg, David. Communities of Violence, Persecution of Minorities in the Middle
Ages. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996.
Nolan, Cathal J. The Age of Wars of Religion, 1000-1650. Westport: Greenwood, 2006.
Noonan, James Charles, Jr. The Church Visible: The Ceremonial Life and Protocol of the
Roman Catholic Church. New York: Viking, 1996.
Nez Muley, Francisco. A memorandum for the President of the Royal Audiencia and
Chancery Court of the City and Kingdom of Granada. Translated by Vincent
Barletta. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.
252
OLeary, Stephen D. Arguing the Apocalypse: A Theory of Millennial Rhetoric. New

York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Olson, H. Eric R. The Calabrian Charlatan, 1598-1603: Messianic Nationalism in Early
Modern Europe. New York: Palgrave, 2003.
OReilly, Bill. Pinheads and Patriots: Where You Stand in the Age of Obama. New York:
William Morrow, 2010.
Pagels, Elaine. Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation.
New York: Viking, 2012.
Prez de Hita, Gins. Histora de las guerras civiles de Granada. Paris: Baudry, 1847.
Perry, Mary Elizabeth. The Handless Maiden: Moriscos and the Politics of Religion in
Early Modern Spain. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005.
----. The Politics of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Making of the Spanish State. In
Culture and the State in Spain, 1550-1850, edited by Tom Lewis and Francisco J.
Snchez, 34-54. New York: Garland, 1999.
PewResearch. Growing Number of Americans Say Obama Is a Muslim. Last modified
August 10, 2010. http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1701/poll-obama-muslim-christianchurch-out-of-politics-political-leaders-religious.
Phillips, Ambrose Lisle. Mahometanism in its Relation to Prophecy; or, an Inquiry
into the Prophecies Concerning Antichrist, With Some Reference to their Bearing
on the Events of the Present Day. London: Charles Dolman, 1855.
Quevedo, Francisco de. Execracin contra los judos. Barcelona: Editorial Crtica, 1993.
253
Reeves, Marjorie and Beatrice Hirsch-Reich. The Figurae of Joachim of Fiore. Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1972.
Reeves, Marjorie. The Influence of Prophecy in the Later Middle Ages: A Study in
Joachimism. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969.
----. Joachim of Fiore and the Prophetic Future. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1976.
Reynolds, Dwight F. Music in Medieval Iberia: Contact, Influence and Hybridization.
Medieval Encounters: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Culture in Confluence and
Dialogues 15 (2009): 236-55.
Rivers, Susan T. Exiles from Andalusia. Saudi Aramco World 42 (1991): 10-17.
Robres Lluch, Ramn. San Juan de Ribera: Patriarca de Antioquia, Arzobispo y Virrey
de Valencia 1532-1611: Un Obispo segn el ideal de Trento. Barcelona: Juan
Flors, 1960.
Root, Deborah. Speaking Christian: Orthodoxy and Difference in Sixteenth-Century
Spain. Representations 23 (1988): 118-34.
Rowe, Erin Kathleen. Saint and Nation: Santiago, Teresa of Avila and Plural Identities in
Early Modern Europe. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press,
2011.
Snchez Herrero, Jos. El origen de las cofradas penitenciales. In Sevilla Penitente,
edited by Enrique Pareja Lpez and Mara Jos Prez Rajo, 13-55. Seville:
Editorial Grever, 1995).
Smith, Anthony D. Chosen Peoples. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
254
Soykut, Mustafa. Image of the Turk in Italy: A Histoyr of the other in Early Modern
Europe: 1453-1683. Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 2001.
Strickland, Debra Higgs. Saracens, Demons & Jews: Making Monsters in Medieval Art.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003.
Talavera Cuesta, Santiago and Francisco J. Moreno Daz del Campo. Juan Ripol y la
expulsin de los moriscos de Espaa. Zaragoza: Institucin Fernando el Catlico,
2008.
Taylor, Bruce. The Enemy Within and Without: an Anatomy of Fear on the Spanish
Mediterranean Littoral. In Fear in Early Modern Society, edited by William G.
Naphy and Penny Roberts, 78-99. New York: Manchester University Press, 1997.
Thompson, Damian. The End of Time: Faith and Fear in the Shadow of the Millennium.
Hanover: University Press of New England, 1996.
Tolan, John V. Saracens: Islam in the Medieval and European Imagination. New York:
Columbia University Press, 2002.
Tueller, James B. Good and Faithful Christians: Moriscos and Catholicism in Early
Modern Spain. New Orleans: University Press of the South, 2002.
The View. Bill OReilly. The View video, 4:43. October 14, 2010.
http://theview.abc.go.com/blog/ground-zero-mosque-spurs-debate-bill-oreilly.
Waines, David. The Culinary Culture of al-Andalus. In The Legacy of Muslims Spain,
edited by Salma Khadra Jayyusi, 725-38. New York: Brill, 1994.
Wiegers, G.A. The Andalusi Heritage in the Maghrib: The Polemical Work of
255
Muammad Alguazir (Fl. 1610). In Poetry, Politics and Polemics: Cultural

Transfer Between the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa, edited by Ed de Moor,
Otto Zwartjes, and G.J.H. van Gelder, 107-32. Atlanta: Rodopoi, 1996.
Williams, Patrick. Lerma, Old Castile and the Travels of Philip III of Spain. History 73
(1988): 379-97.
Wright, A.D. Catholicism and Spanish Society Under the Reign of Philip II, 1555-1598
and Philip III, 1598-1621. Lewiston: E. Mellen Press, 1991.
256

One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Spain

Caricato da

Informazioni sul documento

Titolo originale

Copyright

Formati disponibili

Condividi questo documento

Condividi o incorpora il documento

Opzioni di condivisione

Hai trovato utile questo documento?

Questo contenuto è inappropriato?

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Spain

Caricato da

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA

One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Spain:

All Rights Reserved

One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Spain:

Kathleen E. Bartels, Ph.D.

Director: Lourdes M. Alvarez, Ph.D.

Lourdes M. Alvarez, Ph.D., Director

Bruno M. Damiani, Ph.D., Reader

Peter Shoemaker, Ph.D., Reader

Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 241

Robres Lluch, San Juan de Ribera, v.

El Cor de la Generalitat y Estil Concertant clausuran la conmemoracin del centenario

Damin Fonseca, Justa expulsin de los moriscos de Espaa: con la instruccin,

Marcos de Guadalajara y Javier, Memorable expulsin y justsimo destierro de los

Jaime Bleda, Defensio Fidei in cavsa neophytorvm (Valencia: Chrysostomum Garriz,

Homza, The Spanish Inquisition, 249.

Garca Fuentes, Inquisicin, 203.

Garca Fuentes, Inquisicin, 294.

Garca Fuentes, Inquisicin, 279.

Kamen, Inquisition and Society, 107.

Garca Fuentes, Inquisicin, 201-2.

Tueller, Good and Faithful Christians,94-5.

Alain Milhou. Desemitizacin y europeizacin en la cultural espaola desde la poca

The Moriscos in Scholarship

See Manuel Dnvila y Collado, La expulsin de los moriscos espaoles (Madrid:

See Florencio Janer, Condicin social de los moriscos: causas de su expulsin y

For example, see Vincent Barletta, Covert Gestures: Crypto-Islamic Literature as

Archbishop Juan de Ribera and the Catholic Apologists

Ehlers, Between Christians and Moriscos, 7-8.

Ehlers, Between Christians and Moriscos, 7.

Ehlers, Between Christians and Moriscos, 86.

Ehlers, Between Christians and Moriscos, 103.

Ehlers, Between Christians and Moriscos, 101.

Magnier, Pedro de Valencia, 7.

Magnier, Pedro de Valencia, 7.

Ehlers, Between Christians and Moriscos, 130.

Ehlers, Between Christians and Moriscos, 137.

Quoted in Ehlers, Between Christians and Moriscos, 128.

Carr, Blood and Faith, 208.

Magnier, Pedro de Valencia, 120-1. Bledas Libro de la cofradia de Minerua: en el

Tueller, Good and Faithful Christians, 135-6.

Magnier, Pedro de Valencia, 122.

Benedict M. Ashley, The Dominicans (Collegeville: Litrugical Press, 1990), 129-30.

Wright, Catholicism, 130-1.

Bleda, Crnica, 969.

Bleda, Crnica, 932.

Bleda, Crnica, 946.

Nicols Antonio, Biblioteca hispana nueva (Madrid: Servicio de Publicaciones, 1999).

The Islamic Threat

Talavera Cuesta and Moreno Daz, Juan Ripol, 26-9.

Thomas F. Glick, My Master the Jew: Observation on the Interfaith Scholarly

Aznar Cardona, Expulsin justificada, 2:62-3.

Bleda, Crnica, 54.

Guadalajara y Javier, Memorable expulsin, 8.

Aznar Cardona, Expulsin justificada, 1:22-3.

Aznar Cardona, Expulsin justificada, 1:28-9.

Aznar Cardona, Expulsin justificada, 1:27.

Aznar Cardona, Expulsin justificada, 1:31-2.

Aznar Cardona, Expulsin justificada, 1:42.

Bleda, Crnica, 102.

Guadalajara y Javier, Memorable expulsin, 32.

Aznar Cardona, Expulsin justificada, 1:24.

Bleda, Crnica, 16.