omeka

1492 Iberia: Andres Bernaldez

“ and in everything, they had miserable misfortunes. Indeed, the christians took their many estates, rich houses and landed properties for a small amount of money … They exchanged a house for an ass, and a vineyard for a small piece of cloth or linen, because they could not take out either gold or silver.”

1492 Iberia: Official Decree of Spanish Inquisition

“to depart and never return… all Jews and Jewesses of whatever age they may be who live, reside, and exist in our said kingdoms and lordships, as much as those who are natives as those who are not… along with their sons and daughters, menservants and maidservants, Jewish familiars, those who are great as well as the lesser folk.”

1484 Tarazona, Iberia

Letter from the king establishing the inquisition in the Kingdom of Aragon: “Inasmuch as the Holy Father has been informed that there are many people in our kingdoms who have forgotten the proper health of their souls and follow Jewish … rituals and other actions deviating from the faith our Holy Father has ordered, with our consent and volition, that an inquisition be carried out in all kingdoms to correct and regulate those who have committed the crime of heretical depravity.”

1454 Edirne (Then Capital of the Ottoman Empire): Isaac Zafati

“. … I proclaim to you that Turkey is a land wherein nothing is lacking, and where if you will, all shall yet be well with you. The way to the Holy Land lies open to you through Turkey. Is it not better for you to live under Muslims that under Christians? Here every man may dwell at peace under his own vine and fig tree. Here you are allowed to wear the most precious garments. In Christendom, on the contrary, you dare not even venture to clothe your children in red or blue, according to our taste, without exposing them to the insult of beaten black or blue, or kicked green and red, and therefore are ye condemned to go about meanly clad in sad colored raiment … and now, seeing all these things, … Arise! And leave this accursed land forever!”

1391 (Los Palacios) Seville, Iberia: Andres Bernaldez

“The Mosaic heresy had its start in the year of Our Lord 1390, at the beginning of the reign of King Henry III of Castile, when the plundering of the Jewish Quarter occurred as a result of the preaching of Friar Vincent Ferrer… Friar Vincent Ferrer could convert only a few Jews, and the people spitefully put the Jews in Castile to the sword and killed many, this occurred all over Castile in a single day, Tuesday.”