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1391 June 6, FORCED CONVERSIONS (Seville, Spain)
Ferrand Martinez, Archdeacon of Ecija, began to incite mobs into attacking
the Jewish quarter. The campaign soon spread throughout Spain, except for
Granada. The Jewish quarter in Barcelona, located for over 400 years near the castle, was totally destroyed. Over 10,000 Jews were killed,
and many others chose conversion and became New Christians or Conversos.
Of these, many continued to practice Judaism in secret while paying lip
service to the Church. They became known by the Christians as Marranos.
The Jews never used the term Marrano themselves although some knew of
it. Many scholars have speculated that the origins of the word stemmed
from Latin, Arabic and even Hebrew, but in fact it was the Spanish
term for pig or pork an expression of extreme disgust on the part of
the Christians. The Jews refered to them as anusim "those who were forced to
convert". Eventually, these mass forced conversions led to the
establishment of the Inquisition.
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