The Journey by Radwa Ashour

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Good and Faithful Christians:
Moriscos and Catholicism in Early Modem Spain
James Blaine Tueller
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree
o f Doctor of Philosophy
in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
1997
UMI Number: 9723860
Copyright 1997 by
Tueller, James Blaine
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ABSTRACT
Good and Faithful Christians:

Moriscos and Catholicism in Early Modem Spain
This dissertation analyzes how the Catholic hierarchy of early modem Spain
attempted to create Christians from its Morisco population and examines the possibility
o f their assimilation. The Morisco expulsion (1609-1614) provides the opportunity to
see who was allowed to remain because they were good Christians and what criteria
were used. It is plain that every level of command from parish priest to the royal
councils defined "good" in many different ways for many reasons. In the five years of
expulsion, the King and Council o f State limited their definition to such a point that
almost no Morisco was exempt in the end. But the process whereby the bishops, upon
the King’s original request, went about defining the good Christian Morisco
illuminates the nature of religious behavior and belief in early modem Spain.
The sources for this project derive from the Council of State papers, Morisco
appeals for exemptions, diocesan records and parish registers. I first situate the
Catholic Church and Royal Administration in their management of the Moriscos and
their attempt to eliminate Morisco differences. Assimilating the Moriscos was difficult
to accomplish because, as Chapter Two demonstrates, there were many types of
Moriscos with varying accommodations to the Habsburg state. Chapters Three and
Four follow the many contemporary discussions on the Morisco problem, and
especially how the debates in the King’s councils led to the decree of expulsion. The
many difficulties in defining and enforcing the King’s expulsion orders are described
R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission o f th e copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
in Chapter Five. Chapter Six recounts how some Moriscos declared themselves "good
and faithful" Christians and how they established that identity. A final chapter
examines the dual results o f a successful and failed expulsion.
My research explores how some Moriscos, who have been often labeled as the
last Muslims o f Spain, became good and faithful Christians, illuminating a local
religion o f Early Modem Spain that is much in discussion. The differences between
Old Christians and Moriscos have always come to the fore. It is to the similarities
between Spanish Moriscos and their neighbors that this dissertation turns.
Table o f Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Historiographical Placement
Descriptive Outline o f Chapters
Chapter One
Framing the Morisco Problem: Catholic Spain
From Muslims to Moriscos
Spanish Catholicism and the Council o f Trent
A Royal Quandary: Charles V and Philip II
Episcopal Involvement
Morisco Access to Royal Power
Conclusion
Chapter Two
Mapping Morisco Lives: A Plurality of Categories
The Passage o f Time
The Moriscos Granadinos
The Moriscos Valencianos
The Moriscos de Aragon
The Moriscos Antigous
The Inquisition and the Moriscos
Morisco Parish Life in Old Castile
Moriscos as Old Christians
Chapter Three
Early Considerations of Expulsion: A Problem of Conversion
Early Discussions o f Morisco Problem
The Expulsion Possibility
Discussion Outside the Court
Moriscos in Golden Age Literature
Publicists’ Opinion
Conclusion o f the Reign of Philip II
Chapter Four
The Debate about the Moriscos 1598-1609
Clergy calling for Expulsion
Clergy working for Conversion
Jesuit efforts among Moriscos
The Pope and the Morisco Expulsion
Philip III and his Counsellors
Abortive Expulsion Orders, 1599-1603
A True Beginning to the Expulsion
Decision to Expel Made
Traitors or Heretics?
Chapter Five 206

Expulsion Proceedings 1609-1614: Continued Debate and Confusion
The Valencian Expulsion
A Policy o f Dissimulation
Exemptions and Confusion
Exempting Morisco Children
Defining Morisco Lineage
Foreign Converts to Christianity
Defining Good Christians
The Count o f Salazar
Father Juan de Pereda and the Moriscos of Murcia
The Council o f State and Exemptions
Chapter Six 264

Good and Faithful Christians
Defending "Good" Christians
The Moriscos o f Fuentiduena
Specific Moriscos as Christians
Other Prospects
Isolation and Escape in the Diocese of Avila
The Moriscos after 1615
Chapter Seven 303

Conclusion: A Glorious Failure
The Glory of Philip III
Failure and Tragedy
The Romance of the Reconquest
Glossary of Terms 317
Bibliography 320
Acknowledgments
While at Columbia University in the City of New York, I benefitted
enormously from the concern and scholarship o f two stalwart professors, J. W. Smit
and Eugene F. Rice, Jr. Most o f what I learned while at Momingside Heights is due
to their cajoling kindnesses. Now at University o f Notre Dame, Professor Olivia
Remie Constable was a stimulating guide in my study o f medieval Spanish history.
Professors Isser Woloch and Edward Malefakis also added tremendously to my
graduate study at Columbia. The members of the History Department Staff do not
often receive praise but they deserve my gratitude. Because of them my administrative
headaches were few and far between. To my surprise, I was fortunate to be assigned
as assistant to David Cannadine for four years at Columbia. His mentoring, continued
interest and infectious enthusiasm were my saving graces in Manhattan.
The past two years have been extremely fruitful and enjoyable because of many
new friends. Antonio Feros was and will remain a substantial influence in my career.
His input can be seen throughout the organization and thinking of every chapter. The
errors and misinterpretations remain mine. In addition, I am grateful to many
professional colleagues including Diane S. Williams, David Coleman, Amalia Garcia
Pedraza, Paul Allen, Bethany Aram and F ran cis Martinez. I also appreciate helpful
correspondents such as Serafm de Tapia, Bernard Vincent, John H. Elliott, Francisco
Marquez Villanueva, Miguel Angel Echevarria Bacigalupe and Adeline Rucquoi. My
special thanks to Mercedes Garcia Arenal who made time to see a harried American in
iii
Madrid and to Hilario Casado Alonso who kindly found me and my family a
wonderful apartment to live in during our stay in Valladolid.
My study and research periods were enormously fruitful because of the
excellent librarians and archivists who work so hard to preserve the past. The many
miles I travelled to visit diocesan and provincial archives in Valladolid, Avila,
Segovia, Palencia, Burgos, Salamanca and Zamora were well worth the time. In the
General Archive o f Simancas, like so many other early modem historians, I was met
by the cooperative and experienced personnel. My special thanks to Isabel Aguirre
and Agustin Carreras for their help. The Butler Library at Columbia University
became my second home while living in Manhattan. My thanks to the reference staff.
Inter-Library Loan office and my friends Carlos Padua, Hazel Wilson, Uta Kriefall and
Alena Ptak-Danchak in Monographs Processing. The comprehensive resources at the
New York Public Library were also extremely useful. This research project is partly
due to wonderful librarians and teachers at the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham
Young University: K. Haybron Adams, Don Howard, Susan Fales and Mark Grover.
They early on trusted my abilities and taught me how to use a research library.
Although many personal friends in Spain know little of my "estudios," their
love for me and mine is a daily part of who I am. My thanks to Josefina Palanco de
Salas, Francisco Jose Salas Palanco, Inma Sanchez, Francisco Salas Sanchez, Antonio
Manuel Salas Palanco, Fernando Quirce Mendoza, Carmelo Quirce Mendoza, Nestor
Benito, Mari Carmen Yesa and all my friends in the Sevilla, Madrid and Valladolid
wards and branches o f the Church o f Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I am amazed
iv
by their passionate religious dedication and pioneering.
To my family, (they know how many they are) all I can write in a short
statement is how grateful I am for their support, encouragement, advice and love.
This means my sisters, brother, parents-in-law, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, uncles,
aunts, cousins, nephews, nieces and generations o f past and future family. Diane
Tueller Pritchett and Gene W. Dalton were among the first to read these pages and
their enthusiasm was just what I needed. The Dalton cabin in the South Fork of the
Provo Canyon also proved to be an idyllic writer’s retreat in the mountains. Thank
you.
I am forever indebted to my parents, Blaine Carlson Tueller and Jean Marie
Heywood Tueller. Their choices influenced me without me ever realizing that living
in Tangier, Caracas, Panama, Fairfax, Manila or Madrid was in anyway spectacular,
unique, difficult or peculiar. Their presence ensured that life was normal and full of
wonder. It is my greatest accomplishment to follow in their footsteps of faith,
tolerance, honesty, wisdom, adventure and testimony.
Finally, my life was transformed, all for the better, when I knew and married
Beth Dalton Tueller. She knows that I can do what we set out to accomplish together.
For her six years o f work at Columbia University, for her mother’s love of Josephine
Anna Tueller, for her listening, for her fair assessments, for the past and future
together and for her smile this dissertation is completely hers.
Provo, Utah
Fall 1996
1
Introduction
During the 1569 rebellion in Granada, the ambassador of Philip II in Paris
wrote to his King, recalling a conversation he had with a Morisco from a village in the
Alpujarras. Frances de Alava had been Captain General o f the Granada coasts twelve
years earlier and had an accurate understanding o f the military and social problems
that the uprising of the Moriscos o f Granada entailed. While in the village attending a
trial against the local priest, a Morisco approached Alava and said:
Sir, everyone in the village and I plead with you to remove this
vicar and harm him not. We forgive him for what he has taken but if
you do not wish to remove him from us, than marry him because all our
children are bom with blue eyes like him.1
The priest, who had been entrusted with the Christian instruction of the newly baptized
Moriscos, had become a member o f the village. The vicar fathered children and
1 AGS, Estado K, 1512 B; also see Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean and the
Mediterranean World of Philip II. translated Sian Reynolds, (New York. 1972). 787-788.
profaned the mass yet he damned the Moriscos as bad Christians. Don Frances wrote
to the King that such behavior was not an effective way o f teaching Christian doctrine.
The Moriscos o f Spain were created as a group when the Muslims were
forcibly baptized as Catholics. The first Moriscos were baptized in the Kingdom of
Granada seven years after its conquest in 1492. The free Muslims of the other
Castilian kingdoms were baptized because the Queen feared contamination o f the
newly baptized Granadinos. The Muslims o f Valencia and Aragon were baptized
twenty years later in the turbulent early years of Charles V. The adjective "morisco"
had earlier described forms o f architecture, dress and horseback riding but came to
include this group o f new baptisms and their descendants.2 Their presence in Spain
ended when Philip III expelled them from his kingdoms between the years of 1609
and 1614.
The Moriscos were expelled by Philip III because they rejected "the
opportunities given them to truly convert" and were unredeemable "heretics and
apostates."3 Even before the expulsion ended, four histories appeared explaining the
Moriscos’ sins and justifying the Most Catholic King’s unprecedented removal of
baptized Christians.4 Since the expulsion, the Morisco problem has been variously
2 In Spanish cristianos de los moriscos nuevos convertidos. Official documents

referred to them as "cristianos nuevos de moros."
3 AGS, Estado, 2638 bis, folios 63-64, 22 September 1609.
4 Gaspar Aguilar. Expulsion de los moros de Espafia por la S.C.R. Maeestad del Rev
Phelipe III. Nuestro Seflor. (Valencia, 1610); Pedro Aznar Cardona, Expulsion iustificada
de los moriscos espanoles v suma de las excelencias Christianas de nuestro Rev D. Felipe
Tercero deste nombre. (Huesca, 1612); Jaime Bleda, Cronica de los moros de Espafia.
(Valencia, 1618); Marcos de Guadalajara y Javier, Memorable expulsion v iustisimo
R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission o f th e copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm ission .
explained as the final triumph o f the Christian reconquest of Spain, the cornerstone of
Philip Ill’s piety, the actions o f venal royal favorites or the outcome o f incompatible
civilizations.
The manner in which the Spanish Catholic Church went about transforming
Moriscos into Christians has been left unexamined until recently.5 They have been
too often explained as only secretly practicing Muslims. This is only half the answer.
Moriscos had to conform to an uncompromising Catholicism. Their beliefs, customs,
and daily lives were affected by the ongoing religious changes o f the sixteenth century.
Christian baptism placed them within Christendom and they lived in a supremely
Catholic and christianizing world. The Morisco who spoke to Don Frances and his
descendants had to conform to the surrounding society.
The ambassador’s letter pointed to the central issue of the Morisco problem.
How could the Moriscos be effectively taught? What type of guidance and
expectations were the Moriscos given by the priests and hierarchy of the Catholic
Church? When the Muslims o f the Iberian peninsula were forcibly baptized in the
early decades o f the sixteenth century, the manner in which they were to be "truly
converted" was rarely discussed. Baptism was a saving sacrament which the former-
Muslims could not reject, given that they were allowed the choice of baptism or forced
destierro de los Moriscos de~Espana. (Pamplona, 1613).
5 This is not to say that the doctrinal aspects of the conversion have not been
examined. See Rafael Benitez Sanchez-Bianco and Eugenio Ciscar Pallares, "La Iglesia
ante la conversion y expulsion de los moriscos" La Iglesia en la Espafia de los siglos XVII
v XVII. (Madrid, 1979), 253-307. Yet what the local authorities did and how the
Moriscos responded has not been examined.
4
emigration. The Morisco problem remained unsolved because many among the
Christians doubted the efficacy o f that forced baptism. Either the Moriscos were
dangerous and irredeemable heretics or they were innocent simpletons who had not
been adequately taught by their prelates.
As the Catholic Church changed because o f the developments in the Counter
and Catholic Reformations, the religious experience of all the inhabitants o f the
Spanish Habsburg’s territories changed. The Moriscos, although formerly Muslims
and at times reluctant Christians, also lived through the Reformation. Like their Old
Christian neighbors, they were being christianized in a new way. Those individual
changes occurred over generations in local parishes and often incompletely. But royal
concerns intruded upon the Morisco Christianization. The idea to expel the Moriscos
followed in the tradition o f other peninsular expulsions. By 1580 the King’s
counsellors had proposed a general expulsion of all the Moriscos. As a "nation" they
were judged to be "as Moorish as the Moors of Algiers."6 Philip II rejected the
expulsion solution, but in 1609 his son, Philip III, ordered it done. In the course of
five years almost 300,000 Moriscos from Valencia, Aragon, and Castile were all
expelled.7
Both before and during the expulsion the Spanish Catholic Church policed the
religious life o f the Moriscos as a potentially heretical intersection of Christianity and
6 Pascual Boronat y Barrachina, Los moriscos espafloles v su expulsion: estudio

historico-critico. (Valencia, 1901), v. 1, 591; quoted from AGS, Estado, 212.
7 Henri Lapeyre, Geoeraphie de t’Espagne Morisque. (Paris, 1959), 204.
Islam.8 In a Spanish world o f overlapping civilizations, perhaps it is time to look
beyond a hegemonic society and examine the intersection of cultures, since that was
the task the Church faced in early modem Spain.9
During the expulsion, the King requested the bishops o f Old Castile to account
for the Moriscos in their dioceses. These once Muslim, now forcibly baptized
Christians, were under order to leave, yet the bishops of Castile responded that these
suspect subjects attended mass, confessed regularly and were being incorporated into
the larger community o f Christianity. In their opinion the Moriscos in these
communities were trying to accept their fate, and the local Church hierarchy saw it as
its duty to help them integrate.
In this apparent dichotomy o f action lies the heart of the problem I intend to
explore. Since Philip III had a different definition of what it meant to be a good
Christian than his bishops, I will explore how a Catholic hierarchy went about defining
religious behavior. The lives o f Moriscos were always bound by the surrounding
Christian environment, yet the King decided to expel a group of suspect Christians,
and thus disloyal subjects. My study will specifically examine the development o f
8 For other examples in the Spanish Monarchy see James Lockhart in The Nahuas
after the Conquest: A Social and Cultural History of the Indians of Central Mexico.
Sixteenth through Eighteenth Centuries, (Stanford, 1992). He explains that in his mind
it is the "bilingual hero" who is the center of his book. The same type of dual Morisco
is evident in my analysis. Also see Implicit Understandings: Observing. Reporting and
Reflecting on the Encounters between Europeans and Other Peoples in the Early Modem
Era. Stuart B. Schwartz, editor, (New York, 1994).
9 The phrase "overlapping civilizations" comes from Braudel’s Mediterranean as his

title for Chapter VI, section 2 (776-802) when he discusses the clash between Islam and
Christianity in the specific cases o f the Turks and Moriscos.
Spanish Catholicism as lived by the marginalized Moriscos o f Spain. What happened
to those Moriscos who tried to assimilate? What can be said of those Moriscos who
tried to cross-over, becoming, in James Lockhart’s words, bilingual heroes?
Where in Spanish society were the transgressed boundaries? It has been
remarked that a central task o f social history is to illuminate the boundaries between
self and other.10 In the process o f defining the Spanish nation the Moriscos became
the "Other." The boundaries o f "otherness" were delimited by religious definitions.
Sancho Panza tells his master Don Quixote, "I am old Christian, and that’s enough
blue blood for a Count."11 Neither Islam nor Judaism existed in sixteenth-century
Spain. The Moriscos did and they were baptized Christians.12
Historiographical Placement
When Diego Hurtado de Mendoza wrote about the Morisco war in Granada, he
explained that his topic was "more narrow, difficult, sterile and obscure but,
nonetheless, beneficial and fruitful."13 As one of the first historians o f Moriscos,
10 K.aspar von Greyerz, Religion and Society in Early Modem Europe 1500-1800.
(London, 1984), 170; Natalie Zemon Davis "Some Tasks and Themes in the Study of
Popular Religion" Pursuit o f Holiness in Late Medieval and Renaissance Religion. Charles
Trinkaus, editor, (Leiden, 1974), 305-336.
11 Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote o f La Mancha, trans. William Starkie, (London,

1957), 207. In another fantastical adventure, a disguised damsel explains that her parents
"are but farmers, plain, honest people, without any mixture of ignoble blood, of the kind
called old rusty Christians" (280).
12 Susan Tax Freeman in The Pasiegos: Spaniards in No Man’s Land. (Chicago.

1979), 243-244, notes that boundaries have been created in Spanish society by occupations
(oficios). The Moriscos were employed in just the type of low esteem jobs she describes.
The outsider category of religion was, nonetheless, preeminent in Early Modem Spain.
13 Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, La Guerra de Granada. (Madrid. 1948), 1.
7
Hurtado de Mendoza could very well have described the continued dilemma in the
field o f "moriscologia." The Moriscos were seemingly destined for expulsion and
oblivion. But as he predicted, the history o f the many religious and ethnic groups in
Spain remains a "beneficial and fruitful" staple for understanding Iberian history.
Addressing the Iberian diversity o f Jews, Muslims, Christians, Marranos, Moriscos,
old, new, orthodox and heterodox has proven to be a valuable line o f inquiry.14
My research focuses on the Morisco story in a manner that has previously not
been followed. Some scholars follow the expelled Moriscos after the expulsion,
analyzing a wider Mediterranean history.15 Other scholars have studied the aljamiado
14 Juan de Mariana, Historia General de Espafia, in BAE. 30-31; Yitzhak Baer, A

History o f the Jews o f Christian Spain. (Philadelphia, 1971); Marcelino Menendez Pelayo.
Historia de los heterodoxos espanoles. (Madrid, 1978); Thomas F. Glick, Islamic and
Christian Spain in the Early Middle Ages. (1979); Pedro Longas, Vida Religiosa de los
Moriscos. (Madrid, 1915); Roger Highfield, "Christians, Jews and Muslims in the same
society: the fall of convivencia in medieval Spain" Studies in Church History. 25 (1983),
121-146; Legacy o f Muslim Spain. Salma Khadra Jayyasi, editor, (Leiden, 1992); Mark
Meverson. The Muslims of Valencia in the Age of Fernando and Isabel. (Berkeley, 1991);
Kenneth B. Wolf, Christian Martyrs in Muslim Spain, (New York, 1988); Yosef H.
Yerushalmi, From Spanish Court to Italian Ghetto: Isaac Cardoso. A Study in Seventeenth
Century Marranism and Jewish Apologetics. (New York, 1971).
15 Elena Pezzi, Los moriscos que no se fueron. (Almeria, 1991); Miguel de Epalza.
Los moriscos antes v despues de la expulsion. (Madrid, 1992), Etudes sur les morisques
andalous en Tunisie. (Madrid, 1973); Actes du Ve Symposium International d’Etudes
morisques sur le Ve Centenaire de la Chute de Grenade 1492-1992. Abdeljelil Temimi.
editor, (Zaghoun, Tunisia, 1993); A. Temimi, "Attachement des Morisques a leur religion
et identite a travers la lecture des Hadiths dans deux manuscrits morisques" Revue
d ’Histoire Maghrebine. 11 (1984), 183-188; Ellen G. Friedman, "North African Piracy on
the Coasts of Spain in the Seventeenth Century: A New Perspective on the Expulsion of
the Moriscos," International History Review. 1 (1979), 1-16; Andrew C. Hess, The
Forgotten Frontier: A History o f the Sixteenth-Century Ibero-African Frontier. (Chicago.
1978).
language: the one concrete Arabic expression o f the Moriscos in Spain.16 These
studies strengthen our knowledge of the Morisco memory o f Islam, but I investigate
how this memory was tempered by the Christian realities o f their daily lives.
In the past fifty years, Morisco histories have been written with great
specificity. My work profits from what has been written about the Morisco inhabitants
of the kingdoms o f Granada, Aragon or Valencia and cities like Cuenca, Cordoba or
Sevilla.17 Specific examples deal with the lives o f individual Moriscos.'8 The
16 Although aljamiado was written with Arabic characters, the sounds and words
produced were a recognizable Spanish dialect. See, for example, Actas del coloquio
intemacional sobre literatura aliamiado v morisco. (Madrid, 1978); John P. Hawkins, "A
Morisco Philosophy o f Suffering: An Anthropological Analysis of an Aljamiado Text,"
The Maghreb Review. 13 (1988), 199-217; J. N. Lincoln, "Aljamiado Prophecies," PMLA.
52 (1937), 631-644; Luce Lopez Baralt, "El oraculo de Mahoma sobre la Andalucia
musulmana de los ultimos tiempos en un manuscrito aljamiado-morisco de la Biblioteca
Nacional de Paris," Hispanic Review. 52 (1984), 41-57; Gerard Wiegers, "Isa b. Yabir and
the Origins o f Aljamiado Literature," Al-Oantara. 11 (1991), 155-191; L. P. Harvey, The
Literary Culture o f the Moriscos 1492-1609. Oxford University doctoral dissertation,
1958.
17 Julio Caro Baroja, Los Moriscos del reino de Granada: Ensavo de Historia Social.
(Madrid, 1985); Maria Soledad Carrasco Urgoiti, El problema morisco en Aragon al
comienzo del reinado de Felipe II: estudio v apendice documental. (Madrid, 1969); Maria
del Carmen Barcelo Torres, Minorias Islamicas en el Pais Valenciano: Historia v Dialecto.
(Valencia, 1984); Eugenio Ciscar Pallares, Moriscos. Nobles v Repobladores: Estudios
sobre el siglo XVII en Valencia. (Valencia, 1993); Tulio Halperin Donghi, Un conflicto
nacional: moriscos v cristianos vieios en Valencia. (Valencia, 1980); Mercedes Garcia
Arenal, Inauisicion v Moriscos: Los procesos del tribunal de Cuenca. (Madrid, 1978);
Juan Aranda Doncel, Los Moriscos en Tierras de Cordoba. (Cordoba, 1984); Ruth Pike.
"An Urban Minority: The Moriscos of Seville," International Journal of Middle East
Studies. 2 (1971), 368-377.
18 Dario Cabanelas Rodriguez, El morisco eranadino Alonso del Castillo. (Granada.

1965); L. P. Harvey, "Yuse Banegas: un moro noble en Granada bajo los Reyes
Catolicos," Al-Andalus. 21 (1956), 297-302; Francisco de Boija de Medina, "La
Compania de Jesus y la minoria morisca (1545-1614)," Archivum Historicum Societatis
Iesu. LVII (113) 1988, 3-136; Jacqueline Foumel-Guerin. "Une famille morisque de
Saragosse: Ies Companero," Awraq, 4 (1981), 179-184.
presence and influence o f Moriscos in the literature o f the Spanish Golden Age is also
being told.19 The expulsion looms large in Morisco studies both in its numerical
analyses and studies o f its economic consequences.20 The Morisco problem in Old
Castile, which is the subject o f my work, is beginning to be examined, since this is
where the bishops tried to incorporate their minority congregations.21 This area
particularly promises to yield an insight in the variety o f responses to the expulsion.
No history o f the Moriscos can be complete without placing it in the context of
Imperial Spain. Early modem Europe was dominated by the Spanish Monarchy,
including not only the peninsula, but the Netherlands, much o f Italy and the
burgeoning New World. Fernand Braudel’s Mediterranean attests to the importance of
Spain in the sixteenth century and is rightly lauded for "the grand sweep and sheer
19 Luce Lopez Baralt, "Un Kama Sutra espanol: el primer tratado erotico de nuestra
lengua," Vuelta. 171 (Feb. 1991), 14-22; Francisco Marquez Villanueva. El problema
morisco (desde otras laderas). (Madrid, 1991); Francisco Marquez Villanueva. "El morisco
Ricote o la hispana razon de estado," Personaies v Temas del Ouiiote. (Madrid, 1975);
Thomas E. Case, "Lope and the Moriscos," Bulletin of the Comediantes. 44, 2 (Winter
1992), 195-216; Miguel Garcia Herrero, Ideas de los esoanoles del siglo XVII. (Madrid.
1966).
20 Henri Lapeyre, Geographie de I’Espaene Morisaue: Juan Regia. "La expulsion de

los moriscos y sus consecuencias: contribucion a su estudio," Hispania: Revista Espafiola
de Historia. XIII (1953), 215-267, 402-479; James Casey, The Kingdom of Valencia in
the Seventeenth Century. (New York, 1979); Manuel Barrios Aguilera and Margarita M.
Birriel Salcedo, La Repoblacion del reino de Granada despues de la expulsion de los
Moriscos. (Granada, 1986); Encamacion Gil Saura, "La expulsion de los moriscos.
Analisis de las cuentas de la bailia de Alzira: administracion y adjudicaciones de bienes."
Hispania: Revista Espafiola de Historia. 46 (1986), 99-114.
21 Jean Paul Le Flem, "Les morisques du nord-ouest de l’Espagne en 1594 d’apres

un recensement de 1’Inquisition de Valladolid," Melanges de la Casa de Velazquez. 1
(1965), 223-244; Serafin de Tapia Sanchez, La comunidad morisca de Avila. (Salamanca.
1991); Mar Gomez Renau, Comunidades marginadas en Valladolid: Mudeiares v
Moriscos. (Valladolid, 1993).
10
historical imagination o f its author."22 But the "histoire evenementielle" o f an
individual’s actions and limitations is just as important to understand an unpredictable
future. Because Moriscos, as other Spaniards, were individuals acting within a
historical framework the study o f individual actions is as meaningful as that of larger
structures.
Historians o f the "Monarquia Espafiola" have been able to contextualize the
difficulties and decisions o f the main actors.23 The debate that culminated in the
Morisco expulsion occurred in an arena o f royal politics, diplomatic maneuvers,
market constraints and military logistics. More recently a greater emphasis has been
placed on the reign o f Philip III.24 The Morisco expulsion was decided on by him
22 J. H. Elliott, National and Comparative History: An Inaugural Lecture delivered

before the University o f Oxford on 10 Mav 1991. (Oxford, 1991), 6.
23 J. H. Elliott, The Revolt o f the Catalans: A Study in the Decline of Spain 1598-
1640. (Cambridge, 1963) and The Count-Duke of Olivares: The Statesman in an Age of
Decline. (New Haven, 1986); John Lynch, The Hispanic World in Crisis and Change
1598-1700. (London, 1992) and Spain 1516-1598: From Nation-State to World Empire.
(London, 1991); Geoffrey Parker, The Army o f Flanders and the Spanish Road 1567-
1659. (New York, 1972); I. A. A. Thompson, War and Government in Habsburg Spain
1560-1620. (London, 1976); Jonathan I. Israel, The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic
World 1606-1661. (Oxford, 1982); James M. Boyden, The Courtier and the King: Ruv
Gomez de Silva. Philip II and the Court of Spain. (Berkeley, 1995); William S. Maltby.
Alba: A Biography o f Fernando Alvarez de Toledo. Third Duke of Alba 1507-1582.
(Berkeley, 1983); Peter Pierson, Commander of the Armada: The Seventh Duke of
Medina Sidonia. (New Haven, 1989).
24 Antonio Feros, The King’s Favorite, the Duke of Lerma: Power. Wealth and Court
Culture in the Reign o f Philip III 1598-1621. (PhD. dissertation, Johns Hopkins
University, 1995); Patrick Williams, "Philip III and the Restoration of Spanish
Government, 1598-1603," English Historical Review. 88 (1973), 751-769, "Lerma, 1618:
Dismissal or Retirement?" European History Quarterly. 19 (1989), 307-332 and "Lerma.
Old Castile and the Travels o f Philip III of Spain," History. 73 (1988), 379-97; Trevor
J. Dadson, "The Duke o f Lerma and the Count o f Salinas: Politics and Friendship in
Early-Seventeenth Century Spain," European History Quarterly. 25 (1995). 5-38: Graham
11
and his favorite, the Duke o f Lerma, so the way they defined what were good and
faithful Christians is o f central importance for understanding Morisco history.
Rethinking the history o f the Moriscos in Spain is also part o f the refinements
and outright disagreements o f Spanish historiography. Revisions as to the economic,
religious and military history o f Spain have sharpened the context o f Imperial
achievements and failures.25 Differing interpretations about Philip IV explain the
long years of his reign and Spain’s decline.26 The issue o f decline continues to create
many debates.27 Sociological inquiries and micro-histories have also become a
fascinating part of Spanish history.28 I use precedents from the methods these
Darby, "Lerma before Olivares," History Today. 45, 7 (July 1995), 30-36; Paul C. Allen.
The Stateev o f Peace: Spanish Foreign Policy and the Pax Hisnanica 1598-1609. (PhD.
dissertation, Yale University, 1995); David Wood "The Millones Tax under Philip III."
SSPHS April 1996 conference.
25 The Castilian Crisis o f the Seventeenth Century: New Perspectives on the

Economic and Social History o f Seventeenth-Centurv Spain. I.A.A. Thompson and
Bartolome Yun Casalilla, editors, (New York, 1994); Helen Nader, Liberty in Absolutist
Spain: The Hapsburg Sale o f Towns 1516-1750. (Baltimore, 1990); Fernando Gonzalez
de Leon, "Doctors of the Military Discipline: Technical Expertise and the Paradigm of the
Spanish Soldier in the Early Modem Period," Sixteenth Century Journal, 27 (1996), 61-
85.
26 See Elliott The Count-Duke and R. A. Stradling, Philip IV and the Government
o f Spain. (London, 1988).
27 Henry Kamen, "The Decline of Spain: A Historical Myth?" Past and Present. 81
(Nov. 1978), 24-50; J. I. Israel, "Debate: The Decline of Spain - A Historical Myth?" Past
and Present. 91 (May 1981), 170-185. Richard Kagan argues for a historical perspective
which looks beyond the decline in "Prescott’s Paradigm: American Historical Scholarship
and the Decline o f Spain," AHR. 101 (1996), 423-446.
28 Stephen Haliczer, The Comuneros of Castile: The Forging of a Revolution 1485-

1521, (Madison, 1981) and Inquisition and Society in the Kingdom o f Valencia. 1478-
1834. (Berkeley, 1990); Richard L. Kagan, Students and Society in Early Modem Spain.
(Baltimore, 1974) and Lucrecia’s Dream: Politics and Prophecy in Sixteenth-Centurv
12
historians apply to study a voiceless underclass, o f which religious minorities were a
part.
An integral part o f understanding the religious experience of all the inhabitants
o f early modem Spain is knowing the history o f the inquisitorial regime. The records
o f the Spanish Inquisition remain the largest single source for research into the private
lives o f Spaniards.29 Avoiding the many legends surrounding the Holy Office, we
can still profit from turning to its archives as we try to understand the religious and
cultural norms o f a bygone era. Statistical analyses o f 44,000 Inquisition cases
demonstrate that only 42.2% o f all trials were against the four major heretical groups
and that only 1.8% o f the accused were executed.30 The Inquisition was most
actively engaged in enforcing orthodoxy among the faithful and certainly in a less
brutal form. It is then in the Inquisition records that we can study how on this level
o f the Church hierarchy the notions of "good" and "bad" Christian were defined.
The periodization o f the Inquisition also adds to an understanding of the
Morisco problem. From 1560 to 1640, the period when the Morisco problem was
being resolved, the Inquisition acted predominantly as an instrument of the Counter-
Spain. (Berkeley. 1990); Jaime Contreras, Sotos contra Riquelmes: regidores. inquisidores
v criptoiudios. (Madrid, 1992).
29 Juan Antonio Llorente, Historia critica de la Inquisition de Espafia. (1817); Henry

Charles Lea, The Moriscos o f Spain: Their Conversion and Expulsion. (New York, 1901);
Edward Peters, Inquisition. (Berkeley, 1988).
30 Gustav Henningsen and Jaime Contreras, "Forty-Four Thousand Cases of the

Spanish Inquisition (1540-1700)," The Inquisition in Early Modem Europe: Studies on
Sources and Methods. (Dekalb, 1986), 113.
13
Reformation.31 More recently, scholars have focused on the regional inquisitorial
offices, attempting to describe their roles within a geographical framework.32 The
trend in regional Inquisition history illuminates my research in the way they define
deviance from local practices and attitudes.33 If the Inquisition had to help the old
Christians identify acceptable orthodox practice, can it be surprising that they had to
do the same with newer Christians? And what were the acceptable religious practices,
within such a diverse cultural milieu, that included every group from Galician peasants
to Malagueno smugglers and Neopolitan ruffians to Manila dandies? Since the
majority was so diverse and difficult to indoctrinate, the Morisco must have been just
as difficult to teach and minister.
If Imperial Spain was the context for Morisco history then a wider framework
encompassed a European world emerging into post-Tridentine Catholicism. Historians
explain the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as a time when Christianity, be it
Catholic or Protestant, was reaching a larger number of people on a more individual
31 Jean Pierre Dedieu, L’administration de la foi: LTnauisition de Tolede XVIe-

XVIIe siecle. (Madrid, 1989).
32 E. William Monter, Frontiers o f Heresy: The Spanish Inquisition from the Basque
Lands to Sicily. (New York, 1990).
33 Beyond William Monter’s study in English a host of Spanish Universities have

begun a regional analysis of the Inquisition. These studies include: Juan Blazquez Miguel.
La Inquisition en Castilla-La Mancha. (Madrid, 1986); Flora Garcia Ivans, La represion
en el tribunal inquisitorial de Granada 1550-1819. (Madrid, 1991); Mercedes Garcia
Arenal, Inouisicion v Moriscos: los procesos del tribunal de Cuenca. (Madrid. 1978):
Javier Perez Escohotado, Sexo e Inouisicion en Espafia. (Madrid, 1988).
14
basis.34 Differing religious groups had to work out a "modus vivendi" during and
after the Wars o f Religion. The history o f the Reformation and Counter-Reformation
is largely a story o f intolerance and continual disagreements, but recent studies have
begun to focus on what might be called the history o f compromise for peace. This
new emphasis allows for an analysis of daily interaction and a constant give-and-take
between multiple sides.35
Other scholars have also examined how a new and reforming religion changed
the Iberian world. The "complex forms" o f Catholicism became customary and
acceptable within the Iberian peninsula. A constant concern has been to demonstrate
the changing nature o f devotion within Spain.36 If devotion changed among the
population at large, similar transformations must have occurred in the rituals and
beliefs o f the Morisco minorities.
The difficulties of examining popular and elite religion may be overcome by an
34 Jean Delumeau, Le Catholicisme entre Luther et Voltaire. (Paris, 1971);

Conscience and Casuistry in Early Modem Europe. Edmund Leites editor, (New York,
1988); John Bossy, "The Counter-Reformation and the People of Catholic Europe," Past
and Present. 47 (May 1970), 51-70 and Christianity and the West 1400-1700. (New York.
1985).
35 Gregory Hanlon, Confession and Community in Seventeenth-Centurv France:

Catholic and Protestant Coexistance in Aquitaine. (Philadelphia, 1993); Sabine
MacCormack, Religion in the Andes: Vision and Imagination in Early Colonial Peru.
(Princeton, 1991); Inga Clendinnen, Ambivalent Conquests: Mava and Spaniard in
Yucatan. 1517-1570. (New York, 1987); Craig Harline, The Burdens of Sister Margaret.
(New York, 1994); R. Po-chia Hsia, Social Discipline in the Reformation: Central Europe
1550-1750, (New York, 1989); Perez Zagorin, Wavs of Lying: Dissimulation. Persecution
and Conformity in Early Modem Europe. (Cambridge, 1990).
36 Julio Caro Baroja, Las formas compleias de la vida religiosa: religion, sociedad v
caracter en la Esnafia de los siglos XVI v XVII. (Madrid, 1978) and Los pueblos de la
peninsula iberica: temas de etnografia espaiiola. (Barcelona, 1991).
15
analysis o f local religion.37 Villagers felt themselves to be distinct and protected
because o f their patron saint, local holy places and distinct holiday observances. When
those villagers were Moriscos can we safely say that their local customs were only
Muslim? If we concentrate exclusively on the Islamic culture o f the Moriscos we
misunderstand their lives. The Moriscos must have been influenced by local
Christianity, and to find out to which extent this is true their interaction with the local
bishops and parish priests needs to be studied.
The Spanish world was intensely local, constantly changing and heavily
ritualized.38 For example, last wills and testaments allow historians to glimpse the
values a king or saint represented for this Catholic society/9 Prior to the expulsion,
critics o f the Moriscos declared that the only way to truly determine if a Morisco was
a good Christian was to see what manner of death they chose. Studying the dying
wishes o f Moriscos can clarify the ambiguous nature of Moriscos caught between
37 William A. Christian, Local Religion in Sixteenth-Centurv Spain. (Princeton.

1981); Sara T. Nalle, God in la Mancha: Religious Reform and the People of Cuenca.
1500-1650. (Baltimore, 1992); Allyson M. Poska, Regulating the People: The Catholic
Reformation in Seventeeth-Centurv Spain. (PhD. dissertation, University o f Minnesota.
1992).
38 The immense impact o f the New World discoveries also supports the hypothesis
of religious individualization in the Sixteenth-Century World. Antonio Garrido Aranda
has begun to examine this question in his book Organization de la Iglesia en el Reino de
Granada v su proveccion en las Indias. Siglo XVI. (Sevilla, 1979). Further analysis of
a large, recalcitrant newly Christian population in Mexico or Peru as compared to
disparate, small newly Christian groups in Spain suggest contrast and similarities to my
focus o f Catholic response to diversity.
39 Carlos M. N. Eire, From Madrid to Purgatory: The Art and Craft o f Dying in
Sixteenth-Centurv Spain. (New York, 1995).
16
Islam and Christianity.40 It is in this manner that I hope to explore their world.
The Islamic conquest after 711 and the following "reconquista" remain as
enduring facts o f Spanish history. By the eleventh century, the majority o f inhabitants
o f medieval Al-Andalus were Muslims. The conversion o f Christians to Islam is often
examined by historians o f Medieval Spain.41 Yet only three hundred years later the
majority o f inhabitants in the Iberian peninsula were Christians. A very mixed
religious heritage underlies the history o f the Spanish Kingdoms. This should not be
hidden under a strict definition o f orthodoxy, but revealed by bringing to light the
diversity o f devotional practices.
The Morisco population was not a remnant of a medieval past, but an element
o f the religious and statist problems o f the early modem world. The beginnings of the
modem state and market were near, impinging on the Morisco problem. More
historians have asserted that modernization is a relevant issue in the Spanish
40 Amalia Garcia Pedraza, "La asimilacion del morisco don Gonzalo Fernandez el
Zegri: edition y analisis de su testamento," Al-Oantara: Revista de Estudios Arabes. XVI
fasc. 1 (1995), 39-58, "El morisco ante la muerte: algunas reflexiones sobre los
testamentos otorgados por los moriscos granadinos (1500-1526)," Melanges Louis
Cardaillac. 1 (Avril, 1995), 338-352, and "El otro morisco: algunas reflexiones sobre el
estudio de la religiosidad morisca a traves de fuentes notariales," conference paper in
Alicante, 1994.
41 Thomas F. Glick, From Muslim Fortress to Christian Castles: Social and Cultural
Change in Medieval Spain. (Manchester, 1995); Richard Bulliet, Conversion to Islam in
the Medieval Period: An Essay in Quantitative History. 1979; Jessica A. Coope, The
Martyrs of Cordoba: Community and Family Conflict in an Age of Mass Conversion.
(Lincoln, 1995).
17
experience.42 The Spanish kingdoms, the sixteenth-century world power, influenced
developments elsewhere and heralded a new world.
Descriptive Outline o f Chapters
In Chapter One, I first examine the layers o f Catholicism in which the
Moriscos were enveloped. Following the Council o f Trent a critical period of
reorientation and renewal transformed Catholicism in early modem Europe. The
policies and actions o f this reforming Church hierarchy framed the Moriscos within the
boundaries o f a Catholic world. The presence of this minority in the parish records
from baptisms and confirmations to marriages and deaths will be examined. Advice
and admonition from the parochial and dicocesan instructions explain how the local
authorities attempted to proselyte among the Moriscos.
The influence o f royal and centralizing institutions on local Morisco life will
also be presented. Royal Chancellery and Inquisition litigation involved Moriscos in
legal problems. They, at times, successfully defended their rights and privileges. The
majority o f evidence for this chapter focuses on the region of Old Castile under the
jurisdiction o f both the Chancellery and Inquisition o f Valladolid.
Chapter Two describes how the Moriscos were unique groups according to time
and place. The geographical and chronological categories of Morisco populations will
42 Jose Antonio Maravall in Culture of the Baroque: Analysis of a Historical

Structure. (Minneapolis, 1986) defines modernization as "humanity approaching reality
with machines and a mindset of liberty and inalienable rights." Also see Las comunidades
de Castilla. (Madrid, 1963), "The Origins o f the Modem State," Journal of World History.
6 (1961), 789-808 and Teoria espanola del estado en el siglo XVII. (Madrid, 1944). For
a reassessment o f Spanish backwardness see David Ringrose, Spain. Europe and the
"Spanish Miracle." 1700-1900. (New York, 1996).
18
be used as the primary elements. Although from the outside the Moriscos were
perceived as a monolithic and united group, there were internal divisions resulting
from local factors and historical events. The Moriscos were a diverse group that was
only unified on the basis o f their shared Islamic ancestry. Moriscos benefitted from
the many legal and definitional categories available to them. It was even not unusual
for a Morisco to be an Old Christian also. But during the expulsion, few distinctions
between types o f Moriscos were being made any more.
Having established the initial integration of Moriscos into the Spanish Catholic
world, Chapters Three and Four follow the contemporary debate about the Moriscos. I
first follow the issues as formulated by many who were outside the King’s circle.
Then by 1600 these issues were taken under consideration by Philip III as a prelude to
the eventual expulsion. When the Morisco problem intensified, all levels of society
began to ask serious questions. Were the Moriscos unredeemable heretics? Were they
a danger to the state? Were they only uncatechized parishioners who needed greater
priestly care? When we analyze the many positions both for and against the expulsion
it will be demonstrated, I think, that the expulsion was not a fated but rather a
confused and haphazard event.
The discussion in the King’s Councils describes in part the process whereby
Moriscos were differentiated from Old Christians. Pronouncements as to the reasons
for the expulsion and who should be expelled begin to answer the problem of
christianizing minorities in early modem Spain. The expulsion orders of September
23, 1609 explained that the King had taken this action because the Moriscos. as a
19
group, were unredeemable heretics. The rhetoric focused on religious criteria, and yet
the leadership received conflicting religious reports o f the state of Christianity among
the Moriscos. The debate among the Spanish elite about the Moriscos began as soon
as the first Muslims were forcibly baptized in 1499. It continued until the very day
that the expulsion orders were published.
Chapter Five demonstrates how over a five year span the approximately
300,000 Moriscos were expelled. The expulsion was not one smooth bureaucratic
affair but a series o f orders, contradictions, missteps and refinements. The five years
o f expulsion saw many unexpected cases arise. The authorities had not prepared for so
many Moriscos insisting on individual exemptions and asking for special dispensations.
Innocent Morisco children, descendants of mixed marriages, recent Muslim converts
and especially the Moriscos who were found to be "notorious" Christians all began to
petition for exemptions. The Crown had to establish investigative committees
throughout the peninsula to examine each case. Two specific investigations conducted
by the Count of Salazar in Burgos and Friar Juan de Pereda in Murcia will be used as
examples. The King’s own Council of State was continually refining the definitions
and insisting that new categories o f Moriscos leave. The deliberations are an
important source for the mercurial definitions of what was a good and faithful
Christian.
Chapter Six examines the exemptions for notorious Christian Moriscos. The
determinations were made on individual piety and later revoked by the King because
o f ancestral origin. The different definitions of Christian and hence Morisco identity
20
are an integral part o f this presentation. An examination into the possibility of being a
Morisco and a good Christian are presented. Fuentiduefia and Oropesa, small villages
near Segovia and Avila, are examples o f areas where Moriscos had been losing their
distinctiveness. Moriscos struggled to stay. Their prospects become paramount to this
chapter. Most intriguing is the category of "disappearing" Moriscos.43 A Morisco
could so successfully assimilate that he was no longer considered a Morisco. The
flexible Morisco categories allow us to see more negotiation of Old Christian
behavioral patterns in Early Modem Spain. The Moriscos in and of themselves were a
small percentage o f the sixteenth-century inhabitants of Spain. Their lives, however,
delimit the boundaries o f an entire Christian population.
Ultimately the handling o f the Morisco problem and the expulsion were
failures. The King’s rhetoric established the Morisco expulsion as the crowning glory
o f the "reconquista." But the economic and human tragedy led to a serious failure.
What I hope to achieve is to have added to the complexity of dissenting voices and
varying definitions. No group, much like any individual, deserves to be portrayed in
stark black and white. The specifics o f a Morisco social map are best described with
illustrative individual contributions, not stereotypical generalizations.
The Spanish Empire in the early modem world was divided into center and
periphery. But the division was more than geographical. Insiders and a centralizing
government had their counterparts in a multitude o f outsiders and local constraints.
43 The "otro morisco" theme is intriguing. Current work is being done by Amalia
Garcia Pedraza, Mary Halavais and Diane Williams.
21
These latter elements voiced their concerns about the expulsion and defended the
Moriscos. I hope this dissertation recuperates their arguments and encourages others to
continue exploring the local possibilities.
Chapter One
Framing the Morisco Problem in Catholic Spain
The Moriscos lived in the Spanish domains of the Most Catholic King. The
ecclesiastical and judicial authorities within these kingdoms had a program throughout
the sixteenth century to bring the Moriscos into full participation as Catholic
Christians. This chapter will describe what policies were used to integrate the
Moriscos, especially from the vantage point o f the local episcopal and governmental
offices. Before doing so, however, a beginning of the Morisco history should be
presented.
From Muslims to Moriscos
In the remarkable year o f 1492, the Catholic Kings conquered the last
remaining Muslim kingdom o f Granada, expelled all the Jews from their lands and
commissioned Christopher Columbus to discover a western route to the Indies. It was
23
the first event, the conquest o f Granada, that would change the status of the
peninsula’s Muslims. No longer would they have the potential protection from an
independent Muslim ruler directly on Iberian soil. For seven years the Muslims of
Granada benefitted from the generous peace treaty, continuing to live their customary
religion. Hernando de Talavera, the Jeronimite Archbishop of Granada, taught and
proselytized but conversion was not mandatory.
In 1499 the primate o f Spain, Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros, revoked a clause
o f the Granada peace treaty. The Catholic Kings had agreed to recognize the Muslim
conversion of Christians who had escaped to Granada. Ximenez, insisting that these
former Christians were renegades and heretics, began to forcibly return them to the
fold o f Christianity. This violation o f the Granada surrender and treaty provoked the
Granadinos into a rebellion that failed. On the pretext of their rebellion the peace
treaty was annulled and the Catholic Kings demanded that the Moors leave their
kingdoms or accept Christian baptism. Some left for North Africa but the vast
majority in Granada were baptized. These newly baptized converts became known as
the Moorish New Christians, or in Spanish "moriscos nuevos cristianos."
Although the Morisco story begins appropriately in Granada, there were also
Mudejares, or Muslims under Christian rule, in other areas of the Iberian peninsula.
By 1502, Isabel of Castile insisted that the Muslims in all her kingdoms accept
Christianity so that new Christians would not be contaminated by Muslim influences.
Mudejares in Old Castile, New Castile, Extremadura, La Mancha and Murcia were all
baptized, becoming Moriscos. The last Mudejar communities to be baptized were
24
those o f the kingdoms o f Aragon and Valencia. In the 1520s the upheaval and
confusion due to the Comunero revolt and the Germania rebellion created a situation in
the kingdoms o f Aragon where the Mudejares were all forcibly converted to
Christianity.1 Unity o f faith had been achieved throughout the peninsula. The once
tolerated Muslims o f the fifteenth-century Iberian peninsula became the religiously
suspect Moriscos of sixteenth-century Habsburg Spain.
The Spanish Kings framed the Morisco problem within a context o f religious
conversion to the "Truth." They accepted that the Moriscos would be assimilated
when the Moriscos believed, behaved and became Catholics, like all their other
peninsular subjects. But this goal was complicated by the vast religious changes o f the
sixteenth century. The priests watching over the Morisco parishioners had to respond
to the heresies o f the Protestant Reformation, the militancy of the Counter Reformation
and the internal changes o f the Catholic Reformation. Society as a whole, including
Moriscos, was being changed by a new type of Christianization. This chapter will
describe how both the political and ecclesiastical arms of the State attempted to solve
the Morisco problem, by assimilating the Moriscos in each community.
Spanish Catholicism and the Council o f Trent
Not surprisingly, many o f the most influential reformers at Trent had been
reformers in Spain.2 Many internal reforms among clergy and laymen had already
1 Ricardo Garcia Carcel, Las Germanias de Valencia. (Barcelona, 1981), 189.
2 Antonio Marin Ocete, El Arzobispo Don Pedro Guerrero v la politica conciliar

espanola en el sielo XVI. (Madrid, 1970).
25
been implemented before the Council o f Trent. Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros began
many reforms in the last decade o f the fifteenth century.3 The establishment of the
Inquisition in 1480, the conquest o f Granada in 1492 and continual Messianic rumors
contributed to the beginnings o f a general clerical reform.4 Deviations from
traditional orthodoxy underlay the "alumbrado" movement "which aimed at direct
communion o f the soul with God by means of a process of inner purification."5 At
the same time, Erasmus had a following in Spain, where his Enchiridion was widely
read.
By the end o f Charles V’s reign the Renaissance Spain that had been open to
European humanist influences "was effectively transformed into the semi-closed Spain
o f the Counter-Reformation."6 But along with a Counter-Reformation against
3 Felipe Fernandez Armesto, "Cardinal Jimenez de Cisneros: Humanist, Inquisitor.

Mystic," History Today. 38 (Oct. 1988), 33-40.
4 For more see Marcel Bataillon, Erasmo v Esnana: Estudios sobre la historia
espiritual del siglo XVI. (Mexico, 1966); Vicente Beltran de Heredia, Los corrientes de
espiritualidad entre los dominios de Castilla durante la primera mitad del sielo XVI.
(Salamanca, 1941); Jodi Bilinkoff, The Avila of St. Teresa: Religious Reform in a
Sixteenth-Centurv City. (Ithaca, 1989) and "A Spanish Prophetess and Her Patrons: The
Case o f Maria de Santo Domingo," Sixteenth Century Journal. 23 (1992), 21-34; Sara T.
Nalle, God in la Mancha: Religious Reform and the People of Cuenca. 1500-1650.
(Baltimore, 1992).
5 J. H. Elliott, Imperial Spain 1469-1716. (New York, 1963), 205. For more on the
"alumbrados" see Alastair Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism in Sixteenth-Centurv Spain:
The Alumbrados. (Toronto, 1992) and Marcelino Menendez Pelayo, Historia de los
heterodoxos espanoles, (Madrid, 1880).
6 Elliott, Imperial Spain. 217; for more on the Renaissance in Spain see Helen Nader.
The Mendoza Family in the Spanish Renaissance 1350-1550. (New Brunswick, 1979):
Earl E. Rosenthal, The Cathedral of Granada: A study in the Spanish Renaissance.
(Princeton, 1961); Nicholas G. Round, "Renaissance Culture and its Opponents in
Fifteenth-Century Castile,” Modem Language Review. 57 (1962), 205-215; Peter E.
26
Protestant or unorthodox influences, there was also a reform of internal Catholicism.
From 1545 to 1563, the Council o f Trent responded to the external challenges
o f Protestantism and an internal need for reform.7 The decrees ordered by the
Council o f Trent codified the reforms in Catholic Europe. On July 12, 1564 Philip II
allowed the publication o f the Council’s reforms and ordered all the bishops and
ecclesiastical leaders to implement the orders.8 The Spanish decrees focused on the
necessity o f reform beginning with the basic parish level.
At exactly the same time as the Moriscos were being christianized, the Catholic
Church was transformed. Choices o f first names in Galicia shifted from local
devotional names to names based on Catholic Reformation theology.9 The
organization o f Cathedral administration in Cuenca was streamlined and the parochial
system was imposed.10 The information that each Christian in Spain was required to
have o f religion was specifically detailed, with testing procedures established.
Evidence from the Inquisition throughout Castile demonstrates a renewed emphasis on
Russell, "Arms Versus Letters: Towards a Definition of Spanish Fifteenth-Century

Humanism," Aspects o f the Renaissance: A Symposium. 47-58.
7 See H. Outram Evenett, The Cardinal of Lorraine and the Council of Trent: A
Study in the Counter-Reformation. (Cambridge, 1930); Hubert Jedin, A History of the
Council o f Trent, translated Dom Ernest Graf, (London, 1957) and Crisis and Closure of
the Council of Trent: a Retrospective from the Second Vatican Council. (London, 1964).
8 Coleccion de canones v de todos los concilios de la Ielesia de Espana v de

America. Juan Tejada y Ramiro, editor, (Madrid, 1859), v. 4, 7.
9 Allyson M. Poska, Regulating the People. 132.
10 Nalle, God in la Mancha. 133.
27
general orthodoxy o f customs, manners and practices."
Other changes from Trent altered the daily business o f the clergy. Parish
registers were either begun or standardized by order o f the bishop, who insisted that
the recording priest include the full names, dates and relationships o f all persons
involved in important ceremonies like baptisms, marriages or funerals.12 In periodic
inspections by the bishop or his duly appointed "visitador" the parish clergy was urged
to teach the Pater Noster, Ave Maria, Articles o f Faith and proper adoration of the
Saints. These measures were meant to ensure the faithful’s continued piety and
education as Christians, while also improving the lives o f the clergy. In the "visita"
the inspector reminded all in his recorded statements that the decrees from the Holy
Council o f Trent had been approved by the Pope and the King, thus insisting that all
obey and comply. O f greater interest is the simple fact that the parish, the lowest level
o f Catholic church hierachy, was having to respond actively to Church wide decrees.
The Tridentine reforms established a basis for judging an individual’s
adherence to a Catholic standard. A Catholic parishioner should be able to recite the
11 The Inquisition in Early Modem Europe: Studies on Sources and Methods. Gustav
Henningsen and John Tedeschi, editors, (DeKalb, 1986); Jean Pierre Dedieu in
1.’administration de la foi: [/Inquisition de Tolede XVIe-XVIIe siecle. (Madrid, 1989)
emphasizes that the Inquisition from 1563 to 1640 was primarily an instrument o f the
Counter-Reformation.
12 These registers are now for the most part housed in the Diocesan Archives. I was
fortunate to meet archivists in Valladolid, Avila, Zamora, Salamanca, Palencia and
Burgos, who were always helpful and gracious. The dioceses of Segovia still requests
that each parish store their own records, so I spent a pleasant week examining the records
of the Segovian parish o f San Millan with the assistance of the "parroco" Don Jesus
Sastre.
28
Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, the Hail Mary and the Salve Regina. The parish priest’s
first duty was to teach his flock the "healthy doctrine," including these tenets; the
Articles o f Faith, the Ten Commandments, the Commandments of the Church and the
Seven Capital Sins along with their opposite virtues. A good and faithful Catholic
according to Trent must not only know the doctrine, but also live and work out his
own salvation through the Church’s sacraments. Besides baptism, marriage and
funeral services, the good and faithful Catholic was to take advantage of the
sacraments of confession at least once a year and preferably more often. Some o f the
more devout and holy observers confessed more than once a day. Membership in
neighborhood and occupational confraternities also became an important element of
judging a person’s involvement in Christianity. The confraternity also added a social
construct to religious participation.13
The implementation of these decrees, however, provided for ample divergence
and even continued outright ignorance. The religious life of Spaniards in this period
cannot be solely explained by the Tridentine reforms. The fragmented and regional
quality o f religious life in Spain made any homogeneity illusory. The most useful way
to examine religion in sixteenth-century Spain continues to be, as William Christian
demonstrates, through a lens of local practices and circumstances.14 Jean Delumeau
rightly posits that a new wave of Christianization took place in this era but he also
13 Maureen Flynn, Sacred Charity: Confraternities and Social Welfare in Spain 1400-
1700. (Ithaca, 1989), 39-43.
14 William A. Christian. Local Religion in Sixteenth-Centurv Spain. 20-22.
29
correctly realizes that the change was incomplete and ever varying.15 A way to
measure a Catholic’s dedication and orthodoxy was to examine how much their lives
complied to the new decrees o f Trent. Nevertheless, Trent was not the only way to
measure orthodoxy.
Defining who was a Christian in Early Modem Spain was extremely
complicated. Being an old or a new Christian depended on the memory of
conversions to Christianity from as far back as the thirteenth century. Another
definition depended on whether the baptism had been willing or forced. Economic and
political power was also part o f being defined as a better Christian. Judging whether a
Christian was "good and faithful" could be based on these prior requirements, but
religious behavior had to be "notoriously" visible. Did his neighbors see him attend
mass frequently? Did he confess more often than the yearly requirement? Were his
customs tainted by strange practices? Did he live among recognized Christians?
For much o f the sixteenth-century the Moriscos were outsiders in the Church’s
reformation. In the 1540s the first schools to teach a Christian catechism were
founded in order to instruct the Moriscos in their new faith.16 Despite this fact, these
schools were quickly appropriated by the Old Christians who needed to be taught the
same things. The Moriscos were strangers to Christianity before the Council of Trent
and a majority remained so up to the day o f expulsion. But the success of the
15 Delumeau, Catholicisme entre Luther et Voltaire. 318-321.
16 These schools were primarily established in Granada and Valencia, for the large
Morisco populations there in the early years of the sixteenth century. See Dominguez
Ortiz and Vincent, Historia de los moriscos. 26.
30
Tridentine reforms among the Old Christians was also taking root in the Morisco
populations. The process o f Christianization and individualization o f religion was just
as strong among conforming Moriscos as it was among Old Christians. In Old Castile,
the local level o f Church leadership took care to address the needs of social reforms
and religious education among the Moriscos as much as among the Old Christians.
The Christian conformity o f Moriscos in the parishes of Old Castile points to the
power o f Christianization in the sixteenth century.
The quest for uniformity is evident in the discussion of the Morisco problem
among the Spanish leadership. The decision to expel the Moriscos was based on the
conviction that a state could not survive when sundered by religious divisions. The
centrality o f Catholicism was the centerpiece of the Spanish Empire. The Habsburg
kings o f Spain were guided throughout their lives by the rituals, beliefs and standards
o f a unified Catholic faith. From this perspective, the expulsion of a non-Catholic
minority appears inevitable. Yet the decision to expel the Moriscos was vigorously
debated, endlessly discussed and simply described by some as against all good
conscience. In discovering the process whereby the Church attempted to convert the
once-Muslim Moriscos and their descendants into true and faithful Christians, we can
find that the expulsion reverts to an uncertain and non-fated policy.
Creating better Christians was the established purpose of the Council o f Trent.
The Tridentine decrees impelled the local priests to watch over their entire community.
When those parishioners included Moriscos, the clergy and laymen faced unique
challenges but the process o f creating good and faithful Christians remained the same.
31
The strength o f the Catholic Reformation makes it more than likely that over time, the
same procedures that christianized the old Christians would have christianized the
Moriscos.17
The Moriscos had two choices. They could remain outside the Christian
society as suspected "islamicizers" or they could conform to all the expectations and
ceremonies o f Catholicism as set forth by the Council o f Trent. The first choice has
been examined often through Inquisition documents. The latter choice points to those
Moriscos who tried to obey. In the five years of expulsion the Moriscos who had
attempted to be good and faithful Christians tried to show their fidelity. Their lives as
Christians demonstrate, what Antonio Dominguez Ortiz has recently written, "with a
careful examination we can see that the Spanish environment was not as closed and
monolithic as we tend to think."18
Describing the complexity in Spanish religious life has made another eminent
Spanish scholar urge others to explore further the "forced conversion o f one type of
believer to another type o f believer."19 The Moriscos of Spain lived complex
religious lives with strands o f their past weaving into their behavior. The Council of
Trent became one o f those influences because the diocesan, parish and local
environment was Christianized.
17 Garcia Arenal. Inquisition v Moriscos. 117.
18 Antonio Dominguez Ortiz, Instituciones v sociedad en la Espafia de los Austrias.

(Barcelona, 1985), 191.
19 Julio Caro Baroja, Las formas compleias de la vida relieiosa. 20.
A Roval quandary: Charles V and Philip II
The period, from 1522 to 1598, can best be divided into two: the quite
different reigns of Charles V and Philip II. While Charles V ruled, the Moriscos were
considered a royal treasure, to be used for cash inflow supporting the Imperial
policies.20 In 1526, Charles V negotiated with the large Morisco communities in
Granada and Valencia. He required large cash payments in exchange for a forty year
grace period during which they could continue to practice discreetly their Islamic
traditions. In December 1526, Charles V in a letter to the Pope acknowledged that
"the conversion was not completely voluntary and since then, they have not been
indoctrinated, instructed and taught in Our Holy Catholic Faith."21 With this he
meant to justify his policy o f postponing strict adherence to Christianity.
The Morisco policy in these forty years was overseen by expert bishops who
had long experience among Morisco population. Their strong reforming spirit was
reflected in the roles they played in the Church wide Council of Trent. These bishops
recognized that not only would the clergy have to work towards a true conversion of
the Moriscos but that the general Old Christian populace would also have to convert.
"The bishops were aware that total conversion would only bear fruit after continual
effort."22
20 For a history o f the medieval policies that used the Muslims as a source of cash
see John Boswell, The Roval Treasure: Muslim Communities under the Crown o f Aragon
in the Fourteenth Century. (New Haven, 1977).
21 AHN, Inquisition, libro 237, folio 177; as quoted in Dominguez Ortiz and Vincent.
Historia de los moriscos. 26.
22 Ibid, 27.
”*» *>
During those forty years Councils of Theologians were convoked to discuss
how best to evangelize the Moriscos. In 1547 the ecclesiastical leaders in Valencia
met to plan the Christianization o f the Moriscos.23 The Council called for the
formation of schools, with adequate funding for a rector. The Archbishop of Valencia
should visit these schools to ensure proper doctrine. They also recommended that
priests assigned to teach the Morisco should live with them in their villages and
neighborhoods. Finally they gave as the reason for their program the fact that
Moriscos could no longer be protected by an excuse of ignorance. The Moriscos must
be taught and then they should conform.
The Council’s words in 1547 were ignored and money was never provided for
the Morisco schools. But success followed when individual efforts were made to
convert Moriscos. In 1552 the Valencian Inquisitor General informed Charles V that
he was trying hard to instruct the Moriscos and enforce the rules. He related to the
Emperor his success among a Morisco family that had gone to Algiers only to return
to Valencia because they missed their native land. The Inquisitor related how he had
taught the children and baptized them, considering the entire family good
Christians.24
In Valencia the feudal barons favored leaving the Moriscos alone to practice
their own religion. The Valencian nobility had economic reasons to protect their
Morisco tenants and servants from ecclesiastical intervention. Despite the clergy’s
23 AGS, Estado 300, folio 4.
24 AGS, Estado 306, 3 April 1552.
34
councils and hopeful reforms, from 1526 until 1555 a "modus vivendi" endured in
which the Moriscos were left to live apart from the Christian majority. This period of
Morisco history is only now being explored by others who describe how a generation
o f Moriscos, even in their acceptable isolation, were affected by the surrounding
Christian environment.25
In 1555 Charles V abdicated his throne, retiring to the Jeronimite monastery of
Yuste. His son, Philip II, saw the Moriscos differently. They were an affront to the
religious unity o f his kingdoms, especially in the light o f developments in Protestant
Europe and his own lands in the North. The growing Turkish threat in Tunis and
Malta also affected how Spaniards viewed the Morisco problem. In 1560 the Vice-roy
o f Valencia prohibited the Moriscos from fishing because he was concerned about their
dealings with North African corsairs. A Granadan synod in 1565 reversed the past
forty years of evangelization and conversion, focusing instead on repressive means.
All the laws about Morisco compliance were reiterated, chief among them prohibitions
on Arabic, dress, baths and dances. This change in attitude also reflected a crisis
period in the reign o f Philip II who was dealing with the effects of the 1557
bankruptcy, the mounting Turkish threat in the Mediterranean, a growing rebellioness
in the Low Countries and the illness and then death o f his own son, Don Carlos.
By 1568 the grace period for the Moriscos was over and Philip saw no reason
to continue it. Granada had changed. It was no longer a Muslim town with few
25 Beginnings are being made in analyzing daily interactions of Moriscos and Old
Christians. See David Coleman, Creatine Christian Granada: Missionaries and Educators
on the Old World Frontier. 1492-1571. (PhD. dissertation, University of Illinois. 1996).
35
Christian conquerors. Christian immigrants had moved into the city and become
owners o f the streets. The Moriscos only retained predominance in the Albaicin, the
old quarter beneath the walls o f the Alhambra. Even in the countryside, practices had
changed. Herds o f pigs that had not existed in Muslim Granada now began to force
Moriscos to plant and protect their crops differently, not to mention the cultural shock
they must have felt towards swine and pork in general.26
Over thirteen years into his reign, Philip II decided to enforce conformity to
Christian lifestyles. Traditional Granadino dress was proscribed. Women were
forbidden to wear the veil on the streets, or to use henna dyes for their bodies. The
homes o f the Moriscos with private patios were declared illegal. All Muslim names
and surnames were to be dropped for Christian ones. The baths were ordered
destroyed, and most insulting, reading, writing or speaking Arabic was forbidden.27
On December 24, 1568 the Albaicin residents rose in defense of their ancient
traditions, triggering the second war o f the Alpuj arras, so named for the mountain
range where the fierce war occurred. At first only the regional nobility was enlisted to
suppress the rebellion, but because o f a perceived Ottoman or Protestant threat, an
army was gathered under the King’s half brother, Don Juan of Austria. After a year
o f difficult mountain fighting, without any decisive battles, the Moriscos were brought
26 David E. Vassberg, Land and Society in Golden Age Castile. (New York, 1984),
177. An interesting note about the raising o f pigs is also brought up by the same author
in "Concerning Pigs, the Pizarros and Agro-Pastoral Background of the Conquerors of
Peru," Latin American Research Review. 13 (1978), 47-61.
27 Caro Baroja, Los Moriscos del Reino de Granada. 158.
36
under control. The Moriscos Granadinos hanged their own self-proclaimed king and
put themselves at the mercy o f the Spanish Monarchy.28
In 1570 the greatest danger threatening Catholic hegemony was the expansive
Ottoman Empire. The Turks had conquered Belgrade in 1521 and besieged Vienna in
1526. Barbarossa, the Turkish corsair, raided throughout the Mediterranean. They
recaptured Tripoli in 1534 and threatened the Knights of St. John in Malta in 1565.
During the Alpujarras rebellion, Spain, Venice and the Papacy formed a Holy League
to attack the Ottomans and defend Cyprus. Fear that the Moriscos would somehow aid
the Turks was only exacerbated by the failed rebellion. When a letter was discovered
demonstrating Morisco complicity with the Turks, it provided a ready justification to
disperse the Granadino population throughout the small villages of Castile.29
Exiled Granadinos only made the entire country suspect. Possible enemies
were spread throughout the Kingdom o f Castile. The intent o f forcing the Moriscos
from Granada into Castilian areas had been to dilute Morisco cohesion, so much that
they would disappear. But now more Castilian cities had added Morisco minorities.
In Cuenca after 1570 the Granadinos were teaching the native Moriscos Arabic to
better study the Koran.30 The problem of evangelization and assimilation became
28 There are at least three first hand accounts of the events in the Alpujarras war.
All add to our primary knowledge about the Moriscos. See Luis del Marmol y Carvajal,
Historia del rebelion v castieo de los moriscos del reino de Granada. 1600; Diego
Hurtado de Mendoza, La Guerra de Granada. 1627; Gines Perez de Hita, Guerras civiles
de Granada. 1604.
29 Andrew C. Hess, "The Moriscos: An Ottoman Fifth Column in Sixteenth-Century

Spain," American Historical Review. 74 (Oct. 1968), 13.
30 Garcia Arenal, Inquisicion v Moriscos. 57.
general and not just one for Granada, Aragon and Valencia. The Spanish Monarchy
had to implement a plan to deal with so many visible Moriscos. The region o f Old
Castile, including the major historical cities, now had to christianize Moriscos. From
Burgos to Avila and Valladolid to Salamanca the question o f how to proceed became
paramount. While being supervised by the Monarchy, the bishops began to blend
Tridentine reforms into their standards o f what constituted an acceptable measure of
Christianization among the Moriscos.
Episcopal Involvement
The reforms decreed by the Council of Trent were slowly implemented under
the direction o f the Spanish Monarchy. At the same time the Morisco problem was
intensifying because o f the Alpujarras rebellion. The religious reforms and the
consequences o f the failed uprising in Granada combined in the dioceses and parishes
where Moriscos lived. On a city and neighborhood level the Church authorities stated
their specific policies toward both Old and New Christian behavior. The training of
the clergy through synodal meetings, manuals for confessors and periodic inspections
became the method o f making the Moriscos good and faithful Christians.
When Philip II accepted the orders of the Council of Trent he recognized his
obligation to "obey, keep and comply with the decrees and commandments of the Holy
Mother Church."31 He delegated to the bishops the duty of "extirpating heresy and
errors and reforming the abuses, excesses and disorders." The first to begin instructing
the clergy on the new Tridentine ways was the Cardinal-Primate of Spain and
31 Coleccion de Canones v. 4, 7.
38
Archbishop o f Toledo. In 1582, Gaspar de Quiroga convoked a synod o f all the
priests in his archdiocese. The synod’s purpose was to examine the clerical duties as
judged by both the Spanish King and the Catholic Pope.32
The parish priests were entrusted with important responsibilities. Prime among
these newly codified duties was the instruction o f their Morisco parishioners. First
they were advised to create a register, listing all the Moriscos in each neighborhood.
Once the parish priest had this list, he was to inquire of each Morisco their place of
baptism. This was meant to ensure that all had been baptized and to determine
godparents.33 Once this was done, the priests were to guard against Moriscos moving
from the parish without first receiving permission. When a Morisco came to the
obligatory masses, his parish priest was to give out a scrip at random moments, which
could be used to check attendance. All Moriscos were to receive the sacraments of
baptism, confirmation, matrimony and extreme unction. But not the Eucharist if they
were still speaking Arabic. "They must not speak their mother tongue because it
reminds them o f their descent."34 If Moriscos remained pertinacious they must be
reported to the Archbishop. The Toledan Council emphasized that Moriscos were like
new plants that farmers must cultivate and care for more than others.
In 1584 the diocese o f Zamora also convoked a synod, under the Bishop Juan
Ruiz de Aguero. Its expressed purpose was to put into practice the decrees of the
32 Ibid., v. 5, 418.
33 Ibid., 477.
34 Ibid, 419.
39
Council o f Trent.3S A list o f all the Holy Days was established, dividing them into
feast o f "precepto" and "sola devocion." The parish priest was again invested with
ensuring that the entire congregation attend mass on these Holy Days and with
applying punishment when necessary. Both Moriscos and Old Christians were held to
the same standard.
In regards to confession, special cases of absolution were reserved for the
bishop’s attention. These special sins included "heresy, black magic, abortion,
intercourse with a priest or nun, sins against nature, rape of a virgin, or intercourse
with a Jew or Moor."36 No specific instructions were directed towards the Moriscos
o f Zamora, perhaps because they were so few.37 But the bishop had to absolve those
who had sexual relations with Muslims. Any openly-practicing Muslim in sixteenth-
century Zamora was legally unimaginable yet Moriscos were seen as secret Muslims
who needed to be kept away from good Christians.
The reforms proceeding from the synod were not immediately accepted by the
clergy o f Zamora. The changes called for a drastic renewal of clerical dedication and
35 Sinodos del obisoado de Zamora. My thanks to Jose Carlos de Lera Maillo.

"encargado" at the Archivo Historico Diocesano de Zamora, for providing me with this
unpublished book.
36 Ibid., 203. Although canon law forbade limiting a priest’s power of absolution in
the sacrament of confession, the Zamoran synod agreed to this curtailment of their
priesthood. I am grateful to J.W. Smit for pointing out this irregularity to me.
37 Lapeyre lists 78 Moriscos expelled from the city of Zamora and 100 from the town
o f Toro also part o f the diocese. See Geographie de 1’Espagne Morisaue. 198.
40
purity.38 Their positions as priests were not relaxing sinecures. They were called as
shepherds to the Catholic fold. For over two years the Zamoran priests withheld their
approval, but finally accepted all these synodal reforms on November 13, 1586.
The diocese o f Palencia under its bishop, Alvaro de Mendoza, also had a synod
in 1582 at the same time as the Toledan Council. Prior to being bishop in Palencia.
Don Alvaro had been bishop in Avila, where he had worked closely with Teresa de
Jesus in founding the convent o f San Jose.39 While in Palencia, he encouraged the
future patron saint o f Spain to establish a convent o f her Carmelite order in Palencia,
which she did in 1580. As a reformer Bishop Mendoza had the express purpose of
applying and solidifying the decrees o f the Council of Trent. The parish priests in
Palencia were specifically called to post the Tridentine decrees often during the year
where all could read and learn them. The parish priest was also to give all
parishioners, not just Moriscos, a scrip showing that they had received the sacrament
of communion. This was done so that "it may be certified and established that all
have been confessed and received communion before Lent."40 But the priests were
also reminded that all who did not know the Pater Noster, the Credo, the
Commandments o f the Law and the Commandments of the Church should not receive
38 Some o f these reforms included wearing good clothes, avoiding gaming, eating in
moderation, speaking circumspectly, leaving their concubines and abandoning their
children.
39 Bilinkoff, The Avila o f St. Teresa. 147-150, 168.
40 Concilios v sinodos en la diocesis de Palencia: El Sinodo de Don Alvaro de

Mendoza Ano 1582. Jose Antonio Fuentes Caballero, editor, (Palencia, 1980), no. 95.
folio 75v.
41
those sacraments.41
The bishop and clergy during the Synod agreed to these requirements, but the
King continued to control the process through his authority to revise synodal
resolutions. The King’s inspector added the Articles o f Faith and the Seven
Sacraments to the above stated requirements. The King was especially concerned
about a statement that would have allowed the priests to monetarily penalize the
people who did not go to mass or send their children or servants. The King had his
inspector revise this innovation to state that just Moriscos, not Old Christians, could be
penalized for not attending mass.42 The King’s requirement emphasized the need for
Morisco attendance at the Holy Services, but in so doing pushed the Moriscos into a
distinct category.
In 1582 the diocese o f Palencia included the Valladolid region, but by 1595
Philip II’s recommendation to Pope Clement VIII to create a new diocese of
Valladolid had been confirmed. By 1601 the first Bishop of Valladolid was Juan
Bautista de Acevedo who had close ties to the King’s favorite, the Duke of Lerma.4’
Bishop de Acevedo convoked the first synod of Valladolid in 1606. The synodal
instructions included a lengthy section "on the order that priests should know about
41 Ibid., folio 79.
42 Ibid., folio 263.
43 For more on this relationship between Acevedo and Lerma see Feros, The King’s
Favorite. 249-250.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission o f the copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
42
concerning the newly converted Granadinos."44
The bishop’s instructions illustrated from the outset the definitional problems
when addressing the Moriscos. The 1606 synod in Valladolid specified the religious
requirements o f those Moriscos Granadinos who had come from Granada after the
Alpujarras rebellion, not the other Moriscos who had always lived in the diocese. The
same problem occurred in counting the Moriscos. In a 1589 census there were 394
families of Moriscos Granadinos, totaling 1,171 individuals.45 Five years later the
Inquisition carried out its own census, but included all the Moriscos in Valladolid; that
is both Granadinos and the native Moriscos. The 1594 census lists 1,470 Moriscos.46
However, the bishop’s instructions made little distinction between the two
communities. They did not account for the various kinds of Moriscos and the varying
legal privileges. The Moriscos themselves plus their Old Christian neighbors must
have been left asking in Valladolid "which ones? does that mean us?"
Despite the jumbled definitions, Bishop Acevedo reiterated the image from the
Toledan Council that the Moriscos were new plants responsible to the parish priests in
44 Constituciones sinodales del obispado de Valladolid hechas v promuleadas en el

primer sinodo que se celebro en dicha ciudad en el ano de 1606. ('Valladolid. 1803). My
thanks to Father Jesus Alonso Vara, Diocesan Archivist, for contributing at the last minute
this valuable source.
45 AGS, C.C., 2196; for a printed listing and analysis o f the Moriscos in Valladolid
see Mar Gomez Renau, Comunidades mareinadas en Valladolid: Mudeiares v Moriscos.
(Valladolid, 1993) Apendice, 135-185. This book is, however, seriously flawed with
typographical errors and crucial gaps o f information.
46 Archivo Historico Nacional (AHN), Inquisicion, 2109.
43
particular.47 The Moriscos were now part of God’s flock and He would hold the
priests responsible for all those who were lost through negligence. Previous concerns
from other synods were also expressed. A register of Moriscos must be made by
name, surname, age, street, plot and occupation.48 In addition, the priest should
discover who had not been baptized, focusing on the children recorded in baptismal
registers. The bishop was also concerned that the Moriscos be confirmed. Similar
injuctions were made to inform the appropriate clergy within eight days if a Morisco
moved to another parish. Final directives included instructions to teach the Christian
doctrine, insistence on attendance at mass and rules o f worthiness to receive the
Eucharist.
The ten pages o f material dedicated to the Morisco problem are by far the most
extensive o f any synodal instructions in Old Castile. It was most likely due to the
large Morisco population in Valladolid. The Morisco numbers expelled from the
entire diocese o f Valladolid total over 2,400 individuals. The neighboring diocese of
Avila rivalled that with almost 1,700 expelled.49 But the Bishop of Valladolid had a
47 Constituciones sinodales del obispado de Valladolid. 286.
48 I searched closely for any such registers in the parish records, but if they were
made they have since been lost. The only lists o f Moriscos in Old Castile come from
censuses completed in the 1580s or the Valladolid Inquisition’s census from 1594. Did
the priests comply with the new duty or was the work destroyed? We might never know
but the old Spanish adage "del dicho al hecho hay gran trecho" equivalent to the English
saying - many a slip twixt the cup and the lip - may apply in this situation.
49 Both these totals are from page 198 of Lapeyre’s 1959 study in the Simancas
archive. The Geographie de l’Espaene Morisque has served as a close reference, but
some more specific studies differ. For Avila, Serafin de Tapia’s research is also worth
examining, although it only includes the city o f Avila, not the dioceses. He presents a
total of almost 1,400 expelled from Avila, cf. La Comunidad morisca de Avila. 357.
44
large Granadino population and a very visible position in the Kingdom. The King’s
court was established in Valladolid from 1601 to 1606, hence its visibility. Acevedo
was concerned that the priests under his direction receive proper training and
instructions. The King’s favorite, the Duke of Lerma, was closely associated with the
program in Valladolid since by 1601 he was a town counsellor, with seniority in
voting.50 With all this at stake Bishop Acevedo went far beyond the other statements
to include details on education, confessions, marriage and burials.
Some unique instructions focused on the "principle method and reparation" of
the Sacrament o f Penitence.51 The bishop was very concerned that all the Moriscos
confess at least once a year and that evidence be given to that effect. What was
missing from the instructions was more remarkable. The synodal instructions assumed
that the Moriscos knew how to confess, when in fact there were important aspects
about confessing which the Moriscos never learned.52 Translation of religious ritual
for Moriscos was not a mere process of matching the right word, but of learning
gestures, responses and beliefs. The priests of Valladolid were well instructed in how
to ensure Morisco confession once a year. It was less certain that the priests ever
50 Patrick Williams, "Lerma, Old Castile and the Travels o f Philip III o f Spain."
History. 73 (1988), 387.
51 Constituciones sinodales del obispado de Valladolid. 291. For an interesting

German parallel in confessionalization see R. Po-chia Hsia. Social Discipline in the
Reformation: Central Europe 1550-1750. (New York, 1989), 3-6.
52 In an analogous situation Vicente L. Rafael in his book Contracting Colonialism:

Translation and Christian Conversion in Tagalog Society under Early Spanish Rule.
(Ithaca, 1988) explains how confession for the Filipinos was like "entering a labyrinth
without a clue." (87); cf. 1-3, 84-109.
45
demonstrated the manner in which Moriscos could acquire true "penitential reparation."
The bishop worried about Morisco marriages within the prohibited degrees of
family. Because marriage among Moriscos was normally endogamous, the early
generations o f Moriscos were sinning by marrying their close relatives without a
dispensation from the Church. The priests were entrusted with the responsibility to
discover these familial relations using the mandated lists. Not only were they to look
for the familial relationships, they were also to examine the spiritual relationships, ie.
"godparentage" o f each couple. Incest could be "justly feared," since within a group of
300 families a truly sinless Catholic marriage was very difficult. The bishop did
inform the priests that at the very least they should accommodate the prohibited
marriages with the proper clerical permission.53
A good death and burial were the ultimate signs of good Christianity in Early
Modem Spain. This period has been described as "the golden age o f purgatory" with
many last wills and testaments concerned with dedicatory masses for oneself and
others.54 The Bishop o f Valladolid was just as concerned that his Morisco
parishioners receive a good Christian burial. Rumors about Moriscos burying their
dead in unhallowed ground had proven, at least to the bishop, their continued Islamic
ways. Priests, he ordered, should ensure that the Moriscos were buried in the Church
or cemetery, not in "profane places." If the deceased’s last wish was to be buried in a
Monastery, the priest should still collect a fine o f ten ducats for not having been
54 See Nalle, God in La Mancha. 191; and Eire, From Madrid to Purgatory.
46
buried in the parish church. The manner of burial should be with a confraternity and
by the parish priest. This would remove any "scandal that results from the method the
said Moriscos have in doing their burials."55 Most importantly the priest should have
their Morisco parishioners make a last will and testament, persuading them to have
masses said for their souls.
At the very least, for both those with a will and those who died
without, you shall say a mass and do a vigil with the customary offering
according to their income; up to the amount o f twenty masses for every
dead.56
The bishop seemed genuinely concerned about his Morisco population, covering
all the possibilities o f obstinacy and ignorance.
Therefore, with the greatest insistence and affection, we plead

with you the said priests . . . by virtue o f holy obedience and pain of
excommunication, and we command that you keep, execute and comply
with the particular care that is necessary all that we have ordered in this
chapter.57
The bishop’s plan to perfect the Christianization of the Moriscos had been
established. There are very few cases showing how the Moriscos responded to the
hierarchy’s methods. The lack of records inhibited the priests’ compliance with their
bishop’s instructions. Certainly there are few last will and testaments from the
Moriscos in Valladolid.58
56 Ibid, 294.
57 Ibid., 295.
58 Those Morisco wills that have been found are mentioned further in the chapter.
Many in Valladolid have been examined by Luis Fernandez Martin. Other work on
Morisco wills in the peninsula is being done currently, for example, by Amalia Garcia
47
The clergy, besides receiving instructions in synods, also had confessional
manuals to better question their congregations and offer deeper penitence. Martin de
Azpilcueta’s 1571 Manual de Confesores responded to the problem of confessing the
lords’ o f Morisco vassals in Valencia and Aragon. These noblemen were "obligated to
give reasonable support to the priests of the parish churches. What is more they
should denounce [their vassals] to the Holy Inquisition all those who use
Mohammedan ceremonies."59 In 1599 Valencian priests were directed to instruct
their parishioners in the manner o f confession. The Morisco was to be told to "spend
time thinking on and numbering your sins. You must confess the mortal sins, then
abandon them and attempt restitution." The action o f confessing must also be closely
taught. "You must kneel and make the sign o f the cross, telling not just the story, but
with real Christian feeling . . . upon finishing you must ask for absolution
sincerely."60
The Valencian instructions for confession came from the one catechism
specifically written for the newly converted Moors. When Martin de Ayala had been
Bishop o f Guadix he began writing a dialogue between an Arabic speaking priest and
a "Barbary Moor." Bishop Ayala was later made the Bishop of Segovia, where he
Pedraza in Granada; cf. "El morisco ante la muerte: algunas reflexiones sobre Ios
testamentos otorgados por los moriscos granadinos (1500-1526)," Melanges Louis
Cardaillac. 1 (Avril, 1995), 338-352.
59 Martin de Azpilcueta, Manual de Confesores: capitulo veinte v ocho. [1571], folio

59, chapter 25, number 27.
60 Catechismo para instruction de los nuevamente convertidos de moros. (Valencia.

1599), 400.
48
stopped writing because "there were no Moriscos in Segovia."61 He returned to the
project when he was made the Archbishop o f Valencia, but never published it.
His successor, Juan de Ribera, had the catechism published in 1599 as part of
the conversion attempt during the visit of the new king, Philip III. Ribera saw this
catechism as a last indictment against the Moriscos, for it would demonstrate that their
ignorance was feigned and not due to priestly inaction. The catechism does
demonstrate what those in authority thought Moriscos should know.62 Archbishop
Ribera believed it was important enough to urge his colleagues to "read this catechism
often, even memorizing it if possible."63
The catechism was divided into two books. The first was proof of "why only
one religion is the way to God and that Mohammed is lying in the false Koran."64
The second book was less theological. It was directed to the more practical teachings
that a convert from Islam should know. This catechism appeared later in Morisco
history, ten years before the expulsion. But it was a good guide to what criteria were
used to judge the good Christianity of a Morisco and what need to be changed among
Moriscos’ habits.
The practical teachings referred to the prayers that needed to be known, which
61 Ibid., from prologue written by the then Archbishop of Valencia, Juan de Ribera.
Although there were fewer Moriscos compared to Valencia, the dioceses of Segovia had
over 750 Moriscos in 1594 and 856 expelled after 1610.
62 Ricardo Garcia Carcel, "Estudio critico del catecismo de Ribera-Ayala." Les

morisaues el leur temps: table ronde international 4-7 iuillet 1981, (Paris, 1983), 167.
63 Catechismo. prologue.
64 Catechismo. book 1.
49
included the Pater Noster, Ave Maria, Salve Regina and petitioning the saints. The
catechism also listed the sacraments that should be accepted and "how to use them
well." The commandments o f the Church were to be taught and then followed with
detailed explanations from the twentieth chapter of Exodus. Also the use of images
was explained for the Moriscos in order that they might venerate what was
represented. Many Christian priests saw the veneration of the saints as the last hurdle
for a complete acceptance o f Catholicism because this was anathema in Islam.6S
The methods to assimilate and evangelize the Moriscos were available, but then
where did the program fail? The Morisco problem was debated by the Council of
State in this very regard. Had the Moriscos simply failed to accept the Christian
efforts o f their priests? Had the priests been negligent in their described duties? Was
the time insufficient for the express purpose of making them as like as possible? Or
was the surrounding society too closed to any new entry no matter how hard priests or
Moriscos tried? Perhaps each question points to a joint failure. The answer lies partly
in the Moriscos’ stubbornness and in the half-hearted attempts by the Catholic Church
to teach the Moriscos. Neither side was blameless, yet concentrating only on the
Islamic ways o f the Moriscos ignores their Christian environment.
The synods, manuals and catechisms were the three major tools the Church
hierarchy possessed to prepare its priests and instruct the population. The most visible
method o f subsequent enforcement were the visits which either the bishop or his duly
appointed "visitador" made to inspect the physical surroundings o f the Church and
65 See Father Sobrino’s comments in Chapter 4.
50
admonish the clergy to better fulfill their obligations. The registers of "visitas"
manifest a great detail o f information about diocesan activities. The records are not
only full o f physical descriptions o f the Church and its property but they also contain
doctrinal emphasis on what were common mistakes. Visits as early as 1544 have been
recorded in the village o f Duenas o f the diocese o f Palencia. The "visitador" ordered
that the parish priest teach his parishioners the Pater Noster. Ave Maria, Credo and
Salve Regina.66 Even before the Council of Trent, orders to reform practice and
standardize beliefs were occurring in Spain.
Trent had a large influence, as can be seen readily from statements made by
"visitadores" all over the peninsula. Again in the diocese o f Palencia in the village of
Carrion de los Condes specific mention was made of the decrees from Trent. In 1608
the priest in the parish o f San Andres had not fulfilled his obligation to teach the
principles o f Christianity. The "visitador" ordered him to fulfill his duty "because the
Council o f Trent has commanded all priests to teach the doctrine on Sundays and
Holidays."67
The visits reminded the priests of their obligation to teach their parishioners,
but the "visitador" also examined the physical property of the parish. Every visit
began with an inspection of the "Holy of Holies," ie. the altar, in the parish church.
The baptismal font was also examined for proper location and stability. The church
66 Archivo Parroquial de Duenas, Palencia. Libro de Visitas, Inventarios y

Costumbres, 29 December 1544; no pagination.
67 Archivo Diocesano de Palencia (ADPa), Libro de Visitas, numero 34 (1558-1626).

7 October 1608.
51
walls were inspected for durability and places o f confession should be in good order.
Outside o f the church all hermitages, monasteries and reliquies within the parish
boundaries were also examined. Another item the "visitador" invariably inspected was
the funding for chaplaincies. Endowments for memorial masses had to pay for all the
efforts as requested by the deceased.
When the "visitador" left, his commandments were not immediately obeyed.
Following the 1591 visit to the parish o f San Torcad in Zamora, Miguel Aldrete, the
parish priest took almost five years to publish the commandments of the "visita",
accomplishing what he could and finally reading the records during the main mass to
the parishioners.68
Alvaro de Mendoza as Bishop o f Avila focused his "visita" instructions on the
Moriscos. His 1571 instructions were referred to in a 1579 visit carried out by the
next bishop, Sancho Busto de Villegas. The repeated instructions carefully
admonished the priests to withhold the Moriscos Granadinos the Eucharist for "we
have been informed that [they] . . . did not receive the Holy Sacrament there [in
Granada] . . . nor since the uprising have they done anything to merit it anymore."69
Other instructions were repeated by Bishop Busto de Villegas, ordering the
priests to attend all Morisco weddings and be at the death of any Morisco. The bishop
also had heard rumors that Moriscos were burying their dead in the poplar groves
68 Ibid., 16v.
69 Archivo Diocesano de Avila (ADAv), Avila, Parroquia de Santo Domingo, Libro

de Cuentas y Fabrica (1564-1595), numero 160, 138/3/2, December 1579; also see a
summary of the same in Tapia, La Comunidad morisca de Avila. 273.
52
outside the city wall. He commanded the priests to ensure that all Moriscos were
buried in the parish church or cemetery. With the new Moriscos arriving from
Granada during the 1570s, the clergy in Avila was very concerned that all non-
Christian ceremonies be stopped. There was also a substantial Morisco Antiguo
population in Avila and they had to be protected from the contamination.
The bishop’s instructions were detailed when it came to Morisco customs, but
the Old Christian population o f Avila was equally ill instructed. The bishop ordered
the parish priest to deny parishioners marriage unless they first learned the four prayers
of the Church. He also hoped that everyone could learn the commandments and the
articles o f faith.70
Up until that point, Bishop Busto de Villegas was simply reiterating the words
from Bishop Mendoza. In more forcible words he reminded the priests to make a list
of all the Moriscos in the parish o f Santo Domingo. The order was clarified by his
insistence that Moriscos who still had not decided which parish they would belong to,
had to decide soon. Both the instructions of Bishop Mendoza and Busto de Villegas
were referred to in later visits from 1582 and 1602. Did much change in the thirty
years between the original instructions and the last reference? It is difficult to say if
the "visitador" automatically repeated the instructions because of continued Morisco
heresy. Or was the repetition merely formulaic as other sections of the written "visita"
prove to be? In thirty years time there must have been some evolution o f religious
sentiment.
70 Ibid.
If the bishops o f Avila and Valladolid were concerned with the Moriscos in
their diocese, the Archbishop o f Burgos, Don Cristobal Vela, was still trying to
enforce the Tridentine reforms on the Dean and Cathedral Chapter o f Burgos. The
clerics in Burgos were against the orders o f a 1582 visit because the commands
insisted on greater improvements among the priests themselves. The Archbishop
called all prelates to confess their sins to him if they had spoken blasphemy, lived with
women, walked about at night with weapons or without their habits, or if their reputed
children lived with them.71 In final instructions Don Cristobal ordered that:
the said Dean and chapter instruct themselves within three

months o f all the ceremonies o f the mass according to the new roman
missal, both pertaining to particular masses and conventicle ones so that
I may know o f it.72
As far as the Archbishop was concerned those who "have, keep or do any judaic rite
or ceremony or are o f the opinion o f the sects of Mohammed or Luther" must confess
their sin and suffer penitence. His words continued a very old opinion, affirming that
Islam was only a heresy o f Christianity. Muslims were a heretical sect of Christianity
because Mohammed was bom after Jesus Christ, and thus a false prophet who led the
Arabs astray. Considering the few numbers of Moriscos expelled from Burgos, it
comes as little surprise the low priority given to their education.73 Even so, the
71 Archivo Diocesano de Burgos (ADBu), Burgos, libro numero 3-2-2 "Visita de la

Santa Iglesia Metropolitana," 1582, no pagination.
72 Ibid.
73 Lapeyre’s Geographie (p. 198) lists 72 households with 309 individuals expelled
from the city o f Burgos, with 12 more people leaving Aranda de Duero. which was in the
Archbishopric.
54
registers o f the Archdiocese record Moriscos participating in the Church rituals.74
The Bishop o f Zamora successfully informed his clerics of their obligations in
1584. For the next thirty years the pattern o f visits following this synod confirmed
how concerned the bishops of Zamora were with reforming the religious lives of their
parishioners. In the second visit after 1584, Gaspar Hernandez, the bishop’s
"visitador" directed his attention to the women who sat in the main chapel in the
Church o f San Torcad. The women were making too much noise and he ordered it
stopped.75 Another "visitador" in 1607 "commanded that in order to give thanks to
God for his daily care, when the Church bells ring at mid-day, everyone should pray a
Pater Noster and Ave Maria, giving thanks for our increase."76 These little matters
were part o f the larger visit meant to ensure priestly responsibility. The "visitador"
ordered the parish priest not to absolve the sins o f those who did not know the
Christian doctrine. This doctrine, in the eyes of the "visitador" included the four
prayers, the commandments of the law of God and the Holy Mother Church and the
Articles o f Faith.
Among the concerns the "visitador" brought from the bishop were specific
instructions concerning the Moriscos. The parish of San Torcad had the largest
74 ADBu, Burgos, parroquia de San Lorenzo, libro de bautizados (1541-1667), 4 May

1583, 103v.
75 Archivo Historico Diocesano de Zamora (AHDZa), Zamora, Section de Archivos

Parroquiales, (A.P.) 281.27 (San Torcuato, Zamora), libro 23 (Visitas 1586-1678) folio
14v.
76 Ibid., 27v.
55
concentration o f Moriscos Granadinos in the city.77 When the "visitador" came to
San Torcad in 1598 his instructions reflected the mistakes the Moriscos were making.
By order o f Bishop Fernando Suarez de Figueroa, Geronimo Pacheco acted as
"visitador general" o f the diocese. Pacheco had noticed the absence o f Moriscos and
ordered the priests to better ensure their attendance at mass on Sundays and Feast
days. While at mass they were commanded to "manifest themselves before the priest
or sacristan, so that either may verify their presence."78 Pacheco ordered that the
penalty for not doing so would be half a "real" for every time they missed.
The Moriscos in San Torcad o f Zamora were expected to meet the obligations
as all other Christians, but they would also be watched closely and fined if they did
not. No fines were established for non-Moriscos who missed mass. Pacheco as
"visitador" had also enforced similar orders of attending mass for Moriscos in 1597.
The three Morisco families of the parish o f San Pedro were to be watched carefully,
ensuring their attendance at mass.79
The "visitador" also observed a valuable article in the San Torcad church. A
small chalice, used in offering the wine o f the Holy Sacrament, had a "morisco" base.
This foot had a rounded bottom making it easy to tip over and break. Because o f the
77 AGS, C.C. 2183, a list by parish in Zamora has a majority of Moriscos in the
parish o f San Torcad with 18 individuals. Zamora is a little different than other Castilian
dioceses because the Moriscos were more spread out in the parishes. Moriscos appeared
in sixteen of the thirty parishes.
78 AHDZa., A.P., 281.27, libro 23, folio 21.
79 ADHZa., 281.14, libro 10, folio 112v-l 13, 18 December 1597.
56
potential damage the "visitador" ordered that the morisco chalice be fixed.80 We are
left wondering if this central sacramental object had been fashioned and provided by
the Moriscos o f Zamora or was it only inspired by moorish artistic aesthetics. Objects
o f Islamic arts and origins were highly valued for their workmanship, less can be said
o f the Moriscos themselves.
For the small community of 125 Morisco, the Zamora visits only reiterated the
requirement to attend mass. Later visits to the parishes of San Julian, San Salvador de
la Vid and Santa Eulalia also had Morisco orders. The new "visitador," Lorenzo
Estavili de Salazar ordered that Moriscos be looked after closely so that they also
attend the required mass.81 In 1582 the parish of Santa Eulalia only had one thirty-
four-year old Morisco Granadino.82 But the instructions remained firm in 1603.
His Grace ordered the present priest to take great care that the
Moriscos o f his parish hear mass every Sunday and feast day, fining
those who miss one "real" for every time they miss. . . And if despite
all this they remain pertinacious, notice should be given to the ordinary
so he may punish them according to the law. His Grace also ordered
that the priest instruct the Christian doctrine and the beginnings of faith
as is obligated o f him.83
It appears that the Bishop of Zamora’s concern was that the Moriscos in his diocese
attend mass. However, as the last words from the visit of Santa Eulalia attest, the
80 Ibid., folio 22.
81 AHDZa., A.P., 281.11 (San Julian), libro 3, folio 48v, 14 April 1603; 281.15 (San
Salvador), libro 8, folio 5v-6, 18 September 1602; 281.19 (Santa Eulalia), libro 6, folio
27v-28, 18 May 1603.
82 AGS, C.C. 2183.
83 AHDZa., A.P.. 281.19, libro 6. folio 27v-28, 18 May 1603.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission o f the copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm ission.
57
Moriscos were not solely to blame for their mistakes. The priests had to be reminded
constantly to teach the Moriscos. Already the debate about who had failed in the years
prior to the expulsion o f 1609 is prefigured. Had the Moriscos failed to become good
Christians because they chose to avoid their obligations, or had others bungled their
responsibilities to teach and guide their Morisco parishioners? It could also well be
that the Moriscos were held to a very specific standard of Christian behavior and
knowledge that in relation to other Christians was much higher.
These problems o f Catholic evangelization were a significant portion of the
problem surrounding the Moriscos. Later when they were expelled, Church officials
pointed to the successful Christianization o f some Moriscos. The parish priests and the
bishops described efforts made by the Church that seemed to be working. They, of
course, had other reasons to keep the Moriscos in the diocese. Christian conversion
was praised but the Moriscos also paid tithes and contributed services that were
becoming part o f community life. Incorporating the Moriscos into Church life had not
been easy, nor was it accomplished for only devout motives.
The Catholic Church influenced the lives of early modem Spaniards in
countless ways. Church representatives played a role in the daily life of all, through
mechanisms like the synods, confessionals, catechisms and periodic visits. Yet, the
Church was not the only powerful mediator in people’s lives. The extent and
limitations o f royal power will be the focus o f the following section.
Morisco Access to Roval Power
In pursuing the answer to the Morisco problem the King and Council of State
58
had first to discover the realities o f the Morisco population. The limitations of their
information-gathering system made analysis o f this reality difficult to detect. After
analyzing the limited information, orders had to be enforced through individuals who
were at times hesitant to change traditional or profitable situations. Fruitful and
modem research has followed from framing the period within the constraints o f the
center trying to influence, even impose, their goals on peripheral regions.84 The story
o f how the crown succeeded and at times failed to achieve its objectives within Castile
as pertaining to the Moriscos is best told in the context of the royal courts, Inquisition
trials and the ever-present notarial records. All these archival documents open many
levels o f the burgeoning Spanish Monarchy and its bureaucracy.
The highest Castilian tribunals, other than directly petitioning the King, were
the two royal "Chancillerias" divided geographically in the cities of Valladolid and
Granada. Once the Moriscos Granadinos had been expelled from the Kingdom of
Granada, the Chancellery in Valladolid began to face new legal problems created by
the dispersion from Granada. Cases brought before the Chancilleria included civil and
criminal complaints, as well as courts for the determination of "hidalguia de sangre,"
Basque privileges and royal executive orders. The civil and criminal complaints
section hold many cases concerning the Moriscos and it is to them that we now turn.
On July 19, 1586 Antonio de Soto, procurador of the town of Astudillo near
Palencia, accused Diego Fernandez, a Morisco Granadino gardener, of the nefarious
84 See most recently the book Spain. Europe and the Atlantic World: Essays in
Honour of John H. Elliott. Richard L. Kagan and Geoffrey Parker, editors, (New York.
1995).
59
sin, ie. sodomy. The case revolved around the "mozo" Andres who helped the accused
with his chores in the garden o f Maria Valle on the estates of the Count o f Castro.
The Chancellery in Valladolid investigated the circumstances o f the alleged crime by
interviewing neighbors and coworkers. The witnesses all responded to questions
prepared by the court. The second question asked if any "had ever seen the said Diego
Fernandez go to mass on Sundays and Holy Days, confess during Lent, receive the
Eucharist and do everything else which the Holy Mother Church commands."85 We
can immediately see how connected the reputation of good Christianity was to
innocence. Other questions focused on Diego’s relationship with women and the exact
circumstances o f the work Diego did with the "mozo" Andres. The accusation of
sodomy was not only about his masculinity and Christianity, but the stereotype about
Muslim sexual proclivities was also present.86
The witnesses replied that Diego had always done what the Church
commanded, plus they were sympathetic to him for being over sixty five years old,
very poor and thin. Nonetheless, Diego was tortured to discover the truth. The judges
were ultimately convinced that the accusation was false because Diego had told Andres
to leave the garden "for he never wanted to do his chores."87 Although Diego’s
85 Archivo de la Real Chancilleria de Valladolid (ARCV), Pleitos Civiles (P.C.).

Quevedo, C. 453-1, pieza 6.
86 For some o f these connections between stereotypes of Islam and sodomy see Mary
Elizabeth Perry, "The Nefarious Sin in Early Modem Seville," The Pursuit of Sodomy:
Male Homosexuality in Renaissance and Enlightenment Europe. (New York, 1989), 67-
89.
87 ARCV, P.C., Quevedo, C. 453-1, pieza 6.
60
punishment of two hundred lashes was revoked, they banished him from Astudillo for
ten years because o f possible scandal. Sixteenth-century standards of justice had been
met. Despite his innocence, Diego Fernandez had to leave. We are left wondering if
he found work in another garden. He certainly remained poor, thin and elderly.
Luckily his neighbors attested to his good Christianity and further questioning was
stopped early enough that he survived.
Another responsibility assigned to the Chancellery courts was to supervise the
passports and travel licenses given to exiled Moriscos Granadinos. In 1595 the four
Moriscos Diego de Cordoba, Lorencio Largo, Juan Martinez and Domingo de Baeza
asked for permission to travel and earn their living as merchants and salesmen.88
They had been natives o f the village o f Monaxe in the Kingdom of Granada but since
the banishment they resided in Palencia. The Chancilleria granted them permission to
travel, which was fairly commonplace.
Earlier in 1590 a Morisco was brought to trial for not having a license to
travel. Diego de Calderon was arrested for bearing arms and traveling outside of
Valladolid, his city o f residence.89 Diego successfully proved to the "oidores" o f the
Chancilleria that he did not need a passport because although he admitted to being a
Morisco, he was not from Granada. He demonstrated that he was a native o f
Homachos in Extremadura and when Queen Isabel conquered that village in the
fifteenth century she had declared all inhabitants and their descendants Old Christians.
88 ARCV, P.C., Perez Alonso, C. 3824-2.
89 ARCV, Alonso Perez, (fenecidos) C. 218-2.
61
The Chancellery officials acknowledged this old law and freed Calderon. The laws of
Castile, as elsewhere in sixteenth-century Europe, recognized exceptions, amendments
and inequalities depending on historical developments. The Chancellery knew that a
Morisco Granadino was a different category than a Morisco from Homachos.
Special categories applied to Moriscos o f noble descent. In 1636 when no
normal Morisco should ever have been in Spain, Don Pedro de Granada Venegas
petitioned the Chancellery to recognize his rights to the levies from the vineyards and
fields o f Olmedo and Medina del Campo.90 Don Pedro was a descendant of the
Kings o f Granada, a member o f the military order o f Alcantara and the Queen’s
steward. The Chancellery judges confirmed his rents and saw his plea as just and
well-established. Don Pedro was a Morisco but of a higher order and standing. The
Chancellery, as an arm o f royal justice, protected the hierarchical and hereditary
system.
Most cases involving Moriscos in the Chancellery courts were of unjust
enslavement. After the Granadan rebellion in 1568, soldiers were authorized to
enslave Moriscos caught fighting against the King. But some soldiers were over-eager.
In 1574, Don Juan de Menchaca was deprived o f two Morisco slaves captured in
"buena guerra" at Granada. The crown’s representative, Maximiliano de Burgos,
proved that the brothers Juan and Lucas Almudey were not old enough during the war
to have been legimately captured. The Chancellery set the two Moriscos free, "for
90 ARCV, Ejecutorias, Legajo 1331. numero 13.
62
they were too young to have participated in rebellion."91
Other Moriscos who were set free because they were captured illegally included
Andres del Rio, Luis slave o f the priest o f Yebenes, Rafael Hernandez and Ines
Aladrote.92 Rafael Hernandez, although freed, was denied payment for his years of
service. The judges doubted the veracity and faith o f his witnesses for they all owed
him favors or were Moriscos themselves. Ines Aladrote won even more than her
freedom. She successfully established that her parents had not been part of the
rebellion and that her father had helped Don Juan de Austria against the rebels.
Others were not as successful in their cases. As an example there was Cecilia
Ramos, a Morisca slave o f Catalina de Mendizabal. She had been captured by
Catalina’s husband, the Captain Diego de Bazan, in the rebellion and taken to live in
Logroiio. When the Captain died in 1587, Cecilia requested her freedom, but the
Chancellery confirmed her status as a slave. She remained the rightful property of her
master’s widow.93 Pedro de Carmona, like Cecilia Ramos, was declared a slave
captured in just war by his master the General Diego Flores de Valdes.94 Even
though Cecilia and Pedro did not win their cases, they still had the recourse o f the
Chancellery and were represented in the royal bureaucracy.
The Chancellery was open to all those who could navigate the legal system. It
91 ARCV, P.C., Fernando Alonso (fenecidos), C. 973-6.
92 ARCV, P.C., Fernando Alonso (fenecidos), C. 281-4; Perez Alonso (olvidados) C.

225-20; Fernando Alonso (fenecidos), C. 989-2; Perez Alonso (fenecidos) C. 475-6.
93 ARCV, P.C., Fernando Alonso (fenecidos), C. 184-4.
94 ARCV, P.C., Perez Alonso (fenecidos), C. 903-1.
63
even handled seemingly minor cases o f disputed payments. Juan Perez de Bohorce of
the Segovian village o f Fuentiduena brought a case o f non-payment for merchandise
against the Morisco, Adan de Morales. Morales was a resident o f the Juscar in the
mountains o f Ronda. Although the distance from Fuentiduena to Juscar was half the
Kingdom the Chancellery’s power was not diluted.
All the King’s subjects could petition for justice in the Chancilleria. By
administering the King’s laws and determining the legal precedents the Chancellery
was a powerful arbiter in Castile. Moriscos like Diego Fernandez, Diego de Calderon.
Cecilia Ramos and the Almudey brothers could find protection and favorable rulings in
the royal courts. Its limitations arose from the varied and apparent contradictions in
the law, a consequence of a long and multifarious history.
The Chancellery heard many Morisco cases but the Inquisition courts were far
more powerful. Their actions in defining the choices available to Moriscos have been
well studied.95
95 See for example Henry Charles Lea, The Moriscos o f Spain: Their Conversion and
Expulsion. (New York, 1901); E. William Monter, Frontiers of Heresy:: Peter
Dressendorfer, "Crypto-musulmanes en la Inquisicion de la Nueva Espana," Actas del
coloauio intemacional sobre literatura aliamiado v morisco. (Madrid, 1978), 475-494;
Mercedes Garcia Arenal, Inquisicion v Moriscos: K. Garrad, "La Inquisicion y los
moriscos granadinos (1526-1580)," Miscelanea de estudios arabes v hebraicos. 9 (1960),
55-73; Javier Perez Escohotado, Sexo e Inquisicion en Espana. (Madrid, 1988); Feliciano
Sierro Malmierca, Judios. moriscos e Inquisicion en Ciudad Rodrigo. (Salamanca, 1990);
J. Ignacio Tellechea Idigoras, Tiempos recios: Inquisicion v Heterodoxias. (Salamanca,
1977); Bartolome Bennassar, L’lnouisition espagnole XVe-XIX siecle. (Paris, 1979);
Raphael Carrasco, "Morisques et Inquisition dans les lies Canaries," Revue de l’Histoire
des Religion. 202 (1985), 379-387; Jean Pierre Dedieu, L’administration de la foi;
Stephen Haliczer, Inquisition and Society in the Kingdom o f Valencia and The Inquisition
in Early Modem Europe; Mary E. Perry and Anne J. Cruz, Cultural Encounters: The
Impact of the Inquisition in Spain and the New World. (Berkeley, 1991).
64
The tribunals o f the Spanish Inquisition carry so much controversial history that
at times it is difficult to remember what purpose the Holy Office had in the Spanish
Monarchy. Created in the reign o f the Catholic Kings to investigate and punish the
Marranos for reverting to the Judaism o f their ancestors, the Inquisition underwent
drastic changes throughout its four centuries of history.96 In the late sixteenth
century the Inquisition focused primarily on cases which reformed the populace and
regulated Catholic behavior.97 The Inquisition was a centralizing force for the King.
But the many local interests and influences also explain the nuances of day-to-day
motivations. With its cadre of familiars, jailers and secretaries along with public
support, the Inquisition officials in each locale demonstrated a great variety of
intentions.
In gathering the data amongst the highest tribunals, the royal courts, the
Inquisition offices and the municipal notaries we must always remember the forces
which continually pulled the Spanish Monarchy in different directions. If the royal
"oidores" in the Chancellery courts were the King’s best trained legal minds, they were
also local officials with private motivations. The Inquisition was a vast centralizing
force for the King but individual cases reflected the social and economic rivalries of
the location better than vast historical forces.
The Inquisition has been used to analyze the development of a strong central
96 For a good introduction to both the Inquisition’s history and image see Edward
Peters, Inquisition. (Berkeley, 1988).
97 See Dedieu, L’administration de la foi and Henningsen article in Inquisition in

Early Modem Europe.
65
government in Spain. But on a basic level the Holy Office is better understood
through the rivalries o f a limited geographical setting.98 Using the forced confessions
about heretical activities is fraught with danger. We can point to many confessions of
Muslim actions among the Inquisition offenders. Yet to accept the confession as a true
reflection o f daily life or belief is to forget the pressure o f fear and torture. During
the same period o f Morisco conversion to Christianity the old Christians were being
investigated by the Inquisition for their own religious mistakes.99 Statements about
pre-marital sex and priestly propositions were just as important to the Inquisitors as
closing doors on Fridays.
The Inquisition was more often than not lenient in its punishment for relapsing
into Muslim rituals.100 Lucia de Avila, a Morisca from Salamanca, although found
guilty o f Mohammedan beliefs was allowed "the grace she asked for, only punishing
her with a few spiritual penitences."101 When Maria de Mendoza, a Morisca in the
Inquisition jail o f Valladolid, was "reconciled" by the Holy Office she was then
granted her petition for freedom and removal o f the Inquisition habit.102
The Inquisition also protected Moriscos from some who tried to defraud and
frighten them. In the summer of 1596 a student o f the University of Valladolid was
98 For an example of this local analysis see Jaime Contreras, Sotos contra Riauelmes.
99 The Inquisition in Early Modem Europe. 113.
100 Henningsen also observes that the Spanish Inquisition only executed 1.8% of all
its cases.
101 AHN, Inquisition 3201, 6 May 1600.
102 Ibid., no date.
66
arrested by the "corregidor" o f Tordesillas. The student Alonso Prieto had frightened
Moriscos and extorted money from them, saying he was an Inquisition official. He
had taken money from the Moriscos, Alonso de Toledo and Luis Gomez, while also
entering into many Morisco homes asking if they had been baptized.'03 Being a
university student protected Prieto from prosecution by the Inquisition, but a
University tribunal accepted the recommendation of the Valladolid Inquisition to
punish him with the "stiffest penalties." Even though Prieto explained that it was all
done in jest and that he was only "amigo de sus amigos” he was punished with one
hundred lashes, four years in the galleys and ten-year exile from Valladolid. The
University’s harsh response and the Inquisition’s indignation were indicative of how
the Moriscos were protected, and directed, by the authorities.
The Inquisition prosecuted and jailed the Moriscos as a visible minority. On
October 31, 1605 the Inquisition officials in Arevalo reported that they had imprisoned
so many Moriscos that they needed more jails.104 Antonio de Castaneda, a seventy
four year old Morisco living in Medina del Campo was ordered to participate as a
guilty "reo" in the auto-da-fe while wearing a habit o f "media aspa." Castaneda was
also fined 1,000 ducats and made to solemnly proclaim his shame as a Mohammedan.
However, the Inquisition Council in Madrid considered his advanced age and
recommended "no further questioning, lest he die." Even a year and a half later in
103 Archivo Historico Provincial Valladolid (AHPV), Universidad, legajo 1, folio 11:
this case is also mentioned in Bennassar. Valladolid. 384, 505.
104 AHN, Inquisition 3203-1, 31 October 1605.
67
1608, Castaneda was still actively defending himself with the assistance of concerned
citizens in Medina del Campo.105
Finally, the territory over which the Inquisition presided was truly extensive,
hindering continual centralizing control. Moriscos scattered throughout Old Castile
began to move into the larger cities like Valladolid and Avila, but also remained in
remoter villages like Fuentiduena, Oropesa and Piedrahita. Moriscos in these smaller
villages were more successful in becoming a part of the community and Inquisition
officials even defended them. During the expulsion proceedings Bartolome Rodriguez
de Villafuerte, familiar o f the Holy Office and voting resident o f Avila, swore that the
Morisco, Diego Hernandez, was a "very good Christian and fearful of God."106
Another familiar, Pedro Ramon and a commissioner o f the Avila Inquisition, Doctor
Camargo, also testified to the same facts on the Morisco’s behalf.107
When Moriscos entered into contracts or credit obligations, as most sixteenth
century Spaniards, they had a notary witness the relationship. These legal testimonies
provide the best evidence o f daily concerns. A Spanish village was nothing until there
was a trained expert who notarized the occurrences. It was not new for Heman Cortes
to create the municipality o f Vera Cruz when he had just landed on the American
mainland with sworn witnesses before the notary.108
105 Ibid., 16 May 1607; 16 June 1607; 17 December 1608.
106 ADAv, Estante 108/5/26, folio 3, 3 September 1610.
107 Ibid., 4 September 1610.
108 J.H. Parry, The Spanish Seaborne Empire. (Berkeley, 1966), 84.
68
Within most relationships, although the interests of the Spanish Monarchy were
present, it would be inaccurate to consider them as primary. The paradox in which the
Spanish King found himself is well described by Helen Nader. "The most powerful
absolute monarchy in early modem Europe governed itself through thousands of direct
connections to minute municipal corporations."109 The Spanish Monarchy was based
on the relationship between an absolutist monarchy "inextricably associated" with
Castilian liberty.110
Notarial documents were written up everywhere and are still preserved in the
provincial archives. Luis Fernandez Martin has described over one hundred fifty such
documents, as found in the provincial archives of Valladolid. Moriscos entered into all
kinds o f contracts. For example, Juan and Maria Rodriguez, Moriscos from Granada,
received from their employer eight ducats in salary and 16.4 ducats in new clothes,
linens and shoes for their work as household servants.111
Other Moriscos bought their freedom after being enslaved. The transaction was
noted in the notary’s papers. When the city "regidor", Galaz Antolinez de Burgos,
freed his Morisco slave it was on the condition that Burgos receive sixty "escudos de
oro" before St. John’s day o f 1574. It is not recorded if the slave, Miguel de Medina.
109 Helen Nader, Liberty in Absolutist Spain. 207.
110 Ibid., 2. Ruth Florence MacKay in To obey and comply: the limits of roval
authority in seventeenth-centurv Castile (PhD. dissertation, University of California at
Berkeley, 1995) demonstrates the contractual obligations that limited absolutism in Spain.
111 Luis Fernandez Martin. Comediantes. esclavos v moriscos en Valladolid, siglos

XVI v XVII. (Valladolid, 1988), 164.
69
met the deadline.112
The notaries also kept the last wills and testaments. Some were from Moriscos,
which demonstrate how some died professing traditional Christian formulas. The
wealthy Morisco, Lucas de Molina, asked that he be buried in the Chapel of San
Ildefonso and that two masses each be celebrated in the chapels of San Lorenzo, San
Francisco, Our Lady o f the Rosary and the Virgin of Charity. To his faithful servant.
Molina left 400 ducats and to his three children he left a total o f 1,350. He also left
his children 5 large beasts o f burden, 160 "arrobas" of oil in containers, eight "arrobas"
o f white soap, eight "varas" o f household linen and five "varas" of a cloth known as
"copa de rey." As a sign o f his good Christianity he asked that he be buried with
some blessed water from Talavera, two large images and a "large paper of the
Passion."1,3
The notarial records included ledgers o f Moriscos continuing their daily lives in
marriage arrangements, furnishing their homes, working as gardeners and traveling as
merchants. Sometimes Moriscos even used the city courts to prosecute other Moriscos.
Francisco Hernandez was beaten and wounded by Garcia de Ribera, both of who were
Moriscos. The former brought charges against his attacker, but the charges were
eventually dismissed when the two were reconciled.114 The two Moriscos, Luis
Hernandez and Diego Hernandez, had a fight where Luis wounded Diego. The city
112 Ibid., 169.
113 Ibid., 171.
114 Ibid., 183.
70
"regidor" negotiated between the two. so that Luis paid Diego four ducats in
compensation for the injury, healing time and medicine.115 Other disputes were even
more violent. Lorenzo de Olmedo killed Sebastian Quiros, both who were Moriscos
Granadinos. When the city went to arrest Lorenzo he had already escaped. The crime
was announced throughout the city and all Lorenzo’s goods were expropriated.
Eventually by "God’s kindness and the appeal o f good people" Lorenzo was pardoned
on condition o f exile.
The Valladolid notarial records show a Morisco community life that was little
different from that o f the majority. There were deaths, marriages, work obligations
and even criminal violence. What stands out from these documents is how
unconcerned the city appeared to be with an ongoing Morisco problem. The records
identify each Morisco as such, but beyond that, they used the system as others would
have done. The concerns o f the King should have been prevalent in an important
capital like Valladolid and yet there appears little evidence o f extraordinary measures
or undue concern. Moriscos in Valladolid seem to have avoided the suspicion
emanating from higher circles.
Conclusion
The Moriscos, as we frame them in a context of religious conversion, were
affected by both Church and State. The Church began a reforming process for all
Spaniards, with specifics about Moriscos only a part of the renewal. The level of state
involvement changed drastically after the Alpujarras rebellion. Actions in Granada
115 Ibid., 184.
71
were perceived as showing how little the Moriscos had become like "natural subjects."
But the records belie the contemporary perception. Church directions, Chancellery
cases and notarial records demonstrate a group of Moriscos who lived as other
Castilians did. The royal assumptions about Moriscos were based on faulty
comparisons between Moriscos who were different in geographical, generational and
religious terms. The sources for discovering this were available to the Spanish
Monarchy but to no avail.
In Old Castile the Morisco problem was of a much different nature than in
other regions of the peninsula."6 Yet when the King and the Council o f State
discussed the Morisco problem allusions referred only to a stereotypical Morisco. The
priests who worked with their Morisco parishioners knew many kinds o f Moriscos.
There were many differences among the Moriscos of origins, Christian behavior,
generational distance and proximity to local power structures. The diversity of
Morisco experience might not have been understood by Catholic Spain, but the local
church had to incorporate them into their communities. The diverse map of Morisco
life follows in Chapter 2.
116 Garcia Arenal sees the difference in Castile coming from the dispersal of Moriscos
Granadinos after the Alpujarras War. She equates the problem in Castile as being similar
to migrant workers in the twentieth century and not a colonial situation like in Aragon.
Inquisition v Moriscos. 116.
72
Chapter Two
Mapping Morisco Lives: A Plurality of Categories
Any description o f the Moriscos, as Fernand Braudel notes, must include a
plurality o f categories.1 But the Moriscos have been too often solely described as the
"last Muslims o f Spain."2 The accepted sixteenth-century perception o f the Moriscos
was singular in character. The stereotype drew attention to their large families, greedy
hoarding or strange accents. Moriscos, for most Spaniards, were all cut from the same
cloth. All had once been Muslims, or were descendants of Muslims but they were not
a religiously homogenous group. However, the dominant Christian society saw them
as such, while paradoxically compelling Moriscos to accept and conform to
Catholicism.
In asking "what did it mean to be a Morisco?" five factors - religion,
1 Fernand Braudel, "Espagnols et morisques au XVIe siecle," Annales E. S. C.. 2

(1947), 397.
2 Miguel de Epalza, Los moriscos antes v despues de la expulsion. (Madrid. 1992).

35-37.
73
economics, social standing, geography and chronology - are essential to the answer/
This chapter proceeds on the basis that it is the geographical and chronological factors
that are the most useful in analyzing the Morisco population of sixteenth-century
Spain. It is primarily these two descriptive categories based on time and place that
best define the Moriscos as a group while offering the unexpected events that make
each life unique.
Besides differing widely in religious behavior, the Moriscos came from a wide
spectrum o f social and economic categories. Divisions of employment and familial
connections existed among the Moriscos.4 Moriscos came from isolated villages and
the morerias of larger cities. The regions in which the Moriscos lived created
differences due to the intensely local nature o f early modem Spain. A Morisco from
the rugged Alpujarra region o f Granada lived in a different world than a Morisco from
the streets o f cosmopolitan Valladolid.
The Passage o f Time
A category describing Moriscos, which is too often forgotten, is simply one of
historical time.5 Assuming six generations of Moriscos between 1492 and 1611, can
3 Henry Mechoulan, Le Sang de l’autre ou l’honneur de Dieu: indiens. iuifs.

morisques dans 1’Espaene du siecle d’or. (Paris, 1979), 200-202.
4 Juan Martinez Ruiz, "Los Laqab de oficio de la Granada morisca en la tradicion

Andalusi," Al-Oantara. 11 (1990), 343-365.
5 Scholars who study the history of the Marranos in fifteenth-century Spain disagree
about the loss o f Jewishness. For a main proponent see Benzion Netanyahu, The
Marranos of Spain: From the Late XIV to the Early XVI Century according to
Contemporary Hebrew Accounts. (Millwood, New York, 1973). The same author has just
published a lengthier study expanding his emphasis in The Origins of the Inquisition in
Fifteenth-Century Spain. (New York, 1995). In Morisco studies the similar situation of
74
the later Moriscos be considered Muslims at all? L.P. Harvey answers this question
based on his research o f a 1504 religious tract. Ahmed Ibn Jana, a North African
leader, wrote to a community o f Moriscos in Spain about their acceptance of the five
pillars o f Islam.6 In 1504 the Moriscos, as taught by Ibn Jana, still accepted all the
basic beliefs o f their ancestors. Harvey emphasizes that the Moriscos were still
Muslim and his evidence from 1504 is credible.
But by 1609 what was the religion of the Moriscos? Ibn Jana was instructing
the Moriscos over a great distance, only a decade after the general conversion. Over
time the Moriscos were chronologically distanced from their Muslim roots. As each
successive generation was further removed from the Muslim world, could the Morisco
living in 1600 have been as Muslim as had been his ancestors? Decades of Christian
teaching, stigmatization o f their origins and community influences had to have had
their effect. The generation o f Moriscos baptized in the first twenty years of the
sixteenth century had lived Islam. Their children and grandchildren had only heard of
it and practiced an amalgamation o f Islam and Christianity. When Moriscos arrived in
Algiers or Tunis after the expulsion, the religious leaders of North Africa had to
instruct them in Islamic beliefs and customs. Some expelled Moriscos in North Africa
were even persecuted for being too Christian.7
later generations being removed from a Muslim source has rarely, if ever, been
considered.
6 Las practicas musulmanas de los moriscos andaluces 11492-1609): Actas del 111
Simposio Intemacional de Estudios Moriscos. (Tunisia, 1989), 97.
7 M. de Epalza and R. Petit, Etudes sur les morisques andalous en Tunisie. (Madrid.
1973).
75
However, as the highest level of the Spanish Empire discussed the Morisco
problem their terminology for Moriscos never changed. A Morisco up until the day of
the expulsion was always referred to as "cristiano nuevo" no matter how long it had
been since his ancestors had been baptized. In some cases the time distancing the
Morisco from his Muslim heritage could be centuries. In 1610, during the expulsion
from Castile, the Moriscos from Talavera de la Reina declared that their ancestors had
been baptized voluntarily after the Christian conquest o f Seville in 1256.8 A Morisco
from Talavera must have felt very different towards Islam than a Morisco whose father
could remember the muezzin’s call to prayer only seventy years earlier.
This chapter will analyze the four main groups of Moriscos and then survey the
group that was accepting the predominant local religion. The last two sections will
examine how the Moriscos of Castile and the Inquisition interacted so that new
categories were created. Ultimately all the Moriscos were defined through royal policy
and courts, but even here stereotypical images were breaking down. The Christianity
o f sixteenth-century Spain is correctly examined in a context of small localities in
which Moriscos were defining themselves and being defined by others.9
The Moriscos Granadinos
The most important group o f Moriscos were the Granadinos. They had been
the last free Muslims o f Spain and it was here that the Spanish system had to respond
8 AGS, Estado 227, 4 February 1610.
9 For more on how Spaniards lived their religious lives see Christian, Local Religion
in Sixteenth-Centurv Spain. 8.
76
most actively in assimilating them. In the early modem period the city of Granada
never seems to have had a population of more than 50,000 inhabitants. The entire
kingdom is said to have had 50,000 Morisco vecinos, or registered householders, with
a total population o f perhaps 250,000 to 300,000.10 This population was divided into
clans based on origins. These familial clans preserved their lineages through the
typical Muslim cousin marriages." Over time the indigenous inhabitants incorporated
the Berber, Syrian Arab and even Jewish elements into an amalgamated Granadino
base. Other clans developed as the Christian reconquest made Granada the only
remaining peninsular refuge for Muslims. The Gacis were freed slaves from North
Africa. The Mudejares Antiguos were Muslim refugees from Christian lands. The
Tagarinos were Aragonese Muslims from the Ebro River valley who had been very
Christianized. Finally the Elches were the renegade Christians who, upon converting
to Islam, had found safety in Muslim Granada.12 Among these groups there were
political rivalries, religious differences and various economic conditions but they
should all be considered Granadinos. They all became Christians after the first
Alpujarra war in 1499, co-existing with the Cristianos Viejos who began to move into
10 Caro Baroja, Los moriscos del reino de Granada. 82-83.
11 Pierre Guichard, Al-Andalus: Estructura antropologica de una sociedad islamica

en el Occidente. (1976), 61-69. Also see Thomas F. Glick, Islamic and Christian Spain
in the Early Middle Ages and "The Ethnic Systems of Pre-Modem Spain" Comparative
Studies in Sociology. 1 (1978), 157-171.
12 Caro Baroja, Los moriscos de Granada. 91-93.
77
the kingdom.13
Acknowledging the complex ethnic origins of the Moriscos Granadinos, we
must also recognize the divisions caused by economic status and social standing. Most
o f the inhabitants o f the Kingdom o f Granada resided in small agricultural villages,
living lives tied to the seasons. Granada was a major silk producing area, where
tending o f silkworms, caring for mulberry trees and weaving of silk became important
industries for many families. Also, in the larger cities o f Granada, Malaga, Baza and
Guadix, Morisco merchant classes emerged, particularly well represented by the
Tagarinos. Their experience from the urban centers o f Aragon and their long contact
with Christians benefitted the Tagarinos in their trading enterprises with North Africa
and Europe. The wealth generated in these groups aided their social standing, but
even more important in this respect was the connection to a noble family. Many
Granadino nobles left following the conquest, but significant remnants stayed. The
most successful Granadino nobles were able to merge into the Castilian nobility.
Two important families that enjoyed recognized noble status in Granada were
the Valor and Venegas families. In 1610, the second year o f the Morisco expulsion,
Miguel Venegas presented to the court a certificate of nobility, declaring him a
descendant of the ancient kings of Cordoba. With this certificate, he attempted to
13 Important work has been done by a group of historians on the Christian population
of Granada, based primarily on the amazing source o f the "libros de apeo," surveys of
land and ownership in the Kingdom of Granada. See two books by Miguel Angel Ladero
Quesada, Granada despues de la conquista: repobladores v mudeiares. (Granada, 1993)
and Granada: Historia de un pais islamico. (Madrid, 1979). Even greater detail is located
in Manuel Barrios Aguilera and Margarita M. Birriel Salcedo, La Repoblacion del reino
de Granada despues de la expulsion de los Moriscos. (Granada, 1986).
78
prove that he was exempt from the expulsion.14 The Albotodo family also presented
signs o f wealth inherited from their Muslim past.15 The professional work o f this
educated class o f noble Moriscos shows the early fusion — and confusion —o f Muslim
and Christian culture. Although Granadino nobles were able to assimilate, the general
perception was that the other Granadinos were not even trying to change. As the
sixteenth century progressed, the royal bureaucracy imposed harsher measures.
These harsher measures dismissed the dual nature of the Granadino society
caught between Islam and Christianity. Francisco Nunez Muley, a Morisco courtier,
criticized several new laws issued by Philip II, because they would invalidate many tax
rolls and property holdings still preserved in Arabic language and script.16 Alonso
del Castillo was the court translator for Philip II and became notorious for his
involvement in a religious fraud. Engraved lead tablets alleging to describe the
apostolic origins of the See o f Granada were discovered in 1588. The tablets were a
mixture of Muslim and Christian doctrines written in a confused Arabic script. Old
Christians and Moriscos in Granada defended the tablets as a connection to early
Christianity, glossing over the Islam o f the intervening centuries. Alonso del Castillo,
as the suspected author, was not the best Christian, but neither was he an orthodox
14 AGS, Estado 222, 31 January 1610.
15 Francisco de Boija de Medina, 62.
16 K. Garrad, K. (ed.) "The original Memorial of Don Francisco Nunez Muley,"

Atlante. 2 (1954), 225-226. For an interesting comparison between Nunez Muley and the
native Andean Guaman Poma de Ayala see the last chapter o f Rolena Adorno. Cronista
v Principe: la obra de don Felipe Guam an Poma de Avala. (Lima, 1989).
79
M uslim .17
After the failure o f the second Alpujarras War (1569-1571), Philip II decided to
scatter the Moriscos o f Granada throughout the other kingdoms o f Castile. Although
we shall see how some managed to remain in Granada, at this point the Granadinos
became a problem o f assimilation for the other regions of the Spanish Monarchy. The
Granadinos were marked by their geographical origins and remained distinct wherever
they resided. But the uniqueness faded with each generation for the Catholic Church
endeavored to involve Moriscos into the parish life. For example, the exiled
Granadino family o f Hernando de Aguilar and his wife Leonor de Galindo had two
sons baptized in the parish o f San Roman of Salamanca on February 3, 1607 and
September 27, 1609.18 It had been almost forty years since the Alpujarras war.
Maybe Hernando de Aguilar remembered living in Granada, but Leonor de Galindo of
child-bearing age almost certainly did not. And their two sons Sebastian and
Geronimo only knew Salamanca. More importantly these two young uncertain
Granadinos only knew the public life and rituals of the Catholic Church. Any
remnants o f Islam in the Aguilar-Galindo family of Salamanca would have been very
different from their Muslim ancestors o f a century before.
17 For insight into the life o f Alonso de Castillo see Dario Cabanelas Rodriguez, El
morisco granadino Alonso del Castillo. (Granada, 1991). Castillo’s role in the forgeries
o f Sacromonte are described by Julio Caro Baroja in Las falsificaciones de la Historia fen
relation con la de Espafia). (Barcelona, 1992), 115-158.
18 Archivo Diocesano de Salamanca (ADSa), Parroquia de San Roman, segundo Iibro

de bautismos (1578-1618), folios 202 and 218.
80
The Moriscos Valencianos
The second largest concentration of Moriscos was in the Kingdom o f Valencia.
Their ancestors had been conquered in the thirteenth century. The 1520-1522
Germania rebellion was a turning point for these last remaining Muslims in the
peninsula. The Christian rebels used the Muslim vassals against their own landlords to
undermine the power o f the nobility. The rebels baptized the Mudejares, technically
freeing them from servitude and incorporated them into the guilds and workshops.19
When the Valencian rebels were defeated, church officials recognized the baptisms as
valid and attempted to catechize the new converts, while the nobility continued to use
them as their agricultural laborers.20 The Muslims and later the Moriscos o f Valencia
were allowed to maintain their religion and customs in part because they were the
backbone o f the labor force for the irrigated Valencian plain.21
After the Granadinos were scattered, Valencia became the most densely
populated Morisco region. The Moriscos Valencianos comprised approximately a third
of the Valencian population and in the hinterland among the baronial villages there
were communities that only had three cristianos viejos, the priest, the notary and the
innkeeper. In the months following September 22, 1609, over 117,000 Moriscos
19 Ricardo Garcia Carcel, Las Germanias de Valencia. 189-209.
20 See Juan Regia, "La expulsion de los moriscos y sus consecuencias: contribution
a su estudio," Hispania: Revista Espafiola de Historia. XIII (1953), 215-267, 402-479.
Also see James Casey, "Moriscos and the Depopulation of Valencia," Past & Present. 50
(Feb. 1971), 19-40.
21 Thomas Glick describes the irrigation system and the process of acculturation
going on in Valencia from the Muslim period up until the early modem period in
Irrigation and Society in Medieval Valencia. (1970).
81
Valencianos were expelled.22
The Inquisition in Valencia treated the Moriscos relatively leniently. Living in
isolated regions, their strong links with Islam prevailed, weakening the considerations
o f religious dilution over time. The Valencian Moriscos even kept their alfaquis.
Muslim religious teachers, who continued to instruct their communities in Muslim rites
and customs. But what type o f Islam did the Valencianos believe in after three
hundred years o f Christian political rule and ninety years of forced Christian
acceptance? Muslim authorities in North Africa had always maintained the Koranic
example o f Momammed’s hegira, where the prophet had abandoned his ancestral home
o f Mecca to avoid living among pagans.1* Faithful Muslims were enjoined to leave
Spain rather than suffer under Christian persecution, this despite the blessed fate of
martyrs according to Islamic teaching. Because Islam was so connected to daily life.
North African authorities felt that a Muslim simply could not be completely faithful in
lands that prohibited the essential connection between law and religion.24
The Islamic principle o f taqquiya, dissimulation of Muslim devotion, accounts
for continued alfaqui presence in Valencia, but even the Christians felt that the
Moriscos were covering up their Islam. Hiding their religion was simply not effective.
22 Lapeyre, 74.
23 Bernard Lewis, Islam and the West. (New York, 1993), 43-57. The chapter
entitled "Legal and Historical Reflections on the Position of Muslim Populations under
Non-Muslim Rule" discusses this issue at length.
24 Ira M. Lapidus calls for a "more complex and realistic appreciation of the issues"
pertaining to this question in his article, "State and Religion in Islamic Societies," Past &
Present. 151 (May 1996), 3-27.
82
Scholars have assumed considerable Muslim fidelity, based on taqquiya, but since the
Moriscos’ Christian contemporaries were aware o f the supposed deceit it is distorting
to infer Muslim faithfulness on negative proof.25 A more accurate portrait based on
positive testimony o f clear Muslim acts is almost impossible to obtain because o f the
nature o f the Inquisition sources. As an example, in 1603 the Inquisition processed a
Morisco from the Val d’Uxo who had papers written in Arabic in his possession.26
The Valencian Inquisition saw this as sufficient evidence of his Mohammedan heresy,
but since the Morisco was illiterate can the documents have been more than talismans?
The boundary between Islam and Christianity was reinforced by the Inquisition but
little was discovered about direct Muslim beliefs.
The Moriscos of Valencia remained the most Muslim of all the Moriscos in
Spain, due to their late date o f conversion, isolated village life and undisturbed social
structure. Yet their beliefs and expressions o f Islam could not have remained
unaffected by the Christian environment. More probable was the on-going blend of
Muslim and Christian practices due to a predominant Christian environment.
During the debate leading to the expulsion the bulk of opinion revolved around
the Moriscos Valencianos. Because the Moriscos from Valencia were almost half the
25 Louis Cardaillac, "Un aspecto de las relaciones entre moriscos y cristianos:

polemica y taqiyya," Actas del coloquio intemacional sobre literatura aliamiado v morisco.
(Madrid, 1978), 107-122; also see Perez Zagorin, Wavs of Lying: Dissimulation.
Persecution and Conformity in Early Modem Europe. (Cambridge, Massachusets, 1990).
26 Leopoldo Penarroja Torrejon, Moriscos v repobladores en el reino de Valencia: La

Vail d ’Uxo (1525-1625). (Valencia, 1984), 662-681. The document is a transcription of
an Inquisition trial where the accused had eight pieces of paper with Muslim prayers and
proverbs on them.
83
total and a serious security risk on the southeast coasts o f Spain they became the
stereotype for the leaders o f the Spanish Monarchy. The Archbishop o f Valencia. Juan
de Ribera, became vehemently opposed to continued Morisco presence in Spain, while
the most active apologists o f the expulsion were from Valencia. The King and the
Council o f State formulated their policies based on Valencian examples, but they were
surprised when they realized that their preconceptions about the Valencian Moriscos
did not represent the whole. What the King hoped would take one calm
Mediterranean winter, turned into five years o f defining who should and should not be
expelled. Even within Valencia, wide divergences o f Morisco life became evident
during the lengthy expulsion proceedings. The expulsion demonstrated this variety to
the state bureaucracy that planned an expulsion for one type of Morisco and then
found many different types.
The Moriscos o f Aragon
A third important concentration of Moriscos lived in the Kingdom o f Aragon,
spread along the Ebro River down into Catalonia. Like the Valencian Moriscos, these
Aragonese Moriscos were mostly feudal serfs who worked the rich irrigated fields
along the river, with significant numbers in the major cities such as Zaragoza or
Tortosa. The Aragonese Moriscos had forgotten the Arabic language, but still
maintained a meaningful link to their Muslim heritage by using the Arabic alphabet to
phonetically write their romance dialect.
As in the other Morisco regions, leading Aragonese families exemplified the
degree o f assimilation Moriscos obtained. Juan de Lanuza was a citizen of Zaragoza
84
in the first half o f the sixteenth century. Before 1526, when all Aragonese Moriscos
were converted, he had been known as Ali al-Cahadudi or Ali el Morisco. He lived in
the moreria, owning four other homes and two olive orchards outside the city. When
his daughter, Maria, married, he gave her a dowry of 1,300 "sueldos," a team o f oxen
and one servant girl. When another daughter, Catalina, married, he gave her a dowry
o f 4,000 "sueldos" and furniture.27 He received the title of magnifico for his services
to the crown when his fellow Moriscos were converted. When he died, his son
maintained the same honors as his father. Lanuza’s circumstances demonstrate a
middle class nobility o f Moriscos in Aragon. Also evident is a degree of acceptance
towards Moriscos at least in sixteenth-century Zaragoza.
The Companero family of Zaragoza was an important merchant family that
assimilated into Christianity through three generations.28 Their leadership in the
community showed other Moriscos what in Christianity could be forgotten and what
should be accepted. The first generation of Companeros negotiated the entrance of
their community into the folds o f Christianity, while the last generation o f Spanish
Companeros had to face Inquisition tests of their Christianity because of their family
heritage.
The Moriscos Antiguos
Although the three groups o f Moriscos from Granada, Valencia and Aragon are
27 Actas del III Simposio Intemacional de Mudeiarismo. 264.
28 Jacqueline Foumel-Guerin, "Une famille morisque de Saragosse: les Companero."

A wrap. 4 (1981), 179-184.
85
important to Morisco history, it is in a fourth group, the Moriscos Antiguos, where the
process o f defining Christianity was most applicable. The Antiguos came from the
central kingdom o f Castile, which comprised the historical regions o f Old Castile, New
Castile, La Mancha, Extremadura, Andalucia and Murcia. My research has focused on
Old Castile. The bishops of Valladolid, Avila, Segovia, Palencia, Burgos, Zamora and
Salamanca actively tried to discover who in each parish was a good Christian. Also,
this region was the vital center o f the Spanish Empire in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries.29 Old Castile had substantial representation in the Cortes and its cities
contributed heavily to the finances of empire. Because it was the center, its leaders’
definition of who was an acceptable Christian, or a real Spaniard would become the
model for others. The Antiguos and later the dispersed Granadinos suffered from the
result o f a dichotomy in the Morisco problem. In the Council o f State the image of a
Morisco by the time o f expulsion was the Valenciano, but the Castilian center also had
a Morisco population that was very different from the accepted stereotype.
It is ironic that in this very heart o f Spain, where Castile dominated the
peripheries, there were inhabitants who were yet establishing their claim to be good
Christians, and hence, completely Spanish.30 Examples from other areas will figure
29 Patrick Williams, "Lerma, Old Castile and the Travels of Philip III of Spain," 382.
Another recent book in English o f translated articles pointing to the centrality of the two
Castiles is The Castilian Crisis of the Seventeenth Century: New Perspectives on the
Economic and Social History of Seventeenth-Centurv Spain. I.A.A. Thompson and
Bartolome Yun Casalilla, editors, (New York, 1994).
30 It would be negligent to not mention here the vital part that John H. Elliott’s
formulation o f the center and periphery have influenced my thinking here. His ideas can
best be seen in his plethora of publications, while his influence on others can rapidly be
86
in my analysis, including the villages of Calatrava, the hamlets of Extremadura and the
valleys o f Murcia, but evidence from Old Castile constitutes the majority of my
material. The land that so many described as a barren plateau was where differing
levels o f Christian acceptance existed and where Moriscos Antiguos and Moriscos
Granadinos would attempt to lead their lives, melting into the background.
The Antiguos were the most dissimilar o f the Morisco groups. They were
recognizably distinct from the dispersed Moriscos Granadinos. By the time of the
expulsion they were known as the ancient Moriscos, to distinguish them from the
dispersed Granadinos. The majority were descendants o f the Mudejares who never left
when the Christians had conquered the areas in the 1200s. The Antiguos lived in a
variety o f settings, including the morerias of large cities in Old and New Castile, the
small villages o f the military orders in La Mancha, entire valleys of the Kingdom of
Murcia, and the forgotten hamlets o f Extremadura.
The labor and tax contributions of the Moriscos Antiguos became an important
support to many municipal governments. During the fifteenth century in Valladolid
the Antiguos negotiated a fee so they could move from an outlying area to the streets
just off the main plaza.3' In Avila the Antiguos contributed so much to the
municipal taxes that after the expulsion the city struggled to retain its place among the
important cities of Old Castile.32 The Antiguos were held to be a great source of
seen Spain. Europe and the Atlantic World: Essays in Honour of John H. Elliott.
31 Mar Gomez Renau, Comunidades marginadas en Valladolid. 52.
32 Tapia, La comunidad morisca de Avila. 392-397.
87
wealth for the cities because o f their labor. A typical saying was "quien tiene moro,
tiene oro," or "he who has a moor, has gold."33 A description o f the Morisco
population in the southeastern Kingdom o f Murcia during 1583 is typical o f their
occupational involvement: 65.7% worked as agricultural laborers; 16.6% worked in the
textile industry as dyers or silk-weavers; 7.6% worked in commerce as bakers, water-
sellers or potters; and another 9.9% worked in a combination o f three o f the above.34
The Antiguos o f Murcia were so numerous and well-armed that the Council of State
recommended waiting to expel them until the very en d /5
Although their economic status, social standing and geographical setting were
very diverse their common link lay in how long they had been separated from their
Islamic roots and conversely their level of integration in the surrounding Christian
society. During the expulsion the Antiguos were feared because they were so "ladino."
that is their language, customs and habits were so like the Cristianos Viejos that it was
feared that they might escape by melting into the background.36
The religious ties to Islam among the Antiguos vary, but the change from
Mudejares to Moriscos in 1502 continued a process whereby most o f them were
further estranged from Islam. The fifteenth-century Muslim Isa Ibn Gebir helped the
33 Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean. 789.
34 Francisco Chacon Jimenez, "El problema de la convivencia: Granadinos, Mudejares

y Cristianos Viejos en el Reino de Murcia," Melanges de la Casa de Velazquez. XVIII
(1982), 109.
35 AGS, Estado 208, 23 June 1610.
36 AGS, Estado 226, 22 November 1610.
88
prelate Juan de Segovia to translate the Koran into Latin and Spanish. Segovia did his
translation to aid the missionary efforts among Muslims, but it is a guess why Ibn
Gebir would do something that was so much against Islamic tradition. The Koran was
only meant to be read in the divine language in which Mohammed had received it.
Any translation from Arabic was sacrilegious. Most likely, Gebir wanted more of his
fellow Castilian Muslims to have a better knowledge of their sacred scripture even if
second hand.37 The fifteenth century Mudejar was already estranged from Islam. His
Morisco Antiguo descendants in the sixteenth century could only have been more
removed.38
The Inquisition continued to uncover cases o f Islamic practice during the
sixteenth century. The Inquisition of Cuenca, for example, prosecuted Moriscos who
fasted during Ramadan, ritually washed themselves, prepared special cakes for
celebrations and sat on the floor to eat meals rather than on chairs.39 Nonetheless,
Moriscos in Castile had little education in Muslim beliefs and no context o f a Muslim
37 Dario Cabanelas Rodriguez, Juan de Segovia v el problema islamico. (Madrid,

1952), 145-153. Also see Gerard Wiegers, Islamic Literature in Spanish and Aliamiado:
Yea o f Segovia (fl. 1450). His Antecedents and Successors. (Leiden, 1994).
38 I do not mean to exaggerate any complete Christianity among the Moriscos. I only
intend to demonstrate the change over time of an isolated and persecuted religious
minority. In fact, the isolation and persecution in combination with the majority's
stereotypes added to the Muslim loyalties of some Moriscos.
39 See for example Heliodoro Cordente Martinez, La morisca Beatriz de Padilla:

novela historica. (Madrid, 1994). Although the first half of this book is an imaginative
recreation o f this woman’s life, the second half is simply the transcribed Cuenca
Inquisition trial documents beginning in 1576 with her first confessions and ending with
the 1598 auto-de-fe wherein she was burned at the stake for being a "relapsed
Mohammedan."
89
world. Without these roots in an Islamic world the daily practices would certainly
have lost meaning and simply become empty ceremonies, slowly fading away.
Religion must be defined as more than practice, including explanation of the rituals
and a framework o f belief. In the case of the Antiguos and later on the Granadinos.
"they were assimilating against their wills, but integration would have occurred."40
This integration was going on in Almagro, when the governor wrote to the
King asking what should be done with those Antiguos who appeared on the lists for
military service. He wrote saying that the Antiguos "have so many privileges and pre
eminences, they are almost like Cristianos Viejos."41 After the publication of the
expulsion decree, ten residents o f Villarubio de los Ajos declared that they had been
falsely accused o f being Moriscos since they were royal officials, priests, lawyers,
notaries and teachers.42 Although the royal council accepted their claim of false
accusation, Almagro was one o f the five villages of the Calatrava military order, near
Ciudad Real, that had long been Morisco.
The Inquisition and the Moriscos
The Inquisition guarded the gates to orthodoxy in Early Modem Spain. The
centralizing authority of the Holy Office in the Iberian peninsula gave it a unique
position in the King’s bureaucracy. The many familiars, secretaries, officers and
judges were visible in every parish and diocese. Thus we must examine the
40 Mercedes Garcia Arenal, Inquisition v Moriscos. 117.
42 AGS, Estado 235, no date.
90
Inquisition’s approach to the Morisco problem.
It is important to comment on the nature o f the inquisitorial records, since most
o f what has survived is only from the "Suprema," the highest tribunal which regulated
and advised the many regional Inquisitions. The Inquisition of Old Castile was
administered through offices in Valladolid. The local records have not survived but
what remains is the correspondence with the "Suprema." From this we can cull the
actions o f the Valladolid Inquisition as they oversaw the Moriscos in their jurisdiction.
A primary concern o f the Suprema was insuring that the cost of each regional
Inquisition was met through its own resources. For Valladolid many sources of
income derived from the "situado" that the Moriscos paid to the Holy Office. When
an elderly Morisco was interviewed on the background of this fee, Antonio de
Casteneda replied that it was payment for the many Morisco prisoners in Inquisition
jails.43 Part o f the Morisco "situado" also obtained more lenient enforcement and
sentences.
One of the most important tasks assigned to the Inquisition office by the
Monarchy was naming and numbering the Moriscos in each municipality and parish.
Since the parish priests appear to have not fulfilled their synodal obligations, the
Inquisition filled in the gap. In 1594, the Holy Office in Valladolid submitted to the
Suprema a listing by name, occupation, familial ties and parish residence o f the
43 AHN, Inquisition 2 109, folio 2. This same Antonio de Castaneda has already been
mentioned as a penitent punished by the Valladolid Inquisition but pardoned from the
Madrid Suprema; see Chapter 1.
91
Moriscos in Old Castile.44 The list included 8,363 Moriscos living in the cities and
villages o f Old Castile. Unlike the bishops, the Inquisition did not make a distinction
between the Moriscos expelled from Granada and those native to the area. This is one
o f the few comprehensive registers o f Moriscos for any region of the peninsula and
almost the only one from so late in the century. During the next fifteen years of
debate about a general expulsion the King and Council of State asked many times for
such a list, perhaps not knowing that one existed for Old Castile.
The Inquisition was successful in obtaining general community information, as
shown by the 1594 census. They were also effective in fulfilling requests to
investigate the lives o f Moriscos who left their native or assigned areas to go
elsewhere. By 1608 the decision to expel the Moriscos from the entire peninsula had
progressed far enough that the King requested certain information from the Inquisition.
By October of 1608 the Valladolid Inquisition began requesting other municipalities in
its jurisdiction to inform them about the Moriscos of their town, what their names
were, what their income was, and where unaccounted Moriscos had gone.45
Reports from Avila described substantial Morisco mobility. Lorenzo de
Mendoza, a Morisco from Avila, had married an Old Christian woman and moved
with her to Penaranda. The priest o f the Santiago parish in Avila reported that
44 AHN, Inquisicion, 2109, folio 1. For a detailed modem analysis o f this report see
Jean Paul Le Flem, "Les morisques du nord-ouest de l’Espagne en 1594 d ’apres un
recensement de I’lnquisition de Valladolid," Melanges de la Casa de Velazquez. 1 (1965),
223-244.
45 The following information comes from one bundle without pagination. See AHN,
Inquisicion, legajo 3204.
92
Lorencio Perez, his wife Maria Hernandez and their children had moved to a new
settlement in Lugar del Tiemblo. From the parish o f San Nicolas reports came o f the
Morisco, Luis Garcia. He had returned to Granada, leaving his wife and children
destitute.
In the nearby town o f Arevalo, many o f the Moriscos had moved to Avila.
They had established stores o f "merecia". Two Moriscos in Arevalo, Fabian de
Buenavida and Garzon de la Parra, were gone most of the time but returned to their
families once in a while. Were they shepherds or rural workers who found little
occupation in town? No matter, the Inquisition enlisted the clergy to investigate their
comings and goings.
Other reports from Palencia and surrounding areas reported a more devastating
picture o f Morisco life. In Palencia, the Inquisition was told that "none have left . . .
they are very downtrodden and dare not leave their homes."46 Only three Morisco
men were unaccounted for in Palencia because they were trying to escape their debts.
In Torquemada the cleric wrote back that only two Morisco families were settled there
from Granada. He reported that one couple had two children and all had worked in an
orchard, but "they left, it is not known where."47
A final task given to the Valladolid Inquisition by the Suprema was to
determine the state o f Christianity o f individual Moriscos. The priests in Olmedo very
carefully informed the Valladolid Holy Office by January o f 1609 which Moriscos
46 Ibid.
47 Ibid., 4 January 1609.
93
attended mass and acted as good Christians. The criteria for determining who was a
good Christian or not in Olmedo centered on attending mass, burying their dead in the
cemetery and confessing during Easter. The priest o f the Santa Maria del Castillo
parish in Olmedo reported favorably on the sixty-six-year old Morisco shepherd,
Bernardino Navarro. Although "he did not attend Church often, he had confessed last
year."48 The family o f Luis Fanegas in the parish o f San Andres presented an even
more resolute determination to conform. As a fruit seller, Luis did not earn much
money but he managed to provide for his wife and four children. The priest was well
acquainted with his troubles noting that one daughter was already a widow "or at least
they say she is." Her husband was from Cuellar, a Fulano Guzman, who left her two
years ago while escaping from his debts incurred as a travelling salesman.49 In the
margins next to this report another Inquisition official had written "Ojo," essentially
underlining the statement in red. Did the Inquisition intend to make further inquiries
into the negligent Guzman? Did he then leave with the other Moriscos in 1610? We
will never know, but there were signs of assimilation, disappearance and migration
among Moriscos. By 1610 the expulsion proceedings would suffer from the
unexpected movement o f disappearing Moriscos.
Besides obtaining information from just the parish priests, the Inquisition
48 Ibid.
49 Ibid. This comment about the Morisco sumamed Guzman showed how careful the
priest was being. Fulano in Spanish is used as a generic unknown name, the equivalent
of John Doe in English. The priest of San Andres parish was not going to let any fact
escape the Inquisition’s scrutiny, even if it was uninformative.
94
official in Olmedo also asked questions of the leading Moriscos. Cristobal Gonzalez
de Mendoza, a Morisco Granadino, declared that there were about thirty six homes of
Moriscos in Olmedo, scattered in six parishes. All the families had royal permission
to attend mass wherever they could earn enough money to eat. Others, like the widow
of Inigo de Mendoza, attended mass in nearby Medina del Campo where she had a
married daughter. Gonzalez de Mendoza even reported in his testimony that Luis de
Vargas, who left Olmedo because o f debts, was supposedly taking refuge in the
Monastery of Our Lady o f the Pines on the road to Cuellar.
Similar reports about Morisco trials and tribulations reached the Inquisition
offices from Medina del Campo. Maria de Rojas, a "morisca de los antiguos," married
an Old Christian in the parish o f Santiago. One of the family’s daughters, Isabel de
Rojas, had married the Morisco shepherd, Andres de Cordoba, who had left Medina
del Campo to avoid his debts after his entire flock died. Another daughter, Angela,
was more fortunate. Her husband was a Morisco cobbler "who people say is from
Zaragoza and owns a store on the Rua." This cobbler, Gabriel Lopez "comports
himself well, as if he were not a Morisco."50
Morisco Parish life in Old Castile
In order to better examine the developing social interaction of Moriscos in Old
Castile, we can describe them quantitatively with the documents from the Inquisition.
The 1594 listing o f Moriscos from the Valladolid Inquisition included all the historical
region o f Old Castile and parts o f Leon and Asturias. The concentration of Moriscos
50 Ibid., 2 January 1609.
95
in the larger towns was evident, but there was also a widespread distribution of
Moriscos throughout the region. The following tables demonstrate a numerical
summary from the 1594 list.
Table 2 .15'
Geographical Distribution & Concentrations
3 locations with 1,200 Moriscos or more

5 locations with 250 to 750 Moriscos
165 locations with Moriscos in the Valladolid Inquisition
51 The summarized data proceeds in part from the work done by Jean Paul Le Flem
in his 1965 article on the 1594 Inquisition list. The document itself is in AHN.
Inquisicion 2109.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission o f the copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited without p erm ission.
96
Table 2.2
Municipalities with largest Morisco concentrations
Valladolid 1,470
Avila 1,363 49%
Salamanca 1,266
Segovia 748
Medina del Campo 481
Palencia 401 27%
Arevalo 369
Burgos 257
Olmedo 144
Fuentiduena 134
Alba de Tormes 122
Melgar de Femamental 115
Zamora 114 12%
Duenas 109
Piedrahita 82
Toro 76
Ontiveros 68
Sub-Total 7,319 88%
148 Other locations 1,017 12%
Total 8,336 100%
Although almost half of all the Moriscos in Old Castile were in only three
cities, another half lived in the secondary cities and villages. In 148 different locations
there was at least one Morisco. The efforts o f the clergy in the cities were equaled by
those in the smaller locations, but the Moriscos in less populated areas seemed to
conform faster and with greater willingness than those in Valladolid, Avila or
Salamanca.
Turning to these three cities the living situation o f the Moriscos can be
described in fairly comprehensive terms. Sources for examining the community and
the individual Moriscos within the larger society are available. The Inquisition
commissioner in Valladolid submitted a sufficiently detailed report to analyze even
parish participation. Burgos was the only other location to list Moriscos in 1594 by
parish. The Valladolid parish populations follow:
Table 2.3
Moriscos in Parishes of Valladolid
La Iglesia Mayor 24
Magdalena 15
Santo Llorente 9
San Mayor 24
San Julian 20
San Juan 124
San Andres 155
La Antigua 48
San Esteban 21
San Ildefonso 171
San Salvador 15
San Miguel 38
San Nicolas 116
San Pedro 141
San Benito 34
Santiago 515
Total 1,470
The Moriscos o f Valladolid were part of the parish system and thus the priests
baptized, married and buried with proper Catholic ceremony those residing in their
jurisdictions. But only rarely did the parish priest focus on the fact that these
parishioners were Moriscos. There was no consistent convention to identify Moriscos
in parish registers. Luis de Cedillo, lieutenant of the parish priest in Santiago from
1601 to 1618, did not write in "Morisco" or "Granadino" when he recorded the
Morisco participants. In one instance he elaborated that on July 14, 1603. he had
98
baptized Francisco, "a moor from Fez whose name before was Ameth, a servant of
Ruy Gomez de Basconcelos, steward o f the Queen."52 Indeed, without the priests
written identification o f the Moriscos there is little way to distinguish Moriscos in the
parish registers. Even comparing the names o f the parents with the families in the
1589 or 1594 lists is hazardous since the names were also common among the general
population.53
We can however ask some questions about the lack of identification. Did
Father Cedillo’s non-statement mean that the Moriscos’ stigma was vanishing?
Perhaps in the parish o f Santiago a large Morisco presence was accepted and there was
little need to identify them. It could also very well be that the priest did not consider
this information significant enough to record. After all, he had just witnessed
Moriscos participating in a primary Christian ritual. The difficulty o f the registers is
that virtually no judgements or emotions come through the statement. When
anomalies do appear they catch the eye.
In the parish of San Pedro, the priests felt differently about highlighting the
presence of Moriscos in the parish registers. Fathers Mateo de Liebana and Geronimo
de Nalda wrote the word "Morisco" in the margin along side the entries of Morisco
52 Archivo General Diocesano de Valladolid (AGDV), Valladolid, Santiago, Libro

4 de bautismos (1587-1605), folio 290.
53 Common Morisco surnames included Mendoza, Hernandez and Fernandez. All of

these are still today the Spanish equivalents of Smith, Johnson and Brown in English.
The playwright Lope de Vega joked about how common it was for Moriscos to have the
surname Mendoza; see Herrero Garcia, Ideas de los espanoles. 593; eg. from Lope de
Vega’s Anzuelo de Fenisa.
99
baptisms. When Luis de Guzman and Isabel de Jaen had their daughter, Maria,
baptized on June 30, 1586, the priests wrote Morisco in the margin to draw attention
to the fact.54 This signalling o f Morisco baptisms continued for the next three years
while the two priests performed baptisms in the parish. During that period nine more
Morisco baptisms were highlighted in the parish of San Pedro.ss
Again we are left wondering as to the why. Were Liebana and Nalda more
energetic than the clergy in the parish o f Santiago? Did they feel it necessary to
identify the Moriscos because otherwise there was nothing to distinguish them from
other Christian baptisms? All we can say for sure from the documents is that Morisco
children were being baptized very conscientiously in Valladolid and that the priests in
the parishes were following the Tridentine decrees to record all pertinent information.
What was pertinent beyond the date, the child’s name, the parents and godparents was
left to the parish priest and scribe.
In the parish o f San Ildefonso the parish priest, Antonio de Astorga, wrote
detailed entries for each registered sacrament. The entry for March 9, 1608 was
typical.
On the ninth o f March one thousand six hundred and eight I,

Antonio de Astorga, baptized Miguel, son of Alonso Castellanos and
Maria Yanez, both who are "granadinos cristianos nuevos." They live
in the field before coming to the Chapel of the Holy Spirit. The
Godparents were Alonso de Mena, a carpenter, and Antonia de Mora,
his wife, who are both "cristianos viejos" o f this parish. In true faith of
54 AGDV, Valladolid, San Pedro, libro 2 de bautismos (1561-1606), folio 187.
55 Ibid., folios 191, 196, 199. 200, 204, 211, 215v, 217.
100
which I sign, [Signature].56
Later, Rodrigo de Padieme Mazas continued the same pattern in the San Ildefonso
parish after succeeding Father Astorga. Padieme even added, at times, the patron saint
and intercessory o f the child.57
In birth and baptisms Moriscos had little choice about their participation, but
neither did anyone else in the parishes. The records of death and burial, on the other
hand, demonstrate a willing assimilation into Christianity that is rarely examined. In
the same parish o f San Ildefonso in Valladolid, Antonio de Astorga oversaw the
burials o f at least six Moriscos in a two year period. Luisa de Mendoza, wife of
Lorenzo Hernandez, was buried on September 18, 1607. The Morisca had not made a
will, but died receiving all the sacraments. Besides dying as a Christian, Luisa also
requested that she be buried in the first row of pews in the parish church. Although
this would cost her husband twelve "reales," she wanted this because her resting place
would be closer to the altar. Astorga made sure her wishes were fulfilled.58
In 1608 two Morisco children’s death were recorded in the parish of San
Ildefonso o f Valladolid. The son of a Morisco gardener died on February 10 and was
buried in the cemetery o f the Monastery belonging to the brothers of the
Resurrection.59 Elvira de Salazar, a young daughter of the gardener Salazar, who
56 Ibid., San Ildefonso, libro 1 de bautismos (1594-1662), folio 119v.
57 Ibid., folios 133v, 135v. Some of the saints included St. Anthony of Padua. St.
Cyprian and St. Calixt.
58 Ibid., libro de difiintos (1603-1672), folio 27v.
59 Ibid., folio 34v.
101
lived next to the Monastery o f St. John o f Letran died on August 25. Astorga
recorded how the little girl received the last rites before expiring.60 The parents of
these children thought it was necessary to bury their children in the accepted Christian
fashion, not in any secret Muslim manner.
Also revealing was how some Moriscos asked that masses be said for their
souls after death. On November 7, 1608 Francisco Hernandez, a Granadino, died. He
was buried in the Monastery of the Holy Spirit. In his will he requested that his two
executors, both Granadinos, pay for ten masses in hopes of shortening his stay in
purgatory. It would seem that the deceased and his close Morisco friends, without
being forced, believed in the Catholic dogma o f Purgatory and Salvation from Sins.
Even as late as January 11, 1610, a few days after the formal expulsion orders were
issued, the Granadino Santiago Ximenez had a new-born infant buried next to the Holy
Water in the San Ildefonso Church. For this privilege the father was willing to pay
four "reales," although he was only an apprentice with little income.61 In all these
recorded deaths there was no hint o f Islam.
The second largest concentration o f Moriscos in Old Castile was in the city of
Avila, with 1,363 on the 1594 Inquisition list. As in Valladolid, the Moriscos of Avila
were incorporated into the parish system, being baptized, married and buried within
the Catholic Church. Serafin de Tapia believes that the Moriscos "probably juxtaposed
the Christian rites in which they were forced to participate with the remains o f their
60 Ibid., folio 39.
102
ancient religion."62 He also acknowledges that a greater difference can be seen due
to "socio-economic level" rather than just examining old or new Christians. What is
possibly the most interesting about the Moriscos o f Avila was that a significant sector
"would have integrated fully into Christian society if the situado payment would have
disappeared and they had received adequate fiscal treatment."63
Salamanca had the third largest concentration o f Moriscos in Old Castile.
When the Moriscos Granadinos arrived in Salamanca they were largely housed in the
parishes outside the city walls. This was done because o f housing shortages in the
University town. The Moriscos were also employed in the orchards and gardens which
were mostly in the extramural areas. The parish that received the largest contingent of
Moriscos was the Trinidad de Arrabal parish. Arrabal in Spanish refers to these
neighborhoods outside the city walls, explaining the Moriscos’ segregated position.64
In the parish registers from Trinidad, the priest rarely recorded the explicit
participation o f Moriscos. From 1588 to 1597 only fourteen parents were described as
Moriscos when their child was baptized. This cannot be taken as evidence of their
disappearance, only that the scribe did not feel it necessary to record the fact of
Morisco parentage. In some instances the priest of La Trinidad recorded that the
family members were Moriscos. Although in recording a later birth he did not. Juan
62 Tapia, La comunidad morisca de Avila. 278. Rather than duplicate much of the
research that is presented by Tapia for Avila, I refer those interested in the community
o f Moriscos in Avila to the above book.
63 Ibid., 261.
64 Covarrubias, 146-147.
103
de Sevilla and Maria Alcozer brought their daughter, Juana, to be baptized on
September 29, 1591. The baptismal entry states that they were Moriscos. Sixteen
months later, the same couple had their son Alonso baptized on January 24,1593, but
there was no Morisco reference in the entry.65
The parish o f San Roman also had a large Morisco population in Salamanca.
In this parish the priests did record the fact of Morisco baptism assiduously. In a
thirty year period from 1579 to 1609 sixty eight Morisco parents had their children
baptized. The records o f confirmation, always officiated by the bishop, also show
nineteen Morisco children receiving their first communion at a confirmation
ceremony.66 To judge these as actions of willing Christians and a sign of
assimilation is not justified. Yet the fact that so many Morisco children werebeing
immersed in Catholic ceremony and teachings must point to an ongoing
Christianization among Moriscos. The evidence points neither to recalcitrant heretics
nor saintly observers, but to something in between. As the years went on, distancing
Moriscos from their Islamic past, a growing conformity to Christianity was
unavoidable.
In one baptismal entry, the parish priest of San Roman was chastised for
entering the incorrect modifier o f "cristianos nuevos." Juan de Valencia and Leonor de
Galindo had brought their daughter, Maria, for baptism on December 7, 1592. The
65 Archivo Diocesano de Salamanca (ADSa), Salamanca, Trinidad de Arrabal, libro

1 de bautismos (1588-1712), folios 39v and 43.
66 Ibid., San Roman, libro 2 de bautismos (1578-1618), folios 22v-23v. 93-96. 208.
104
examiner, Doctor Juan del Hierro, lined out the New Christian phrase and re-wrote
Moriscos. He then noted below the entry that "designating them as new Christians is
wrong. Writing in brackets [Moriscos] is sufficient."67 We might guess about the
disagreement between the two priests. Did Doctor del Hierro believe Moriscos were
no longer novices in Christianity? Was the parish priest simply writing in a common
identifying phrare or did he still see signs of inexperience among his Morisco
parishioners? The phraseology was complicated by an alternative meaning for
"cristiano nuevo," which could refer to the former Jews who had been baptized. The
word "Morisco" also carried connotations of being ethnically different, as it alluded to
the distinctive ancestry o f the parents. What is certain is that the priest of San Roman
no longer used the term "cristiano nuevo," only using the approved Morisco word.
In the parish o f San Roman the priest took his duty to baptize all new-boms
very seriously. When Isabel, the daughter of the Moriscos Mateo Paez and Juana de
Saavedra, was bom the priest came to their home "because she was in great danger."
Isabel died a few days later but she had beenbaptized.68 Asimilar instance occurred
when Diego, son o f the Moriscos Domingo deBaena and Ines Ximenez, was bom.
Because little Diego was near death, he was baptized at home and after he was
stronger the priest performed further ceremonies in the Church.69 We can certainly
see the concern the priest had in the San Roman parish to baptize his charges. We
68 Ibid., 7 May 1593, folio l l l v.
69 Ibid., 13 December 1592. folio 108.
105
might also infer that the Morisco parents o f these infants were also choosing to baptize
their sickly children.
Evidence o f Moriscos being baptized, marrying and dying in the Catholic
manner are evident in all the surviving parish records. The second tier o f
municipalities distributed the Moriscos Granadinos along with the Antiguos in their
parishes. In Segovia, Palencia, Burgos and Zamora the same haphazard designation of
Morisco baptisms, marriages and deaths were also recorded. The Moriscos o f Old
Castile had become a part o f the parish and town community. The priests o f Old
Castile were actively working among all their parishioners. The indoctrination and
new catechism changed Old Christians behavior as it must have reformed Morisco
conduct. Where the Moriscos were a small but visible presence in the peninsula there
was nothing to do but conform. Areas like Valencia or select regions in Aragon had
larger, more isolated, Morisco communities. The King’s evidence for eventual
expulsion and the popular perceptions about Moriscos came from these locations.
Tolerance was never the issue, but rather religious and cultural assimilation. The
Moriscos of Old Castile had to become Christians to survive among their neighbors.
There was no other choice and they acted on that sole possibility.
Moriscos as Old Christians
Individual Moriscos were more successful than groups in gaining legal
recognition as Christians. On April 6, 1590, Francisco Carrera, a "vecino" of
Simancas denounced Juan de Xaeni for traveling without a passport and carrying
106
weapons in the village.70 Because Xaeni was a Morisco he was then arrested. What
is not stated in the papers was what Xaeni had done, said or worn that distinguished
him from any other person in Simancas on that spring day. Did Juan de Xaeni have a
recognizable accent? Were his clothes different? Were his actions those o f an
apparent heretic? Was his mere presence in the small village enough to cause
suspicions which led to further investigations by Carrera? In 1594 the village only had
six Moriscos listed as residents according to the Inquisition list.71 Was Xaeni visiting
them or did he have business with the royal archive located there?
Despite these unknowns, Xaeni did acknowledge that he was, indeed, a Morisco
Granadino. But he also presented papers, exempting him from the laws prohibiting
Morisco travel and possesion o f weapons. His papers defined him as a "Cristiano
Viejo." He claimed to be the great-great-grandson of Pedro de Mendoza who
converted in the city o f Santa Fe before Granada was conquered.
Juan also requested, while still incarcerated, that the Chancellory in Granada
forward a case that was unsuccesfully brought against his father, Pedro Xaeni, in the
early 1570s. Although by 1590 the Xaeni family resided in the parish of San Pedro of
Valladolid they were originally from Granada.72 Their geneology was immediately
70 AGS, C.C. 2202. Both o f the following accounts of Juan de Xaeni and Lope de
Marbella are taken from the records sent to the "Camara de Castilla" which oversaw the
adjudication between the King and his subjects about special privileges. These two cases,
o f course, deal with the issue o f determining whether or not either men were normal
moriscos or "cristianos viejos" with specific entitlements.
71 AHN, Inquisicion 2109, folio 41.
72 AGS, C.C. 2196.
107
set forth as such: Juan de Xaeni was the son o f Pedro Xaeni and Isabel de Cabrera.
Pedro Xaeni was the son o f Hernando el Xaeni and Ines de Rojas. Hernando el Xaeni
was the son of Hernando el Xaeni and Leonor de Zafra. Hernando el Xaeni was the
son o f Pedro de Mendoza el Xaeni and Maria de Abenceraje. Already from the
Mendoza, Zafra and Abenceraje surnames o f the original ancestors, we know that this
was a powerful Granadino family with Christian connections.73
In the Granada case o f 1572, four witnesses were asked to testify answering a
series o f questions. In essence they were asked if they knew the defendant, Pedro
Xaeni, and his family history. Special focus was given to determining if Pedro de
Mendoza had converted to the Holy Catholic Faith, and if since then, he and his
descendants had lived worthy Christian lives.
The first witness was Gonzalo de la Piiiuela, an 86-year-old man. He swore to
knowing all the family since he was a student in the home of the royal secretary
Hernando de Zafra. Piiiuela said that Zafra’s daughter, Leonor, married Pedro de
Mendoza’s oldest son, Hernando. He also added that Pedro de Mendoza was the
alguacil, royal officer, in Alhendin, a village outside of Granada.
On February 7, 1572, the second witness presented himself as Francisco Ruiz
de Villafranca, a 91-year-old resident of the Alhambra. He testified that he worked as
a mason, helping to build the city o f Santa Fe. This was the Christian encampment
73 The story of the Abencerajes has entered both legend and literature as the noble
moor allied with the chivalrous Christian knight. See Diane S. Williams, Beyond the
Limits o f Genre: The Rhetoric o f History in the Guerras Civiles de Granada. (PhD.
dissertation, Princeton University, 1993); and Gines Perez de Hita Guerras civiles de
Granada. 1604.
108
constructed on the outskirts o f Muslim Granada before 1492 and where the
capitulations o f the last Muslim kingdom in the peninsula took place. Ruiz de
Villafranca remembered seeing Pedro de Mendoza’s baptism there. He also added that
Pedro de Mendoza had a store o f cloth in the Albaicin.
On the same day the third witness, Garci Barcia Tabalero, an 85-year-old
resident of the Alhambra, testified that he too was present when Pedro de Mendoza
was baptized. At the time Barcia Tabalero was a page in the court of the Marques de
Mondejar. His master and Hernando de Zafra were godparents to Pedro de Mendoza
in 1490. Garci said that when Pedro de Mendoza was asked why he chose this
specific Christian name he responded by saying he liked the sound of it. He most
certainly would have, considering that it was the family name o f the Marques de
Mondejar, one o f the most powerful noble families in all Castile.74
On the seventeenth o f that same month, Francisco de Buendia, an 80-year-old
day worker from Granada, swore that he had known the family for over 70 years. He
remembered asking Pedro de Mendoza about his conversion and how he could fight
against the Muslims o f Granada. According to Buendia, Mendoza’s response was that
the Granadinos had been misled in worshipping Muhammed and that Christ had
triumphed. He added that Pedro, in fact, did fight against his fellow Granadinos in the
battle o f the "acequia gorda." All this Buendia swore was the truth which he had
witnessed personally.
This entire 1572 case was submitted by Juan de Xaeni for his own case on
74 Helen Nader, The Mendoza Family in the Spanish Renaissance 1350-1550.
109
April 11, 1590. The Chancellery in Valladolid accepted these past witnesses as
reliable. In addition to this previous case, Juan de Xaeni presented his own lists of
witnesses and questions. These witnesses were asked whether they also knew the
family and the previous witnesses.
The first witness, Gonzalo Lopez, was a 70-year-old Morisco Granadino living
in Valladolid. He had only heard o f the exploits of Pedro de Mendoza, but knew very
well Hernando el Xaeni, Ines de Rojas, Pedro de Xaeni and Isabel de Cabrera. He
also testified to having known the witnesses from the 1572 trial. The second witness
was Juan de Villalobos, a 60-year-old Morisco resident o f Valladolid who lived on St.
John Street. He stated that he had always heard and seen that the members o f the
Xaeni family were good Christians. Francisco de Molina, a 74-year-old Morisco who
lived near the slaughterhouse in Valladolid, also testified that he knew all the answers
as common knowledge.
After these witnesses had testified, Juan de Xaeni presented records from the
Archive of Simancas which were provided for him by Antonio de Ayala, the royal
archivist. These records demonstrated the rights and privileges given to Amanzor
Pedro de Mendoza el Xaeni by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1491. In the royal document
the Xaeni family was granted in perpetuity the village o f Quintar, liberty to trade in
North Africa and the privilege o f bearing arms throughout their kingdoms.
The Chancellory immediately ordered Juan de Xaeni released from jail and his
bail returned to him. Juan was absolved of all guilt and his privileges as a "cristiano
viejo" were restored. As for Francisco de Carrera, who first accused Juan, he was
110
commanded to remain perpetually silent about this incident. But he was not charged
with the cost o f the trial, because what he thought he was doing was just and good.
Juan de Xaeni made one final request. He wanted all the paperwork to be published
for the sake o f his good name. This was done on September 20, 1590.
What happened to Juan de Xaeni after this case is not known. In 1594, when
the Inquisition listed all the Moriscos residing in Valladolid he was not included.
Pedro de Jaen and Isabel de Cabrera were still living in the the parish o f San Pedro
and had a six year old girl with them.75 A Pedro de Jaen appears in the notarial
records renting an orchard along the road to Cabezon for 195 ducats from Don Juan de
Briviesca.76 Was Juan still traveling far and wide, leaving his daughter with her
grandparents? Any answers would be mere speculation, but what is certain is that the
Xaeni family had won its case in court. For all intents and purposes they were both
Moriscos and Old Christians. Although their Morisco nature was recognizable to
officials like Carrera, they were also Christians and valued subjects of the Spanish
Monarchy.
The case o f Diego de Calderon has already been referred to in part, as his court
case was taken to the Chancellery.77 Although Calderon was a Morisco, he obtained
exemptions from travel restrictions and weapons possession because he was from
75 AHN, Inquisicion 2109. Xaeni in Arabic would translate into the Spanish "de
Jaen." It could be that the family roots were originally in the region of the city of Jaen.
north o f Granada.
76 Fernandez Martin, 176.
77 See Chapter 1.
Ill
Homachos, not the Kingdom of Granada. The 1590 court case also referred to his
occupation as an owner o f a small store o f "merchandise and things to eat." His
travels most probably were linked to the stocking and supplying of his store, but it
does not exclude other business dealings. In winning his case, Calderon established
himself as a Morisco with "cristiano viejo" status, continuing to profit from his dual
identity. His family appears to have successfully moved in both worlds.
The Abbot’s census in 1589 confirms that a Diego de Calderon and family
lived in the San Ildefonso parish. Diego was married to Brianda de Aiabo and they
had four children, Maria, Isabel, Joan and Ines.78 In the 1594 Morisco census carried
out by the Inquisition, a Diego de Calderon still lived in the San Ildefonso parish on
the same street where he had resided in the Chancellery case. His family in 1594 only
included his wife and youngest daughter Ines, who was four years old.79 The two
older girls could have married in the five year interval. If and who Maria or Isabel
married is not recorded but dowries and new alliances must have been involved. The
two older daughters could also have died as the absence of the son Joan seems to
indicate. Between the age of one and ten mortality was still precarious and Joan or his
sisters might have been lost to their parents.
As for Ines, she was later married on October 8, 1607 by the priest of the San
78 AGS, C.C. 2196, family number 321.
79 AHN, Inquisicion, 2109, numbers 525-527.
112
Ildefonso parish to the Morisco, Francisco Mayordomo.80 Mayordomo was from
Melgar de Herramentar, a village along the Pisuerga river in the modern day province
o f Burgos.81 Did Diego de Calderon go to Melgar in his travels as a merchant?
While there did he find a suitable spouse for his daughter? The same 1594 Inquisition
list records that Francisco de Mayordomo’s mother was Isabel de Calderon. Was
Francisco then marrying a relative of his mother? The connection by evidence of
surname is insufficient but it would point to a continued tradition of endogamous
marriage among Moriscos.
Other Moriscos from Melgar were coming to the big city of Valladolid. The
following year an Alonso Mayordomo from Melgar married the Morisca, Isabel
Hernandez.82 Antonio Astorga, the priest who married both couples, recorded that
they lived on the "plazuela" o f the tanners. He also casually wrote in at the end of his
entry for Alonso and Isabel that not only were all the decrees of the Council of Trent
fulfilled in the marriage ceremony but that the godparents and witnesses were all
"Granadinos." Astorga’s other entries about the wedding of the Moriscos Alonso
Caballero and Beatriz Castellanos, both of whom were re-marrying also mentioned that
the participants were all Granadinos.83 Were Moriscos finding a welcome
80 ADGV, Valladolid, parroquia de San Ildefonso, Libro de Casados (1597-1663),

96v. The Mayordomo family was also present in the village o f Melgar in 1594 as listed
in AHN, Inquisicion, 2109, number 2549.
81 Sixteenth-century Melgar de Herramentar is now known as Melgar de Femamental.
82 Ibid., 98v.
83 Ibid., 99.
113
environment in the parish o f San Ildefonso? Was Astorga disregarding rules about
Morisco involvement in Church ceremony and teaching them how to participate?
All we can say is that later the Morisco couple of Francisco Mayordomo and
Ines de Calderon later had a baby girl baptized in the San Ildefonso church on March
4, 1610.84 When the new parish priest, Rodrigo de Padieme, baptized little Florencia
Mayordomo and wrote in the baptism register that she was under the protection of
Saint Catherine did he know that she was under orders o f expulsion? In January of
that same year the Moriscos o f Old Castile were ordered expelled. Why did Francisco
and Ines still go through with the baptism of their daughter in March? So many
questions are left unanswered but we know that Moriscos were trying to fulfill their
obligations as they were being taught how to become good Christians.
A final individual appears to have been fairly successful in using the confusing
system to his advantage. The Morisco Lope de Marbella y Leon also asked for his
Old Christian status to be confirmed in Valladolid on July 5, 1588.85 He declared
that he was the grandson o f Andres de Marbella, who converted to Christianity before
the city of Granada was conquered. His father’s name was Pedro de Marbella. Lope
was also known as Diego Lope de Leon. He presented documents, still preserved in
the Simancas archive, showing his grandfather married and veiled to Isabel Gutierrez.
84 ADGV, Valladolid, parroquia de San Ildefonso, primer libro de bautizos (1594-

1662), 142.
85 AGS, C.C. 2202.
114
and his father married and veiled with Isabel de Mansilla.86 In 1592 the Council of
Castile confirmed his "cristiano viejo" status.
Lope de Marbella had previously obtained privileges from the city of
Valladolid to trade his goods throughout the city’s jurisdiction. He appears to have
become an affluent merchant in the Valladolid area.87 In the bishop’s census of 1589
Lope de Marbella still appeared as one o f the listed Moriscos Granadinos that resided
in the city.88 In the Inquisition list from 1594, after his successful court case, Lope
de Marbella has disappeared, not only from Valladolid but from all o f Old Castile. Is
Lope de Marbella, then, an instance where a Morisco safely assimilated into the
surrounding old Christian milieu? Our only evidence is that no Lope de Marbella or
even Diego Lope de Leon appears as one o f the expelled Moriscos from the Valladolid
lists. If he had assimilated, then was he still a Morisco? The answer must depend on
the map o f possible definitions, be they ancestral, religious or cultural. The
possibilities for Moriscos were limited but becoming good Christians with legal
privileges was among the potential prospects. The Xaeni, Calderon and Marbella
families demonstrate this avenue.
The Moriscos were not mere pawns. In the Spanish "golden age" o f drama and
playwrights, it is appropriate that the Moriscos be examined as actors on a stage. We
86 The Spanish term for these ceremonies is "casado y velado." To be merely

married in the Church was important for a Morisco couple, but to also have performed
the additional ceremony of the veiling was extra proof of Lope’s ancestors adherence to
Christian rites.
87 Fernandez Martin, 166.
88 AGS, C.C. 2196.
115
must emphasize them in their own acts. There were limitations to their lives and
tragic hardships. But it was their life to live with choices available. There were many
potential outcomes to the Morisco problem. Possibilities for Moriscos did not just
include heresy and eventual expulsion. The variety o f Morisco life can be described in
geographical terms from the kingdoms they lived in. Yet this mapping must include
more than just their static regional types. The change over time, through six
generations, was also significant. They participated in society, making themselves
actors rather than simply acted upon. Juan de Xaeni and Diego de Calderon could be
both Moriscos and "cristianos viejos." Lope de Marbella could successfully disappear
from lists identifying him as a Morisco.
Into these new categories intruded an uncertain deadline. In the thirty years
prior to the expulsion the royal hierarchy had begun to discuss the solution of a
general expulsion. We shall see how this had proponents, opponents and everything in
between. That debate and resolution of the Morisco problem is the subject of the next
two chapters.
116
Chapter Three
Early Considerations of Expulsion:

A Problem of Conversion
To understand the changes in the Morisco debate, this chapter will return to the
discussions of religious conversion and how it should be undertaken. Because in the
end the solution to the Morisco problem was complete expulsion our historical
hindsight may lead us to conclude that the decision was inevitable. However, the
expulsion was not the inescapable outcome o f the Morisco situation. We shall see
how within many levels o f the debate other solutions were defended and attempted.
By examining the Morisco problem without focusing on the end result, a fairer
judgement will emerge on the dynamics between the Moriscos and the Spanish
Monarchy.
After the Granada rebellion, the Morisco problem became qualitatively
different. The discussion about the Moriscos was heightened because of the
insurrection and solutions were demanded. The perception of a failed conversion and
117
an intensified feeling o f decline in the latter years o f the reign o f Philip II also
influenced the change.1 After 1571 the largest single agglomeration of Moriscos was
in Valencia. As described, they were the least assimilated into the Christian society.
The Moriscos Valencianos also had ample opportunity to aid Turkish and Barbary
pirates along the Mediterranean coast. The traditional fear of a Muslim threat added to
the uncertainties o f more Moriscos in the major Castilian cities because of the
dispersion of the Granadinos.
Early Discussions o f Morisco Problem
In the early 1580s the King and his advisors discussed expulsion for the first
time as a solution to the problem o f the Moriscos. New fears and the passage of time
impelled new arguments. Some held that the Moriscos had been given their chance
and could no longer plead ignorance. The example o f the Catholic Kings expelling all
the Jews in 1492 provided a precedent at a time when religious unity was a byword of
state security. Before following their example, however, the sixteenth-century Kings
chose to encourage missionary work and gradual conversion.
The different opinions on the merits and efforts o f missionary efforts were very
much in the minds o f sixteenth-century Spaniards. With the discovery of the New
World came discussions o f how missionary work should be done among the millions
1 For more on the sense o f decline see J.H. Elliott "Self-perception and Decline in
Early Seventeenth-Century Spain," Spain and its World. 1500-1700: Selected Essays.
(New Haven, 1989), 241-261.
118
o f American inhabitants.2 Earlier in the century, Bartolome de las Casas, the defender
o f the American Indians in Spanish America, chastised his countrymen for bringing
converts to Christianity through war and political subjection, as only Mohammedans
would do.3 He noted that Mohammed only required submission to his God, never
coercing belief.4 Despite his implied insults against Muslims, Las Casas felt that the
only way o f teaching the living faith to everyone everywhere was to win the mind
with reason and the will with gentleness.5 Las Casas advocated greater evangelical
effort and continued patience.
Another advocate o f this type of conversion was the first Archbishop of
Granada, Hernando de Talavera. He tried to learn enough Arabic himself, at least
enough to teach the ten commandments, the articles of faith and the essential prayers.
He even hoped to learn enough to hear confession. Talavera believed that the "city
could have been won for Jesus Christ with diligence, hard work, solemn vigils, prayer
2 Inga Clendinnen, Ambivalent Conquests; Sabine MacCormack, Religion in the

Andes: Robert Ricard, "Indiens et Morisques: note sur quelques procedes
d’evangelisation," Etudes et documents pour rhistoire de l’Espagne et des Portugal.
(Louvain, 1930), 209-219.
3 Bartolome de las Casas. The Only Wav. (New York. 1992), 149. This 1992 edition
is only the most recent to be published from the original tract De unico vocationis first
published in 1530.
4 Las Casas, 147; for a fascinating discussion of the Islamic roots to Spanish conquest
rituals see chapter 3 o f Patricia Seed’s Ceremonies of Possession in Europe’s Conquest
o f the New World 1492-1640. (New York, 1995).
5 Las Casas, 68.
119
and the example o f a saintly life."6 But Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros had the
opposite response. He wanted to resolve the problem o f fluid religious affiliation and
lawlessness along the frontier by forcing participation in a strictly controlled
Christianity.7
As the century progressed, the assumption o f Morisco difference spread. The
problem was defined more obviously as one o f conversion to Catholicism. The
Morisco was perceived as different from his neighbor and that difference needed to be
erased. On a physical level the difference does not appear to be visible. Sixteenth-
century descriptions o f the Moriscos leave an impression of olive-skin and dark hair
with enough blue eyes and light hair to deserve mention, much like the "cristianos
viejos."8 Yet they still did not lose their distinctive origins because in local
communities an individual could be identified by where he lived and what occupation
he had. In Valladolid, someone who resided in the barrio of Santa Maria and worked
in an orchard was most likely a Morisco.
In 1612 the Inquisition sent an investigator to the Basque village of
Zagarramundi because o f a witch craze that had erupted. Alonso Salazar Frias, the
official, wrote back to the Holy Office in Madrid that "there were neither witches nor
6 Luis del Marmol Carvajal, Historia del rebelion v castigo de los moriscos del reino
de Granada. 152.
7 The nineteenth-century classic Marcelino Menendez Pelayo, Historia de los

heterodoxos espafioles originally printed in 1880, is good on the differing viewpoints
toward heterodoxy of the two church leaders.
8 Luce Lopez Baralt, "La estetica del cuerpo entre los moriscos del siglo XVI o como
la minoria perseguida pierde su rostro," Le corps dans la societe espaenole des XVIe et
XVIIe siecles. (Paris, 1990), 335-348.
120
bewitched until they were talked or written about."9 Were the Moriscos also in a
similar situation, where by defining them as a group "a priori" a perception of
uniformity was created in a very diverse population?
Unlike witches the Moriscos were a large group with a definable history. The
surrounding community could legitimately recognize them as different and this allowed
no deviance from the normal. In a culture that to this day refers to a sixteenth-century
plaza o f Seville as the Plaza Nueva, names and identifications change slowly. It
would also seem that the issues o f prejudice and bigotry that so intrude in the
twentieth-century world are also problems that have similar outlines for a sixteenth-
century group. Creating minorities and imposing perceptions of inferiority are
seemingly constants in human society. The prejudicial rhetoric in the Spanish
Monarchy focused on religious values rather than physical characteristics, yet an
element o f difference remained difficult to erase.10
The debate on assimilating the Moriscos, which began as soon as there were
reluctantly made Christians, produced many conflicting opinions. The decrees of
Charles V, allowing grace periods in exchange for cash, and of Philip II, demanding
9 Gustav Henningsen, The Witches Advocate: Basque Witchcraft and the Spanish
Inquisition (1609-16141. (Reno, 1980), iii.
10 David Nirenberg in Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the

Middle Ages. (Princeton, 1996) calls for less teleological analyses o f persecution and
more inquiries into the "local meanings" of intolerance (p. 12). He wisely notes how the
effect o f World War II, has influenced our writing about the minorities o f the past (p. 3).
Also see Anthony Pagden, The Fall of Natural Man. (Cambridge, 1986), 33. For more
on how these local prejudices played out during the expulsion see Chapter Five, especially
on the issue o f exempting recent African or Persian converts to Catholicism.
121
adherence to Christian laws, were two important positions. The Imperial concerns of
Charles V kept him away from Spain often and he chose to consider the Morisco
problem quiescent. At times a Council o f Theologians did meet to consider the further
issues o f improved conversion. Sometimes attempts were made to encourage more
parish schools for Morisco children." In 1552 the Inquisitor General of Valencia,
concerned about a rumored Turkish invasion, asked that the Emperor order the
Archbishop o f Valencia and the bishops o f Segorbe, Tortosa and Cartagena to assist
the Inquisition more. The Inquisitor reported that without aid from the Church’s
regional leaders all he could do was to make sure that the "new converts not do their
ceremonies so publicly."12 The Inquisition in Valencia endeavored to maintain the
status quo, while requesting greater evangelical efforts from the parish and diocesan
authorities.
In 1559, Philip II concluded the Peace o f Cateau-Cambresis and came to
Castile for the first time as King, never to leave the peninsula again. He began by
reorganizing the state finances and establishing a royal administration under the
purview o f his secretaries.13 By centering the government in the new capital of
Madrid he sought to remove the court from regional politics. Various Juntas, besides
13 For the bureaucracy of Charles V see John M. Headley, The Emperor and His
Chancellor: A Study o f the Imperial Chancellery Under Gattinara. fNew York. 1983). For
Philip II see Jose Antonio Escudero, Los Secretarios de Estado v del Despacho (T474-
1724), (Madrid, 1976). James Boyden suggests in The Courtier and the King that Philip
II began an administration under his favorite, Ruy Gomez de Silva, but then changed to
the secretarial system.
122
the traditional Councils, were created to advise the King on different issues.
A Junta de Moriscos met on December 15, 1564 with Philip II in attendance.
The committee o f thirteen men with the assistance of the King’s secretary, Gonzalo
Perez, discussed how the Moriscos Vaiencianos should be taught "with all meekness
and Christian charity the correct doctrine so they no longer have the excuse o f never
having been taught."14 First the Junta de Moriscos recommended that the
responsibility o f teaching rest on the Archbishop o f Valencia and his assigned visitors.
Also the rectories must be investigated, ensuring that those men assigned to teach the
Moriscos were well paid and honorable.
Turning from the Church’s obligations to the responsibilities o f the Moriscos
Vaiencianos the Junta delineated the Muslim offenses and prohibited them.
Circumcising, Muslim naming, speaking Arabic, all must end. Moriscos should not be
allowed to be mid-wives, inn-keepers or bath-owners. The Junta did recognize briefly
that there were different categories of Moriscos. They urged the King to reward those
Moriscos Vaiencianos who married Cristianos Viejos and those who converted during
the preaching o f Saint Vincent Ferrer in the early fifteenth century.15 But overall, the
Moriscos o f Valencia were subsumed into one category of ignorant Christians and
continuing Muslims.
Little demonstrable change occurred in Valencia after this Junta completed its
work. Very little money went to Valencia to fund the rectories. The Inquisitor and
14 AGS, Estado 329, 15 December 1564.
15 Ibid.
123
the Archbishop still avoided their charge to teach the Moriscos. The status quo
continued in Valencia, while other Moriscos were being forgotten because o f the
predominance o f the Morisco Valenciano. Evidence o f the bureaucracy’s inability to
manage the Morisco problem was the continued meetings, always with similar
proposals and no progress or success. Morisco intransigence partly answers why there
was no progress. But that alone does not suffice. There was very little incentive for
the Moriscos to forget their Muslim past. Enough participants pointed to Christian
inaction as the cause o f the too slow conversion.
As the debate continued among Spanish theologians in the 1570s they
summarized their approaches to Christian conversion with two adages: "mas moros,
mas ganancias," or more moors, more profits, and "siempre se ha de procurar que de
los enemigos aya los menos," or the less enemies the better.16 The second Alpujarra
war had shown Philip II that Moriscos were capable of rebellion and the Granadinos
scattered in Castilian cities added to his anxiety.17 Moriscos were advantageous as an
unassimilated minority because they provided so many services. But the Moriscos
continued to be perceived enemies and in dangerous times they became a threat. As
for Philip, the increasing number o f his external foes only added more urgency to the
internal Morisco problem.
16 AGS, Estado K 1595.
17 John Lynch, Spain 1516-1598. 318-319. I disagree, however, with his

characterization o f the Morisco problem as "insuperable." The perception o f impossibility
was present but local elements did not see it that way, nor even did all the royal
counsellors.
124
On March 14, 1577, the King and Council o f State captured documents proving
to their minds that the Vaiencianos were planning an uprising and receiving aid from
the Ottoman Empire. Each counsellor responded to the problem. The Prince of
Melito and the Vice-Chancellor o f Aragon argued that expelling the Moriscos from
Valencia might be possible, but very damaging to the kingdom. Both agreed that
arming the "cristianos viejos" in Valencia would be too expensive. They
recommended reinforcing the armed galleys in Valencian waters. The Inquisitor
General feared a Turkish attack because they were their "greatest enemy." The Duke
o f Alba agreed with the Prince and Vice-Chancellor but also recommended that the
Moriscos be disarmed and, if necessary, cut off some heads.18 The Council of State
began to consider the Morisco problem more carefully, perceiving a potential danger
confronting the Monarchy. Even after the victory of Lepanto, the Turks threatened the
Western Mediterranean while the Moriscos added a perceived threat to the overall
situation.19 The Council was committed to the preservation of the State and for them
unity o f faith was inextricably a part o f the state. The Turkish alarm forced them to
consider the problem o f the Morisco’s Christianity and allegiance more closely.
The Council of State continued to deliberate the issue of a potential Morisco
18 AGS, Estado 335, 14 March 1577; in Spanish the Duke of Alba literally said
"cortar algunas cabezas." It was the type o f man he was. See also William S. Maltby.
Alba: A Biography of Fernando Alvarez de Toledo. Third Duke of Alba 1507-1582.
19 Andrew C. Hess in "The Battle o f Lepanto and its Place in Mediterranean History,"
Past & Present. 57 (Nov. 1974), 53-73, offers a reassesment of the years between Lepanto
in 1571 and the truce between the the Ottoman Sultan and Philip II. By 1580 the Turks
had decided to fight "heterodox Muslims in Persia" rather than Hapsburg Spain. (72)
125
uprising in Aragon or Valencia. The Vice-Chancellor and the Duke o f Alba, both
military experts, advocated preparing for the worst but doubted any serious threat.
They believed that "the Turkish armada could not bring any damage to these
kingdoms, even with the assistance of the Moriscos of Valencia or Aragon without a
sure port to assemble their ships . . . also for every one Morisco there are twenty old
Christians. Even if they had any weapons they are in a wretched condition . . . and
moreover they have no food or munitions."20 For all the fear of Morisco treachery
when the issue was examined dispassionately, the experts realized that the Moriscos
presented only a meager threat. The Duke and Vice-Chancellor advised caution and
preparation but they knew the difficulties of terrain, supply and communication which
would make negligible any Turkish support o f an unlikely Morisco rebellion
In 1579, the Council received a letter from Fray Luis Beltran, stating that it
would be better for the Moriscos to revert to Islam than to be heretics. Beltran had
years o f missionary experience among the indigenous tribes of Cartagena de Indias, in
present day Columbia.21 His years in the Indies yielded thousands of baptisms. But
upon his return to Valencia in 1569 he saw no possibility of success among the
Vaiencianos. In his memorial he claimed that the Morisco children should not even be
baptized because if they remained in their parents homes they would only betray those
sacraments.22 Beltran had not been as critical o f the neophytes in Cartagena. Did the
20 Boronat, v. 1, 282; quoted from AGS, Estado, 335.
21 Luis Beltran was later canonized by the Catholic Church in 1694 as the patron
saint o f New Granada.
22 AGS, Estado 212, resumen del Comendador Mayor de Leon.
126
confused religion o f the Moriscos surprise him in his own land? It is possible that he
expected the Christianization o f the Moriscos to follow similar lines as those natives in
Cartagena. Beltran’s unmet expectations left him frustrated. Although the Catholic
missionaries attempted to instill Catholicism in their converts there was very little
recognition of different cultural responses among those listening. The Moriscos of
Valencia were very different from the "indios" of Cartegena primarily because the
Valencians had potential exemplars and support in North Africa and further east.
The Expulsion Possibility
By the summer o f 1580 the Spanish Monarchy had grown to include Portugal
and all its overseas territories after the deaths o f Sebastian I in his North African
crusade and the elderly successor Cardinal Henry. Philip II asserted his rights as heir
to the Portuguese throne and planned a royal trip to its capital, Lisbon.23 The added
weight o f defending the Portuguese inheritance made the King and his court analyze
more carefully the Morisco problem in view of a perceived internal threat.
In December o f 1581, still in Lisbon, the King requested that another Junta
meet to consider ways to further the conversion of the Moriscos of Valencia. The
King explicitly assumed that what would work in Valencia would also work with the
other Moriscos. The three original members included Fray Diego de Chaves, the
King’s confessor, Rodrigo Vazquez de Arce, the King’s legal expert, and Juan
Delgado, secretary to the Council o f War. The three men agreed on the startling
23 For an important assessment of the annexation of Portugal see Geoffrey Parker's

essay "David or Goliath? Philip II and his world in the 1580s," Spain. Europe and the
Atlantic World. 245-266.
127
principle that converting the Moriscos was possible and worthwhile.
They recommended to the King "that who ever is placed in charge of the
conversion must be persuaded that it is not a morally impossible thing." Did they
assume that most people involved with the Moriscos thought that converting them to
Christianity was an impossible thing? They certainly suggest this when they blamed
the priests who had "erred, using violence to make Moriscos attend the divine offices
and receive the sacraments when they [the Moriscos] are not converted on the inside."
To the Junta, resorting to violence demonstrated the priests’ lack of hope. There had
also been a shortage o f manpower and materials, considering that there were only 185
rectories for 14,100 Morisco homes in 329 locations.24 As for the morality of
converting the Moriscos, the three Junta members saw the assured success as God’s
wish.
The Junta recommended that more churches be built and funding for more
instructors be increased. They knew of 30,000 ducats from the Pope and King
expressly established for this purpose. Recognizing that Jesus Christ’s principal means
o f conversion was preaching and leading by example, they encouraged the priests to do
the same. Nevertheless, they did not discourage moderate use o f force, recommending
that the alfaquies be arrested by the Inquisition before any preaching began. However,
no one should be arrested during the preaching itself. Both Chaves and Vazquez de
Arce believed that the failure so far was not due to lack o f good laws, but only in their
24 Boronat, v. 1, 291-294. In addition also see Juan Riera, Rentas ecclesiasticas

moriscos v penitenciados: los obispados de Cartagena v Orihuela a mediados del sielo
XVI. (Valladolid, 1984).
128
implementation. All the laws should be enforced rigorously.
Their original recommendation were ignored when only a few months later the
Junta was increased to include three new members: the Count of Chinchon and Juan de
Idiaquez, two new influential advisors to the King and the Duke of Alba, counsellor of
State and military leader in Portugal. In 1582, the Council set aside the Junta’s
findings and seriously considered banishing all the Moriscos from Valencia, as had
been done in Granada.25 The swift changes in policy would continue, moving
between lenient Christian charity to harsh orders and wide generalizations. The debate
did not end until the actual expulsion.
In 1582 the Marquis o f Denia, later the Duke of Lerma under Philip III, and
Juan de Ribera, Archbishop o f Valencia, responded to the suggestions o f expelling the
Moriscos from Valencia. They wrote of the potential difficulties and the certain
ruination o f the province’s economic life. Denia actually argued that although he
believed the Moriscos still practiced their Mohammedan sect, expelling them would
devastate Valencia.26 The Patriarch could not conceive of government machinery
large enough to accomplish the task, particularly because the Moriscos were so spread
out. He warned that if it was somehow to be accomplished, then the Moriscos of
Valencia and Castile should both be expelled since they supported one another. He
concurred with Denia about the certain loss of wealth and warned o f a possible
25 AGS, Estado 212, 1608.
26 AGS, Estado 212, resumen del Comendador Mayor de Leon.
129
uprising, as a result o f an expulsion order.27 We shall see how these two men,
hesitant in 1582, became the political and religious voices calling for expulsion by
1608.
After this first consideration o f a general expulsion among the counsellors of
State in 1582, the debate would weave back and forth. Plans were suggested and
policies recommended but no action ever occurred. Only one counsellor from that
Junta lived to see the day when the final answer was given. The Duke of Alba died
that very same year. Elderly men by 1598, Confessor Chaves and Vazquez de Arce
were displaced in the new King’s reign. Secretary Delgado was superseded by new
bureaucrats. The Count o f Chinchon lived until 1608, but was away in Rome as
ambassador to the Pope. Only Juan de Idiaquez continued as the link to that 1582
Junta, becoming the administration expert and the first voice to speak on Morisco
issues before the Council, especially when the question o f conversion arose.
Bom circa 1540, Idiaquez was a Basque hidalgo who came to the court to train
as a royal secretary. He was granted the "encomienda mayor" o f Leon when young, as
a sinecure in a prestigious military order. The same position had been held by
Francisco de los Cobos, royal secretary to Charles V.28 In a long career of royal
service, Idiaquez was an ambassador for Philip II in Genoa, France and Venice until
1580. Then he was ordered back to Madrid to replace the treasonous secretary
27 Boronat, v. 1, 602-607.
28 L.P. Wright, "The Military Orders in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Spanish
Society. The Institutional Embodiment o f a Historical Tradition," Past and Present. 43
(May 1969), 47.
130
Antonio Perez.29 During the last years o f Philip II’s reign, he became a "tough,
faceless and realistic adminstrator . . . a witness to the survival o f professionalism in
government."30 When Philip III became King, Idiaquez was one o f the few kept in
an advisory position. Philip III trusted and relied upon the counsel of his father's
loyal and experienced advisor.31 As a courtier, Idiaquez was successful in
establishing a noble inheritance and title for his family through a strategic marriage as
well as royal favor. Although he died in 1614 still the Comendador Mayor de Leon,
he saw his son become the Count o f Aramayona and Duke of Ciudad Real.32
Idiaquez’s opinions were important to Philip III, partly because his training as
secretary and administrator to the King’s father made him the expert with the longest
training and perspective. From 1582 to the end of the expulsion in 1614, Idiaquez
always managed to say the right thing at the right time, often times prudently saying
nothing at all. His words and long tenure carried weight with Philip III and so his
29 Lvnch. Spain 1516-1598. 431-432.
30 Lynch, The Hispanic World, 31.
31 Original quote can be found in Gil Gonzalez Davila, Historia de la vida v hechos
del inclito monarca amado v santo D. Felipe Tercero in Monarauia de Espana. (Madrid,
1770). Mention of this fact is also made in Jose Antonio Escudero, Los Secretarios de
Estado v del Despacho. v. 1, 225. Also see Patrick Williams, "Philip III and the
Restoration of Spanish Government, 1598-1603," English Historical Review. 88 (1973),
760.
32 For a biography o f Idiaquez see Fidel Perez Minguez, Don Juan de Idiaquez:
Embaiador v Conseiero de Felipe II. (San Sebastian, 1934). As for an interesting parallel
in the early reign o f Philip II see the biography of Ruy Gomez de Silva Courtier and King
by James Boyden.
131
participation in the debate will be doubly emphasized.33
In 1582, Philip II ignored the Junta de Morisco’s recommendations and no
royal action towards Morisco conversion occurred. In 1587, Philip II saw no success
in the local efforts to evangelize the Moriscos and asked the Council to consider the
question again. But he personally asked the provincial o f the Jesuits in Valencia to
organize a vigil o f prayers and masses. He wanted all to petition God that the
Moriscos save their souls.34 Although there was real concern in Philip’s desire to see
a change in the Moriscos there is no evidence that more churches were built, rectories
endowed or the teaching o f catechism emphasized in those years.35
In the far flung activities o f the Spanish Monarchy, 1588 was a year full o f the
Enterprise o f England and the Armada. Philip’s inaction can justifiably be explained
by his overwhelming burden elsewhere. In the 1590s court intrigue with a palace
revolt in Aragon and Philip’s declining health might account for the royal inaction
towards the Moriscos. But to some historians Philip II’s inattention is not a complete
explanation. For Antonio Dominguez Ortiz and Bernard Vincent it is more than irony
that the "prudent King" Philip II never decided to unilaterally punish the Moriscos.
even though there were many recommendations to do so. "Those who uphold an
image of an inflexible and fanatic Philip II must explain why he treated the Moriscos
33 For the role that Idiaquez would play in the reign of Philip III see Antonio Feros.
The King’s Favorite. 97, 132, 229, 244, 274.
34 AGS, Estado 165, 28 June 1587.
35 Riera, Rentas ecclesiasticas. 28.
with less harshness than his son, to whom is attributed a more benevolent
character."36
Part o f the answer lies in what Philip II did order and actually accomplish. In
1588 an important decision regarding the Moriscos was made upon the
recommendation o f the Council. Instead of expelling the Moriscos a census was to be
taken, so that a record would exist if any dangers arose or final orders made. The
suggestion to expel was changed to an order to count, name and register.37 Bishops
throughout the 1580s and the Inquisition by 1594 completed very detailed descriptions
o f all the Moriscos in their jurisdictions. The surviving censuses list Moriscos by
name, age and familial relationship.38 We have already seen in previous chapters
how the 1594 Inquisition list described various parts of Old Castile.
Discussion outside the Court
Outside o f the King’s councils there was also discussion about the solutions to
the Morisco problem. Many ideas were discussed in the context of how a Christian
prince should reign over subjects who were not of his religion. Certainly in the
Europe o f the late sixteenth-century this topic of religion and monarchical reason of
state were very much in conversation.39
36 Dominguez Ortiz and Vincent, Historia de los moriscos. 159.
37 AGS, Estado 165, folio 348, 30 November 1588.
38 Jean Paul Le Flem, "Les morisques du nord-ouest de 1’Espagne en 1594," 223-244.
39 For its affect on the Spanish Monarchy and the Hapsburg dynasty see Magdalena
Sanchez, Dynasty. State and Diplomacy in the Spain of Philip III. (PhD. dissertation.
Johns Hopkins University, 1988). Her second chapter "Political language and the
Acceptance of Reason of State" examines many of the issues I also raise. As for a
*1
1J J
Other sources influenced the ongoing debate on the Morisco problem. Two
famous theorists o f the late sixteenth century had a great intellectual impact on the
court o f Philip II. Giovanni Botero and Justus Lipsius were both educators and
humanists who in their writing attempted to balance Machiavellian reasons of state
with a higher moral responsibility.40 The ruthless devotion to the preservation of the
state was not an ideal held by the Spanish Monarchy
Botero had been impressed by the practical and spiritual reforms o f Charles
Borromeo, Archbishop o f Milan. In 1589, while Botero was the new Cardinal’s and
future saint’s secretary in Rome, he wrote the book Reason of State. By 1591
Botero’s advice to a Christian prince was in its first o f six Spanish editions. The three
Philips o f Spain certainly must have found solace for their Catholic goals in the book’s
dedication.
He who would deprive conscience of its universal jurisdiction

over all that concerns man in his public as well as his private life shows
thereby that he has no soul and no God.41
Philip II specifically had his heir’s tutors include Botero’s book in the Prince’s reading
assignments.
Botero advised making new subjects "as like as possible to natural subjects."
general overview o f the era see J. H. Elliott, Europe Divided. 1559-1598. (New York.
1969), which describes how religion was the main divider in the early modem period.
40 For more on the influence o f both Botero and Lipsius in all of Europe see Robert
Bireley, The Counter-Reformation Prince: Anti-Machiavellianism or Catholic Statecraft
in Early Modem Europe. (Chapel Hill, 1990); J. R. Hale, The Civilization of Europe in
the Renaissance. (London, 1993), 209-214.
41 Giovanni Botero, The Reason of State, translated by P.J. & D.P. Waley, (New
Haven, 1956), xiv.
134
The difficulties o f this task were explained in particular regard to Mohammedans and
Calvinists. The former were the "most alien to Christian faith, for their sect is wholly
turned towards the flesh." The latter were the "most distant from the truth."42 Oddly
enough in 1609 Philip’s two festering problems of the Calvinists in the Low Countries
and the Mohammedan Moriscos had thus been alluded to in his reading by Botero.
For Botero the two "sects" have similar remedies, since neither would submit.
The best remedy against them, as with ail other ills, is to oppose
them firmly at the outset and then to use the means described above to
convert them. But if there is no hope in bringing them to the truth and
o f winning their loyalty the ruler should remember Pinarius’
resoluteness.43
In Livy’s history o f Rome, Pinarius as prefect of Enna ordered all the citizens
massacred when there was a revolt. Before the Moriscos were expelled even Pinarius'
solution had been mentioned to solve the problem.
But Botero recommended other solutions before resorting to such drastic
measures. He suggested a three-pronged attack of humbling their spirit, decreasing
their power and preventing them from uniting. In sections four through seven of Book
V, Botero presented his readers with a long list o f options. But he ultimately
conceded that "if all these expedients fail to subdue a subject people they must be
dispersed and transplanted to other countries." For he reasoned "why should we not
drive out people o f whose conversion and obedience we have despaired?"44 Philip III
42 Ibid.. 100.
43 Ibid., 101. The editor’s footnote on this page explains who Pinarius was and that
the example was taken from Livy, XXIV, 37.
44 Ibid., 110.
135
not only had the examples o f his illustrious ancestors’ expulsion o f the Jews, the
investigations o f his father but the recommendations o f a respected man o f letters.
Botero offered on the one hand a seemingly intelligent and honorable solution to the
Morisco problem. Nevertheless, the drastic measures were advanced for the young
prince’s education.
To implement all the suggestions about making new subjects as like as possible
to natural subjects would take patience and time. The hundred years from the
conversion had shown beginnings among the smaller concentrations of Old Castile.
Even faster changes occurred among the dispersed Moriscos Granadinos. In forty
years they had to change to survive. But Botero’s pages end with the injunction to
expel. Botero’s first expedients, if applied over time, might have changed the Morisco
problem. But time was not part of the equation by 1609.
Botero’s words played a role in the debate surrounding the Morisco problem.
But it was still only one important element in the development of Spanish statecraft.
A contemporary of Botero, who was just as influential in the minds of Spanish
statesmen was Justus Lipsius, our second theorist. This "lynx-eyed" writer from
Flanders was an admired thinker for Spaniards who wanted "to learn from pagan and
Machiavellian statecraft, but still remain confident in the moral and religious
righteousness o f their actions. "4S
45 Theodore G. Corbett, "The Cult of Lipsius: A Leading Source of Early Modem

Spanish Statecraft," Journal o f the History o f Ideas. 36 (1975), 141. For other influences
o f Lipsius in Spain see G.A. Davies, "The Influence o f Justus Lipsius on Juan de Vera
y Figueroa’s Embaxador (1620)," Bulletin o f Hispanic Studies. 42 (1965) 160-172: and
J.H. Elliott, The Count-Duke of Olivares.
136
Lipsius’ own life mirrored the tearing religious rivalries o f the late 1600s.
Educated by Jesuits, he first obtained a university position in Jena under the patronage
o f the Lutheran Duke o f Saxe-Weimar. In 1579 he left the Lutheran areas o f the Low
Countries to escape the rampaging Spanish armies. Leaving Jena, he accepted a
position at the university in Calvinist Leyden. By 1591 he felt hemmed in by the
strict doctrines o f Calvin and escaped to his home university in Catholic Louvain.
This last move brought him into favor with the Spanish courts in both Brussels and
Madrid. In 1595 he had dedicated his De Militia Romana to Prince Philip and was
given the title and salary of a royal chronicler.46
But being a scholar was not enough for Lipsius.47 In his letters to the court
o f Philip II we can see how necessary it was for a scholar to also become a good
courtier. His correspondents in the peninsula included Benito Arias Montano, Garcia
de Figueroa, Baltasar de Zuniga and Juan de Idiaquez, all important counsellors and
diplomats in the service o f the Spanish Monarchy. Bernardino de Mendoza, the
Spanish ambassador to the French court in the early 1590s, even felt that Lipsius’
46 The records o f his petitions and relationships with those in the court at Madrid are
collected in Alejandro Ramirez Epistolario de Justo Lipsio v los espanoles 1577-1606.
(Madrid, 1966).
47 For the many paradoxes and contradictions in the life of Lipsius see Anthony
Grafton, "Portrait o f Justus Lipsius," The American Scholar. 56 (1987), 382-390. His
influence in England can be seen briefly in Robert C. Evans, Jonson. Lipsius and the
Politics o f Renaissance Stoicism. (Wakefield, 1992). For Lipsius’ influence as a promoter
o f philosophical movements see Gerhard Oestreich, Neostoicism and the Early Modem
State. Brigitta Oestreich & H.G. Koenigsberger, editors, David McLintock, translator.
(New York, 1982).
137
Politics was important enough to translate it from Latin into Spanish in 1599.48 The
appeal o f Lipsius to these men has been explained by their own needs to be faithful
servants o f a powerful prince, while still augmenting their own virtues of prudence,
constancy and individual rationality.49
Lipsius’ own words were part of the debate surrounding the rebellions and civil
wars in the low countries. He was an advocate o f peace negotiations. He encouraged
rulers to "receive counsel with deliberation, judgement and no obstinacy."50 But
Lipsius tempered his practical political openness with insistence that "one religion is
the author o f unity and from a confused religion there always groweth dissension."51
Not surprisingly, Lipsius had learned from experience "that neither inquisition or
search should be done and that they [the ruler’s religious dissenters] had more need of
a teacher than a tormentor."52 The words and justifications came from a setting in
the Spanish Netherlands but when Lipsius argued that "nothing is more dangerous than
an unseasonable physic," Spanish readers took note. There were writers and readers in
Spain who saw similar dangers and difficulties in the Morisco problem.
The Spanish Jesuit, Pedro de Rivadeneira, also wrote a book in the 1590s
48 The Spanish translation o f Lipsius’ Politics was published in 1604, although 1599
was the date o f approval. For more on Mendoza see De Lamar Jensen, Diplomacy and
Dogmatism: Bernardino de Mendoza and the French Catholic League. (Cambridge, 1964).
49 Corbett, 152.
50 Justus Lipsius, Politicorum. (1589), 52. Citation is from the English translation
by William Jones in 1594.
51 Ibid., 62.
52 Ibid., 65.
138
dedicated to the prince and Spanish heir. Its title is in itself a brief summary of its
intent. In English it translates Treatise of the Religion and Virtues Which a Christian
Prince Should Have to Govern and Conserve his States against what Nicholas
Machiavelli and the Politicos o f these Times Teach. Rivadenaira argued that only
political and unrighteous men removed the reasons o f state from the law o f God. The
best examples o f kingship came from his ancestors the "Catholic Kings who with great
religion and valor threw out the Moors and Jews from Spain."53 This book was held
up to the future Philip III as his guide to governing. After his early death in 1621,
many believed that even if Philip III "did not have the qualities o f a good King, at
least he was a Christian King."54
Although Philip could very well have used statements like those from
Rivadeneira to justify his later actions in expelling the Moriscos, it is well to
remember the context. Rivadeneira was one of the few who was opposed to blood
purity statutes in the Society o f Jesus. As one of the last Jesuits to remember Ignatius
o f Loyola, he could not forget the founder’s insistence on education and peaceful
missionary work. Rivadeneira died in 1611 when the Morisco expulsion was in full
progress. What he thought o f the expulsion was not recorded, but he did want all the
King’s subjects to "know that the Catholic religion is the only true one."55
53 Pedro de Rivadeneira, Tratado de la religion v virtudes que debe tener el principe

cristiano. 1595; reprinted in Biblioteca de Autores Espanoles v. 60; 453.
54 Ibid., 449. It is perceptions like these about Philip III that Antonio Feros in The
King’s Favorite has tried to dispel about the reign since they detract from understanding
both the Duke o f Lerma and Philip III on their terms.
55 Ibid., 459.
139
Rivadeneira knew that the Moriscos were baptized Catholics and needed catechization
like the disaffected Poles or Hungarians which his fellow Jesuits had so successfully
re-taught.
Moriscos in Golden Age Literature
As the King began a debate into the Morisco problem, it was something
familiar to many inhabitants o f the peninsula. The Granada civil war had
demonstrated the perceived danger Moriscos were to all. In the opening decades of
the Spanish Golden Age o f literature we need not go far to examine the opinions held
about Moriscos and potential solutions. Lope de Vega y Carpio, the phoenix of
Spanish drama, wrote many plays with Morisco characters. A stock figure was the
"morisco gracioso" who spoke Castilian with an Arabic accent and humorous syntax.
Other Morisco characters were written by Lope de Vega as pirates, renegades and
traitors. These Moriscos were still allowed to feel nostalgic for the home, lamenting
the loss o f their native land.56 Other noble Muslim characters from historical plays
spoke even more directly to a fact that the official hierarchy was unwilling to discuss;
the Moriscos were also native inhabitants of the peninsula.57
Lope de Vega’s Moriscos were allowed to describe themselves as Spaniards,
but he never presented them as complete. The problem remained a basic religious
difference. "What was wrong with the Moriscos could be remedied by true conversion
56 Thomas E. Case, "Lope and the Moriscos," 206.
57 Ibid., 203.
140
to Christianity."58 Later after the expulsion was fact, Lope praised the actions taken
by the King. But in the years prior to the expulsion the plays of Lope de Vega were
either ambivalent about Moriscos or presented them as unfortunate victims who should
be assimilated into the mainstream.S9 We shall see how there were Moriscos expelled
to Tunis who valued Lope de Vega’s verse enough to record his words in Arabic script
for the education o f their children.60
Within the field o f historical literature there had been a long tradition of
disputed accounts and personal revisions.61 When histories began to circulate which
recounted the events and actions o f the Granada rebellion, different opinions about the
Moriscos also surfaced. Diane Williams has described how Gines Perez de Hita,
author o f the Guerras Civiles de Granada, "subtly shifts blame for Moriscos’ behavior
to the Spaniards themselves."62 All the broken promises, failed treaties and
underhanded agreements were carefully chosen by the historian Perez de Hita to
explain the rebellion. By the 1590s, when the debate about a Morisco expulsion had
carried on for over ten years, the 1597 Guerras Civiles de Granada had much to add
58 Ibid., 213.
59 Ibid., 212.
60 See Luce Lopez Baralt, "La angustia secreta del exilio: el testimonio de un morisco
de Tunez," Hispanic Review. 55 (1987), 41-57; Jaime Oliver Asm, "Un morisco de
Tunez, admirador de Lope," Al-Andalus. 1 (1933), 409-450.
61 Bernal Diaz de Castillo’s history The Conquest of New Spain was written, he
writes, because so many official histories had erred in their descriptions. He meant to
describe the events from his own memory as a participant.
62 Diane S. Williams, Beyond the Limits of Genre. 272.
141
and persuade its readers against such a policy.
When finally the Moriscos were expelled, the expulsion orders explained that it
was done because o f the unrepentant Islamic beliefs and heretical Christianity o f the
Moriscos.63 But Perez de Hita attempted earlier to convince his readers o f something
quite the opposite. He believed that the "acceptance of Christianity did not occur in a
moment but rather over a long period of instruction, reflecting perhaps the emphasis of
Post-Tridentine Spain on personal and active religious education."64 Perez de Hita
called for patience and long term success in a book that became a historical best-seller.
Publicists’ opinion
A group of analytical writers had their own opinions to add on the Morisco
issue. John H. Elliott describes them as a "host o f public-spirited figures" who took as
their task the discovery o f what ailed Castile. "It was under the influence of the
arbitristas that early-seventeenth century Spain surrendured itself to an orgy o f national
introspection."65
These analysts assumed that faults in the government could be examined and
corrected and that individual lives were malleable. The arbitristas answered political
and economic questions according to their personal beliefs. Their hope in
63AGS, Estado 2638 bis, 22 September 1609.
64 Diane S. Williams, 271
65 Elliott, Imperial Spain. 294. For more on thewriters asa literary phenomena see
Jean Vilar, Literatura v Economia: La Fieura Satirica del Arbitrista en elSielo de Pro.
(Madrid, 1973). Patrick Williams in his article "Lerma, 1618: Dismissal or Retirement?"
European History Quarterly 19 (1989), notes that a "singular feature" of this period in
Spanish history was that it "produced an enormous amount of political writings that were
critical o f both country and regime" (321).
142
improvement and a touching love for their country became a distinctive feature o f the
arbitristas’ writing. Their faith might have been naive and their suggestions
unrealistic, but the arbitristas typify a mentality of early modem Spain.
One o f the first men to be recognized as an arbitrista was a chancellery official
in Valladolid, Martin Gonzalez de Cellorigo. In 1600 he published a tract entitled
Memorial de la politica necesaria v util restauracion a la republica de Espana.
Cellorigo was known to Philip III from his previous pamphlets, which the arbitrista
had addressed to both Philip II and his son.
Cellorigo exemplified the arbitristas’ stylistic organization. In three sections he
set out to describe the decline o f the Spanish commonwealth, to propose remedies for
stopping this decline and to answer the critics of Spain. His vocabulary was very
distinctive. Words and phrases like "provecho," - benefit - "republica," -
commonwealth - "bien de todos" - common good - "queja de nadie" - concern of no
one - were all used often in Cellorigo’s presentation. The writing became so standard
that it was often ridiculed by other writers.66
In the last two centuries Gonzalez de Cellorigo has become a popular source
for historians o f Spain. Manuel Colmeiro writes that Cellorigo is "a pleasure to
read."67 Pierre Vilar believes that Cellorigo "contrasted the illusory mythical
66 For example Miguel de Cervantes’ farcical Coloauio de los perros, mocked the
arbitristas, with Cellorigo as the model. Also see Jean Vilar, Literatura v Economia. 186.
67 Manuel Colmeiro, "Biblioteca de los economistas espanoles de los siglos XVI.

XVII y XVIII," Memorias de la Real Academia de Ciencias Morales v Politicas. I (1867).
130.
143
superstructure with the parasitical character o f the society of his day."68 J.H. Elliott
frequently quotes from Cellorigo’s tract, describing it as a "brilliant treatise"
prophesying the effects o f plague and de-population in Spain.69
Though there is a strong flavor of fatalism in his tract, Cellorigo believed the
decline could still be averted. The leaders o f Spain "seem as if they want to reduce
the Kingdom to a commonwealth o f enchanted men who live outside the natural order
o f things."70 To change this situation he believed that the families of the Republic
must strive for proportion as in the "sweet harmony of music, with those who are
making the music being in agreement so as not to cause discord."71 The greatest
problem facing Spain, according to Cellorigo, was the decline in population due to
adulterous ways, poor harvests and plague. To stop the devastating plague, those who
could must leave the city and the municipal government must provide charitable relief
for the poor. He was also concerned that people were squandering their wealth in gold
and silver, whereas true wealth came from "those things which through use are
consumed."72
Yet among these economic forecasts Cellorigo had definite opinions about
68 Pierre Vilar, "The Age o f Don Quixote," translated by Richard Morris in Essays
in European Economic History. 1500-1800. Peter Earle, editor, (Oxford, 1974), 107.
69 J. H. Elliott, Imperial Spain 1469-1716. 293.
70 Martin Gonzalez de Cellorigo, Memorial de la politica necessaria v util

restauracion de la republica de Espana. (Valladolid: 1600), 26.
71 Ibid., 42.
72 Ibid., 22.
144
what should be done with the Moriscos. He opposed their expulsion because o f the
decrease in labor and population it would cause. He blamed the priests for being
remiss in not caring for their Morisco parishioners. He hoped that they could be
assimilated slowly and peacefully into the Kingdom as a whole. But, before the death
o f Philip II, Cellorigo expressed different opinions about the Moriscos, their
committment to Christianity and their roles in society. The two earlier pamphlets were
entitled "Petition to the King, Philip II, on the murders, abuses and disrespect against
the Christian religion committed by the Moriscos," and "Petition written for his
Highness, Prince Philip, son o f Philip II, in which for a second time the dangers
caused to these Kingdoms by the newly converted moors are set forth." Cellorigo
wrote that the "Moriscos should not be allowed to enter any occupation other than
fanning and certain industries where they provide a need."73 He thought that it
would be easier to teach them Christianity if they remained in rural settings with
special Morisco seminaries. In addition he thought their lives should be closely
monitored, forbidding them from traveling or even sleeping away from their homes.
Although Cellorigo advocated maintaining orthodoxy by ostracizing the
Moriscos as an unassimilated minority, he also suggested several different solutions.
He proposed slow assimilation, but then described the horrid heresies committed by the
Moriscos. He believed they could help to solve the problem o f a decreasing
73 These pamphlets were never officially printed and only through the quotation of
Colmeiro in his Historia. page 68, was I able to know them. In addition to Colmeiro.
Pascual Boronat y Barrachina prints a letter that Cellorigo wrote to a royal secretary.
Martin de Idiaquez, on April 24, 1598. It can be found in Los moriscos espafloles v su
expulsion, v. 1, 866-67.
145
population, yet he expected them to refrain from all but certain occupations.
Cellorigo’s analysis o f Castile’s economic problems are still widely accepted today, but
the contradictions o f the Morisco problem remained. Their baptism made the
Moriscos fellow Christians but their heritage marked them as Muslims and thus
perceived traitors. Cellorigo’s thoughts were not far from other Spaniards.
An arbitrista who experienced firsthand the suspicion o f being different was
Cristobal Perez de Herrera. He descended from a noble family that had taken part in
the conquest of Granada and was the chief surgeon of the King’s galleys. In 1612,
however, he was accused o f "judaic consanguinity." He had to undergo a test for
purity of blood where the authorities investigated his family’s genealogy back four
generations. Though he was cleared o f any impurities, his case is an example o f the
dangerous political scene the arbitristas wrote about.74
Despite his precarious situation Perez de Herrera was concerned with the
problem o f the Moriscos as one group o f the many poor within the general economy.
He followed in the footsteps o f Juan Luis Vives, trying to find a remedy for poverty.
In Amparo de pobres. published in 1598, he declared that many false beggars were
taking money away from the truly needy. These marginal groups, he believed, were
"multiplying themselves very much while we [the Christians] become smaller and
smaller."7S Among these false beggars were the Moriscos and the Gypsies, who took
74 Michel Cavillac, "Noblesse et ambiguites au temps de Cervantes: Ie cas du Docteur

Cristobal Perez de Herrera (1556-1620)," Melanges de la Casa de Velazquez. XI (1975),
194.
75 Cristobal Perez de Herrera, Amparo de los pobres. (Madrid. 1975), 19.
146
from the worthy Christians.76 Christianity had to be protected from these vagabonds
and beggars by establishing priorities.77 Perez de Herrera dismissed the Moriscos’
Christianity, emphasizing instead the distinction o f old versus new Christian.
Another scholar and humanist writing before the expulsion was Pedro de
Valencia. In 1606 he wrote an "arbitrio" specifically about the condition of the
Moriscos in Spain. He declared them an enemy within Spain’s boundaries. He
submitted some possible solutions such as widespread dispersion, execution, separation
o f families, slavery, expulsion, or even emasculation.78 One by one, Valencia
rejected all these ideas except for dispersing them to rural areas. He wrote "maybe
move some to Milan, Navarre or Sicily, but definitely not the Indies," where they
could have united with the native populations and caused rebellion.79 As for
expelling them, he deemed it to be the most unjust and despotic of all the solutions,
and besides, the Moriscos once expelled to North Africa would certainly lose whatever
little faith in Christianity they had ever had.80 The historical example of expelling
the Jews was justified because it protected their new convert brothers, but expelling the
76 Ibid., 177.
77 Ibid., 51.
78 Manuel Serrano y Sanz, Pedro de Valencia: Estudio Biografico-Critico. (Badajoz.

1910), 45. Serrano does not make it clear whether the pamphlet entitled Acerca de los
moriscos de Espana was his twentieth-century choice or Valencia’s in 1606. Serrano even
gives two dates for its publication. The 1606 date, however, makes much better sense
than 1613 when the expulsion was almost over.
79 Ibid., 51.
80 Ibid., 47.
147
Moriscos, baptized Christians, would be an act o f cowardice or extreme greed.81
Written during the decade before the expulsion, the writings o f Gonzalez de
Cellorigo, Perez de Herrera, and Pedro de Valencia all reflected the complexity of the
Morisco problem facing the leadership of the Spanish Monarchy. No single remedy
was agreeable to all three writers, but all three considered the Moriscos an unwanted
minority that should be managed with more drastic measures. Yet their remedies all
excluded a general expulsion as too harsh. They recognized the Moriscos as natives o f
Spain who needed individual indoctrination and guidance, not superficial agendas and
solutions.
End o f the Reign o f Philip II
The debate about the Morisco problem was informed from all arenas of life.
After the issue was decided by expulsion all rallied to its defense be it in plays,
histories or conciliar reports. The thirty years before the expulsion demonstrated the
contrary. There were objections and there were alternatives. There were calls from
within Spain and from a larger Europe for greater thought and sustained patience on
the issue. We, today, must not accept the interpretation about the expulsion that
examined the issue with hindsight, even if it was only months or days old. A clearer
picture o f how Moriscos were perceived by the surrounding society and even how the
Moriscos acted themselves is a much better indicator of the situation Moriscos faced in
the years before 1609.
As the reign o f Philip II came to a close, one order pertaining to Moriscos had
81 Boronat, v. 2, 77.
148
been faithfully kept. The royal officials who oversaw the dispersal from Granada kept
lists o f where those Moriscos were sent.82 The jurisdictions with new Moriscos sent
to the King lists o f who was living where. Ecclesiastical leaders counted and recorded
the Moriscos who lived in their parishes. The Inquisition carried out its mandate to
track the Moriscos under its purview. With all this watchful listing and counting, the
analyst today can arrive at accurate descriptions o f Morisco communities in Valladolid.
Salamanca, Palencia or Zamora and the villages in between. But what use did they
have for the King who requested they be submitted? Did he simply want a statement
o f numbers? There was too much detail for mere statistics. Philip II appears to have
wanted a close watch on Morisco families along with their growth, movement and
involvement in all aspects o f the community. These lists succeed in accomplishing
this task, but the lists did not enter into the debate. As the debate continued in the
first ten years o f the reign o f Philip III the perception of Morisco intransigence won
out over verifiable alternatives, even within the archives of the King. The expulsion
put an end to any contemporary need to evaluate the Moriscos.
When Philip II died his son became King. One of Philip Ill’s first acts was to
declare a period o f grace and pardon for the Moriscos. He hoped to see the Moriscos
repent and live as Christians. When he traveled to Valencia for his royal wedding to
Margaret o f Austria, he re-issued his father’s calls for greater dedication to a
evangelical Christianity. But in less than a year’s time he was dissapointed by the
Moriscos continued intransigence. Less than ten years later he called for his Council
82 See for example AGS, C.C. 2162, 2163, 2164, 2183 and 2196.
149
o f State to discuss the groundwork for a general expulsion. How that debate
progressed is the subject o f Chapter 4.
150
Chapter Four
The Debate about the Moriscos

1598-1609
Philip HI resolved the Morisco problem when he ordered a general expulsion,
beginning in 1609 with the Moriscos of Valencia and finishing in 1614 when the last
Moriscos of Ricote left. During the previous reign, a variety of new policies were
implemented and important facts were collected about the Moriscos. When his father
died on September 13, 1598, Philip HI was widely expected to bring vitality, newness
and novelties to the throne.1 The royal chronicler Gonzalez Davila expressed this
thought. "When a prince dies everything changes . . . some will be adored because
now they are in charge, but others will be scorned because they have lost power."2
1 Feros, The King’s Favorite. 53.
2 Gil Gonzalez Davila, Historia de la vida v hechos del inclito monarca amado v
santo D. Felipe Tercero. in Monarquia de Esnafia. (Madrid, 1770) 45. translation is from
Feros, The King’s Favorite. 53.
151
The changes in the analysis o f the Morisco problem continued from the
previous regime, but the urgency and rhetoric inflated in the next eleven years, so that
the debate became intense. Positions were taken, decided, shifted and ignored until,
surprisingly, orders in April o f 1609 were actually carried out by September. This
chapter will analyze the internal debate among leading ecclesiastics and King’s
advisors, along with the many twists and turns taken by the individuals involved.
In 1581, the King asked a select Junta how to further the Christian conversion
o f the Moriscos. This conversion, or complete integration, was the "basic problem of
the Moriscos."3 Until answered with the expulsion decree, the debate swirled around
two questions. The first asked if the Moriscos were a danger to the state. For many,
the suspect new Christians had allegiances elsewhere and so were a household enemy,
only waiting for the propitious moment of treachery. But others doubted that an
atentuated group o f lower-class artisans and laborers could present any threat to the
military might o f the Spanish Monarchy. The Council o f State would be particularly
concerned with this dilemma o f perceived danger.
The second question was normally raised to lend credence to the potentiality of
treason. This question asked if the Moriscos were heretics. Some believed that the
attempts at true conversion had failed, leaving the Moriscos just as Muslim as the
inhabitants of North Africa. If the Moriscos were heretics, then of course they were
enemies. And yet there were those who argued that the attempts at true conversion
had not failed, because the venture had never even been consistently tried. They
3 Lynch, The Hispanic World. 58.
152
argued that with persistence and the appropriate materials, the Moriscos would become
good and faithful Christians.
Ultimately, the decision to expel the Moriscos rested on the personal choice of
the King and his favorite, the Duke of Lerma, and not "some supposed historical
destiny."4 Many people’s opinions and ideas reached the royal ear and became part of
the process of discussion, dialectic and discourse that are so much a part of the reign
o f Philip HI.
The policy debate occurred most prominently among the elite o f church and
state, but as seen in Chapter Three there was input from all levels of society. Later in
the nineteenth century, historians described the Moriscos as an inferior race, who
weakly succumbed to a triumphant nationalism.5 But in the early modem period, the
Morisco issue was not so clear and deliberate. All kinds of voices reached the King’s
ear and the advice he received was more contradictory then has heretofore been
described.
Clergy Calling for Expulsion
The indecision evident among earlier authors was not shared by the clergymen
concerned with the Morisco problem. They might have deferred to royal officials on
questions o f military danger, but on the question of evangelization they had opinions
and experience to share. Because the Morisco problem was centered in Valencia, the
voices coming from this Kingdom carried special weight.
5 Menendez Pelayo, Historia de los heterodoxos espanoles. 240.
153
Jaime Bleda was one o f the dedicated opponents of Morisco presence in Spain.
He was a Dominican friar and an official o f the Valencia Inquisition, who late in the
1580s had been a rector in the Morisco parish o f Corbera. He has been described as a
"principal figure in the study and solution o f the Morisco problem."6 He traveled to
Rome at least twice to encourage the Pope to declare the Moriscos unredeemable
heretics. He did so with such fervour that the Pope had to exile Bleda from the Holy
City, just to avoid his lobbying. Bleda’s insistence on expelling the Moriscos followed
from his observations of their intransigence and the precarious nature o f the Valencian
coasts.
Bleda had close connections with the court, writing often to the Duke of Lerma
and the King. After the Moriscos were expelled, his chronicle of the Moors in Spain
and their expulsion became the main apology for the actions taken against the
Moriscos. His books also received ample funding from Madrid.7 Bleda’s comments
were believed because they were very much what people assumed about the Moriscos.
He recounted cases where one child in a Morisco village was repeatedly baptized for
all the other newborns.8 He swore that Moriscos were selling Christian children to
Algerian slavers. Bleda once disguised himself as a Morisco and attended mass where
6 Boronat, v. 2, 83. Also see Mariano Peset and Telesforo M. Hernandez, "De la
justa expulsion de los moriscos de Espafia," Estudis. 20 (1994), 231-252.
7 AGS, Estado 2745, 23 December 1610; Estado 229, 11 February 1611; Estado
2747, 7 April 1612.
8 Jaime Bleda, Cronica de los moros de Espafia. 951.
154
he witnessed the shocking disdain that the Moriscos held for the Holy Sacrament.9
Although Bleda’s history became the accepted interpretation o f the Christian
reconquest of Spain, his observations had an element o f folklore in them. In Avila,
the same suspicions about constantly baptizing one child for all the others were
current.10 Bleda learned his facts about Morisco’s enslaving little children from a
redeemed Christian captive who had been owned by a Morisco in Algiers, a certainly
hostile observer. Even Bleda’s spying suggests that if it was so simple to disguise
oneself as a Morisco, then they were more like normal Christians than he wanted to
admit.
Bleda thought that the conversion o f the Moriscos to Christianity was
impossible for they were Christ’s enemies. In a letter to the King, he quoted from the
book Fortalecio de la Fe. The story told of a French noble who went on pilgrimage to
Santiago de Compostela. As he crossed the border, he was made to overpay on
customs by Jews. In anger, he struck one o f them, but before he could kill the Jew,
his companions came to the rescue. When the nobleman asked God why he had been
so dishonored, he realized that he had been one of the few Frenchmen to defend Jews
during their expulsion from France. He resolved to never allow a Jew on his lands,
killing all those who lived there. Bleda saw the barons who defended the Moriscos as
deluded as the French noble; they would all suffer because of their protection of
9 Ibid., 938.
10 Tapia, La comunidad morisca de Avila. 310.
155
Christ’s enemies."
Bleda argued that the expulsion would be a glorious regeneration of Spain.
The righteousness o f his cause was only the culmination of the "Reconquista," ending
almost nine hundred years o f Muslim presence in the peninsula. He envisioned St.
James the Moor-killer riding triumphantly over the dead bodies o f the Moriscos. After
the expulsion, Bleda denounced the foreign princes who embraced the faithless and
extolled the Most Catholic and Christian Philip III for ridding his lands of heretics.
Bleda gloried in a new era of eternal health after the rotten tooth had been pulled.
The nobility was suffering from low rents but they could be "consoled knowing that a
greater treasure lies ahead with Jesus Christ in heaven."12
Juan de Ribera, Archbishop of Valencia, became the most important
ecclesiastical voice calling for a general expulsion. Bom in 1533, he was the
illegitimate son o f the Duke of Alcala de los Gazules. Destined for the priesthood, he
took clerical vows in 1543 and went to study theology and law at Salamanca. By
1562 he was ordained as the bishop of Badajoz where he worked actively to
implement the tridentine reforms. In 1569 he was made Archbishop of Valencia,
which carried the added title of Patriarch o f Antioch. O f course, the patriarchate was
absent because o f the Muslim conquests, but the memory remained of the ancient
origins o f Christianity. It is also by the title o f Patriarch that he was always referred
" AGS, Estado 232, 9 August 1611.
12 Bleda, 867, 1027, 1030, & 1032.
156
to in the royal documents.13
When he became Archbishop o f Valencia, Ribera set out on an ambitious
program to visit every village in his diocese in order to encourage true conversion
among all Moriscos. A very important part of this effort was a reprinted catechism for
Moriscos, written by a former Archbishop.14 In 1582 the Patriarch had enough
confidence in his missionary efforts to oppose the banishment of the Valencianos. His
reluctance to expel the Moriscos can also be explained by the certain economic
collapse o f his diocese following any expulsion. What changed his mind during the
next twenty years is uncertain, yet his growing determination that the Moriscos would
never become good Christians played a decisive role. Perhaps the moment that
changed him from a half-hearted defender to a vociferous enemy of the Moriscos was
the first state visit o f Philip HI to Valencia in 1599.
In conjuction with the visit, Philip ordered an Edict o f Grace for all sins
stemming from Muslim behavior, hoping to encourage the true conversion of his
Morisco subjects. By August o f 1600, reports filtered back to the Council of State
about Moriscos planning an uprising with French aid. When the Vice-roy was asked
to confirm this, he responded that although the Moriscos were very upset about the
Edict o f Grace he had heard nothing about any contacts with the French. He did
13 After Ribera’s death in 1611, he was beatified in 1796 and finally canonized in
1960.
14 This catechism has been referred to in Chapter 1 as the Ayala-Ribera catechism.
157
report some rumors o f possible contact with the Turks.15 When the Edict o f Grace
expired in February 1602 only one woman had confessed her sins to the Inquisition.
For Ribera, this was a sign o f failure.
Ribera, in addition, viewed the two years he served as Vice-roy of Valencia as
military failures. The task o f defending the coasts and mountains from Barbary raiders
and domestic bandits was especially difficult in Valencia.15 At one point he
recommended uniting the militia units of the Kingdom under the pretext of conquering
Algiers so that the troops might begin the process of banishing the Moriscos. An
assembly like this was against the ancient privileges of the Kingdom but Ribera
became convinced that the political dangers were too great to allow such bad
Christians in the Kingdom.17 It is certainly the case that North African corsairs
preyed on the Valencian coasts and Moriscos were caught as accomplices.
For close to forty years, Ribera experienced the difficulties o f converting the
Moriscos and perhaps he saw himself advocating a doomed cause. An element of
hesitation remained in his denunciations of the Moriscos. In 1602 he continued to
distinguish between two types o f Moriscos. He described the first as free and
urbanized, mostly living in Castile. The others were bound to feudal lords in rural
areas, mostly in Valencia and Aragon. He advocated expelling the free Moriscos of
Castile because they were hiding their religion so well. He felt that the Castilian
15 Florencio Janer, Condition social de los moriscos de Espafia. (Madrid, 1857), 277-
78.
16 James Casey, The Kingdom of Valencia. 212-218.
17 Boronat, v. 2, 53.
158
Moriscos supported the weaker feudal bound Moriscos. The Moriscos o f Valencia, he
thought, should be separated from Castilian Morisco influence and given another
opportunity to live as Christians. It seems clear as Francisco Marquez Villanueva
asserts, that Ribera had an "unquiet conscience."18 The Moriscos were Christians and
sheep o f the Archbishop’s fold and to expel them would be to admit failure and accept
the defeat o f a century’s evangelization.
Despite any internal misgivings, Ribera insisted that the Moriscos be expelled.
In the spring o f 1608 he chided the King for signing a peace treaty with the heretical
English, especially since the few English in Valencia were allowed to live their
religion openly. He admonished the King that the world still "awaits a demonstration
o f the King’s greatness, which will deserve the title Catholic as his predecessor
Fernando had earned when he expelled the Jews."19
By September o f that year, the King asked for the Patriarch’s aid with pointed
questions about the Moriscos. The King wanted the Patriarch to respond to four
questions. Have the Moriscos shown any desire to convert? How would a conversion
effort best be accomplished? What hope is there that the Moriscos will quiet down,
remove themselves from their sect and stop plotting against the King if continued
effort is given? Is the Kingdom in imminent danger? The Patriarch’s answers
displayed his passionate beliefs about expelling the Moriscos Valencianos.20
18 Marquez Villanueva, El problema morisco. 228.
19 AGS, Estado 2638, folio 11, 15 May 1608.
20 AGS, Estado 209, 13 September 1608.
159
In answer to the first question, the Archbishop wrote "they [the Moriscos] show
no such desire [to convert] and even great anger when they hear that the prelates are
meeting to discuss the issue [of their conversion]." To the second question, Ribera
answered that discussion is impossible with the Moriscos and any effort to convert
them would take years, even centuries. He believed that preaching to the Moriscos,
learning Arabic or living amongst them were all failures. In his official response to
the King, he believed there to be no hope in the true conversion of the Moriscos.
From his religious perspective, all o f Spain was in grave danger because of the
Moriscos’ blasphemies. Worse "the Turk will come and the Valencian militia is so ill-
prepared . . . This seems the opposite of prudence, which is so necessary for good
spiritual and temporal governing, for prudence would have us prevent wrongs and
foresee danger."
In both the question and the answer there were hidden agendas. By the Fall of
1608 the Council of State had already endorsed an expulsion plan. They did not need
more convincing from Valencia. The King seems to have wanted to give the Moriscos
a year to change and wanted the Patriarch’s assistance. But what assistance would he
have been able to give considering his negative response? He believed discussion was
impossible with these people and refused to fund the teaching o f Arabic. He fully
supported missions in the Indies, Japan and Jerusalem but discouraged priests from
living in Morisco villages. As for the Kingdom’s imminent danger, the Vice-roy of
Valencia had already responded to the same questionnaire saying he had things well in
160
control.21 But the Archbishop was not concerned with temporal safety. The
Moriscos’ blasphemous behavior would bring God’s wrath on his chosen people and
Ribera believed that there was no greater danger.
The King and Council would deliberate further on these issues during the
winter months but the final decision to expel was decided by April 4, 1609. The King
did not inform the Archbishop until August 4, 1609 when the royal officer sent from
court to oversee the expulsion in Valencia arrived with the orders. Ribera seems to
have been stunned by the decision. His first response back to the King was to
recommend again that the Moriscos of Castile be expelled first, not those from
Valencia.
Then for almost three weeks the records are blank as to what the Archbishop
thought. It seems for a time that he chose to remain silent and not support the King’s
expulsion actively. Knowing the immensity of human pain that was to be unleashed
he seems to have balked for a moment in the breach o f action. Was he frightened by
the enforcement o f his own thoughts? Did he contemplate opposing the King’s
decision? On August 23, 1609, a day described as a "great but unfulfilled opportunity
for moral thought" Ribera relented.22 He wrote back to the King that he would obey.
He justified the abandonment of his Christian flock as a victory over those who would
allow free practice o f heresy in Spain. It was enough degradation that foreign traders
in Valencia were allowed religious liberties and he would not allow the Moriscos any
22 Marquez Villanueva, El problema morisco. 293.
161
hope. In the end his burdened conscience was covered by obedience and the
impossibility o f allowing free worship in an age of state religion.
In explaining the reasons to the rectors o f the Valencia parishes, the Patriarch
explained that the expulsion was ordered to stop the great blasphemies o f the
Moriscos. "The Moriscos," he said, "should have expected some great calamity for
such continual treachery." In Ribera’s mind the King could have punished them with
death, but because he was a clement and kind sovereign, he had only decided to expel
them. In conclusion he asked that the priests pray for a "good and brief end to this
business."23
Ribera died in the midst o f the expulsion, but after the majority o f Moriscos
Valencianos had been expelled. In a final speech to his congregation he declared that
all memory of the Moriscos should be erased from the land. If anyone knew the
Morisco language, he should forget it. If anyone suffered from the economic
devastation of the Morisco expulsion, then he should remember that it was a worthy
religious act. Ribera envisioned a better Valencia because in his mind the Moriscos
were enemies to God and King.
Nevertheless, his desire to wipe the memory of the Moriscos from Valencia
was much too simple. He forgot the Muslim infrastructure in Valencia, the medieval
linguistic influence and the added disaster that the expulsion would become for the
23 AGS, Estado 215, no date; "Copia de la carta que se ha de escribir a los rectores
en publicandose el negocio."
162
Valencian population and economy.24 For Ribera the Moriscos were never Christians
nor Spaniards and he insisted on an undefiled Christianity and a united Spain. Some
say he died ridden with pain about his actions in the expulsion, but in his final speech
he cried like the biblical Simeon, "Lord, now lettest thou, thy servant depart in
peace."25
Ribera and Bleda stand out as strong voices for the expulsion. Ribera did not
at first agree with expelling the Moriscos, but his opinion changed. Bleda as a parish
priest in Corbera was deeply offended by the perceived sacrilegious attitudes of his
parishioners. First and foremost they urged the King to rid the land of Moriscos
because they were bad Christians and thus a danger to the state. Secondly, their
experience and attitude demonstrated little true evangelical success among the
Moriscos Valencianos. Others thought differently.
Clergy Working for Morisco Conversion
What o f those who believed the Moriscos to be Christians, neither good nor
bad, but simply in need o f instruction and time? Those who held these views were
silenced by the expulsion but in their arguments we can see the types of Christianity
that existed in early modem Spain.
24 James Casey, The Kingdom o f Valencia: Stephen Haliczer, Inquisition and Society
in the Kingdom o f Valencia. 1478-1834: Tulio Halperin Donghi, Un conflicto nacional:
moriscos v cristianos vieios en Valencia: Mark Meyerson, The Muslims of Valencia in
the Age o f Fernando and Isabel. (Berkeley, 1991); Juan Regia, "La expulsion de los
moriscos y sus consecuencias."
25 Luke 2:29. Also see Francisco Marquez Villanueva, "El nunc dimittis del Patriarca
Ribera," El problema morisco. 196-293. The apendix (295-318) includes a transcription
o f the Patriarch’s sermon from which the scripture is quoted.
163
A midway point between complete expulsion and continued patience can be
found in the recommendations Diego de Cuenca sent in to the Council of State.
Cuenca, a parish priest from Homachos in Extremadura, knew already that the
Valencianos were being expelled. But he saw no reason to expel from Spain those in
his parish. He just did not want them in Homachos. Although he said they showed
no respect for the sacraments, continued to circumcise their sons, murdered those who
informed on them, Cuenca only suggested that the Moriscos o f Homachos be removed
from there and scattered in the villages of Burgos so that there would only be one
Morisco in every town.26 Expelling them from the peninsula seemed extreme to
Father Cuenca, but being surrounded by Christians in Old Castile would reform these
recalcitrant Christians into good and faithful Catholics. It was taken for granted that
dispersing the Moriscos widely enough would solve the problem, but then the result of
the Granada scatterings had seemed to have backfired. The tensions were only
heightened by Moriscos being more visible.
Prior to the reforms commanded by the Council of Trent, some elements of the
Catholic Church within Spain already emphasized education and increased individual
observance to inculcate Christianity. San Juan de Avila, a prominent preacher and
educator, "translated certain elements of Christian humanist thought into a practical
and flexible educational strategy" that became widespread with the Tridentine
164
reforms.27 In 1564 he advocated establishing separate churches and masses for
rebellious youth in Seville because "only through recognition of and adjustment to the
boy’s particular social situation could they be properly and successfully made into
virtuous Christians."2* Avila’s example proved that many in the Spanish clergy knew
that "when the basic message of creating a responsive Christian conscience was
stressed over authoritarian behavioral regulation and when the reformers were able to
adjust their message to unique local circumstances, reform was most effective."29 We
shall see how some missionaries to the Morisco communities implemented reforms, but
the 1609 expulsion stopped it all short.30
As early as 1547 the Council of State, under the direction of the bishop of
Segovia, had recommended to Charles V that the Morisco reform effort in Valencia
needed more schools and rectories. The Council suggested that the rectors live
amongst the Moriscos so that they could teach by word and deed, knowing their
students’ daily lives.31 This was not the position taken by either Bleda or Ribera by
27David Coleman, "Moral Formation and Social Control inthe Catholic Reformation:
The Case of San Juan de Avila," Sixteenth-Centurv Journal. 25 (1995), 17.
28 Ibid., 24.
29 Ibid., 30.
30 For more on the impact of the expulsion on our interpretations of the Moriscos see
Francisco Marquez Villanueva, "El problema Historiografico de los Moriscos," El
problema morisco. 101-102. Besides this specific historiographical influence on the
Moriscos there is the added "chronographer" issue that Richard Kagan discusses in "Clio
and the Crown: Writing History in Habsburg Spain," Spain. Europe and the Atlantic
World. 73-99.
165
1600, yet there were those who still advocated a continued missionary work among the
Moriscos in the Valencian area.
Feliciano de Figueroa as bishop o f Segorbe, a suffragan diocese of the
Archdiocese o f Valencia, reported success in the royal Edict of Grace. In 1601 when
the edict was coming to a close, Figueroa wrote the King about the Moriscos of
Segorbe. In Valencia, Ribera reported the complete lack of Morisco repentance and
yet Figueroa reported that he had seen a "notable reformation" among his Morisco
parishioners. He added that "the children have a natural inclination and quickness" for
learning the doctrines of Christianity.32 Figueroa credited the success to the twenty
rectors and twelve traveling preachers he had ordained since the King ordered that the
Moriscos be better instructed.
Figueroa informed the King that he was still looking for more money to fund
additional churches and rectories so that even more Moriscos of Segorbe may be
brought to Christ’s doctrine. He showed no signs of false expectations, notifying the
King that just as trees grow little by little, he planned to await God’s harvest with
patience. In the Val d’Uxo Figueroa tried to divide the villages up into several
parishes and catechize the Moriscos. But in 1608 there were only three churches in
the valley, while the Moriscos knew very little Christian doctrine.33
Unlike Ribera who drew examples from the expulsion of the Jews in 1492,
Figueroa reminded the King o f a forced conversion of Jews in A.D. 620. The Council
32 Boronat, v. 2, 431 -443.
33 Penarroja Torrejon, 97.
166
o f Toledo in that year insisted on teaching the converted Jews Christianity and "in time
all became good Christians."34 Figueroa admitted to the King that there were a wide
variety o f opinions on the Moriscos, with some prelates advocating that the Moriscos
be expelled from the Church. But following the example o f the Toledan Council in
620, he said he would trust in the word o f God. His trust seems to have been
rewarded since in conclusion he reported to Philip that over the last forty years the
Moriscos had lost many o f their "Moorish ceremonies:" they no longer buried their
dead outside hallowed ground; observance o f the month-long fast of Ramadan had
decreased; the children were being baptized and prepared for confirmation. Figueroa
ended in a stunning contradiction to what Bleda and Ribera reported. In the new
parish o f St. Peter, he reported that the Moriscos were no different from the old
Christians in their reverence, composure and attention during the mass or sermon.35
Many o f the Morisco studies since the expulsion have taken for granted that the
Moriscos were impossible to assimilate. This, however, was not the attitude of those
who worked among the Moriscos. Nor does it explain why the debate was so lengthy
and convoluted before Philip HI ordered their expulsion. Some Moriscos were
assimilating into the surrounding Christian environment. When we turn to the years
before the expulsion and examine the debate on the Morisco problem the assumption
about Morisco intransigence proves to be incorrect. Figueroa did not assume that true
conversion was impossible for the Moriscos. His letters imply that the task would
34 Boronat, v. 2, 431-443.
35 Ibid., 436.
167
require patient understanding, hard work by resident clergy and faith in God. His
words were a rebuke to those who had lost their hope. Differing views about the
Moriscos were clearly discussed by the Catholic hierarchy o f Spain and any consensus
only came from hindsight and not from definitive facts about Morisco life. Before the
expulsion some Moriscos still could be considered good Christians. Only after the
expulsion were they defined as heretical, dangerous and bad Christians.
Just prior to the expulsion, Figueroa wrote to a similarly minded Franciscan
cleric, Antonio Sobrino. He would not believe the rumors that the King might expel
the Moriscos. "Expelling Jews and Muslims could be done for reasons of state," he
wrote, "but to expel baptized Christians would be against all good conscience."
Sending Christians to Africa would only insure that they became apostates and the
most Catholic King could never allow that.36
Because they were baptized Christians the Moriscos were a problem like no
other minority group from the examples of history. The King had ordered council
after council to study the issue. His own Council of State would give the final
recorded advice, but the King did not only turn to his aristocratic advisers. In
December of 1608 he asked Ribera to preside over a Council of Theologians in
Valencia to consider the Morisco problem. The Council under Ribera’s firm hand
reported back that they believed the Moriscos to be unredeemable heretics and
expulsion a kind punishment, next to justifiable and legal execution. One member of
the Council, this same correspondent of Figueroa, Antonio Sobrino, disagreed. On
36 Ibid., 504-505.
168
December 4, 1608 his opinions were read in the Valencian Council.
Sobrino asked the Council to stop insisting on the infamy of the Moriscos,
rather he believed they should focus on the true conversion of the Moriscos. He
quoted the Council o f Trent, declaring that all children of baptized Christians should
be baptized and not denied the blessings of baptism or eternal life. As for the adult
Moriscos he believed they should be given any opportunity to repent and freely declare
their doubt about the faith. "How," he asked, "could a cure be found if their wounds
remained hidden?" A fourth and final issue, with which he disagreed with the
Council, was about the Moriscos attending mass and confessing their sins. The
Council had agreed that the Moriscos should be prohibited from doing so because their
obstinacy made their actions sacrilegious. Sobrino viewed the problem of inattendance
differently. He argued that the problem was due to the priests’ irresponsibility, not
ensuring that their parishioners all attended and understood the sacrament. Sobrino’s
views were declared virtuous but full of misapprehensions in Ribera’s report to the
King.
Sobrino’s views are important to consider as an alternative to expulsion. He
argued that teaching the Moriscos proper Christian ways would take time and more
optimism. The Council began with the premise that the Moriscos were traitors,
whereas Sobrino pointed to a potential "true conversion." The Valencian Council
recommended punishing Moriscos for their statements of unbelief, while Sobrino saw
an opportunity to diagnose and cure a spiritual malady. As Juan de Avila had taught
his early sixteenth-century pupils, the manner to extend true Christianity and
169
acceptable social control was through openness and acceptance rather than harsh
punishment and rejection.37 Sobrino even recommended that the Moriscos read or be
taught from Luis de Granada’s Simbolo de la Fe.38 The connection to an early
humanist educator is distant, but the ideas link back to a time in Spain prior to the
Protestant Reformation when the Spanish Church was reforming itself internally and
inculcating a deeper Christianity.39
Sobrino played an important role in the Valencian Council because with his
reservations about expulsion the King in Madrid would not be able to declare the
unanimous support o f the clergy. The King’s reasons for expulsion would have to
come from a Council o f his own making.
Sobrino did not just limit his opinions to the Valencian Council. He also
responded to the same questions that the King had sent to the Patriarch and Vice
roy.40 He disregarded the question about the Morisco danger to the state and only
responded to the problem o f Morisco intransigence and how to overcome it. He began
his report to the King with a list of ten impediments to the success of any preaching or
conversion. Sobrino first described obstacles that arose from the isolated community
life most Moriscos lived in Valencia. Their religious infidelity was passed from father
37 Coleman, "Moral Formation and Social Control," 30.
38 AGS, Estado 218.
39 See opening chapter focusing especially on the ideas coming from Delumeau, Le
Catholicisme entre Luther et Voltaire. Nalle, God in La Mancha and Poska, Regulating
the People.
40 The following description all came from the report in AGS, Estado 218,
presumably written soon after the Valencian Council had finished in December of 1608
170
to son and there were few Christians to provide examples. Their own alfaquis
continue to teach against the Church. Sobrino recommended that the Moriscos be
shown the error o f their ways with great charity and without insults or belittlement,
trusting that God "will perform his miracles." He also believed that the alfaquis
should be removed. He suggested that they be sent to monasteries where they could
see how holy Christians live and be convinced o f their errors.
A second set o f impediments sympathized with the Moriscos’ backwardness.
He called them "gente bozul" - base people - and "poco ladino" - poor Spanish
speakers, - living a bestial life which was easy and customary. Their worst error was
believing that although the Christian law was "good, even holy, theirs is also, as is that
o f the Jews and that in all three those who keep its laws will be saved." Sobrino
suggested that the King patiently rely on time so that the Moriscos might become more
ladino and accepting o f the Christian logic. The Moriscos must be reminded that they
were baptized Christians now and could only be saved in Christ’s law. Again, he
called on the remedy o f God’s divine grace and light which will help the Moriscos
accept the truth.
The last three impediments Sobrino described were not Morisco ones but
problems created by the surrounding Christian environment. The Inquisition required
the Moriscos who had truly converted to denounce their families, which Sobrino said
betrayed all filial love. "They hate Christians for good reason," he wrote, "because
Christians call them moorish dogs and treat them with all absence o f charity." He felt
that the Valencian barons treated Moriscos as slaves and defrauded them of their
171
"righteous labor." Sobrino believed that these obstacles could be easily removed, if
only the King would order that these actions stop. Everyone would certainly obey a
royal decree. From a twentieth-century perspective, we may judge these attitudinal
changes as the most difficult to change but Sobrino was convinced that the acceptance
o f the Moriscos into the Christian fold was possible and expulsion unnecessary, even
unchristian.
After pointing out these obstacles and his own methods of correcting them,
Sobrino continued with a detailed educational program that he felt would accomplish
"God’s miracle." The Muslim ceremonies must be prohibited but he knew success
would only come with patience in teaching the children. He had heard alfaquis who
laughed at the repressive measures but were very concerned about the education
program for the Morisco children. He also recommended that prominent Moriscos
from each village be invited to court where they could be convinced of the King’s
mercy. Sobrino believed this would be successful because the Moriscos still held the
sovereign in such high regard. He pointed to the long history of civil peace and
obedience among the Moriscos o f Valencia, extending into their past as Mudejares
ever since the conquests o f King Jaime. These leading Moriscos might also be given
the privileges o f hidalguia, no matter the principle o f pureza de sangre.
His educational goals relied heavily on the rectors who should be men of
exemplary lives. They must teach the basic doctrines which all Christians should
know. Primarily these precepts were that salvation came only in the law of Christ, the
mystery o f the Trinity, the Incarnation of the Son of God and condemnation of all who
172
do not receive baptism. He also recommended that before marrying a man and woman
both should be tested on their knowledge o f the rosary and of the images. He felt that
the ultimate sign of their conversion would come when the Moriscos worshipped
before the images, because this is "a thing that Mohammed denies as do Luther and
Calvin."
Antonio Sobrino described a Christianity that could be learned and lived. In
contrast, the King chose to define Christian behavior in the peninsula as innate. A
person could only be bom a Christian of parents and ancestors who had been
Christian. Being labeled a "new Christian" in the peninsula came to mean that they
were not Christian at all. In the Americas and in other European areas Christianity
might be watered down, taught by missionaries or even different from Catholic
doctrine, but in Spain it would be an inborn religion. Catholicism would not only be
the religion o f Spain, it would also be the defining culture.
After the expulsion, too many accepted the equation in which Christian
ancestral roots meant complete Spanishness. Questioning the categorical value of the
Castilian language has become quite common in analyzing the intensely local nature of
the kingdoms. The Christian qualifier has not been examined as rigorously, but the
nature o f Catholicism in Spain was also variable and subject to many definitions.
Defining Christianity as hereditary ocurred after the expulsion, but it would seem from
Sobrino that before the expulsion another type of Christianity was defended. Sobrino
relied on the definitions o f Christianity from the New Testament where Jesus
173
commanded his disciples to include all men in his law.41
Jesuit Efforts among Moriscos
Appropriately, Sobrino and Figueroa seem to have known and been influenced
by the surprising Jesuit, Ignacio de las Casas, who was a Morisco Granadino.42 The
Jesuits had a long history of involvement with the Morisco communities. It was not
until 1593 that the Jesuits prohibited former Jews, Muslims or new converts to enter
into their ranks. Ignatius o f Loyola’s early goals were to proselytize in the Holy Land
amongst the inhabitants o f Palestine. After his vision at Manresa, St. Ignatius was
inspired to do missionary work when he met an Aragonese Morisco. Loyola felt the
Morisco needed to be taught Christianity better and he, Loyola, would become the
instrument to do so. Although the Jesuits have the reputation of exemplary Counter-
Reformation soldiers, their early history demonstrates a willingness to compromise in
order to educate and instil an inclusive Christian spirit.43 An innovative Jesuit school
was established in Gandia, near Valencia, to further the Christian teaching of the Duke
of Gandia’s own Morisco servants.
Ignacio de las Casas was educated in a similar Jesuit school established in
Granada. Bom in 1550 to Morisco parents, Ignacio was orphaned early in life and
entered the Jesuit Albaicin school. By 1572 he had become a Jesuit novitiate and was
studying in the Coleggio Romano under the future general Aquaviva. As a member of
41 Matthew 28:19-20; Luke 24:47.
42 Borja de Medina, 123.
43 John W. O’Malley, The First Jesuits. (Cambridge, 1993), 372-374.
174
the Society, Las Casas taught in the Jesuit college in Segovia but left abruptly when
his own brother fled Spain for North Africa, presumably to live as a Muslim. In his
years away from Spain, Gregory XIII sent Las Casas as part o f Jesuit mission to the
eastern Mediterranean, where he attempted to preach in Cairo and Jerusalem, using his
native Arabic. By 1587 he had returned to Spain where he taught in the Jesuit
institutions in Palencia, Leon, Logrono and Avila. In 1597 he was asked by the
Archbishop o f Granada to translate the famous leaden books and he declared them
frauds and works o f islamicizers.44 For this the Archbishop exiled him from the
archdiocese, whence he returned to Avila to work among the lower classes. In Avila
he had moderate success in introducing the Moriscos into a Christian life, while
preaching to them in their colloquial Arabic. He also formed the Congregation of the
Annunciation for Moriscos where they could be taught the "doctrines o f faith and good
customs, the proper obligations of people in their state and office and the manner to
confess."45
Ignacio de las Casas also corresponded with Juan de Idiaquez, informing him of
his recommendations for successful evangelization of the Moriscos o f Valencia.46
First he believed that the Moriscos should be treated well in both word and deed.
Their fiscal burden should be reduced, especially the "farda" which they had to pay to
44 On the leaden books or the forgeries of Sacromonte see Julio Caro Baroja, Las
falsificaciones de la Historia and Dario Cabanelas, El morisco granadino Alonso del
Castillo.
45 Borja de Medina, 116.
175
the Inquisition. He, as Sobrino, recommended exiling the alfaquis to live in villages
with only "Cristianos Viejos." Exemplary parish priests and rectors would be essential
for successfully teaching the Moriscos, combined with an attempt to prepare a Morisco
clergy. Coming from a Morisco, his words must carry the power o f experience from
within the Morisco community. He continued his own missionary work among the
Moriscos o f Old Castile and up until his death he continued to ask his superiors for
permission to work in Andalucia, where he felt he could teach more Moriscos
Granadinos. He died in June o f 1608 before the clergy began debating the issue of a
Morisco expulsion, but his own influence would be felt by the likes of Figueroa and
Sobrino.47
Other Jesuits who added to the Morisco missionary efforts were men like Pedro
de Albotodo, another Morisco Granadino, and Joseph Creswell, the provincial of
English Catholics in Spain. Albotodo was of an earlier generation than Las Casas, but
he also became a Jesuit and lived his life in Granada until the Alpujarra War. Being
exiled, he continued his missionary teaching with Moriscos in Seville.4* Joseph
Creswell also wrote to Idiaquez, protesting the Morisco innocence and calling for a
stronger Christian commitment.49 The exiled Englishman, who understood persecuted
minorities, had a very different insight to the Morisco problem. He wrote that not
believing in the possibility of a Morisco conversion was against all reason.
47 Boija de Medina, 6-8.
48 Antonio Marin Ocete, El Arzobispo Don Pedro Guerrero. 210.
176
"Missionary work among the heretics would always be difficult," he wrote, "but the
effort with the Moriscos was made especially so because the Moriscos feared the
missionaries and had no reason to believe in their good will." Persecuting heretics, for
Creswell, was a ineffective and illegal both in Queen Elizabeth’s England and King
Philip’s Spain.50 The only way to achieve success in Creswell’s experience was to
stop the violent behavior and to preach disinterestedly.51
When similar sentiments were read in the Council of Theologians, Ribera took
them as a personal insult and decried the accusations of priestly negligence. Yet the
daily work of the Morisco Jesuits was with people who they understood. Although
men like Las Casas and Albotodo suffered persecution both from the Morisco
community and the Cristiano Viejo surroundings, they disagreed with the impatient
policies o f the King and Archbishop of Valencia. Their words carried a gentle
message o f Christianity to a King who was considered by all to be a Most Catholic
monarch.
50 Creswell has been referred to as a "virtual eminence noire in advising the Council
o f State on Catholicism in England." Albert J. Loomie, The Spanish Elizabethans: The
English Exiles at the Court o f Philip II. (New York, 1963), 183. That Creswell wrote to
Idiaquez is not surprising, since they had a long correspondene on English matters, but
that he mentioned his opinions about the Moriscos is evidence of how evangelizing
heretics, be they English or Morisco, was seen as similar, cf. Loomie, "Fr. Joseph
Creswell’s Information for Philip II and the Archduke Ernest, ca. August 1594," Recusant
History. 22 (1995), 465-481 and Henry Kamen, "Toleration and Dissent in Sixteenth-
Century Spain: The Alternative Tradition," Sixteenth-Centurv Journal. 19 (1988), 20, note
77.
51 AGS, Estado 212, materia de moriscos, 1608.
177
The Pope and the Morisco Expulsion
The connections between the Jesuits and the Royal court were also extended to
the Papacy. Las Casas corresponded with the Papal Nuncio in Madrid, Domenico
Ginnasio and Cardinal Bellarmine, whom he had taught Arabic. Las Casas always
defended the Moriscos right to be taught the gospel in their own language and the
Cardinal agreed. He also added forcefully that the failure of Morisco conversion was
due more to inadequate methods rather than Morisco intransigence. The Pope’s
involvement in the Morisco expulsion reflected the Morisco Jesuits’ position.
The King and Council at first tried to obtain the Pope’s approval of a mass
expulsion o f baptized Christians. Because the Moriscos were Christians, unlike
previous expulsions o f Jews or Muslims, the Papal approval would sanction the
decision. Papal permission was not needed, as long tradition of the Patronato Real had
established, still the Pope was not agreeable to the actions taken. The Spanish
ambassador to Rome was told to remind the Pope o f the powers conceded to the
Spanish King in previous papal bulls, all which had made the Catholic Church in
Spain a practically independent entity.52 The King did seem to think he was
following the Pope’s intentions in expelling the Moriscos.53 Yet the Pope declared
that he was not consulted nor was he "allowed to change the decision once the
52 AGS, Estado 250; For an analysis into the development of the Patronato Real and
its repercussions on the Moriscos and the Americas see Antonio Garrido Aranda’s books
and articles which include Moriscos e indios: precedentes historicos de la evangelization
en Mexico. (Mexico, 1980), and "Papel de la Iglesia de Granada en la asimilacion de la
sociedad morisca," Anuario de historia modema v contemporanea. 2 (1975-76) 69-104.
53 AGS, Estado 2639, folio 134, 15 December 1609.
178
expulsion began."54
In documents from the Vatican Archives we can see Pope Paul V’s knowledge
o f the Morisco Jesuit’s ideas. The Pope declared that the Moriscos must become truly
converted to Christianity for two reasons. The first was because all mankind has the
right to know the true religion. In Paul V’s estimation the Spanish King, who was
already spending so much effort teaching his subjects in Flanders and the Indies,
should strive even more in his native lands. Secondly, the true conversion of the
Moriscos would help preserve the state because they would loyally defend the Catholic
King.55 There is no consideration o f expulsion here, rather a concern that the
Moriscos be taught Christianity with sweet words and weekly preaching. The Pope
recommended teaching from the Roman catechism, especially the commentary by
Cardinal Bellarmine, who was a close correspondent o f Las Casas. The Pope believed
that the Moriscos could demonstrate their good Christian nature by mastering the
commandments and Articles o f Faith at yearly examinations with their parish priest.56
Before the expulsion a prominent Morisco named Gaspar Zaydejos went to
Rome, petitioning the Pope for an affirmation of good Christianity. He returned with
papal bulls to the Inquisition that confirmed his good Christianity.57 There is
54 C. Perez Bustamante, "El Pontifice Paulo V y la expulsion de los moriscos,"

Boletin de la Real Academia de la Historia. 129 (1951), 232.
55 Ibid., 227.
56 Ibid., 231.
57 AGS, Estado 212, materia de moriscos, 1608.
179
evidence that the Pope believed the Moriscos to be good Christians.5* The Pope
continued to defend his innocence o f any involvement in the expulsion. In 1611 an
Italian translation o f Marcos Gualadalajara’s Justa expulsion de los Moriscos was
published in Rome. Before being printed the Pope insisted that the sections stating his
agreement to the expulsion and refusal to accept Moriscos in his territories be removed
as false.59
Philip in and his Counsellors
The theological discussion among the clergy proposed many solutions to the
Morisco problem and none seemed less likely than a complete expulsion.
Nevertheless, the clerical debate influenced a more significant discussion. Philip III
followed the clerical debates. His counsellors discussed the issues often in royal
councils. The decision to expel the Moriscos was the King’s to make and his
counsellors provided him with the arguments. Foremost among these advisors was the
Duke of Lerma, Don Francisco Gomez de Sandoval y Rojas.
As the King’s favorite, Lerma participated in and decisively influenced the
decision to expel the Moriscos. In 1582, the Duke had been opposed to the expulsion
o f the Moriscos. His familial lands in the Valencian area had many Morisco laborers
and his holdings would suffer from an expulsion. Yet his ambitions were more
intertwined with Castilian, rather than Valencian, issues.60 Lerma, while favorite,
58 Dominguez Ortiz and Vincent. Historia de los moriscos. 248.
59 Perez Bustamante, "El pontifice Paulo V," 232.
60 Williams, "Lerma, Old Castile and the Travels of Philip II," 380. Also see
Antonio Feros, The King’s Favorite. 188.
180
established a strong base in Valladolid. From this central city in Old Castile, he began
to expand his patrimony. His wealth allowed him to become a spectacular patron of
artist and intellectuals.61 His noble ancestors had left him in a precarious financial
state and only through the state would he recoup them. He pled so much with Philip
II to keep him on as a court retainer that others were embarrassed for him.
Lerma’s fortunes changed when he became the Prince’s Master of the Horse.
When Philip HI became King, Lerma’s signature was accepted as the King’s order and
his wealth began to increase. There is an important debate about the wisdom of
Lerma’s fostering the new policies that changed the Spanish Empire’s direction but
undoubtedly he and his family benefitted from his position.62 He was allowed
constant access to the King, influencing him daily. Lerma’s power came from his
close friendship with the King as well as his ability to manage the ceremonial
schedule.63 By administering the many favors available to him, Lerma also
established his family and entourage as the arbiters of court procedure. Lerma did not
involve himself often in the bureaucratic debate in the Spanish Empire, but when he
did his suggestions became reality.
61 Sarah Schroth, The Private Picture Collection o f the Duke o f Lerma. (PhD.
dissertation, New York University, 1990) and Antonio Feros, The King’s Favorite. 184-
192.
62 Graham Darby, "Lerma before Olivares," History Today. 45, 7 (July 1995) 30-36.
Also see Magdalena Sanchez, Dynasty. State and Diplomacy in the Spain of Philip III and
more recently Paul C. Allen, The Strategy of Peace: Spanish Foreign Policy and the ’Pax
Hispanica’ 1598-1609. 1995.
63 Antonio Feros "Twin souls: Monarchs and favourites in early seventeenth-century

Spain," Spain. Europe and the Atlantic World. 27-47.
181
In 1601, Lerma encouraged the King to move the court to Valladolid where he
had purchased land and buildings very cheaply. When the court did move, Lerma
grew richer renting to others who followed the King. He also had other reasons to
move the court from Madrid. Valladolid had walls with guarded access, protecting the
King from so many petitioners unlike Madrid. Later he negotiated a return to Madrid
in 1605 succumbing to the established power of the new capital. But he had
demonstrated his power over the King’s schedule. He also used the move to increase
his personal wealth.
The Duke’s recommendations were also instrumental in expediting the
expulsion. In 1608, Lerma recommended that the noble employers of Moriscos gain
title o f Morisco property after the expulsion. Beyond just the outright title of land he
also offered the hope o f higher taxes on new settlers. His advocacy of an expulsion
arose from his strategy of fostering a truce in Northern Europe and turning Spanish
attention to the Mediterranean. His recommendations for capturing Tunis and later
Larache were enthusiastically accepted by the King, who wanted to end the failures in
Flanders and continue his predecessors’ Christian reconquest in the new areas o f North
Africa.64
Along with Lerma there was also the added input of more nobles on central
64 For more on the spiritual motivation of Philip HI and his retinue see Magdalena
S. Sanchez, "Confession and complicity: Margarita de Austria, Richard Haller, S.J., and
the court of Philip HI," Cuademos de Historia Modema. 14 (1993), 133-149; Trevor J.
Dadson, "The Duke of Lerma and the Count of Salinas: Politics and Friendship in Early-
Seventeenth Century Spain," European History Quarterly. 25 (1995), 5-38; Patrick
Williams, "El reinado de Felipe HI," Historia General de Espana v America, t. 8, La crisis
de la heeemonia espanola siglo XVII. (Madrid, 1986), 419-443.
182
councils and the growth of bureaucratic functions performed by the university educated
groups.65 The Council o f State was the central deliberative body of the Hispanic
Kingdoms and the most important administrators sat in its chambers. When Philip HI
became King, Lerma was immediately added to this Council and by 1609 most
members were appointees o f Philip HI, rather than his father’s. Those, like Juan de
Idiaquez and the Duke of Medina Sidonia, who remained were effectual
administrators, bringing years o f experience and shrewdness to the Council. Other
men who advised the King in the Council of State included the Duke of Infantado, the
Constable of Castile, the Count o f Alba de Liste, the Archbishop of Toledo and the
Father Confessor. At the beginning of his reign, Philip III also strengthened the
Council of War with an additional twelve new members.66
The choice was completely the King’s to make while obtaining the
recommendations of a few choice subjects. Why he finally chose to expel the
Moriscos remains uncertain. The sentiments of people surrounding him must have
been influential though what emerges is the choice to see all Moriscos as heretics and
traitors, with no room for assimilation or transitional states. The royal entourage
seems to have ignored the perceptions o f men like Ignacio de las Casas and Feliciano
de Figueroa. Their choice to view the Morisco problem in black and white was a
choice among many options. It was not the only choice available.
65 Richard L. Kagan, Students and Society in Early Modem Spain, xiii. Also see
Jean Marc Pelorson, Les letrados: iuristes castillans sous Philippe III, recherches sur leur
place dans la societe. la culture et l’etat (Poitiers, 1980), 454-455.
66 Barrios, El Conseio de Estado. 118, nt. 28.
183
The new King’s choices were also influenced by his relationship to the
Austrian Habsburgs, represented by his marriage to the Archduchess Margaret. When
Philip DI became King he began his reign with promises o f forgiveness for the
Moriscos, especially after the royal wedding in Valencia. All sources indicate a close
relationship between the King and Queen, built on mutual religious devotion. The
experience o f Valencia with its Morisco populations must have astounded the Queen
for she vowed to establish an Augustinian convent once the Moriscos were expelled.67
But Margaret’s influence on Philip was negligible in the early years due to her
frequent childbirth and his constant travels with the Duke o f Lerma.6* She did
maintain a close friendship and advisory relationship with the Patriarch in the early
years of the marriage. Later her alliance with the royal confessors against the Duke of
Lerma’s supporters would bring down two corrupt Lerma supporters and begin the
decline o f Lerma’s own influence. Royal chroniclers characterize her devotion and
piety as an example for Philip HI.
The counsellors and influences that surrounded the Spanish King were all there
to advise the King on his Catholic responsibilities. Our received perception of Philip
III portrays him as easily persuaded by his favorites and distracted from his duties, in
contrast to his hard-working father. In the matter of Moriscos he was very often
67 For more on Queen Margaret, wife of Philip III see Nestor Lujan, "Margarita de
Austria," Historia v Vida. 18, 208 (1985) 101-105 and Maria Jesus Perez Martin,
Margarita de Austria. Reina de Espana. (Madrid, 1961).
6* Patrick Williams, "Lerma, Old Castile and the Travels of Philip III of Spain,"
History. 73 (1988), 379-97.
184
involved and added marginal notes to Council summaries. However, the issue of
resolving the Morisco problem blew hot and cold in the early years of his reign.
Abortive Expulsion Orders. 1599-1603
A Morisco expulsion was ordered often, advocated strongly by many in the
Council and full o f preconceptions. On February 2, 1599 the Council of State met,
with Lerma leading the discussion. He spoke o f the Moriscos being just as Muslim as
ever. "Their numbers," he said, "were increasing rapidly because they did not fight in
the army."69 They had an excessive number o f children and cared for the land so
well that they lived long and healthy lives. A suggestion was made to expel them and
additionally to have the King’s confessor consider if expelling the Moriscos would be
a royal sin. Another solution discussed was to scatter all the Moriscos into villages of
no less than 50 to 500 citizens, prohibiting them all occupations but farming. The
Council also requested that the King order a general census o f the Moriscos so that a
reckoning could always be had. All of these requests had been submitted before and
the Council finished with a resolution to not forget the issue as had so often happened
in the past, but to resolve the problem without delay.70
With all its insistence to "resolve this issue," the Council had to insist a year
later in August 1600 to conclude the matter with great urgency. The Moriscos were
declared household enemies and the events of the Granada rebellion were re-told as a
warning of treachery. They asked the King to study all the previous documents about
69 AGS, Estado 165, folio 354, 2 February 1599.
70 Ibid.
185
the Moriscos and that a decision be made. They were certain that delay would only
cause more damage.71 And yet still nothing was done. In 1601 the same issues were
discussed and seemingly final orders sent but nothing occurred.72 Warnings were
received from the Patriarch in September and the Council recommended that expulsion
orders be given in the following spring. The King appears to have agreed and ordered
the ships readied, but again nothing.73 In 1601 the King’s confessor, Fray Gaspar de
Cordoba, was concerned about sending the Moriscos to North Africa since, in his
opinion, they would create more danger in neighboring waters. He recommended
transporting the Moriscos to remote islands like the "islas Bacallaus," presumably the
northeastern coast o f North America from Cape Cod to Newfoundland. Perhaps the
Confessor’s qualms served to stop the proceedings in 1601, but there was also
hesitation on the King and Lerma’s behalf.
In 1602 the King’s own words stressed the importance he placed on this final
resolution. In early 1602 a Junta de Cuatro, consisting of Lerma, Miranda, Idiaquez
and the Confessor met to consider options.74 These were four of the most influential
and well-informed men in the government and still the King felt it urgent enough to
add in marginal notes phrases like "den calor a ello," "desse mucha prisa," and "con
71 AGS, Estado 2636, 10 August 1600. reprinted in Janer, 277-78.
72 Ibid.; also see AGS, Estado 1874, 19 September 1601; AGS, Estado 187, 13
October 1601.
74 In previos notes the influence of Lerma and Idiaquez have been mentioned. As
for Miranda also see Feros, The King’s Favorite. 242-243.
186
todo el calor posible."75 And still the expulsion was over seven years away. Again
in 1603 reports filtered into the King and Council o f State of the Morisco danger and
they advised the "difficult remedy", reminding themselves that this issue should not be
forgotten. At the same time they acknowledged hearing rumors of Morisco danger for
years now and all the reports being more of the same.76
Amidst all the unfulfilled decisions and forgotten orders the only
accomplishment among the ruling men seems to have been a general opinion that
expelling the Moriscos was the only solution. Since the Moriscos could not be
forgotten, the Council insisted on the most drastic measure. They formed some
erroneous conceptions about the Moriscos, repeatedly heard rumors o f their treachery
and assumed they were bad Christians. The most serious misconception that became
commonplace was that when the Patriarch spoke about the Moriscos of Valencia, they
presupposed that all the Moriscos o f Spain were the same.77 Their focus on the
Moriscos Valencianos had led them to accept the stereotype of a homogenous, unified
Morisco population based on one regional area. The King and Council would find
their assumption about Morisco homogeneity much different when in 1609 the orders
were finally sent and the expulsion began.
The King’s impressions o f Moriscos could only have come from what he saw
75 AGS, Estado 208, 3 January 1602. Literally translatedthese phrasesmean give

it heat, give it great speed and with all the heat possible. The Kingobviouslydesired
decisive action.
76 AGS, Estado K 1426 A, folio 100, 25 February 1603.
187
around him. His royal procession to Valencia gave him an opportunity to see the
Moriscos Valencianos. The only other Moriscos he would have seen would be those
in the royal court, as violinists or gardeners.78 His opinions about the Moriscos were
mostly influenced by what he read from Ribera and was told by Lerma. It is unlikely
that he would have known poor Moriscos in his sometime capital city o f Valladolid; at
most he may have known the reputation of certain Morisco neighborhoods.
A True Beginning to the Expulsion
In January 1608, Lerma offered his solution to the Morisco problem but unlike
earlier discussions the Duke’s suggestions were implemented. The Morisco issue
seems to have been put aside in 1603 until December of 1607 when the Count of
Luna, Don Francisco de Aragon, wrote to the King requesting that he be allowed to
represent a group o f Aragonese Moriscos at court. The Moriscos had come to Luna
hoping that he might persuade the King to give them a chance to demonstrate that they
lived as Christians. The Moriscos and Luna argued that despite the general disbelief
existing at court about Morisco Christianity and the processes of the Inquisition there
were Moriscos attempting to live as Christians should. Luna requested the King to
form a committee to instruct the Moriscos, who he was representing, on what they
must do to show their good faith. He excused their errors because their ancestors’
conversion had been too hasty, denying them any time for preparation. In conclusion,
78 AGS, Estado 2746, 14 June 1611.
188
he believed the Moriscos wished to forget the past and "serve God and His
Majesty."79
Perhaps in response to Luna’s letter and certainly remembering all the previous
meetings about Moriscos the Council o f State met on January 30, 1608 to discuss the
problem one more time. Their meeting was unique because the Duke of Lerma was
actually present, one of the 22 o f 739 official Council of State meetings that he
attended in twenty two years as a counsellor.80 The meeting began with a formal
statement from Idiaquez, who had the longest tenure as counsellor and detailed
experience in analyzing the Morisco problem. Idiaquez proposed from the outset that
all the Moriscos be considered "apostates and mohammedans," hence there was no
hope that they would recognize their errors. Idiaquez admitted before the Council that
it was a mistake to have forcibly baptized the Moriscos, but now the problem of this
heresy must be solved.81 In support o f his statements, Idiaquez had used his
secretarial expertise to compile for the King a summary o f Morisco material available
in the State papers. The first document referred back to the 1581 Junta of Three and
proceeded to the Council’s deliberations up to 1603. Among the material was also the
79 AGS, Estado 208, no date, possibly December 1607. The Count of Luna’s family
was also represented by a Castilian relative in Fuentiduena, a village of Segovia. The
Moriscos of Fuentiduena appear to have been exempted from the expulsion. See Chapter
Six.
80 Williams, "Philip HI and the Restoration of Spanish Government," 752. Although

this might have been how often Lerma attended official meetings, it was unnecessary for
him to do so, since he read the reports and summarized them for the King. He knew that
constant access to the Monarch was much more influential than official channels. See
how Feros in The King’s Favorite. 224-227, explains this issue in constrast to Williams
189
correspondence from the Patriarch on the Moriscos o f Valencia. Thus the Council
began its formal discussion fully aware of the past thirty years of incidents that led to
Moriscos being discussed in their meetings. The organization of facts clearly pointed
to an inevitable expulsion, yet what is missing from the summary is an analysis of
Morisco communities outside Valencia or positive outcomes of Morisco conversion.
The Council either wanted only to know about the dangerous crises or received from
its sources just the bad news.
After Idiaquez’s statement, the discussion was formally opened so the
individual counsellors could express their opinions in the formal manner based on
length o f tenure in the council. Idiaquez at first deferred to "those who know more
about this issue, especially the Duke of Lerma." But before doing so he reiterated that
something must be done because "they [the Moriscos] do not serve in our armies, have
large families and they soon will outnumber the Cristianos Viejos." He also brought
up the issue o f the King’s conscience, which had to be reconciled with his position as
defender o f the faith and heir to the principal throne of the Church. Finally Idiaquez
reminded the Council of his own previous knowledge from the reign of Philip II and
all the choices o f the prudent King.
The Count of Chinchon, another old advisor of Philip II, spoke next. He
agreed with Idiaquez about the rapidly growing Morisco population and was also
concerned with the threat o f a Turkish supported rebellion among the Moriscos.
Chinchon, however, made a distinction between the danger threatening the coasts of
Valencia because of the treacherous Moriscos and the other Moriscos who the Turks
190
would find impossible to support. Chinchon saw the differences between the various
kinds o f Moriscos and based his analysis on that. His secondary worry, next to a
Turkish threat, was what should be done with the nobles in Valencia who had Morisco
vassals.
The Duke o f Lerma, taking his turn to speak, answered that question. His
words were short, but direct and unequivocable. For him there was no time to waste.
The Moriscos had been given their chance to live as Christians and they had wasted it.
He recommended sending the adults to the Barbary Coasts, raising the children as
Christians and giving the Valencian barons the abandoned estates. The feudal barons
o f Valencia had controlled and protected their Morisco vassals. They were
understandably hesitant to relinquish a valuable labor force. Lerma solved this
problem in the end. Also possessing extensive lands in Valencia, he proposed turning
over the Morisco land and their assets to their Christian lords. This was done in hopes
of bringing in new settlers and establishing a more efficient taxation system. After the
expulsion, these hopes went unfulfilled and the Kingdom of Valencia continued to
suffer from a depression with roots in the late sixteenth century.82
The other five counsellors in attendance voiced their agreement with what
Lerma had suggested. The Cardinal o f Toledo reasoned that the state must guard the
faith, while also rendering unto Caesar. He cautioned that the decision must remain a
secret to avoid uprisings. The Constable of Castile also voiced the same concern about
82 James Casev. The Kingdom of Valencia in the Seventeenth Century. 53. 151; also
see article by same author "Moriscos and the Depopulation of Valencia," Past & Present.
50 (Feb. 1971), 19-40.
191
upmost secrecy. The Duke o f Infantado called the proposed solution a "great and
worthy cause." The Count o f Alba de Liste thought that the Moriscos "deserved death
for their grave offenses" and declared expulsion a very kind alternative. Only the
confessor, Fray Geronimo Xavierre, hesitated because o f the difficulties o f "this
business." He, unlike Lerma, had reservations about the chance the Moriscos had been
given to be good Christians, considering that they had not even been taught in their
own language. He is the one who suggested that the opinion o f the Patriarch and
other Valencian clergy must be sought, which led to the December 1608 Council of
Theologians in Valencia.83
Once the Council of State decided on the issue o f the Morisco estates the
expulsion began to be planned. The King still insisted on trying to convert the
Moriscos for one more year. He placed Antonio Sobrino in charge of the missionary
effort in Valencia, but did not expect much success. "If the Moriscos did not convert
in a year’s time," he wrote, "then they will never convert."84
At the same time that the Morisco expulsion was being planned in the meetings
o f the Council o f State, two other important events were underway. The first was the
negotiations that led to the twelve year truce with the rebels in the northern
Netherlands. The timing of the truce is often confused with the Morisco expulsion
because the two were ordered and formally signed in the Spring of 1609, yet the truce
83 The entire discussion comes from the formal papers sent for the King’s perusal
which begins with Idiaquez’s formal comments and concludes with the Confessor’s
comments. They can be found in AGS, Estado 212, 30 January 1608.
84 AGS, Estado 211, 7 October 1608.
192
had been developing for over five years previously and was sustained by the
arguments o f the Archduke Albert, governor in Brussels. In 1617, Lerma explained
that the twelve year truce and the expulsion had been worked out together as a way to
provide "an honorable exit from present condition."85 But there were counsellors
who disagreed with the terms and spirit of the truce, as well as the direction being
taken with the Morisco expulsion.
The second issue involving the Council’s time was the Spanish seaborne
conquest o f the Moroccan port o f Larache. This military undertaking required the
alliance o f Muley Xeque, son o f the recently deceased Sultan. Muley Xeque was
fighting over the succession with another brother, Muley Cidan, and was receiving
Spanish aid. Unable to take Algiers, Philip ID turned to the Moroccan coasts for his
dreams o f continuing the Reconquista.
The twelve year truce with the Dutch and the Larache campaign demonstrate
how the Council had to balance their political constraints, religious beliefs and
economic necessities. The truce with the Dutch Protestants was imperative for some
because the Spanish troops would not fight nor could the cash strapped government
pay the soldiers. Others argued that a truce would allow the Spanish Monarchy time
85 Biblioteca Nacional de Espana (BNE), mss 5570, folios 164-164v: "Pareceres del
Duque de Lerma en el Consejo de Estado" 8 April 1617. My thanks to Professor Feros
who kindly summarized this document for me. Even as early as 1602 the Count of
Chinchon was linking the two problems of the Moriscos and the Dutch Revolt, cf. Paul
C. Allen, The Strategy of Peace. 199-200; quoting from AGS, Estado 2023, folio 126, 20
November 1602.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission o f the copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
193
to recover and prepare for a more concerted effort in the Netherlands.86 The Larache
conquest required cooperation with a Muslim prince. If anything the Morisco
expulsion gave the King and Council the opportunity to redeem their beliefs. But even
then the Cardinal o f Toledo reminded the King "that there are many reasons not to
trust Muley Xeque."87 Prime among these reasons was that the Muley was a Muslim
infidel.
Decision to Expel Made
On April 4, 1609 the Council considered all these issues as they contemplated
the decision to expel the Moriscos. The Council began by pondering "the victories of
Muley Cidan in Morocco and his possible relations with some from Holland and their
[the Moriscos] continued obstinacy in the abominable sect o f Mohammed."88 What
should be done? Where should the expulsion begin? When and how should it [the
expulsion] be done? The Council determined that all other remedies had been
exhausted and the only remaining option, other than cutting their throats, was complete
expulsion. The expulsion should then begin in Valencia and forces deputized to assist
in the expulsion should be gathered, even from Italy if necessary. The Council
considered the time from August to October sufficient to accomplish the entire
86 Geoffrey Parker, The Dutch Revolt (London, 1977) 237-39; also see Peter
Brightwell, "The Spanish Origins of the Thirty Years War," European Studies Review.
9 (1979), 409-431, "Spain, Bohemia and Europe 1619-21," European Studies Review. 12
(1982), 371-399 and "Spain and Bohemia: The Decision to Intervene 1619," European
Studies Review. 12 (1982), 117-141.
87 AGS, Estado 2638, folio 107, 5 March 1609.
88 AGS, Estado 218, 4 April 1609
194
expulsion. These answers were given with full knowledge of their impact from and on
the issues o f the Dutch truce and Larache campaign.
Some additional decisions were also made. Morisco children younger than
fifteen years old would be allowed to stay. The Moriscos of Granada scattered in
other Kingdoms should be counted and returned to their originally assigned cities.
When the expulsion began in Castile, the Moriscos living in large cities should be
exiled first. This was deemed necessary because theCastilianMoriscos lived so close
to Cristianos Viejos and had mixed with them so much.The Councilalso
recommended informing their ally Muley Xeque about the upcoming expulsion and to
tell him not to worry. Besides all these other decisions the Council congratulated the
King for ordering his "Kingdoms rid of such enemies and the great "reputation" which
will come to him for this difficult remedy."89
From April to August many things needed to be coordinated if all the Moriscos
were to be expelled. Still other issues interfered and influenced the choice. On April
24, Muley Xeque who had escaped from his victorious brother into Portugal was given
permission to enter Castile along with his entire entourage.90 But on the twenty-
eighth the Inquisition in Lisbon wrote the King, informing him of two Castilian and
two Portuguese renegades who served the Muslim prince.91 Immediately the
Inquisition in Carmona, where the Moroccans were residing, wrote asking the King for
89 Ibid.
90 AGS, Estado 2638, folio 132, 24 April 1609.
91 AGS, Estado 2638, folio 131, 28 April 1609.
195
clarification on his promise o f safe passage.92 The King swiftly decided that the
renegades must leave his Kingdoms, but the Muley Xeque should be convinced with
reasonable words that this was the only thing to do.93 Renegades would not be
allowed to live in Spain, despite their relationship with an ally. In all these problems
leading to the conquest o f Larache, the Council recommended at one point that
perhaps a leader like Muley Xeque could be established as the Morisco leader in North
Africa once the Moriscos were expelled from Spain.94 The King was also plagued by
his decision to sign the Truce with the Dutch but finally signed it on 7 July when his
finances showed no sign o f improvements.95
Although the King and Council appeared to have definitely decided on
expulsion by April 4, 1609, other Morisco options continued to be discussed. Don
Rodrigo de Toledo, in command o f the Spanish Mediterranean Fleet, had heard rumors
about the expulsion decision by June 8, 1609. When he was asked his opinion about
the Morisco expulsion he responded testily that "everything has already been said and
decided upon, so I have nothing to add." What he did comment on was how difficult
he believed it would be to expel the Moriscos. He wrote "that even a dead man would
need two drinks to do it." Toledo was also concerned about Turkish retaliation against
the "good Greeks, Maronites, Albanians and Christian captives, who will suffer great
92 AGS, Estado2638, folio130, 21 May 1609.
95 Paul C. Allen, The Strategy of Peace. 468.
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risk" because o f the King’s actions. "What should have been done," he argued was "to
reduce these people [the Moriscos] with good laws and well executed orders." Now
with the expulsion decided their "souls will be lost in North Africa, whereas some
might have been saved."96
Another report came in from an investigation by the royal official, Gregorio
Lopez Madera. He reported that the Moriscos o f the village of Homachos had become
dangerous bandits and outlaws. Considering their act of "lese majeste" and that
Moriscos had not lived where they were told to live, nor given up their customary
dress, or stopped speaking in Arabic they should be punished.97 The Council
considered this information on June 8, 1609 and only recommended that the Moriscos
at court be expelled from the King’s presence and that the laws from the Catholic
Kings to Philip II be applied rigorously as they pertained to Moriscos. If these
measures did not work then the Council suggested removing the Moriscos from the
coasts and settling them all inland.98 Even at this late date the Council veered from
its April decision and suggested alternative remedies.
The waiting was over by June 21, 1609. The King issued direct orders for the
explicit start to a complete Morisco expulsion. The Council’s papers show a summary
of what the King had commanded. The Moriscos had to leave Spain. The first to go
96 AGS, Estado 218, 8 June 1609.
97 This is the same village where the parish priest, Diego de Cuenca, had
recommended dispersing the Moriscos to isolated villages in the mountains of Burgos.
See earlier in Chapter 4.
98 AGS, Estado 2639, folio 17, 8 June 1609.
197
would be those Moriscos o f Valencia. The issue of what age children had to leave
was as yet undecided. Idiaquez believed that children under fifteen should be allowed
to stay while the Duke o f Lerma thought better of seven years old. The military
preparations would include positioning the galleys of Italy off the coasts of Mallorca,
the border fortifications in Valencia should be strengthened and the militia readied.
The command o f the Valencian expulsion was delegated to Don Agustin Mexia. After
the expulsion was finished in Valencia, the next Moriscos to be expelled should be
those o f Andalucia with the Duke o f Medina Sidonia in command.99 All the lords of
Moriscos in Valencia should be prepared to take possession of Morisco property.
Money to stockpile supplies in Mallorca, Barcelona, Tarragona, Cartagena and Malaga
should be furnished by the Crusade Commission.100 The real preparations had begun
and soon the actual orders would be published so that even the Moriscos would know
their fate.
Agustin Mexia received formal instructions from the Duke of Lerma while
visiting his brother in Valladolid. He then proceeded to Valencia with letters
informing the Vice-roy, the Marquis of Caracena, and the Patriarch of the expulsion
beginning in Valencia itself.
A part o f the King’s personal reasons for expelling the Moriscos can be seen in
his letter carried by Mexia to the Patriarch. In this letter the King attributed the
99 For the actions o f the Duke in the Morisco expulsion see Peter Pierson,
Commander of the Armada: The Seventh Duke of Medina Sidionia. (New Haven, 1989),
228-229.
100 AGS, Estado 2638 bis, folios 1-4, 21 June 1609.
198
failure o f the attacks on England in 1600 and Algiers in 1604 to the apostasy and
heresy o f the Moriscos. Because God had been offended by the Moriscos, He had
removed his divine assistance. The King was also concerned that the Moriscos had
promised a Turkish and Moroccan invasion the support of 150,000 Moriscos should
either decide to invade. Where 150,000 male Moriscos armed to support a Muslim
invasion would have come is impossible to know, but the King continued to hold this
belief. The King’s own well-known piety and God fearing nature had persuaded him
that the Moriscos were a danger to the state, specifically because their very presence
removed God’s favor. And yet he still pragmatically relied on bogus numbers to
bolster his own beliefs and convince others.101
The Council attempted to maintain all orders and correspondence secret with
the use o f a secret code.102 Still the Council continued to debate the merits of an
expulsion. Some of the nobles were not convinced that this was the best solution.
The Duke of Infantado, a close ally to Lerma, tried in this period and later during the
expulsion to protect many Moriscos. The Cardinal of Toledo praised the King for his
"great and brave decision," assuring him that a "great miracle will surely occur on its
completion." But the Constable o f Castile, the Duke of Infantado and the Count of
Albe de Liste suggested only expelling the Moriscos who lived twenty leagues inland
from the coasts. They were especially worried about the lack of financial preparations
in the case of an uprising. "If the jurists and theologians," they said "could not justify
101 AGS, Estado 2638 bis, folios 90-92, 4 August 1609.
102 For an example see AGS, Estado 2638 bis, folios 94-95, 4 August 1609.
199
the expulsion on grounds o f religious reasons but only as a danger to the state, then
certainly all preparations should be made for such a danger." If, however, the King
feared no uprising then they felt there was no reason to expel the Moriscos.103
The remaining weeks until the publication of the expulsion orders were busy
ones for the King, the Council o f State and the officials in Valencia. The King’s
secretaries were busily drafting a letter to all the bishops about the necessity of an
expulsion. In this letter the King informed the bishops that in his estimation not even
one Morisco had taken advantage o f all the missionary efforts. The Moriscos were all
guilty o f "lese majeste." Although the King could sentence them all to death, he chose
to be merciful by only expelling them, even after discovering evidence of the Morisco
offer o f support for any Muslim invasion.104
The Vice-roy o f Catalonia, the Duke of Monteleon, receiveda similar letter,
detailing the reasons for expelling the Moriscos. The letter began with thepremise
that all efforts had been exhausted in converting the Moriscos. "Good and Christian
government requires that they all be expelled. Just as if a detestable and hideous
crime were committed by some o f a certain college or university, it is reason enough
to abolish and destroy such a college or university."105
Members o f the Council o f State attended meetings with theologians to
consider some o f the spiritual ramifications and difficulties of a complete expulsion.
103 AGS, Estado 218, 23 August 1609.
104 AGS, Estado 2638 bis, folios 101-105, 1 September 1609.
105 AGS, Estado 2638 bis, folio 112-117, 11 September 1609.
The theologians included the Confessor, the bishop of the Canary Islands, Father
Francisco de Arriba and Father Placido de los Santos. Idiaquez brought specific
questions for the religious scholars to answer. "Should Moriscos be allowed to take
nursing children? Should Moriscas be allowed to stay if they are married to cristianos
viejos and what o f Moriscos married to cristianas viejas?" The Father Confessor’s
answer to the first question points to his religious assumptions about life, death and
eternal salvation. He thought that the nursing children should be taken from their
parents and kept in Spain because they were innocent of wrongdoing. For him if the
weakest die, it would be better for them since they died in Christian lands, receiving
the proper burial than to have died as infidels in unhallowed lands. The Confessor
finished saying "God will protect these children." Others disagreed with him. They
recognized how impossible it would be to provide enough wet-nurses or goats for so
many children. They also argued that it was against all natural rights to take away
children from their parents, knowing that these children would die. "It should only be
done if there is direct revelation from God." In answer to the Confessor’s blind faith
in God’s protection the others asked about all the Christian children who died anyway,
seemingly without God’s intervention. "We cannot expect a miracle."106 As for the
Moriscas who married "cristianos viejos," if they married in the Church, then there
was little reason to suspect them. Also if the Morisca married to a cristiano viejo left
him, the theologians presumed she would have more children from an adulterous
relationship, only to condemn her soul.
106 AGS, Estado 250, September 1609.
201
A week before the expulsion orders were published, the Council met with the
King in attendance, a rare event. Counsellors attending were Idiaquez, the Marquis of
Velada, the Duke o f Lerma, the Constable o f Castile, the Duke o f Infantado and the
Count o f Alba de Liste. The decision to expel the Moriscos was officially ordered for
the security o f the state and to the service o f God. Only those Morisco children
younger than five were to be allowed to stay because if they were any older they
would hinder the expulsion. Male Moriscos married to Cristianas Viejas should be
expelled and money provided to support her and the children. Lastly the lords of
Morisco vassals must be prepared to take ownership of Morisco property.107 The
King’s direct orders would be amplified and clarified in the expulsion orders soon to
be published.
Traitors or Heretics?
The discussion in the Council of State about the Morisco problem began as
soon as the first Muslims in Granada were forcibly baptized. After 1581 the debate
intensified because o f the banished Granadinos. But even with all the talk and orders
the expulsion did not occur for another thirty years. Previous expulsions in Spanish
history were available examples for Philip III. His ancestors had received the title
"Most Catholic" for expelling the Jews. The Moriscos, however, were not Jews or
Muslims but baptized Christians. They had to be defined as heretics from their
Christian faith or as a danger to the state in order to justify the expulsion.
Philip II had many people in his reign call for an expulsion of the Moriscos yet
202
he never ordered it done. Philip ID, in his first ten years, ordered expulsions and then
did not follow through. The expulsion coming in 1609 can be seen as the crowning
culmination o f all these failed attempts but the hesitancy remains unexplained.
Understanding the dilemma that the Most Catholic King faced illuminates the essential
and unique element o f the Morisco problem. The Moriscos were baptized Christians
and thus part o f Catholic Spain. The Moriscos were no longer strangers and infidel
sinners but sheep who had entered on Christ’s straight and narrow path. Individual
Moriscos, who disregarded their baptisms, could be considered heretics but as a group
the Council o f State, the theologians and the King had to regard them as Christians.
Evidence has shown that certain centers of Morisco communities did have
contact with the French, the Turks and North Africans.10* These contacts provided
the King with reason to consider all Moriscos as a dangerous internal enemy in the
heart of the Kingdom. But even this treachery by some could not prove satisfactorily
that every Morisco, even the old, infirm and young, presented a clear danger to the
state. The Council often declared that every Morisco was a traitor, but to justify
expulsion of every last one of them evidence, rather than rhetoric, was needed. In
search of substantive proof, the King and Council widened their discussion to include a
religious criteria. The Moriscos’ behavior as Christians would be judged as either
108 Evidence o f this interaction between the Moriscos and foreigners can be found in
AGS, Estado 2639, folio 68, 19 October 1609; Andrew C. Hess, "The Moriscos: An
Ottoman Fifth Column in Sixteenth-Century Spain," American Historical Review. 74 (Oct.
1968), 1-25 and James T. Monroe, "A Curious Morisco Appeal to the Ottoman Empire,"
Al-Andalus. 31 (1966), 281-303. Although in every case the facts can mislead since they
come from either Inquisition sources or are dates that possibly do not correspond with
actuality.
203
good or bad, at a time where even most Spaniards would have had a difficult time
meeting the established standards.
The highest levels o f the government were convinced that the Moriscos’ bad
Christianity was an insult to God, the greatest danger to the seventeenth-century
confessional state. Surprisingly, however, the principal theologians and bishops of
Spain were not as clear. The Council of Theologians considered the following lengthy
question:
"What should be done with the Moriscos who are descendants of

those who converted before the general reduction, especially those who
behave as Old Christians in language, in dress, and in all acts of
religion, confessing and partaking communion, funding religious
endowments and pious works among who are clergy, public officials,
militia members, inter-married couples and some who have even fought
against other Moriscos in the Granada Wars?"
The bishop of the Canary Islands assumed that good Catholics would automatically be
exempt. The Confessor argued that those who could demonstrate that they were true
and faithful Christians should be exempt. Father de Arriba believed that a good
Catholic Morisco was also a loyal vassal and thus should remain. Only Father de los
Santos believed that all Moriscos were capable of rebellion, but since "this is a matter
of state rather than theology" he deferred to the Council of State.109 The
Theologians were unwilling to define the Moriscos treachery in the arena of religious
observance. The King alone would have to decide that their "bad" religion was further
evidence o f their perfidy.
However, De los Santos’ answer was exactly how the Spanish bureaucracy
109 AGS, Estado 250, no date, Junta de Teologos.
204
managed the Morisco problem. Throughout the next five years of expulsion, as had
happened during the previous thirty years o f debate, the justifications bounced between
defining Moriscos as heretics or traitors. The two explanations of "reason o f state" or
"good religion" were never reconciled by those in command. The supposed danger to
the state never questioned the enemies’ capabilities. Some Moriscos did communicate
with the Turks, North Africans or French and the King and his counsellors were
alarmed. The Spanish leadership, however, did not consider how likely an enemy
response might be. Even during the very dangerous 1568 uprising in Granada, no
outside force had come to the Moriscos’ assistance.
As heretics, the normal course of events would have been to consider each case
individually before the Inquisition courts, not to summarily declare all Moriscos
unredeemable heretics of Christianity. Even more astonishing is the confidence of
those who worked among Morisco populations with complete devotion to a true
conversion. From many local perspectives the conversion of the Moriscos was
continuing apace. Areas, like Valencia, had a heavier Islamic influence and heritage.
But in 1609 the Moriscos living in Castile, Extremadura or Murcia had only vestiges
o f Muslim traditions and daily pressures to incorporate themselves into their parish
life.
How the Moriscos were involved in the parish and municipal community before
the expulsion decree, successfully or futilely, has been mentioned in Chapters One and
Two. The options available from an acceptance of a Christian response as opposed to
a pure "reason of state" solution have been examined in Chapter 3. Another important
205
response, to be discussed in Chapter 5, was how the expulsion was complicated by the
confused exemptions for various types of Moriscos. For five years they petitioned for
exemptions, declared that they were falsely accused Moriscos and postponed deadline
after deadline. These Moriscos did not leave willingly, nor did they easily forsake
their Christianity, which the King believed they never had. Being a Christian in early
modem Spain was a complicated thing, but Moriscos were among that group.
206
Chapter Five
Expulsion Proceedings 1609-1614:

Continued Debate and Confusion
Between September o f 1609 and August o f 1614 the Spanish Monarchy rid
itself o f at least 275,000 documentable Moriscos. Why did it take five years? What
organizational steps were taken to expel these people from their ancestral homes and
regions? The answers lie partly in the corporate nature of the Monarchy. The primary
concern was expelling the largest concentration in Valencia. Then the other kingdoms
had separate expulsion orders issued. But not even these piecemeal orders explain the
five year length. More than the many Kingdoms and protocols hindering the process,
the explanation lies elsewhere. This chapter will describe the problems created by
exemptions to the expulsion and the strong regional support some Moriscos received,
creating a governmental nightmare that the King and his Councils had not considered.
The Valencian Expulsion
In Valencia, where the first expulsion decrees were published, almost a third of
207
the total population was exiled. Many villages and rural areas were left completely
depopulated. Throughout the autumn months of 1609, the designated Valencian ports
were full o f Moriscos assembling and then leaving on the requisitioned ships. A
Valencian poet wrote about the "great unhappiness o f the Moors because of the
expulsion" as they boarded the ships and cried for their homes.1
Although the King’s orders forbade harming the Moriscos, the expulsion was
inherently tumultous. The Moriscos’ vulnerability and ready plunder led many Old
Christians to attack them resulting in thefts, rapes and murders. The Vice-roy of
Valencia, the Marquis o f Caracena, reported in early October that in the city of
Valencia fifteen or twenty Moriscos had been murdered in only three days. Caracena
wrote that "there must be more to do among these people [the Old Christians] than
with the Moriscos."2
Even some soldiers engaged in the expulsion assumed that the Morisco
villagers were enemies rather than their King’s subjects. One Valencian soldier was
punished by the Inquisition for "taking advantage of them [the Morisca girls] not so
they become Christians but because it was God’s fault for having made him a man."3
In another case a young officer took advantage of five Morisca girls, raping a twelve
year old. The Council tried to discover who this officer was and tracked him down to
1 Gaspar Aguilar, Expulsion de los moros de Espana por la S.C.R. Maeestad del Rev
Phelipe III. Nuestro Senor. (Valencia, 1610), 185.
2 Janer, Condition social de los moriscos. 308.
3 F ran cis Martinez, "Les enfants morisques de l’expulsion (1610-1621)," Melanges

Louis Cardaillac. 2 (1995), 523; quote is from AHN, Inquisition, libro 939, folios 77-78.
208
the village o f Ocana by April o f 1610.4
The first Moriscos to leave were allowed by decree to choose ten men who
could return and testify to those still in Valencia that they had not suffered during
transport. But this backfired when news returned that the welcome in North Africa
was not everywhere generous or peaceful. In what seems an act of desperation,
Moriscos in the western areas o f Valencia united in their own defense. In the hills
outside o f Jucar, Moriscos elected their own king and prepared to fight. Without
adequate shelter, food or water the Moriscos were easily defeated by the hardened
soldiers brought over from Milan. The survivors were then escorted to the sea and
quickly sent to North Africa.5 Other Moriscos tried to hide in the rugged mountains,
but the Vice-roy placed a bounty on their heads. A captured Morisco could be
enslaved or his disembodied head exchanged for thirty "libras."
A Policy o f Dissimulation
The expulsion accomplished an amazing bureaucratic feat of identifying and
then expelling approximately 4% o f the total peninsular population. We certainly must
acknowledge the command o f the "central power over the local authorities," and the
efficiency o f "la machine."6 The Council of State had prepared for the large numbers
o f Moriscos by ordering ships and troops to Valencia. Despite all their preparations,
however, the difficulties o f the regional expulsion surprised them. To avoid the same
4 AGS, Estado 2745, 11 February 1610 and 14 April 1610.
5 Dominguez Ortiz and Vincent, Historia de los moriscos. 182-185; also see Gaspar
Aguilar’s poem, cantos 3-5.
6 Lapeyre, Geographie. 212-213.
209
problems in the other kingdoms they began to insist on a policy of dissimulation.
On October 5, 1609 the Council met to consider suggestions about the planned
expulsion from Castile. A specific concern was the growing fear among the Castilian
Moriscos. Juan de Idiaquez insisted that any response to these exhortations be delayed
until the agreed time o f expulsion from Castile, avoiding any leaks in secrecy. "If
some Moriscos are selling their homes they must be stopped," he said "but just as
removing a horse’s tail hairs is impossible all at once, but only one by one, it is good
to have some leave now."7
The Duke o f Lerma agreed with Idiaquez about the expulsion being impossible
to do all at once, but he felt that delay was the greatest difficulty. He believed that
the majority o f Castilian Moriscos lived in Andalucia. He knew that twenty ships
from the Indies with 1,200 men could rapidly finish the expulsion from southern ports.
After that was done, Lerma judged that the expulsion could proceed against the
dispersed Moriscos o f Granada. "And those who ask to stay can be expelled all the
easier once we know about them."8 He advocated using a policy of exemptions to
discover more about the Moriscos and then to revoke the exemptions later on.
The Duke o f Medina Sidonia, writing from his home in Andalucia, described
the problems he foresaw in expelling the Moriscos. On a technical level he advised
establishing the ports of Cartagena, Malaga and Gibraltar as ports of exit. As the
7 AGS, Estado 2639, folio 48. A similar sentiment is expressed in a document

published by Florencio Janer in Condition social de los moriscos. 338-339, dated 11
October 1609.
8 Ibid.
210
recognized expert in naval affairs, he knew these three cities had adequate facilities to
handle the expected embarkations. But he also recommended staggering the deadlines
so that crowds and delays might be avoided. This was not his greatest concern. He
feared that in identifying the Moriscos and removing them from their homes they
would become violent. He explained that the "Moriscos o f Andalucia are very mixed
with the Old Christians, so much so that there is no recognizable difference."9 The
Duke knew that the expulsion officials would need the assistance of local authorities to
identify the Moriscos in the kingdoms o f Castile because they had lost many traces of
their distinctiveness, retaining only their remembered ancestry.
Many were justly worried. Moriscos from areas in Castile began to petition the
King because they were alarmed by the expulsion o f Moriscos in Valencia. In Avila,
Moriscos asked that their status as taxpayers and militia members be confirmed
according to a 1596 royal decree. When the Council of State heard this news they
advised Philip to "give it time and make them produce the 1596 document."10
Moriscos in Valladolid were bringing court cases to the Chancilleria, arguing that they
could not be expelled since they were "Antiguos" not "Granadinos or Valencianos."
The president o f the Chancilleria informed the King o f this strange development, since
as o f yet no official decree had ordered any Morisco from Castile expelled."
An anonymous group o f Moriscos Granadinos also wrote the King, declaring
9 AGS, Estado 213, 17 October 1609. Also see Peter Pierson, Commander of the
Armada. 228-229.
11 AGS, Estado 2639, folio 52, 17 October 1609.
211
themselves "good and faithful vassals."12 They feared they would be expelled as the
Moriscos of Valencia had been. They argued that they were persecuted unjustly and
that there were innocent women and children among them who did not deserve to be
expelled. The author admitted "if there are individuals who betray the King, then they
should be punished but those who are free of guilt should not be punished for someone
else’s crime." In conclusion they asked the King to declare that it was not his royal
intent to include "their race" in the expulsion orders. These Granadinos saw
themselves as different from the Valencianos and were willing to accept "just"
punishment.
When the Council considered this petition they advised that the group be kept
waiting with a response that neither denied nor conceded their requests. The Council
members suggested that the response include a statement about the royal order
prohibiting bad treatment o f Moriscos. Besides this formal response all thought it was
essential to discover who wrote the letter and what power he had to speak for the
group. They concluded their remarks observing that "with all this, time will be given
until the boats are ready and then it will be appropriate to respond with
determination."13
The policy o f royal dissimulation had unintended consequences for the
expulsion. Local authorities took the King at his word, as had the Moriscos. They
12 AGS, Estado 2745, 17 October 1609. A copy of this letter can also be found in
AGS, Estado 218, 23 October 1609.
13 Ibid.
212
saw the exemptions as a just policy for those Moriscos who were not deserving of
expulsion. A royal official who oversaw the expulsion pleaded to "stop deceiving
these people who give license for Moriscos to stay. They are wasting their time."14
When the King feigned a willingness to allow some Moriscos to stay, even Old
Christian subjects were fooled.
Exemptions and Confusion
By January 10, 1610 official orders were issued expelling the Moriscos from
the Kingdoms o f Castile, which included the two Castiles, Extremadura, La Mancha
and Andalucia. The orders were similar to those published in Valencia, except that the
Moriscos were allowed to sell their movable goods but not their property. Their
homes, lands and harvests were appropriated by the King. In addition the Moriscos
were not allowed to carry any gold, silver, jewelry or letters of exchange. Their
wealth had to be carried as "merchandise not prohibited." On these goods, like silk
and spices, Moriscos had to pay the customs duties as they left the King’s territory.
Exemptions for children, women married to Old Christians, good Christian Moriscos
and descendants of Turks or Berbers were included as in Valencia.15
The orders seemed clear enough, but almost immediately all kinds of
misunderstandings arose. The bishop o f Avila apologized to the King for only making
inquiries into the Christianity o f the Moriscos Granadinos in his diocese.16 The
15 Dominguez Ortiz and Vincent, Historia de los moriscos. 186-187.
213
"corregidor" of Talavera also interpreted the orders to refer only to the dispersed
Granadinos in his municipality. "The other Moriscos have lived in Talavera since the
conquest o f Sevilla," he wrote "and there are many more o f them than there are
Granadinos."17 In Almagro the "corregidor" wrote that the Moriscos Antiguos o f his
village were almost like "cristianos viejos," appearing on militia lists and enjoying the
same privileges.18
Independent reading o f the expulsion orders became so widespread in Castile
that the Council had to consider the issue on March 4, 1610.19 The members heard
reports about the bishop o f Cordoba enlarging the exemption requirements. Many
other cities had already exempted Moriscos who the Council thought should not have
been. The counsellors interpreted the King’s wishes to mean exemptions for only the
"descendants o f those who converted before the general reduction . . . and who give
proof of having lived Christian and exemplary lives, acting as Old Christians."
Without knowing how to stop such readings andinterpretationsof the expulsion
orders, the Council could only call on the bishops for greater care. They
recommended that the expulsion be suspended in some areas until the issue could be
resolved.
So many specific questions arose that the Council of State was swamped trying
to answer them all. What should be done with the property of the "Cristiana Vieja"
19 AGS, Estado 228, no. 2, 4 March 1610.
214
married to a Morisco? Should crops in the field be considered potential income or
current property? How much rent should Moriscos pay on a year’s lease? What if a
Morisco has papers declaring him to be a "Cristiano Viejo?" All these questions were
not considered before the expulsion orders were issued. Now they had to be decided
before the expulsion was over.
Exempting Morisco children
One o f the most intriguing questions left undecided before the expulsion was
the dilemma o f Morisco children.20 We have seen how during the months prior to
the expulsion the counsellors of State had differed on what age group should be
allowed to stay. Idiaquez believed that Morisco children younger than fifteen should
be allowed to stay. Lerma disagreed believing that only those seven and younger
should stay. The members of the theological council wondered where the milk would
come from to feed so many infants. They also worried about what sort of orphanage
system would be created for these children.
The expulsion decreed the following:
Boys and girls who are younger than four years old who wish to
remain, and their parents agree, shall not be expelled. Boys and girls
younger than six years old who are the children of Old Christian males
can remain and their mothers as well even if they are Moriscas. But if
the father is a Morisco and the mother is an Old Christian, he shall be
20 The uncertain role of children in the history of Christianization has been difficult
to define ever since the biblical apostles were annoyed by Jesus Christ calling for the little
children to come unto him. For a parallel development to the Morisco children see
Richard C. Trexler, "From the Mouths of Babes: Christianization by Children in 16th
Century New Spain," Church and Community 1200-1600. (Rome, 1987), 549-573.
215
expelled and the children younger than six shall stay with the mother.21
Even this statement did not clear up all the confusion, as can be imagined when
strangers were removing children from their parents. Although the King allowed
others to define the expulsion only he decided when someone became a "Christian of
the heart" and when they were transformed into heretical enemies of the state.22
An important reservation about Morisco children was that they were as yet
innocents and baptized Christians. The Pope by December 1609 had held discussions
with the Spanish Ambassador in Rome as to these two indisputable facts. The Council
o f State advised the Count of Castro in Rome to inform "His Holiness that taking
children away from their parents was a justifiable position because the parents would
only teach them heresy."23 But the Council still left the matter unresolved. The
ambassador was asked to explain to the Pope why it might be necessary to allow the
Morisco children to leave with their parents. Prime among these written reasons was
that the King had considered the issue with his counsellors, subsequently ordered it
and thus his royal commands should not be questioned.
It appears, however, that the Council o f State was considering a moot point.
The Valencian expulsion had begun in September and Morisco parents were not
relinquishing their children upon embarkation. Officials in Valencia considered
themselves fortunate in simply avoiding an uprising. They were not about to incite
21 AGS, Estado 2638 bis, 22 September 1609.
22 The term "cristianos de corazon" is used by Idiaquez on 2 January 1610; AGS,

Estado 250.
23 AGS, Estado 2639, folio 134, 15 December 1609.
216
one for removing crying infants and screaming children from a mother’s arms. It is
no wonder that when the problem o f Morisco children is studied in our day thousands
o f contradictions surface.24 Even the royal confessors added their voices to the
problem of exempting the children, bringing up various solutions. Richard Haller, the
Queen’s confessor and member o f the Council of Theologians, advised allowing the
parents to decide whether or not to leave their children. The blame would fall on the
parents and not the King’s conscience. Luis de Aliaga, the King’s confessor, agreed
and suggested allowing the parents who leave for other Christian lands to take their
children with them.2S
The contradictions were fueled by differing opinions from many places in the
peninsula. The Bishop o f Orihuela, in the Kingdom of Valencia, extolled the King’s
resolution to expel the Moriscos, but he believed it unwise to allow Morisco children
older than ten or twelve to stay. He appears to have read different expulsion orders
than previously quoted. He was also reluctant to teach the younger Moriscos because
they had already learned so much heresy from their parents.26 Later the Bishop of
Orihuela asked the King how he should ensure that these Morisco children not marry
each other later in life. He believed the Morisco problem would be created all over
again should that be allowed.27
24 For more inconsistencies, see Francois Martinez, "Les enfants morisques de

l’expulsion," 500-539.
25 AGS, Estado 208, 25 June 1610.
26 AGS, Estado 208, 10 March 1610.
217
Still, in April 1610, the cities o f Aragon were commanded to remove Morisco
children from their parents. The King’s orders acknowledged that this only made the
expulsion more difficult.28 Certainly very few Aragonese Morisco children remained.
Later expulsions outside o f the kingdoms of Aragon and Valencia were less
preoccupied with Morisco children. The children left with their parents.29
The change in attitude reflected the difficulties of removing children from
parents’ but the Council in Madrid had also received information from Valencia that
persuaded them to resolve the issue. Jaime Bleda wrote to the King with a seemingly
hair-splitting issue. He wondered what to do with the newborn Morisco children
whose parents were under expulsion orders. Bleda was concerned that these infants
could not be enslaved and must perforce go with their parents. This being the case, he
saw no reason to baptize them as Christians since "it would be better if they leave as
infidels then to be baptized and become apostates."30 He reasoned that the "simple
hope" o f children dying and being saved as Christians was not justification enough to
see those who live apostatize. The Council of State received this information with
great concern and forwarded the letter to the Council of Theologians for their
consideration. Bleda’s priorities led to a better understanding of the hierarchy of sins
29 In Valencia Morisco children were, for the most part, allowed by default to leave
with their parents, but those who remained faced an uncertain future. Not only were they
wards o f the State, but they were also stigmatized. 264 Moriscos between the age of
seven and twenty five were examined by the Inquisition in Valencia after the expulsion.
Half were absolved o f wrong doing and half were turned over to the secular authorities
for appropriate punishment, cf. F ran cis Martinez, 529-530.
30 AGS, Estado 228, no. 2, 11 February 1610.
218
and resolved, in part, the issue of exempting Morisco children.
Later, the Council’s worst fears about the remaining Morisco children were
realized. The Duke o f Lerma presented as evidence o f apostasy some "half moon
medallions" found in the possession o f Morisco children in Valencia.31 The fact that
some o f the Morisco boys were also circumcised only strengthened their resolve. A
Morisco, young or old, big or small, was a heretic and needed to be expelled. By
May, the Council recommended that the decision to retain the children be left to the
discretion of local authorities. If there was fear o f an uprising the officials need not
worsen the situation by taking the children.32 For the King and Council of State the
evidence o f Islamic practice was inevitably linked to dangerous rebellion. Finally it
would seem that the Council merely acquiesced to what in fact had been done since
September 1609. Taking children away from Morisco children angered the parents
and there was no reason to make a potentially dangerous expulsion even more volatile.
The problems in Valencia continued. In July o f 1610 money had not come
from Madrid to support the two thousand and more Moriscos between the age of seven
and twelve. The discrepancy between those ages and the expulsion orders was only
another instance o f the misreading of expulsion orders. Nonetheless, the Vice-roy
believed "their souls must be guaranteed for God’s service."33 InValencia, he
received suggestions to raise the children in the kitchens,sacristies andmonasteries of
32 AGS, Estado 208, 11 May 1610.
33 AGS, Estado 2640, folio 264, 20 July 1610.
219
the city. In Tortosa, the bishop was more successful in providing for Morisco
children. An orphanage which was originally built for children of Old Christians was
converted for the use o f Moriscos. The Council o f State was pleased with these
developments but advised that a careful list o f names, ages and identifying marks be
kept for all the children. They were concerned that their heresy could still foment
rebellion in the area.34
The problem o f exempting Morisco children failed from the perspective of the
Council o f State. They had tried to accept young Moriscos as Christians, but parents,
local authorities and expulsion advocates convinced them otherwise. Almost two years
after the expulsion began, Bleda was still explaining how wrong the original decision
had been. He felt the circumcised "morisquillos" would never forget their Islamic
customs. "The oldest of the Morisco boys," he wrote, "still refused to eat pig fat and
warned the youngest o f the impurities of pork." Bleda continued to believe that the
expulsion had failed because all the children were not expelled. Not only did he
believe the remaining children accounted for the failure but the fact that so many
people opposed the royal orders. He reported to the King about a prior’s sermon. On
August 6 the cleric had said that the King had been ill-advised to expel so many
faithful vassals, as the Moriscos had been. Bleda was astonished by such outright
insolence. We are left wondering as to more of the prior’s opinions. But Bleda was
convinced of the continued need for purity. He concluded his letter, writing that "it
34 AGS, Estado 2640, folio 313, 28 November 1610.
220
would be better to separate all these children far away from here."35
Defining Morisco lineage
Determining Morisco descent added another serious factor to the delay and
confusion o f the expulsion. As already quoted, the Valencian expulsion orders ruled
out those children whose mothers were Moriscas but had Old Christian fathers. The
issue resurfaced in later debates during the drafting of expulsion orders for Castile. In
the Council o f Theologians, Idiaquez held firm to the principle of only examining the
male ancestry. He felt it would be absurd to try and expel Old Christians who
descended from Moriscas. The categories were, nonetheless, blurred because of the
reaction o f "pureza de sangre" - blood purity. This recurrent theme o f Spanish history
is often referred to in regards to the descendants of Jews, but it had its influence in the
thinking o f the Morisco expulsion. Often the argument for disregarding prior
exemptions was that "heresy was in the blood."36 Many obviously felt that the
heretical Morisco nature, male or female, would be inherited by all Moriscos.
A cleric in Avila, who had vehement opinions about the abuse of Church
wealth, also advised the King about the Moriscos in his city. He argued that if all
Moriscos were forbidden from marrying their own, but only allowed to wed Old
Christians then the problem would be solved. His hope appeared to have been to save
some o f the Moriscos from expulsion. He explained that "in the fourth generation
36 AGS, Estado 235, 16 Janaury 1611; statement by the Bishop of Orihuela in a letter
to the King.
221
these people could then be allowed to hold honorable offices and bear arms."37 He
gave no practical instructions on how to effectively carry out such requirements.
Other priests entered into the debate about blood purity and female descent in
later months. Eight clerics from Malaga defended exempting Moriscas and their
children o f Old Christian fathers. They wrote that even if the "blood o f the children
might incline them to rebellion, their Christian blood would still overcome."3* These
priests were not attacking the principle o f inherited heresy. They only felt that the
hereditary "Christian blood" was much stronger.39
Later orders and discussions about descent from Moriscas attempted to clear up
further doubts. The King was willing to allow children of Moriscas and Old
Christians to remain, but if an Old Christian female married to a Morisco wanted to
leave with her husband and children she should be stopped. "If the Old Christian wife
left she would deny the faith and this could not be allowed."40 Related to this thorny
problem was the distribution o f familial property and how much of the Moriscos’
wealth should then be appropriated by the King.41
37 AGS, Estado 2639, folios 117-120. When the Council of State read these letters
they had to inquire as to who the author was. All they could discover was that his name
was Father Pedro de Jesus and that he resided at the Monastery of St. Anthony in Avila.
39 See Albert A. Sicroff, Les controverses des statutsde purete de sang Espagne du
XVe au XYIIe siecle. (Paris, 1960) for more on origins and effects of this issue of blood
purity on early modem Spain.
40 AGS, Estado 250, no date; the words are thoseof Idiaquez.
41 AGS, Estado 228 no. 2, 8 February 1610.
222
Foreign converts to Christianity
These questions about who to expel and who to exempt led to the formation of
a Junta which was commanded to meet daily and resolve these issues. One of the first
questions that the committee discussed was o f those foreigners who had come to Spain
and converted to Christianity. The expulsion orders made clear that they were not
included. But in many areas the distinctions were ignored. The Junta had to reiterate
that the expulsion did not include those descendants of "Moros o Turcos" who
voluntarily came to Spain and converted.42 In consideration of their exemplary
conversion the Council o f State wanted it to be widely known that these baptisms were
highly desirable. Expelling the converts would deter others from wanting to convert
or leave their homes to come to Spain.43
In the city of Palencia this issue must have been highly charged. When the
Palencia Inquisition completed its census o f Moriscos in 1594, many Turks and North
Africans were included. Men like Santiago Turco, Pablo de Salamanca and Cristobal
de Africa were not slaves but willing converts to Catholicism residing in Old Castile.
The North African, Martin Calderon, had even married the Morisca Granadina, Isabel
Hernandez.44 Nothing is known about what happened to those specific individuals
and families during the expulsion, but we have intriguing remarks about the expulsion
in Palencia. Still in the early fall o f 1610 none of the Moriscos of Palencia had left,
42 Ibid.
43 AGS, Estado 2639 bis, folios 216-218.
44 AHN, Inquisition 2109, see family numbers 6629, 6630, 6647, and 6648.
223
hoping to receive exemptions because they were good Christians.45
Many foreigners came to the peninsula attracted by the generous royal gifts and
offices granted for services rendered to the crown. The royal archive in Simancas has
thousands of requests from former spies and informants who chose to reside in Spain.
For example, Juan de Mendoza y Sandoval, bom Natan the Jew in Larache, had
helped the Spanish troops conquer his hometown concurrently during the Morisco
expulsion. He requested a grant o f one hundred "escudos" for his services.46 When
the Englishman Robert Shirley returned from his ambassadorial trip to Persia on behalf
of Philip in, he brought with him two Persian assistants. On June 19, 1610 the
Council recommended that each Persian be given a monthly stipend of thirty ducats
and adequate clothes for having chosen to leave the "bad sect of Mohammed" and
accept baptism.47 Into this relatively international society of new comers, strangers
and mixed heritages the expulsion proceedings were doubly confused.
The Council o f State tried to resolve some o f the difficulties arising from
mixed marriages by allowing determined families to migrate to otherChristian lands,
rather than to North Africa. This choice began todisintegrate whenMoriscos began to
choose other Christian lands in order to remain united as families. They could always
try to find another ship to North Africa if they so chose.4*
47 AGS, Estado 2745.
48 AGS, Estado 2705, 9 February 1610; see also Dominguez Ortiz and Vincent,
Historia de los moriscos. 198.
224
Defmine Good Christian
Last but most difficult o f all the exemptions was the exception for Moriscos
who were "notoriously Christian." The Morisco families o f Xaeni, Calderon and
Marbella should already have demonstrated how Moriscos could be classified as Old
Christians, but being a good Christian was something very different.49 For the King
saving the true believers was a biblical duty. He was reminded of how he should
"save the righteous even as God had saved Noah from the flood or Lot from the
destruction of Sodom."50 But confusion resulted in defining who was a "good and
faithful Christian." The King and the Council o f State had to specify what, in fact,
was their definition.
In this task the King asked the bishops of Castile to assist him in examining the
lives o f the Moriscos on the following criteria: language, dress, traditions, confession,
attendance at mass, religious foundations, interactions with Old Christians and vows of
chastity as "beatos."51 The bishops were admonished to accomplish their
investigations with great secrecy because the Council of State feared the Moriscos’
ability to feign good Christian behavior. Although the bishops were asked to help, the
final decision to exempt from expulsion was reserved for the King. The bishops were
49 Besides these cases of Moriscos who were also Old Christians, a bundle of archive
documents has 283 cases o f Moriscos petitioning for this privilege. See AGS, C.C. 2202.
51 AGS, Estado 2705, 9 February 1610. The document begins with the heading "A
los prelados de Andalucia, Granada y Murcia acerca de los Moriscos que pueden
quedarse."
225
merely allowed to send in by letter the results of their findings.52
The process o f determining every Moriscos’ Christian behavior was time
consuming. The Council eventually recommended allowing the vicars and curates to
help the bishops in the task. When the Council o f State discussed this change the
Cardinal o f Toledo spoke forcefully on the original intent of the expulsion. His
opinion not only carried the weight of his archdiocese, but Cardinal Bernardo Rojas de
Sandoval was also the Inquisitor General and uncle of the Duke of Lerma. He
believed the expulsion was meant to "clean all the realms of this prejudicial people . . .
All are apostates."53 Three other counsellors did not object but advised continuing
the policy of delay. The Constable of Castile, the Duke of Albuquerque and the Duke
of Infantado agreed that both types of Moriscos should be expelled since they lived so
terribly. Yet the reports from Avila about the charitable donations and good
Christianity of its Morisco inhabitants made the three advocate caution. They
recommended giving the issue time, "so that the community might be isolated and
divided." This way any rebellion would be avoided and the King might re-examine
the policy later.54
In the opinion of the King’s confessor, Fray Luis de Aliaga, the definition of a
good Christian was not just attending mass or confessing. The Moriscos must
demonstrate that they had "forsaken the evil sect with acts against Mohammed’s
52 AGS, Estado 208, no. 2, 18 March 1610; also see Estado 2638 bis, folios 216-218.
54 Ibid.
226
statements." He believed that a Morisco who ate pig fat and drank wine was showing
signs o f good Christianity. Aliaga recommended that good Christianity could only be
conclusively determined in the light o f public opinion.55
Letters asking about the Moriscos’ behavior and reputation were sent to the
bishops. The bishops must have been lax in enforcing previous criteria. The letter
received by the bishop o f Avila reminded him that the King intended to exempt only
those Moriscos who "notoriously and continuously have been and are [good Christians]
o f which you shall determine through investigations."56 The bishops were told that
"not only should the exempted Moriscos be good Christians, but that this fact be well
known to the neighbors through actions of free will."
The King even sent detailed instructions as to how the investigation was to
occur. Changing long standing tradition, witnesses were to be interviewed in private
without a notary present. The royal orders explained that "no one wants to say in
public what they feel about the expulsion . . . rather that [the witnesses] try to help
those [Moriscos] who hope to stay for their own particular ends and indiscreet
compassion."57 The witnesses who were called in to testify about their Morisco
neighbors were to be asked about their food and drink. "Did they differ from other
Christians by not eating pig fat or drink wine?" Other signs o f difference were
speaking Arabic or socializing only with Moriscos. After testifying, the witness was
55 AGS, Estado 2640, folio 284, 24 September 1610.
56 ADAv., Estante 108/5/26, "Sobre la expulsion de los moriscos," exp. 3, folio 1.
57 Ibid., folio 2.
227
not to sign the statement. Only the bishop, or his officers, were to certify the
reliability o f the words. "This done," the royal orders concluded, "all should be sent to
me [the King] . . . with all possible secrecy." The findings in these investigations will
be examined in the following chapter, but for now we can follow how the concern
about notorious Christians changed.
When the orders to expel the Moriscos were published in Valencia very few
Moriscos, if any, availed themselves o f the good Christian exemption. The King and
Council seemed genuinely surprised and unprepared to handle the numbers of
Moriscos who later in Castile claimed that they lived "Christianly." The expulsion
deadline was extended twice in Castile and still Moriscos remained. They saw
themselves as Christians who by royal order need not leave. The King then had to
revise the definitions o f Christian behavior to contract the numbers.
The Count o f Salazar
In this effort to control the Castilian expulsion one individual stands out as the
administrator and manager o f the King’s wishes. Bernardino de Velasco, the Count of
Salazar, was appointed to oversee the expulsion in Old and New Castile, Toledo and
La Mancha.S8 Velasco had been one of Philip IE first appointments to the Council of
War in 1599 and in 1608 was granted the title of Count of Salazar.59 After the
expulsion he became the president of the Council of Finance and is, surprisingly, one
58 AGS, Estado 2639, folio 94, no date (before 14 November 1609); official orders
to Salazar can also be found in Estado 2638 bis, folio 224, 5 May 1610.
59 Feliciano Barrios, El Conseio de Estado de la Monarouia Espanola. 118, note 28.
228
o f the few historical figures who enter into the fictional Don Quixote. Cervantes
referred to him as a man who in accomplishing his duty "will not be swayed by
prayers, promises, gifts or even pity." He was so successful in expelling the Moriscos
that none were "left behind to lie concealed and sprout like a hidden root in days to
come and bear poisoned fruit in Spain."60
Salazar’s first act was to travel to Burgos, where all the Moriscos of Old
Castile were ordered to congregate before leaving. In Burgos, Salazar kept records of
all the Moriscos who passed through the city, indicating origin and destination. His
policy was a simple one. All Moriscos should leave. He did not agree with
exemptions, special definitions and half measures. Part of his responsibility was to
confiscate the King’s required payments and guard against contraband. When
Moriscos left their homes they were supposed to register all their goods with the
municipal officials. Having done so they were to take their gold, silver and jewelry to
Burgos where it was appraised and the King’s half claimed. Salazar insisted that each
group making the march to France carry a passport, listing each individual.61 Many
o f these local registers and passport lists still survive in the Simancas archive, attesting
to the Count’s administrative diligence.62 He had the unenviable task of interpreting
60 Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha. Chapter LXV, 998. For an

explanation o f Cervantes’ satire and possible connotations see David A. Boruchoff,
"Cervantes y las leyes de reprehension cristiana," Hispanic Review. 63 (1995), 39-55.
61 AGS, Estado 2638 bis, folio 221-223, 17 January 1610.
62 AGS, Estado 227, 30 Janaury 1610; "121 Moriscos de Ocana, Yepes e Illescas."
Also see AGS, Estado 227, 13 April 1610 for a detailed list of household goods from
sixteen Morisco families in Palencia.
229
the King’s vague and delayed wishes, but perhaps the King knew his man. Salazar
was hard-nosed and completely inured to any exceptions. He insisted on order and
strict obedience to the King’s commands. For example, when he arrived in Burgos,
one o f the first things he did was stop the Moriscos from wandering in and out of the
city. He insisted that each group stay within the city walls and be processed as
quickly as possible.63
As the expulsion continued we can see the difficulties as experienced through
the continued involvement o f the Count of Salazar. On July 10, 1610 the Council of
State considered a letter from him. Salazar reported that the Moriscos were returning
from France to recover their hidden money. He was furious that local authorities were
not stopping them. But he did not have official authority to punish anyone. The
Council of State immediately advised expanding the King’s orders so that Salazar
might capture Moriscos who were returning from France.64 In August, Salazar
reported that the villages and cities of Old Castile were saying they had no Moriscos
to expel. He knew this was false and declared that the local officials were not
expelling the Moriscos "Antiguos." He had noticed that the expulsion orders were not
clear about these Moriscos and asked that new orders be written making their
expulsion explicit.65 By September, still in Burgos, Salazar was extremely frustrated
by the bishops’ exemptions o f good Christian Moriscos. He insisted that the bishops’
64 AGS, Estado 2640, folio 257, 10 July 1610.
230
instructions be sent out again with more careful wording as to how the Christianity
should be determined. He believed "this order would be very just and holy, making
these people live Christian and pacific lives. It would also encourage many who are
not leaving to leave."66
Another problem for the Count o f Salazar was that the Council changed their
minds about allowing Moriscos to exit into France. They thought it was unwise to
allow Moriscos into a country that was so unfriendly.67 But this meant that Salazar’s
plans had to change. He had given permission for twenty Morisco families from
Salamanca to leave through France but now their route had to be changed. They were
redirected to the southern port o f Cartagena.68 Salazar was frustrated by the long
distance and extended time that the Salamanca Moriscos would take as they traveled to
Cartagena. He requested that the Council facilitate the expulsion by allowing Moriscos
to leave through France again.
Because Salazar was overwhelmed with all the exceptions he had to investigate,
he suggested involving the bishops in the formal process. Not only was Salazar
inundated by the numbers, so was the court in Madrid. The King and the Duke of
Lerma had too many Morisco petitioners in the city. Many Moriscos appear to have
traveled to the capital and requested audiences with the King to explain why they
should be exempt. It was then by September 1610 that the bishops received their
68 AGS, Estado 2640, folio 287, 4 September; also see folio 305, 13 September 1610
231
detailed instructions with the behavior they were to investigate clearly delineated.
Salazar continued to oversee the process of determining good Christianity but mostly
he insured that very few were accepted.69
The bishops’ involvement also overwhelmed the King and Council who were
surprised by the numbers o f good Christian Moriscos. They seemed to be astounded
that the bishops had declared any Moriscos to be good Christians. The debate before
1609 had barely considered this as a possibility. Moriscos in the minds o f the
counsellors were heretics or dangerous enemies of the state. That they could be good
Christians was not expected. The royal image of the Morisco had not changed since
their ancestors were forcibly converted one hundred years earlier. The bishops and
other priests investigating in 1610 found something quite different. Moriscos were
becoming Christians, with even more rigorous religiosity than some Old Christians.711
The Count o f Salazar, after completing his task in Old Castile, left Burgos to
continue his duties in La Mancha. The five towns of the Campo de Calatrava had
presented special difficulties because the majority of the inhabitants were Moriscos.
But they could be classified as both "Antiguos" and good Christians. With his
customary thoroughness Salazar went about including all the Moriscos in the expulsion
order. He declared to the King that he had worked especially hard to insure that the
"Antiguos" understood the expulsion order and left. But by 1611 he was concerned
69 AGS, Estado 224, no date, "Desembarazarse el corte de la multitud de moriscos

y despachar lo con brevedad."
70 See chapter Six for an analysis o f the types o f Moriscos who were found to be
good and faithful Christians along with their local defense.
232
that many were returning.71 He signalled out the five villages o f Calatrava as
especially bad. He believed 400 of 600 Moriscos expelled had subsequently returned.
As Salazar handled the problem of Moriscos who returned, the King also
entrusted him with the complaints and trials of Moriscos Antiguos in Avila and
Valladolid. His orders explained that he had all the necessary power to finish with
this delay and see that the expulsion was completed. Salazar’s companion in this work
was the Licentiate Gregorio Lopez Madera. Madera was an "alcalde de corte," who
had the King’s authority to arrest and then prosecute any o f the King’s subjects. He
had been investigating the financial affairs of Rodrigo de Calderon, the Count of Siete
Iglesias. Calderon was a close associate of the Duke of Lerma and rumors implicated
him in the Queen’s untimely death.72 The expulsion occurred as Lerma’s rivals
challenged his political power and the confrontations were reflected in men like
Salazar and Madera who carried out the King’s ever changing orders.
Salazar by October o f 1611 reported to the King that he had finally expelled all
those Moriscos who previously stayed as "notorious" Christians. This left him only
the Moriscos who claimed to be Old Christians or had active cases in the courts.73
These last two categories o f Moriscos had identified themselves as Moriscos but were
proving their dual status. But the identification o f "notorious" Christian Moriscos had
72 Feros, The King’s Favorite. 281-282. Although these rumors were completely
unsubstantiated the King’s favorite "suffered as a result o f his continuing support o f
Calderon."
233
to have been much more difficult since their local ecclesiastical leaders saw no
difference between these Christian Moriscos and the Old Christians themselves. The
Moriscos ancestral religion had to vanish but the local nature o f the Church in Spain
made outsider’s scrutiny difficult.
In Old Castile, Salazar’s determination succeeded but in the Campo de
Calatrava he had to search through ancient documents to prove that the inhabitants
were Moriscos. In the Spring of 1612 he investigated the village of Villarubio de los
Ajos. As evidence against the Morisco inhabitants o f Villarubio he described to the
King how they still lived in separate neighborhoods, only married amongst themselves
and had distinct trades from the Old Christians. The most telling evidence was a legal
case two generations old that had established the Muslim ancestry of the residents of
that neighborhood. With this information Salazar refused to hear the Moriscos’ motion
for another hearing and ordered them to leave within the next five months.74
Straddling the two kingdoms of Castile, Salazar still managed to investigate the
most obscure rumors o f Morisco presence. As he was investigating the Moriscos of
Villarubio, he ordered his assistant to examine the lives and families of the five
Torralba brothers in the Valley of Ayala near Burgos. These five families had been
accused o f being Moriscos so the oldest inhabitants and most trusted priests had to be
interviewed. Salazar’s assistant heard nothing about Morisco ancestry in the family.
He also checked the village lists o f Moriscos and found no Torralba surname
74 AGS, Estado 2642, folio 135, 22 March 1612 and 29 May 1612. Why he gave
them a five month deadline as opposed to the normal thirty days is a complete mystery.
234
anywhere. He heard one rumor that they might be descended from Jews, but that was
only the report o f one old man. The investigation concluded that the Torralba family
in Ayala had been falsely accused.75
Another case demonstrated the confidence Salazar had among the Council of
State. He had been ordered to investigate the Merino Calvo family of Aldea del Rey
in the Campo de Calatrava. Salazar quickly discovered that the father of Bartolome
Merino was still living and had a distinguishable Morisco "talk." Even all his
businesses were distinctly Morisco. Salazar pointed to a municipal document which
explained that seventy years before the Morisco Cristobal Calvo had donated two
hundred "reales" for the poor in the Morisco "aljama."76 The Count reported that the
Merino Calvos were the most notorious Morisco family he had ever seen. He was
very angry that they had so far eluded the expulsion. When the Council of State read
his reports they commended Salazar for "completing his duty and continuing his
program o f justice."77
Salazar had his critics among the King’s counsellors. When Salazar reported
that there were still Moriscos in the Campo de Calatrava, the Duke of Infantado did
not believe him. He presented proof that Bartolome Merino Calvo was an Old
75 AGS, Estado 208, 29 February 1612. What did Diego de Cuenca, the previously
mentioned priest in Homachos, think about native Moriscos in the mountainous villages
o f Burgos is nowhere recorded. I can merely point to the incorrect regional stereotypes
held by most sixteenth-century inhabitants of the peninsula. Burgos did have Moriscos
but outsiders thought not.
76 AGS, Estado 2748, June 1613.
77 Ibid.
235
Christian and "in cases o f doubt the most pious thing would be to allow him to remain
in Spain."78 The Duke o f Villafranca also had seen the proofs and agreed with
Infantado. The Duke o f Infantado argued that Salazar was merely reporting Morisco
presence to retain his powerful position. Infantado believed that Salazar had declared
previous investigations false and witnesses unreliable so that he could re-examine the
lives o f people who were not Moriscos. The defense o f Merino Calvo by both Dukes
was not enough and he was sent to the mercury mines o f Almaden for having ignored
the expulsion orders.79
It is difficult to determine if Infantado’s words are true, but the political
infighting amongst the Council and other royal officials explains many confusing
issues. The scrambling for connections to the court was prevalent everywhere. The
expulsion was not easily accomplished nor were Moriscos so readily identified in the
day-to-day maneuvers. There were powerful local interest which Moriscos shared plus
the confused categories o f Old Christian and good Christian. The Count of Salazar
was the official who most had to handle all the gaps between the definitional
differences and political rivalries.
In 1612, Madera was accused by the Moriscos o f Homachos, expelled to
Tetuan in North Africa, of having defrauded them. They wrote the King still hoping
for justice. Madera, they claimed, had given them only fifteen days to leave when the
royal orders allowed for thirty. In the rush to leave, Madera made over 15,000 ducats
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in profits from the hurried buying and selling. The Moriscos also charged that
Madera’s notary illegally made 8,000 ducats as an accomplice. When the Moriscos
tried to report these crimes to the King before leaving Spain, Madera sentenced 117 of
them to the galleys.80 Of course it could be that the Moriscos were also trying to
recover some o f their lost property and that Madera was innocent. But Madera and
Salazar had every opportunity to take advantage o f the expelled Moriscos and wield
power o f expulsion or exemption. The two even had the King’s authority to proceed
against those who were protecting the Moriscos. From these Old Christians they were
allowed to "obtain something for the costs o f the expulsion project."81
As late as 1615 Salazar continued as a strong voice for a continued expulsion.
He reported to the Duke o f Lerma that many Moriscos were returning. He explained
how Moriscos in M urcia Tarragona Mallorca and the Canary Islands had never left.
He also advocated widening the expulsion to include all the King’s lands. Salazar
even attested to the presence of Moriscos in Sardinia who had never even been ordered
to leave.82
Father Juan de Pereda and the Moriscos o f Murcia
The final act o f expulsion was directed at the Moriscos of Murcia, primarily in
the Val de Ricote83. Salazar was placed in charge o f this expulsion in the Spring of
80 AGS, Estado 250, 24 May 1612.
82 Boronat, v. 2, 306; taken from AGS, Estado 359, 6 February 1615.
83 For a beginning into the history of the valley see Francisco Flores Arroyuelo, Los
ultimos moriscos fvalle de Ricote. 16141. (Murcia, 1989), 62-65.
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1613. The build-up to the expulsion was lengthy. The Council of State had been
reluctant to expel the Moriscos o f Murcia because Don Luis Faxardo, an influential
noble o f Murcia, had explained how powerful they were.84 Plus in Faxardo’s opinion
they had been Christians for over three hundred years, rarely having problems with the
Inquisition. Father Juan de Pereda was sent to Murcia and Ricote to delay the decision
and to investigate further.
Pereda was a trusted priest who had impressed the King with his piety.85 In
1612 he resided in the Monastery of Royal St. Thomas of the city of Avila. From
here he left in March to visit the Kingdom o f Murcia and returned two months later to
draft his final report. He traveled through the entire kingdom, investigating the
question which the King had commanded him to answer. Did the Moriscos o f Murcia
live virtuous and Christian lives? Ancillary questions included did their ancestors
serve faithfully in the King’s wars? had they inter-married with the Old Christians?
and are they different in any way?86 Pereda’s final report answered these questions
84 AGS, Estado 208, 23 June 1610. For more on the Fajardo family see Gregorio
Maranon, Los Tres Velez: una historia de todos los tiempos. (Madrid, 1960).
85 Juan de Pereda was bom in Priego near Cuenca in 1578 and died in Madrid in
1632. He had studied at the University at Alcala de Henares where he graduated at
twenty three years old with degrees in arts and theology. He taught at the colleges in
Alcala and later became a canon and "magistral" in the city of Cuenca. Philip IV in 1627
appointed him the Bishop o f Oviedo where he carried out many reforms. See
biographical entry in the Enciclopedia Universal Illustrada Espasa-Calpe. v. 43, 586.
86 The preceding summary and analysis are all from the original report found in
AGS, Estado 254, 30 April 1612. Henri Lapeyre has published excerpts from Pereda’s
report in Geoeraphie de 1’Espagne Morisque. 272-273. The document is over 24 folio
sheets long which Lapeyre shortens to two pages in his appendix. Flores Arroyuelo also
has a summary o f the Pereda visit, 162-176.
238
in three ways. He first summarized what he had been told as rumor and fact both for
and against the Moriscos. Then he related the local numbers and circumstances he had
uncovered. Lastly he presented what he himself believed o f the Moriscos and their
defenders.
His first section began with the assumption that there were no longer, by 1612,
any Moriscos Granadinos or Valencianos in Murcia. This left the Moriscos Antiguos
who considered the phrase an insult, preferring to be called "Mudexares." As for their
history, Pereda related the generally accepted story that they had all been baptized
after the year 1252, when the King of Aragon had conquered the land and
subsequently turned the conquests over to the King of Castile. Everyone in Murcia
also believed that in 1501 the Catholic Kings had granted all the Mudexares of Murcia
Old Christian status. In 1612, Pereda estimated that there were over 9,000 Mudexares
in the Kingdom.
In his investigations Pereda found that there were arguments against the
Mudexares of Murcia remaining. Many of them had voluntarily left when first hearing
about the expulsion, clouding the loyalty of those who stayed. Others reported to
Pereda that in confession the Mudexares never confessed mortal sin, denying the
efficacy o f the sacrament. Pereda heard for himself that the oldest still spoke Arabic
and all the Mudexares had an accent or tone that was very distinctive. The elderly still
refused to eat pork and discouraged inter-marriage with Old Christians. These were
the negatives that Pereda found.
In their favor he reported that the general opinion o f the Mudexares was that
239
they were good Christians. The Inquisition had not processed any of them in over
forty years. He reported that twenty five to thirty individuals had become priests and
even one had been martyred in North Africa. Both Old Christians and Mudexares
hoped that this Ybemin would soon be canonized. As for their dietary habits, Pereda
reported that they "generally eat pig fat and drink wine, which was completely
different among the Granadinos and Valencianos." He also heard from his interviews
that no one younger than forty years old spoke Arabic.
In their acts as Christians, Pereda heard mostly from their confessors that they
showed no difference from the Old Christians. The confessors refuted the rumor that
the Mudexares did not confess mortal sin. Over fifty confessors attested to their
faithful confession. The monasteries of Murcia reported to Pereda that "without the
donations from the Mudexares they would drown." Pereda himself witnessed their
elaborate funeral processions, with the young women dressed in white, faces covered
in mourning and carrying heavy crosses long distances. One saintly monk told Pereda
that he "prayed every day to soften the King’s heart so that he would not expel the
Mudexares." Besides their Christian fidelity, Pereda reported that all knew about the
supplies and soldiers provided by the Mudexares to fight the rebels in Granada. Their
military service was rewarded by Philip II with the right for all Mudexares to bear
arms "which is somewhere in the Archive o f Simancas." These were the arguments
for the Mudexares being exempt from the expulsion. Pereda described this as
generally accepted and told to him as fact.
Pereda’s visit was not only remarkable because o f his insightful and numerous
240
interviews. He also visited the towns and villages in the Kingdom, reporting on
specific Morisco populations and their adherence to Christianity. He explained his
findings in his second section entitled "Account o f the specific places."87 In his
preliminary statement he explained that he made three distinctions among all the
locations. First were those Mudexares who lived all "mixed together" with Old
Christians. His second division included where a minority of Old Christians lived
among the Mudexares. The third category comprised those areas where every
inhabitant was Mudexar. In total, Pereda reported visiting thirty four locations in the
Kingdom o f Murcia.
In the city of Murcia and its jurisdiction, Pereda reported that it was very
difficult to find any "pure" Mudexares. The two groups were very mixed and almost
everyone spoke with a distinctive accent. Pereda seemed uncertain if this accent was
merely a general Murciano phenomena or specifically due to the former Arabic
speaking Mudexares. Coming from his educated background, his observations of
linguistic difference might have been a regional incident and not a specific Morisco
one.
Pereda presented the following table to establish the mixing of Old Christians
and Mudexares in the twelve villages within the jurisdiction of the city of Murcia.
87 Ibid. Again, all this material appears in Pereda’s report which is in the Archive
of Simancas.
241
Table 5.188
Mudexares and Old Christians
Old Christians Mudexares

La Raya 108 147
La Nora 149 56
Guadalupe 102 11
Espinardo 74 8
Aljucer 101 10
Casas de Verastegui 82 9
Alsecar 330 J->
Javali Nuevo 134 94
Palomar 52 35
Puebla 51 53
Alberca 35 23
Torre de Augiiera 37 9
In some o f the towns the proportions were fairly equal, but how Muslim could three
Mudexares be when they lived in a village like Alsecar among 330 Old Christians?
In the other municipalities o f Murcia, Pereda offered telling details to explain
the Mudexar situation. In the town o f Molina, Pereda found that the Mudexares had
served as infantry in the Alpujarras rebellion and still in 1612 many served as soldiers
in the Spanish "tercios" o f Italy and Flanders. Alcantarilla had twice the number of
Mudexares to Old Christians. The Mudexares had just finished the building of a new
church, completely funded by themselves. This new building in Alcantarilla already
had a foundation o f six hundred perpetual masses for the Mudexar dead. All nine
confraternities in Alcantarilla made no distinctions, accepting members from both
88 Over time some o f the village names have changed or disappeared. La Raya, La
Nora, Espinardo, Aljucer, Javali Nuevo and La Alberca remain unchanged. Guadalupe
has as an alternative name Maciascoque. Torre de Augiiera has been shortened to
Torreaguera. What Pereda called Puebla is now known as Puebla de Soto, while Palomar
is now possibly El Palmar. Casas de Verastegui and Alsecar appear to have vanished.
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groups.
In Priego, Pereda explained that five of the most respected Mudexar families
claimed illustrious godparents. Their ancestors, it was said, had traveled to Granada
where they accepted baptism with the Catholic Kings acting as witnesses. Ceuti and
Lorqui were in Pereda’s last category of villages. In both places there were no Old
Christian families. Pereda, however, made a fascinating observation about these two
villages. He wrote that they did have a very distinctive mourning ceremony, but it
was not a Muslim rite. He thought it was a more ancient "barbarian" one.89
Abanilla was a Murcian village that bordered on the Kingdom of Valencia.
The 1,007 Mudexares o f Abanilla lived with only 40 Old Christians. But "once when
a Mudexar married a Morisca from Valencia, it was so badly seen that they left to live
in Valencia." In Socobos, Pereda first heard rumors of a Mudexar plot to foment an
uprising. Pereda investigated further and found that a certain Old Christian sumamed
Feres admitted to only hearing a "Granadina talk badly about Christians." Another
witness in Habaran had spoken in public about the terrible Christianity of the
Mudexares but when he was formally questioned the man could not name anyone in
particular. In the same village, the priest and doctor spoke highly of the Christian
piety and dedication o f individual Mudexares. The priest pointed to the exceptional
devotion o f the Mudexares who worshipped at a hermitage outside of Habaran.
89 Could it be possible that Carlo Ginzburg’s theories about pre-Christian religions

were also preserved in Spain? See his The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults
in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. (Baltimore, 1983) and The Cheese and the
Worms: The Cosmos o f a Sixteenth-Century Miller. (Baltimore, 1980). Even today.
Murcia is one o f the more isolated comers of Europe.
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His last entries detailed the lives of Mudexares in the Val de Ricote. Public
opinion held that there were no Old Christians in the entire valley. The areas was
governed by the Duke o f Villafranca as an "encomienda" o f the Order of Santiago. As
such its Christian beginnings could be compared to an administrative military
encampment. The Mudexares o f Ricote still greeted each other in the Morisco fashion.
The younger would kiss the older’s hands, while the older would kiss the younger’s
face. This custom was seen as a holdover from Muslim tradition. But three hundred
years after the conquest the circumstances had changed in Ricote. Pereda’s
observations negated the perception of continued Islamic roots. He explained how
"those Moriscos from Ricote who live elsewhere are seen as better Christians than
Moriscos from those areas." Also in Ricote there was the beginnings of some inter
marriage. In the village o f Ulea there were thirteen marriage between Mudexares and
Old Christians. Did the Old Christians meet their spouses through long-distance
travel? In Oxox, another area of the Ricote valley, Pereda barely understood the
Mudexares because of their heavier accent. He wrote how some in Oxox still refused
to eat pork. But he also recorded that the parish priest ate with them often and
thought they lived as good Christians. As a final telling fact the Mudexares of the Val
de Ricote had sent many native sons to fight against the rebellious Moriscos of
Granada. In the Alpujarras, their skills as mountain guides and informants had proved
their loyalty to the crown. Pereda finished his second section focusing on the military
loyalty and Christian adherence o f the Mudexares.
As he began describing his own opinion and findings, Pereda’s words were not
244
surprising considering his first two sections. For the King and Council o f State his
report must have been completely unexpected. Pereda swore he did his best and
"would take responsibility before God" for any mistakes which were made. He stated
that "there is enough evidence to approve them as good Christians and faithful
vassals." He had spoken with the highest officials in Murcia. He had asked questions
o f people who were unaware o f his position. He had questioned over fifty confessors.
He had, himself, confessed several of the Mudexares and was impressed by their
"simplicity, honesty and knowledge of Christian doctrine." In their attendance at mass
and street processions, he reported true devotion. Pereda felt he had proved that the
Mudexares were good Christians. As for the King’s concern about the possibility of
an uprising, he apologized for not having "that expertise" and recommended hearing
from some other more militarily minded person.
Pereda wrote how difficult the task had been for him. He had had to listen to
many conflicting testimonies. He concluded with an explanation o f his opinion. He
reasoned that
those witnesses who speak against these people [the Mudexares]

or speak only in generalities judge them from a presumption of their
birth. As for those witnesses who testify in greater detail it is because
o f their suspicious and proven enmity. Even when [the statements] of
these types are taken as truth, I have been unable to verify anything
which manifestly condemns [the Mudexares].
There were many who criticized Pereda’s report. Alonso de Castilla wrote to
the King, stating that Pereda had been deliberately misled.90 A Father Gines de
90 AGS, Estado 2643, libreto; also see AGS, Estado 248, 20 September 1612.
245
Almodovar explained how the King was being deceived. Almodovar believed that the
local authorities and nobles were protecting the Moriscos of Murcia. An anonymous
letter added to this explanation. It declared that the Theatines had much to lose in the
expulsion from Murcia since they held so much property.91 As for Almodovar, he
mentioned the Marquis de los Velez and Don Pedro de Toledo, for protecting the
Moriscos on their lands.92 Almodovar believed that Pereda was fooled by the actions
o f the Old Christians who defended the Moriscos. In Ricote, Almodovar explained
how Pereda had been impressed by "all the Morisco children who went to mass and
ate the Eucharist, but it was only the Old Christian neighbors who were friendly [to
Pereda] in place o f the Moriscos."93 Almodovar pleaded with the King not to be
persuaded by all the money "they" give and place God’s honor first.94 Almodovar’s
ultimate reason for expelling every Morisco was based on his lessons of history.
"Even one would be dangerous, considering how fast their ancestors conquered seven-
eights o f Spain when they first entered."95
Pereda submitted his report to the King by May of 1612 and by July his
91 AGS, Estado 2643, libreto; another document from above but with no name or
date.
92 Pedro de Toledo was the commander o f the Spanish fleet in the Murcian port of
Cartagena. He was also the fourth Marquis of Villafranca, cf. Pierson, Commander of the
Armada. 227-228.
93 AGS, Estado 245, sometime after April 1612.
94 The pronoun "they" in this sentence remains unclear. Almodovar could be

referring to the Moriscos o f Murcia or the nobility who were defending them.
95 From Almodovar’s letter in AGS, Estado 245, folio 89.
246
findings were being discussed by the Council of State. Aliaga, the King’s confessor,
wrote to the King that there could be no dismissal o f Pereda’s findings that the
Moriscos o f Murcia lived "Christianity." But Aliaga was firm in his stand that the
"entire [Morisco] nation remains apostate and treacherous."96 Later Aliaga explained
his words to the full Council. The entire expulsion project had been so large an
undertaking that it was impossible to find out about the Christian life o f each Morisco.
Pereda, in Aliaga’s estimation, had succeeded in doing this for the smaller area of
Murcia. Because o f Pereda’s report, Aliaga believed that the Mudexares o f Murcia
should stay as good Christians.97
The confessor’s comments elicited a varied response from the other
counsellors.98 Idiaquez explained what he saw as the original intent o f the Morisco
expulsion. He said "no consideration was given to the good or bad Christianity of the
Moriscos, only to the security o f the Kingdoms." O f course, Idiaquez’s statement was
incorrect. From at least 1601 the Council of State had urged an expulsion in part
because the Moriscos were suspect Christians. Idiaquez, as a long time counsellor and
secretarial expert, knew very well that the King wanted the Moriscos expelled. As
before the expulsion, the unexpected circumstances could be glossed over with two
arguments. Either the Moriscos were bad Christians or they were enemies of the State.
If Moriscos were found to be good Christians than they were still enemies of theState.
96 AGS, Estado 2643, 17 July 1612.
98 Copy of this discussion AGS, Estado 248 and in a clearer format from AGS.
Estado 2643, libreto, 18 November 1612.
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If they presented no danger to the state than they were found to be heretics. Idiaquez
implied as much when he continued saying "now that [Pereda’s] report on their good
Christianity has returned it is a matter o f state since they are well-armed and lived
close to the sea." Idiaquez as the loyal courtier then deferred "to the King’s decision
and his greatness."
Other council members added their opinions. The Duke of Albuquerque
merely agreed with Idiaquez. Don Agustin Mexia, newly appointed to the Council
after his success in expelling the Moriscos of Valencia, also agreed because exempting
them "would encourage others to return." The Marquis o f La Laguna reminded all
present that the Council o f Theologians had already said that a general expulsion was
not a sin. He also recalled that the expulsion from Murcia had only been postponed
earlier because of the Moriscos’ strength. Only the Duke of Infantado dissented. He
said that "since they have discovered them to be good Christians, they should not be
expelled." Infantado’s words were ignored and Idiaquez recommended that Salazar be
placed in command of the Morisco expulsion from Murcia.
By the spring o f 1613 an autumn deadline was set for the expulsion from
Murcia. The Duke o f Infantado still disagreed but he thought that if all "commodities"
were given to the Mudexares than he would have no objections." These
"commodities" included leaving with all their movable property, selling their other
goods and allowing them to go where they wished except other areas in Spain or the
Indies. Mexia even recommended that the ships gathered to transport the Mudexares
" AGS, Estado 2643, 4 March 1613.
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be "round ships" rather than galleys so that their trip was more comfortable.
In May o f 1613, Pereda’s year-old report was being filled with words he never
wrote. The Confessor and the Cardinal of Toledo explained to the King that Pereda
had mistrusted the Mudexares because of their precarious economic situation and the
military threat to state security.100 Nowhere did Pereda report on the economic
circumstances and as for the military question he had simply left it unanswered
because it was not his expertise. The Cardinal then reasoned that in all the other
expulsions priests had been assigned to investigate the Christian lives o f the Moriscos
and so few were found. "The same must be true in Ricote and Murcia."
Three years after the expulsion was completed the Father Confessor revealed an
interesting admission. In the course of ransoming some Christian captives in Algiers,
Father Geronimo de Azabuya witnessed the suffering of twenty eight imprisoned
Moriscos from Ricote who refused to give up Christianity although they were whipped
almost every day. Azabuya reported that it would be possible to rescue these Christian
martyrs for 7,800 ducados. The Confessor, upon informing the King o f these
developments, asked if the ransom should be paid. He reminded the King that "Your
Majesty did not want to expel the Moriscos from Ricote but the Council of State voted
otherwise."101 It is hard to know the King’s true wishes. Did he at one point try to
defend individual Christian behavior over a presumption o f "national guilt?" Certainly
this remains only an intriguing possibility, left as a "what if' of history.
100 AGS, Estado 2643, 4 May 1613.
101 AGS, Estado 208, 20 June 1617.
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The expulsion in Murcia began that Fall and so every region had been issued
expulsion orders. Now the Council o f State had to begin to handle the requests for
exemptions and false accusations. The expulsion had created problems in all the cities,
towns and villages which had Morisco populations. Restoring the pieces of
community life would take some time. The advocates o f further expulsions would
have to be mollified. Moriscos who returned to their homes would also have to be
captured and punished.
The Council o f State and Exemptions
As the expulsion ended the majority of Moriscos had left without trouble. The
purpose in examining the exemptions and definitions of the expulsion has been to
point to the internal politics, disagreements and variants within the Morisco problem.
When Philip HI chose to expel the Moriscos the discussion barely focused on defining
who a Morisco was. The considerations were more on the order of how and when it
was to be accomplished. When the expulsion began in areas where the Moriscos had
started to assimilate the unexpected problems of defining a Morisco arose.
We have seen some of the categories into which the Moriscos could divided.
Part of this process was how royal officers and investigations handled the individual
facts of the expulsion. What remains to discuss is how the Council o f State responsed
to the flood o f petitions. The Council and King had to improvise as they examined
the cases before them. Their constraints included powerful advocates for strict
obedience to the King’s orders and insured completion of the expulsion.
The problem o f false accusations became a predicament for which the Council
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o f State should have been prepared. In each local situation there were intense familial
rivalries. Opponents saw a chance to discredit their enemies with allegations of
Morisco ancestry. Many o f these falsely accused people came to the Court so that the
King could clear their names. The King finally had to resolve the matter because the
press o f petitioners was overwhelming. He ordered the Council to deliberate on what
should be done and to keep in mind his order of tight observance of the expulsion
decrees. The Council o f State heeded his call and re-read the original orders of
expulsion. All present agreed that it was very important to clean the kingdoms of
Moriscos so well that not even a memory of them remained.102
Wiping out the memory o f Moriscos or Mudejares ever having been in the
peninsula meant to some that the orders and punishments had to be strictly enforced.
Others, like the Duke of Infantado, believed that the accusations were false because
over zealous men had been placed in command of the expulsion. He criticized the
creation o f the Junta de Moriscos with a "Council of War member and an alcalde de
corte" as leaders. He believed that they had excercised more authority then they
should have. His solution was for the Council to take over the exemption process and
disband the Junta of Salazar and Madera. The Duke of Villafranca agreed saying that
"his Majesty’s intent had not been to produce libels."103
In the case of the Fustero family from Granada the King had to write a note,
103 Ibid.; the Duke o f Infantado’s phrase was "tomaron mas mano," literally, taken
more hand.
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apologizing for the excessive investigation by royal officers. The King’s secretary
wrote on the deliberations from this case that "all this happened without his knowledge
and Fustero would have been excused if only the King had known."104 Earlier
Francisco de Irarrazabal, royal officer in Granada, had ordered an investigation into the
Morisco origins o f the Fusteros in Granada. Diego Fustero was a judge in the "Real
Audiencia" of the Canary Islands and upon hearing this news he wrote to the King
about his family’s history. The judge wrote that his father and uncles, along with all
their children and in-laws, had been publicly humiliated by the all too public
investigation in Granada.
Don Diego pointed to the four Chancilleria cases that over the past seventy
years had established the Fusteros o f Granada as "hidalgos notorios" and Old
Christians. He wrote that the Fusteros had become great patrons and donors within the
villages o f the Kingdom. The family had served the King in arms and letters. Some
family members functioned as officers in the Inquisition. Their sons and daughters
had married into the best families of Granada. From the Canary Islands, Diego
Fustero knew that the King could clear the family’s name. He asked that he receive a
habit in the Order o f Santiago. Since he was the oldest son the family’s reputation
would be restored with such a great honor. The Council o f State agreed that the
Fusteros had been insulted, but they only recommended that they be given more local
responsibility and trust. A sinecure in the prestigious Order of Santiago was a sizable
gift and would have to wait. Instead the King offered the family a royal "cedula"
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which confirmed all the previous Fustero honors.
The Fustero case was judged to be one o f false accusation. But it is possible
that the insinuations were true. Families who settled in Granada in the early sixteenth
century had to be heavily influenced by the dominant Morisco population. The
Fusteros could even have been wealthy Moriscos who successfully erased their origins.
Why else did they previously need to take their case to court four times? In either
scenario the Morisco background and memory was not so easily erased as the Council
of State wanted. In other cases of false accusations, the suspicions were later proven
true. We cannot discount either possibility. Who was and who was not a Morisco
could very well depend on historic enemies, powerful positions or valuable
connections.
The Council o f State examined many cases of valuable connections. The
majority o f them were servants and vassals of the nobility. The Duke of Arcos
petitioned the King to exempt from expulsion the Moriscos who had grown up in his
home. He claimed they provided essential services as hunters or officers in his house.
He also stated that they had always lived as "good and faithful Christians." Finally, he
argued that "the Duke o f Medina Sidonia has had six Morisco gardeners and bee
keepers declared exempt from expulsion."10S He obviously implied that if Medina
Sidonia was given special favors he should also be indulged.
The Council o f State considered this request and believed that "opening this
door would prove inconveniente to the purpose of cleaning the Kingdom of these
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people [the Moriscos]."106 Idiaquez, the Cardinal o f Toledo, the Constable of Castile
and the Duke o f Albuquerque all urged the King to write to the Duke o f Medina
Sidonia and explain why even Morisco servants could not stay. "If exemptions are
made for the Duke o f Medina Sidonia, exemptions must be given to the Duke of
Arcos, or any other noble who requests them." These four counsellors saw Medina
Sidonia as the perfect noble to set an example for the rest. The Duke o f Infantado
disagreed. He saw no problem in "allowing the Lords to keep those Moriscos who
were raised in the noble’s home if they are also good Christians. The Duke of Medina
Sidonia should keep the gracia given him and the Duke o f Arcos be granted one."
The Council, rather than presenting a united opinion, sent the day’s notes for the
King’s decision so he could "order it be seen and provide that which is necessary."
The Duke o f Pastrana waited until later in the expulsion to present a list of
Moriscos who he wanted to remain.107 Perhaps knowing about the earlier restrictions
o f personal servants, the Duke took advantage o f exemptions allowed for Morisco silk
workers. Because the expulsion orders for Granada had excluded Moriscos who were
vital to the region’s silk industry, Pastrana explained how on his lands near
106 Ibid.; the Spanish word "inconveniente" recurs constantly in the Council’s
discussion o f the Morisco problem. It can mean everything from inconvenient to horrible
in English.
107 The Duke o f Pastrana was only the third duke to hold that title. The first duke
was his grandfather Ruy Gomez de Silva, who was a valuable servant to Philip II. The
family’s additional titles included Prince of Melito to which the Duke was at times
referred. For more on the beginnings o f this family see James Boyden, The Courtier and
the King.
254
Guadalajara silk was also a vital economic endeavor.108
Ten Morisco families appeared on the Duke’s list. Hernando Lopez Ferry was
seventy four years old and knew the entire silk industry very well. Lorenzo Perez was
a master twister and dyer. The brothers, Miguel and Luis Garcia, were excellent silk
weavers. Francisco Diaz was an essential "garroteador." Alonso de Baeza was
teaching the Old Christians how to dye the silk. The Duke also asked for exemptions
for some "berberiscos," who as previously discussed were not included in the expulsion
orders. There were continued misunderstandings about the entire process of expulsion.
The Duke then wrote a special explanation as to why the eighty-year-old Lucia de
Mendoza should be exempt from the expulsion. He commended her for informing him
about some Moriscos who in 1570 had tried to leave for North Africa. Because of
her, the Duke was able to send people after those Moriscos and return them to
Pastrana. Ever since then Lucia was an object of hatred and suspicion. Her own son
was killed was killed by some Moriscos.109
The Council of State read these reports and noted how much the Duke of
Pastrana had already suffered because of the loss o f so many Morisco vassals in the
expulsion. They advised the King to allow the Duke to keep these valuable silk-
workers, but only for four more years. In that time they could teach their skills to
others. The Council also knew that the Duke would pay a sizable "servicio" for this
109 AGS, Estado 2745, no date; document follows immediately behind the other
Pastrana letter from 17 August 1610.
255
privilege.110 It is hard to tell if four years later these Moriscos of Pastrana were ever
forced to leave.
The nobles o f the Spanish Monarchy looked for special favors for their servants
and employees as did the powerful cities. The municipal council of Toledo asked that
a Doctor Segovia, although a Morisco, be exempted from the expulsion.111 The city
officials explained that he was the most famous doctor in Toledo and treated the sick
in the monasteries and hospitals. "Everyone," they said, "knew of his complete
Christianity."112 A second letter arrived from the doctor’s wife, Dona Maria de
Gorostizu y Salazar. She was from an Old Christian family who believed that her
husband "had removed himself from those o f his nation."113 Their children had all
married "clean and noble persons." The Council considered this information and since
a Morisco doctor in Cordoba had already been allowed to remain, they believed it
would be a good thing to allow Doctor Segovia to remain also. The King’s brief note
on the back side o f the paper agreed but added "do not allow more petitions on this
issue."114 The King was becoming very annoyed with the long and drawn out
process.
111 That a Morisco became such a well known physician adds much to the ideas
discussed in Luis Garcia Ballester, Los moriscos v la medicina: un capitulo de la medicina
v la ciencia marginada en la Espana del sielo XVI. (Barcelona, 1984).
112 AGS, Estado 2746, 14 June 1611.
113 AGS, Estado 2746, 25 June 1611.
114 Ibid, 14 June 1611.
256
The King’s annoyances must have only increased with another disturbing
category of Moriscos. The King’s half-uncle, Don Juan de Austria, had commanded
the King’s troops in the Alpujarras rebellion. He had given many Moriscos
Granadinos letters stating how they had served the King well against their fellow
Granadinos. Luis Enriquez, a Morisco Granadino, demonstrated such a letter to the
Council o f State asking for an exemption. In 1582 he had also won a court case
where previously confiscated goods were returned to him because of this very same
evidence. With this proof and signs of previous loyalty the Council believed it "would
be just for him to stay."115 The comprehensive nature of the expulsion was being
curtailed by past history.
Because o f these continuing problems the Council of State organized a smaller
meeting in the home o f the Cardinal of Toledo. Here the original intent of the
expulsion was reviewed once again and directives prioritized.116 Most worrisome for
the counsellors was how the deadline for the expulsion had passed and yet their orders
for a complete expulsion were unfulfilled. There were still Moriscos who had not left.
Many o f those remaining Moriscos had been approved as good Christians but the
counsellors believed they were still traitors. Their only concession to their good lives
was to allow them to go to other Christian lands with their property intact.
In this smaller Junta, the final decision to expel all, despite the previous
exemptions, was made. From this point on, the Council along with Philip III denied
115 AGS, Estado 2746, 18 June 1611.
116 AGS, Estado 235, June 1611.
257
requests that reached their chambers and narrowed exemptions so that all were
expelled. The Cardinal o f Toledo held as proof o f the Council’s new precision the
fact that many Old Christian Moriscos had already left. To the Council this only
demonstrated the Moriscos complicity in the guilt of their people. However, a
surprising admission was made. It would be very important to define who the
Moriscos Antiguos were. The Council agreed that if they investigated too far back
"there would be very few in Spain who would not have some Moorish parentage."117
Their distinction o f two hundred years was made the limit. Here was a concept rarely
acknowledged, still debated today and nevertheless true. The religious boundaries of
pre-expulsion Spain were more porous then anyone would readily concede. Was there
some truth in the foreigner’s stereotype of Spaniards being half Jew and Muslim?118
With all the confusion about who was allowed to stay, the Morisco expulsion
became even more muddled with foreigners taking advantage o f the situation. When
Moriscos left the peninsula they embarked on an uncertain voyage. The King’s best
intentions to protect them were often lost in the hard realities o f the expulsion. On
March 18, 1610 the Moriscos Rodrigo Perez and Francisco Ximenez left Granada
intending to go to other Christian lands. After paying the King’s fees the two
silkworkers were still carrying over 1200 "reales." The boat that took them to their
destination was captained by a Frenchman. The captain did not take them where they
117 Ibid.
118 For more on some of the stereotypes that divided Europe see J. R. Hale, The
Civilization o f Europe in the Renaissance. 64-65.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission o f the copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited without p erm ission.
258
wanted to go but abandoned them in North Africa and stole all their money. The two
men managed to travel to Algiers where they enlisted the help o f the Trinitarian
monks who resided in the city. The friars lent them money so they could feed their
families and travel back to Spain. Rodrigo and Francisco then sailed to Cartagena on
an English ship and finally arrived in Granada where they hoped to track down the
Frenchman who stole their money. The royal officers in Granada at first listened to
their story but then jailed them. They were found guilty as Moriscos who returned to
the peninsula and condemned to the galleys. In jail they did have time to write the
King and petition him for clemency. They only asked to be given two months
freedom so they could conduct their search. Then they promised that they would
leave.119 The royal response went unrecorded and so what happened to the two
Moriscos is unknown. But the circumstances were often repeated.
Other captains ignored the customs duties that needed to be paid when
transporting people. Two Flemings, Juan Bandembor and Federique Pietri, were fined
for not paying the "flete". A German, Justo Bernardo, was even jailed for defrauding
the King’s Treasury. By October 1614 when the expulsion was almost over the King
ordered that only 30% o f the required payments needed to be collected.120 That
there were so many foreigners in the southern ports by 1614 was due to the Twelve-
119 AGS, Estado 234, 6 September 1611. Two documents from the same day recount
the circumstances. The first is the summary of the Moriscos’ letter and the second is the
court’s investigation into the possible truth of the story'. All they could determine was
that the two Moriscos left on the stated date with families and possessions intact.
120 AGS, Estado 250, 23 July 1613; also Estado 251, no date; Estado 261, 20 October
1614.
259
Year Truce but the Dutch, Flemings or English intruded on the Morisco expulsion,
clouding the issues.
Serious difficulties arose with the foreigners in Malaga where the bishop felt
the "English and Dutch heretics" were encouraging the plentiful Muslim slaves in
riotous living. The English had even had "carnal knowledge" with some Muslim
women and the "children bom o f such perversion were sent to England."121 The
Council o f State upon learning o f these reports studied the Peace Treaty carefully.
Article 21 of the treaty between England and Spain allowed for trade "without
impediment" but forbade scandalous behavior. Treading carefully so as not to disturb
the peace, the Council recommended that the bishop stop such scandals but not offend
the foreign traders.
The Duke o f Lerma tried to enforce the strict expulsion of all Moriscos. By
March 1612 he wrote to the president of the Council of Castile that no Moriscos
would be allowed to stay. This meant both those who had at first remained as good
Christians and those who had come back. Even the oldest Moriscos would have to
leave, except for the crippled who would die on any journey.122 But these all-
encompassing orders were issued frequently and accompanied by exceptions. The
directives o f the center were often tempered by qualms about being too ruthless. The
peripheral areas also adapted the orders to their own interpretations and needs. In
121 AGS, Estado 2643, 31 March 1613, 5 September 1613, 19 October 1613, 5
January 1614.
260
some areas it was worth asking the questions: did they stay or did they go?
Part of this answer lies in the frail and pragmatic governmental abilities of the
early modem period. The "machinery" to identify and expel every last Morisco was
not available, as the Archbishop o f Valencia had earlier said. When local authorities
and populations defended and hid the Moriscos there was little the King’s power could
do.123
This appears to be the case with the expulsion in Toledo and La Mancha.
When the Council heard news that Moriscos were returning to their homes after being
expelled they ordered Alcalde Madera to reinforce the orders.124 Nonetheless, they
did it knowing how difficult the task would be. How would these returning Moriscos
be identified if their neighbors did not point them out? Madera arrived in Toledo to
begin in his assignment and immediately jailed three Moriscos who had returned. But
he claimed that over twenty families were still unidentified because the local officials
were "forgetful."125
Madera did not say what they were forgetting. It could have been the King’s
orders, their Morisco neighbors’ heritage or eight hundred years of Christian
Reconquest. It could be that local authorities saw no difference in certain Moriscos
and benefitted too much from their presence. What is clear is that Madera and Salazar
123 This was a very prevalent theme in the literature of the SpanishGolden Age. For
the classic example o f communal resistance to outside injustice seeLope de Vega’s play
Fuenteoveiuna.
261
repeatedly informed the Duke o f Lerma that the municipal officials were not
cooperating with them in their jobs.126 Salazar legitimately worried about how
"ladino" the Moriscos o f Castile were. He was referring to their indistinguishable
language, clothing and customs which allowed Moriscos to disappear in their local
settings.
There were also Old Christians who were willing to protect their Morisco
neighbors in roundabout ways. Salazar reported on some of the "scandalous and
ruinous behavior." He wrote that many Moriscos were marrying "Cristianas Viejas."
Then the couple would renounce their marriage vows to enter a monastery, which were
"selling entrances like a basket o f pears."127 The women benefitted by having a
secure position in the Church, while the Morisco monks could remain in the monastery
free from expulsion. The monasteries defended their actions saying that the Moriscos
were Old Christians since both fathers and grandfathers had all been baptized.
Attempting to be thorough, the King even requested that the galleys of Spain
submit lists o f all the Morisco oarsmen on their ships. The commanders were warned
that the Moriscos were to serve their full sentences and then be deported in North
Africa. The King reiterated that under no circumstances were the Moriscos to be
allowed re-entry into the peninsula. Considering the high mortality of condemned
oarsmen on the galleys, the surprise is finding forty eight Moriscos in March 1613
126 AGS, Estado 2644, 13 March 1614.
262
who were still alive and serving their sentences.128
By 1614 the King was satisfied that the expulsion was complete. In April, he
ordered the Count o f Salazar to enforce only the expulsion o f well-known Moriscos,
but that further investigations into doubtful cases was to end.129 After the formal
expulsion from Ricote was complete, an anonymous letter sent to the Council of State
suggested declaring an end to the expulsion. The author recommended that further
punishment o f Moriscos be left to the local jurisdictions. This would effectively allow
Moriscos who were an accepted part of the landscape to return or stop hiding. The
local authorities would be much less likely to punish acceptable or necessary Moriscos.
The author’s final suggestion is interesting in light of the attitude of acceptance. He
wrote "as for those [Moriscos] who have not left, stop harassing them. Even stop
discussing them because if this business does not stop it will never end, nor will the
harm and "inconvenientes" it causes."130
The King by August o f 1614 pronounced a successful end to the expulsion. He
decreed
an end had been reached after expelling all the Moriscos; man
and woman, Granadino, Aragonese, Valenciano and Catalan as well as
Antiguos and Mudejar . . . All Moriscos who have not left or have
returned must leave under pain of slavery in the galleys and confiscation
o f goods. If it be woman or very old to be whipped with 200 lashed
128 AGS, Estado 2642, folios 118-119. For more on conviction to the galleys and
some remarkable cases o f survival see Monter, Frontiers o f Heresy. 32-35, 176-179.
129 AGS, Estado 2644, 15 April 1614.
263
and branded.131
All Moriscos must not have been expelled if such harsh punishments had to be decreed
for the remnants and returnees.
With the expulsion officially over, the Spanish Monarchy had rhetorically rid
itself of a dangerous "fifth column."132 What remains to be examined are the
declared actions and beliefs o f those who managed to remain for a time. How these
Moriscos were manifestly Christian must be presented. Some ecclesiastical leaders
saw their Morisco parishioners meeting the criteria that the Tridentine decrees had
established and many diocesan directives tried to insure. What made a Morisco a good
and faithful Christian is at the crux of how Catholicism was changing in this crucial
period. Also evident is the necessity for a minority population to adapt its ways to the
majority and vice versa. Individuals may simply have vanished from the historical
records as they assimilated.
132 Etymologically this phrase has a resounding Spanish history. It resulted from the
suppossed fifth column inside Republican Madrid as the Nationalist forces besieged the
city during the Spanish Civil War. See the Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed., vol. 5,
890.
264
Chapter Six
Good and Faithful Christians
The first expulsion orders exempted those Moriscos who could prove that they
were good and faithful Christians. The Council o f Trent had established for Catholic
bishops what that proof was; thus defining which Moriscos should be saved from the
expulsion was relatively easy at first. As mentioned previously, the King and Council
o f State allowed the bishops to investigate and report on the lives of their Morisco
parishioners. Many bishops reported on a large number o f Moriscos who they felt
were fulfilling their Christian obligations. This chapter will examine who some of
those Moriscos were and how others defended them as good and faithful Christians.
Defending "Good" Moriscos
The Council o f State tried to define what being a "good and faithful" Christian
meant. But even before they had time to inform the bishops of their new definitions.
265
many prelates and city councils responded with a defense of their Moriscos. Both the
Cathedral Chapter and municipal council o f Ubeda in Andalucia wrote in about the
Moriscos living there. The two letters defended the Moriscos as "never having been
processed by the Holy Office, but always living as Catholic Christians attending mass,
partaking o f the sacraments and living with great piety."1 They described the lives of
more than two hundred Morisco families who although poor had demonstrated
Christian behavior. "The Moriscos," the leaders o f Ubeda wrote, "desire to die as
good Christians." O f course, the city had an economic motive in this concern.
Without mentioning their interest directly, they pointed to one very old Morisca who
had lived a good Christian life and had property valued over 1,000 ducats. She had no
heir and had already been demonstrably charitable. The municipal council of Ubeda
did not want to lose her estate, nor the tax contributions of the other families.2 Did
they then exaggerate her good Christianity to gain an exemption or was her generosity
merely linked to her true conversion? In either case the Ubedano definition o f good
Christian was quite different from the royal viewpoint.
The case o f Maria de la Concepcion was an extreme defense of good
Christianity.Maria was a Morisca servant who lived in the home of a canon o f the
Church o f San Salvador in Seville. The priest, Bartolome de Lodefia, wrote to the
King about how she was bom o f Morisco parents but had lived a cloistered life. He
reported that she attended mass almost daily and hated her "nation" so much that she
‘ AGS,Estado 229, 23 January 1610; "del cabildo de la Iglesia de Ubeda."
2 AGS,Estado 229, 23 January 1610; "de la ciudad de Ubeda."
266
never dealt with them. As evidence o f this he claimed that no other Morisco knew
that she was a Morisca. Lodena described in his letter how she was ill because of the
penance she was doing for her sins, but that her "greatest pain would be to be removed
from other Christians, and she is too old to have children."3 Both the Council of
State and Junta o f Theologians advised the King to exempt this women "with such a
worthy life." The Council continued to whittle down the criteria for determining good
Christian behavior to similarly limited definitions.
Everywhere in the peninsula, Church leaders defended the Moriscos. The
bishop of Cartagena recommended caution when expelling the Moriscos "because there
are so many whose Christianity cannot be doubted."4 He thought that the confessors
could attest to the good behavior o f their parishioners "for they go tomass, do good
works and participate in all things as often as the Old Christiansdo."5 The bishop of
Cartagena then suggested that these Moriscos be allowed to obtain lands near Oran, a
fort in North Africa controlled by the Spanish Monarchy. There they might settle,
protect the King’s lands, spread Christianity and remain his faithful subjects. The
royal reply to the bishop’s suggestions was "no conviene;" not desirable.
Nevertheless, the bishops o f Old Castile had begun to investigate the lives of
their Morisco parishioners under a different criteria of good Christianity. Throughout
the Fall, lists o f names with accompanying explanations were sent to the court. They
5 Ibid.
267
remain a good source to determine what the bishops were looking for.
One of the first papers to arrive at court was from the bishop o f Valladolid. In
sworn testimonies reliable witnesses affirmed that Martin Alonso, a Morisco leatherer,
was a Catholic Christian. Juan Suarez, a Jesuit priest, testified that for the twenty
years in which he had known him Martin knew all the prayers, confessed and partook
o f the sacrament. Martin’s neighbor, Antonio de Azaburu, did not even know that
Martin was a Morisco. Another neighbor and fellow leatherer, Joaquin Perez, watched
him go to mass every morning at the Church o f San Francisco. Joaquin also knew
that Martin "fasted during Lent, refrained from bad conversations, reprimanded those
who swore, won indulgences and was admitted to the confraternity o f Saint Lupercio,
even though everyone knew he was a Morisco."6 Here was direct evidence that a
Morisco was completely involved in a Christian life and living his Catholic faith. But
Martin Alonso did not appear on the lists o f exemptions. A Morisca, Isabel deSoto,
was exempted and she might have been his widow.7
The bishop o f Valladolid was unable to examine all the Moriscos in his
diocese, but he ordered the notary, Juan de Vega to conduct investigations in other
cities. In Tordesillas, seven Moriscos had asked to be exempt as good Christians.
Vega reported his findings to the bishop, who then forwarded the information to
6 AGS, Estado 225, folio 49, 25 August 1610. The occupation o f leatherer placed
all these men on the fringes o f society, but that a Morisco was part o f the confraternity
demonstrates more acceptance into society than being utterly rejected.
7 AGS, Estado 224, 21 August 1610; duplicate letter in Estado 235. The Count of
Salazar’s orders to exclude Isabel de Soto from the expulsion can be found in AGS.
Estado 228 no. 1, 4 September 1610.
268
Madrid. The people investigated were found to have attended mass, confessed
regularly, partaken o f the host on Holy Days, lived among Old Christians, eaten pig
fat, drunken wine and known the Christian doctrine. An elderly Morisca widow, Juana
Bazan, had even received alms from the Church while she had been ill.8 These nine
items were then what made a good Christian for the bishop of Valladolid.
The other bishops’ exemptions came in quickly. By September 22, 1610 the
Council o f State had the secretary’s summary of the initial investigations.9 The
bishop o f Segovia reported on thirty four families in his diocese. The bishop of
Salamanca asked that twenty two families be exempt from the expulsion. He informed
the King that after examining the lives o f these Moriscos he did not doubt their
"customs or Christianity." Some, he wrote, had even "married and become family to
Old Christians." The bishop o f Zamora wrote about the good Christianity of nine
Morisco families. The Moriscos o f Zamora had confessed often, attended mass and
offered good works as Christians should. Others had been stewards in the parish
Church and some had been confraternity members or married Old Christians.
"Generally, they have continually lived with their wives and children as good
Christians should." The bishops’ findings affirmed the criteria o f attending mass,
confessing, partaking o f the sacrament, accomplishing good works, participating in
confraternities, marrying Old Christians and living continually as good Christians.
8 AGS, Estado 225, folios 47-48, 4 September 1610.
9 AGS., Estado 2640, folio 295, "resumen del 22 de septiembre 1610." This
summary included reports from the bishops whose comments are described.
269
In Plasencia the Moriscos were "moderate and quiet people." The bishop wrote
that he never had reason to question their Christianity. In Cuenca, the bishop reported
that some Moriscas had become nuns. The bishop of Badajoz reported that the
Moriscos in his diocese could no longer speak Arabic. The Moriscos of Badajoz,
according to their bishop, confessed at the appropriate times, attended mass when they
should and not a "soul had ever been processed by the Inquisition."
The bishop o f Coria only asked that one Morisco in a parish o f Caceres be
exempt. He happened to be old, sick and castrated. The Morisco of Caceres was not
a threat to the "pure" Christianity o f Spain, but it would seem that the other bishops
were willing to teach and convert their Moriscos along with the Old Christian
inhabitants.
Later more bishops would report on other Moriscos who were good Christians.
The Archbishop o f Toledo, Cardinal-Primate o f Spain and member o f the King’s
Council, was placed in an awkward position. He had assigned his most trusted
officials to investigate the exemption o f Moriscos who were good Christians. He was
surprised when his assistants reported that in his archdiocese there were one hundred
fifty three Moriscos who were good Christians. As the report was read to the Council
of State, the Cardinal explained to his fellow peers that "he was still worried that many
Moriscos would take advantage o f this exception, especially since so many cannot be
personally seen by the bishops."10
10 AGS, Estado 2640, folio 303, 23 October 1610. This document is similar to folio
295, except that it includes reports from vicars, priors and bishops.
270
The Cardinal had reason to worry about the numbers exempted. In the same
Council o f State summary where the Moriscos of his archdiocese were mentioned, nine
priors and vicars reported from their distant, even isolated, parishes. From these
smaller areas over two hundred sixty Moriscos were described as good Christians and
worthy o f exemption. The vicars’ comments from these smaller Church units
expressed an inclusive idea o f Christianity. The Vicar o f Villanueva de los Infantes
believed the twenty Morisco families o f his parish "have a tender wish and pious
desire to not be expelled." He explained that their lives were filled with acts of
devotion and humility. The Vicar of Veas wrote that the twenty five Moriscos were
"very good Christians, always attending to their obligations." The King defined
Christianity as an ancestral heritage, while these priests saw the religion as one of
habituation."
The King, frustrated with the rising number o f exemptions, ordered all the
ecclesiastics to do the investigations again. He added that the Moriscos must be
notoriously good Christians who commit visible acts against the "sect of the
Moors."12 The King’s new definitions were sent out to the bishops, asking them to
11 A similar debate occurred in the New World about the nature of the native
populations and how they should be taught religion. For example, see how Anthony
Pagden in The Fall o f Natural Man explains how Francisco de Vitoria, Bartolome de Las
Casas and Jose de Acosta believed that with time and understanding the puerile Indians
would accept Christianity.
12 AGS, Estado 2640, folio 295. The King’s comments were written on the back of
the secretary’s summary, along the fold where he normally responded to the Council's
suggestions.
271
be "very discriminating and to know full well their purpose."13
In the first requests to the bishops, the King’s orders had not been clear
enough. The second requests appear to have been just as misunderstood. The bishop
o f Coria, investigating for the second time, found more than his original castrated
Morisco. In October he sent in a request to exempt one hundred seventeen Moriscos
who were "notorious Christians." The bishop wrote that "allowing them to stay would
not be against the service o f God." The bishop o f Valladolid had earlier sent in his
reports about Morisco families in Valladolid and Tordesillas. Now in October he
added to that list. He asked that Lorenzo Nunez be certified as a "very Catholic and
good Christian."14
In describing "good Christians," those very words were taken for granted and
left undefined. The King would not believe that Moriscos were true Christians. The
bishops could only proceed on what they saw and heard, based on the criteria of daily
life. A Morisco in Old Castile was surrounded by the rituals of Catholicism. There
was no hidden Islamic lifeline to support continued connections to the Muslim world.
Their world was Old Castile and more specifically the local area where circumstances
tied them. The isolation was more evident in specific regions. The example of the
town o f Fuentidueiia, in the diocese of Segovia, may serve well to demonstrate their
cultural separation and local integration.
13 AGS, Estado 2640, folio 304, 23 October 1610. The words are those of Juan de
Idiaquez, Comendador Mayor de Leon.
272
The Moriscos o f Fuentiduena
Fuentiduena lies north o f Segovia on the south side of the hills that divide
Segovia and Valladolid. Flowing on the west side o f Fuentiduena is the Duraton river,
which empties into the Duero river at the larger town o f Penafiel, twenty four
kilometers to the north. By the early twelfth century, the town was a recognized
municipality o f the Kingdom o f Castile. A century later, after the victory of las Navas
de Tolosa in 1212, the King o f Castile resided in the town’s castle. In the fifteenth
century, various nobles were imprisoned here by the King’s favorite, Alvaro de Luna.
Luna’s bastard son became the noble lord o f Fuentiduena and his heirs were still its
lords in the early seventeenth century.15
Before the sixteenth century, Fuentiduena had two parishes, but its population
must have declined as by the 1590s only the parish o f San Miguel operated with one
curate and extant registers. Part o f its jurisdiction included the hamlets of Torrecilla
and Fuente del Olmo. In a nineteenth century description of the town, there were only
fifty nine voting citizens, one hundred nineteen total inhabitants, sixty five buildings
and two "barinero" mills. The Church of San Miguel in Fuentiduena is described as a
romanesque structure with an excellent gothic nave.16 Perhaps, its sixteenth-century
population was closer to the mid-twentieth figure o f century figure of six hundred
15 Nicholas G. Round, The Greatest Man Uncrowned: A Study of the Fall of Don
Alvaro de Luna. (London, 1986) 138, n. 16. Also see Cronica de don Alvaro de Luna,
condestable de Castilla, maestre de Santiago. Juan de Mata Carriazo, editor, (Madrid,
1940), 322, 449.
16 Pascual Madoz, Diccionario geografico-estadistico-historico de Espana v sus

posesiones de Ultramar. (Madrid, 1845-50) v. 8, 252.
273
inhabitants.17
In 1581 the royal council recorded one hundred seven Moriscos Granadinos
living in the lands o f Fuentiduena, all having been dispersed after the failed rebellion
in 1570.18 When in 1594 the Inquisition o f Valladolid counted all the Moriscos
under its authority, Fuentiduena had one hundred nineteen Moriscos listed.19 This
must have been approximately 20% o f the entire town’s population. The 1594 census
grouped the Moriscos of Fuentiduena into thirty five families.
In the September 1610 exemption lists from the ecclesiastical leaders, the
bishop o f Segovia asked that twenty one Morisco families in Fuentiduena and one in
Torrecilla be exempt. He considered them all to be good Christians. The bishop must
have known that exempting so many families amounted to a large majority of the
Moriscos. But the bishop explained that he had seen all of them and had entrusted the
investigations to his must trusted vicars. When the royal secretary summarized the
Segovia list, he wrote "the reports contain many testimonies from monks and others
who are honorable and disinterested."20 The summary explained that the Moriscos of
Fuentiduena "attended to their obligations punctually and did good works." What did
this mean in the town’s context? The parish records reveal what the Moriscos did to
fulfill their Christian duty.
17 Diccionario geoerafico de Espana. (Madrid, 1959) v. 10, 310.
18 AGS, C.C. 2183, 30 September 1581.
19 AHN, Inquisition 2109, exp. 1, folios 55-57.
274
The curates o f San Miguel from 1590 to 1615 were Francisco Nunez and
Baltasar Bustos. The curate o f San Miguel also held the office o f Chaplain to Don
Antonio de Luna, lord o f the village, so his economic situation was at least
comfortable. When the Inquisition requested the listing of Moriscos from Fuentiduena
the work in 1594 must have been done by Nunez, who was the parish priest at that
time. All evidence points to the work being done in March 1593, a year before being
submitted to the Suprema in Madrid. A two-month-old son of the Morisco Diego
Munoz was counted by the Inquisition and the parish baptismal register recorded the
baptism of young Bias Munoz on January 14, 1593.21
From 1593 to 1611 there were one hundred twenty one baptisms recorded in
the parish registers. Ten percent o f those baptisms were of Morisco children. At least
in Fuentiduena, the Council o f State’s fears that the Moriscos were multiplying to
excess was unfounded. Their birth rate was actually lower than the Old Christian
inhabitants of the town.
The Inquisition list also allows us to follow the family relationships between
the Moriscos. In the hamlet o f Torrecilla, the Morisca Catalina de Zafra had first
married an Old Christian with whom she had a son, Juan de Medina.22 After her first
21 The Fuentiduena parish registers are not kept in the Segovian dioceses archives.
Each parish keeps its own records. I was unable to travel to Fuentiduena, but the records
have all been filmed. They can be readily obtained in the Salt Lake City Family History
Center o f the Geneological Society of Utah. Microfilm Number 1543239, item 1. I am
grateful to Rachel Tueller for requesting the reel o f film and copying the material for me
during the Spring o f 1995.
22 AGS, C.C. 2183.
275
husband died, she remarried the Morisco Juan Alvarez. By 1594 Juan Alvarez had
also died leaving Catalina a widow again. But now she had three more sons; Juan,
Lorenzo and Hernando Alvarez.23 These three sons were all younger than twelve.
Juan Alvarez, father, was also in his second marriage before he died. From his first
marriage he had a daughter named Isabel.24 This would seem to be a fairly typical
early modem family with step-children living with the remaining adult because of
previous marriages and deaths. The difference was that Catalina de Zafra and Juan
Alvarez were Moriscos and her first spouse was an Old Christian. Catalina, although
widowed twice, might not have been so destitute since among the two other Morisco
families sumamed Zafra in the parish she might have had extended family.
Other families were also integrating as they adapted to Fuentiduena. The
surnames of Esteban, Munoz, Escalante, Graxeda, Toledo and Garcia were all
represented by more than one family. In some instances the family relationship was
stated. Pero Garcia was thirty years old in 1594 and married to Catalina Garcia. They
had a three year old son. Pero’s younger brother also lived in Fuentiduena and was
married to Maria Esteban. The Esteban family had other daughters married to
Moriscos in the town. Thirty year old Leonor Esteban was the wife o f forty six year
old Alonso de Alamis. They had a son named, Martin de Alamis. An older Maria de
Esteban was the widow o f another Juan Garcia, which might have meant that the
family ties between the Esteban and Garcia families extended to earlier generations.
23 AHN, Inquisicion 2109, exp. 1, folio 55.
24 AGS, C.C. 2183.
276
The Garcia family appeared often in the parish registers, conforming to
Catholic rites and village customs. When Juan Garcia and Catalina de Zafra’s
daughter, Maria, was baptized it was recorded in the parish register. Francisco Nunez
used descriptive phrasing in his entry about the baptism. He wrote
I christianed [sic] a daughter o f Juan Garcia and his wife,

Moriscos. She is called Maria. Her godfather was Fructos Fernandez.
Her godmother was Maria, wife o f [illegible]. On this the sixth day of
May, one thousand five hundred ninety three. I sign in truth
[Signature].25
Did his use of the word "christianed" instead o f baptized reflect his belief that baptism
was the entry way into Christianity and not ancestral birth?
Besides the familial connections, we can also examine the occupations of
Moriscos in Fuentiduena. The Inquisition did not record every Morisco’s employment
but those listed included a smith, weaver, mason and tailor. As many came from
Granada we can also assume that some brought with them their skills in irrigation,
orchard care and silk production. Since Fuentiduena was suited to these abilities they
could very well have incorporated them into the predominant wheat, oat and stock
raising. The Inquisition only listed two slaves among the Moriscos, both of who were
owned by Francisco Gallo de Salamanca.25
An important sign of Morisco assimilation into the daily life of Fuentiduena
25 The film from the Geneological Society o f Utah’s Family History Center has all
the parish registers from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries on one reel. The
registers were never numbered, so the only way to find the entries is to do as the parish
priest did. As the entries were all made in chronological order all one needs to do is find
the correct date. In the case o f this quote, it is obviously May 6, 1593.
26 The slaves, Guiomar and Bemabe, appeared in both listings from 1581 and 1594.
277
was their connections to the Old Christian inhabitants. We have seen how there was a
marriage between a Morisca and a "cristiano viejo." Other connections were formed in
the baptismal ceremony with the stress on godparents. A frequent godfather at
Morisco baptisms was Francisco de Ortega. When the two children of the Morisco
Alvaro de Rojas, Maria and Andres, were baptized, Ortega was the godfather.27 It is
difficult to know why he was recruited. Did he have a prior friendship with the
Morisco families? Or did he simply live conveniently close to the Church? Either
way, the Catholic Reformation emphasized the bonds formed at baptism between the
child and its godparents. The relationship was meant to be stronger than those of
physical birth.28 Did Ortega take his obligation to heart? Did the Moriscos benefit
from Ortega’s potential concern for their children?
Besides the wealth of quantitative information and relationships present in the
registers from Fuentiduena, we can also examine names. David Herlihy notes that
"through names, we eavesdrop as the old instruct the young, prepare them to carry the
culture and bless them on their way."29 When the first Moriscos had been forcibly
baptized they were given Christian names. In areas of large Morisco population, like
27 Maria de Rojas was bom on May 24, 1594. Andres was bom on Aug. 30, 1595.
Alvaro de Rojas’ wife was Mariana de los Angeles in the 1594 Inquisition list. In the
parish registers, she is listed as Beatriz de Cozuelos. The priest noted that Alvaro de
Rojas was a Morisco, so his wife must have used either name. The situation only
highlights the difficulty of names in sixteenth-century Spain where people regularly had
many alternate names, surnames and nicknames.
28 Bossy, Christianity and the West. 14-16; also see Jacques Dupaquier, "Naming-
Practices, Godparenthood, and Kinship in the Vexin, 1540-1900," Journal o f Family
History. 6 (1981), 147-48.
29 David Herlihy, "Tuscan Names," Renaissance Quarterly. 41 (1988), 561.
278
Granada or Valencia, many Moriscos still preserved their Arabic names. But the
names and surnames used by the Moriscos o f Fuentiduena were the typical ones used
by Castilians in the sixteenth century. Although two surnames, Alamis and Tope,
might have reflected the Granadino and Arabic background. Otherwise the surnames
had the very common patronyms o f Hernandez, Garcia, Munoz, Vazquez and Perez.
Common Spanish surnames also could reflect origins, such as de Castilla, de Avila, de
Granada, de Toledo and de Zafra. Since most of the Moriscos in Fuentiduena were
displaced Granadinos, it was unlikely that these specific surnames described the
geographical origins o f the family.
How the first generation o f Moriscos received their Christian surnames has
never been examined. Some o f the answer may be seen in the baptism o f Juan de
Xaeni’s ancestor, Amanzor Pedro de Mendoza el Xaeni.30 Amanzor chose Mendoza
most likely because his godfather was the Marquis of Mondejar, Inigo Lopez de
Mendoza. Did the ancestors o f the Moriscos in Fuentiduena receive, or even choose,
their surnames based on who their godparents had been?
An intriguing Fuentiduena surname for a Morisco was Mexia. Mexia had been
a common surname taken by new Christians to underscore their allegiance to Jesus
Christ as the Messiah.31 Was this the intent o f the Andres de Mexia family in
Fuentiduena? Or was the surname taken from a distant godparent? Or had the priest
30 See Chapter 2.
31 For relationship between Mexia, Mejia and Mesias see Sebastian Covarrubias
Orozco, Tesoro de la lengua castellana o espanola. 802.
279
chosen Mexia because o f its significance for the newly converted Morisco ancestor?
The antecedents remain unknown, but the background o f Mexia continues to be
intriguing.
The following table summarizes the information about the choice o f names
among the Moriscos o f Fuentiduena.
Table 6.1
Morisco Names in Fuentiduena32
Males Females
Diego 15 Catalina 12
Juan 11 Maria 12
Alonso 6 Isabel 8
H/Femando 6 Beatriz 4
Andres 4 Ines 4
Francisco 4 Leonor 3
Lorenzo 2 Agueda 1
Pero/Pedro 2 Guiomar 1
Alvaro 2 Juana 1
Melchior 2 Lucia 1
Martin 1 Mariana de los Angeles 1
Bemabe 1 Secilia 1
Gregorio 1 undeclared 1
Miguel 1
Benito 1
Bias 1
Luis 1
Antonio 1
Vicente 1
Gines 1
undeclared 1
Total 67 men 50
women
As shown the most common male names were Diego and Juan. Catalina, Maria and
32 AHN, Inquisition 2109.
280
Isabel were the most frequently used female names.
Diego was the equivalent for St. James, the patron saint of Spain who was also
known as the Moor-slayer. Did the Moriscos know this and choose Santiago
Matamoros to demonstrate their new loyalty? Among the female names the lengthy
Mariana de los Angeles reflected in part the new Marian devotion and the impact of
Catholic reforms. The names chosen had to be recognized saint names so the presence
o f names like Gines, Alvaro and Bias were becoming more rare. Among the female
names the Catholic Reformation can also account for the decrease in Agueda, Guiomar
and Secilia.
Fuentiduena was the type of location that the Kings of Castile hoped for in
solving the Morisco problem. In isolated regions the Moriscos could assimilate and
forget their Muslim past. The Moriscos of Fuentiduena contributed to the working
population of the village when it appeared to be decreasing. Because the town was
isolated the Moriscos had few, if any, outside contacts. The bishop affirmed their
complete conversion to Christianity when he requested that the majority of the
Moriscos families o f Fuentiduena be exempted from the expulsion.
Specific Moriscos as Christians
The Moriscos o f Fuentiduena fit into the category of backward and isolated
villagers. Their lives might have been no more Catholic than their Old Christian
neighbors. Being just as ignorant was a possible excuse. The Council of State was
willing to exempt Moriscos because o f their utter ignorance. Juan de Logrono was
under suspicion in 1612 o f being a Morisco. His "cristiana vieja" wife, Juana de
281
Calahorra, requested that her husband be allowed to stay. She wrote that "he is such a
rustic man, since he was raised in the fields, herding goats and so ignorant that not
even malice can fit inside him."33 How many more Christians, o f Morisco ancestry
or not, fit into this description? The aim o f the Catholic Reformation was to better
indoctrinate Catholics. Sara Nalle, in God in La Mancha, mentions the effort small
town Jews made to become Christians by way of the catechism. "Given these
circumstances, it was not surprising that Conversos made bad Christians in a formal
sense; so did the Christians."34 The determination of good Christianity had to be
comparative.
The relationship between godparent and newly baptized Morisco must not be
forgotten. The Moriscos often memorialized their Christian sponsor in their choice of
names. In 1612 Geronimo de Aranda, a Morisco resident of Granada, went to Madrid
to plead his case. Officials in Granada had denied him an exemption so the court was
his last resort. Aranda claimed that his father was Lope Joha and his grandfather was
Juan Joha. Where then did Geronimo derive his surname of Aranda?
His answer to this question referred to the events leading up to the conquest of
Granada. Juan Joha’s father was Yu?uf Joha, a leading Muslim noble o f Granada.
When the Catholic Kings’ ambassador, Heman Dalvarez de Sotomayor, visited the
court o f King Duabdili o f Granada he always stayed with his friend, Yu?uf Joha. Juan
Joha "guided by the Holy Spirit" went to Santa Fe, before the conquest o f Granada
34 Nalle, God in la Mancha. 14.
282
and was baptized there. His godparents were Heman Dalvarez and his wife, Maria de
Aranda. In 1610, Geronimo de Aranda, although two generations removed from the
first baptism in his family, still honored the participation o f the godmother. This
information plus the assistance Lope de Joha gave to the Philip II during the
Alpujarras rebellion convinced the Council. Geronimo de Aranda was given a royal
letter, stating his exemption and this pertinent history.3S
Moriscos were defended by their bishops as good and faithful Christians. We
have seen how the Morisco families of Xaenl, Calderon and Marbella in Valladolid
have been referred to as examples o f how although Moriscos, some could still be
categorized as Old Christians.36 During the expulsion proceedings the Agustin de
Segovia family o f Valladolid was never described as Old Christian, in fact they were
continually labeled as newly converted Moriscos Granadinos. However, this family
exhibited how the Church authorities were successfully integrating specific Moriscos
into a wider Catholic world. When the bishop of Valladolid wrote to the King about
possible exemptions he referred to Agustin de Segovia, his wife and five children as
"good Christians."37 Although this cobbler and his family were Moriscos, the bishop
still defended them as good and faithful Christians who deserved to remain despite
their ancestry. We cannot discount the possibility of an economic motivation for the
bishop’s actions. We must, however, acknowledge the bishop’s first affirmation that
36 See Chapter 2.
37 AGS, Estado 228, no. 1,4 September 1610; there is also a duplicate of this letter
in AGS, Estado 2745.
283
the Segovia family was becoming Christian.38
The evidence from the parish registers strengthens the hypothesis that Agustin
had given up any Islamic vestiges o f the past. In the 1589 census o f Moriscos
Granadinos in Valladolid Agustin de Segovia and his wife, Isabel de Espana, lived in
the parish o f Santiago.39 This parish in Valladolid is just west o f the Plaza Mayor
and was a long time neighborhood o f Mudejares and then Moriscos Antiguos. Their
neighborhood became known as the "Barrio Santa Maria," stretching from the parish
church to the gardens and orchards along the western wall. Since many of the
Moriscos, both Antiguos and Granadinos, were expert gardeners and irrigators the
Santiago parish was an ideal place for them to live.
By 1589 the twenty-eight-year old Agustin was living here with his twenty-
year-old wife, Isabel. Since both were listed as Granadinos it is likely that both were
bom in Granada, although Isabel would have been bom in the midst o f the Alpujarras
rebellion. There is record o f an Agustin de Segovia who was re-settled from the
Kingdom o f Granada to Salamanca with his mother and other female relatives.40 Did
Agustin learn the trade of cobbler in Salamanca and then choose to situate himself in
Valladolid where there were greater economic opportunities? We must leave that
unanswered but during the next two decades the Segovia-Espaiia family prospered in
38 Mention o f Agustin de Segovia is made by Bartolome Bennassar in Valladolid en

el sielo de oro. 385. Bennassar mentions that Agustin had six children, but the documents
in Simancas clearly show that the Bishop o f Valladolid only referred to five children.
39 AGS, C.C. 2196; family number 208.
40 AGS, C.C. 2163, 19 February 1584, folio 82. His mother was Angela de Arcos
who came with Agustin, his female cousin and an unnamed little girl.
284
Valladolid.
In 1610, the bishop asked that Agustin de Segovia be exempted with his wife
and five children. The Santiago parish registers, however, record that Agustin and
Isabel had seven children bom to them. Their first child, Maria, was baptized in 1589.
after the Abbot’s census had been submitted.41 In the same year that the Inquisition
carried out its listing o f Moriscos, their second child, Alonso, was baptized.42 The
Inquisition completed its reports in June of 1594, but the Valladolid office must have
submitted their records before Alonso was bom for he does not appear on the 1594 list
with his parents and sister.43
We know that both children were still living in 1609 because the new bishop,
Juan Vigil de Quinones, came to the Santiago parish and confirmed over two hundred
children. Among those confirmed were both Alonso, Maria and two other brothers
Francisco and Agustin.44 The two younger sons were baptized in February of 1597
and February o f 1602, but in between another daughter Mariana was also baptized.45
Did she die before 1609 when the bishop confirmed the other four Segovia Espana
children? The absence in the confirmation listing o f Mariana and another son, Antonio
41 AGDV, Valladolid, parroquia de Santiago, libro 4 de bautizos (1587-1605), 9

October 1589, folio 54v.
42 Ibid., 13 February 1594, folio 121v.
43 AHN, Inquisition 2109, numbers 1281-1283.
44 Ibid., 14 March 1609, folio 372, 375 & 377.
45 Ibid., folio 168, 9 February 1597; folio 211, 17 January 1600; folio 246, 25
February 1602.
285
Manuel, baptized in February 1604 suggests that they did, perhaps, die before passing
childhood. Considering infant mortality rates in the early modem world two children
dying out o f six bom by 1604 was about average.46 Their final and now fifth
surviving child, Isabel, was bom in January of 1607 and so was still too young to be
confirmed.47 Here then was the family of Agustin de Segovia. They were obviously
very careful about baptizing and confirming their children. The Santiago parish priest
must have known them well and made good recommendations to the bishop.
Agustin’s involvement in Church life extended beyond just the bounds of his
own family and parish. When the Morisco Lorenzo de Salazar died on December 10,
1608 he made a will before the notary.48 He claimed that all his debts were paid and
asked that Agustin de Segovia and Martin Lopez be his chosen executors. These two
fellow Moriscos fulfilled Salazar’s request that he be buried in the Monastery of the
Holy Spirit. Since the deceased was a parishioner of San Ildefonso, the parish priest
recorded all this in his records, signing the entry as complete truth.
The bishop o f Valladolid requested less than ten exemptions in 1610. His
general opinion o f the Moriscos in his diocese was that they disregarded Church laws
and deserved expulsion. But as for those Moriscos he recommended for exemption, he
wrote that they were good Christians. Considering that at the time many old
46 Michael W. Flinn, The European Demographic System 1500-1820. (Baltimore.

1981), 16-17.
47 AGDV, Valladolid, parroquia de Santiago, libro 5 de bautizos (1606-1643), folio

24, 21 January 1607.
48 AGDV, parroquia de San Ildefonso, libro de difuntos (1603-1672), folio 40, 10

December 1608.
286
Christians were also lax Christians the bishop’s endorsement must be accepted as
strong evidence. Their lives were so closely intertwined with the parish life that still
today, almost four hundred years later, we can still follow the family and community
in its commitments. Agustin de Segovia was a humble Christian cobbler who just
happened to also be a Morisco Granadino.
What happened to Agustin and his family after the King’s exemptions were
revoked remains a problem. Three years after the bishops had obtained these
exceptions, the Count o f Salazar was still trying to find Moriscos who had at first been
exempted. After the birth o f their last daughter in 1607, there were no further
baptisms in the parish of Santiago for the Segovia Espana family. But the bishop’s
concern had allowed them to stay until 1610 and perhaps they remained in Valladolid
as good Christians, no longer even Moriscos.
Other Prospects
Another possibility for Morisco integration into the Christian society lay in
successful inter-marriage. Moriscos who over the generations formed family relations
outside o f the Morisco community could disappear or receive exemptions from the
Council o f State. Gonzalo de Burgos demonstrated to the Council that he had married
a "Cristiana Vieja" as had his four sons. This evidence proved that they had "always
lived a Christian life."49
Even when a Morisco did meet the stated qualifications for exemption and also
had neighbors attest to his good Christianity, it was rarely sufficient. Lorenzo
287
Bautista, another Morisco o f Valladolid, had his Old Christian wife and four neighbors
vouch for his faithful compliance with Catholic obligations. His wife said he had
always lived in a Christian neighborhood. A pharmacist, Juan de Ortega, testified that
Lorenzo went to mass and confessed often. Ortega had also known Bautista's first
wife, Maria de Ribera and said she was a "woman from the mountains." The three
other neighbors claimed they had not even known that Lorenzo was a Morisco and
they had known him for over thirty years.50
The story o f Lorenzo Bautista became more complicated as the Council of
State investigated the situation and more reports came in. Lorenzo had left with the
other Moriscos o f Valladolid, but later returned across the Pyrenees. A "corregidor” in
the Basque county had arrested him and then condemned him to the galleys. The
officer wrote to the King asking for clarification because Lorenzo claimed he should
have been exempt from the expulsion because he was old, sick and married to an Old
Christian. The response to Vizcaya, by the Duke of Lerma, was "fulfil the expulsion
orders. "S1
Although Lerma’s tone implied that Lorenzo was to be sent to the galleys,
uncertainty remained. There was enough leeway in the expulsion orders and
enforcement o f them that Lorenzo could very well have been freed. The orders
excluded the old and sick, while with local support the Morisco could have reached an
agreement with the "corregidor."
50 AGS, Estado 245, folio 13, 21 January 1612.
51 AGS, Estado 245, folio 20, 4 February 1612.
288
The situation that Moriscos faced as they tried to stay in Spain as good
Christians is advantageously contrasted with the Gypsies’ circumstances in early
modem Spain. From the Catholic Kings on, the Kings o f Castile had prohibited their
free movement and also considered expulsion.52 In 1619, a well respected scholar
advocated expelling the Gypsies as the Moriscos had been done earlier.53 This was
exactly what Philip III had intended to do in the summer o f 1610. He ordered that the
Gypsies be expelled. Just as the expulsion about the Moriscos, this order appeared to
only begin the debate. In the case o f the Gypsies the order was never executed.
On August 28, 1610 the Council of State considered how a Gypsy expulsion
should take place. Since the Count of Salazar had the "maquina" of the Morisco
expulsion at hand, placing him in command was an option the Council discussed.54
The Council agreed with previous royal proclamations that the Gypsies were
"vagabonds and prejudicial people." Gypsies could be punished if found without a job
or master. They could be sent to the galleys for six years. The problem was
identifying them. The Council thought they could resolve this problem by issuing
stark orders. "Even if they are not [Gypsy], if they dress in Gypsy clothes they shall
52 Documents ordering a Gypsy expulsion can be found in Simancas from the years
1499, 1515, 1539 and 1560. For more on the Gypsies in Spain see Miriam Lee Kaprow,
Divided We Stand: A Study o f Discord among Gypsies in a Spanish City. (PhD.
dissertation, Columbia University, 1978); Jose Capdevila Orozco, Errantes v expulsados:
normativas iuridicas contra gitanos. iudios v moriscos. (Cordoba, 1991); Bernard Leblon.
Les eitans d’espaene: le prix de la differance. (Paris, 1985).
53 Sancho de Moncada, Restauracion Politica de Espana. Jean Vilar, editor, (Madrid.

1974), discourse 7; an original edition is in the Columbia Library Rare Books and
Manuscripts Library.
54 AGS, Estado 4126, folio 10, 28 August 1610.
289
be punished under the law." The outward appearance and social interaction was the
key for the distinguishing Gypsies. For Moriscos the issue o f identification was less
clear. If a Morisco dressed, spoke, ate, talked and worshipped like an Old Christian
they were still expelled.
A fear believed by the majority o f Spaniards was that many Moriscos were
joining Gypsy bands. A letter received by the Council of State commented that "they
[Moriscos and Gypsies] are all thieves, giving bad examples . . . they give enough
suspicion o f practicing their particular sect, because they do not live as Christians."55
The wishes and orders to expel the Gypsies remained undone. It could very well have
been because it was so hard to distinguish Gypsies from common criminals and
drifters. Some argue that the highwaymen, carters and vagrants that roamed Spain into
the nineteenth century were descendants of both Gypsies and Moriscos.56
Being on the margins o f society could come through criminal behavior, isolated
background or ancestral heritage.57 Moriscos who were good and faithful Christians
fit into at least the latter o f those and remained identifiable. When the Moriscos fit
into the other two categories it could mean that they were not so easily classified.
Isolation and Escape in the Diocese o f Avila
55 AGS, Estado 4126, folio 11. There are still hints of this attitude in colloquial
Castilian. Many in Spain still say that foreigners "no hablan cristiano;" meaning that the
outsiders do not speak as they do.
56 Elena Pezzi. Los moriscos aue no se fueron. 111-112.
57 For more on Moriscos as criminals, especially "bandoleros" see Bernard Vincent.

"El bandolerismo morisco en Andalucia (siglo XVI)," Awraq. 4 (1981), 167-178.
290
Serafim de Tapia has demonstrated what an important economic role the
Moriscos o f Avila had on the city’s tax contribution. The bishop of Avila was the
only ecclesiastical leader to negotiate individually with the King for exemption of
many Moriscos. For over two years many Moriscos in Avila, mostly Antiguos, were
allowed to remain.58 Then the exemptions were annulled and the Moriscos had to
leave. Their terms o f exit were, however, more generous. They were allowed to sell
both their investments and movable property, keeping the profit with them.59 The
exempt Moriscos o f Avila were ordered expelled in 1612, but there is no evidence of
their exit. The King’s orders were clear, but it could very well be that a common
attitude o f obedience in word and non-compliance in deed kept the defended Moriscos
o f Avila in town. Although, it did little good. The city o f Avila, without the
disproportionate taxes o f the Moriscos, struggled to remain a prominent city in the
seventeenth century.60
During the expulsion the bishop of Avila, Lorenzo Otaduy, had the most
success in defining various Moriscos as good Christians. His petitions to the King on
behalf of his Morisco parishioners demonstrated what he believed good Christian
behavior to be. Some of the statements made by individual Moriscos about their
Christianity are still preserved in the diocesan archives o f Avila. A Morisco
Granadino, Diego Hernandez Alguntari Fiiian, left one such testimony. Diego stated
58 Tapia, La comunidad morisca de Avila. 350-356.
59 Ibid., 359.
60 Ibid., 403; Jodi Bilinkoff in The Avila of St. Teresa also examines the decline of
the city o f Avila.
291
that he was bom in the village o f Zujar in the Kingdom of Granada but was brought to
Avila in 1570 when he was four months old as a result of the Alpujarras rebellion. He
lived in the parish o f San Pedro and had supplied fish and other foodstuffs to the city
markets. By 1610 he was employed as a steward by the Commissioner of the
Inquisition in Avila, Dr. Hernando Ruiz de Camargo. He had married the Morisca,
Elena de Vera in 1594 and they had no children.61
Diego stated that he "confessed and communed continually . . . as do the Old
Christians." When his relatives and debtors left the city he refused to leave with them,
preferring "to live and die as a good and faithful Christian among Catholics." His
signature followed this testimonial and it was dated on August 26, 1610. The bishop
had just received the new instructions from the King, ordering him to be more careful
about exempting Moriscos. The bishop complied and began to interview people who
were acquainted with Diego Hernandez and his wife.
The first witness was Alonso Carrasco, curate of the San Pedro parish. Father
Carrasco swore that Diego and Elena lived Christian lives. The priest was astonished
that the two attended mass often and "not only when the Church commands but also
on days o f Our Lady." Diego was also very observant about funereal ceremonies.
"When his father died two years ago," the lieutenant curate, Gaspar de Aguilar,
testified "he bought a tomb inside the Church and paid for masses to be sting for his
father’s soul while other Moriscos Granadinos were buried outside."
Diego’s connections to the Inquisition were also helpful in strengthening his
61 ADAv., Estante 108/5/26, Documento Nos. 3. folio 3.
Reproduced with permission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
292
case. Two familiars o f the Holy Office testified on his behalf. Bartolome Rodriguez
de Villafuerte swore that the Morisco was "a very good Christian and fearful o f God."
Pedro Ramos believed that Diego was a "good man."62 His employer, the Inquisition
Commissioner, also wrote a letter from Madrid. His letter belied much o f the previous
testimony. Ail he wrote was that he needed "his servant." In a repetitive phrase, Dr.
Ruiz de Camargo expressed his surprise that Diego did not leave with the other
Moriscos who were his "brothers and debtors."63 Perhaps much of Diego’s
Christianity derived from his advantageous employment with the Inquisition officer
rather than from the heart. The evidence, however, remains insufficient to infer
continued Muslim beliefs.
When the bishop forwarded all these notarized testimonials to Salazar, the
Count believed "there was much deception in these reports."64 He re-wrote Bishop
Otaduy, ordering him to re-do the investigations for "too many Moriscos have been
exempted and the reports should have all been done in secret." The Count seems to
have also doubted the sincerity of Diego’s conversion because of the Inquisition
connections. This could very well be the case, but there are two factors to examine
under these circumstances.
If Diego’s Christianity was artificial at first, his actions were being influenced
and examined daily by those officers who defined religious orthodoxy. Diego had too
62 Ibid.
63 Ibid., folio 4.
64 Ibid., folio 8.
293
much to lose for secretly practicing Islam and much to gain by truly converting to
Christianity. Emphasizing his supposedly secret Islam was hardly evidence to
disbelieve his ongoing good Christianity.
A second consideration is that Old Christians in Avila defended a Morisco
under the basis o f his good Christianity. The criteria was not based on ancestral
origins but in the daily actions that for them defined a Christian. To attend mass,
partake o f the Eucharist, confess, bury their dead in an expensive manner and abandon
social or financial relationships with other Moriscos was evidence of Diego
Hernandez’s true conversion. This consideration alone reveals a different type of
Spanish Catholicism than normally described as based on blood purity.
Despite all the effort, the King had been informed o f the excessive exemptions
and re-sent the strict orders to the bishop in November.65 The bishop was told to do
his investigations once more. The only way to determine good Christianity, according
to these orders was
by positive acts against the sect of the Moors, that they have
used pork or wine, cured themselves of Arabic and avoided those of
their nation. For it is not enough that they frequent the sacraments
because they might do this for their own preservation, incurring even
greater apostasy.
That the Moriscos needed to be cured of their Arabic "sickness" and prove their
Christianity through acts against other Moriscos was sign o f the Catholicism the King
protected. The bishop re-did his investigations but his original investigations
demonstrated another type o f Catholicism being defined. This was a learned religion
65 Ibid., folio 19.
294
that accepted conversion. The King’s Christianity was based on ancestral origins and
visibly hostile acts.
The problem that priests had in defining Christianity so strictly was that they
had to assume a comparative approach. As in Fuentiduena, the isolated town of
Oropesa becomes a good example. The bishop o f Avila had requested the leading
Oropesano curate, Alonso Lopez Zorrilla, to investigate. Lopez Zorrilla wrote that the
"Moriscos of Oropesa are so well instructed in the faith and its things that no old
Christian is better instructed or taught than they are."66 Just as in Fuentiduena, the
town o f Oropesa had a large proportion of Moriscos who were exempted from the
expulsion. The town o f Oropesa in the nineteenth century had 1,703 inhabitants and
330 houses.67 Assuming a smaller population total for the early seventeenth century,
the Moriscos would have been a significant minority, a minority that was heavily
influenced by the Old Christian majority. There were many Moriscos in Oropesa who
were declared good and faithful Christians in initial investigations and throughout later
more strict reports. Comparatively, the priests of Oropesa saw little difference in
Christian knowledge and behavior between Old Christians and Moriscos. Old
Christians might have actually been well instructed in Oropesa. The Vice-roy of Peru,
Don Francisco de Toledo, established a Jesuit school in the town which provided
instruction in the catechism and basic skills.
Oropesa was, until the twentieth century, a parish of the diocese of Avila. The
66 Ibid., folio 15.
67 Madoz, v. 12, 370.
295
town lies eighteen leagues west o f Toledo and twenty leagues south of Avila on the
southern edge o f the Sierra de Gredos mountains. Caught in between the borders of
the two jurisdictions, Oropesa was rarely visited by any ecclesiastical authority. But in
1610 almost fifty Moriscos were declared to be good Christians and worthy of
exemptions. One o f the first interviews conducted by Lopez Zorrilla was with the
Jesuits in the new school. Father Francisco Lopez had taught at the school for the past
four years and also confessed many Morisca women. He believed them to be
so well instructed in the faith that if they did not declare

themselves to be o f that nation, no one would imagine them to be so
because they know the Christian doctrine and show themselves greatly
attached to it.68
Oropesa lay outside the area of the Valladolid Inquisition so there was no
accurate listing taken o f Moriscos there. It is uncertain even where the Moriscos came
from since no records exist that point to the distribution of Moriscos Granadinos here.
In the testimonials some Moriscos were said to be from Granada, but we have no idea
how many there were. Oropesa, as many o f the towns between the Duero and Tajo
rivers, had original inhabitants or early immigrants with Muslim roots. Oropesa was
not far away from Talavera, where the Moriscos were described as inhabiting the city
from the time of the King Ferdinand Ill’s conquests in the thirteenth century.
The Moriscos o f Oropesa were not only well versed in the doctrines of the
Catholic faith, but were also educated. The witness Pedro Munoz, an old Christian
native of Oropesa, was a priest in the town. He described how he and the Morisco.
68 Ibid., folio 17.
296
Francisco de Moja, went to school together. They both learned to read and write.69
Because o f this friendship and Francisco’s education, the Morisco had often been
appointed as an assistant to the priest in the parish church. The town o f Oropesa
presented a confluence of Morisco population, Jesuit schooling and Christian
indoctrination. The education o f Moriscos has rarely been examined, but this might
offer a small beginning.
The Morisco Alonso de Rojas had also served as a Church official. Alonso had
taken it upon himself to clean and protect the hermitage of Our Lady of the Pinuelos
that lay outside the town’s walls.70 The cleric, Francisco Munoz de Oliva, was
impressed that Alonso had made a banner and staff for the holy site. Munoz de Oliva
knew that the cost o f such an undertaking was paid for by a confraternity but Alonso
"had a great part in it and he solicited many donations for its construction."71 At
least three other witnesses when asked about worthy Moriscos mentioned Alonso de
Rojas as a particularly good Christian.72
69 Ibid., folio 16; see also J.N.H. Laurance, "The spread of lay literacy in late
medieval Castile," Bulletin o f Hispanic Studies. 62 (1985), 79-94; Sara Nalle, "Literacy
and Culture in Early Modem Castile," Past and Present. 125 (Nov. 1989), 65-96; Keith
Whinnon, "The problem o f the best-seller in Spanish Golden Age Literature," Bulletin of
Hispanic Studies. LVII (1980), 189-198.
70 Pinuelo, or pinuelo, is not to be found in any of the contemporary dictionaries.

My best guess is that it means pinenut. Oropesa was in a mountainous region with many
pine trees and this hermitage could very well derive its name from its extramural location
among the coniferous forest.
71 ADAv., Estante 108/5/26, Documento Nos. 3, folio 17.
72 Ibid., these witnesses were Pedro Duran, Geronimo de Herrera and Jaime Sanchez
Vadillo.
297
The vast majority o f the Moriscos in Avila and Old Castile left as the expulsion
decrees ordered. The opinion that the Moriscos were heretics and secret Muslims
seemed to be true. Many wondered why else would they have left. We must not,
however, discount the Christianization occurring on the parish level. Moreover,
Moriscos like Alonso de Rojas o f Oropesa, made efforts to involve themselves in the
local devotion. Rojas was commended by his neighbors for doing so much fund
raising and care-giving. There may have been many more such Moriscos. They were
far removed from their ancestor’s Islamic roots and turned to the prevailing
Christianity o f their time and place. We cannot completely say, along with the King’s
statements, that the Moriscos willingly left because of their incomplete Christianity and
secretive Islam. The expulsion highlights how Moriscos were being affected by
Christian evangelization and reformation.
Yet the bishop of Avila received new orders to investigate more carefully.
Otaduy assigned a new commission to complete these orders. The investigator
reported that the same fifty Moriscos were good Christians. The bishop wrote to the
Count of Salazar that these exemptions "appeared to be just requests."73 And yet a
third commission had to be sent to Oropesa because Lopez Zorrilla had not done the
investigations in secret. Geronimo Gonzalez de Herrera was placed in command o f the
third commission. He also found nothing different. In his report he testified that they
were good Christians "with all the qualities which his Majesty holds for not being
expelled."
73 Ibid., folio 20.
298
There were nine qualities as interpreted by Gonzalez de Herrera and seconded
by the bishop. The Moriscos must have frequented the sacraments. They must have
attended mass. They must have participated in religious processions. They must have
contributed to the Church’s "pious works." They must have been "coffades" in the
village confraternities. They must have lived exemplary lives. They must have
regularly eaten pork. They must have habitually drunk wine. Finally, in all things
they must have lived as old Christians. The last quality again determined the
definition through comparison. The Moriscos would only be as good as their old
Christian neighbors.
All these actions were qualities that Moriscos could perform. The Catholicism
expressed by the bishop o f Avila during the expulsion could be learned and lived.
This was a religion that although becoming linked to nascent ideas of the modem
nation was also tied to a community religion. The local religion allowed for migrants
and new comers, even if they were descendants of forcibly baptized Muslims. When
in the early fifteenth century Mudejares were baptized, the religious interpretation held
that the sacrament o f baptism could not be renounced. Those who had been forced
into Christianity had to remain. The transition to full participation developed over
generations, but by the expulsion date much time had past. The bishops and village
investigators found "good and faithful Christians." We must accept their evidence as a
beginning expression o f Morisco absorption into Christianity.
The Moriscos after 1615
Very few Moriscos remained in Spain after 1614, but the difficulties created by
299
the expulsion persisted. The political necessities behind the expulsion became its
defining qualities. The truce negotiations in the Netherlands, the campaign in North
Africa and the internal introspection created the expulsion option.74 When the
political constraints changed as they did with the ousting o f Lerma and the death of
Philip III, opinions about Moriscos also changed.
During the reign o f Philip IV, problems created by the Morisco expulsion
periodically arose. In 1622 the Kingdom of Valencia requested an allowance to forgo
some o f its royal payments. The crown noted the "great damage of the expulsion" and
cancelled the payment o f 15,000 ducats in "censos."75 But the expulsion also proved
useful to the designs o f the new King’s favorite, the Count-Duke of Olivares. He had
to discredit the power and influence of the previous faction and still uphold a
government of court favorites.76 The expulsion played easily into this strategy. The
Count-Duke could blame the population damage and financial loss of the expulsion on
the bad policies o f Lerma. At the same time, the King’s father could be extolled as a
pious and exemplary king. Antonio Feros rightly sees how the two reigns of Philip III
and IV influenced each other, especially in later historical interpretation. Even in
hindsight the expulsion has been difficult to detach from contemporary opinions and
tinged observations.
At other times the Moriscos outside of Spain influenced Spanish developments.
74 See Chapter 4 for more on this, also J. H. Elliott, "Self-perception and Decline in
Early Seventeenth-Century Spain," Spain and its World. 1500-1700. 241-261.
75 Janer, Condition social de los moriscos. 367-68.
76 Feros, The King’s Favorite. 2-3.
300
In 1631 the eighth Duke o f Medina Sidonia opened up negotiations with the Moriscos
living in Sale, the port o f Rabat in Morocco. Surprisingly, the Moriscos were willing
to give up their corsair ships, fortress and "correspondence with the King o f England"
in exchange for a safe return to their native village o f Homachos.77 They claimed
that they still lived as Christians and wanted priests to administer the sacraments. The
expelled Moriscos also wanted revenge against the English and Dutch ships that raided
on their own vessels.
There was much more here than a simple alliance. The Duke of Medina
Sidonia had his own agenda in North Africa and an intense rivalry with the family’s
junior branch led by the Count-Duke o f Olivares.78 The Moriscos in Sale were still
using their Christianity as a negotiating point. Medina Sidonia’s representative
reported that these Moriscos remained "more Christian than Moor." But the King
disapproved o f any potential alliance with these expelled Moriscos and only disgrace
came o f Medina Sidonia’s intrigues.
In 1634, Philip IV had another Morisco problem to handle. A royal official in
Murcia reported in surprise that there were still many Moriscos in that Kingdom. As
77 Georges Colin, "Projet de traite entre les morisques de la casba de Rabat et le roi
d’Espagne, en 1631," Hesperis. 42 (1955), 17-27; also see Ellen G. Friedman, "North
African Piracy on the Coasts o f Spain in the Seventeenth Century: A New Perspective on
the Expulsion o f the Moriscos," International History Review. 1 (1979), 1-16; Andrew C.
Hess, The Forgotten Frontier.
78 The ninth Duke o f Medina Sidonia was involved with a plot to establish an
independent Kingdom o f Andalucia at the same time that Portugal rebelled. See
Dominguez Ortiz, "La conspiration del Duque de Medina Sidonia y el Marques de
Ayamonte," Crisis v Decadencia. (Barcelona, 1969), 113-153; Elliot, The Count-Duke of
Olivares. 616-620.
301
the Council of State considered this information the familial rivalries between the
nobles underlay the differences o f opinion. The Duke o f Alba dismissed the finding as
inconsequential. The Duke was very clear about who he thought was to blame for the
expulsion. "The priests are to blame for not performing their duties o f teaching and
allowing the Moriscos to live as they did."79 At the time, however, Alba was at
serious odds with the Count Duke of Olivares, so his contrary position could also very
well be in opposition to his noble rival.80
Despite Alba’s opinions a royal investigation was ordered. By October the
Council had been informed that indeed there were Moriscos in Ricote and they were
employed in producing gunpowder.81 The Marquis o f Los Velez, as traditional
"adelantado" o f Murcia, also involved himself. Pedro Fajardo de Requesens y Zuniga
was the fifth Marquis. His father, Luis de Requesens y Fajardo, had been the Marquis
of Los Velez making reports about the Morisco expulsion from Murcia along with
Father Juan Pereda twenty years earlier.82 Don Pedro, the fifth Marquis, examined
his father’s papers and reported on the Morisco population of Murcia. He wrote in
explanation that the supposed Moriscos who remained in Murcia were actually
descendants of the "Cristianos Viejos" who had lived in the same villages with the
Mudexares. The two groups had inter-married so much that it had been very difficult
79 AGS, Estado 2653, 21 July 1634.
80 Elliott, The Count Duke o f Olivares. 390.
81 AGS, Estado 2653, 21 July 1634, and 3 October 1634.
82 see Chapter Five.
302
to distinguish them and even the Count o f Salazar had exempted most. What the
Marquis emphasized in his letter was the fact that the people who were accused of
being Moriscos had faithfully paid their "millones" tax in 1626. In return the King
had agreed that all prosecution against them as Moriscos would cease. The Marquis
believed that "they appear to be good Christians and are most respectful o f all the
King’s orders."83
With the Marquis’ report in hand, the Council had the information it needed.
The Duke of Villahermosa agreed with Los Velez that since the King had accepted the
"millones" the "expulsion orders had been revoked."84 The King ordered that since
the remaining Moriscos o f Murcia "have papers attesting to their good Christianity
they must be treated as cristianos viejos." As for the complication o f gunpowder, the
Council felt that if it was all being used by the Captaincy of Artillery then there was
no need to worry about dangerous contraband.
With these issues resolved the official concern about the Moriscos faded away.
The Moriscos who remained had managed to become old Christians. They succeeded
through many means but in a final analysis they had to accept the reforming
Catholicism o f Spain. To be an old Christian they had to become good and faithful
Christians.
303
Chapter Seven
Conclusion: A Glorious Failure
The expulsion o f the Moriscos from Spain has been interpreted from two
perspectives. It was either the capstone of a glorious "Reconquista" from the Muslims
or it was a failure in demographic, economic and individual terms. The glorious
failure view o f Morisco history explains much about our judgements concerning Philip
III and the Moriscos. The decision of Philip III to finish the Christian reconquest of
Spain solidified his image and memory as a "Most Catholic" and pious monarch.
Moriscos leaving proved that they had been reluctant subjects all along. Either
conclusion dismisses the possibility that Moriscos were becoming Christians. This
dissertation has examined the successful program of Morisco Christianization,
generating in the end a confused and lengthy expulsion.
The Glory o f Philip III
Up until 1608 any discussion about a Morisco expulsion never translated into
304
actions. Philip III hesitated to order a general expulsion until failures in the Low
Countries, hopes in North Africa and noble acquiescence in Valencia created a
different situation. Yet, once the decision was taken, every effort was made to
strengthen the King’s glorious decrees. The good name of Philip III relied on his
actions against suspect subjects.1 After the expulsion, dramatists, poets and artists
introduced laudatory images about the third Philip of Castile.2 His early death at age
forty, pious life and memorable funeral bolstered the image already established by his
dedication to the "reconquista" in expelling the still-Muslim Moriscos. Later he came
to be seen as the first King o f a declining Spain but the Morisco expulsion proved his
continuing religious dedication. Why else would a monarch have expelled profitable
subjects?
Besides the necessary glory attributed to Philip III, the story o f Moriscos who
truly became good and faithful Christians did not correspond to the Reconquest history
o f Spain. For early apologists the expulsion was the culmination of eight hundred
years o f Christians crusading against Islam.3 Because of this interpretation of
1 Juan de Salazar, Politica esnanola. (Madrid, 1945), 70-71.
2 See, for example, Steven N. Orso, Velazquez. Los Borrachos and Painting at the
Court o f Philip IV. (New York, 1993), 51-53. This citation is a description o f a court
contest held to honor Philip III in which the artists were commissioned to paint scenes
from the Morisco expulsion. The painting by Velazquez won but the only surviving
drawing is by his rival Vicente Carducho. The original of this 38 by 50.4 cm. drawing
is in the Prado Museum, for a reproduction see Enriqueta Harris, Velazquez. (Oxford,
1982) plate 56.
3 Bleda, Cronica de los moros de Espafia: Pedro Aznar Cardona, Expulsion

iustifxcada de los moriscos: Marcos de Guadalajara y Javier, Memorable expulsion v
iustisimo destierro de los Moriscos de Espafia.
305
uninterrupted progress the expulsion was a glorious ending. They reasoned that in 711
the Muslims had perfidiously conquered Spain, thus Philip III was justified in
banishing their direct inheritors from the peninsula. The purity of Catholic Spain had
been betrayed, then contested and finally upheld.
The glory o f the Spanish Monarchy was also revealed in its powerful
organizational might. The number o f ships, soldiers and statesmen involved in
expelling a visible proportion o f the peninsular population was remarkable. With little
bloodshed and incredible thoroughness over 275,000 people were escorted to border
exits and ports. There they were shipped off in thousands of vessels to North Africa
for the most part. In 1609 the Spanish King was still monarch of the most powerful
European state, despite the doomsayers.
Francis Bacon in London was well aware of this power. He may very well
have been the first to record that "the sun never sets in the Spanish dominions, but
ever shines upon one part or other o f them."4 In the very same essay where he noted
the Spanish King’s might, Bacon also drew attention to the "extirpation o f the Moors
o f Valentia." Five discussants debated whether the expulsion was a legitimate Holy
War. Although the dispute was resolved because the expulsion "sorted not aptly with
the actions of war, being upon subjects and without resistance," the Englishmen agreed
that the Moriscos were "Christians in all points."5
4 Francis Bacon, Advertisement Touching an Holy Warre Written in the Yeare 1622.
as found in The Works of Francis Bacon. James Spedding (ed.), v. 7, 21.
5 Ibid., 19-20.
306
Bacon’s reasoning that the Moriscos were undeniably Christians needed to be
refuted. For this reason the Spanish Monarchy and early apologists underscored the
terrible Christianity o f the Moriscos and their secret Muslim ways. Without this
emphasis, those who worked with the Moriscos, like Sobrino or Figueroa in Valencia,
Pereda in Murcia and the parish priests o f Old Castile only saw baptized Christians
who were in need o f indoctrination as were most sixteenth-century Spaniards.
Finally, as a Holy War, the authorities’ history o f Spain drew upon a narrative
o f Crusade and Reconquest. Although this interpretation was a common paradigm for
early modem Spaniards, by the seventeenth century the events had long since past.
Those who were actively involved in the application o f Tridentine reforms, not
crusading zeal, were closer to the truth o f many Moriscos’ realities.
Failure and Tragedy
The King failed to erase the memory of the Moriscos in Spain, no matter how
much he might have desired such an outcome. The confused and lengthy expulsion
became a economic and human tragedy. But expelling the remnants of Islam from all
o f Spain after eight hundred years o f reconquest was deemed a glorious event. Oddly
enough the Christian reconquest was more successful than the Council of State
acknowledged. The Moriscos o f Fuentiduena and Oropesa were very much a part of a
local Christian environment. Fellow villagers saw little difference between themselves
and the Moriscos.
The perceived failure o f Morisco acceptance of Christianity and hence the need
for an expulsion can be seen in the many levels of assimilation. The best definition of
307
assimilation focuses not on the minority group but when the "mainstream accepts who
you are and not who you were."6 In the Morisco situation, the "mainstream" was also
divided on the question. Because the King ultimately defined the policies of the
monarchy the views about Morisco assimilation from more local areas have been
forgotten and unexamined. When those stark divisions of the center are examined in
the peripheries the differences are much less evident. Recuperating the debate and
details o f the expulsion adds more reality and complexity to our historical
interpretations.
Even the differences apparent to the leaders could have another explanation.
When Philip II ordered the Moriscos o f Granada to abandon their traditional ways, a
noble o f Morisco ancestry wrote to the Chancellery President, defending Granadino
customs.7 In 1567, Francisco Nunez Muley argued that the customs and traditions
being outlawed were not evidence o f Muslim practices but only the manners of people
living in the Kingdom o f Granada. He wrote that the styles o f clothing worn by his
sister Moriscas were only different "as in the kingdoms of Castile and other kingdoms
have their different clothes from one another, but all are Christian.’’8 Forbidding the
use o f Arabic made no sense to him when the Christians o f the Holy Land spoke,
6 My thanks to Susan Tax Freeman for this succint definition.
7 The original document can be found in the Biblioteca Nacional, Mss. 6176, folios
311-331. The document has since been transcribed and annotated often. The citations
are from Garrad, K. (ed.) "The original Memorial of Don Francisco Nunez Muley,"
Atlante. 2 (1954), 199-226. Other printings can be found in Mercedes Garcia Arena! Los
moriscos. (Madrid, 1975) and in Culture and Belief in Europe 1450-1600: An Anthology
o f Sources, (Oxford, 1990).
8 Ibid., 211.
308
wrote and read all in Arabic. Even the Catholics o f Malta continued to speak Arabic
and hear mass in their native tongue.9
That President Deza and the King disregarded his reasons should not detract
from what remains a very plausible explanation for Morisco difference. Could Nunez
Muley be correct in reconciling the costumes, dances, baths and language of the
Moriscos o f Granada with the Catholicism of sixteenth-century Spain? In his mind
there was little distinguishing the customs o f the Catalans, Galicians or Andalusians
from his own Moriscos Granadinos. The variety evident in Spanish Catholicism goes
far beyond suspected religious minorities. The difficulties o f unmistakable diversity
also bedevilled the Spanish Monarchy. Adherence to a religious norm was Philip Ill’s
definition o f the cohesive center. But the norm was defined and enforced by local
communities.
Even in twentieth-century Spain, the challenge of defining national origins and
loyalties continues with autonomous Catalan and Basque parties. It would seem that
the poet’s line "things fall apart, the centre cannot hold" echoes throughout Spanish
history.10
The variety of religious and cultural diversity in sixteenth-century Spain was
remarkable in a local setting. In answer to a royal questionnaire all kinds of devotion
9 Ibid., 221.
10 William Butler Yeats, "The Second Coming" Michael Robartes and the Dancer.
1921. This poem is used often in describing events in Spanish history. See, for example.
Chapter 3 "The Centre Falls Apart" in John Hooper, The New Spaniards. (New York.
1995), 39.
309
and local practices were described. Grasshoppers were placed on trial and
excommunicated during plagues." Each village and neighborhood had their holy
"ermita" where outside o f a formal church setting, the devout could pray worship and
commune. Intense rivalries existed between villages and neighborhoods about the
power and intercession o f their patron saint. Holy days and festivals varied due to
geography and local circumstances of adoration.
Philip II, however, seems to have interpreted the customs of Granada in a
different light. Religion marked the Moriscos as different. Yet, as Nunez Muley
noticed and the Council of State later emphasized, their religion was more than beliefs
and practices. Religion became equated with all the cultural and ancestral heritage the
Moriscos had brought with them as new converts to Christianity. An ethnic group can
be defined through language, religion, local origins or as the Moriscos with who their
ancestors were. Since ancestry could not easily be erased, the Moriscos were
stigmatized by factors that their birth defined and majority remembered. This created
a difficult process o f assimilation.
The Moriscos as an ethnic group fit the definition of a "distinct category of the
population in a larger society whose culture is usually different from its own."12 The
question for any society becomes what defines the larger society and how many
different groups are there. The Moriscos could easily have been, and at times were,
defined as only another ethnic group among the many of the Iberian peninsula. Their
11 Christian, Local Religion in Sixteenth-Century Spain. 29-31.
12 Encyclopedia of the Social Science v. 5, 167.
310
religious customs could have been incorporated into a larger Christianity. The
memory o f Morisco ancestry and a perceived Islamic essence created the necessary
difference. Early modem Spaniards identified groups and cultures with unchanging
characteristics and stereotypes.13 Rather than a group, the story of Moriscos as
individuals and families portrays an assimilation into Catholicism that has been left
undescribed.
It has become fairly standard in historical analysis to examine issues of
memory and identity as constructions of reality and not fixed things.14 We accept a
relationship between the two that explains how memories are revised to suit current
identities.15 What defined the Moriscos identity in the sixteenth century was their
own interaction with the Catholic Church and their neighbors’ memory of Muslim
lineage. The relationship o f all Catholics to their religious doctrines and daily beliefs
was changing in the sixteenth century and the Moriscos were only one Spanish group
that had to change their ways.
The Morisco history, as alluded to by Bacon, was another instance of the
integral role played by Spanish events in European history. Although the expulsion
13 We would be better off if we avoided this approach. John R. Gillis judges that
"groups do not have essential identities, indeed, they ought not to be defined as things at
all." cf. Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity, (Princeton, 1994), 30.
14 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflection on the Origin and Spread

o f Nationalism. (London, 1991), 23, 204-205. Also see David William Cohen, The
Combing o f History. (Chicago, 1994) who focuses on the "story of the story of the story,"
20 .
15 The Invention of Tradition. Eric Hobsbawm & Terence Ranger, editors. (New
York, 1983).
311
occurred as a separate event with many internal justifications and issues, the debate
from the Council o f State demonstrated how other events influenced the decision
making. In 1609 three separate areas o f the Spanish Monarchy collided in the King’s
deliberations. The peninsular problem o f the Moriscos, the Dutch truce in Northern
Europe and the traditional battle against the Muslims, now in North Africa, were all
influencing the debate on the other.16
The relationship between the Twelve-Year Truce and the expulsion have been
correctly separated. Neither was simply a reaction to the other. But in the context of
"reputation" and "conservation" commonly described for the Spanish Monarchy under
Philip III and Philip IV, the events o f 1609 were intimately linked.17 In their attempt
to preserve the Spanish Habsburg inheritance intact and project an image of strength,
visible acts of power and a perception o f unity were required. Lerma’s later admission
o f a link between the three events must be re-evaluated.18 The Moriscos were not
only expelled for reasons o f state and religion, but to equalize the embarrassment of
signing a truce with Dutch rebels.19 The push to conquer harbors and lands in North
16 This does not even consider the ramifications o f the expulsion on Spanish
dominions in the New World. This has barely been examined, but for a beginning see
Pierre Duviols, "La represion del paganismo andino y la expulsion de los moriscos."
Anuario de Estudios Americanos. 28 (1971), 201-207.
17 For the description o f these terms see Magdalena S. Sanchez, Dynasty. State and
Diplomacy. 286. The terms were contemporary, but have been used most often by John
H. Elliott.
18 See Chapter Four.
19 I agree here with Paul C. Allen in his The Strategy o f Peace that the timing of the
Truce and the Expulsion were merely accidental. Together they do represent a
"conjunction of circumstances" reinforcing Philip’s principal duty o f defending the
312
Africa was linked to the Mediterranean Morisco problem. The expulsion was a
decision made by the King and his Council who lived in a local world which was
closer in spirit to the setbacks in the Netherlands and crusades in North Africa than to
Oropesa or Fuentiduena.
Just as the Morisco expulsion was influenced by the truce, the expulsion added
fuel to the Dutch resolve. Inigo de Cardenas, Philip Ill’s ambassador in Paris,
described the rumors coming from the Hague about the expulsion in early 1610.
Reports about the Moriscos and a blockade o f Dutch ships in Cartagena antagonized
the truce partners. Cardenas related how the Dutch felt that they must battle Spain
constantly because the "same thing happening to the Moriscos could occur in the
Netherlands."20
As with the Dutch, North Africans drew strength from the expulsion. Less
Moriscos in Spain should have decreased the number o f Spain’s enemies. But after
the expulsion the corsair problem only became worse since the Moriscos remained
knowledgeable about their native land and coasts.21 Considering the reported rumor
o f stiffened resolve in the Hague and the new Morisco pirating from North Africa, the
expulsion failed miserably. Spain only had more enemies with stronger reasons to
avoid compromise and continue fighting. Spain could ill afford to continue fighting
Catholic Faith (478).
20 AGS, Estado K 1427, 27 January 1610.
21 See Ellen G. Friedman "North African Piracy on the Coasts o f Spain in the
Seventeenth Century: A New Perspective on the Expulsion of the Moriscos," International
History Review. 1 (1979), 1-16.
against more resolute enemies. Even the largest world power o f the sixteenth century
could not battle the constant preying of ever increasing enemies.
The Romance o f the Reconauest
The interpretation o f Spanish history has been clouded by the budding
Romantic movement.22 By the late eighteenth century, young Europeans traveled to
Italy and Spain to see the ruined evidence o f splendor and decline. When Henry
Swinburne traveled through Spain in 1775 he was especially drawn to the history and
architecture o f the Moors. When he visited Granada, he traveled to a remote village in
the Alpujarras mountains. There he purported seeing an unchanging Morisco essence
among the inhabitants because he could "distinguish them by their round plump faces,
small bright eyes, little noses and projecting under jaw."23
The history o f Christian reconquest colored the chivalric and romantic notions
o f those eighteenth-century visitors, much of which continues in our perception of
Spanish history. No wonder that when tourists go to the Nasrid palace overlooking
Granada, they can purchase copies o f Washington Irving’s The Alhambra. The fiction
about the past has colored its reality. Irving wrote "the Morisco-Spaniards were an
isolated people. Their whole existence was a prolonged, though gallant and chivalric.
22 The writing o f Spanish history in the United States, according to Richard L.

Kagan, has been influenced greatly by the interpretations o f William Prescott, cf. Richard
L. Kagan, "Prescott’s Paradigm: American Historical Scholarship and the Decline of
Spain," AHR. 101 (1996), 423-446.
23 Henry Swinburne, Travels Through Spain in the years 1775 and 1776. (London.
1779), 170.
314
struggle for a foothold in a usurped land."24 Irving assumed that the Moriscos were
the direct inheritors o f the original Muslim conquerors of Spain who had "usurped" the
Spanish land. After nine hundred years of changing history his fictional images
remain beautiful and lasting, but inaccurate.
Again, Cervantes in Don Quixote might well summarize the Christianization of
Muslims in sixteenth-century Spain. The moorish princess Micomicoma stopped at an
inn where Don Quixote and Sancho Panza were staying, although in Spain, she was
still dressed in Moorish fashion and did not "know the Christian tongue." Her
companion assured our Knight o f the Rueful Figure that "Moorish she is in body and
dress, but in her soul she is a very devout Christian."25 Readers o f Don Quixote
could agree that Christianity was not inextricably linked with language or cultural
behavior. Moriscos, as their noble defender Nunez Muley wrote, could very well have
cultural traits like Gallegans, Catalans or Basques and still be Christians.
In other words of guidance, Don Quixote advises Sancho before beginning to
govern his island that "blood is inherited, but virtue is acquired."26 There was in
Spain an "alternative tradition" which did not require ancestral purity and exterior
performance. In this tradition the Moriscos’ history could very well have been
different.
This "alternative tradition" has long permanence in the history o f religion. In
24 Washington Irving, The Alhambra. [1832], reprint (Norwalk, Connecticut, 1969),

52.
25 Don Quixote. 385.
26 Ibid., 825.
315
the doctrines o f Christianity, the injunction to "teach all nations, baptizing them . . .
[and] teaching them to observe all things" carries great significance.27 But the
tension in creating new converts, whatever the era, has also been a part of the dilemma
facing proselyting religions. In Spanish history the situation has been presented as
anomalous because o f the medieval history of "convivencia" in Spain, the early
modem expulsions and the "pureza de sangre" exclusions. This interpretation glosses
over the successes o f integrating the new converts, like Moriscos, on the local level.
A new emphasis on the impact o f a Catholic Reformation in Spain allows a closer
look into the lives o f Moriscos living in Christian parishes.28
The problems o f religious expulsions were not exclusive to Habsburg Spain.
When Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, the French Huguenots had to either
convert or leave. A few decades earlier Cardinal Richelieu had called the expulsion of
the Moriscos from Spain "the worst and most barbarous counsel in the history o f all
preceding centuries."29 What would have been his reaction to the policies of France
in the 1685? The fact that minority groups are mistreated, even expelled, is not
unique in history. Describing the motivations and reactions of both the persecuted and
the persecutors adds to the immense complexity of life either past, present or future.
In our own day, we cannot say that expulsions are improbable or insignificant.
27 Matthew 28: 19-20.
28 Henry Kamen, "Limpieza and the Ghost o f Americo Castro: Racism as a Tool of
Literary Analysis," Hispanic Review. 64 (1996), 19-29.
29 Memoires de Richelieu I, 24; quoted by Lapeyre, Geoeraphie de TEspagne

Morisque. 1. Also see J.H. Elliott, Richelieu and Olivares.
316
News o f expulsions, religious hatred and tribal purity are all too current in the
atrocities o f the Balkans, the Caucasus or Central Africa to name only a few. A Croat
soldier’s feelings about the Serbs in Vrlika were surprisingly similar to the strongest
advocates o f a Morisco expulsion. He told a reporter that "the Serbs should be
grateful to us. They should celebrate mass to President Tudjman for as long as they
live, because he let them keep their lives."30 The most vocal proponents o f the
Morisco expulsion from Spain felt the same way. The Moriscos deserved to have their
throats cut, so Philip III was being generous and pious to only expel these suspect
Christians.
To his surprise, defining orthodox religious behavior proved to be much more
difficult than Philip III ever intended it to be. The expulsion extended longer than he
imagined. Too many Moriscos defended themselves as good and faithful Christians.
30 Michael Kelly. "Dispatches: Damage Control," New Yorker. (August 21 & 28.
1995), 63-64. Or another example in Raymond Bonner New York Times. December 12,
1995, A10.
317
Glossary o f Terms
I frequently use Spanish words in the normal course o f writing. The following list
is offered to clarify any misconceptions. I hope that the application of Spanish terms is
readily understood in the context o f the reading.
Money terms1:
Maravedi - basic coin o f the realm

Real - 34 maravedies; Moriscos were often fined a real for missing mass.
Ducado - 375 maravedies
Escudo - gold coin worth 440 maravedies
Libra - the Kingdom o f Aragon used the libra (pound) system, which was the
equivalent o f 10 reals.
Adelantado - a regional military commander. By the early modem period the office of
adelantado was inherited in the noble families; eg. the Marquis of Los Velez was the
adelantado of Murcia.
Alcalde2 - a judicial official who exercised both civil and criminal jurisdiction. An
alcalde de corte was a similar official, but who had ranking jurisdiction since he was
appointed by the King. A Town’s Mayor is the common translation from twentieth-
century Spanish.
Alfaqui - Muslim judge or legal scholar. The Valencian Morisco community still had
alfaquis, strengthening the Islamic culture. However, alfaquis were also forcibly baptized
Moriscos with increasingly tenuous ties to other Muslim areas.
Arroba - a unit o f measuring weight which equalled approximately 25 pounds.
Chancilleria - Chancellery, or judiciary, where legal business of trials, depositions and

judicial decisions were made. Two Chancillerias in Valladolid and Granada judged cases
in the Kingdom o f Castile during the Habsburg period. The overseas equivalent was the
Audiencia.
Cristiano Viejo - Old Christian in the sense of ancestry and purity of baptismal heritage.
1 For more on this see E.J. Hamilton, "The Decline of Spain," Economic History
Review. Ser. 1 viii (1938), 168-179; also Lynch, The Hispanic World in Crisis and
Change. 422 and Elliott, The Revolt of the Catalans. 553-555.
2 For more variations of the definition see Nader, Liberty in Absolutist Spain. 228.
318
Farda - Royal tax on Muslims that was continued in the sixteenth-century Morisco
communities.
Flete - A freight tax on shipping, applied to vessels that transported the Moriscos during
the expulsion. After months o f lax enforcement the King granted the ship owners a lower
fee.
Hidalgma - Status o f tax-exempt laymen, being an hidalgo. Etymologically the meaning

derives from "hijo de algo," literally son o f something.
Inconveniente - although the English inconvenient is one possible translation, it carried

in Golden Age Spanish more meanings such as undesirable, awful, foolish or incorrect.
Ladino - Noun or adjective that described how assimilated a Morisco might be. Crucial
characteristics o f a Morisco ladino was dress, speech, diet and daily routine.
Monarqma Espanola - The Spanish Monarchy (remember this is a time when no country
or nation o f Spain existed). This was the more used term to refer to all the areas which
were ruled by the King o f Castile, Aragon, Granada, etc.
Morisco - The Moorish New Christians. To distinguish the many types of Moriscos, I
have used geographical descriptors, like Granadino, and Valenciano, or the more general
Antiguo, in reference to the native Moriscos of Castile.
Moro - Moor; usually only used to refer to the Muslims of North Africa. Turks or Jews,
living across the Straits o f Gibraltar and the Sea o f Alboran were Turcos and Judios. At
times, during the debate about the Moriscos, a distinction was made between moros de
allende - Moors from over there - as compared to the Moriscos in Spain.
Mudejar - The Muslims o f Spain who lived under Christian rule. Once the Mudejares
were baptized they became Moriscos. In Murcia the native Moriscos preferred to call
themselves Mudexares, to distinguish themselves from the Moriscos Granadinos or
Valencianos. The variant spelling with an x would have made little difference to a
sixteenth-century pronunciation but I have kept it under the pretext of marking that
distinction.
Oidor - A judge in the Chancilleria. In Spanish the word literally means a "hearer."
Reconquista - The reconquest of the Iberian peninsula after the Muslim invasions,
migrations and conversions beginning after Tarik Ibn-Ziyad crossed the Straits of
Gibraltar. From A.D. 711 when the Muslims invaded to 1611 when the Moriscos were
still being expelled is exactly nine hundred years, which in no way proves that the former
were just like the latter.
319
Situado - The annual fee paid by the Moriscos o f the Valladolid Inquisition to avoid harsh
investigations into their perceived lax Christianity.
Suprema - The Royal Council o f the Inquisition where all the regional Holy Offices sent
in their reports. Gustave Henningsen argues that the Suprema moderated the fears and
superstitions of the general populace and leadership because it was a cautious deliberative
body. cf. The Witches Advocate.
Valido - King’s favorite and often a type o f First Minister. An equivalent term was
privado.
Vara - a linear unit o f measure which equalled 33 inches or 835 millimeters.
320
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INFORMATION TO USERS

The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality o f the

Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by

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James Blaine Tueller

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James Blaine Tueller

Good and Faithful Christians:

James Blaine Tueller

o f their assimilation. The Morisco expulsion (1609-1614) provides the opportunity to

to accomplish because, as Chapter Two demonstrates, there were many types of

examines the dual results o f a successful and failed expulsion.

Chapter Five 206

Chapter Six 264

Chapter Seven 303

Glossary of Terms 317

While at Columbia University in the City of New York, I benefitted

to their cajoling kindnesses. Now at University o f Notre Dame, Professor Olivia

Remie Constable was a stimulating guide in my study o f medieval Spanish history.

Professors Isser Woloch and Edward Malefakis also added tremendously to my

interest and infectious enthusiasm were my saving graces in Manhattan.

errors and misinterpretations remain mine. In addition, I am grateful to many

professional colleagues including Diane S. Williams, David Coleman, Amalia Garcia

correspondents such as Serafm de Tapia, Bernard Vincent, John H. Elliott, Francisco

Marquez Villanueva, Miguel Angel Echevarria Bacigalupe and Adeline Rucquoi. My

wonderful apartment to live in during our stay in Valladolid.

My study and research periods were enormously fruitful because of the

miles I travelled to visit diocesan and provincial archives in Valladolid, Avila,

by the cooperative and experienced personnel. My special thanks to Isabel Aguirre

Alena Ptak-Danchak in Monographs Processing. The comprehensive resources at the

Although many personal friends in Spain know little of my "estudios," their

This means my sisters, brother, parents-in-law, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, uncles,

I am forever indebted to my parents, Blaine Carlson Tueller and Jean Marie

in Tangier, Caracas, Panama, Fairfax, Manila or Madrid was in anyway spectacular,

wonder. It is my greatest accomplishment to follow in their footsteps of faith,

tolerance, honesty, wisdom, adventure and testimony.

together and for her smile this dissertation is completely hers.

During the 1569 rebellion in Granada, the ambassador of Philip II in Paris

2 In Spanish cristianos de los moriscos nuevos convertidos. Official documents

3 AGS, Estado, 2638 bis, folios 63-64, 22 September 1609.

Moriscos had to conform to an uncompromising Catholicism. Their beliefs, customs,

descendants had to conform to the surrounding society.

destierro de los Moriscos de~Espana. (Pamplona, 1613).

been adequately taught by their prelates.

As the Catholic Church changed because o f the developments in the Counter

Spanish Habsburg’s territories changed. The Moriscos, although formerly Muslims

followed in the tradition o f other peninsular expulsions. By 1580 the King’s

religious life o f the Moriscos as a potentially heretical intersection of Christianity and

6 Pascual Boronat y Barrachina, Los moriscos espafloles v su expulsion: estudio

7 Henri Lapeyre, Geoeraphie de t’Espagne Morisque. (Paris, 1959), 204.

the task the Church faced in early modem Spain.9

the larger community o f Christianity. In their opinion the Moriscos in these

its duty to help them integrate.

9 The phrase "overlapping civilizations" comes from Braudel’s Mediterranean as his

tried to cross-over, becoming, in James Lockhart’s words, bilingual heroes?

Where in Spanish society were the transgressed boundaries? It has been

the "Other." The boundaries o f "otherness" were delimited by religious definitions.

Spain. The Moriscos did and they were baptized Christians.12