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ABSTRACT
On 27 September 1391, a woman named Tolrana stood on the steps of the Gironella tower in Girona and, before Christian officials and her own Jewish representatives, refused to convert to Christianity or to remain married to her husband Francesc, who had converted during the recent attacks against the Jewish community. Almost thirty years later, in February 1419, the minor orphan Tolrana Benet appealed to King Alfons because she wanted to convert to Christianity but was being prevented by her Jewish guardians. She proposed to the king that she be put under the guardianship of her converso uncle, Lluis de Cardona. We do not know why the first Tolrana decided to end her marriage rather than convert, nor why the young Tolrana resisted familial pressures to remain Jewish. Yet both examples illustrate ways in which Jewish women exercised agency as a means of determining their own lives. This article focuses on the experiences of women to consider the intersection of agency and religious conversion in a community fraught with crisis around the turn of the fifteenth century.
Acknowledgments
This article draws on research supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the journal editor, Therese Martin, for their invaluable feedback in preparing the final version of this article. All errors remain our own.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes on contributors
Alexandra Guerson is a lecturer in the International Foundation Program at New College, University of Toronto, where she teaches world history to international students and coordinates a program for first-year students. Her research on Christian-Jewish relations in the fourteenth-century Crown of Aragon has been published in journals such as Jewish History and Sefarad.
Dana Wessell Lightfoot is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, British Columbia (Canada). Her monograph, Women, Dowries, and Agency: Marriage in Fifteenth-Century Valencia, was published by Manchester University Press in 2013.
Notes
1 Document transcribed in Battle i Prats, “Un episodio de la persecución judía de 1391,” 615–17.
2 Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó, Registres de Cancelleria (hereafter ACA RC), 2470 (15 February 1419), f. 1r.
3 See as examples Arxiu Històric de Girona, Protocols Notarials (hereafter AHG PN), Berenguer Ferrer Sasala, G4: 73 (18 March 1419) and (23 March 1419); Joan Safont, G11: 42 (5 April 1419); Antoni-Bernat Ferran, G7: 83 (5 September 1419). Tolrana Benet’s will is in AHG PN, Joan Safont, G11: 43 (8 September 1420), n/f.
4 For a recent discussion of the inherent difficulty of identifying motivation for leaving one’s religion, see Szpiech, “Historical Approaches to Leaving Religion,” 259.
5 Szpiech, “Historical Approaches to Leaving Religion,” 261.
6 Girona is an extraordinarily rich site for which many Hebrew documents, including wills, marriage contracts, and financial records – often in fragments used in book binding – survive from the twelfth to fifteenth centuries. Esperança Valls i Pujol has edited many of these fragments in her thesis entitled “Els fragments hebreus amb aljamies catalanes de l’Arxiu Històric de Girona: estudi textual, edició paleogràfica i anàlisi lingüística.” She has been leading a project since 2010 to restore and identify the hundreds of Hebrew documents of daily life of the community that have been found in Christian notarial registers in the Arxiu Historic de Girona. We ourselves have found several Hebrew account books inside two registers of the notary Pere Pinós in the AHG (G9: 37 and 40). See also David Romano, Per a història de la Girona jueva Vol. I-II, with a collection of documents, including those related to the business of the Jewish community and daily life. For a recent study of legal rabbinical decisions (responsa) involving conversos in fifteenth-century Spain, see Zsom, Conversos in the Reponsa of Sephardic Halakhic Authorities in the 15th Century. In the present article, we make use of Zsom’s study where appropriate, but we have yet to encounter any Hebrew documents that shed further light on our cases.
7 Poska, “The Case for Agentic Gender Norms,” 361.
8 Thomas, “Historicizing Agency,” 325; Scott, The Fantasy of Feminist History, 38.
9 Thomas, “Historicizing Agency,” 330.
10 Poska, “The Case for Agentic Gender Norms,” 355.
11 Soifer Irish, “Towards 1391: The Anti-Jewish Preaching of Ferrán Martínez in Seville.” Soifer Irish provides a recent analysis of Ferrán Martínez’s anti-Jewish preaching and its local context.
12 Baer, A History of the Jews in Christian Spain, 2:244–443; Beinart, Conversos on Trial; Netanyahu, The Marranos of Spain; Roth, Conversos, Inquisition, and the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain. These works are examples of the many studies written about the religious identity of conversos. A key debate in the field is whether Jewish converts to Christianity remained Jewish or became Christian. Gitlitz, Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of the Crypto-Jews, 73–96 provides an overview of this debate. Graizbord, Souls in Dispute explores a more nuanced understanding of converso identity in the Iberian world. See also the recent studies in García-Arenal and Glazer-Eytan, eds., Forced Conversion in Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
13 Tartakoff, “Jewish Women and Apostasy in the Medieval Crown of Aragon, c. 1300–1391” explores some of the reasons for the lack of interest in the conversion of women within Jewish historiography.
14 Melammed, Heretics or Daughters of Israel?
15 Tartakoff, “Jewish Women and Apostasy.”
16 Tartakoff, “Jewish Women and Apostasy,” 16; Ifft Decker, “Conversion, Marriage, and Creative Manipulation of Law.” Guerson, “Seeking Remission” considers conversion in the decade before 1391 and shows that what is often referred to as “voluntary conversion” had a wide range of motivations.
17 Ifft Decker, “Conversion, Marriage, and Creative Manipulation of Law.”
18 See Guerson de Oliveira, “Coping with Crises,” 61–83 for an overview of the economic conditions across the Crown of Aragon and its effects on Jewish communities. For discussions of the growing public debt of Christian communities, see Morelló i Baget, Fiscalitat i deute public en dues viles del camp de Tarragona; Sánchez et al., “La deuda pública en la documentación catalana;” Fynn-Paul, “Civic Debt, Civic Taxes, and Urban Unrest.”
19 Aljama refers to “a legally constituted Jewish or Muslim community, analogous to a Christian municipality.” Meyerson, A Jewish Renaissance in Fifteenth-Century Spain, 247.
20 Guilleré, “Juifs et chrétiens,” 61.
21 Guilleré, “Le crédit à Gérone,” 363–79.
22 Riera i Sans, Els jueus de Girona, 112–19.
23 Gampel, Anti-Jewish Riots in the Crown of Aragon, 114–15. In addition to the occasional Holy Week riot, in 1387 local youths forcefully baptised a Jewish boy in Girona, much to the distress of his family and the disapproval of the king.
24 Guerson, “Seeking Remission;” Tartakoff, Between Christian and Jew, 67–76.
25 Soifer Irish, Jews and Christians in Medieval Castile, 252. Baruque, Los judíos de Castilla y la revolución Trastámara; Monsalvo Antón, Teoría y evolución de un conflicto social; Mitre Fernández, Los judíos de Castilla en tiempo de Enrique III; Clara Estow, Pedro the Cruel of Castile, 1350–1369, 155–75.
26 Soifer Irish, “Towards 1391,” 306.
27 Gampel, Anti-Jewish Riots, 115.
28 Gampel, Anti-Jewish Riots, 92, 97–99, 116–17.
29 Gampel, Anti-Jewish Riots, 119.
30 Riera i Sans, “Els avalots del 1391 a Girona,” 125.
31 Violant, the niece of King Charles V of France (r. 1364–1380) married the Aragonese Prince Joan in 1380. As part of her marriage settlement, she initially received rents from a variety of cities in Catalonia and Aragon as well as the aljama of Calatayud in Aragon. After their marriage, Joan gave Violant income that had belonged to his first wife, Mata, which included the aljama of Girona. In October 1380, she was given jurisdiction over these assets. Violant would frequently intervene in municipal affairs to protect the Jews under her authority. See Gampel, Anti-Jewish Riots, 321–25; Riera i Sans, Els jueus de Girona, 121–22.
32 Quoted in Gampel, Anti-Jewish Riots, 160; and Riera i Sans, “Els avalots,” 126: “contra tots e sengles qui tan greument han delinquit destruint nostres rendes e drets e lo patrimoni reial.”
33 Gampel, Anti-Jewish Riots, 123; Riera i Sans, “Els avalots,” 126.
34 Riera i Sans, “Els avalots,” 132; Gampel, Anti-Jewish Riots, 126–27.
35 Gampel, Anti-Jewish Riots, 127.
36 Riera i Sans, “Els avalots,” 132.
37 Gampel, Anti-Jewish Riots, 132.
38 Battle i Prats, “Un episodio de la persecución judía de 1391,” 616.
39 The notarial contract states, “Ipsaque Tolrana respondendo predictis dixit quod cum dictus vir suus erat christianus et ipsa judea nolebat aliquo modo stare vel habitare cum ipso viro suo nec se facere christiana … ” Battle i Prats, “Un episodio de la persecución judía de 1391,” 197.
40 Johannes Teutonicus, Glossa ordinaria C.28 q. 1 c.10 v. Iudei: “Vel dic quod aliud est si vir convertitur ad fidem et aliud si muler. Nam si mulier convertitur, ipsa debet recedere a viro, ne vir eam revocet ad priorem errorem. Secus est si vir convertitur, quia facilius possunt viro revocare mulieres, quam econverso, nam vir caput est.” Quoted in Brundage, “Intermarriage between Christians and Jews,” 29, n. 39, 38.
41 Tartakoff, Between Christian and Jew, 113; Tartakoff, “Jewish Women and Apostasy,” 9, 12.
42 Zsom, Conversos in the Responsa of Sephardic Halakhic Authorities, 103–04.
43 See Zsom, Conversos in the Responsa of Sephardic Halakhic Authorities, 103–11, 122–26, 128.
44 ACA RC 2041, 70v-71r (16 July 1392); ACA C 2041, 86v-87r (26 March 1393); ACA RC 2041, 103v-104r. (14 July 1393).
45 ACA RC 2042, 221v-22r (7 November 1394); ACA RC 2042, 185r-v (Barcelona, 20 August 1400); 186r-v (25 September 1400).
46 ACA RC 2033, 48v-49v (4 April 1409).
47 ACA RC 2034, 132r (9 March 1422): “Com los juheus de aljama de Gerona sien en tana diminució … ”
48 ACA RC 2583, 132v-133r (30 March 1432).
49 Riera i Sans, Els jueus de Girona, 162. The classic studies of the Disputation of Tortosa continue to be Pacios López, La disputa de Tortosa, and Riera i Sans, La crónica en hebreu de la disputa de Tortosa. See also a recent overview of this historiography in Cohen, A Historian in Exile, 37, and Baer, A History of the Jews in Christian Spain, 2:170–243.
50 From 1309 to 1377, the papacy resided in the French city of Avignon rather than in its traditional seat in Rome. When Clement V was elected pope in 1305, he was in France and thus was crowned in the city of Lyon. For various reasons related to papal business, Clement decided to remain in the more centrally located region of France, eventually setting up his court in Avignon in 1309. Here the papacy stayed until pressured to return to Rome in early 1377, under Gregory XI. When Gregory died a few months later, in March of 1378, competing claimants were elected, resulting in the Great Schism which lasted until Martin V was elected pope at the Council of Constance in 1417. Benedict XIII was elected pope in Avignon in 1394 and considered an “anti-pope,” unlawful in the eyes of the cardinals in Rome. See Rollo-Koster, Avignon and its Papacy, 1309–1417.
51 Barraclough, The Medieval Papacy, 175–80.
52 Maccoby, Judaism on Trial, 82. See also Cohen, A Historian in Exile, 36.
53 Riera i Sans, Els jueus de Girona, 162.
54 Riera i Sans, Els jueus de Girona, 163.
55 Recently, Jeremy Cohen has challenged Baer’s representation of the Disputation of Tortosa as part of “a series of calamities that befell Spanish Jews along the road leading from the pogroms of 1391 to the expulsion of 1492.” Cohen, A Historian in Exile, 37, 60–62.
56 As, for example, a royal letter dated 21 August 1414: “de les grans vexacions e molèsties qui-ns són fetes;” see Riera i Sans, Els jueus de Girona, 163.
57 Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews, VII:32.
58 A month later, the conditions of this bull were softened as long as Jews provided a list of the books they owned, did not demand repayment of debts by Christians via legal means, or charge any interest on loans extended to Christians. See Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews, VII:32.
59 Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews, VII:32.
60 Riera i Sans, Els jueus de Girona, 164.
61 Riera i Sans, Els jueus de Girona, 164–65. See also the documents cited in Escribà Bonastre and Frago Pérez, Documents dels jueus de Girona, 135–36.
62 ACA RC 2034, 51r (27 June 1416).
63 Riera i Sans, Els jueus de Girona, 166; ACA RC 2665, 60r (14 August 1416); ACA Cartes Reales Alfons IV #256 (14 August 1416).
64 Riera i Sans, Els jueus de Girona, 166.
65 Riera i Sans, Els jueus de Girona, 156–57.
66 Riera i Sans, Els jueus de Girona, 138, 143–45, 156.
67 The registers of the notary Bernat Pintor from 1390 to 1407 have hundreds of credit documents involving both father and son. These registers also include contracts where Astruch Benet acts as secretary on behalf of the aljama. See for example AHG PN, Bernat Pintor G7: 76 (20 September 1403), in which Benet, with the other secretaries and counsellors of the aljama, borrowed fifty-five pounds from a Christian.
68 AHG PN, Arnau Antoní, G3: 142, 142v-144r (14 March 1486).
69 Salaymeh, “Every Law Tells a Story,” 26; Grossman, Pious and Rebellious, 235.
70 Grossman, Pious and Rebellious, 240–41.
71 Grossman, Pious and Rebellious, 243.
72 Grossman’s analysis of the halakhic literature of the Middle Ages found that the wife’s “rebellion” was the most frequent reason for divorce in this period.
73 Grossman, Pious and Rebellious, 240–44; Salaymeh, “Every Law Tells a Story,” 33.
74 Salaymeh, “Every Law Tells a Story,” 33.
75 Deep analysis of the sparse evidence from Jewish divorce decrees issued by late medieval rabbinical courts in Iberia would help in unraveling their influence, but such evidence does not exist in enough volume to comprehend the complete picture.
76 Grossman, Pious and Rebellious, 240.
77 Zeldes, The Former Jews of this Kingdom, 26; Zeldes, “Aspects of Married Life of Jewish Women Converts in Italy,” 3–4, 6.
78 AHG PN Cast. Pere Pellicer 480 (28 November 1391).
79 AHG PN Bernat de Dons G5: 439, f. 45v-46r (10 February 1394).
80 Salaymeh, “Every Law Tells a Story,” 30, 57–58. Rabbinical scholars from the period prior to 1050 argued that wives who apostatised should be divorced by their husbands and lose all their marital assets. For the late Middle Ages, apostasy was considered a breach of marital contract and thus reason for divorce, but the ability of a convert wife to retain her dotal property appears to have been negotiable.
81 AHG PN Berenguer Ferrer Sasala G4: 79, n/f (21 November 1421).
82 For the importance of this family in Girona, see Sobrequés Vidal, “Contribución a la historia de los judíos de Gerona – familias hebreas gerundenses: Los Falcó.”
83 AHG PN, Berenguer Ferrer Sasala, G4: 61 (27 June 1415).
84 “Fiat matrimonium inter ipsam Tolranam et dictum Ferrarum Astruc fratrem meum,” AHG PN, Berenguer Ferrer Sasala, G4: 61 (27 June 1415).
85 “facio et instituo praegnatum que dicta Regina uxor mea gerit in utero si praegnans est et praegnatus ipse ad lucem pervenitur et femina inde exierit,” AHG PN, Berenguer Ferrer Sasala, G4: 61 (27 June 1415).
86 Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Inheritance, 1.1–3, cited in Klein, “The Widow’s Portion,” 149. Also see Klein, “Splitting Heirs.”
87 Zsom, Conversos in the Responsa of Sephardic Halakhic Authorities, 175.
88 “ … sanus per dei gratiam mente et corpore immo que bono sensu plenaque memoria … ” AHG PN, Berenguer Ferrer Sasala, G4: 61 (27 June 1415).
89 Zsom, Conversos in the Responsa of Sephardic Halakhic Authorities, 175. See also Klein, “Splitting Heirs,” 55; Robert Burns, “Jews in the Notarial Culture,” 90.
90 AHG PN, Miquel Pere, G1: 375 (1 September 1418).
91 Guerson and Wessell Lightfoot, “Mixed Marriages and Community Identity.”
92 Based on our examination of surviving notarial records, Ferrer Astruch appears to have converted to Christianity some time between 8 November 1418 and 2 January 1419.
93 AHG PN, Berenguer Ferrer Sasala G4: 73 (26 January 1419).
94 AHG PN, Antoní-Bernat Ferran, G7: 83 (5 September 1419); Berenguer Ferrer Sasala, G4: 63 (21 March 1413–addendum dated 4 September 1419); Joan Safont, G11: 42 (5 April 1419) and (6 April 1419).
95 AHG PN, Berenguer Ferrer Sasala, G4: 61 (5 October 1428), f. 233v-234v.
96 AHG PN, Berenguer Ferrer Sasala, G4: 201 (17 April 1437), f. 50v-51v.
97 Tolrana appears to have converted in February 1419. In March 1419, she was named as a minor convert under the guardianship of Lluís de Cardona. The first mention of Asbert and Francina as husband and wife in the notarial archives of Girona comes from 27 August 1419 in relation to a credit note donated by Francina to her husband, a donation that had occurred on 22 June 1419 in the city of Barcelona. Their marriage therefore must have taken place between April and June.
98 These included male and female members of the Falcó, Mercadell, Alfaquim, and Gracià families, the son of Rabbi Bonastruch Desmaestre, both sons of Bonsenyor Samuel, and the brothers Bernat and Guillem Vidal, among others.
99 Thomas, “Historicizing Agency,” 330.
100 Tartakoff, Between Christian and Jew, 113.
101 AHG PN, Berenguer Ferrer Sasala, G4: 81 (3 December 1420), n/f.