The Jews suffered a similar fate even earlier—in fact, right after the 1492
conquest of Granada. Their persecution had deep roots. The relatively peaceful co-
existence of Christians and Jews in most of Spain during the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries ended in the fourteenth. Virulent anti-Jewish pogroms in 1391 led many
Spanish Jews to convert to Christianity (gaining the name conversos). But the
subsequent successes of the conversos—some of whom obtained civil and church
offices or married into the nobility—stirred resentment among the “Old Christians.”
Harnessing popular resentments, the Catholic Monarchs received a papal privilege to
set up their own version of the Inquisition in 1478. Under the friar-inquisitor Tomás
de Torquemada (1420–1498), wholesale torture and public executions became the
norm for disposing of “crypto-Jews.” After they conquered Grenada, the monarchs
demanded that all remaining Jews convert or leave the country. Many chose exile
over conversos status. Soon the newly “purified” church of Spain was extended to
the New World as well, where papal concessions gave the kings control over church
benefices and appointments.
Defining Styles
Everywhere, in fact, kings and other rulers were intervening in church affairs,
wresting military force from the nobility, and imposing lucrative taxes to be gathered
by their zealous and efficient salaried agents. All of this was largely masked,
however, behind brilliant courts that employed every possible means to burnish the
image of the prince.
RENAISSANCE ITALY
In 1416, taking a break from their jobs at the Council of Constance, three young
Italians went off on a “rescue mission.” One of them, Cincius Romanus (d.1445)
described the escapade to one of his Latin teachers back in Italy:
In Germany there are many monasteries with libraries full of Latin
books. This aroused the hope in me that some of the works of Cicero,
Varro, Livy, and other great men of learning, which seem to have
completely vanished, might come to light, if a careful search were
instituted. A few days ago, [we] went by agreement to the town of St.
Gall. As soon as we went into the library [of the monastery there], we
