Chapter One. The Historical Context Of Purity-Of-Blood Discrimination (1391–1547)

Abstract

Jesuit supporters and opponents of the purity-of-blood discrimination sought validation for their arguments in the works that had been employed in the heated discussion that had rent the Iberian Church between the first anti-converso legislation of 1449 and the Jesuit decree that legalized the converso discrimination in 1593. This chapter provides a concise historical excursus of the complex and abundant discussion about the concept of purity of blood. It begins in Toledo with the Sentencia-Estatuto of Pero de Sarmiento (1449); rests on major subsequent pro-converso works by two prominent ecclesiastical intellectuals of the mid-fifteenth century, Alonso de Cartagena and Alonso de Oropesa, whose legacy would be reflected in later pro-converso literature; and concludes again in Toledo with the Estatutos of Archbishop Siliceo (1547), which - along with the Sarmiento legislation - were eagerly defended by Bishop Diego de Simancas in his Defensio Toletani Statuti.Keywords: Alonso de Cartagena; Alonso de Oropesa; Archbishop Siliceo; Defensio Toletani Statuti; Pero de Sarmiento; purity-of-blood discrimination; Sentencia-Estatuto; Toledo