Construcción y deconstrucción del converso a través de los memoriales de limpieza de sangre durante el reinado de Felipe III

Abstract

In this article we wish to emphasize that the great moment of the reform of the Purity of blood statutes, situated in the second decade of the 17 th century, had prominent and intense antecedents from the last third of the 16 th century through the first decades of the 17 th seventeenth century. Although there was a majority in favour of the Cristianos Viejos’ ideology and their aim to exclude Conversos from all social honours, both Philip II, during the last years of his life, as well as Philip III, timidly espoused a rehabilitation of the Converso image. Along with the two monarchs, Inquisitors General such as Quiroga, Nino de Guevara and Rojas, and outstanding religious figures, such as Rivadaneira, de las Casas and Montemayor, gave their support to a revision of the behavioural image associated with Conversos . These clergymen propounded that the latter had achieved authentic Christian status. Moreover, they believed that Conversos possessed skills and training potentially beneficial to society at large and its institutions.