In the Shadow of the Virgin: Inquisitors, Friars, and Conversos in Guadalupe, Spain (review)

Abstract

In the Shadow of the Virgin: Inquisitors, Friars, and Conversos in Guadalupe, Spain. By Gretchen D. Starr-LeBeau. (Princeton: Princeton University Press. 2002. Pp. xi, 280. $39.50.) The study of the conversas (converted Jews and their descendants) of post-1391 Spain has long been plagued by a polarized historiography, in which conversos are viewed either as almost all secret Jews heroically clinging to their ancestral faith or as sincere assimilating Catholics whose difficulties stemmed from the racism or political machinations of their Old Christian enemies and not from their own Jewish beliefs and practices. Historians writing in support of either school of thought tend to rip relevant sources-literary, official, and inquisitorial-out of context or to rely too heavily on one kind of source, especially Spanish Inquisition trial records. In this excellent book, Gretchen StarrLeBeau presents a contextualized, subtle analysis of the complex religious, social, and political interaction of conversas, Old Christians, and Jeronymite friars in late fifteenth-century Guadalupe. She masterfully draws on a wide range of sources-including the sometimes too-easily-dismissed Inquisition records-to weave a compelling narrative of the interplay of religion and politics in this important pilgrimage town, one that received the special attention of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabel and Fernando. The author nicely sets the political stage on which the drama among conversas, friars, and inquistors was played. She shows how the Jeronymite friary acquired both spiritual and temporal authority in Guadalupe, the source of considerable political tension between the friars and the townspeople. At the same time, the friars and lay Guadalupenses were themselves riven by faction, sometimes along ethnic lines. Not only did the town house a sizable conversa population but so did the friary, for the Jeronymite Order had been especially welcoming to New Christian members. Political and ethnic conflict intertwined in interesting and unexpected ways. For instance, the friary's reliance on converso officials, because of their financial clout and dependability, enhanced Old Christian resentment of New Christians. Yet the friar most associated with conversos and their alleged abuse of power-the vicar Fernando de Ubeda-was an Old Christian. The wealthy converses' backing of Ubeda in his unsuccessful bid for the priorship earned them the animosity of the victor, Prior Nuno de Arevalo. Prior Nuno's discussions with the king resulted in the establishment of an inquisitorial tribunal in Guadalupe in December, 1484, and in his own, unusual, appointment as chief inquisitor. The Inquisition then took care of the town's overlapping political and religious problems. The religious crimes prosecuted by the Inquisition involved converse Judaizing. Perhaps the most fascinating side of the Guadalupe story was the Jewish observance of some converse friars. Starr-LeBeau suggests that the prospect of private study, contemplation, and prayer attracted these converses to the friary. Their Judaizing tended to take the form of heretical theological arguments, occasionally expressed in sermons, which was distinct from the home-based Jewish rituals that converse laypersons practiced. …