Jesuits and Conversos in Sixteenth-Century Toledo

Abstract

Abstract In the early days of the Society of Jesus, the city of Toledo was among the locations where the affinity between the order and the local population of Jewish converts was most patent. Bolstered by members of the most prominent converso lineages, such as the de la Palma and Hurtado families, the order grew exponentially in the final decades of the sixteenth century. Additionally, the Jesuits were active in the controversy surrounding the endorsement of the statutes of purity of blood. They opposed Cardinal Silíceo both directly—by means of their attempts to settle in the city—and indirectly—through their ties with his main detractors in the cathedral council. They also played a prominent role in the memorialist crisis before the eventual approval of the statutes of purity of blood in the Society of Jesus.