New Christians, Marranos and Jews in the mirror of the Inquisition

The only Jews who remained in the Iberian world were, of necessity, clandestine Jews, concerned with dissimulating their religious sentiments and practices. The Judaism of Iberian New Christians, as recounted in Inquisitorial records, cannot thus be taken at its face value. So, we can also be sure that not every confession to having practiced Judaism in secret, and not every accusation made during interrogation, had a factual basis. As we do not possess unambiguous criteria for deciding which accusations and confessions were true, the clarification of the issue - as we shall see in this essay - can only be provided by closer attention to context: to the changing situation of New Christians in Iberian society, to the role played by the Inquisition at a given time and place, and to the circumstances surrounding individual acts of accusation.