Otras religiones ¿otras herejías? (los judíos en el medievo europeo y el especial caso hispánico)

Abstract

The accusation of heresy (doctrinal error obstinately defended, according to the official definition) will be a weapon frequently used in the Middle Ages against schismatics, Muslims and Jews. According the Christianism of Medieval West, the New Testament was complement and fulfilment of the Old Testament. That is why the survival of Judaism was considered an anomaly. Its endurance was owed to several reasons. For their alliance —genuine or imaginary— with the enemies of the Catholic faith: the Islam and the successive waves of heretics (Arians, Adopcionists, Cathars...), or for its entrenchment in the Talmud, considered full of heretical elements. The various interreligious dialogues would be condemned to failure. The derivation of «el problema converso» towards serious social problem —specially in Spain from the pogrom of 1391— would encourage the suspects of heresy in two divergent directions. Against the neophytes, whose sincerity was suspicious. And against «el radicalismo anticonverso» (denounced by Juan de Torquemada, Alonso de Cartagena or Lope Barrientos) because it questioned the social unity of Christendom.