The target of the Spanish Inquisitors was the Conversos, Jews who had converted to Catholicism, not the practicing Jews, who were expelled due to their supposed influence over the Conversos. The Inquisition had been an active force in Europe for over 250 years before it came to Spain (Stewart 25). It is divided into three stages. First was the medieval extermination of heretics. Second was the Spanish Inquisition in the 1400s. The final stage was the Roman Inquisition, which began after the reformation. It is frequently stated, and generally believed, that the principal object of the existence of the Spanish Inquisition was to burn Jews. Strictly speaking, this is completely untrue (Roth 131).
Spain had treated its Jewish population far better than any other European county. They constituted the single largest Jewish community in the world. During the centuries of Moorish domination, the Jews had flourished as nowhere else on the continent (Stewart 25). Their fluency in Arabic enabled them to serve as cultural translators between the Spanish-speaking and Arabic-speaking populations. This time during which the Jews and Spanish government got along well was called "convivencia", meaning "living together peacefully" (Stewart 26). .
"Once the Morrish menace was mastered, and the necessity for conciliating the Jewish minority diminished [the Jews] position began to deteriorate" (qtd.in Stewart 27). Among the Christians, the fall of Granada seemed to be the omen for the conversion of the Jews (Kamen 22). The standard of living for most Spaniards, especially in rural areas, was astonishingly low. Many of Spain's Jews, on the other hand, were dining well and living in well-appointed urban homes, just like the wealthy aristocrats of the kingdom. "Deluded by . . . the prosperity which [they] had attained, [the Jews] failed to perceive that their accumulated wealth was in itself a menace to their safety.
