Timeline of Antisemitism - Fifteenth Century

Fifteenth Century

1411

Oppressive legislation against Jews in Spain as an outcome of the preaching of the Dominican friar Vicente Ferrer.

1413

Disputation of Tortosa, Spain, staged by the Avignon Pope Benedict XIII, is followed by forced mass conversions.

1420

All Jews are expelled from Lyons.

1421

Persecutions of Jews in Vienna, known as Wiener Gesera (Vienna Edict), confiscation of their possessions, and forced conversion of Jewish children. 270 Jews burned at stake. Expulsion of Jews from Austria.

1422

Pope Martin V issues a Bull reminding Christians that Christianity was derived from Judaism and warns the friars not to incite against the Jews. The Bull was withdrawn the following year on allegations that the Jews of Rome attained it by fraud.

1434

Council of Basel, Sessio XIX: Jews are forbidden to obtain academic degrees and to act as agents in the conclusion of contracts between Christians.

1435

Massacre and forced conversion of Majorcan Jews.

1438

Establishment of mellahs (ghettos) in Morocco.

1447

Casimir IV renews all the rights of Jews of Poland and makes his charter one of the most liberal in Europe. He revokes it in 1454 at the insistence of Bishop Zbigniew.

1449

The Statute of Toledo introduces the rule of purity of blood discriminating Conversos. Pope Nicholas V condemns it.

1463

Pope Nicholas V authorizes the establishment of the Inquisition to investigate heresy among the Marranos. See also Crypto-Judaism.

1473–1474

Massacres of Marranos of Valladolid, Cordova, Segovia, Ciudad Real, Spain

1475

A student of the preacher Giovanni da Capistrano, Franciscan Bernardine of Feltre, accuses the Jews in murdering an infant, Simon. The entire community is arrested, 15 leaders are burned at the stake, the rest are expelled. In 1588, Pope Sixtus V confirmed Simon's cultus. Saint Simon was considered a martyr and patron of kidnap and torture victims for almost 500 years. In 1965, Pope Paul VI declared the episode a fraud, and decanonized Simon's sainthood.

1481

The Spanish Inquisition is instituted.

1487–1504

Bishop Gennady exposes the heresy of Zhidovstvuyushchiye (Judaizers) in Eastern Orthodoxy of Muscovy.

1490

Tomás de Torquemada burns 6,000 volumes of Jewish mansucripts in Salamanca.

1491

The blood libel in La Guardia, Spain, where the alleged victim Holy Child of La Guardia became revered as a saint.

1492 March 31

Ferdinand II and Isabella issue General Edict on the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain: approx. 200,000. Some return to the Land of Israel. As many localities and entire countries expel their Jewish citizens (after robbing them), and others deny them entrance, the legend of the Wandering Jew, a condemned harbinger of calamity, gains popularity.

1492 October 24

Jews of Mecklenburg, Germany are accused of stabbing a consecrated wafer. 27 Jews are burned, including two women. The spot is still called the Judenberg. All the Jews are expelled from the Duchy.

1493 January 12

Expulsion from Sicily: approx. 37,000.

1496

Forced conversion and expulsion of Jews from Portugal. This included many who fled Spain four years earlier.

1498

Prince Alexander of Lithuania forces most of the Jews to forfeit their property or convert. The main motivation is to cancel the debts the nobles owe to the Jews. Within a short time trade grinds to a halt and the Prince invites the Jews back in.