Converso ritual-supply channels in late medieval Spain
Books, timing, food, and instruction implied by anti-Judaizing evidence.
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Epistemic status
This article describes an entity that is not directly attested. It infers a practical support channel from hostile late-medieval legal language and secondary context, not a named organization.
Summary
Late-fifteenth-century anti-Judaizing evidence implies that some converso households relied on recurring channels for ritual books, festival timing, food, and instruction. The object inferred here is not a formal network with known members. It is a practical layer of movement and communication that made household observance possible in some cases.
What is being inferred
Inferpedia infers a functional ritual-support channel: people, messages, visits, food preparation, copied or lent texts, and household instruction connecting Jewish ritual knowledge to some converso homes in late medieval Spain.
What is attested
The Alhambra Decree accuses Jews of giving suspected Judaizers prayer books, indicating festivals before they occurred, and supplying unleavened bread and ritually slaughtered meat. A secondary lead also summarizes household crypto-Jewish ritual practice under danger.
Why infer this entity
Festival observance requires timing, and the decree describes advance notification. Ritual food requires preparation, delivery, or trusted supply. Prayer books and household instruction require material circulation and competent readers. Those actions are more specific than abstract influence, but less specific than a named courier, supplier, teacher, or local route.
Evidence ledger
- Evidence 4: the decree describes prayer-book supply, supporting a material-text channel.
- Evidence 5: the decree describes advance notice of festivals, supporting timed communication.
- Evidence 6: the decree describes unleavened bread and ritually slaughtered meat entering suspect households, supporting ritual-food movement.
- Evidence 7: a secondary lead summarizes household crypto-Jewish practice; it is useful context, not the main warrant.
Counterarguments
The decree is hostile, disciplinary, and programmatic. It may exaggerate Jewish agency to justify expulsion. The evidence does not prove one organized network, uniform practice across Spain, or continuity after 1492. It also does not identify specific households, suppliers, or routes.
Confidence scores
Direct attestation: 18. Existence warrant: 72. Specificity confidence: 46. Reconstruction dependence: 58. Counterevidence pressure: 42. Overall: probable inferred practice, but not a named institution.
What would change the score
The score would rise if inquisitorial records, communal accounts, letters, recipes, or manuscript ownership notes identified concrete suppliers, household instructors, or delivery arrangements. It would fall if the decree language proves to be purely formulaic polemic with no corroborating local practice.
Related lacunae
- The passage intermediaries of 1492 form the expulsion-era counterpart to this quieter supply layer.
- Preparation practices behind limpieza de sangre proofs drew on the same body of anti-Judaizing testimony that evidences these channels.