Theological ferocity or political strategy: the extermination of moriscos in Jaime Bleda’s Defensio fidei (1610)

Abstract

The Defensio Fidei of the Dominican Jaime Bleda (1610), example of “theological ferocity” according to H. Ch. Lea and later historiography, is a book of great importance in justifying the expulsion of the Moriscos of Spain. Nevertheless, we still lack a detailed study of this complex text and, in particular, of the apparatus of citations and authorities alleged in the author’s argument. In this paper, we propose to explore this corpus of authorities on two points. First, the characterization of the Moriscos as infidels, heretics and apostates, then, the alternative between the two proposals which, according to Bleda, are licit solutions to the apostasy of the Moriscos: their collective massacre and their expulsion. Far from being an example of intransigence breaking with a tradition of religious co-existence that, however, never included the heretics, the Dominican appears to be here in continuity with the communis opinio of the medieval doctors.