Spanish Unity In Spain

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The Desire to Create Spanish Unity Throughout the history of medieval Spain, a myriad of methods of control are employed by the political and religious regimes of the time in order to strengthen the unity of the state. In this paper, I will argue that religious persecution was rooted in the desire to create political and religious unity in Medieval Spain. The origins of religious persecution in the context of Christianity can be traced back to the time of the Visigoths, when the conversion from Arianism to Catholicism takes place. For example, when describing the Arian Christians in “We do not believe that your holiness are unaware of how long a time Spain labored under the error of the Arians, […] venerable fathers, we have decided to unite …show more content…
For example, when Title XXIV describes that “Jews were formerly highly honored, and enjoyed the privileges above all other races, for they alone were called the people of God. […] they should forfeit the honors and privileges which they enjoyed; and therefore from the day when they crucified Our Lord Jesus Christ they never had either king or priests among themselves, as they formerly did” the religious persecution is attempting to strip Jews of their rights in order to make amends for the death of Jesus Christ (Title XXIV, 1434). In a way, the Christians might view this as leveling the playing field with their Jewish counterparts, as Jews supposedly murdered Jesus nearly a thousand years ago without repercussions in the Christian view, which in a way is religious unity since the Abrahamic religions can stop fighting about the amends for Jesus’ death. Also, the Spanish Christians write that “Many crimes and outrageous things occur between Christians and Jews because they live together in cities, and dress alike; and in order to avoid the offenses and evils which take place for this reason, […] we order that all Jews male and female living in our dominions shall bear some distinguishing mark upon their heads so people may plainly recognize a Jew, or Jewess.” in an effort to establish unity (Title XXIV, 1437) This kind of religious persecution is done in order to make sure that Jews are treated the way they are supposed to, thereby leading to religious and political unity because the identity of religious minorities couldn’t be mistaken. Whether or not this particular law was necessary is unclear, but it clearly establishes how religious persecution like this was done to keep the Jews

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