An Invisible Thread Heresy, Mass Conversions and the Inquisition in the Kingdom of Castile, 1449–1559

In Toledo in 1529, a converso named Pedro de Cazalla declared that the connection between man and God was but a thread and that it should not be mediated by the Church. Hardly an isolated phenomenon, Cazalla's inner spirituality was a widespread response to the increasing repression of religious dissent enacted by the Inquisition. Forced baptisms of Jews and Muslims had profound effects across Spanish society, leading famous intellectuals as well as ordinary men and women to rethink their sense of belonging to the Christian community and their forms of religiosity. Thus, in this book, early modern Iberia emerges as a laboratory of European-wide transformations.
Offering a new interpretation of Spanish religious heresies, the book reexamines the long-term consequences of forced baptisms by considering conversos, alumbrados, and a broader galaxy of radical thinkers in relation to contemporary legal changes, theological debates, and social conflicts.