Alonso de Madrigal on Torah-Oaths: Who is a Judaizer in the Early Fifteenth Century?

This article presents a short treatise on inter-faith oaths, hitherto unnoticed, by the theologian and canonist Alonso de Madrigal, “El Tostado” (c.1438). It shows that Madrigal approved Jewish oaths on the Torah based on an extraordinarily favorable attitude towards the Hebrew Bible – claiming it was a Christian book no less than a Jewish one. Furthermore, Madrigal discussed the practice of Christians who swear on the Torah–, examining whether it constitutes a sin of Judaization. Thus, his treatise offers us an early testimony on the problem of converso Judaization and their habit of swearing “like Jews”. As we shall see, Madrigal’s positions on this issue were very different from the inquisitorial norms that would dominate the Peninsula by the end of the century. He was willing to approve converso behaviors that would be deemed as scandalous within only a few years. In that sense, his work illustrates how dynamic was the accusation of Judaization. Moreover, it will be suggested that Madrigal’s unique position concerning oaths on the Torah was a part of a larger intellectual approach toward the Bible and the Jewish origins of the Church, that was popular among Iberian scholars of the early 15^th century.