One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Spain: Nationalism and the Rejection of the Morisco "Other"
In the latter half of the sixteenth century, Spain's Catholic rulers faced a problem of their own making: having forced Spain's remaining Muslim population to convert to Christianity, these rulers now suspected that these converts, known as Moriscos, were not faithful to the crown or to their newly-adopted Catholic faith. Decades of political and theological debate concerning the Moriscos' ensued, only to be resolved when King Philip III, in 1609, finally determined to expel the Moriscos, aiming to rid the Iberian Peninsula of their purportedly destabilizing influence. The decision was not universally popular, and out of concern that the expulsion could be undone, several clerics and men of political influence became apologists for the massive deportation campaign, justifying the expulsion and glorifying its results. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore how the treatises of the apologists Pedro Aznar Cardona (Expulsión justificada de los Moriscos españoles), Damián Fonseca (Justa expulsión de los moriscos de España), Marcos de Guadalajara y Javier (Memorable expulsión y justísimo destierro de los Moriscos de España and Prodición y destierro de los moriscos de Castilla hasta la Valle de Ricote), and Jaime Bleda (Crónica de los Moros de España) provide a foundation for the formation of a Spanish national identity based on a shared Catholic faith. This study specifically examines the apologists' rhetorical strategies and goals, exploring the ways in which they seek to establish Morisco otherness as a means of reinforcing the institutional hegemony of the Catholic faith. The apologists hope to persuade their Catholic audience of the risks to their physical and spiritual safety if Moriscos were to return to the Peninsula, thereby safeguarding their ideal Spanish Catholic nation from future contamination.
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