Ferrand Martinez (
fl.
''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...
14th century) was a Spanish cleric and
archdeacon
An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that of mo ...
of
Écija
Écija () is a city and municipality of Spain belonging to the province of Seville, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is in the countryside, 85 km east of the city of Seville. According to the 2008 census, Écija had a total populat ...
, most noted for being an
antisemitic
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Ant ...
agitator whom historians cite as the prime mover behind the series of
pogroms
A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russian ...
against the
Spanish Jews in 1391, beginning in the city of
Seville
Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Penins ...
.
Little is known of Martínez's early life. Before taking up the position at Écija, he was the
confessor
Confessor is a title used within Christianity in several ways.
Confessor of the Faith
Its oldest use is to indicate a saint who has suffered persecution and torture for the faith but not to the point of death.[queen mother
A queen mother is a former queen, often a queen dowager, who is the mother of the reigning monarch. The term has been used in English since the early 1560s. It arises in hereditary monarchies in Europe and is also used to describe a number of ...]
of
Aragón
Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises th ...
. Beginning in 1378, he began preaching sermons against the Jews. Although
Juan I commanded him to cease his rabble-rousing, he ignored the royal order, as well as commands from Barroso,
archbishop of Toledo
This is a list of Bishops and Archbishops of Toledo ( la, Archidioecesis Metropolitae Toletana). , the
primate of Spain
The Primacy of the Spains ( pt, Primaz das Espanhas; es, Primado de las Españas, ca, Primat de les Espanyes) is the primacy of the Iberian Peninsula, historically known as Hispania or in the plural as the Spains. The Archbishop of Braga, in ...
. For more than a decade Martínez continued his verbal assaults, telling Catholics to "expel the Jews...and to demolish their
synagogue
A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of wor ...
s." Though put on trial in 1388, his activities were not checked by the king, though the latter stated that the Jews must not be maltreated.
The tipping point occurred when both Juan I and Barroso died in 1390, leaving his 11-year-old son
Henry III to rule under the regency of his mother. Martínez continued his campaign against the Jews of Seville, calling on clergy and people to destroy synagogues and seize Jewish holy books and other items. These events led to a further royal order deposing Martínez from his office and ordering damaged synagogues be repaired at Church expense. Declaring that neither the state nor the local church authorities had power over him, he ignored the commands.
The first anti-Jewish riots began in Seville in March 1391. It was on 6 June that the first
great massacre occurred. Thousands of Jews were murdered, and many were
forced to accept baptism. Over the course of the year, the massacres would spread to all of Spain. These events inaugurated the beginning of the mass conversions, as fear gripped the Jewish communities of Spain.
Martínez was imprisoned again by royal order in 1395, and although he was quickly released, he died soon after, leaving his fortune to a hospital he had founded at San María, Seville.
The Jewish Encyclopedia, article: "Martinez, Ferrand"
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References
Further reading
*
*
External links
* The Jewish Encyclopedi
Selections in English and Spanish of Ferrán Martínez’s speech at the Tribunal del Alcázar in Seville, 19 February, 1388 (pedagogical edition) with introduction, notes, and bibliography in ''Open Iberia/América'' (open access teaching anthology)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Martinez, Ferrand
14th-century births
Year of death missing
Archdeacons