Religious identity in Spanish biblical humanism: Pedro de Valencia and the Jewish and Islamic integration

Abstract

The work of the humanist Pedro de Valencia belongs to “biblical humanism”. Religion and politics are inseparable in the work of this author. In the sixteenth century, a part of the population in Spain still subscribed to Jewish or Islamic thought. The Spanish church was making a huge effort at the time to integrate within the traditional Catholicism converts from these two communities. In this conflict the justifications of religious identity in various writings of Pedro de Valencia can be located. The common denominator of the writings discussed is summarized in the idea of religious unity of Conversos and Moriscos under the authority of the king in response to the conflicts in the Spain of the time.