Marrano, in Spanish history, a Jew who converted to the Christian faith to escape persecution but who continued to practice Judaism secretly. It was a term of abuse and also applies to any descendants of Marranos. The origin of the word marrano is uncertain.
In the late 14th century, Spanish Jewry was threatened with extinction at the hands of mobs of fanatical Christians. Thousands of Jews accepted death, but tens of thousands found safety by ostensibly converting to Christianity. The number of converts is moderately estimated at more than 100,000. By the mid-15th century the persons who had been baptized but continued to practice Judaism in secret—Marranos—formed a compact society. The Marranos began to grow rich and to rise to high positions in the state, the royal court, and the church hierarchy. They intermarried with the noblest families of the land. The hatred directed against them by the old Christians, ostensibly because they were suspected of being untrue to their converted faith, was in fact directed indiscriminately against all conversos, or Jewish converts.
In March 1473, riots against Marranos broke out in Córdoba, with pillage and carnage lasting for three days. The massacres spread from city to city, carried out by fanatical mobs. In 1480 the Inquisition was introduced to provide institutional control over the persecution of the Marranos. In the Inquisition’s first year, more than 300 Marranos were burned, their estates reverting to the crown. The number of victims grew into tens of thousands.
To the Jews, the Marranos were pitiful martyrs. The Jews maintained religious bonds with the Marranos and kept strong their faith in the God of Israel. The Inquisition finally became convinced, however, that only the total expulsion of the Jews from Spain could end Jewish influence in the national life. Purity of faith became the national policy of the Catholic sovereigns, and thus came about the final tragedy, the edict of expulsion of all the Jews from Spain on March 31, 1492. Portugal promulgated an edict of expulsion in 1497 and Navarre in 1498.
A considerable minority of Jews saved themselves from expulsion by baptism, thus adding strength and numbers to the Marranos, but the mass of Spanish Jews refused conversion and went into exile. The physical separation of the Marranos from their spiritual sympathizers, however, did not make them more amenable to inquisitorial discipline. The Jewish religion remained deeply rooted in their hearts, and they continued to transmit their beliefs to the succeeding generations. Many Marranos did eventually choose emigration, however, principally to North Africa and to other western European countries. Marranism had disappeared in Spain by the 18th century owing to this emigration and to gradual assimilation within Spain. See also converso.