The history of Sephardic Jews in converses is controversial because of the persistence of the debate about the one eternal Spain. Is Spain an outcome of many cultures and faiths or is it a pure Catholic and Castilian one. Likewise, for the Jewish community, what was to be made at the converses could they fully Christianized or did they retain their Jewish identity? One of the prominent outcomes of this debate is the disjointed problematic and polemical tone of scholarship that has evolved from the 1800s to the 2000s. It is as if the 15 century and 16 century souls inhabit and posses modern scholarship and remain unwilling to concede or acknowledge the complexity of history. Unlike the prior scholars, Henry Charles Lea acknowledging in his work a history of the inquisition of Spain 1907, that his delineations and converses might not be entirely accurate when he discussed the controversial figure and an important focus of my work, Rabbi Salomon Ha-Levi of Burgos, 1350 to 1435, who converted and became Bishop Pablo de Santa Maria. Regarding the Rabbi who turned to bishop, Lea offered the carefully gauged evaluation quote "The most prominent among the new converses was Salomon Ha-Levi, a Rabbi who had been the most intrepid defender of the faith and rights of this race." On the eve of the massacres, which perhaps he foresaw and influenced by Aubertine vision of the Virgin in 1390, he professed conversion, taking the name of Pablo de Santa Maria, and was followed by his two brothers and five sons, family and family of commanding influence. He wrote his scriptorium against his former co-religionist. It is however, more moderate than it is customary in these controversial writings of the period, and seems to have been composed rather as a justification for his own course of action. After this tacit appreciation, the converses identities and faith decisions were more problematic than Lea suggested. Sephardic history greatly benefited from exact pairs monumental effort to locate and describe large collections of Spanish manuscripts pertaining to Jews and inverses. He publishes tome, "The Jews and Christian Spain between 1929 and 1936". He unearthed countless documents that future historians have continued to utilize to assemble a more comprehensive in bailen history at the Spanish jewry. To tags, R.P. Luciano Serranos, Los Conversos de Don, Pablo de Santa Maria, and Don Alonso de Cartagena, and Francisco Cartagena Burgos, Alvar Garcia de Santa Maria, y su familia de Conversos directly address the world the most prominent commercial family of the 15 century. And we recalibrated the scholar debate on new Christian's values, beliefs, and sense of self. This groundbreaking text wedged the door open to a more open-minded perspective other converses experience namely: That some converses were actively managing their futures while acknowledging their Jewish past. In doing so, de Santa Maria and other distinguished new Christian families redefined what it meant to be a Christian from a Jewish ancestry. The mere act of stepping it outside of the prescribed traditional religious boundaries and doing so as a Jewish leader signal a conspicuous break within the Jewish community. Serrano revealed that the Jewish community and pendants or Rabbis received the news of Pablo de Santa Maria's baptism on July 21, 1390 with amazement and as an indication of a Christian apostolic plan in motion. The Ha-Levi plan would convert who else would follow voluntarily. More significantly, would willing Jewish conversion to Christian allow for a subset of the Jewish people to not only survive but also thrive with, quote, "Sincerity, loyalty, and founded exclusivity and doctrinal motives," Pablo found Christianity, Serrano argued. And began a spiritual transformation process that included a dream-like vision of the Virgin Mary and a physical journey to the University of Paris where he urges doctorate of theology. Without explicitly stating it, Serrano advance position that Pablo de Santa Maria. And by extension other converses, actually had acted with individual agency and actively formed themselves into new identities. Let's take a closer look at the Santa Maria's, the most illustrious or disappointing depending on your perspective at the Jewish families or Burgos with the Ha-Levi. And Burgos during the 1390s, Rabbi Salomon Ha-Levi converted to Catholicism and became Bishop Pablo de Santa Maria in 1415. It was a remarkable turn of events for a prominent Rabbi to find his way into Catholicism and eventually to be among its most important leaders in Castile. Pablo's five siblings, who took varied surnames, included: Burgos, García, Santa Maria, Cartagena, Dias, and Unions, who similarly converted to Catholicism. Two of Pablo's sons also became bishops during the early 15 century, Alfonso de Cartagena or Alonso de Cartagena, Bishop of Cartagena and later Burgos, and Gonzalo Garcia de Santa Maria, Bishop of Plasencia. The first of Pablo's sons to succeed him in the Catholic leadership was Alonso de Cartagena, who was named the Bishop of Burgos in 1429. Gonzalo was made the Bishop of Plasencia in 1423 and served in this role until at least 1446, and possibly as late as 1451. Additionally, Alvar Garcia de Santa Maria, a Conversos knight, simultaneously arrived in the region the Extremadura or Plasencia precisely when the Carpaho family began a process of converting themselves from lesser knights and men of war to learning ecclesiastical leaders. Their relative, Alonso Rodriguez de Maldwinda, also served as a Archdeacon of Cordia in the vicinity of Plasencia and the Abbot of Castro at the Cathedral of Burgos. Alonso Rodriguez conversion pedigree was impeccable from the Santa Maria's perspective as he [inaudible] claim his mother, Maria Núñez, was the sister of Bishop Pablo de Santa Maria, the influential Senior Chancellor of King Juan II.
