Editing Marrano (section)

==Migrations==
{{Unreferenced section|date=June 2016}}

There was no significant wave of emigration of {{lang|es|conversos}} from Spain, the majority of Sephardic communities, such as that of Salonika having been formed as a result of the Alhambra Decree in 1492.<ref name="ReferenceA">Henry Kamen: The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision. 1999</ref> However, there was a steady trickle of crypto-Jewish marranos who wished to practice their faith freely to more liberal environments. One of their leaders who helped them get there was the Lisbon-born international banker, [[Gracia Mendes Nasi]]. They also migrated to [[Flanders]], where they were attracted by its flourishing cities, such as [[Antwerp]] and [[Brussels]]. ''Conversos'' from Flanders, and others direct from the Iberian Peninsula, went under the guise of Catholics to [[Hamburg]] and [[Altona, Hamburg|Altona]] about 1580, where they [[Portuguese Jewish community in Hamburg|established a community]] and held commercial relations with their former homes. Some migrated as far as [[Scotland]]. [[Christian IV of Denmark]] invited some New Christian families to settle at [[Glückstadt]] about 1626, granting certain privileges to them and to ''conversos'' who came to [[Emden]] about 1649.

The vast majority of Spain's ''conversos'', however, remained in Spain and Portugal and were suspected of "Marranism" by the Spanish Inquisition. Although the wealthier among them could easily bypass discriminatory ''[[Limpieza de sangre]]'' laws, they constituted a significant portion of the over three thousand people executed for heresy by the Spanish Inquisition.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> In his luminous book the "Marrano Factory: The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians 1536-1765", Professor Antonio Jose Saraiva [https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant%C3%B3nio_Jos%C3%A9_Saraiva] of the [[University of Lisbon]], writes that "After August 1531, when the establishment of the Inquisition in Portugal was in the offing and especially after June 14, 1532 when New Christian emigration from Portugal became a capital offense, anti-New Christian sentiment surged on all sides. The New Christians were panic-stricken and emigrants, legal or clandestine, headed for Flanders, Italy, the Ottoman Empire, the Portuguese possessions in India, North Africa. After the middle of the century, England, France, the Spanish Americas and Brazil were the favorite destinations, not necessarily in that order."<ref name=":0" /> The New Christians breathed more freely when [[Philip III of Spain]] came to the throne. By the law of April 4, 1601, he granted them the privilege of unrestricted sale of their real estate as well as free departure from the country for themselves, their families, and their property. Many, availing themselves of this permission, followed their coreligionists to North Africa and Turkey. After a few years, however, the privilege was revoked, and the Inquisition resumed its activity.

Some migrated to London, whence their families spread to Brazil (where ''conversos'' had settled at an early date) and other colonies in the Americas. Migrations to [[Constantinople]] and [[Thessaloniki]], where Jewish refugees had settled after the expulsion from Spain, as well as to [[Italy]], [[Serbia]], [[Romania]], [[Bulgaria]], [[Vienna]], and [[Timișoara]], continued into the middle of the 18th century.{{citation needed|reason=As far as I'm aware there were no migrations of Conversos out of Spain in the 18th century and few in the 17th century, by that time they had been largely assimilated|date=May 2016}}