La conversion infinie des conversos. Des « nouveaux-chrétiens » dans la Compagnie de Jésus au XVIe siècle - article ; n°4 ; vol.54, pg 875-893

Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales - Année 1999 - Volume 54 - Numéro 4 - Pages 875-893
The conversos' endless conversion : the new-Christians in the Society of Jesus in the 16th century.
This article focuses on the conversos new-Christians during the first decades of the Society of Jesus in Spain and in Italy before their acceptance into the Order came to an end in 1599. The study hopes to prolong Marcel Bataillon's pioneering work on the subject by showing how the debate concerning the admission or refusal of conversos was open since the foundation of the Society during the years 1540 to 1550 and how it is possible to analyze the meaning and the limits of the Order's acceptance of new-Christians since that period. This study also seeks to combine two approaches to conversion by defining the status of convert as a perpetuation of the process of conversion and a limitation of the completion of this process. The fate of the new-Christians helps to illustrate this point : on one hand, the admission of new-Christians to the Society of Jesus makes conversion to Christianity an internal conversion to Christianity; on the other hand, this repetition -of which the convert is not or not solely an obliged victim- does not succeed in freeing the new- Christian from the status of convert. The article follows the evolution, before and after joining the Order, of few of these new-Christian Jesuits admitted on the recommendation of the spiritual master Juan de Avila, a prominent figure at the beginning, of the Spanish Counter-Reformation, born himself in a conversa family.
19 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.