page_title: Juan de Ribera
section_title: Expulsion of the Moriscos
hierarchical_section_title: Juan de Ribera / Biography / Expulsion of the Moriscos
caption_attribution_description: Español: La obra representa al prelado español San Juan de Ribera (1532-1611), interviniendo en la expulsión de los moriscos, que fueron expulsados de España en 1609, durante el reinado de Felipe III de España.
context_page_description: Saint Juan de Ribera was an influential figure in 16th and 17th century Spain. Ribera held appointments as Archbishop and Viceroy of Valencia, Latin Patriarchate of Antioch, Commander in Chief, president of the Audiencia, and Chancellor of the University of Valencia. He was beatified in 1796 and canonized by Pope John XXIII in 1960.
context_section_description: As Archbishop, Ribera dealt with the issue of Valencia's large morisco population, descendants of Muslims who converted to Christianity at threat of exile.  The moriscos had been kept separate from the main population by a variety of decrees that prohibited them from holding public office, entering the priesthood, or taking certain other positions; as a result, the moriscos had maintained their own culture rather than assimilated.  Some of them did, in fact, still practice forms of crypto-Islam.
  Ribera despised the moriscos as heretics and traitors, a dislike he shared with much of Valencia's Christian populace.  With the Duke of Lerma, Ribera helped convince Philip III to at least expel the moriscos instead. Ribera helped sell the plan by noting that all the property of the moriscos could be impounded to provide money for the treasury.  In 1609, the expulsion of the moriscos from Spain was decreed.  Ribera's original proposal was in fact more extreme: he favored enslaving the entire morisco population for work in galleys, mines, and abroad.  Ribera said that Philip III could do so "without any scruples of conscience," but this proposal was rejected. If the moriscos were to be expelled, Ribera favored enslaving and Christianizing at least the children of the moriscos "for the good of their souls" and exiling the parents.  This was also rejected, though children under 16 years of age who wished to remain in Spain were allowed, an offer very few took.
caption: Juan de Ribera in the expulsion of the Moriscos by Francisco Domingo Marqués.
exif: {}