The attitude towards the conversos in 15th-16th century Jewish thought

Jewish thinkers who lived during the period of the Expulsion from Spain and in the generations after, were witnesses to two painful phenomena directly related to them: the Expulsion and the large number of forced conversions. These scholars made a clear distinction between the complete conversos who maintained their true Jewish identity in secrecy, and the other conversos, namely, those who had already decided to convert to Christianity before the pressure to convert began and who had only been waiting for an opportunity to join Christian society. The members of the first group were regarded as Jews in every respect. Jewish scholars considered the conversos to be an integral part of the Jewish people, although the conversos are certainly sinners. Not only are the conversos an integral part of the Jewish people, the ultimate redemption cannot take place without them. The conversos are Jews who have strayed from the path of mainstream Judaism but who will be among the ingathered exiles at the time of the redemption. The scholars did not make any distinction between first-generation conversos and subsequent generations, although, in the natural course of events, first-generation conversos were closer to their Jewish roots than those of later generations. On the other hand, the voluntary conversos had abandoned Judaism altogether and, instead of being considered an integral part of the Jewish people, are seen as rebellious sinners who will not be redeemed together with the rest of the Jews. The attitude of the scholars towards the voluntary conversos is generally negative.