The History of the Popes: From the Close of the Middle Ages (volume 05)

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pp. 345-7:

The Jews in Spain were a source of considerable trouble to Innocent VIII. They had become a real danger to the population by their usury and their proselytising. In 1484, the Pope took measures to counteract the evil; and in the following year he granted permission to several Jews and heretics to make their abjuration privately, but "in presence of the King and Queen."† About the same time disturbances broke out in Aragon on account of the introduction into that province of the Inquisition. The Jews who had submitted to baptism, called Maranos, opposed the measure by every means that they could. Money proving of no avail they determined to resort to assassination. On September 15, 1485, the inquisitor, Pedro Arbues, who has been quite groundlessly accused of extreme harshness, was attacked in the Cathedral of Saragossa, and mortally wounded. This and other occurrences shewed that it was necessary to have recourse to severe measures. Crucifixes were mutilated, consecrated hosts profaned; in Toledo a plot was concocted by the Jews for obtaining possession of the city on Good Friday, and massacring all the Christians. Ferdinand finally determined to resort to a drastic remedy; on March 31, 1492, an edict was published requiring all Jews either to become Christians, or to leave the country by the 31st July.† Most of the Spanish Jews crossed over to Portugal; a good many went to Italy,‡ and to Rome, where they were treated with great toleration by the majority of the fifteenth century Popes.§ Many Spanish Jews who had been banished in former years had settled in Rome, and even contrived to insinuate themselves into various ecclesiastical offices; an abuse which Innocent took measures to prevent.