In the old times under Visigothic rule these people had greatly prospered, but the leniency that had been shown to them was succeeded by atrocious persecution, when the Visigoths abandoned their Arianism and became orthodox.  The most inhuman ordinances were issued against them—­a law was enacted condemning them all to be slaves.  It was not to be wondered at that, when the Saracen invasion took place, the Jews did whatever they could to promote its success.  They, like the Arabs, were an Oriental people, both traced their lineage to Abraham, their common ancestor; both were believers in the unity of God.  It was their defense of that doctrine that had brought upon them the hatred of their Visigothic masters.

Under the Saracen rule they were treated with the highest consideration.  They became distinguished for their wealth and their learning.  For the most part they were Aristotelians.  They founded many schools and colleges.  Their mercantile interests led them to travel all over the world.  They particularly studied the science of medicine.  Throughout the middle ages they were the physicians and bankers of Europe.  Of all men they saw the course of human affairs from the most elevated point of view.  Among the special sciences they became proficient in mathematics and astronomy; they composed the tables of Alfonso, and were the cause of the voyage of De Gama.  They distinguished themselves greatly in light literature.  From the tenth to the fourteenth century their literature was the first in Europe.  They were to be found in the courts of princes as physicians, or as treasurers managing the public finances.

The orthodox clergy in Navarre had excited popular prejudices against them.  To escape the persecutions that arose, many of them feigned to turn Christians, and of these many apostatized to their former faith.  The papal nuncio at the court of Castile raised a cry for the establishment of the Inquisition.  The poorer Jews were accused of sacrificing Christian children at the Passover, in mockery of the crucifixion; the richer were denounced as Averroists.  Under the influence of Torquemada, a

Dominican monk, the confessor of Queen Isabella, that princess solicited a bull from the pope for the establishment of the Holy Office.  A bull was accordingly issued in November, 1478, for the detection and suppression of heresy.  In the first year of the operation of the Inquisition, 1481, two thousand victims were burnt in Andalusia; besides these, many thousands were dug up from their graves and burnt; seventeen thousand were fined or imprisoned for life.  Whoever of the persecuted race could flee, escaped for his life.  Torquemada, now appointed inquisitor-general for Castile and Leon, illustrated his office by his ferocity.  Anonymous accusations were received, the accused was not confronted by witnesses, torture was relied upon for conviction; it was inflicted in vaults where no one could hear the cries of the tormented.  As,