The irruption of the Northern Barbarians during the latter half of the fourth to about the end of the fifth century so completely disorganised the whole frame of society that the condition of its humblest members could not but be powerfully influenced thereby.  The Jews were widely dispersed in all those countries on which the storm fell—­in Belgium, the Rhine districts, Germany, where it was civilised, Gaul, Italy, and Spain.  Not only did the Jews in their scattered colonies engage actively in mercantile pursuits, but one great branch of commerce fell chiefly into their hands—­the internal slave-trade of Europe.

The Church beheld this evil with grief and indignation, and popes issued rescripts and interdicts.  Fierce hostility grew up between Church and Synagogue.  The Church had not then the power—­it may be hoped it had not the will—­to persecute.  It was fully occupied with the task of seeking to impart to the fierce conquerors—­the Vandals; Goths, and other Barbarians—­the humanising and civilising knowledge of Christianity.

A great enemy arose in the person of the Emperor Justinian, who was provoked by savage conflicts between the Jews and the Samaritans to issue severe enactments against both, which led to the fall of the patriarchate.  In the East, under the rule during the same period of the Persian king, Chosroes the Just, or Nushirvan, who began his reign in 531 A.D., the position was not more favourable for the Jews of Babylonia.

III.—­The Golden Age of Judaism

During the conflict between Persian and Roman emperors a power was rapidly growing up in the secret deserts of Arabia which was to erect its throne on the ruins of both.  The Jews were the first opponents and the first victims of Mohammed.  At least a hundred and twenty years before Christ, Jewish settlers had built castles in Sabaea and established an independent kingdom, known as Homeritis, which was subdued by an Arab chieftain and came to an end.  But the Jews were still powerful in the Arabian peninsula.  Mohammed designed to range all the tribes under his banner; but his overtures were scorned, and he ordered a massacre of all who refused to accept the Koran.

On one day 700 Jews were slain in Medina while the Prophet looked on without emotion.  But the persecution of the Jews by the Mohammedans was confined to Arabia, for under the empire of the caliphs they suffered no further oppression than the payment of tribute.  Spain had maintained its odious distinction in the West, and it is not surprising that the suffering Jews by active intrigue materially assisted the triumphant invasion of the country by the Saracens.  And in France the Jews became numerous and wealthy, and traded with great success.