As a result of these troubles the nobles declined even in social prestige, for they had received very little in the way of tributes from the serfs since the reign of Alfonso V, and had aggravated the situation by their wars with one another or against the towns. Meanwhile, the _caballeros_ and others of the secondary nobility, natural enemies of the great lords, had advanced in importance, and in the reign of Pedro IV had won a right to law courts of their own, free from the jurisdiction of nobles of the upper grades. On the other hand, the great nobles continued to receive donations of land from the king, with more or less complete jurisdiction, since the existing needs of the royal treasury usually seemed greater than the ultimate evil of the grants; often the kings gave away towns which they had previously pledged their word never to alienate. It is to be noted that the mere ownership of land did not entitle the lords to exercise civil and criminal jurisdiction without a specific grant of those powers from the king. In addition to the serfs and the kings, the nobility had a third element against it, the very powerful bourgeoisie, or middle class, which in this period attained to the greatest splendor. The history of the Mudéjares at this time was unimportant, for there were not many in Catalonia. The Jews suffered as they did in Castile. The year 1391, which witnessed the massacre in Seville, was marked by a similar event in Barcelona, where the Jewish quarter completely disappeared. From that time on, harsh measures were taken in Catalonia, and as a result the Jews came to be regarded as sharing with slaves (of whom there were still a considerable number) the lowest level in the social hierarchy. [Sidenote: Catalan guilds.] The modifications of family life arising from the influence of the Roman law were as notable in Catalonia as in Castile and Aragon. The guilds were developed to a point even surpassing that of Castile. As early as the fourteenth century they were already organizations for technical objects related to their trade. Every trade had its guild, from the more important associations of weavers, bakers, and the like, down to the more humble blind beggars’ guilds. [Sidenote: Transition from medievalism to modernity in social customs.]