to Otto, and in a letter had made use of certain unseemly expressions against Christianity. The Andalusian ambassadors had to wait several years before they were admitted to an audience with the emperor. After they had been received, the German emperor sent an embassy, at whose head was the abbot John of Gorze (Jean de Vendières), and a letter, in which there were harsh expressions against Islam. The Caliph, who suspected something of the kind, asked Chasdaï to find out for him the contents of the diplomatic letter. Chasdaï treated with John of Gorze for several days, and although the latter was very clever, Chasdaï outwitted him, and learnt from him the purport of the letter. Thereupon Abdul-Rahman kept the German envoys waiting for a whole year before admitting them to an audience. He would have kept them waiting still longer, had not Chasdaï and the Mozarab Bishop of Cordova induced John of Gorze to procure a new and unobjectionable document from the emperor (956-959). Chasdaï, who, from his elevated position, was accustomed to deal with public affairs on a large scale, was deeply grieved when he thought of the state of the Jews, of their dependent and suffering position, their dispersion, and their want of unity. How often must he have heard Mahometans and Christians pronounce that most powerful argument against Judaism, "Inasmuch as the scepter hath departed from Judah, God hath rejected it!" Even Chasdaï shared the restricted view of the time, viz., that a religion and a people without a country, a king, a court, sovereignty, and subjects, has neither stableness nor vitality.