in the shape of anti-Jewish legislation. ♦1375♦ Religious disputations were, therefore, revived, and Jewish renegades were once more the protagonists in the sorry farce. At the same time the Church renewed its efforts to prevent the Christians from mingling with the impure race. The necessity for this persistent confirmation of anti-Jewish regulations shows that, though the antipathy between Jew and Gentile was spontaneous, and though both Church and Synagogue vied with each other in their endeavours to keep the two elements in sempiternal alienation, yet the social instinct which forms the strongest trait of human nature often triumphed over the barriers set up by religious bigotry. But human nature was allowed little opportunity for asserting itself. ♦1388♦ The Council of Palencia passed a decision forbidding Catholics to dwell within the quarters assigned to the Jews and Moors, under penalty of excommunication. ♦1390♦ Two years later the Jews of Majorca were forbidden to carry arms. ♦1391♦ Next year, thanks to the eloquence of the fanatical priest Martinez, a series of wholesale massacres took place in Castile and Aragon, in which thousands of Jews were sacrificed to priestly and popular rage, and the cities of Seville, Toledo, Cordova, Catalonia, Barcelona, Valencia, as well as the island of Majorca, were coloured red with Jewish blood; while great numbers of the unfortunate people sought safety in half-hearted apostasy. Efforts were made to confirm the hold upon these captured infidels, popularly known as _Marranos_, or “the Damned,” by ecclesiastical preferment and by the bestowal of municipal dignities; while many impecunious aristocrats, anxious to restore their declining fortunes, brought riches to themselves and a lasting reproach to their posterity by courting the fair daughters of converted Israel; so much so that many a noble Castilian pedigree to this day can be traced to such an alliance. But neither ecclesiastical or civic honours nor social advancement were sufficiently potent to keep the “new Christians” in the faith. There were, of course, exceptions to the rule--a truism which we are apt to overlook in dealing with the history of the Jews. Some, no doubt, who had honestly outgrown the racial and religious swathings of Judaism, were glad enough to adopt Christianity. Unfettered by spiritual convictions, they preferred the creed which entailed no social stigma. They deserve as little blame as admiration. Others, however, there were who, setting worldly advantages, or the gratification of private grudges, above principle, found both profit and pleasure in the persecution or vilification of their former brethren. But neither of these classes represented the majority. Most of the neophytes, as soon as they safely could, slipped the suffocating cloak, and came forth in their true character, while others vacillated between Church and Synagogue, trying to serve two masters, and by so doing increased the animosity