=3. The Downward Slope to Death.=――From the date of Pedro’s death (1369) things grew gradually worse for the Jews of the Peninsula. Perhaps the episode of Samuel Levi hurried events a little. It may have taught people that to confiscate a Jew’s wealth was a quicker way of getting rich through his means than to employ his services. The kings of Spain had begun to have more need of money help than of brain service, for their position had grown to be more secure, and their subjects more cultivated. And they themselves became, to a certain degree, infected by the fanatic enthusiasm of the age. Their religion, interpreted by the priests, had impressed upon them for centuries that Jews were heretics, and their own observations showed them that Jews were rich. They put the two facts together, and acted upon them. ‘Be converted to Christianity,’ they began to cry, ‘or at least let your goods be confiscated to Christians.’ And in their subjects the sovereigns of Spain found keen supporters of these views. That the Jews had grown rich because they were thrifty, and temperate, and industrious, gained them no popularity among neighbours who were just a little short of these virtues. The clergy, too, had great influence over the populace, and they all but uniformly used it to the prejudice of the Jews. Though so woefully mistaken, it is quite likely that some of the clergy were conscientious in their efforts, and honestly longed to make proselytes of the Jews. Perhaps not one of the least of the trials of the time was an edict which, to this end, decreed that Jews might be marched off to listen to long sermons preached with the object of converting them. Eloquence, however, was by no means depended on by itself; sterner measures were resorted to. In 1380, Jews who openly clung to their religion began to be legally deprived of the rights of Spanish citizens. They were no longer allowed to hold office in State or army, or to practise among Christians as physicians. Their Nagid from that date had no recognised authority, and Jews were requested to have their dwellings apart from the other inhabitants of the cities and towns. The Jewries were to be the distinct quarters for the Jews. This sort of legislation produced its natural effect. Ten years later (1391), after a terrible riot at Seville, in which 4,000 Jews are said to have perished, some of the more brave took heart of grace and made an appeal to the Cortes, or council of the nation, against this state of things. The Cortes, which sat at Madrid, responded to the appeal, acknowledged the injustice, and sent a commission of inquiry to Seville. It did little good. A fierce and eloquent preacher, named Ferdinand Martinez, roused the rabble to further violence by declaiming against State interference with religious doings. It was the bounden duty of a Christian, declared this fanatic demagogue, to hunt down Jews, and it was the inalienable right of a free-born citizen to defy his government.