Increased persecution of the Jews--Accusations made against them--Ferdinand introduces the modern Inquisition into the Kingdom of Aragon in 1484--Fray Gaspar Juglar and Pedro Arbués appointed Inquisitors--Assassination of Pedro Arbués--Punishment of his murderers--Increased opposition against the Holy Office--Arrest of the Infante Don Jaime for sheltering a heretic--Expulsion of the Jews from Spain--Appeal to the King to revoke this edict--Ferdinand inclined to yield, but Torquemada over-rules him--Sufferings of the Jews on the journey--Death of Torquemada--Hernando de Talavera appointed archbishop of Granada--His success with the Moors--Don Diego Deza new Inquisitor-General--Succeeded by Ximenes de Cisneros--His character and life--Appointed Primate of all Spain--His severity with the Moors--University of Alcalá founded by Ximenes--Accession of Charles V--Persecution of Moors--Expulsion. The fires of the modern Inquisition, it was said, had been lighted exclusively for the Jews. The fiery zeal of Torquemada and his coadjutors was first directed against the Spanish children of Israel. The Jews constantly offered themselves to be harassed and despoiled. They were always fair game for avaricious greed. The inquisitors availed themselves of both lines of attack. Jewish wealth steadily increased as their financial operations and their industrial activities extended and flourished. When the Catholic Kings embarked upon the conquest of Granada, the Jews found the sinews of war; Jewish victuallers purveyed rations to the armies in the field; Jewish brokers advanced the cash needed for the payments of troops; Jewish armourers repaired the weapons used and furnished new tools and warlike implements. At the same time the passions of the populace were more and more inflamed against the Jews by the dissemination of scandalous stories of their blasphemous proceedings. It was seriously asserted by certain monks that some Jews had stolen a consecrated wafer with the intention of working it into a paste with the warm blood of a newly killed Christian child and so produce a deadly poison to be administered to the hated chief inquisitor. Another report was to the effect that crumbs from the holy wafer had been detected between the leaves of a Hebrew prayer book in a synagogue. One witness declared that this substance emitted a bright effulgence which gave clear proof of its sanctity and betrayed the act of sacrilege committed. Other tales were circulated of the diabolical practices of these wicked Jewish heretics.