This is also the era of the notorious Mani, or Manes, who founded the sect which caused such widespread strife and division in the Christian Church. He is said by some to have held many conferences with Jewish doctors during Sapor’s reign, and to have urged upon them that the acts attributed to their God in the Old Testament, such as the extirpation of the nations of Canaan, were inconsistent with the Divine attribute of mercy. He was, in fact, according to Mani’s teaching, the God of Darkness; from whom they ought to turn, to worship the God of Light. It is needless to say that the Jews utterly rejected his teaching. Through their influence, he lost the favour of Sapor, and was banished from his dominions.[53] Turning again to the West, we now come to the era of Constantine, when the pagan idolatry was abolished by law, and the religion of Christ publicly recognised. It is obvious that this was a matter which gravely affected the Jews no less than the heathen. They were as much opposed to the newly authorized faith as any pagans could have been—far more so, in fact, because they had a profound belief in, and an earnest zeal for, their own creed, which was altogether wanting in the instance of the heathen. It would seem that the Roman Emperor contemplated making the religion of Christ the religion of the world; in which case he must insist on its adoption by the Jews, as well as by all the other subjects of the Roman empire. Whether the idea of compulsory conversion was ever entertained must remain doubtful. But it is tolerably clear that Constantine did hope for, if he did not anticipate, their adoption of his own faith. Conferences with Jewish doctors were held in his presence, at which the disputants on both sides not only upheld their cause by argument, but endeavoured to prove its truth by resort to miracles. If Constantine hoped anything from trials like these,[54] in which anything that appeared to be preternatural was claimed on the one side as having been effected by the finger of God, and denounced on the other as due to the agency of Satan—he was certainly disappointed; and to this failure perhaps may be imputed the severe laws against the Jews, some of which he certainly decreed. Thus he issued an edict that any Jew who imperilled the life of a Christian should be burned alive; he forbade proselytizing by the Jews on the severest penalties; he prohibited Jews from having Christian slaves. In one of his Acts he styles the Jews ‘the most hateful of all people.’ On the other hand, he has been unjustly charged with acts of positive cruelty towards them, which would have soiled the lustre of his name, if they had been really committed. It is said, for instance, that having heard that large numbers of them had assembled for the purpose of rebuilding Jerusalem, he ordered their ears to be cut off, and themselves banished,[55] and again that he required them to accept baptism, whether they would or not, and to eat swine’s flesh on