The Peril of the Republic of the United States of America - Percy T. Magan

stimulated in many instances by the no less
fanatical clergy, and perhaps encouraged by the
numerous class of debtors to the Jews, who found
this a convenient mode of settling their accounts,
made a fierce assault on this unfortunate people in
Castile and Arragon, breaking into their houses,
violating their most private sanctuaries, scattering
their most costly collections and furniture, and
consigning the wretched proprietors to
indiscriminate massacre, without regard to sex or
ago.”[3]
On account of this barbarous treatment many of
the Spanish Jews feigned conversion to
Christianity. Such was their spiritual condition
when Ferdinand and Isabella assumed the reins of
government. During their reign complaints against
Jewish heresy became more and more frequent,
and the throne was repeatedly beset with petitions
to devise some means for its extirpation. The words
of the curate of Los Palacios, who lived at this
time, throw considerable light on “the real as well
as pretended motives of the subsequent
persecution“:--
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