[1] Apud Florez, "Esp. Sagr.," vol. vi. p. 502, quoted by
Southey, Roderic, p. 255, n. "Sisebertus, qui in initio regni
Judaeos ad fidem Christianam permovens, aemulationem quidem
habuit, sed non secundum scientiam: potestate enim compulit,
quos provocare fidei ratione oportuit. Sed, sicut est scriptum,
sive per occasionem sive per veritatem Christus annunciatur, in
hoc gaudeo et gaudebo."

[2] "History of Mussulmans in Spain," vol. ii. p. 26.

Naturally enough, under these circumstances the Jews of Spain turned
their eyes to their co-religionists in Africa; but, the secret
negotiations between them being discovered, the persecution blazed out
afresh, and the Seventeenth Council of Toledo[1] decreed that relapsed
Jews should be sold as slaves; that their children should be forcibly
taken from them; and that they should not be allowed to marry among
themselves.[2]

[1] Canon 8, de damnatione Judaeorum.

[2] For the further history of the Jews in Spain, see Appendix
A.

These odious decrees against the Jews must be attributed to the dominant
influence of the clergy, who requited the help they thus received from
the secular arm by wielding the powers of anathema and excommunication
against the political enemies of the king.[1] Moreover the cordial
relations which subsisted between the Church and the State, animated as
they were by a strong spirit of independence, enabled the Spanish kings
to resist the dangerous encroachments of the Papal power, a subject