Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/166

142 142 EXPULSION OF THE JEWS. PART any rate. So deplorable, indeed, was the sacrifice of property, that a chronicler of the day mentions, that he had seen a house exchanged for an ass, and a vineyard for a suit of clothes ! In Aragon, matters were still worse. The government there discov- ered, that the Jews were largely indebted to indi- viduals and to certain corporations. It accordingly caused their property to be sequestrated for the benefit of their creditors, until their debts should be liquidated. Strange indeed, that the balance should be found against a people, who have been everywhere conspicuous for their commercial saga- city and resources, and who, as factors of the great nobility and farmers of the revenue, enjoyed at least equal advantages in Spain with those possessed in other countries, for the accumuhition of wealth.^ oni.e Tews While the gloomy aspect of their fortunes pressed heavily on the hearts of the Israelites, the Spanish clergy were indefatigable in the work of conver- sion. They lectured in the synagogues and public squares, expounding the doctrines of Christianity, and thundering forth both argument and invective against the Hebrew heresy. But their laudable endeavours were in a great measure counteracted by the more authoritative rhetoric of the Jewish Rabbins, who compared the persecutions of their brethren, to those which their ancestors had suf- fered under Pharaoh. They encouraged them to 8 Bcrnaldez, Reyes Catolicos, 1428, as amounting to nineteen. MS., cap. 10. — Zurita, Anales, In Galicia at the same time there tom. V. fol. 9. were but three, and in Catalonia Capmany notices the number of but one. See Mem. de Barcelona, synagogues existing in Aragon, in tom. iv. Apend. num. 11.