The Jews of Spain and Portugal and the Inquisition #265033

It was also stated that Nebuchadnezzar made conquests in Spain, and sent captives from the vanquished kingdom of Judah to colonise them. These legends, fanciful as they are, and entirely unworthy of credence, were studiously kept alive by the Spanish Jews of later times. Certain it is, however, that Jews very early found their way to the Peninsula, and that when, 011 the fall of the Roman Empire, the Goths and Vandals conquered the country, large numbers of them were already established in various districts throughout the land.<br><br>Even under Roman rule the first restrictions against the Jews were promulgated at the Council held at Elvira (Iliberis), near Cordova, soon after the year 300, but the general confusion which followed the irruption of the barbarians, and the toleration of the earlier Gothic kings, who were Arians, afforded a period of comparative repose for more than two centuries.