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CHAPTER IV THE HEYDAY OF THE INQUISITION BY the time that the Portuguese Inquisition was properly established, the original generation of forced converts had all but died out. A fresh generation had grown up, here as in Spain, of persons who had been born titular Christians, brought up in the full traditions oi the dominant faith, and fully assimilated in externals to the mass of the population. In spite of this fact, and of the pledge made by King Manoel at the time of the General Conversion, they continued to be treated as a race apart. They were generally known as “conversos,” “Jews,” or “Persons of the Nation.” A close distinction was drawn between the “Old” and “New” Christians, the latter comprising the descendants—even after half a dozen generations or more—of those who had accepted baptism. The utmost prejudice prevailed against maintaining any connection with them, so that they were forced to marry in most cases only amongst themselves. Children of a mixed marriage would be designated (in the Inquisitional processes especially) as being “Half New Christian”; while a person with a grandparent of Jewish blood would be called “Quarter New Christian.” Similarly, we find persons described as having “a part of the New Christian” if they possessed a single traceable Jewish ancestor, or as being “More than one half New Christian” if Jewish blood predominated. Occasionally, still more minute gradations were recorded. It is remark-
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