They throve especially well on what may be called
the bridge between East and West, in Mauretania and Spain, where they
were the intellectual intermediaries between the Arab and the Latin
culture. In the Sephardim and Ashkenazim the distinction between the
subtler Oriental and the more conservative Western Jews has maintained
itself in Europe also. From the 8th century onwards Judaism put
forth a remarkable side shoot in the Khazars on the Volga; if
legend Is to he believed, but little was required at one time to
have induced the Russians to accept the Jewish rather than the
Christian faith.
In the West the equal civil rights which Caracalla had conferred on
all free inhabitants of the empire came to an end, so far as the
Jews were concerned, in the time of Constantine. The state then
became the secular arm of the church, and took action, though with
less severity, against Jews just as against heretics and pagans.
As early as the year 315, Constantine made conversion from
Christianity to Judaism a penal offence, and prohibited Jews, on
pain of death, from circumcising their Christian slaves. These
laws were re-enacted and made more severe by Constantius, who
attached the penalty of death to marriages between Jews and
Christians.
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