"(qtd.in Stewart 30) "They allowed the disdain of the less affluent Christians to transpire to their contemptuous bearing towards them" (qtd.in Stewart 30). Rumors quickly spread that the plague was the result of Jewish curse, that Jews captured Christian children and drank their blood, and that Jews tortured and killed animals to create magic spells. Adding to the controversy, Ferran Martinez increased anti-Semitism by saying Jews were guilty of the most heinous crime in all the world, the murder of Jesus Christ. The idea that "Christians [were] endangered by contact and communication with the Jews"(qtd.in Kamen 21) was also spread throughout Spain during this time, making relations even worse. From the 13th century onward, anti-Jewish legislation became common in Europe and by the end of the 14th century, the anger towards the Jews was very widespread.
It is possible that to deal with the "Jew problem", the monarchs thought mass conversions would be more likely than mass emigration (Kamen 21). This may have been good, since evidence suggests that possibly half of all the Jews of Spain preferred conversion to expulsion (Kamen 24). Once converted, Old Jews quickly got the old lifestyles back and soon became one of the most prosperous people in Spain. The Conversos continued to function in the trades and professions in which the Jews had distinguished themselves. This softened the economic impact that could have resulted had they been held to special restrictions. Also, converts from the Jewish elite had the advantage of being accepted on equal terms into the Christian elite. Intermarriage between Christians and former Jews became commonplace and within two generations, most of Spanish nobility had some Jewish branches in their family tree (Stewart 35). For example, many leading church and governmental dignitaries in the 15th century, including the family of King Ferdinand, who unified the country, could trace their ancestry back to people with Jewish blood (Bachrach 45).