446 RISING L THE ALPUXARRAS. PART they had been long resident before the surrender of "• their capital. The late events seemed to have no other effect than to harden them in error ; and the Spanish government saw with alarm the pernicious influence of their example and persuasion, in shak- ing the infirm faith of the new converts. Edict To obviate this, an ordinance was published, in against the ■*• STc"*^ ^he summer of 1501, prohibiting all intercourse be- tween these Moors and the orthodox kingdom of Granada. ^° At length, however, convinced that there was no other way to save the precious seed from being choked by the thorns of infidelity, than to eradicate them altogether, the sovereigns came to the extraordinary resolution of offering them the alternative of baptism or exile. They issued a pragmdtica to that effect from Seville, February 12th, 1502. After a preamble, duly setting forth the obligations of gratitude on the Castilians to drive God's enemies from the land, which he in his good time had delivered into their hands, and the numerous backslidings occasioned among the new converts by their intercourse with their unbaptized brethren, the act goes on to state, in much the same terms with the famous ordinance against the Jews, that all the unbaptized Moors in the king- doms of Castile and Leon, above fourteen years of age if males, and twelve if females, must leave the country by the end of April following ; that they might sell their property in the mean time, and take the proceeds in any thing save gold and silver 30 Pragmaticas del Reyno, fol. 6.
