the Reconquista, numerous Spanish noble lineages were already of Basque origin. By the sixteenth century, the limpieza de sangre statutes coalesced to become a systematic effort to exclude conversos from offices in Church and state, rapidly multiplying due to being strongly supported by cathedral chapters and the colegios mayores (senior colleges), a type of fraternity which included scholarships, tutorial services, and in some cases even chairs within the university structure. This hyper-focus on the purity of blood from any level of power promoted the elite and exclusive nature of them, which were also imbued in and promoted by the letrado bureaucracy, professional civil servants usually with degrees in law as well as churchmen formed a large majority of the Spanish civil service in the sixteenth century. Which was then passed down from generation to generation of graduates from these universities, continuing to pervade the civic mind with an anti-converso mindset. One example found is the romantic engagement between Pedro Francisco Molines and Maria Aguiló as in a legal brief on behalf of Pedro arguing why they cannot, should not, and will not, marry Maria. It is determined that Maria is not of "pure blood" and because of this, Pedro has no legal obligation to marry her and also can be prevented from doing so as not to dirty his clean blood: "…being that the aforementioned Aguiló has proven to be the descendant of Jews, and these being disgraced, by said infamy, even if they had been engaged, said Molines should not marry her; because he is of clean blood…" This insistence of the purity of blood not only squelched many familial lines that were established over centuries, but also prevented many upward-moving Spaniards of "dirty lineage" from establishing themselves and their families in the socio-economic system of the times. Alienating them to the sidelines due to a perceived impurity and cultivating a connection between race and impurity, which would soon consolidate these values into forms of racism based on race that were only beginning to form at this time. The last page of the brief also notes that the judge has the right to even imprison Pedro until he finds a more suitable woman of "pure blood" to marry, which is the proceeded by 15 men agreeing with the clauses and arguments found in the brief. Many of the signatories are either friars or scholars of canon law, which demonstrates