Sometime after the Black Death struck Europe, the Jewish community was influenced by the formal issuing of diplomas conferred by European Christian universities. In the areas today known as France and Germany, Ashkenazi Jews began using the term "semikhah" again, this time using it to refer to a formal "diploma" conferred by a teacher on his pupil, entitling the pupil to be called "Mori" (my teacher). This practice was at first frowned upon by Sephardi Jews, who viewed the practice as "presumptuous and arrogant", and an imitation of gentile customs (in this case, the university doctorate); eventually however this practice was adopted by the Sephardic Jewish community as well.