CHAPTER XX._History of the Jews, Vol. 4 (of 6)

THE DUTCH JERUSALEM AND THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR.

The Amsterdam Jewish Community--Its Wealth, Culture, and

Honored Position--Zacuto Lusitano--Internal Dissensions--The

Talmud Torah School--Saul Morteira, Isaac Aboab, and Manasseh

ben Israel--The Portuguese Congregation in Hamburg--The First

Synagogue--Lutheran Intolerance--John Miller--Jewish Colony

in Brazil--The Chief Communities in Germany--Persecution in

Frankfort--Dr. Chemnitz--The Vienna Congregation--Lipmann

Heller--Ferdinand II's Zeal for the Conversion of Jews--

Influence of the Thirty Years' War on the Fortunes of the Jews.

1618-1648 C.E.

The Jewish race during its dispersion of nearly two thousand years

may fitly be compared to a polyp. Though it was often wounded and cut

to pieces, the parts severed from the whole did not die, but began

an independent existence, developed organically, and formed a new

rootstock. Driven from their original Palestinian home, the scattered

members of this peculiar national organism assembled on the banks of

the Euphrates and Tigris and in the palm district of Arabia. Doomed to

ruin there, they emigrated to Spain with the Arabs, the most cultured

people of the Middle Ages, and became the teachers of Europe, then

plunged in barbarism. Expelled thence, weakened in heart and numbers,

they proceeded eastwards, and, as again they found no resting-place,

they settled in the north, always following advancing civilization.

The admission of Jews to Holland was the first quivering dawn of a

bright day after dense gloom. Amsterdam, the northern Venice, in the

beginning of the seventeenth century, had become a new center for

Jews; they rightly named it their new, great Jerusalem. In time this

city became an ark of refuge for the Jewish race in the new deluge.

With every trial conducted by the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal on

account of the Judaizing practices of the Marranos, with every burning

pile set ablaze for convicted or suspected persons, the numbers of the

Amsterdam community increased, as if the fanatics aimed at depopulating

and impoverishing the Catholic countries to render the heretical states

of the Netherlands populous and wealthy. The Amsterdam Portuguese

community, consisting of more than four hundred members, already

possessed three hundred stately houses and palaces in this city, raised

by them to a flourishing seat of commerce. Their capital enabled them

to carry on trade, for the most part on a large scale, and they were

interested in the East and West India Companies, or conducted banking

houses. But to usury, which made the Jews of other countries so hated,

they were sworn foes. The synagogue dues imposed upon themselves give

an approximate idea of the extent of their capital and trade. For every

pound of goods exported or imported by them they were accustomed to

pay a doit, and these taxes, exclusive of those on the receipts of

merchants interested in trading companies, amounted to 12,000 francs

annually.

Not on account of their wealth alone did they occupy a distinguished

position in the new Batavian seat of commerce. The immigrant Marranos

belonged for the most part to the educated class; in Spain or Portugal,

their unnatural mother country, they had occupied positions as

physicians, lawyers, government officials, officers, or clergymen,

and were familiar with the Latin language and literature no less than

with _belles-lettres_, and were accustomed to the usages of society.

In the Netherlands, then the most civilized part of Europe, humanistic

culture was in itself a recommendation. Hence, in Holland, cultivated

Jews had intercourse with educated Christians on terms of equality,

and obliterated the prejudices against the Jewish race. Some of them

obtained a European reputation, and were connected with personages

of high rank. Abraham Zacuto Lusitano (born 1576, died 1642),

great-grandson of Zacuto, the historian and astronomer, was one of the

most celebrated physicians of his time. He corresponded with Frederick,

prince of the Palatinate, and his learned wife, the unfortunate couple

that occupied the throne of Bohemia for a brief space, and was the

cause of the Thirty Years' War. Zacuto's praise was sounded in poetry

and prose by Christian as well as Jewish professional brethren. The

Stadtholders of the Netherlands, princes of the house of Orange-Nassau,

Maurice, Henry, and William II, like the founder of their race, William

I, were well disposed towards Jews, and treated them as citizens with

full rights. Even the Spanish and Portuguese kings, the persecutors of

the Marranos in their own countries, condescended to show respect to

the descendants of their hunted victims, to confer appointments upon

them, and to intrust them with consular functions for their states.

The attachment of the Amsterdam Jews to their re-adopted religion,

purchased with so many dangers, was deep, and was renewed at every

accession of fresh fugitives, and every report of the martyrdom of

their brethren on the burning pile of the Inquisition. This devotedness

was reflected in their conduct, and embodied in verses composed in the

language of their persecutors.

Paul de Pina, or Rëuel Jesurun, the poet, who had once been on the

point of becoming a monk, composed for a sacred festival part songs

in Portuguese, performed by seven youths to do honor to the first

synagogue (Beth-Jacob) in 1624. The mountains of the Holy Land, Sinai,

Hor, Nebo, Gerisim, Carmel, and Zethim (Mount of Olives), in melodious

verses celebrated the excellence of the Jewish religion, the Jewish

Law, and the Jewish people. They praised the thousand merciful ways in

which God had led His people from the earliest times to the present.

The unity of God, the holiness of the Law, and the expectations of the

Messianic age of grace, the more deeply felt by the Sephardic Marranos

because they were newly acquired and dearly gained convictions--these

were the inexhaustible themes of their poetry. But in the background

of the splendid picture there always lowered the dreadful dungeon, the

priests of Moloch, and the blazing flames of the Inquisition.

In this mood, exalted by the recollection of sufferings and torture

endured, the members of the Amsterdam community, with full heart and

bountiful hand, founded benevolent institutions of every description,

orphan asylums, benevolent societies (brotherhoods), and hospitals,

such as were not in existence in any of the older communities. They

had the means and the disposition. Their piety was shown in charity

and generosity. But, exalted though their mood was, they were men with

passions, and dissensions arose in the young community. Many members,

born and brought up in Catholicism, brought with them and retained

their Catholic views and customs; they thought that they could combine

them with Judaism. "Can one carry coals in his bosom without singeing

his clothes?" From childhood the Marranos had heard and seen that

one is allowed to sin, if from time to time he is reconciled with

the church. Catholic priests of all ranks were at hand to effect the

reconciliation, and by ecclesiastical means ward off future punishment

from the sinner. In the eyes of most Marranos, the rites and ceremonies

of Judaism took the place of the Catholic sacraments, and the rabbis

of father-confessors. They believed that he who conscientiously

observes Jewish rites, and in addition does a few other things, may

yield to his desires without forfeiting his soul's welfare. At any

rate, the rabbis could give him absolution. Hence the Marranos led a

life far from perfect, especially in point of chastity. The first two

rabbis of the Amsterdam community, Joseph Pardo and Judah Vega, in

consideration of the circumstances were indulgent to these weaknesses

and shortcomings. But the third, Isaac Uziel, did not restrain himself;

with inexorable rigor he scourged the evil habits of semi-Jews and

semi-Catholics from the pulpit. This severity wounded the attacked,

but, instead of mending their ways, they were angry with the preacher,

and several left the community and the synagogue, and combined to found

a new one (the third) in 1618. At the head of the seceders was David

Osorio; possibly he felt most deeply wounded by Uziel's severe sermons.

For the new synagogue (Beth Israel) which the seceders erected, they

chose David Pardo, the son of Joseph Pardo, as rabbi and preacher. He

defended the acceptance of this office in the new body, founded to some

extent in defiance of Isaac Uziel, by alleging that he wished to lessen

dissension. However, the tension lasted for twenty years (1618-1639).

Meanwhile German Jews, whom the ravages of the Thirty Years' War had

driven out of their Ghettos, sought the asylum of Amsterdam, and were

admitted to its shelter. If the Amsterdam Council had at first merely

connived at the immigration and settlement of Jews, at a later period

it decidedly furthered their admission, because it perceived the

important advantage which they brought the state. The immigrant German

Jews naturally could not unite closely with the Portuguese community,

because they differed, not only in language, but also in demeanor and

manners. A wide chasm divided the Portuguese and the Germans of the

same race and religion from each other. The former haughtily looked

down upon the latter as semi-barbarians, and the latter did not

regard the former as genuine Jews. As soon as a sufficient number

had assembled, the German Jews formed a synagogue, with a rabbi of

their own. Their first chief was Moses Weil. The breach within the

Portuguese community was painfully felt. Jacob Curiel, a distinguished

man, afterwards resident of the Portuguese court in Hamburg, by the

greatest exertions brought about a reconciliation, and not till the

union of the three synagogues in one single corporate body, in April,

1639, did the Portuguese community, by the harmonious co-operation of

its powers, stand forth in all its splendor, and surpass all its elder

sisters in the three divisions of the globe. The Amsterdam community

in some points resembled the ancient Alexandrian Jewish congregation.

Like the latter, it possessed great wealth, cultivation, and a certain

distinction of character; but, like it, suffered from insufficient

knowledge of Jewish religious and scientific literature. Nearly all

Marrano members had to commence to learn Hebrew in advanced age!

On uniting the three communities, for which statutes were passed,

the representatives took pains to obviate this ignorance of Hebrew.

They founded an institute (Talmud Torah) in which children and youths

might have instruction in the useful branches of Jewish theology. It

was, perhaps, the first graded institution of the kind among Jews. It

consisted, at first, of seven classes. Students could be conducted

from the lowest step, the Hebrew alphabet, to the highest rung of the

Talmud. It was at once an elementary school and a college for higher

studies. Thorough Hebrew philology, elocution, and modern Hebrew

poetry were also taught there, which was not usual in other Jewish

schools. In the highest departments, the first rabbis, or Chachamim,

at that time Saul Morteira and Isaac Aboab, gave instruction. These

two men, with Manasseh ben Israel and David Pardo, formed the first

rabbinical college. This richly endowed institute became a nursery for

the training of rabbis for the Amsterdam community and its daughters

in Europe and America. From it pupils went forth who labored in wider

spheres; among whom may be mentioned, for the sake of contrast, the

confused Kabbalist Moses Zacuto and the clear-headed Baruch Spinoza.

It was a misfortune for the Amsterdam community that its first

spiritual guides, who exercised remarkable influence, were possessed

of only mediocre talents, in some degree lacked mental poise. With the

vast resources which this first Dutch community had at command, with

the fund of culture characterizing its members, and their devotion

to Judaism, its leaders might have brought about remarkable results,

if they had possessed more independence, profounder intellect, and

greater genius. The first Amsterdam rabbinical college had nothing of

all this. David Pardo appears to have been of very little importance.

Saul Levi Morteira (born about 1596, died 1660) was not even a

distinguished preacher; his colleagues, Aboab and Manasseh ben Israel,

far outshone him. His sermons, the only printed productions of his

literary activity, have a philosophical complexion, but no depth of

thought. Morteira followed the broad, beaten paths, repeating what had

been thought and pointed out before him. Even in rabbinical learning

he had no mastery, and was not considered an authority by contemporary

Talmudists. His colleague, Isaac Aboab de Fonseca (born 1606, died

1693), was even less distinguished. He, also, was a Portuguese by

descent, and, it seems, came to Amsterdam as a child with his mother,

who was fifty years old at his birth. He was trained under Isaac Uziel,

and acquired from him pulpit eloquence, if that can be learnt. Aboab

became an excellent and beloved preacher. His style of speaking has

been very well described by Antonio Vieira of Lisbon, a wise Jesuit,

possessed of goodwill towards Jews. When once in Amsterdam, he heard

Aboab and Manasseh ben Israel preach, and when asked how he liked

them, he replied: "The one (Manasseh) says what he knows, and the

other knows what he says." But a well-arranged, impressive, attractive

sermon is not always the fruit of solid knowledge and clear conviction.

At any rate, it was not with Aboab. In character he was vacillating,

submissive to the influence of others, open to flattery, hence not

independent. To this man was given the control of the Amsterdam

community for nearly seventy years. Aboab was superstitious like the

multitude, and, instead of leading, was led.

Far more distinguished was Manasseh ben Israel (born 1604, died 1657),

a child of the Amsterdam community, to which his father had come

broken down by the torture of the Inquisition, and robbed of all his

property. Young Manasseh, eager for learning, was trained under Isaac

Uziel, and while his knowledge of the Bible and the Talmud did not

attain to perfect mastery, it was extensive and ready. Directed by

his personal circumstances to the study of ten languages--including

Portuguese as his mother tongue, and Latin as the literary language

--Manasseh learnt to express himself in speech and writing with more

or less perfection in all these languages and in an elevated style. A

ready speaker by nature, he educated himself as a preacher, displaying

all the lights and shadows of his profession. He became a prolific

writer, and, though he died young, performed incomparably more than his

colleagues. In the case of this amiable man, who rendered essential

service to Judaism, we should not take the part of severe critics, nor

inquire how large a share enthusiasm and a certain vanity had in his

work. But history is a stern judge. What his contemporaries admired

in Manasseh was not his profound intellect, nor his overpowering,

far-reaching greatness, but his quiet, yielding, modest behavior, and

his simple nature. He correctly and briefly described himself without

under- or over-estimation: "I rejoice in the modest though happy talent

of being able to describe, with a certain degree of order, the objects

that the will presents to the mind." He brought no great and fruitful

thoughts into the world, but fostered the intellectual offspring of

others, treating them as his own. He knew rather than thought much.

Although familiar with profane literature and Christian theology,

he clung firmly not only to traditional Judaism, as represented by

the rabbinical system, but also to the Kabbala, and, like his less

educated colleagues, regarded every word in the Talmud and the Zohar

as a profound truth. Like others, Manasseh ben Israel was subject to

superstitions, which had a strong influence over him, and spurred on

his will.

Such was the character of the men called to guide and instruct the

young, ignorant, catholicizing, and tractable Amsterdam community.

Great power was in their hand. Important affairs were discussed

and decided at the public sittings of the rabbis (Maamad) with the

trustees elected by the members. In religious matters the Chachamim

alone decided, because the laity did not trust their own judgment.

The decisions of the rabbis were binding on the members. Nobody might

oppose them, because the government had a despotic character. The

authorities allowed the board of trustees and the college of rabbis

full liberty to inflict spiritual penalties on disobedient members.

Of this liberty and this power the leaders made only too extensive a

use. They had brought from Spain mischievous zeal in maintaining the

faith pure and uprooting heresy. The Amsterdam rabbis introduced the

innovation of bringing religious opinions and convictions before their

judgment-seat, of constituting themselves a sort of inquisitional

tribunal, and instituting autos-da-fé, which, even if bloodless, were

not less painful to the sufferers. The character and organization of

the largest Portuguese community in Europe had a powerful influence on

the course of Jewish history. Branch communities were formed, which

took for their model not only the organization, dignity, devoted piety,

and benevolence, but also the follies and perversities, of their

mother. The second community on Dutch soil was gradually formed at

Rotterdam. Two brothers, as pious as wealthy, Abraham and David Pinto,

laid the foundation of this community, and elected as Chacham and

principal of the institute which they founded (Jesiba de los Pintos),

a young man, Josiah Pardo, son of David Pardo, and son-in-law of

Morteira, who, however, did not distinguish himself.

In Haarlem, also, the Jews were on the point of obtaining permission to

settle. The Humanists and favorers of toleration, like Joseph Scaliger,

the prince of philologists, were already rejoicing; but, in the end,

intolerance prevailed, and nothing came of the movement. Instead,

Portuguese communities arose in North Germany beyond the sea, and

gradually in other cities of the Netherlands.

In Hamburg an important colony of the Amsterdam community was next

formed. But there were difficulties in overcoming German prejudices and

German pedantry. Against the advantages arising from the settlement of

wealthy and intelligent Jews, which the Amsterdam people had quickly

comprehended, the Hamburg citizens struggled hand and foot. For the

fierce Lutherans it was an abomination to have Jews in their midst.

A Jewish jeweler named Isaac, from Salzuflen, in Lippe, with twelve

of his co-religionists, who were compelled to go in search of a new

home, made an attempt to settle in Hamburg. He presented a petition

to the senate to receive them for twelve years, offering the sum of

9,000 marks and a yearly tax of 400 marks. The negotiator, Isaac,

exhaustively set forth all possible reasons for the reception of Jews,

and declared that they were willing to submit to any conditions. He

adduced that Jews were tolerated not only in Catholic, but also in

evangelical countries, both in the West, at Frankfort and Worms, and in

northern Germany, in Hanover, Minden, Hildesheim, Göttingen, Norden,

Dortmund, Hamm, Lippe, and Emden. All was in vain. Hamburg, then

delighting in popish quarreling about orthodoxy and heresy, refused a

home to Jews.

It is curious that Hamburg, at the very time when it so strongly

opposed the temporary admission of Jews, harbored some in its midst

without being aware of it. With these, under the mask of Portuguese

papists, orthodox Christians had daily intercourse. Marrano fugitives

had escaped from the Inquisition, settled in the North German free

Hanse town, and passed as Portuguese "traders." Hearing that their

brethren in Amsterdam, with whom they were in communication, openly

professed Judaism, and were tolerated, they also lifted their mask, and

wished to be recognized as Jews, but continued to have their children

baptized. The strict Lutheran citizens raised a loud outcry, and

demanded of the senate that the wealthy Jews who had been driven from

Portugal and other places should be got rid of, and not be tolerated.

But to this the senate did not like to accede; they felt shame at

treating these Portuguese of noble demeanor and intelligent character

as vagrants or Jews. To the secret Jews of Hamburg there belonged at

that time the beloved and much-sought physician, Rodrigo de Castro

(born about 1560 at Lisbon, died 1627 or 1628), who, in the violence of

the pestilence, hastened with self-sacrifice to the bedsides of those

stricken by the plague, and saved the lives of many. De Castro was also

a skillful physician for women, and won the favor of the weaker sex,

strong in sympathy and antipathy. Able physicians were not numerous,

especially not in North Germany. Other "Portuguese," as the disguised

Marranos in Hamburg called themselves, and were called, possessed

capital, or, as agents, conducted important business for Spanish or

Portuguese houses. In short, it did not seem practicable to send these

Portuguese away. The senate, therefore, at first put off the citizens

with an official denial that there were Jews among them; and afterwards

admitted the presence of a smaller number than was correct--about

seven Portuguese Jews "who have fire and smoke here," i.e., households.

But the Lutheran clergy in Hamburg behaved most intolerantly, excited

people against the Portuguese Jews, and charged the senate with neglect

of duty. That body, which guarded only the commercial interests, did

not care to dispense with the Jews, but being unwilling to burden its

conscience, or rather to incur the reproach of unchristian feeling,

turned from the Hamburg clergy--the ministry--to a higher court,

the theological faculties of Frankfort-on-the-Oder and Jena. The

theological grounds of which the senate availed itself for the

toleration of Jews are very ridiculous, and prove the ossification

of Lutheranism at that time. The judgment of the Frankfort faculty

proceeds upon these grounds, and indulges the hope that the Portuguese

Jews--who for the sake of their convictions had given up honors,

fortune, and a beloved home--would be converted to Christianity in

Hamburg. The decision of the Jena faculty looks as if a professor of

Dominican theology of a century before, in the time of Hoogstraten, had

written it, and as if the index on the dial of history had stood still.

Like the intolerant papists, the Lutheran theological faculty wished

to compel Jews to listen to Christian preaching.

The senate, sufficiently protected on the ecclesiastical side by these

two judgments, in February, 1612, with restrictions growing out of the

German spirit or the German narrow-mindedness of that time, granted the

Portuguese Jews free residence in Hamburg, avoiding a consideration

of the consequences on both sides with pedantic scrupulousness. They

really became protected Jews (_Schutz-juden_), who had to pay an annual

charge or protection fee of 1,000 marks. They were not allowed to have

synagogues, or private religious service according to Jewish customs,

or to practice circumcision, but they might bury their dead in a

cemetery of their own at Altona. There were then in Hamburg 125 adults

of Marrano descent, among whom were ten capitalists, two physicians,

and three artisans. It was an important article in the agreement that

new-comers might obtain admission, "if the high and wise council

found their qualifications of such a nature that it had no objection

to take them under its protection." Thus the young, semi-tolerated

Hamburg community grew from year to year, and within a decade several

capitalists were added. The increase of the community through the

accession of such settlers, admitted openly as Jews, no longer

disguised as Portuguese, in 1617 rendered necessary a fresh agreement

with the senate, enlarging their privileges in commercial respects, but

diminishing them in point of citizenship. They could not possess houses

or land, and had to dispose of any they might own. Exception was made

in favor of the physician, Rodrigo de Castro, in consideration of his

faithful services of many years, but even he could not bequeath his

house to an heir.

The more the Portuguese Jews, by their capital and business

connections, gained weight with commercial men in the senate,

the more they broke through the boundaries drawn by narrow-minded

legislation. When the bank at Hamburg, to which this city owed its

commercial prosperity, was founded (1619-1623), no less than twelve

Jewish capitalists supported it with their funds and efforts, as the

Amsterdam Portuguese had done at the formation of the Dutch companies

trading beyond the sea. The Portuguese Jewish settlers alone founded

the important trade of Hamburg with Spain and Portugal. Hence they

might assume that the senate, which held the reins of government, would

connive at violations of the articles. They were especially anxious

to be permitted to assemble for public worship, and this was directly

forbidden. Relying on their indispensability, they quietly erected a

synagogue in about 1626. It was Elihu Aboab Cardozo who risked this

venture. They named it Talmud Torah, and appointed as Chacham, Isaac

Athias, of Amsterdam, a disciple of Isaac Uziel.

This probably simple synagogue, consisting of two large rooms, caused

wide dissension, and produced much bitterness. Emperor Ferdinand

II, the terror of the Protestants, indignant that the arch-Lutheran

city on the Elbe would not allow Catholics to build a church, sent a

threatening letter to the senate, July 28th, 1627, because for the

sake of trade a synagogue was openly permitted to Jews, while Roman

Catholics were forbidden the exercise of their religion. Nothing more

was needed to excite the Lutheran fanatics. If free exercise of their

religion was granted to Jews, it must also be granted to Catholics,

and even to Calvinists, they said. A frightful consequence indeed!

When the ministry, or spiritual assembly, which had great power in

Hamburg, reproached the senate on account of the violation of articles

in the agreement with the Jews, and that body in turn arraigned the

Jews, the latter declared that they had no synagogue, merely a place

of meeting to read the Law of Moses, the Psalms, the Prophets, and

other books of the Old Testament; if they prayed there, it was only for

the welfare of the city and the government. The senate proceeded no

further, because the Jews threatened that, in case they were denied the

worship of God, they would leave Hamburg in a body, and transfer their

capital and business connections to a neighboring place. That argument

prevailed. But the clergy demanded nothing less than that a Christian

rabbi be appointed to preach Christianity to Jews in the synagogue, or

elsewhere. The physicians also viewed with indignation the popularity

of their Jewish colleagues, and sought to bring not only them, but Jews

generally, under suspicion, and stirred up the people against them.

But the community grew in prosperity from year to year, and the senate

gladly received those who came with capital and business connections.

Even if the descriptions by John Miller, the arch-foe of the Jews,

appear exaggerated, yet an idea may be gathered from them of the wealth

of the Portuguese Jews of Hamburg. "They strut along adorned with gold

and silver, costly pearls, and precious stones. At their weddings

they eat and drink from silver ware, and drive in such carriages as

become only persons of exalted rank, and, moreover, have outriders

and a large following." The extremely rich Texeira family, settled in

Hamburg, lived in princely luxury. The founder of this banking house,

Diego Texeira de Mattos, was called in Hamburg, like Joseph of Naxos

in Constantinople, "the rich Jew." He was of Portuguese descent, bore

a title of high nobility, and had previously been Spanish resident

in Flanders. Over seventy years of age, he underwent the operation

of circumcision in order to become a Jew in reality. By means of his

wealth, and his connections with both the nobility and capitalists,

Diego Texeira could play the aristocrat. He drove in a carriage lined

with satin, and had liveried servants.

The Portuguese Jews already had three synagogues, the second built by

Abraham Aboab Falero, the third by David de Lima. A German community,

also, had gradually assembled at Hamburg, and built a house of prayer.

And were the faithful followers of Luther to behold it calmly, although

almost on his death-bed he had ordered the Jews to be treated as

gypsies, and the tongues of the rabbis to be cut out? The Hamburg

pastors could not endure it, they pressed the senate, and stirred

up the citizens to withdraw even this small amount of religious

toleration. Among them stood forth an arch-bigot, John Miller, senior

at St. Peter's church, a Protestant inquisitor and chief persecutor,

an abusive man given to scandal, who cast aspersions upon his reverend

brethren from the pulpit and in libelous writings. With this virulent

pastor, who considered himself a pillar of Lutheran orthodoxy, it was

a matter of conscience thoroughly to hate and humiliate the Jews.

In writing and in talking, in the pulpit and in the circle of his

disciples, in private conversation and in official addresses, his

favorite theme was the Jews and their humiliation. Everything in the

Jews vexed him: their joy and feasting on Purim, their mourning on

the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple, their dress, their

friendship with Christians, and their funerals. The bigot was not

wrong on some points, as, for instance, his censure of the hereditary

failing of the Portuguese Marranos, as illustrated in their misconduct

with Christian women, and of the way in which some of them challenged

Christianity. A Jewish author (Jacob Jehuda Leon?) had composed a work

entitled "Colloquium Middelburgense," a Latin dialogue between a rabbi

and a Christian on the value or worthlessness of Christian doctrines,

the gospels, and the ecclesiastical writings, in which the weak points

of Christianity were laid bare. Miller composed a defense, or rather

a libel, entitled, _Judaism, or the Jewish Doctrine_, a full account

of the Jewish people's unbelief, blindness, and obduracy (1644). This

was dictated neither by the Holy Ghost nor by Christian love. Luther's

virulent language against Jews seemed an undeniable revelation to the

pastor. Out of it spoke Lutheranism, pure and unadulterated, which

had as little heart as the popery attacked by it, and the essence of

which consisted of dry formulas of belief. Miller's absurdity and

uncharitableness are not his own; they are part and parcel of the

corrupt Lutheran church of the time. Three theological faculties,

the arch-Lutheran faculty of Wittenberg, and those of Strasburg and

Rostock, in reply to Miller's inquiry, decided that Jewish physicians

should never be admitted to Christian patients. Thus, in the face

of the seventeenth century, when the Thirty Years' War was teaching

toleration with an iron rod, the leaders of Lutheranism were issuing

a new edition of the decrees of the Visigothic councils against Jews.

But, after all, times had changed. Christian IV, king of Denmark,

Schleswig and Holstein, next to Gustavus Adolphus the champion of the

Protestants, to whom Miller dedicated his book, had appointed Benjamin

Musaphia, a Jewish physician, his medical attendant.

Even in Hamburg Miller's fanatical zeal did not meet with great

success. The citizens gradually got accustomed to Jews, and learnt to

respect them. Some of them were appointed business agents or residents

even by high Catholic potentates. The king of Portugal first appointed

Duarte Nuñes da Costa, and then Jacob Curiel, as his agents, and his

Catholic majesty, Philip IV, elevated Immanuel Rosales, a Jewish author

of Portuguese descent, to the dignity of count palatine. The Portuguese

Jews, in general more favorably situated than their German brethren,

felt so happy at Hamburg, that they called it their "little Jerusalem."

A colony of the Amsterdam mother-community was formed in Brazil, South

America, discovered and peopled by Portuguese, and a number settled in

the town of Pernambuco. Thither the Portuguese government had often

transported Jewish offenders, _i.e._, Marranos, whom it did not wish

to deliver to the burning-pile, together with prostitutes, and other

rabble. These disgraced Marranos assisted the Dutch in conquering

Brazil, which became a Dutch colony, with a Stadtholder of its own,

the intelligent John Maurice, of Nassau (1624-1636). Connections

were immediately established between the Amsterdam and the Brazilian

community, which threw off the mask of Christianity, and was almost

spoilt by the favor of the Dutch. The Jews at Recife, near Pernambuco,

called themselves "the holy community" (Kahal Kados), and had a

governing body consisting of David Senior Coronel, Abraham de Moncado,

Jacob Mucate, and Isaac Cathunho. Several hundred Amsterdam Portuguese,

either by invitation, or of their own accord, sailed to Brazil to form

business connections with the colony, and took with them the Chacham

Isaac Aboab. He was the first Brazilian rabbi, settling probably

at Recife. At Tamarica a community was formed, which had its own

Chacham, Jacob Lagarto, the first Talmudical author in South America.

Of course, the Brazilian Jews enjoyed perfect equality of rights

with other citizens, for they rendered the Dutch essential services

as advisers and warriors. When the native Portuguese, who bore the

yoke of the Dutch impatiently, formed a conspiracy to get rid of the

Dutch authorities at a banquet in the capital, and attack the colony

bereft of government, a Jew gave warning, and saved the colony from

certain destruction. Later, in 1646, when open war broke out between

the Portuguese and the Dutch, and the garrison of Recife, exhausted

by famine, was on the point of surrendering unconditionally, the Jews

encouraged the governor to brave resistance.

A fanatical war of race and religion between the Portuguese and the

Dutch devastated fair Brazil, and a famine ensued. The Jews vied with

the Dutch in suffering and bravery. Isaac Aboab, the Chacham of the

Brazil community, paints the sufferings of the war, which he himself

endured, in lurid colors:

Volumes would not suffice to relate our miseries. The enemy

spread over field and wood, seeking here for booty and there

for life. Many of us died, sword in hand, others from want;

they now rest in cold earth. We survivors were exposed to death

in every form; those accustomed to luxuries were glad to seize

mouldy bread to stay their hunger.

At last, the States-General were compelled by European wars to

surrender the colony to the Portuguese. The devoted zeal of the

Jews for the political welfare of the Dutch was a firm bond, never

afterwards dissolved, between them and the republic. The toleration and

equal position of Jews in the Netherlands were ensured for ever.

Whilst the first ray of a better time glimmered in Holland, the rest of

Europe was still full of darkness for Jews. In Germany especially, the

Jew even in the seventeenth century continued to be an outcast for whom

there was no sympathy. He was pelted with mud, his beard was singed,

and he was treated almost worse than a dog. There were only three or

four important communities in Germany: Frankfort-on-the-Main, with

over 4,000 souls; Worms, with 1,400; Prague, with 10,000 at most; and

Vienna, with 3,000: the rest did not number many. Hamburg was still a

young community. In the West German free cities of Frankfort and Worms,

almost stronger antipathy to Jews prevailed than in Hamburg, having

its root in the narrow-mindedness of the Philistine citizens and the

guilds rather than in religious antipathy. Both cities treated the

Jews within their walls as their "servi cameræ," and appealed in all

seriousness to a deed of Emperor Charles IV, declaring that they had

been sold to them in person and property. When Portuguese Marranos,

wishing to remove from the Netherlands to Frankfort, and raise it to

a commercial center of the first rank, like Amsterdam and Hamburg,

asked permission to build a house of prayer there, the council roundly

refused. The Jewish capitalists then addressed themselves to the lord

of Hanau, and obtained very favorable terms.

The bitterness of the people of Frankfort against their Jewish

neighbors was crystallized in a most revolting and absurd

legislative enactment, entitled "the permissive residence of Jews"

(Judenstättigkeit), and defining under what conditions or restrictions

Jews might breathe the Frankfort air, or rather the pestilential

atmosphere of the Jewish quarter. The city, chiefly Protestant,

retained all the canonical restrictions introduced by the papacy for

the purpose of branding Jews, such as, prohibiting them from having

Christian servants or nurses, and requiring them to wear an opprobrious

badge. They were treated exactly like criminals. Jews might not go

outside their quarter except for necessary business, and two might not

walk together, certainly not in the neighborhood of the town-hall, and

especially not during Christian festivals or weddings, or if princes

were staying in the city. They were also required to observe silence

in their Ghetto, avoid offending Christian ears with any shrill sound,

and see that strange Jews visiting them went to bed in good time. In

fact, they might not harbor any strangers without the knowledge of the

magistracy, nor even admit a patient into their hospital. They might

not purchase food in the market at the same time as Christians. Though

their business was jealously restricted, they were forced to pay more

taxes than the Christian inhabitants. As they were obliged to wear

special badges on their clothes, so they were required to have on their

houses shields, with strange figures and names, such as "the garlic,"

"the ass," "the green or white shield," "red shield," "black shield."

After these shield figures the inhabitants were named, "The Jew N of

the ass," "the Jew N of the dragon." On the admission of a Jew, he

was obliged to promise on oath to obey these stupid and heartless

directions. Even this wretched existence depended on the favor of the

magistrate, for in one paragraph the council reserved the power of

depriving a Jew at any time of the right of residence. In such case the

individual or family had to leave the city within a fixed space of time.

As the magistrate was empowered to deprive a single Jew of the right

of residence, he could banish all from the city. This was inferred and

demanded by the citizens or the guilds at variance with the council.

They aimed at enlarging their liberties by limiting the aristocratic

power of patricians in the magistracy, and they began with the Jews.

The reason was that the councilors, in return for the substantial

gratitude of the Jews, were indulgent in the administration of the

laws issued against them; else they would not have been able to exist

under the pressure of opprobrium and the "permissive residence." But

this indulgence of the magistracy towards Jews was doubly hateful to

the guilds. Hence they strove by all possible means to bring about the

expulsion of the Jews from Frankfort. The Jews had obtained assurance

of their safety as a community by charter from the emperor, but the

decrees and threats of the emperor were little heeded at that time.

At the head of the discontented guild-members stood the pastry-cook,

Vincent Fettmilch, who, with his workpeople, belonged to the Reformers,

a sect excluded from civic honors, and who sought to sate his fury

against the Lutheran authorities by taking vengeance on the Jews. He

was a daring man, who kept the councilors in awe, and openly called

himself "the new Haman of the Jews." He was chosen by the citizens as

their spokesman and ringleader, and deserved this leadership, for he

executed his plans with much circumspection.

On an appointed day (27 Ellul == September, 1614, new style), while

the community was assembled in the house of prayer, blow followed

upon blow and thrust upon thrust, mingled with furious shouting, on

the door of the Jewish quarter. Thereupon followed cries of anguish

on the part of the Jews, who rushed hither and thither in despair and

distracted flight. Bold youths and men seized weapons to ward off

assaults or die manfully. On both sides fell the wounded and dead,

until the superiority of numbers and the daring of the Fettmilch party

decided the victory. Then all through the night until the next day

followed plundering, desecration, and destruction of sacred places with

brutal fury. The imperial commissioners could do nothing to check the

riot; they were even compelled to put up a notice that the murderous

band was not liable to punishment. Most of the Jews not sheltered by

philanthropic citizens awaited death in trembling at the burial-ground,

crouching together, many of them in shrouds. The rabble purposely left

them in uncertainty as to the fate to which they were destined--life,

death, or banishment--so that the Jews regarded it as a mercy from

God when the fisherman's gate was opened in the afternoon of August

24th (new style), and they were allowed to depart, 1,380 in number, but

without property of any kind. The advance of humanity, compared with

earlier ages, is seen in the circumstance that compassionate Christians

gave bread and other provisions to those who departed utterly

destitute, and the smaller towns and villages sheltered them, though

Fettmilch and the foes of the Jews had warned them against receiving

the exiles.

It was long before the Frankfort Jews obtained satisfaction for

these atrocious injuries. The magistracy and Emperor Matthias were

equally impotent. Fettmilch's rabble for a whole year so tyrannized

over the council that it could do nothing for the Jews. Some of the

law faculties defended the robbers, by issuing an opinion that their

attacks on the property of the Jews could not be regarded as theft,

since they had occurred in the daytime or by torchlight. It was only

by similar events at Worms that the end of the Frankfort troubles was

hastened.

There the bitterness against one of the oldest German-Jewish

communities, arising out of hatred of Jews and trade jealousy, took a

different course. Not the guilds, but some members of the magistracy

urged the banishment of the Jews, and the chief enemy of the Jews,

instead of being a brutal but straightforward workman, was a crafty

advocate and perverter of the law. Here, as in Frankfort, the chief

motive was opposition to the magistracy, but the guild-members acted

with more resolution and unanimity. The leader, adviser, and director

of the committee of citizens was a learned lawyer, Dr. Chemnitz

(Chemnitius), who thought that by lawyers' tricks he would be able to

effect the banishment of the Jews with less danger than the Frankfort

people had incurred by brutal violence. At first chicanery and insults

of every sort were employed. The committee did not care to use

violence, but strove to wear them out. It closed the outlets of the

city against them, hindered them from purchasing food, drove their

cattle from the meadows, and would not permit milk for Jewish children

to be brought to the Jewish quarter.

After various movements, the Worms guilds, by Chemnitz's advice,

assembled unarmed in the market place to take counsel, and sent a

deputation to the Jews, ordering them "to retire from the city with bag

and baggage" within an hour. The deputation reproached them with having

caused the citizens to be suspected by the emperor, with having excited

his hatred against them, and deprived them of every means of obtaining

justice. The magistrates protested, but without effect, and so nothing

remained for the Jews but to depart on the last day but one of the

Passover (April 20th, 1615, new style). Fanaticism could not refrain

from venting its fury on the holy places of the Jews, from devastating

the synagogue which had stood for a thousand years, desecrating the

burial-ground, and breaking to pieces several hundred tombstones, some

of which gave evidence of the high antiquity of the community. The

archbishop of Mayence and Count Louis of Darmstadt granted residence to

the exiles in small towns and villages, and thus some of the exiles met

their suffering brethren of Frankfort.

But the rejoicing of the foes of the Jews in Worms did not last

long. The council, humiliated by the committee of citizens, secretly

negotiated with Frederick, elector palatine, and, about ten days after

the expulsion of the Jews, he moved infantry, cavalry, and cannon into

the town, under the unavailing protest of the committee, and this

soon brought the disorder to an end. Still it was nearly nine months

before the Worms Jews were re-admitted by order of the elector palatine

and the bishop of Speyer (January 19th, 1616, new style). Two months

afterwards, the Jews of Frankfort were led back, as in triumph, with

the sound of trumpets, and blowing of horns, by the commissioners of

the electorate of Mayence and Darmstadt (Adar 20th == March 10th). Here

the rioters were more severely punished than at Worms, because they

had caused destruction, plundering, and bloodshed. Vincent Fettmilch,

the pastry-cook, the Frankfort Haman, was hanged, and quartered, his

house razed to the ground, and his family banished. The city was fined

175,919 florins by the emperor as compensation for the depredations

committed on Jewish property. In memory of this extraordinary

deliverance and honorable restoration, not an every-day occurrence in

the German Empire, the Frankfort community appointed the day of their

return (Adar 20th) to be observed as a feast-day, named Purim-Vincent,

the day before being kept as a fast in memory of their sufferings.

The old "permissive residence" of the Jews in Worms and Frankfort was

abolished by Matthias, who introduced a new regulation, recommended by

the commissioners in 1617. This new arrangement still bore the impress

of the Middle Ages. The old restrictions of the Jews, as to dress,

occupation and movement, were retained, and, if possible, made more

severe in some respects. The Jews were still considered outcasts, even

by the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and his councilors. "As they

are privileged by the emperor, the council is to protect them, and no

longer has the power to banish those who have obtained 'permissive

residence.'" The Frankfort Jews, re-admitted at that time, did not

need to renew their right of residence every three years as before,

and transmitted it to their descendants. On the other hand, the number

of Jews was fixed at 500. Not more than six new families a year could

be granted "permissive residence," and only twelve couples a year

could get married. A further restriction was that the Jews should not

be called citizens of Frankfort; they were only hereditary protected

dependents of the council. In addition to the old protection fee, there

was a marriage and an inheritance tax. The restrictions in the new

Jewish ordinance for Worms proved, if possible, still more oppressive.

The banishment of the Jews from two cities of western Germany, and

their restoration had a favorable result for the German Jews. It

was an advantage to all German communities that the emperor had

emphatically insisted on, and by force of arms confirmed, the safety

of the Jews. Emperor Ferdinand II, though a pupil of the Jesuits and

a destroyer of Protestants, confirmed the inviolability of the Jews

throughout the whole empire, especially in Frankfort and Worms, when

the citizens of these places again thought of persecuting them. Hence

it came about, that the destructive, cruel Thirty Years' War did not

affect the Jews in Germany so severely as might have been expected.

Of course, they did not fail to share the sufferings of the German

nation, which, divided into two camps, drew the sword against its own

breast, and made havoc of its own land. The Jews, like the rest of

the population, had to submit to the plunderings and ravagings which

leaders of armies, such as Mansfeld, Tilly, and Wallenstein, one after

the other, brought upon flourishing cities.

Many a Jewish community was destroyed by the fury of war. But at

least the Jews had nothing to fear from the internal foe, and, in the

seclusion of their Ghettos, were perfectly secure from all attacks. The

Catholic generals had orders from the emperor to spare the life and

property of Jews, so that many a Protestant could lodge, and save his

property, in the Jewish quarter. Before Wallenstein made the discovery

that war is supported by war, and that a large army can obtain means

for itself, the war carried on by Ferdinand II against the Protestant

half of Germany required much money, and the imperial treasury had

always been poor. But ready money was chiefly in the iron chests of

Jewish capitalists. Hence, the financial springs, the Jews, had to be

protected, if the war was to be carried on successfully. Consequently,

the emperor, acting with careful consideration, impressed upon his

generals to spare the Jews from all the hardships of war, including

the quartering of troops. How dearly this tender treatment cost the

communities is not known. The Bohemian Jews paid a considerable sum,

and bound themselves to contribute 40,000 florins a year towards

defraying the expenses of the war.

The court of Vienna invented another means of making Jews contribute to

the war. It appointed Jewish capitalists as court Jews, granted them

most extensive freedom of trade, freed them from the restrictions to

which other Jews were subjected, even from wearing the yellow badge,

in a word, afforded them and their families an exceptionally favored

position.

The Jewish community of Vienna enjoyed great consideration during,

or perhaps on account of, this war. Through the indifference of

Spain, the center of Catholicism was transferred at that time from

the Manzanares to the Danube, from Madrid to Vienna. The Jews, who by

degrees re-assembled in Vienna, in spite of repeated banishment by the

emperors, came into close relations with important European affairs.

Court Jews and Jewish physicians repaired to Vienna with their retinue,

_i.e._, persons depending, or pretending to be dependent, upon them.

The Viennese Jews at that time were considered to be exceedingly rich.

As they lived scattered in various quarters of the city, they felt the

necessity of assembling and having a common place for prayer. They

applied to the emperor, and he granted them a site in what is now

Leopoldstadt, released them from the jurisdiction of the municipal

authorities, and even excused them from wearing the badge. At the very

time when Protestant Hamburg citizens were jealously on the watch that

no synagogue be granted to the Portuguese Jews, the arch-Catholic

emperor allowed them to build in his capital a new synagogue with all

its appurtenances (December, 1624). His "liberated," _i.e._, privileged

Jews were not required to quarter troops, or to contribute to the

expenses of the war. The magistrates, of course, raised objections to

the favor shown to Jews, and wished to turn the whole "swarm of Jews"

out of the city. The court councilors, who desired to extort money,

gave the citizens to understand that, for 20,000 florins, they might

enjoy the satisfaction of seeing the Jews banished; but at the same

time, they whispered to the Jews, that if they anticipated the payment

of this sum, they might remain in Vienna. Probably the Jews prevailed.

The united and prosperous community looked about for a rabbinical

leader, and, in February, 1625, made happy choice of Lipmann Heller,

an amiable and learned man, at that time rabbi of Nikolsburg. He was

no brilliant personage, but his talents stand out conspicuously from

the dark background of the time. He forms an exception to the rabbis of

that age, at least to those in Germany and Poland. He not only occupied

himself with Talmudic learning, but was acquainted with branches of

knowledge outside the rabbinical field. For instance, Heller had

studied other than Jewish literature, and understood mathematics well.

In the Talmudical department he could not compare with contemporary

Poles of distinction, with Samuel Edles at Ostrog, Joshua Falk at

Lemberg, Joel Serkes at Cracow, and many others. But if he was inferior

to them in acuteness, more properly, subtlety, he surpassed them in

profundity and lucidity.

Heller (born 1579, died 1654) possessed a mild nature, an attractive

presence, and skill in speech, and could, therefore, frequent Christian

circles. Far from the conceit which brooks no contradiction--a

failing of most representatives of rabbinical learning in Poland--

he prepossessed every one in his favor, and won all hearts by his

modesty. He is one of those whom we involuntarily pity for having lived

in such barbarous times. In a better age they might have labored with

more success for Judaism. In his thirtieth year, at the same age as

Maimuni, he completed a gigantic work, a comprehensive commentary on

the Mishna (Tossafoth Yom-Tob, 1614-1617). This involved a much greater

amount of work than his great predecessor, or Obadiah di Bertinoro,

had been forced to devote to it, if we take into account how much the

materials to be considered, examined, and tested, had increased in the

interval.

Having been summoned to Vienna to the post of rabbi, he labored

usefully for this young community. He drew up its constitution, and for

the short time of his official career there was esteemed and beloved.

With his peaceful disposition he should have remained at Vienna instead

of allowing himself to be attracted by the seemingly superior qualities

of the Prague community, where vulgarity and baseness, envy and malice,

still prevailed. For this circle Heller was most unfit, but he was

attracted to the Bohemian capital, where there was incomparably more

study of the Talmud, and where he could hope to enjoy interchange of

thought. Only too soon he had occasion to regret his acceptance of

this office. As acting rabbi, Heller was president of the commission

which had the thankless task of distributing the large yearly war tax

of 40,000 thalers among the members of the Prague community and those

of the country communities. With Heller's upright and pure character

it may be assumed that he acted with the utmost conscientiousness,

and that he did not knowingly overburden anyone. Nevertheless,

some members complained of improper allotment, raised a quarrel in

the community, and collected a large following, who threatened the

commission with accusations. In vain did Heller raise his warning

voice against the prevailing dissension, speaking from the pulpit,

now in mild, now in severe terms. Contumacy combined with envy, and

the discontented party accused him and the elders of the commission

before the civil authorities of having with partiality spared the

rich, and laid the burden of the tax on the shoulders of those with

less means, compelling payment of the share imposed by threats of

excommunication, imprisonment, and other punishments. The accusations

against Heller must have been of a still more hateful nature. The drift

was that in one of his works he had used offensive expressions against

Christianity. To give emphasis to their calumny, they reported to a

person close to the emperor, who prided himself much on his theological

knowledge, that Heller had boasted in the hearing of the Stadtholder

of Prague that he had beaten him in a disputation. At the same time

the slanderers hinted that the accused rabbi was in possession of much

property, which would fall to the imperial treasury in case he was

found guilty. To gratify their revenge or their malicious spirit, the

informers quite overlooked the fact that by this means they might bring

on a persecution, not only of Prague Jews, but of all German Jews.

Their slander met with only too ready a hearing. A formal command from

the emperor reached the Stadtholder of Prague to have Rabbi Lipmann

Heller sent in chains to Vienna. In view of the military severity

customary during the Thirty Years' War even the innocent had the worst

to fear. However, Heller was so highly esteemed even by Christian

officials, that the head of police, who was charged with his custody,

behaved with extraordinary indulgence towards him, and he was allowed

to travel to Vienna merely on bail. On arriving he waited on the

chancellor, in order to learn particulars with regard to the accusation

brought against him. The chancellor sternly alleged what led Heller to

fear the worst--that he had written against the Christian religion.

Thereupon Heller was put into prison, confined with criminal offenders,

and a commission of clergy appointed to establish his guilt as a

blasphemer. The sentence was that Heller properly deserved death, but

that the emperor was willing to exercise mercy and allow the punishment

of death to be commuted to a fine of 12,000 thalers, to be paid

immediately, and that the incriminated writings were to be destroyed.

The Prague slanderers who were not pleased with the sentence, did not

rest till the emperor deprived Heller of the office of rabbi at Prague,

and declared him unworthy to fill the rabbinical office wherever the

emperor's scepter held sway. At last, after a confinement of forty

days, he was liberated, with the loss of his office and his property,

and without any prospect of an appointment elsewhere. The maligning

of Lipmann Heller was not altogether without consequences to the

Jews. The bigoted emperor and many of the clergy who had been led to

notice the bearing of Jews towards Christianity conceived the idea of

introducing in Vienna Pope Gregory XIII's plan of preaching sermons

for the conversion of Jews. The emperor issued a decree in February,

1630, that Jews be compelled to listen to conversion sermons every

Saturday morning between eight and nine, at least 200 members of both

sexes in equal numbers to be present, among them forty young Jews, of

from fifteen to twenty years of age. Every one summoned to hear the

preachers was to be fined a thaler in case of absence, and a higher sum

if the offense was repeated. Sleeping and talking during the sermon

were punished. The fines were to be used in support of converted Jews.

The conversion of Jews was a matter that the emperor had at heart,

and he hoped much from these compulsory measures. However, this plan

was not easily carried out. The court councilors, to whom the emperor

committed the matter, were not proof against bribery, and followed the

Jesuits, who laid less stress on catching Jewish souls than on the

oppression of Protestants and the increasing of their own power.

The annals of the Thirty Years' War contain no record of special

sufferings of the Jewish race. It seems almost as if Jews were better

treated than Christians. At least, in Mayence, the Swedes, who resided

there more than four years, from the end of 1631 to 1636, behaved more

kindly to them than to others. They were not greatly impoverished,

for they were able, three years after the departure of the Swedes, to

build a synagogue at Mayence, and thus extend their community, a favor

which it had not been in their power to enjoy for more than 150 years.

The Thirty Years' War ended, as is well known, at Prague, on the very

stage where it had begun. The Swedish general besieged the city on

the Moldau, and had already captured one quarter. But the inhabitants

resisted bravely, and the Jews were not behind the others, if not

with arms, yet with labor, in the trenches, and with extinguishing

apparatus. It was a Jew who brought intelligence to the emperor from

the besieged city in order to obtain relieving forces. On account of

their attachment to the imperial family, the Bohemian Jews obtained

from Ferdinand III an extension of their rights, which consisted in

the privilege of residing in all royal cities and domains, and in

not being expelled without the knowledge of the emperor. It may be

assumed that the Jews did not lose very much by the devastating war.

While the Christian population was thoroughly impoverished, and had to

contend with want--the chief circumstance which induced the rulers to

conclude the Peace of Westphalia--the Jews had saved something. The

booty of many cities went through their hands, and, even if they were

exorbitantly taxed, and forced to pay heavy sums, they still derived

some gain. Hence it came about that directly after the close of the

Thirty Years' War, when great numbers of their fugitive brethren came

from Poland through Germany, they could be supported in a brotherly way

by the German communities; for the Jews of Poland, for the first time,

were visited with a long-continued, bloody persecution. The cup of

suffering was not to pass them by.

END OF VOL. IV.

INDEX.

Aaron (I) ben Joseph, the Elder, fixes the Karaite prayer-book, 71.

Aaron (II) ben Elia Nicomedi, Karaite philosopher, 95.

Abadia, de, Juan, plots against Arbues, 329-331.

Abba-Mari ben Moses (Astruc En-Duran), leader of obscurantists,

27-32, 36-42, 50.

and the Tibbonides, 39-42.

Abenacar, Isaac (Manuel Pimentel), Marrano in Holland, 672.

Abenhuacar. See Ibn-Wakar, Samuel.

Abi-Ayub, Jacob, physician, 553.

Abner of Burgos. See Alfonso Burgensis.

Aboab, Isaac, rabbi at Toledo, 341.

death, 366.

intercedes for Spanish exiles, 352, 365.

Aboab, Isaac, de Fonseca, rabbi at Amsterdam, 681, 682-683.

in Brazil, 693.

quoted, 694.

Aboget, supposed manufacturer of Black Death poison, 102.

Abrabanel, Isaac ben Judah, 409.

and the edict of banishment, 348.

and Yechiel of Pisa, 287.

as commentator, 341-343.

countenances Messianic speculations, 482.

in Castile, 336-337, 341, 343-344.

in Corfu and Sicily, 384.

in Naples, 359-360.

in Portugal, 337-339, 341.

in Venice, 385, 386.

opposes free thought, 479.

protects the Jews, 339-340.

quoted, 338, 388-389.

Abrabanel, Isaac, son of the preceding, physician, 340, 385.

Abrabanel, Judah Leon (Medigo), son of Isaac Abrabanel I, 340, 341,

409.

and Gonsalvo de Cordova, 384-385.

as author, 480-481.

flees to Naples, 360-361.

Abrabanel, Samuel (Juan de Seville), 337.

accepts baptism, 169.

ambassador to Martin V, 219.

appointed to a state office, 138.

efforts for the culture of Castilian Jews, 139-140.

intercedes for the Spanish Marranos, 322-323.

Abrabanel, Samuel, son of Isaac Abrabanel I, 340, 385, 543.

at Ferrara, 544.

at Naples, 409.

promotes Jewish learning, 410.

Abrabanela, Benvenida, wife of the preceding, 409-410.

honors David Reubeni, 493.

saves the Neapolitan Jews from the Inquisition, 543-544.

Abraham, copyist, 74.

Abraham, son of Manessier de Vesoul, 150.

Abraham ben Chiya, astronomer, 120.

Abraham of Granada, Kabbalist, 196-197.

Abudiel, Moses, officer at the Castilian court, 84, 85, 86.

Abulafia, agent of Ferdinand and Isabella, 313, 317.

Abulafia, Abraham ben Samuel, Kabbalist, 4-8, 10, 11, 14, 19, 622,

625.

his school accepts the Zohar, 20.

Abulafia, Joseph, Kabbalist, 2.

Abulafia, Levi, Kabbalist, 2.

Abulafia, Meïr, Maimuni's adversary, alluded to, 2.

Abulafia-Halevi, prominent family of Toledo, 113, 116.

Abulafia-Halevi, Samuel ben Meïr, (Allavi), privado of Pedro the

Cruel, 116-121, 354.

builds synagogues, 119-120.

charged with peculation, 121.

Abulafia-Halevi, Todros ben Joseph, Kabbalist, 1-3, 52.

Abulhassan, of Morocco, makes war upon Castile, 84.

Abumelik, Moorish general, 85.

Accusation of child-murder, 223, 261-262, 276-279, 298-307, 343-344,

372, 440, 544-546, 642.

against Christians, 546.

by Eck, 547.

forbidden in Portugal, 372.