THE CARDINAL AND THE JEW.
"I should like," said Ippolito, "to speak with that Jew before I leave
you. He may help me to some curious manuscripts."
The Medici were very clever in hunting up curiosities of literature;
for their encouragement of the arts sprang less from the love of that
renown which rewards liberal patronage, than from real, genuine interest
in arts and letters _for their own sake_. Hence the worship of their
very names among poor _literati_, to whom sympathy and appreciation
are dearer than gold, though they like that too. Pity that they loved
Plato better than Christ! The spirit of poetical and philosophical
emulation which they kindled was accompanied by utter obtuseness to
spiritual things. A keen sense of purity of language fostered no love
of purity of life; there was, in fact, complete antagonism between the
elegant disciples of Lorenzo and the severe followers of Savonarola and
Bernardino Ochino; and if the very light that was in them was darkness,
how great was that darkness! The Medici retarded rather than advanced
the spirituality of their age; and in like manner, though in different
proportion, their elegant biographer has thrown a false shadow on good,
and a false light on evil. Of course I shall be covered with obloquy for
saying this.
Cardinal Ippolito received Bar Hhasdai in a cabinet adjoining the _sala
di compagnía_, in which music and society-games were beguiling the
tedium of the other guests. The Jew was a grand specimen of the
Sephardim--he was a great deal older than he looked, his hair
unbleached, and his head unbent by age.
"Your name is that of a great man," said the Cardinal to him.
"My descent is from him likewise," said the physician. "I am son, or, as
your people would say, descendant of that Hhasdai ben Isaac who was
Hagib to the second Abderrahman, and wrote the famous epistle--of which
you doubtless have heard--to Joseph, King of Cozar."
"No, I never heard anything about it," said Ippolito with interest. "Who
was the king of Cozar?"
"The Cozarim," replied Bar Hhasdai, "were Jews dwelling on the Caspian
Sea. My ancestor had long heard of them without being able to
communicate with them, till, from the Spanish embassy at Constantinople,
he learned that some of them frequently brought furs for sale to the
bazaars there. On this, he addressed an epistle to them, beginning: 'I,
Bar Hhasdai ben Isaac, ben Ezra, one of the dispersed of Jerusalem,
dwelling in Spain,' and so on--'Be it known to the king that the name of
the land we inhabit is, in the holy language, Sepharad, but in that of
the Ishmaelites, el Andalus,' &c. Bar Hhasdai despatched this epistle to
the East by an envoy, who returned six months afterwards, saying he had
hunted high and low for the Cozarim, without being able to find them.
Their kingdom undoubtedly existed, but was quite inaccessible. Bar
Hhasdai transmitted his letter afterwards, however, through two
ambassadors of the Asiatic people called Gablim, who visited Cordova."
"And were these Cozarim the lost tribes?"
"I know not."
"Where are they now?"
"They are not found."
"How came you Jews to settle in Spain?"
"I believe in Abarbanel. He tells us that two families of the house of
David settled in Spain during the first captivity. One of them settled
at Lucena; the other, the Abarbanels, took root at Seville. Hence all
their descendants were of the royal stock--of the tribe of Judah."
"You yourself, then, are of the royal stock?"
"I trace up to David."
Ippolito did not know whether to believe him; but he evidently believed
in himself.
"I thought," said De' Medici, "your genealogies were lost?"
"Not when we came to Spain. But it is believed that many Jews were in
Spain even _prior_ to the first captivity--Jews who came over with the
merchant ships of Hiram in the days of David and Solomon, and who
remitted large sums of money towards the erection of the Temple. You may
see a tombstone that confirms this, without the walls of Saguntum, to
this day. It bears the following inscription in Hebrew--'The sepulchre
of Adoniram, the servant of King Solomon, who came hither to collect
tribute.' The tomb was opened about fifty years ago, and found to
contain an embalmed corpse of unusual stature."
"This is curious," said the Cardinal, reflectively,--"and merely a
matter of curiosity."
"It ought not to be so in your eyes--nor in the eyes of any thoughtful
Christian," said Bar Hhasdai.
"Why not?"
"Because we Sephardim were not consenting unto the death of him whom you
term the Christ."
"Ha!--But you would have done so, most probably, if you had been on the
spot."
"That is a gratuitous supposition. On the contrary, we wrote an epistle
to Caiaphas the High Priest, pleading for the life of Jesus, whose good
report had been brought us."
"Can this be so?"
"Prince Cardinal! when I and my brethren were banished from Spain forty
years ago, we appealed to an ancient monument in the open square of
Toledo, bearing the inscription of some very early bishop, to the effect
that we Sephardim had not quitted Spain during the whole time of the
second Temple; and, therefore, could not have shared in the guilt of
crucifying Jesus!"
"Singular!"
"When Taric the Moor took Toledo, in the year 710 of your era, he found,
at Segoncia, among other treasures, the actual table of shew-bread which
had belonged to Solomon's Temple! and which our nation had secretly
brought to Spain. It was composed of one huge emerald, surrounded by
three rows of the choicest pearls, and it stood upon three hundred and
sixty feet of pure gold."
"Are you fabling?" exclaimed the Cardinal, whom this tradition
interested more than all the rest.
"Nay," said Bar Hhasdai, "the fable is not mine, at any rate. That such
a relic was really found there, is proved by their changing the name of
the place from Segoncia to Medinat al Meida, _the place of the table_."
"Why, man, such a relic as that would redeem your whole race! Hist, the
Duchess is singing----"
A lute, rarely touched, preluded a sweet, plaintive air, sung by a balmy
voice in the saloon. The Cardinal listened with pleasure and a little
provocation; for the Duchess had twice refused to sing to him, and it
was very bad of her to do so at the request of some one else. The little
snatch of song ended abruptly in the minor.
"Could not you enter into that?" said Ippolito, noticing a strange
mixture of sadness and sarcasm on the physician's face. He replied with
a distich--
"What saith the art of music among the Christians?--
'I was assuredly stolen from the land of the Hebrews!'"
"Do you mean that that is a Hebrew melody?"
"O, yes!"
"Jew! _why_ will you not convert, and be healed?"
"It cannot be. I have seen whole families of slain Jews with gaping
gashes in their bodies, heaped at their own thresholds--and those gashes
were made by the swords of Christians!"
"But that was in Spain."
"Bear with me, Cardinal, while I repeat a parable to you. Pedro the
Great of Arragon inquired of a learned Jew which was the best religion.
He replied: 'Ours is best for us, and yours for you,' The king was not
satisfied with this answer, and the Jew, after three days, returned to
him seemingly in great perturbation, and said: 'A neighbour of mine
journeyed to a far country lately, and gave each of his two sons a rich
jewel to console them for his absence. The young men came to me to
inquire which jewel was the most valuable. I assured them I was unable
to decide, and said their father must be the best judge, on which they
overwhelmed me with reproaches.' 'That was ill done of them,' said the
king. 'O, king!' rejoined the Jew, 'beware how thou condemnest thyself.
A jewel has been given unto the Hebrew and likewise to the Christian,
and thou hast demanded that I should decide which is the most precious.
I refer thee to our great Father, the Giver of all good gifts, who alone
can exactly determine their comparative and absolute values.'"
This apologue pleased the Cardinal, though, in fact, it was very
superficial. He inquired whether Bar Hhasdai could help him to any rare
manuscripts.
"The few which I possess," said the physician, after a pause, "are not
such as would be of any value in your eyes: being either on our own law,
or on the science of medicine--"
"Nay, but," said the Cardinal, "the latter are such as I should greatly
prize."
"They are altogether obsolete and unworthy of your notice," said Bar
Hhasdai, "but I have a little treatise on Chess, which really is a
curiosity in its way; and also a treatise on Aristotle's Ethics, by
Rabbi Joseph ben Caspi, of Barcelona, which is at your service."
"Let me have them both," said the Cardinal, "and in return I beg you to
accept this ruby of small value."
"This is a rare gem!" said the physician, with delight, "and cut with
Hebrew characters. May I really have it?"
"Certainly. And pray tell me before you go, do you think the Moorish
girl will recover?"
"I have some hope of it."
"Could not you, as you have a key to her confidence, which we have not,
ascertain whether she is really faithful to the Duchess?"
"There can be no question of her fidelity. She has spoken of her
mistress with gratitude."
"That is well. Farewell, then."