AFTER THE EXPULSION
TWELVE thousand of Spanish fugitives sought shelter in Navarre,
where, after a few years’ peace, they were again confronted with the
alternatives of baptism or banishment. Most of them, worn out with
distress and disappointment, adopted Christianity, and some of these
converts returned to Spain.
Eighty thousand of the exiles crossed into Portugal and purchased
permission to tarry in that kingdom for eight months, preparatory
to their departure for Africa. King John II. even connived at the
permanent settlement of some of them in the country. But the King’s
tolerance was not shared by his subjects. ♦1481♦ John had already been
beset with complaints of Jewish cavaliers being suffered to parade
the streets mounted on richly caparisoned horses and mules, arrayed
in fine cloaks and velvet doublets, and dangling gilt swords at their
sides. Under his successor popular hatred obtained the satisfaction
which had hitherto been denied to it. King Emanuel, a liberal but
deeply enamoured prince, was forced to yield to the wishes of his
superstitious betrothed,--the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella,--who
made the banishment of the Jews a condition of her acceptance of his
suit; and he ordered the hapless people to quit his dominions. ♦1495♦
But, as though the measure of Israel’s woes were not yet full, the
same King, yielding again to the pressure of love, caused all Jewish
children of fourteen years of age and under to be torn from their
parents in order to be kept in Portugal, and be reared in the Catholic
faith. The scenes of agony which followed this diabolical edict would
be revolting beyond endurance, but for their occurrence directly after
the _autos-da-fé_. Many Jewish mothers, mad with grief and despair,
slew their darlings with their own hands and then destroyed themselves.
A contemporary writer concludes his description of these ghastly events
with the characteristic comment: “It was a great mistake in King
Emanuel to think of converting to Christianity any Jew old enough to
pronounce the name of Moses.” In the writer’s opinion the age limit
ought to have been three years.
Many Jews, afraid to face the perils of the unknown, shielded
themselves from the storm under the cloak of conversion, and either
remained in Portugal or returned to Spain to join the pseudo-converts
left there, and for ages after supplied the hounds of the Inquisition
with a healthy occupation. The State, of course, aided the Church in
her lethal work; for dissent in religion is close akin to dissent in
politics, and domestic discord is incompatible with vigorous expansion
abroad.
♦1498♦
Meanwhile Torquemada’s successor, Deza, surpassed the great Inquisitor
in ferocity and energy. One of his confederates, called Lucero, was
nicknamed even by his own associates Tenebrero, on account of the
darkness and cruelty of his temper, which drove the people of Cordova
to revolt. ♦1506♦ Immediately after Cardinal Ximenes became Grand
Inquisitor, and, with his predecessor’s fate before his eyes, proved
less savage. But what the Inquisition lost in height of iniquity
was amply compensated by the extension of its activity over a new
field--the vanquished Mohammedans--who were also permitted to choose
between baptism and banishment; while the Morescoes, or Moorish
converts, were treated in the same manner as the Jewish Marranos.
There were no fewer than thirty-four tracks by which the “foxes” could
be run to earth. One of these was the eating of bitter herbs and
lettuces at the time of the Passover. Every Christian was virtually
a spy and an informer, sometimes unintentionally, more often with
deliberate eagerness. Pedigrees were strictly examined, and those
found tainted with Jewish blood were cruelly persecuted, or at least
treated as social outcasts. Neither moral excellence nor even high
position in the Church, accompanied by sincere devotion, was accepted
as an expiation for the sin of birth. Detected heretics were punished
by imprisonment, by exile, by ruinous fines, and by fire. And yet the
pestilent sect, too clever to be convinced by theological reasoning
or to betray its want of conviction, survived and flourished in
secret--a vast freemasonry of passive unbelievers spreading its crooked
subterranean passages in every direction under the very foundations
of the Holy Office. Neither the penalties inflicted by the State,
nor the tortures, even more terrible, of the Church availed against
the treacherous tenacity of the eternal people. Persecution, which
goads the brave to heroism, makes hypocrites of the timid; and these
Marranos, compelled to pit their cunning against that of the Holy
Office, developed all the unlovely qualities of those who lead a double
life; who live a daily lie. They were forced to be false either to
their God or to themselves. They chose the latter course. They aped
their Christian neighbours in demeanour and dialect, participated in
religious rites and sacraments which they abhorred, ate food which
nauseated them, kissed relics which inspired them with repugnance, and
sprinkled themselves with holy water which made them inwardly feel
polluted. But the sad and sordid comedy could not always be maintained.
The voice of conscience occasionally proved too strong even for the
instinct of self-preservation, and many a Marrano ended a miserable
life by a noble martyrdom. Again, the power of the blood, sometimes
in the second or third generation, asserted itself, and the child or
the grandchild of a convert, though he might be a priest or a monk,
reverted to the faith of his fathers.
The pseudo-converts of Portugal fared no better. In 1506 they were
massacred, and their women were dishonoured in great numbers at
Lisbon and in the open country. ♦About 1524♦ In the midst of these
tribulations they heard of David Reubeni, who had arisen in the East to
fulfil the ancient prophecies, and to bring about the ever-expected
and ever-deferred liberation of Israel. David came over to Europe,
declaring himself to be the brother of a Jewish prince reigning in
Arabia, sent to solicit the Pope’s assistance for a holy war against
the Mohammedans. Clement VII., a Pontiff too mediocre to excel in
virtue or in fanaticism, yet an adroit diplomat, received the envoy in
audience, and treated him with great distinction. David was acclaimed
by the Roman and other Jews with enthusiasm, and was finally invited
by the King of Portugal to his Court, whither he set sail in a ship
flying a Jewish flag. At Lisbon David met with a magnificent reception
on the part of the King and with frenetic applause on the part of the
Marranos, who saw in him the promised Redeemer and the future King of
Israel. But he was soon after expelled from Portugal, owing to the
relapse into Judaism of a young Marrano visionary, Diogo Pires by name.
This “new-Christian,” excited by David’s mission, underwent
circumcision and received mysterious and wonderful messages from
heaven. He assumed the name of Solomon Molcho and fled to Turkey,
where he was welcomed with open arms by his co-religionists at
Salonica and Adrianople, communicated his Cabbalistic hallucinations
through Eastern and Central Europe, ♦1530♦ preached the pleasures of
martyrdom, visited Rome, in obedience to a divine vision, and made
himself supremely ridiculous by prophesying multifarious calamities to
the Eternal City. After an unsuccessful effort to win over the King
of Portugal and Charles V., Solomon proceeded to Venice in order to
secure the favour of that Republic, and there he narrowly escaped the
effects of a poisoned draught administered to him by a brother-Jew.
In the meantime some of his predictions, strangely enough, had come
true. Rome was sacked by the Imperial troops and devastated by a flood,
Lisbon was ruined by earthquakes, and a brilliant comet announced the
approaching end of the world. Thereupon Solomon returned to Rome, where
the Pope honoured him as a true, if mournful, prophet. But, whilst in
Rome, he had another narrow escape--this time from the claws of the
Inquisition--and was spirited away by the friendly Pope in the dead of
night, only to fall into them next year at Mantua. ♦1532♦ There at last
the poor self-deluded Messiah was accorded the crown of martyrdom which
he had so ardently coveted. He was burnt alive. Solomon’s followers
long refused to believe that he was dead; cherishing hopes of his
miraculous escape and re-appearance. But he was dead in earnest.
David Reubeni was denied even this last honour. The Emperor Charles
handed him over to the Spanish Holy Office, in the vaults of which he
languished for three years and was finally killed in an obscure manner.
An uncharitable and uncritical world has branded Solomon as a fool
and David as a rogue. Nothing fails like failure. If an unsuccessful
patriot is called an adventurer and an unsuccessful financier a
swindler, an unsuccessful Messiah must submit to be stigmatised as an
impostor.
Not many years afterwards the Inquisition was erected in Portugal
at the instigation of Ignatius Loyola, and at the beginning of the
seventeenth century there occurred at Lisbon an event which supplied
it with a fresh excuse for persecution. A Franciscan monk of noble
descent, Diogo by name, declared that by reading the Bible he came to
the conclusion that Judaism and not Christianity was the true religion.
Diogo was thrown into a dungeon; but, as he freely confessed his
guilt, there seemed to be no occasion for torture. However, monks have
seldom been governed by lay logic. Diogo was put to the rack in order
to betray his accomplices. ♦1603♦ After two years of torture, varied
with theological discussion, he was burnt at the stake in the presence
of a large concourse of people, including the Regent. Diogo’s example
invigorated the courage of the Portuguese crypto-Jews and caused many
to denounce Christianity openly, regardless of consequences. Diogo’s
martyrdom was celebrated by a young Jewish poet who, however, escaped
the crown which his enthusiasm deserved by fleeing to Amsterdam.
Another young Marrano poet also was induced by Diogo’s constancy to
revert to Judaism. This revival of zeal for the old faith spurred the
Holy Office to greater strenuousness on its part. At one time one
hundred and fifty Marranos were arrested, tortured and threatened with
cremation. The multitude of victims, however, was embarrassing to the
Government. Moreover the Court lay under heavy pecuniary obligations
to the Marranos, and the latter exerted themselves by might and money
to procure the release of their brethren. They offered to Philip III.
not only a gift of the sums due to them but, in addition, 1,200,000
cruzados (£120,000), and they also spent 150,000 cruzados among the
King’s councillors in order to convince them of the justice of their
cause. Philip III. was not deaf to a plea for mercy supported by so
powerful an array of arguments, and he induced Pope Clement VIII. to
pardon the prisoners. ♦1604♦ The Inquisition was reluctantly obliged
to content itself with the semblance of an execution. The captives,
clad as penitents, were led to the _auto-da-fé_ in Lisbon, where they
publicly expressed a hypocritical contrition for their sin and were
rewarded with loss of all civic rights.
♦1609♦
Five years later the Morescoes, or Moorish converts, were finally
expelled by Philip III., while the Marranos endured and supplied
victims for the grim altar of the Holy Office. Granada, Cordova,
Lisbon, and other cities in both Spain and Portugal continued to be
illuminated with the funereal flames of the _autos-da-fé_. As late as
1652 we find a distinguished Portuguese diplomatist of Jewish origin,
Emanuel Fernando de Villa-Real, on his return from Paris, where he
acted as consul of the Portuguese Court, seized, tortured, and burnt
at the stake. ♦1655♦ Three years later fifty-seven crypto-Jews were on
one day sentenced at Cuenca; the majority to corporal punishment and
loss of property, ten to death by fire. In the same year twelve more
wretches were roasted in Granada, and in 1660 sixty Marranos at Seville
were led to the _auto-da-fé_, where four of them were strangled and
burnt, and three burnt alive, while the effigies of those who had fled
were solemnly cremated. Amongst the latter was the picture of Antonio
Enriquez de Gomez, the popular soldier and dramatist, contemporary
of Calderon, and author of twenty-two comedies which earned great
applause in Madrid. The original of the picture had fortunately escaped
to France, where he died five years after at the age of sixty.
Another large contingent of Spanish emigrants repaired to the ports
of Santa Maria and Cadiz, and was conveyed by a Spanish fleet to the
Barbary coast. They landed at Ercilla, a Christian colony, on their way
to Morocco. But, long before they reached their destination, the desert
tribes attacked them, plucked them of the little money which they had
contrived to conceal on their persons before leaving Spain, massacred
many of the men, violated many of the women; and the survivors, after
untold hardships, and almost starving, retraced their steps to Ercilla
and sought repose in baptism.
Many Spanish Jews found refuge in Turkey. Bayezid II., on hearing of
their expulsion from Spain, is said to have exclaimed: “Do they call
this Ferdinand a politic prince, who thus impoverishes his own kingdom
and enriches ours?” The Turkish monarch’s speech may be apocryphal.
It sounds far too modern and occidental for a Turk of the fifteenth
century. Bayezid was probably swayed by religious rather than by
economic considerations. The Jews are regarded by the Mohammedans as
a “People of the Book,” and they have much more in common with them
than with the Christians. Both sects believe in one only God, and
reject the doctrine of the Trinity as polytheistic; they both practise
circumcision; they both indulge in ceremonial ablutions and similar
forms of external symbolism. Hence there has always existed a certain
degree of sympathy between the followers of the Mohammedan and those
of the Mosaic law. It is also probable that the Sultan was glad to
emphasise Moslem benevolence by harbouring the victims of Christian
barbarity.
But, be the Sultan’s motives what they may, his action is certain, and
highly creditable to his humanity. He welcomed the immigrants into
his dominions, where they throve as long as the Ottoman Empire. In
the golden age of the Osmanli the Jews of the Levant eclipsed their
Greek fellow-subjects in wealth and rivalled their Turkish masters in
display. ♦1566♦ All the physicians of Constantinople were Jews. A Jew
became Duke of Naxos and lord of other islands in the Aegean, while
another Jew was sent as envoy extraordinary to Venice. ♦1574♦ So great
was Jewish influence over the Sultans Solyman and Selim II. that the
Christian ambassadors were compelled to disguise their mortification,
to court the favour and to solicit the mediation of the Jews of
Stamboul. Under the circumstances the light of Zion, which had shone
so bright through the clouds of adversity, was dimmed by the glare of
prosperity.
But the harmonic curve of the woes of Israel was not to be broken.
The Osmanli, who had filled Europe with the fame and the terror of
their arms a few generations before, began to decay as soon as they
ceased to conquer. An essentially nomad race, the Turkish found a
sedentary life pernicious to its vigour. The Sultans sank into the soft
dissipations of the harem, leaving women and eunuchs to rule the Empire
and Janissaries to defend it. The Jews had reason to lament the decline
of their lords. The yoke of tyranny began to weigh heavily upon their
necks. Their opulence attracted the rapacity of the Pashas, and their
impotence encouraged it. Fanaticism followed greed, and the Jews, among
other forms of oppression to which they were subjected, were marked off
from the true believers by a black turban--a badge which may still be
seen in Turkey, as a survival of a necessity that exists no longer.
In that age of darkness and tribulation the hope of the Messiah flamed
up again. In the middle of the seventeenth century the promised
Redeemer made his appearance among the Turkish Jews in the person of
Sabbataï Zebi, born at Smyrna in 1626. Sabbataï’s boyhood was spent
in solitude and prayer; his early youth in Cabbalistic mysticism,
in self-mortification and in a self-denial all the easier because
Sabbataï was one of those happy, or unhappy, mortals who are born
blind to the temptations of the flesh and to its joys. His strange
life and even stranger ideas soon excited attention. Some pronounced
the young man mad and others inspired. _He_ regarded himself as
the Messiah, and revealed himself as such in the year 1648, which,
mystics had foretold, was to see the first dawn of the Redemption.
The Synagogue excommunicated Sabbataï for his presumption. But many
believed in the handsome and eccentric youth. Sabbataï’s belief in his
own Messianic mission and the devotion of his disciples were confirmed
by persecution. Banished from Smyrna, the prophet wandered to Stamboul
and Salonica, gaining adherents, and he took care that the year 1666,
which had been fixed as that of the Messianic era, should find him in
Jerusalem. That city both by virtue of its traditions and owing to the
condition of its Jewish inhabitants--impoverished by extortion and
ground down by oppression--afforded an environment eminently favourable
to miraculous display. Thence Sabbataï journeyed forth in triumph to
Aleppo, and finally returned to his native city, where his new glory
made the Synagogue forget his earlier condemnation and disgrace. At
Smyrna the enthusiasm of Sabbataï’s followers reached the height of
frenzy. The Messiah’s fame and the madness of his disciples spread to
the furthest corners of the earth--Venice, Leghorn, Avignon, Amsterdam,
London. The Rabbis of Prague and Hamburg were suspected by the Orthodox
of being secret adherents of the Prophet of Smyrna, and excommunicated
each other as heartily as if they were Christian sectarians. In all
these centres of Judaism the Kingdom of Heaven was believed to have
come, the belief being shared by Christian Millennarians, and the
Western Jews abandoned themselves to an extravagance of excitement
scarcely compatible with elementary sanity. At Hamburg the synagogue
was converted into a theatre of corybantic exaltation, wherein stately
Spanish cavaliers and grey-bearded men of business might be seen
hopping, jumping and twirling solemnly about with the scroll of the
Law in their arms. Not less remarkable was the behaviour of believers
in the East. In Persia the Jews refused to till their fields or to pay
tribute, for, they said, the Messiah had come. From all these quarters
homage and treasure poured into the court of Sabbataï, who now was
universally hailed as King of Kings, and signed himself, or allowed his
scribes to do so, “I, the Lord, your God, Sabbataï Zebi.”
But the Messiah’s reign was brief and his end inglorious. Sabbataï
resolved to repair to Constantinople that he might proclaim his advent
from the very capital of the East. He was not unexpected. In the
Straits of the Dardanelles Turkish officers arrested him, and took him
fettered to Stamboul. The landing-place was crowded with a multitude
of believers and others, all eager to behold the man who had filled
the world with so singular an epidemic. Among the latter class of
spectators was a pasha who welcomed the Redeemer with a vigorous slap
in the face. The treatment subsequently meted out to poor Sabbataï was
in harmony with this reception. He was thrown into prison, and nothing
but the Grand Vizier’s unwillingness to create a new martyr saved him
from death. Finally he was summoned before the Sultan. After a short
audience, the Messiah issued forth from the Padishah’s presence a
turbaned Mohammedan, and his name was Mehmed Effendi.
But even this catastrophe failed to break the spell which Sabbataï’s
personality had cast over the minds of men. The masses clung to
the hope which he had raised for ages after his death. Some of his
adherents, including his wife, imitated his example and embraced Islam.
The sect of these Hebrew Mohammedans, under the name of _Dunmehs_, or
Converts, still endures at Salonica and other cities of the Ottoman
Empire, and among them the belief prevails that Sabbataï is not really
dead. They form a body apart, knit together by ties of consanguinity,
detested by their former brethren in the faith as a sect of apostates
and suspected by their new brethren as a sect of hypocrites.
The further decay of the Ottoman Empire, which brought humiliation
to the conquerors and kindled the desire for national rehabilitation
among their Christian subjects, however, brought peace and commercial
prosperity to the Jews. ♦1717♦ Lady Mary Wortley Montague, in her
account of the policy and the manners of the Turks in the eighteenth
century, gives a glowing description of the Jewish colony of Adrianople.
“I observed,” she says, “that most of the rich tradespeople are
Jews. That people are in incredible power in this country. They have
many privileges above all the natural Turks themselves, and have
formed a very comfortable commonwealth here, being judged by their
own laws. They have drawn the whole trade of the empire into their
hands, partly by the firm union amongst themselves, partly by the
idle temper and want of industry of the Turk. Every Bassa has his
Jew, who is his _homme d’affaires_; he is let into all his secrets
and does all his business. No bargain is made, no bribes received, no
merchandizes disposed of, but what passes through his hands. They are
the physicians, the stewards, and the interpreters of all the great
men. You may judge how advantageous this is to a people who never fail
to make use of the smallest advantages. They have found the secret of
making themselves so necessary that they are certain of the protection
of the Court whatever Ministry is in power. Even the English, French,
and Italian merchants, who are sensible of their artifices, are,
however, forced to trust their affairs to their negotiation, nothing
of trade being managed without them, and the meanest among them being
too important to be disobliged, since the whole body take care of
his interests with as much vigour as they would those of the most
considerable of their members. They are, many of them, vastly rich.”
At the present moment the Jews, thanks to the profound incompetence
and sloth of the Turks, the unpopularity, disunion and unrest of the
Christian _rayahs_, and their own superior ability and concord, thrive
in many parts of the Sultan’s dominions, still preserving the speech of
their Spanish persecutors.
A few of the refugees from Spain found their way into France and
England, while some of those who were subsequently persecuted in
Portugal drifted to Holland. But a large number of Spanish Jews set
sail for Italy.