A.D. 1200-1300—_continued_.
THE JEWS IN SPAIN.
Turning now to Spain, we find that the Jews, during this century,
still continued to enjoy, if not the full measure of justice to which
they were entitled, yet nevertheless an amount of it which contrasts
favourably with the treatment they underwent in other lands. The
wisdom, justice, and clemency also shown by the Spanish kings on many
occasions are so unlike the spirit manifested in after generations,
that we can hardly believe that we are writing of the same Spain
which approved the barbarities of Torquemada, or the horrors of the
Jewish exodus.
James (or Jayme) I. of Aragon, who began his long reign early in
this century, is said to have granted especial favour to the Jews,
notwithstanding that he showed a very persecuting spirit in the
instance of the Albigenses. He often sought instruction of Jewish
Rabbins, and used their books of prayer in his private devotions,
and even, it is said, would not permit a Spanish translation of the
Old Testament to be introduced into his dominions, because of the
value he set on that made by David Kimchi. His confessor Raimond
is believed to have been in a great measure the cause of his kindly
feeling towards the Jews, being wise enough to know that if the Jews
were to be converted, the best chance of accomplishing it was by
the exercise of mildness and charity.[116] Regulations were passed
in the earlier years of the century,[117] with a view of preventing
the excessive usury exacted of Christians by Jews; but they are not
of a kind to be greatly complained of. The Jews are not to lend at
a higher rate of interest than 20 per cent., they are not to charge
compound interest, and the interest is never to exceed the sum lent.
The Jew, before advancing the loan, is to swear in a public court,
on the law of Moses and the Decalogue, that he will adhere to the
law. A Jew who lends on illegal terms is to lose the amount of the
loan. A decree made by the Cortes at Barcelona, in 1228, however,
deals a more serious blow to the Jews. It enacts that if there is no
documentary evidence of a debt, the oath of a Jew is not to be held
sufficient to establish it. We may not approve of these regulations,
but they cannot be regarded as grievously oppressive.
It was perhaps through James’s influence with Ferdinand of Castile
that the attempt to rouse popular feeling against the Jews in
Saragossa, A.D. 1248, proved a failure. A report was circulated, that
a chorister, named Dominic, belonging to the cathedral, had been
stolen by the Jews and crucified. The crime was discovered through
the appearance of a miraculous light over the chorister’s grave. The
body was disinterred and carried into the cathedral, where it was
treated as that of a martyr and saint. The usual amount of obloquy
and insult to the Jews resulted; but no steps were taken by the
authorities, and no excesses permitted.
In 1263, James, who in his later years is said to have been greatly
under the influence of the Dominicans, ordered a public disputation
upon the relative merits of Judaism and Christianity to be held
at Barcelona. The advocate on the side of the Christians was one
Pablo, a Jewish convert; on that of the Jews, the renowned Rabbi
Nachmanides. The inevitable result followed—both parties claimed the
victory. It was at all events so far favourable to the Jews, that
it excited the alarm of Pope Clement IV., who urged James to drive
the Jews out of his realm, as being dangerous to the faith of the
Christians. But the king took no further step than that of levying a
tax on them, to defray the expenses of the Christian advocate, Pablo,
who was sent on a kind of tour through the great Spanish cities, with
authority to hold conferences with the Jews wherever he pleased.
Nachmanides, the Jewish champion, possibly dreading Clement’s
hostility, soon afterwards migrated from Spain to the Holy Land.
The Jews had two other protectors in Ferdinand III. of Castile
(already mentioned), commonly known as Saint Ferdinand, and his son
Alphonso, called in history ‘the Wise.’ Ferdinand, who reigned from
1217 to 1252, uniformly treated the Jews with justice and leniency.
When his son captured Seville from the Moors in 1248, he set apart,
doubtless by his father’s direction, three parishes (those of
Santa Maria, Saint Bartholomew, and Santa Cruz) for the residence
of the Jews, as well as three Mahometan mosques, which they might
convert into synagogues. Under these princes the celebrated college
at Cordova was transferred to Toledo; which henceforth became the
principal school of Jewish learning in Spain.
Alphonso was the author of the code of laws known as _Las Siete
Partidas_, which, though it contains much that an after age must
needs condemn as unjust,[118] has also many wise and equitable
enactments, such as we could hardly have looked for in the
legislation of that age. Thus it orders ‘that no force shall be used
to make Jews turn Christians, but rather good example, kindness,
and the maxims of the Holy Scriptures.’ Again, ‘that synagogues
are buildings where God’s name is praised, therefore Christians
shall not presume to destroy or plunder them.’ ‘No Christians are
to cause molestations to Jews while engaged at their prayers.’
Again, ‘Saturday is a day whereon Jews observe their Sabbath. As
they are bound by their religion to observe that day, no person is
to summon them, or bring them to judgment thereon. If any sentence
should be passed upon them on that day, it shall be null and void.’
No doubt there are, as has been already remarked, many oppressive
and indefensible laws in the same code, such as those which forbid
the Jews to hold any public post, or eat and drink, or join in
merry-makings with Christians, or use the same baths with them, or
administer to them any medicine, for fear it should be poisoned, and
the like. But these are all in the prevalent temper and spirit of the
day; and our only surprise is, that the same fountain should in this
manner send forth sweet as well as bitter water.
A few years afterwards (A.D. 1255) an equally malignant attempt
was made to destroy the Jews. Three persons belonging to Osuna, in
Andalusia, threw a corpse into the house of a Jew; then, pretending
to find it there by chance, they brought the usual charge of murder
against the owner of the house. The story was speedily circulated
through the city, and roused the populace to fury. Many Jews were
killed in the streets; many more took refuge in the houses of
Christian friends. It was the season of the Passover, during which
the Jews refuse to eat any but unleavened bread; and not finding this
in the houses of their Christian friends, many were in danger of
starvation. At Palma also the same story was circulated, and caused
a similar outbreak. The Jews held a consultation, and resolved that
the only hope of preventing the mischief from spreading further lay
in sending to King Alphonso a deputation, requesting him to make
inquiry into the matter. But the news of this intention got abroad;
the deputies were pursued by their enemies, and had a narrow escape
of being murdered on their journey. They evaded their pursuers, but
to do so were forced to quit the high road and take shelter in a
wood. The consequence was, that when they reached the capital they
found that their enemies had already arrived, and had preferred their
accusation against them. They had, however, in King Alphonso not
only a just but an extremely sagacious judge; and their case was so
strong that it hardly needed the able advocacy of their delegate,
Rabbi Joseph, to ensure success. It was brought to light that one
Juan de Vera had owed money to the owner of the house in which the
corpse had been found, and that he was extremely anxious to be quit
of his debt without the disagreeable necessity of paying the money.
His accomplices confessed that, at his instigation, they had broken
open a tomb, from which they had abstracted the corpse which had been
found in the Jew’s house. The grave was again opened by the king’s
order, and found to be empty. The acquittal of the Jew followed; and
the king sent away the deputies in friendly sort, yet not without a
recommendation to them to reduce their rate of usury and abate the
costliness and ostentation of their mode of living; for that these
things provoked the enmity of the Christians towards them.
This is a remarkable tale, from the contrast it presents to the
numberless similar occurrences which the history of this and
succeeding centuries records. The calm judicial inquiry, in which
the evidence given on both sides was attentively listened to and
dispassionately sifted, stands out in strong relief against the
incoherent and contradictory charges, the refusal to listen to
explanation or argument, and the invincible prejudice displayed on
other occasions. But it may be doubted whether the most remarkable
fact is not the character of King Alphonso himself. It is wonderful
that a man so enlightened as he showed himself on many points[119]
could have adopted the monstrous bigotry he proclaimed on others. We
must, I suppose, conclude that, like the philosopher in Coleridge’s
‘Friend,’ he thought it better to roll in the mire of the common
prejudice of his fellow men, than remain isolated from them in
solitary cleanliness.
Interesting evidences of the numbers and wealth of the Jews are
to be found at this period. An assessment was made in 1286 of the
Jews in the three kingdoms of Sancho, the son of Alphonso X., two
years after his accession. It appeared that there were in Leon,
Castile, and Murcia, 700,000 male Jews above the age of sixteen.
The total number, therefore, including women and children, must
have exceeded two millions. The annual dues paid by them amounted
to 2,310,021 maravedis, nearly one hundred thousand pounds of our
money. Considering the enormous difference in value of the precious
metals in those times and our own, this proves that the wealth of the
Jews must have been extraordinarily great. It is proper, however, to
add that both the numbers of the Jews and the amount paid are given
somewhat differently by other writers.
In this century two Jewish impostors made their appearance, and
obtained great influence over their countrymen, though the falsehoods
they palmed off were different from those usually put forward by
adventurers of their class. The first of them, one Zechariah, did
not himself claim to be the Messiah, but to have discovered a new
mode of interpreting prophecy, which showed, beyond dispute, that He
was close at hand. A belief prevailed among the Jews, that if any man
could attain to a correct pronunciation of the presumedly ineffable
name of God, he would thereby acquire all knowledge and all power.
Zechariah professed to have done this, and on that ground claimed to
declare positively the day of the Messiah’s appearing. The Jews—a
large part of them, that is—credited his pretensions, and went on
the appointed day to their synagogue, clothed in white to receive
their Deliverer.[120] What became of the impostor does not seem to be
recorded.
The second pretender professed to have obtained a complete copy of
the book Zohar,[121] of which only fragments were known to exist.
He was a Rabbi, named Moses de Leon, who, being unable to support
himself and his family by the income of his synagogue, devised this
mode of raising money. It seems to have been a considerable time
before it was discovered that the missing portions of the book were
supplied from his own imagination. The credulity of the Jews, in
general so astute, in this and similar matters, is very surprising.
In A.D. 1291, James II. succeeded to the throne of Aragon. He was
as anxious as his predecessor had been for the conversion of the
Jews, and issued several edicts with that design. He ordered that
the Jews should attend the lectures delivered by Dominican friars on
the points of difference between the Jewish and Christian faith, and
further, be required to answer, if they could, the arguments of their
instructors. If they refused to attend; probably—though this is not
recorded—also if they refused to embark in a controversy, in which
success would be more dangerous to them than defeat, they were to
suffer such corporal punishment as the friars should adjudge.
This, however, was all that was imposed. The young king refused to
repeal the righteous and merciful laws of his great-grandfather and
grandfather; and strict justice to the Jews remained the rule in
Spain until the thirteenth century came to its close.
FOOTNOTES:
[116] Raimond has been supposed by many to have been the author of
the famous _Pugio Fidei_, a severe attack on the Jews. But that book
did not appear till three centuries after his time, and was probably
the work of a Dominican of the same name.
[117] At Tarragona, A.D. 1233 and again 1234.
[118] There can be little doubt that Alphonso knew how far he could
venture in his efforts to uphold reason and justice, and where he
must yield to the deeply rooted prejudices of his people. Had he
attempted more, he would probably have failed to effect anything.
[119] He was pressed at the trial at Osuna to put the accused Jews to
the torture, in order to extract evidence which would satisfactorily
prove whether they had done the deed or not. Alphonso refused. He
said that he had, two years before, allowed two Jews to be racked
in order to discover whether they had stolen two golden goblets.
Under the torture they confessed the theft, and were executed for
it. Shortly afterwards the goblets were found in the possession
of a servant. ‘Therefore,’ said the king, ‘I will have no more
examinations by torture. It is evident that the confessions extracted
by them are worth nothing.’ No conclusion could be more sound. But
before another judge it would have been urged and believed that the
Jews, or their ally Satan, had hidden the goblets in a servant’s
chest, in order that a Christian might be unrighteously charged with
the crime of a Jew.
[120] As these occurrences were nothing in those times without a
miracle, it has been further declared that the Jews, when they
entered the synagogue, perceived that their white dresses were
covered with red crosses. This, however, is only the statement of a
monk, a convert from Judaism who wrote two hundred years afterwards.
[121] He is even believed by some to have forged the entire book, as
it now exists.