A.D. 1300-1400.
THE JEWS IN SPAIN.
Up to this time, as has been already remarked, the Spanish Jews
had enjoyed a freedom from persecution which presents a favourable
contrast to the monstrous wrongs and cruelties which they underwent
in other lands. The fourteenth century witnessed the gathering of the
storm which, in that which ensued, was to burst with such deadly fury
on the devoted race; nor were they even now exempt from occasional
foretastes of its visitation. At its outset Ferdinand IV., known in
Spanish history as ‘the Summoned,’[142] a youth at that time under
age, occupied the throne, but the administration of affairs was in
the hands of his mother, the queen regent. It should be noted that,
although the Jews still retained the rights and privileges accorded
them by previous generations, they were fast becoming odious in the
eyes of all classes. The _haute noblesse_ were jealous of the court
favour which the Jews had so long enjoyed, and were seeking for an
opportunity to oust them from it; the lesser nobles were deeply
in their debt, and looked to a popular outbreak as the readiest
mode of ridding themselves of their encumbrances; the priesthood
were, as a rule, though with some noble exceptions, their bitter
enemies, continually denouncing them to the people, as the causes of
every national misfortune that befell them. This was partly due to
religious bigotry, partly to their jealousy of the greater wealth
and the superior medical skill of the Jews, which prevented them
from acquiring the money and the influence over the people which a
successful exercise of that profession would have ensured. As for
the people, they were largely under the influence of the clergy, and
readily believed the stories poured into their ears. Besides, the
spectacle of the riches and luxury in which the Jews lived provoked
at once their indignation and their rapacity. The train had been
laid, and it needed nothing but the application of the spark to fire
it.
Ferdinand’s favourite minister was a Jew named Samuel, a man of
great ability, and, it is said, of a haughty, imperious temper. His
death was mysterious. An assassin, who was never discovered, entered
his house, A.D. 1305, at Seville, and stabbed him to the heart. It
was not difficult to guess at the motives or the instigators of the
deed; but nothing was brought to light. His successor seems also to
have been a Jew, for a league was formed among the grandees against
him. They presented a petition to the Cortes, assembled at Medina
del Campo, requesting that measures might be taken to restrain the
insolence of the Jews. An order was passed, accordingly, that they
should not in future be collectors of taxes.
This was soon followed up by other like attacks. In 1313, Rodrigo,
Bishop of St. Jago, held a provincial council at Zamora, at which
manifestoes were presented, which showed but too plainly how fast the
animosity against the Jews was ripening. Several of the constitutions
of the council breathe the same spirit. It was enacted that Jews,
henceforth, shall hold no post or dignity; and any Jews who hold them
shall resign such within thirty days. They shall not be admitted as
witnesses against Christians, nor claim, as hitherto, the benefit of
the laws. No Christian women shall be nurses to Jewish children. Jews
shall not attend Christians as physicians. They are prohibited from
inviting Christians to their feasts. They shall not associate with
Christians, lest they teach them their errors.
Some of these decrees were re-enacted at the Councils of Burgos
and Salamanca, in 1315 and 1322, where it was also ordered that
any Christians should be excommunicated who were present at Jewish
marriages; and any Jews who called themselves by Christian names
should be punishable as heretics!
In 1325, Alphonso XI., son of Ferdinand IV., was declared to be of
age. His first acts showed that, whatever might be the sentiments
of the nobles, the clergy, or the people, he was resolved to uphold
the Jews. He chose as his minister of finance, Joseph of Ecija, a
Jew of great administrative ability; and one of his first acts was
to declare null and void various bulls and prelates’ letters, which
had been obtained by persons owing debts to Jews, by which those
debts were cancelled. He also granted the Jews licence to acquire
landed property, though he limited the amount which they might
hold. But he could not overcome the popular animosity against them.
Don Joseph was presently accused of having, in concert with Count
Alvar Osorio, bewitched the king by giving him magical potions.
Osorio was sacrificed to these machinations; and Don Joseph, though
he escaped on that occasion, was not long afterwards charged with
keeping fraudulent accounts, and dismissed from his office. Probably,
however, the king deprived him of his situation as the only mode of
saving him from the malice of his enemies, for we find that he did
not withdraw his friendship from him.[143]
In 1348, the king was induced to sign an order for the banishment of
all Jews from his dominions, on account of an insult which they had
offered to the Host, as it was being carried in procession through
the streets. The order was cancelled, however, on the discovery being
made that the supposed insult was a mere accident, and the person
by whom it was thought to have been offered was a Christian. The
revocation provoked a riot, which was with difficulty put down by a
determined exercise of the royal authority.
This disturbance had hardly been quelled, when one more furious still
broke out, caused by the spread of the plague, which had originated
in Germany, into the Spanish peninsula. The cry was raised here,
too, that the Jews had poisoned the waters of the Tagus—a crime
impossible of commission! Nevertheless, on that indictment massacres
were perpetrated in several of the cities, especially in Toledo, and
15,000 Jews are said to have been murdered.
During the reign of Pedro, called the Cruel, who succeeded in A.D.
1350, the Jews recovered all, and more than all, their former
ascendency. Notwithstanding the prohibition of the law, Samuel Levi,
a Jew, became the royal treasurer. He it was who built the famous
synagogue at Toledo, which in its own peculiar style has no rival. He
was a man of rare ability, and his administrative genius soon filled
King Pedro’s coffers; but, unhappily for himself, it filled his own
also. A charge was brought against him of mal-administration of the
revenues; and, though it does not appear that this was proved, it
brought to light another and far more grievous offence—that of being
too wealthy. He was sent to prison where he was racked, to oblige him
to disclose the full extent of his riches, and he expired under the
torture.
But though the king sacrificed his favourite minister to his own
avarice, he did not withdraw his countenance from the Jews. They
continued, to all outward appearance, to prosper; but the public
hatred of them was ever on the increase, and the time approaching
nearer and nearer when a heavy reckoning would have to be paid. Lopes
de Ayala, the chancellor of the Count of Trastamara, afterwards
king, under the title of Henry II., expresses the general sentiment
of the Spanish people respecting them. He describes them as ‘the
blood-suckers of the afflicted people, as men who exact fifty per
cent., eighty, a hundred—.... Through them,’ he writes, ‘the land is
desolate; ... tears and groans affect not their hard hearts; their
ears are deaf to petitions for delay.’ Much of Pedro’s unpopularity
was due to the favour he showed to this people. He was himself
stigmatized as a Jew. It was affirmed that he was the child of a
Hebrew mother, who had been substituted for the true Infant of Spain.
The Jews stood bravely by him, and suffered heavily in consequence.
Many were slain for espousing his cause at Toledo, many more at
Nejara; and at Monteil, where the final struggle between Pedro and
Henry took place, the slaughter of Jews was enormous.
But Henry, when once seated on the throne (A.D. 1369), was too
politic a ruler to alienate such useful servants of the crown as the
Jews had proved themselves to be. He pursued the traditionary policy
towards them, interposing the shield of his protection between them
and the hostile people. To the remonstrances addressed to him by the
Cortes against their occupation of posts of dignity and importance,
or possessing the same rights and advantages enjoyed by Christians,
he simply replied that he considered it right that their ancient
status should continue.
Henry died A.D. 1379, and was succeeded by John I., who pursued
the policy of his father and grandfather, so far as the Jews were
concerned, refusing to listen to the angry remonstrances continually
addressed to him by the Cortes respecting them. Early in his reign
occurred the strange but successful plot of the Jews against their
countryman, Joseph Pichon, a man of wealth and influence, holding
the office of Crown Treasurer. They had apparently become jealous
of his favour with the king, and resolved on compassing his death.
They applied accordingly to John for a warrant to punish a convicted
unbeliever,[144] though without revealing his name. The king having
unsuspiciously signed it, they bribed the executioner to put the
sentence immediately into effect, and Pichon was seized and beheaded,
without having even been informed for what crime he was arraigned.
The king, when he discovered the trick that had been played on him,
was extremely indignant. He punished the immediate authors of the
crime with death, and deprived the Jews of the right of determining
their own causes.
The king’s influence was to some extent successful in restraining
the popular hatred of the Jews. But when he died, A.D. 1390, and was
succeeded by his son, Henry III., a lad eleven years old, there was
another popular outbreak. Ferdinand Martinez, Archdeacon of Ecija,
had, during the reign of John, been continually in the habit of
reviling the Jews, and stirring up the populace to attack them. The
late king had discountenanced his proceedings; but he was no sooner
removed than Martinez threw aside all restraint, and by his harangues
roused the smouldering hatred towards the Jews, which had long
possessed the people, into a fierce and destructive flame. The Jews’
quarter was attacked. Pillage, murder, violation, followed; four
thousand were slaughtered, the archdeacon heading the mob, and urging
them on to still greater atrocities. No steps were taken to punish
the perpetrators of this violence. The contagion soon spread to other
cities. In Cordova, in Valencia, in Burgos, in Toledo, in Barcelona,
in Pampeluna, and other towns of Aragon and Navarre, there were
similar massacres. As many as two hundred thousand Jews are said to
have been forced to receive baptism. Such as escaped with their lives
were stripped of all their possessions, and their houses plundered
and burned.
King Henry III., who, like many other sovereigns, was largely
dependent on the Jews for the maintenance of his revenues, was
reduced to great straits to support his household expenses. An
anecdote is related of him which, if true, curiously illustrates the
history of those times. He is said to have found his exchequer so low
one day as to be obliged to pawn his cloak to pay for his supper. He
was informed that in the palace of the archbishop an entertainment
was in progress, at which every delicacy was provided in profuse
abundance. He repaired thither in disguise, and learned not only that
the wealth of the revellers had been truly reported, but that it had
been amassed by fraud and peculation. The next day he sent for the
grandees of the court, and among them the archbishop, and inquired
of him, ‘How many kings have you known in Spain?’ The archbishop
answered, ‘Three—your grandfather, your father, and yourself.’ ‘Nay,’
rejoined Henry; ‘young as I am, I can remember at least twenty,
though there ought to have been only one. But it is time that I
put my rivals down, and reign alone.’ At the same moment a band of
soldiers, accompanied by an executioner, and carrying ropes and
gibbets, entered the apartment. The grandees threw themselves at his
feet, and entreated his mercy. He spared their lives, but required a
strict account of their management of his affairs, obliging them to
refund large sums which they had embezzled.
Many Spanish Jews were eminent in literature during this century.
Rabbi Abner, the physician, known as a Jewish writer previously to
his conversion, wrote afterwards an able refutation of Kimchi’s work
against Christianity. Solomon Levi, also a convert to the Gospel, is
known in history as the Bishop of Burgos, a learned and successful
writer. This also is the age of Don Santo de Cañon, the celebrated
troubadour, who, like the two before mentioned, renounced Judaism for
Christianity.
FOOTNOTES:
[142] Ferdinand had condemned to death two cavaliers named Carvajal,
on a charge of murder, refusing to hear their defence. Immediately
before their execution they summoned Ferdinand to answer for his
unjust sentence before the tribunal of God within a month. He died
exactly a month afterwards.
[143] A strange, almost incredible story is told of the fate of
Joseph. Gonzales, master of Calatrava, offered to pay 800 lbs. of
silver into the king’s treasury, conditionally on his making over to
him eight of the principal Jews of the kingdom, to be dealt with as
he pleased. The king consented. Gonzales seized Joseph, and Samuel,
the king’s physician, and put them to the torture, to compel them to
surrender the whole of their wealth. They died under the infliction;
but he obtained enormous sums from them and his other prisoners.
Gonzales was raised to great honour, and made Bishop of Alcantara. He
afterwards forfeited the king’s favour, was arrested as a traitor,
and beheaded.
[144] The probable explanation is, that they knew Pichon was
meditating a change of religion, the scandal of which they were
anxious to prevent.