A.D. 1400-1500.
THE JEWS IN SPAIN—_continued_.
The Inquisition, introduced into Spain by Ferdinand, with the consent
of Isabella,[153] was not a new institution. It had been established
in France early in the thirteenth century, the object then being
to compel the return of the Albigenses to the orthodox faith. It
had worked terrible woe to that unhappy people; but two hundred and
fifty years afterwards the heresy had so nearly died out, that the
Inquisition would have died along with it, if it had not been that
the outcry respecting the New Christians, as they were called—that
is the recent converts to Christianity—once more set the hateful
machinery in operation. The height to which the persecution of the
Jews had risen in the fifteenth century had left them no alternative
but apostasy or death. It is no wonder that large numbers of the
Jews preferred the former. It is said that no less than thirty-five
thousand persons had been induced to accept baptism by the preaching
of Vincent Ferrer alone. For a time the clergy felt overwhelmed with
joy at this signal triumph; but after a while grave suspicions of
the sincerity of these new converts began to be felt. Outwardly, no
doubt, they conformed to the requirements of the Church; but it was
suspected that they still continued to observe in secret the Jewish
ritual.
Three inquisitors were appointed, Torquemada, Juglar, and D’Avila;
and their first act was to put forth an edict, in which they declared
it to be the duty of all faithful Christians, without paying any
regard to rank or condition, to accuse to the tribunal any whom they
knew to be open professors but secret enemies of Christ. Any who did
not do so became themselves amenable to the law for their criminal
silence. To facilitate such accusations, a manifesto was issued, in
which various proofs were mentioned by which a ‘secret Jew’ might
be detected. We learn from it that a man might be accounted as a
concealed Jew if, among many similar evidences, he—
1. Put on clean clothes, or had a clean table-cloth on the Saturday,
or dispensed with a fire on the Friday night.
2. If he washed the blood from meat, or examined the knife before
slaying an animal.
3. If, on the Day of Atonement, he asked forgiveness of those whom he
had offended, or put his hands on his children’s heads to bless them,
without making the sign of the cross.
4. If he gave his children Jewish names.[154]
5. If he ate the same meat as Jews, or sat down to table with
them. If, when dying, he turned his face to the wall, or let any
one else turn it. If he washed a corpse with warm water. If he
spoke approvingly of the dead (such person being a Jew), or made
lamentation for him, or caused a body to be buried in virgin soil,
etc.
If it were not that these enactments were followed up by the most
barbarous and insatiable cruelties, it would be difficult to read
this extraordinary catalogue of offences without a smile. But all
disposition to mirth vanishes when we remember what ensued. Great
numbers of arrests, we are told, were made—the practice of keeping
the accuser’s name a profound secret rendering it easy to indulge
malevolence without the risk of exposure. The accused, not being told
the exact nature or details of the charges against them, were unable
to disprove them; and, not being confronted with the witnesses, could
not expose their falsehood. Both witnesses and accused, again, were
frequently put to the severest tortures, under the pressure of which
they made confessions which they were not allowed to retract. In
short, it was wholly impossible for any one to escape condemnation
when it was the wish or the interest of the inquisitors to condemn
him; and it is no wonder that the list of their victims should have
extended to a length so fearful.
Fearful indeed it is to read. During the eighteen years of
Torquemada’s inquisitorship, more than ten thousand persons were
burned alive; more than six thousand corpses, of persons found guilty
after their deaths, were dragged from their graves and fastened to
the stakes, along with the living victims; while nearly one hundred
thousand were stripped of all their possessions, and sentenced to
life-long imprisonment.[155]
All classes of men were shocked and alarmed at these dreadful
scenes. The Cortes appealed to the Pope, who made a feeble attempt
to interfere, but soon desisted; while, in Saragossa, a conspiracy
was organized, and Arbues d’Avila, one of the three inquisitors, was
assassinated in the cathedral. But this did not benefit the unhappy
Jews. Whether guilty or not of the act, all men considered them so,
and left them to what they regarded as the just penalty of their
crime.
Thus far the persecution had been directed entirely to the
_conversos_, or New Christians. Such of the Jews as had refused to
abandon their faith had been left uninjured; nor is it unlikely that
they considered this as being the just reward of their constancy.
But their turn was now to come. Ferdinand and Isabella, who had at
last succeeded in reducing the whole of Spain to their sovereignty,
resolved that thenceforth none should breathe the air of that land
who denied the Christian faith. In 1492 they issued the memorable
decree, commanding all Jews to renounce their creed or depart from
Spain. It was dated March 30th, and allowed them four months in which
to prepare for their departure. Any Jews who presumed to linger in
the country after the expiration of that date, or to return to it at
any future time, were to be liable to the penalty of death, and the
forfeiture of all their goods. Any persons who publicly or privately
sheltered or protected any of the proscribed race, after the 31st
of July, were to be punished by the confiscation of their entire
property.
The blow fell like a thunderbolt on the unhappy people. It has been
several times remarked that, considering the irreconcilable enmity
entertained towards them, and the incessant wrongs they underwent,
it could have been no great privation to be exiled from lands which
contained none but bitter and merciless enemies. But they do not
understand human nature who would so argue. Man is like a creeping
plant, which puts out its tendrils to clasp the objects nearest to
it; and, though these may be rough bark or barren rock, it cannot
be torn away from them without resistance and pain. And if this was
applicable to the Jews in all countries, it was especially true as
regarded Spain. There, for centuries, they had dwelt, peaceful,
prosperous, and happy. While their brethren in other lands underwent
cruel insult and wrong, they had been protected against violence by
wise and just rulers. Only recently had the hand of violence been
raised against them; and they might surely hope that it might be
withdrawn ere long, when calmer reason again bore sway.
An attempt was made to induce the king to forego his purpose.
The celebrated Isaac Abarbanel[156] was at the time high in his
confidence and favour. He threw himself at Ferdinand’s feet, and
offered, in the name of his people, no less than 30,000 ducats, as
the price of their continuance in Spain. So large a sum tempted
Ferdinand, who was at all times avaricious, and was at that moment
greatly in need of money. He wavered, and might perhaps have revoked
his edict, if Torquemada, who had heard of the offer, had not burst
into the presence-chamber, holding a crucifix in his hand. ‘Behold,’
he cried, ‘Him whom Judas sold for thirty pieces of silver! Sell Him
again, if you will, and render an account of the bargain to God!’
Isabella also took part against the Jews. It may well be, that the
notion of being bribed to forego her duty roused an indignation which
she would not otherwise have felt. Any way, the offer was rejected,
and the miserable Jews had to set about making the best provision
they could against the approaching day of exile. They were allowed
to sell their landed property and houses, but only, of course, at an
enormous disadvantage. Bernaldes states that he saw Jews give a house
in exchange for an ass, and a vineyard for a small bale of cloth,
purchasers continually holding off from completing a bargain, which
they knew they must ultimately get on their own terms. They were
forbidden to carry away with them gold or silver; but we are told
that they contrived to secrete large quantities of it in the saddles
and halters of their horses. Some even swallowed it, and it is said,
in some instances, to the amount of thirty ducats! The rich Jews paid
the expenses of their poorer brethren,[157] practising towards each
other the greatest charity.
At the beginning of July, they set out on their mournful journey to
the seaports, old and young, rich and poor, a long and melancholy
_cortége_. The Rabbins, we are told, encouraged them, and engaged
musicians to play, and bade the boys and girls sing, so as to keep up
the spirits of the wayfarers. But the mirth must have been forced and
hollow. Their fathers could not sing the Lord’s song while compelled
to dwell in a strange land—how should they sing it when forced to
leave their own?
There is considerable difference in the estimate made by historians
of the numbers that went into exile. Mariana reckoned it at 800,000.
Others place it much lower; but at the least calculation it must have
reached some hundreds of thousands. An immense concourse assembled at
Barcelona, Valencia, Carthagena, Port Maria, and Gibraltar. Vessels
had been provided at all those ports, whence they were transported to
Italy, or various places on the coast of Africa. The miseries endured
during the voyage, and after the landing had been effected, exceed
all power of description. Some of the vessels took fire; others were
so overloaded that they sank. Many were wrecked on barren places
along the African shore, and died of cold and hunger. Some captains
purposely prolonged their voyages, in order that the provisions might
run short, and their passengers be obliged to purchase water and
food of them at any price they might choose to exact. On board one
vessel, a pestilential disease broke out. The captain landed all the
emigrants on a desert island, where many perished of famine. Another
party was forced to go ashore at an uninhabited spot, where a large
portion of them were devoured by wild beasts. Those who reached Fez,
in Morocco, were not allowed to enter the town, but were compelled
to encamp on the sands, suffering the most grievous privations, and
exposed to the brutal insults of the natives.[158] A Sallee pirate
allured a number of boys on board his vessel, promising to bestow
some provisions on them, and then carried them off before the faces
of their parents, who stood imploring and shrieking for mercy on the
shore, to sell them as slaves at a distant port.
Those that were conveyed to Italy were somewhat less harshly treated.
The captain of a vessel bound for Genoa, passing along the African
coast, saw a number of naked wretches, who apparently had been cast
by the sea upon it. On inquiry he found that these were a number of
Jewish exiles, who had been barbarously compelled to land there.
He took them on board, made them some clothes out of sailcloth,
and conveyed them to Genoa. There they were permitted to land; but
were met by priests carrying bread in one hand and a crucifix in
the other, nor would they bestow the former on them until they had
consented to accept the latter also. Nine crowded vessels reached the
Bay of Naples; but disease, caused by the hardships and privations
of the voyage, was raging amongst the passengers. The infection was
speedily communicated to the city, and 20,000 persons are reported
to have died in consequence. In Rome, even the selfish nature of
Alexander VI. was moved at the recital of their sufferings. He not
only gave them shelter in his own dominions, but wrote to all the
Italian States, desiring them to extend to the Jewish exiles the same
privileges which had been enjoyed by their resident brethren.[159]
FOOTNOTES:
[153] It was with great difficulty that this was obtained. Isabella,
though a dutiful daughter of the Church, had a superior intellect
and a tender heart; and both revolted against the proposed measure.
Torquemada, who had been her confessor, was obliged to appeal to a
promise she had made him, years before, to extirpate heresy, if she
ever could. Even then, her assent was most reluctantly given.
[154] By a previous law of Henry II., he had become punishable if he
gave his children _Christian_ names. It must have been a hard matter
to know what to call them.
[155] The wholesale butchery of the Autos da Fé, as these executions
were called, is one of their most shocking features. On the 4th of
November, 1481, three hundred Jews were burned in Seville, and in
other parts of the same province two thousand more. In Saragossa
the two surviving inquisitors avenged the assassination of their
colleague by two hundred deaths at the stake.
[156] Don Isaac Abarbanel was born at Lisbon in 1437, and early
gained the notice of Alphonso V. He was obliged to leave Portugal
suddenly in 1482, having been suspected of taking part in Bragazza’s
conspiracy against John II. He was kindly welcomed by Ferdinand and
Isabella, who made him their Minister of Finance. In 1492, he was
obliged to quit Spain along with his countrymen. He found refuge at
Naples, where he was employed by Ferdinand and Alphonso II. He shared
the exile of the latter monarch, and removed to Venice, where he died.
[157] The charge of sordid indifference to the sufferings of others
has always been made against the mediæval Jews; nor can it be denied
that there is truth in the allegation. But it was only towards the
Christians that this was displayed. To their own countrymen they
have in all ages been generous and charitable in the extreme. Be
it remembered what kind of charity had been shown _them_ by their
Christian brethren, and that _they_ had not been taught ‘to do good
unto them that persecute you.’ When the Jews at Rome were unwilling
to receive their exiled brethren of Spain, Alexander VI. expressed
the utmost surprise. ‘This is the first time,’ he said, ‘that I ever
heard of a Jew not having compassion for a Jew.’
[158] Some of the stories related of the atrocities perpetrated on
these miserable wretches are too shocking for repetition. They are
related by several historians, but I think it better, for the credit
of human nature, to suppress them.
[159] It must be noted, however, that, although Alexander showed
compassion to the fugitives, he made them pay a heavy price for his
protection of them, and also bestowed on Ferdinand the title of ‘the
Most Catholic,’ in requital of the banishment of the Jews from his
dominions.