THE EDICT OF BANISHMENT
It was, as we have already suggested, the very opportuneness with
which the trial and sentence of those concerned in the affair of La
Guardia came to afford Torquemada an additional argument to plead
with the Sovereigns his case against the Jews, which has led so many
historians--prior to M. Fidel Fita’s discovery--to reject the story as
an invention. Another reason to discredit it lay in the circumstance
that it was circulated in Spain together with a number of other stories
that were obviously false and obviously invented expressly for the
purpose of defaming the Jews and exciting popular indignation against
them.
Meanwhile Ferdinand and Isabella pressed triumphantly forward on their
conquering progress through Andalusia. Lucena, Coin, Ronda, and scores
of other Moorish strongholds in the southern hills had fallen before
the irresistible arms of the Christians; and the Sovereigns, aided by
Jewish gold--not merely the gold extorted by confiscations, but moneys
voluntarily contributed by their Hebrew subjects--pushed on to the
reduction of Malaga, as the prelude to the leaguer of Granada itself,
the last bulwark of Islam in Spain. This fell on January 2, 1492, and
with it fell the Moslem dominion, which had endured in the peninsula,
with varying fortunes, for nearly 800 years.
It might well have seemed to the Catholic Sovereigns that the
conquest of Spain and the victory there of Christianity were at last
accomplished, had not Torquemada been at their elbow to point out that
the triumph of the Cross would never be complete in that land as long
as the Jews continued to be numbered among its inhabitants.
He protested that the evils resulting from intercourse between
Christian and Jew were notorious and unconquerable. He declared that
in spite of the Inquisition, and in spite of all other measures that
had been taken to keep Christian and Jew apart, the evil persisted and
was as rampant as ever. He urged that the Jews continued unabatedly
to pervert the Christians, and that they must so continue as long as
they were tolerated to remain in the peninsula. Particularly was this
notorious in the case of the Marranos or New-Christians, to whom the
Israelites gave no peace until--by indoctrination or by the scorn and
abuse they heaped upon them--they had seduced them back into error.
And in proof of what he urged he was able to point to the affair of La
Guardia, to the outrage to the crucifix at Casar de Palomero, and to
other matters of a kindred nature that had lately been brought to light.
He called upon the Sovereigns to redeem the promise they had made to
give consideration to this matter--a consideration which, in answer to
his earlier pleadings, they had postponed until the war against Granada
should have been brought to its conclusion.
In the meantime the Jews themselves had fought strenuously against the
banishment with which they saw themselves threatened. Eloquent had
been their appeals to the Sovereigns. And the Sovereigns could hardly
turn a deaf ear to the intercessions of subjects to whom they owed so
much. For was it not the very Jews who had supplied the Spanish crown
with the sinews for this campaign against the enemies of the Cross? Was
it not owing to wonderful Hebrew administration--an administration
gratefully surrendered to them--that the army of the Cross was
equipped, maintained, and paid out of moneys that the Jews themselves
had provided?
They found means to bring this to the attention of the Sovereigns, as
a proof of the loyalty of their devotion, as a proof of their value
to the Spanish nation. And the Sovereigns had other experiences of
the loyalty and affection which had ever been manifested towards them
by their long-suffering Hebrew subjects. When, for instance, their
son, the Infante Don Juan was proclaimed in Aragon, after the Cortes
of Toledo, the Jews had been foremost in the jubilant and loving
receptions that everywhere met their Highnesses in the course of their
progress through the kingdom of Ferdinand. Whilst the Spaniards were
content to greet their Sovereigns with acclamations, the Jews went to
meet them with valuable gifts.[226] Bernaldez tells us[227] of the
splendid offering made to their Highnesses by the Aljama of Zaragoza.
It consisted of twelve calves, twelve lambs, and a curious and very
beautiful service of silver borne by twelve Jews, a rich silver cup
full of gold castellanos[228] and a jar of silver--“all of which the
Sovereigns received and prized, returning many thanks.”
Loyalty so tangibly manifested, of which this is but an instance, must
have some weight in the scales against fanaticism; further, it seems
impossible that the Sovereigns should have been altogether blind to the
possible jeopardizing of the industrial prosperity of the kingdom if
those chiefly responsible for it were driven out.
So they had put off their decision in the matter, urging that the
present war demanded their full attention. But now that the conquest
of Granada was accomplished, they were forced to look the matter in
the face. For Torquemada was giving them no peace. Hard-driven by his
fanatical hatred of the Israelites, the Grand Inquisitor had resolved
upon his course and was determined that nothing should turn him aside.
Constantly were his arguments--all founded upon the love of
Christ--poured into the ears of the Sovereigns, and to prove the
soundness of these arguments he was able to bring forward concrete
facts--or, at least, matters upon which the courts of the Inquisition
had pronounced--prominent among which would be the affair of La Guardia.
And what Torquemada was doing by the Sovereigns, the brethren of his
order were doing by Spain. Popular indignation against the Jews, so
easy to arouse, already inflamed by the outrage at Casar de Palomero
and the crucifixion at La Guardia, was further and unscrupulously
excited by false stories that were set in circulation. It was even
alleged that the illness of the Prince Don Juan was the result of
Hebrew infamy, and to explain this a foolish, wicked story was
invented, put about and universally accepted.
Llorente quotes this story from the “Anonymo de Zaragoza.”[229] It
is to the effect that the prince coveted a golden pomander-ball worn
by his physician, who was of a Jewish family, and this gewgaw the
physician ended by relinquishing to his patient. One day, moved by
youthful curiosity, the boy wished to see what the pomander contained.
Opening it, he discovered an indecent and blasphemous picture,
insulting to the divinity of Christ. The sight of it inspired the
princeling with such horror and grief that he fell sick. Nor would he
divulge the origin of his illness until the instances of his father
succeeded in drawing the secret from him, whereupon “it was resolved to
take proceedings against the physician and to sentence him to the fire.”
This trivial, scurrilous, and obviously untruthful story would not be
worth repeating did it not serve the purpose of showing the sort of
rumours that were being propagated to the hurt of the Israelites.
Another story that was circulated alleged that in Valencia there had
also been an attempt by a number of Jews to crucify a Christian boy.
This is recorded in that scurrilous, infamous publication, “Centinela
contra Judios,” by Frey Francisco de Torrejoncillo. We have already
referred to it more than once. It was first printed in 1676, and is the
book of a friar of the Order of St. Francis, a disgraceful work which
proves its author to have been as barefaced as he was barefooted. It
is a collection of stupid lies and forgeries, and, it is scarcely an
exaggeration to add, obscenities; it may be another instance of those
frauds termed pious, but it is scarcely to the credit of a Church
exercising, by means of the “Index Expurgatorius,” a censorship of the
press--to have permitted the circulation of a work of this order from
the pen of a churchman.
This, however, is by the way.
The story here to be recorded is taken, Torrejoncillo tells us, from
the “Sermon de la Cruz” by Frey Felipe de Salazar.[230] On a Good
Friday evening a youth who was in a street of Valencia observed
several men entering a house. Considering this to be strange--although
no suspicious circumstance is mentioned--he approached the door and
listened. He heard them say, “There seems to be some one at the door.”
Fearing that a brawl might be the result if he were discovered there
when they opened, he drew his sword and fled. (How the drawing of
his sword was calculated to assist his flight the author does not
think it worth while to inform us.) As he was running he came upon a
patrol, which seized him, demanding to know whither he was hurrying in
this fashion with a naked sword in his hand. He related what he had
witnessed, whereupon the officer, not only for the purpose of testing
the truth of the story but also that he might ascertain to what end so
many men should be assembling, went to the house and knocked.
The door was opened by a Jew, who began to make obvious excuses to him.
Suddenly the officer heard a child’s voice within the house, crying,
“These men want to crucify me.”
The Jews were taken, the house demolished, and on the site of it was
built the Church of Santa Cruz.
In this collection of lies and forgeries are included the “letter
of Christ to Abgarus,” another letter of Pontius Pilate to Tiberius
dilating upon the miracles of the Saviour, and a letter from the Jews
of Constantinople to those of Toledo, which played an important part in
this anti-semitic campaign.
It was the Cardinal-Archbishop Juan Martinez Siliceo who was alleged to
have discovered this letter in Toledo. We are to suppose that he also
found in Toledo the letter to the Jews of Constantinople to which this
is a reply, for the chroniclers are able to supply us with the texts
of both,[231] a circumstance which no one at the time appears to have
considered strange.
The letter to Constantinople ran as follows:
“THE JEWS OF SPAIN _to_ THE JEWS OF CONSTANTINOPLE
“Honoured Jews, health and grace.--Know that the King of Spain compels
us to become Christians, deprives us of property and of life, destroys
our synagogues and otherwise oppresses us, so that we are uncertain
what to do.
“By the Law of Moses we beseech you to assemble, and to send us with
all speed the declaration made in your assembly.
“CHAMARRO, Prince of the Jews of Spain.”
* * * * *
To this the answer received from Constantinople was in the following
terms:
“THE JEWS OF CONSTANTINOPLE _to_ THE JEWS OF SPAIN
“Beloved Brethren in Moses,--We have your letter in which you tell us
of the travail and suffering you are enduring there.... The opinion
of the Rabbis is that since the King of Spain attempts to make you
Christians, you should become Christians; since he deprives you of your
goods and property, you should make your children merchants, that they
may deprive the Christians of theirs; since you say that they deprive
you of your lives, make your sons apothecaries and physicians to
deprive the Christians of theirs; since they destroy your synagogues,
make your sons clerics that they may destroy the Christian temples;
since you say that you suffer other wrongs, make your sons enter public
offices that thus they may render the Christians subject to them.
“Do not depart from these orders, and you will see that from oppressed
you will come to be held of great account.
“HUSÉE, Prince of the Jews of Constantinople.”
* * * * *
The matter of these letters--so very obviously forged--was freely
circulated. Being accepted, public indignation was suddenly increased
by fear. Imaginations were stimulated, and stories based upon these
injunctions of Prince Husée became current, nothing being ever too
flagrant for popular consumption. It was related that a Jewish
physician in Toledo carried poison in one of his finger-nails, and
that with this he touched the tongues of the patients he visited, thus
killing them. Of another physician it was reported that he deliberately
poisoned the wounds he was desired to heal.[232] And that there were
many other such stories current is beyond all doubt.
* * * * *
What use, if any, Torquemada made of those forged letters and the
stories that were their offspring, we do not know. But it would be
strange if the circulation and acceptance of such matters displeased
him, since they were plainly calculated to forward his aims and compel
the Sovereigns to lend an ear to his insistent denunciations of the
Jews.
Incessantly he preached the need for religious unity in a united Spain.
Indeed, Spain, he urged, never could be united, never could deserve
the blessing of Heaven, until all men in that land were the children
of God, true believers in the Holy Roman Catholic Apostolic Faith. God
had greatly favoured Ferdinand and Isabella, the friar continued. He
had collected the various elements of the peninsula into one mighty
kingdom, which He had subjected to their sceptre. Let them fuse those
elements into a solid whole, rejecting all those who resist this
fusion--and this for the honour and glory of God and of their own
kingdom.
Before this terrific gospel of Religious Unity nothing could stand.
Humanitarian considerations, principles of equity, indebtedness and
gratitude are mere trifles to be swept away by that hurricane of
religious argument.
The Sovereigns found themselves face to face with an issue of such a
magnitude that no temporal considerations could be allowed to weigh.
And to the pressure of Torquemada’s fierce arguments was added now the
pressure of public opinion, cunningly excited by his lieutenants. To
the voice of God from the lips of the Grand Inquisitor was added now
the _vox populi_--the voice of God from the lips of the people.
And so clamorous was this popular voice, so insistent were the
accusations which it levelled against the Israelites, of ritual
infamies and of seducing back to the Law of Moses their apostate
brethren, that the Jews were warned of the storm that was about to
break over their luckless heads.
Torquemada’s demand was that they must receive baptism or go.
The Sovereigns hesitated still. In Isabella perhaps the voice of
humanity was too strong to be entirely stifled by the dictates of
bigotry.
But Torquemada’s strength of purpose was the greater and more
irresistible by virtue of its purity and singleness of aim. Obviously
he was no self-seeker. Obviously he had no worldly ends to serve.
What he demanded, he demanded in the name of the religion which he
served--solely for the greater honour and glory of his God; and to
sovereigns of the temper of Ferdinand and Isabella demands so inspired
are not easily resisted.
And although it was clear that he sought no worldly advantage for
himself, he did not scruple to use the prospect of the Sovereigns’
worldly advantage as a weapon to combat their reluctance; he did
not hesitate to dangle before their eyes temporal advantages that
must result from the banishment of the Israelites. To arguments upon
religious grounds he added arguments of worldly expediency, arguments
which cannot have failed of effect upon the acquisitive nature of the
King.
Never, urged the Grand Inquisitor, would Spain know tranquillity whilst
she harboured Jews. They were predatory; they were untrustworthy; their
sole objective was the satisfaction of their pecuniary interest--the
only interest they knew; and their acquisitiveness would always dispose
them to serve any enemy of the crown so that it should profit them to
do so.[233]
But Torquemada was not the only advocate before the royal court. The
Jews were there, too, pleading on their own behalf, with an eloquence
that seemed for a moment on the point of prevailing--for the seductive
chink of gold was persuasively intermingled with their protestations.
They urged their past services to the crown, and promised even greater
services in the future; they swore that henceforth they would be more
observant of the harsh laws formulated by Alfonso XI--that they would
keep to their ghettos as prescribed, withdrawing to them at nightfall,
and abstaining rigorously from all such intercourse with Christians
as was by law forbidden. Last and most eloquent argument of all, they
offered through Abraham Seneor and Isaac Abarbanel--the two Jews who
had undertaken and so admirably effected the equipment of the Castilian
army for the campaign against Granada--that in addition to giving this
undertaking they would subscribe 30,000 ducats towards the expenses of
the war against the Moslem.
Ferdinand’s hesitation was increased by this offer. Ever in need of
money as the Sovereigns were, the consideration of this gold not only
tempted them, but it would undoubtedly have conquered them had not
Torquemada been at hand. But for his violent intervention it is more
than probable that the cruel edict of banishment would never have been
promulgated.
The Dominican, learning what was afoot, thrust himself into their
Highnesses’ presence to denounce their hesitation, and to put upon it
the name which in his opinion it deserved.
It is not difficult to picture him in that supreme moment. It is one
of those rare occasions on which this being whom we have compared to a
_Deus ex machina_, a cold stern spirit ruling and guiding the terrible
organization of the Inquisition which he has himself established, steps
forth in the flesh, a living, throbbing man.
You behold him pale, a little breathless in the excitement and anger by
which he is possessed. His deep-set eyes glow sombrely with the fever
of fanatical zeal and indignation. He draws his lean old frame erect.
In his shrivelled, sinewy old hands he flaunts aloft a crucifix.
It is an intense moment. Everything contributes to it: the long-drawn
duel between religion and humanity, between clericalism and
Christianity, of which this is at last the climax; and nothing so
much as the figure offered by the Jews. This _thirty_ thousand is
unfortunately reminiscent. It permits the Prior of Holy Cross to draw a
very daring parallel.
“Judas,” he cries, “once sold the Son of God for thirty pieces. Your
Highnesses think to sell Him again for thirty thousand. Here you have
Him. Sell Him, then, but acquit me of all share in the transaction.”
And, crashing the crucifix upon the table before their startled
Highnesses, he abruptly leaves the chamber.[234]
* * * * *
Thus Torquemada conquered.
The edict of expulsion was signed at Granada on March 31 of that year
1492--that glorious year in which Spain finally completed the erection
of her monarchy upon the ruins of the old Visigothic kingdom, and in
which the navigator Columbus laid a new world at the foot of the throne
of the Catholic Sovereigns.[235]